Thinking of Zavier, Aiden thought about the last time they had met during the premier of [Sherlock of the Shadows].
He had looked pretty happy back then and had even talked about how he had taken a back seat in his career because of his family.
This news must have broken him.
Aiden had never experienced such a big betrayal, so he didn't know how it would feel, but it wasn't something that he wanted to go through in the future.
Thinking of it, he berated Florence more. She didn't seem like the type who even cared about her marriage, knowing how she had multiple affairs.
"I wonder how he's taking it," Wade muttered. "I heard that he was preparing for his next movie and it completely stopped after he heard the news. Florence is in London, from what I know, and the media is trying to get to Zavier to get some comments for a headline."
"The media is the worst in these types of things." Uncle Sam muttered, clicking his tongue.
"Yeah, but he needs to wait for them to lose interest, and that won't happen easily. People even go into depression due to such things."
Aiden just listened as Uncle Sam and Wade talked. His mind was thinking of Zavier, the director who had given him his most iconic role till now.
They were not friends, but they definitely had a good working relationship. He would even say that Zavier was a good acquaintance of his.
'I should give him a visit.'
As he thought that, Wade called him out.
"Aiden, are you listening to me?"
"Huh? What?"
"I was talking about your new script."
When he was in thoughts, the topic had changed back to his next movie.
"I have a few scripts from good directors in mind. Most of them would be happy to have you on the cast as a supporting actor."
Wade said, and Aiden slowly nodded his head.
"Okay, just send them to me. I will read all of them as soon as possible and get back to you."
"You don't have a specific genre in mind, right? Or a type of role?" He raised one of his eyebrows and asked.
"No, I don't. Though, any role which is impactful and could stay in the audience's mind."
Uncle Sam laughed at that.
"Actors don't get those types of roles. They need to make their role like that by their acting. Even then, they are as rare as a role could be."
"I know, but there needs to be something in the character for me to hold onto. If I'm given a character with no traits, I don't know what would fit."
Aiden said. His conversation with Ava was still in his mind and he wanted to aim for roles that could be larger than life.
Characters that stay with people.
"I would try to look for those types of roles but don't have a lot of hope. Those types of stuff don't come everyday."
Wade muttered with a sigh.
***
After leaving Uncle Sam's restaurant, Aiden and Wade parted ways. He didn't go home and instead drove toward Zavier's house.
Both of them lived in New York, and knowing their relationship, the least he could do was to give him a visit in these tough times.
Zavier lived in a pretty high-end neighborhood, and when Aiden reached near his house, he saw that a lot of people were standing outside it.
On another look, he saw that they were reporters and paparazzi who were there just to get some news material.
Aiden frowned seeing them and parked outside the house.
"Hey, it's Aiden Silvereye."
"What's he doing here?"
"Click pictures. They might sell well."
"Aiden, what are your thoughts about the whole saga?"
"Do you have anything to say about Florence Levine? There were rumours that you were doing a movie with her."
"Please give us your views."
As Aiden came out of his car, the reporters barged at him and surrounded him, asking different types of questions.
"I'm sorry but can you give me a little privacy?"
He said and tried to walk towards the main door, ignoring every question that was thrown at him.
With every step, a photo of him would be clicked.
Reaching the door, he pressed the doorbell but no one answered. After the second ring, a voice came out of the smart doorbell.
"Aiden… Is that you?"
It was a very melancholy voice. Aiden recognised it quickly and opened his mouth.
"Yeah, it's me, Zavier. I wanted to see you to know how you were doing."
"Come in."
As soon as those words came out, the door opened automatically and Aiden entered.
The house looked like the typical millionaire's house, with everything clean and a lot of space.
Aiden walked inside slowly and found Zavier on the sofa. A bottle of wine was in his hand and a few other bottles of wine were on the floor.
Pizza and other food items that were barely recognisable were also on the floor. It seemed like Zavier was living on fast food these days.
One more noticeable thing was that the TV was broken, like someone had hit it with a baseball bat.
"Aiden, you are really here. Come, sit down." Zavier said, turning around and pointing at a seat adjacent to him.
Aiden sat down and glanced at the TV.
"What happened to it?"
"I broke it," Zavier replied. By his breath, Aiden could easily tell that he was drunk. "I needed something to let out my feelings. That TV became the victim and the… bedroom. I wanted to hit Florence's head actually but that bitch left."
"Where."
"London. To her fucking boyfriend with my… fucking kids. Fucking bitch, you know. Actually, you don't but it's a very heartbreaking feeling when you see your cheating wife leave with the kids. I talked to my lawyer about it and apparently, mothers have an edge on these things. World is very unfair, my friend."
Every word of his slurred a bit and his eyes were red. Black circles were under his eyes like he had not slept and his hair was dishevelled.
He looked like a person who had lost his entire world and it was true too.
"Why are you here? Aren't you busy?" Zavier asked suddenly.
"I was worried about you."
Aiden replied and Zavier looked a bit surprised.
"Ah, that's surprising. You are the only person that came to see me." Zavier said, surprising Aiden. "None of my friends did as they don't want to do anything with this scandal. I saw a few comments online. A lot of them were saying that I was probably involved in the orgy too and some of them were saying that I'm a miserable person. Well, the second one ain't wrong."
He blabbered on, happy that he finally had someone to talk to. It had been a few days since the scandal had broken out and from reports Aiden had read before coming here, Zavier hadn't left his house.
Aiden had felt like it was really dangerous as someone who was going through such a big thing was bound to have some sort of reaction.
He was glad that it was only the TV who had become the victim and nothing worse had happened.
"Thank you for coming here. I was very lonely. Do you want a drink?"
"Yeah, sure."
As Zavier poured out a drink for Aiden, he talked more.
Aiden realized that rather than talking, he needed to act like a listener here and let Zavier let out whatever was in his head.
"You know, I met Florence on the set of a TV series. I was a college dropout. She was just out of high school. We became friends. She was very sweet back then. It was only after a couple more years that we started dating and it quickly became more than that. I actually thought I had done something right by marrying her."
Zavier frowned, the memories haunting him somewhere in his mind and continued.
"There were signs, now that I think about it. She used to be too busy sometimes, more than necessary and auditions would pop out of nowhere. I thought it was nothing. Never thought she was cheating all along. I even took a year break to handle the kids as she worked…"
For the entire night, Zavier told Aiden all about their relationship and what had happened after the leaks had gone viral.
For a moment, he hadn't believed it, but the photos were too real.
He had called her, and they had fought about it. In the end, she left without explaining and even took the kids with her.
He had obviously tried to stop her but she had threatened to call the police if he touched her. Maybe, that was the breaking point when Zavier realised that the person he loved never existed and the true self was cold and bigoted.
He spent the next few days crying about it and trying to get over it but it wasn't easy. Whenever he went outside, the media trailed him.
So, he had just stopped and decided to finish up every wine in his collection.
As Zavier talked and Aiden listened, time flew by very quickly and both of them didn't know when they had slept off.
When Aiden woke up, he saw that Zavier wasn't on the sofa.
His head was hurting a bit, probably due to the wine. He stood up to look for Zavier and found him making breakfast.
He looked like he had woken up a while ago.
Hearing footsteps, he turned around and asked.
"Want toast?"
