Chapter 3
THREE
Nally was beyond glad that Sam had canceled on him. There was no way Sam would have done well with the chaos, the camera flashes, and the questions thrown at him by a line of eager reporters.
“What was it like working with Miles Ferrier on the film?”
“How does it feel to be a part of this groundbreaking LGBTQ film?”
“Is it true that Sawyer Kingston and Matt Bloom had an on-set fling?”
Nally gaped and blinked, utterly shocked that anyone would be interested in anything he did, or that they would think he’d spent a single second on the set with the actors.
“Working with Miles was fantastic,” he said, smiling when he spotted Jude off to the side, gesturing for him to smile. “It was an amazing opportunity, and I feel like I learned a lot.”
He paused, turning to the reporter who had asked the impertinent question, and answered that with, “Of course Sawyer and Matt didn’t have an affair on set. Sawyer is happily married.”
In fact, Nally had actually known Sawyer and his lovable, historian husband, Casper Penhurst, from The Brotherhood. He’d often seen the two of them enjoying events at The Chameleon Club, where they could be themselves instead of who the world wanted them to be.
“People are saying that your soundtrack is one of the highlights of the film,” another reporter said as the staff with headsets tried to rush Nally along. “There’s even talk that you’ll be nominated for awards for it.”
Nally’s eyes went wide. He didn’t know why that made him panic so much, only that he wasn’t sure he was ready for the attention that came with fame. Several members of his family had succeeded in various art fields, but Hollywood-style celebrity was a whole other level of being in the spotlight.
Again, Nally glanced to Jude for help. And again, Jude made a reassuring gesture, then smiled so that Nally would smile.
Nally did smile, but only when one of the younger reporters gasped, “Are you Jude the Obscure?”
The older reporter standing beside her asked, “The what?”
“Jude the Obscure. Jude Cranleigh.” She looked at him like he was a moron. “He’s a wildly popular social media influencer.”
“Oh,” the older reporter said, infusing all his disdain for the youth of the modern world into those words.
Jude stepped out of the shadows and up to Nally’s side. “Hello,” he said, waving and dropping into the posh persona he used online. He even posed in the best position for the photographers, who instantly snapped about two dozen pics.
Nally was so grateful for someone to stand by his side in the overbright light that he grasped Jude’s hand. Jude squeezed his in return, smooth as silk and completely unnoticeable to everyone else.
“How do you and Ronald Hawthorne know each other?” the now starry-eyed reporter asked Jude. She then gasped, her eyes going wide, and asked, “Are the two of you dating? Are you an item? I follow you on all the social channels, but you’ve never said anything about dating Ronald Hawthorne.”
Nally and Jude both laughed. “No, no, we’re not dating,” Nally insisted as something in his chest squeezed tighter and tighter.
“We’re mates,” Jude said, all posh and proper. “Known each other since school days and all that. Attended boarding school together. Nally is my best friend in the whole, wide world.”
Nally turned his head to grin at Jude and his antics at just the same moment Jude looked at him.
Jude’s impish smile and the way his blue eyes sparkled in the lights sent the nerves he already felt into full-blown flutter mode.
It didn’t help that the cameras went wild.
Jude was absolutely dazzling in front of a camera.
He always had been, but at that moment, with the eyes of the press and Hollywood on him, every beautiful feature and ounce of self-composure that Nally had always taken for granted in his friend shone.
He was glad he’d let Jude put eyeliner and concealer on him. He sort of wished he’d let Jude make his face up entirely. Jude knew what he was doing in this crowd and he most certainly did not.
“We’ve known each other since primary school,” he said, only realizing after the fact that Jude had just basically said the same thing.
That made his face go hot and a sizzle of electricity pass through him, like he’d been caught lying somehow.
But he hadn’t. He and Jude really had known each other for donkey’s years. They actually were best friends.
He cared about Jude more than anyone in the world outside of his family. Maybe including his family as well.
“Can we keep things moving?” the irritated PA asked them, frowning as she made shooing motions.
“Oh. Sorry,” Nally said, gripping Jude’s hand tightly and shuffling on.
There was a swell in the noise of the crowd and the click of flashes as a limo pulled up and Matt Bloom stepped out.
