Chapter 4
four
. . .
Drew Oberlin knew who he was. That crazy little fact kept rattling around in Lee’s brain as they finished their coffee and talked a bit about what they were looking for in their fake dating experience.
Of course, most of the talk had been about Drew to kick things off.
Lee still couldn’t believe Javier had paired him up with a real live celebrity like Drew.
He hadn’t been lying when he’d told Drew that everyone in his circles online had been stuck on Cooked and Drew and the rest of the cast for months now.
The whole thing was an obsession in the queer and semi-queer spaces Lee inhabited.
That sense of the surreal blasted into overdrive as soon as they stepped out onto the sidewalk in front of the café.
“I love you, Drew! You’re such an amazing actor!”
“I’m going to watch everything you ever do. I’ve even gone back and watched all your student films.”
“Can we get a picture?”
Lee was overwhelmed to the point of freezing as the small crowd pressed in on Drew, and as more people on the street glanced over to see what was going on, then joined the growing scrum that wanted some sort of piece of Drew.
“Sure, you can have a picture.” Drew greeted them all with ease and aplomb, stepping right into the group and twisting to pose for first one selfie, then another, then another.
“That’s going to be a good one,” he told the thirty-something woman who still clung to his shirt as she stared in awe at her phone. “Who’s next?”
Within seconds, Lee was dragged into the selfie extravaganza as he offered to take pictures with people’s phones. He couldn’t wrap his head around what was happening, really, or how calmly Drew faced the flood of people around him.
“Are you in London filming?” one of the guys in the group asked, making heart-eyes at Drew.
“Yeah, I’m working on a BBC series,” Drew answered with a smile, shifting to stand by the man’s side. “Can you get all of us in the picture, Lee?” he asked as Lee shuffled through various phones.
“Yep, I’ve got you,” Lee said, pretending like taking a dozen pictures of celebrities in the street was something he did every day.
It was incredible to him how Drew was able to take the invasion of his privacy in stride, even when the guy asked if he could kiss Drew’s cheek.
That was going a bit too far, as far as Lee was concerned.
“Maybe not so touchy-feely,” he commented with what he hoped was good humor, as any good fake boyfriend would.
Surprisingly, Drew laughed openly at his comment, sent him a devilish look, and asked, “Jealous?”
A whooshing feeling swept through Lee’s gut.
That look coming from Drew did things to him.
The man was smoking hot, and whether he was completely straight or something else entirely—and frankly, Lee would have put money on something else entirely—Lee felt like a million pounds being the recipient of that look.
But as the selfies, autographs, and gushing dragged on, Lee started to see something else.
Drew could handle the attention, and from what Lee observed, the man was a natural extrovert who liked talking to people, but after a while, his shoulders started to bunch and the smile left his eyes, even though it stayed on his lips.
Then came the moment that sealed whatever deal was brewing between the two of them for good. Drew glanced Lee’s way with just a hint of pleading in his eyes, asking for rescue.
In an instant, whatever celebrity awe Lee had been feeling transformed into fierce protectiveness. Drew might have been a shining luminary of the television industry, but he was also a young man in a foreign country who needed help.
“I think that’s all we’ve got time for,” Lee spoke over the younger woman who was apparently trying to tell Drew her entire life story in the space of thirty seconds. “We’re going to be late to your, um, script meeting.” It was the best excuse Lee could come up with on the fly.
“Oh, yeah, right,” Drew said, meeting Lee’s eyes as if to say thanks. He smiled at the woman talking at him and said, “Sorry, I’ve got to run.”
Just as Drew stepped away from her, someone else called out, “Wait, are you Lee Cresswell?”
Lee blinked, adjusted his glasses, and stiffened in surprise. Drew actually paused and glanced around to see who had made the comment, too.
“I think I’ve read all your books,” the twenty-something man who stood near the curb said, a giddy smile on his face as he glanced between Lee and Drew. “The Dragonkeeper was my favorite,” he finished, his grin landing on Lee.
“Gosh, thanks,” Lee said. He couldn’t help but send Drew a smug look, bragging that he was famous, too. Even though he definitely wasn’t and Drew had him outclassed in every way.
“Can I get a picture with both of you?” the fan asked.
It was the first time Lee had ever been asked for anything even close to a selfie on the street with a stranger. “Of course,” he said.
