Chapter 2 #2
There was something stilted and curious in Javier’s voice.
Lee couldn’t quite put his finger on it without seeing the man’s expression.
He had always been deeply professional and pragmatic in their dealings before, but this time, Lee could practically feel Javier vibrating on the other end of the call.
“Lay it on me,” he said, glancing quickly to Diana’s window on his computer screen. She’d gone back to work, but if Lee knew her, she was listening in.
“We’ve had a highly unusual and deeply sensitive request,” Javier started slowly. “And since you’ve been given glowing reviews so far, I thought maybe you’d be the right man for the job.”
“I’ve only done two fake dates,” Lee reminded him.
“That’s more than some of the people we’ve signed on lately,” Javier laughed. “We’re all new at this.”
“Thanks for thinking of me, then,” Lee said.
“You might not thank me when you know what sort of request we’ve had.”
Now that was intriguing. “I’m all ears,” he said.
Javier paused like he wasn’t sure how to say what was on the tip of his tongue. “Well, to begin with, there are some strict confidentiality clauses with this particular client.”
“Confidentiality?” Lee blinked. “Is your client some kind of celebrity or something?”
Diana perked up from her work and glanced at her camera.
“Yes, actually,” Javier said.
“He is?” Lee asked, mostly to keep Diana in the loop.
Diana mouthed the word, “Celebrity?”
“He’s actually a pretty big celebrity, although his fame is very new and came suddenly,” Javier went on.
Lee racked his brain, trying to think of which celebrity it could be. He’d never been one to watch a lot of telly or films, but he liked to think he wasn’t completely out of the loop of pop culture. “Who is it?” he asked.
“He’s asked us not to mention his name until we’re absolutely sure we’ve got a good match for what he needs,” Javier said, as if the situation couldn’t get more mysterious than it already was. “But if you’re willing to give the whole thing a go, you can come meet us for coffee.”
“I’m intrigued,” Lee said, putting it mildly. “When do you want to meet?”
“Right now, if you can,” Javier said. “He was just here in the office. He’s had to go off for a costume fitting nearby, but we agreed that if I found someone and you were able to make it over quickly, he’d be back in about an hour to meet you.”
Lee’s jaw dropped. “An hour?” He glanced at Diana through his computer. “You want me to come meet this mystery celebrity who might possibly need me to go on a fake date with them in an hour?”
Diana slammed her hands on her desk, leaned toward her computer, and evidently shouted “Yes! Go! Go!” She’d put herself on mute at the beginning of Lee’s call, though.
Lee had to stifle a laugh. He was glad Javier’s call was an old-fashioned one with sound only. “Okay, why not?” he said, brimming with excitement. “I can leave what I’m doing here and pop down to your office to meet this guy.”
“Great,” Javier said. “Except we’re not meeting at the office. For reasons that will become apparent, we’re keeping Rent-A-Boyfriend’s name and location out of things as much as possible.”
Lee was so intrigued his heart rate had gone up like he’d run a marathon. “Where should I meet you, then?”
Javier gave him the name and address of a boutique coffee shop near the building where Rent-A-Boyfriend had their offices. Since Lee’s flat was off one of the squares in Earl’s Court, it wouldn’t take him more than twenty minutes to get there by Tube.
“I’ll see you in about half an hour,” he told Javier as they said their goodbyes, then ended the call.
As soon as he put his phone down, Diana unmuted herself to say, “What the heck, Lee? Is this Rent-A-Boyfriend place trying to hook you up with some sort of international spy?”
“He’s a celebrity,” Lee said, trying to play it cool as he saved his work on the graphic and closed that window. “He’s probably in the closet and doesn’t want anyone to know he’s going out with a guy.”
“Whoa, whoa.” Diana held up her hands. “Is it that kind of an escort service?”
“No!” Lee laughed. He sent Diana a cheeky smirk, then said, “But I wouldn’t say no to a little slap and tickle with someone famous. It’s been ages since I got horizontal with anyone.”
“TMI,” Diana said. “But you’re telling me you didn’t do the nasty with either of your previous fake boyfriends?”
“No,” Lee said, standing and stepping to the side to grab his zip-up hoodie.
Although he immediately had second thoughts about how formally he should be dressed to meet someone famous.
He had a much more stylish pair of glasses he could change into, but they were an outdated prescription.
“I haven’t had the time or the bandwidth to hook up with anyone since Dan died,” he confessed, deciding the hoodie was good enough for a meet-cute.
Hopefully meet-cute. It could end up being the biggest meet-ugly in history, for all he knew. Celebrities could be horrible and arrogant, he was sure.
“Well, don’t rule anything out,” Diana said as Lee ventured back to his computer to shut things down. “You are a smut writer, after all. You need to do research about more than just the way the contemporary world works.”
Lee laughed out loud. “Thanks for that vote of approval, babe,” he said, reaching for the mouse and moving the cursor to shut down the window.
“Let me know how it goes,” Diana said, smiling at her camera. “And text me immediately if it’s either super bad or super good.”
“I will.” Lee shook his head then closed the chat window.
Worst case scenario, he’d at least have a hilarious story to tell Diana later.
And no matter what happened, it would be fuel for a story.
Everything was fuel for a story if you let it be.
Even Dan’s slow, painful decline due to bowel cancer had taught him things about life and love and grief that had made it into his books.
Whatever Javier was about to throw at him, he was certain it would inspire something in his books.
He hadn’t been lying when he told Diana he was ready for a change.
He would always love fantasy, but it was only ever going to take him so far.
Dan had wanted to see him top the bestseller lists and be celebrated.
Dan had bugged him about finding an agent and going traditional with his books more than a few times, too, but Lee wasn’t sure that was for him.
He loved the freedom indie publishing gave him.
He loved the challenge of making a career all on his own and the pride that came with seeing success on his own terms.
Although with the market being what it was these days, maybe Dan had had the right idea after all.
It was an argument Lee had with himself all the time, and as he navigated the District Line into the heart of London, then walked along Upper Thames Street toward the rendezvous point, he had it again.
What did he want for himself and his career?
Was he happy muddling along as a midlist author with a small but devoted following or did he want to take his shot at being a list-topper with legions of fans doing his marketing work for him?
It would have been nice to have people who did his marketing for him.
That thought put a grin on his face as he reached the coffee shop and headed through to the back and up a narrow staircase to the first-floor dining area.
Since it was the middle of the afternoon, that part of the shop wasn’t busy at all.
There was only one other person there, a college-aged woman sitting at a table near the window, working on a laptop with headphones on, oblivious to the world.
Javier sat in the far corner, talking to a man with dark chestnut hair and broad shoulders, wearing what looked to be an expensive leather jacket and jeans. As soon as Javier spotted Lee, he sat straighter and waved Lee over.
Lee waved back and put on a smile as he wove around tables to cross the room. “Hey,” he said when he got close enough…then stopped dead when the man with Javier turned to look at him.
Gorgeous brown eyes, sensual lips, and small, diamond stud earrings in both ears. Lee’s heart dropped straight into his stomach, and his dick stirred with the memory of watching the man play some incredibly hot and convincing sex scenes on the small screen.
He couldn’t believe that Javier wanted to fake set him up with none other than steamy heartthrob of the moment, Drew Oberlin.