It was just as well, since handing attention off to someone else meant Nally could flee into the relative safety of the Odeon’s lobby, where his family all stood together waiting for him.
“Wow,” Rebecca said, grasping Nally’s free hand once he and Jude joined them. “That looked like you were a real celebrity that people actually wanted to interview.”
“Geez, Rebecca,” Ryan laughed. “Way to inspire our brother with confidence.”
“Nally is a real celebrity,” Janice said, stepping forward to cup the side of Nally’s face and to kiss his cheek. She then leaned back and scrutinized him for a moment, turning his face this way and that and humming. “You’re responsible for the upgrades, I assume,” she said to Jude.
“I couldn’t let our boy go in front of the cameras looking washed-out,” Jude said, still in character.
Nally’s mum hummed again and glanced between the two of them, then down to their hands, which were still tightly joined.
That was all Nally’s fault. He was still as anxious as shit. He let go of Jude’s hand then and said, “Well, we’d better take our seats for the show.”
They made their way into the theater, where a block of seats had been reserved for them.
Silver Productions considered the entire Hawthorne family as part of the production team, and a lot of them had served as extras in various scenes for the film, so they were taken en masse to a blocked off area to one side of the theater.
“This is exciting,” Jude said, pulling out his phone as they all took their seats. “I’ve never been to a film premiere before. My fans will love this.”
“I hope you’ll love it, too,” Nally said as he twisted and clung close to Jude so that Jude could snap a selfie of the two of them with the filling auditorium and the screen behind them.
Once that was done, they settled into their seats and Nally went on with, “I put a lot of work into this score. If it’s going to make me famous, then you’d better appreciate it. ”
“Of course I’ll appreciate it,” Jude said, looking at his phone as he went to post the pic immediately. “You wrote it. You know I love everything you compose.”
“You’re just saying that because I’m your ticket to the glittering world of Hollywood,” Nally said, elbowing Jude’s arm, then keeping his arm in contact with Jude’s.
“Who’s to say I’m not the one getting you all the golden tickets to go wherever you want to go?” Jude pretended to be indignant. “I’m the one who was recognized by a random reporter out there, after all.”
“Yes, well, I’m the one who was approached in a dark corner by my biggest fan,” Nally bantered in return.
“Mate, that was seriously creepy,” Jude said, suddenly dropping his persona and going completely serious.
“Yeah, it was,” Nally agreed. He did a false shiver that covered his actual strange feelings about the encounter.
He didn’t have to think about it for long, though. A few minutes later the lights flashed a few times, the audience quieted down, and then burst into applause as Miles Ferrier walked out onto the small stage in front of the screen.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the London premiere of To Serve Him.”
Nally relaxed and settled into his seat as Miles made a speech thanking everyone for coming and specifically thanking the people he believed had made the film so special.
Nally was one of the people he thanked, which sent a deep, swooping feeling like everything was about to change through Nally’s gut.
The feeling was profound and sunk its claws into him like it was about to push him off a cliff.
It stayed with him during the film. He’d already seen it, so his attention wasn’t as focused as everyone around him. He tried to watch the whole thing with fresh eyes, or rather ears. He wanted a better picture of whether his soundtrack was as good as everyone kept telling him it was.
A few times throughout the film, his mum, who sat next to him, leaned close to Nally at particularly emotional moments, where his music told the story as much as the actors or sets or camera angles, and whispered, “Well done.”
That was all well and good, but it wasn’t until Jude inched closer to him during the intense sex scene and murmured, “I didn’t know you could write hot sex music.”
Nally nearly burst with laughter. It was a desperately needed release to the sense of doom growing in him.
He hunched down in his seat, face heating, like it was him up on the screen with all his skin on show and not Matt Bloom.
He had to slap a hand over his mouth to stop himself from giggling, even more so when Jude slumped in his chair and started giggling hard, too.
They were grown men, both with careers and renown of their own, but there they were, in the middle of a film premiere, giggling like they were twelve again because of some eye-opening male-on-male action, with full frontal, on the screen.
Nally had to admit that the scene was incredibly hot, though, and his music enhanced that.
Or maybe it was the scent of Jude’s cologne as his friend turned to hide his face against Nally’s shoulder, as if the hot sex was too much for him.