PART FIVE
Chapter One: "Calls of the Heart"
Chapter Two: "The Naked Truth"
Chapter Three: "Sharing Secrets"

Previously on 'The Caliente Affairs':
Dirk was told that his dad was seeing Cassandra Goth. After Darren spends another night at Cassandra's house he reaches breaking point and Darren ends up letting Dirk skip school so the two can spend the day together. Whilst Dirk is out with Orlando, Darren invites Cassandra over and proposes they get engaged to show Dirk they are in a serious and loving relationship. Dirk takes the news fine, maybe too fine. Could he have something planned to break-up his dad and Cassandra? Meanwhile at the Caliente Mansion, Dina felt disgusted with herself for sleeping with Ed but after hearing Nina mention she's going to be trying for a baby with Don she starts to think about arranging another meeting to help get her mind off of Don...

Chapter One: "Calls of the Heart"

As Dina waited for Ed to answer, she thought about hanging up. She hated the fact she kept thinking about what they had done, even though it wasn't that memorable. He wasn't the normal type of man Dina would go for so she couldn't understand why she was still attracted to him.
"Hello!"
"Is that Ed?"

"No sorry, Ed's working at the moment. I can take a message if you'd like." Shaun answered, not recognising Dina's voice.

"No!" Dina said with force. She was mad she had phoned Ed and now she was mad that Shaun had answered.

"Okay, calm down! He'll be back around four if you want to phone back." Shaun said, wondering why the woman had practically shouted down the phone.

Before he could get suspicious Dina tried to end the call. "I just wanted to talk to Ed. That's all, nothing wrong with that. I'm gonna go now." Dina hung up and breathed a sigh of relief. She was going to go back to her exercising until she heard a noise coming from the loft. As she went up she was surprised to see Don there. He was painting Alex's new bedroom... without a shirt on.

"So far so good!" Nina joked as Don turned around and smiled. "I could help if you want."

"It's alright, I just wanted to get this bit done so Alex can sleep here tonight." As a birthday present for Alex, Don had offered to paint the loft and move Alex's bedroom up there.
"This room's so big! I would have loved this as a teenager." Dina smiled as she remembered her time here as a child.

"I bet you would have! All alone up here, no-one to disturb you from whomever - I mean whatever you're doing!" Don joked.

"Shut up! I wasn't like that as a teenager." Dina laughed.
"Come on! I bet some you had a waiting list of boyfriend's!" Dina playfully hit Don. As she touched his chest her eyes locked onto his for a moment and she pulled back quickly.
"Anyway, do you think Alex will appreciate the privacy?" Dina said, changing the subject.
"I doubt he'll be getting up to the kinds of things you would have done if you were given this space!" Don laughed but Dina smiled as she tried to get away from their previous conversation.
"I doubt he will! I'm sure when Alex invites girl's over he'll be the perfect gentleman."
"If he invites them over." Don covered his mouth but it was too late, he'd let slip about Alex's confession.

"What do you mean?"
"I just meant that.. You know, he's a teenager and he's got that confidence problem what with his looks." Don was tired and it had just slipped out, he was sure if he just changed the subject Dina wouldn't keep on bothering him.
"I think Alex is handsome!"
"And that's what I told him."
"You two talked?" Don tried to say as little as possible.
"We may have exchanged a few words."
"About girl's?"
"No."
"Then what was it about?"
"Feelings and stuff."
"So you were talking about girl's." Don had been backed into a corner, he could sense any moment Dina was going to realise Alex's secret.
"We were just talking about a wide variety of things." Don replied but Dina could tell he wasn't being truthful.
"You know Don, he's my step-son. I think I have a right to know."
"Man stuff! We had a talk and it involved men and growing-up and that is the truth." Don felt he'd told Dina the truth without betraying Alex.

"You talked to Alex about guy-stuff but you didn't mention girl's?" Dina was confused.
"Yeah, and that's the truth."
"But you said you talked about feelings." Don panicked as Dina started to put two and two together.
"No I said.. Feline's, we were talking about cat's." Don tried to get Dina off topic but he could tell she had already figured it out.
"Don... Is Alex is gay?"

"No! Alex is not gay."
"Well you just said.."
"All he said was he was shy around girls and he didn't like the way he looked and he was starting to think that he might.. You know." Don sighed as he realised he'd let Alex down.
"Turn gay? Don, you don't turn gay just because you can't talk to girls."
"Well I told him that! We had a really good conversation and he's out right now working on his confidence."
"Do you think Alex is gay?" Dina asked him but Don paused before he answered. He didn't think Alex was gay, but he was sure he wasn't going to be out with a different girl every night too.
"I think that, whatever Alex decides we should just support him. And act surprised." Dina folded her arms.
"You're asking me not to talk to him?"
"He trusted me Dina, you don't know how much that means to me." Dina smiled as she nodded.