Three seconds later, he and Drew were posed with the guy in the middle as one of the other fans took several pictures on the guy’s phone. It was one hundred percent the most surreal moment of Lee’s life.
“Is that why you’re in London?” the guy asked Drew as he was handed back his camera and looked through the pictures. “Are you adapting one of Lee’s books for a film or something?” He gasped at his own question, then said, “That would be so cool! You would make an amazing Pulsivar!”
Drew glanced at Lee with his eyebrows raised, looking deeply impressed. “Now there’s an idea. I could be a dragonkeeper.”
Lee didn’t have the heart to correct Drew in front of everyone to tell him Pulsivar was the dragon, who mostly took human form as he pursued his lover, Othar. He was just so tickled to be handed the same celebrity status as someone like Drew.
It took a bit more finagling for them to escape the crowd of fans and to move on down the street.
“Should I call a car to come get us?” Drew asked as he slipped on a pair of dark shades and hunched into his leather jacket a bit more.
“Most of the time, people are respectful, but as soon as word gets out that I’m in London, heading to Trafalgar Square, you can bet there will be people with phones looking out for us. ”
“It only bothers me if it bothers you,” Lee said, mimicking his stance and thrusting his hands in his hoodie pockets.
Drew shrugged. “I can handle it. And it’s such a nice day. I’d rather walk and risk grabbing more attention.”
“You seem to handle attention well,” Lee said as they crossed the street and headed down toward Charing Cross Road.
“My life has been nothing but attention for the last six months,” Drew said with a thin laugh.
Lee’s smile slipped a bit. Drew was obviously a people person, but he wondered if even an extrovert had their limits with attention.
And he was certain he hadn’t been imagining things when he noted the twist of tension in Drew’s expression just before he’d silently asked for help.
Things might have been smooth and calm for Drew on the surface, but like all good characters Lee had read or written, there was a lot of tension and probably an entire backstory underneath.
“So dragons, eh?” Drew asked as they walked on, making Lee realize he’d been staring at his famous new friend and maybe fake boyfriend for a little too long. “Is that what Abby is reading about all the time?”
Lee laughed. “I write fantasy romance. At least, that’s what I’ve been writing. I’ve started branching out into contemporary romance lately, though.”
“Oh, right. I think I remember Abby saying something about that now,” Drew said, squeezing closer to Lee to avoid a pedestrian coming the other way. Their arms brushed, and Lee tried to tell himself he was being overly dramatic by thinking there were sparks. “Why are you changing genres?”
Lee was grateful for the question and the way it kept his imagination from running away with him. “The money is in contemporary these days,” he said. “And I feel like a new challenge.”
“Writing contemporary romance is more of a challenge than writing fantasy?” Drew looked both surprised and impressed.
“Believe it or not, yes,” Lee laughed. “I think I’ve always been a dreamer with my head in the clouds. I grew up on Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and things like that.”
“They’re classics,” Drew said with a smile, veering closer to him again as they dodged a school group walking in the other direction. A few of the teenagers did doubletakes as they passed.
“I figure if I’m going to have an imagination, I might as well put it to good use,” Lee continued, sensing that it would be better for Drew if he ignored everything but their conversation.
“I’m assuming you’ve built a name for yourself doing fantasy books if even I’ve heard of you,” Drew went on.
The pure, surreal joy of that comment had Lee laughing. “It was a one in a million chance that you knew who I was. I’m not a big-name author at all.”
The memory of Dan holding his hand as he lay in his hospice bed, telling him he’d be a bestseller someday, briefly sideswiped Lee. He fought not to let his grief show and ruin the cheerful mood between him and Drew.
Drew noticed. “Is there something else?” he asked, studying Lee with a curious look.
Lee smirked. “How do you know there’s something else?”
Drew shrugged and grinned at Lee. “It’s my job to observe people and to pay attention to emotions. Even if I wasn’t an actor and filmmaker, I would probably do something that involves people and emotions.”
“Like becoming a therapist?”
“Yeah, something like that.” Drew’s smile grew.
“That’s pretty cool, actually. Psychology has to be really important when you’re acting.”
“It is,” Drew said with a nod. “And I guess I’m good enough at it to know when you’re avoiding the question I just asked.”
Lee laughed. He couldn’t help it. Not only was Drew preceptive, he had a sense of humor, too.
“I’m not really avoiding anything,” he said as they reached the northeast corner of Trafalgar Square. “I just didn’t want to bring you down.”