"You enjoyed talking to him?"
"I did, I enjoyed handing down my years of advice."
"About being gay?"
"About life! It made me realise that eventually I'd like to do the same with my own son." Dina was reminded about him and Nina. She looked at the ring on his finger and felt a stabbing sensation in her heart. Knowing the only way to get rid of her hurting was to satisfy her hearts desire, she suddenly leaned in towards Don.

"You've got paint on your chest." Dina said as she wiped it off. She trailed her finger down Don's chest and circled his navel a few times as she looked into his eyes, hoping to spark some buried attraction. Don looked at Dina confused and felt a little awkward. Wanting to get away as quickly as possible he changed the subject.

"You met Ed last night, didn't you." Dina looked at Don and tried not to act shocked.
"Ed.. The British guy?"
"Yeah, my friend from work. Did you two talk much?"
"We passed each other on the stairs, I don't remember saying much." Dina avoided eye contact.
"Huh, just that he was asking a lot of questions about you today at work." Getting ready to leave, Dina tried not to make Don suspicious.
"Well, like what?"
"Mostly about you and Mortimer. He asked if you were happy and why you'd married an older man. I didn't really have an answer for the last part as I'm trying to work that one out myself too."
Dina scowled as she turned around to leave.

"I married Mortimer because we're in love. And we'll stay in love forever, unlike someone other couples I know." Don couldn't tell, but he was sure she meant him and Nina.

Chapter Two: "The Naked Truth"

Still haunted by the other night. Dina went back to the den and started exercising until the early hours of the morning.

'I do love Mortimer,' she said to herself as she tried to concentrate on forgetting about Ed. 'But if you love him, why can't you just be happy for Don and Nina?' She asked herself as she climbed up onto the couch to rest. 'Because Don will just end up hurting Nina again. You saw what happened today, he can never do the right thing. No matter how hard he tries he's always going to end up hurting someone.' As Dina fell asleep she thought about Don. She dreamed things were different, she was engaged to him and her sister was married to Mortimer. She was on the outside looking in and she saw herself flirting with Mortimer.

She woke up a suddenly and saw it was six AM. Dina thought about what she had just dreamt, whether or not it meant anything. As she carried herself up to the shower, she managed to forget about it until...

"Argh!" Dina cried as she walked in on Don in the shower.

Coupled with the dream and a fully naked Don, all Dina could think about was...
"Do you mind?" Don cried.
"I have to go!" Dina yelled as she ran out of the bathroom. In her bedroom she put on some fresh clothes whilst Mortimer was stirring.
"Are you going out?" He asked, confused.
"We need groceries for breakfast. 'Canpakes' and stuff, I'll be right back." Dina said as she rushed out without saying goodbye. She didn't know why, maybe if she had just stayed with Mortimer he would have calmed her down. But she was out now, walking further away from her house. She kept on thinking about Don and she didn't realise where she was going...

Nina found herself walking right to Ed's front door. She didn't plan on doing it, but he'd already seen her through the windows and was coming to greet her. As she got to the doorway she turned around and was about to run off..

"Dina!" She stopped and sighed.
"Hey Ed." She said without turning to face him.
"What are you doing here? What if someone sees you?" Dina looked around but it was still pretty early.
"I don't suspect the papergirl is going to think we're having an affair just 'cause I'm standing on your porch." Ed laughed but Dina wasn't joking, saying the word affair made her realise how stupid she was for coming here.
"Did you want to.." Dina put a hand up to stop Ed from finishing his sentence.
"I actually just..." She stopped when she could swear Ed was smelling her, then she realised. "I wanted to know if I could use your shower. The one at our house is broken!" Dina didn't wait for an answer and walked in. She knew where the bathroom was from her last visit, but she stopped when she remembered why she knew.
"Do you wanna talk?" Ed asked, sensing a problem. Dina felt bad, Ed obviously had a little crush on her which was understandable given their history. But she had to tell him that what she did was a mistake.

As he led her into the living room, Dina looked around at Ed's house. It was quite small but the focal point was the open plan kitchen where the stairs were suspended from the ceiling. The main bedroom was overlooking the kitchen whilst another bedroom and the living room Dina was in now were added as an extension after Ed moved in. Dina admired architecture, it was one of the reasons she loved her parents' old house. It was originally a sorority house before her mum and dad moved in. Distracting Dina from her thoughts, she looked at Ed as he suddenly leaned in to get closer. "I can't stop thinking about that night. You and I were like lust crazed animals or something! Just doing it right there in the bathroom after we'd met was.."
"'Was what?" Dina asked, annoyed that Ed had brought up the night of Alex's birthday. "Look Ed, what we did was wrong. It was lust, that's all it was. You need to forget that it ever happened."
"Don't get annoyed at me! I asked you if you were married and you said 'so what'."