Chapter Two
CHAPTER TWO
Oscar
Sitting on my bed in my tiny studio flat in South London later that evening, I wondered how the fuck I’d gotten there. The day had been a blur, and I really wanted to forget it had happened, but unfortunately, I now had to get hold of Ilias and convince him to be my fake boyfriend for a week-long trip to Hawaii.
This was like the setup for a really bad romcom or one of those ridiculous Hallmark Christmas movies my siblings had made me watch last year.
I stared at Ilias’s Twitter profile, which was currently filling my phone screen. I didn’t have his number, and it was the only way I could think of to get hold of him. And that did not bode well.
I’d been partially honest when I’d told Madelyn about him. I had met Ilias when we’d been on a couple of the same press trips over the past few years, but while we’d chatted when we were together and followed each other on Twitter, we weren’t close.
In fact, there was something about Ilias that always got under my skin. I didn’t hate him—I didn’t know him well enough to hate him—but he… both intrigued and irritated me for reasons I couldn’t put my finger on. Part of me hated the fact that he was the first person my brain had suggested, but he was the only person who’d fit the brief, and the idea of spending a week with him pushed on something inside my chest.
Flicking open the messenger, I tapped out something I hoped didn’t sound too ridiculous.
Oscar
Hey, hope you’re well. I have a photography opportunity for you for a presser to Hawaii. Would you be interested? It has a few complicated side details, so maybe give me a call? I’m in London right now too if you want to meet up to discuss.
I added my number at the end and hit Send, wondering whether I’d even get a response. To distract myself, I looked through some of the ridiculous videos and messages that had popped up in our family group chat over the past couple of days.
My stepbrother Eli, who was a drag queen, had sent us some snippets from his latest tour. I chuckled as I watched part of his comedy routine, which focused on the incident last year when his older brother Richard had punched him in the face just after he’d found out Eli was dating his best friend, Tristan. I hadn’t been there, but I had seen a video, and it made me laugh every time I thought about it.
Richard was older than me by about nine months, and we’d been seven and eight respectively when our mothers had gotten together and created a huge, blended, queer family. The pair of us had gotten along fine, but I wouldn’t have said we were close. Richard could be a bit of a tool, and these days, I found it easier to avoid him as much as possible. Eli, on the other hand, fought fire with fire and had never been one to back down from an argument with his brother.
I opened another video my baby brother, Finn, had sent me of a ferret in a chef’s hat doing a little dance and lost myself in a stream of mindless scrolling. Eventually, I heaved myself off the bed and strolled to the kitchen, peering into my tiny fridge and wondering whether I had anything edible. Not much, so takeaway it was.
I ordered a bento box through Deliveroo, collected my laptop, and began reading through the details Marcus had sent me on the resort. Given the time difference, we probably wouldn’t hear back from their marketing team until tomorrow at the earliest about whether they were interested in our offer, but it wouldn’t do me any harm to read up on the place.
I’d just pulled up the website and been bombarded with photos of crystal-clear water, lush tropical flowers, and stunning mountains when my phone flashed with a call from an unknown number. I assumed it was the Deliveroo driver because my studio could be a pain in the ass to find.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Oscar. Thanks for your message. I’m fascinated by your offer, so here’s your phone call.” The voice was rich, warm, and familiar, and I could picture the man it belonged to with absolute clarity.
“Ilias, hi… I didn’t expect to hear from you.” Fuck, that made me sound like an asshole, but luckily, Ilias laughed.
“So you sent me a message asking me to call you without expecting a response? What sort of man do you think I am?”
“A busy one?”
“Luckily for you, I’m back in London and completely and utterly bored,” Ilias said, and I heard a note of amusement in his voice. “So stop being a tease and tell me all about these complicated side details.”
“Right… so…” Fuck, I actually had to ask him to be my fake boyfriend now. I’d wondered all afternoon if I could just get away with telling Madelyn and Marcus that Ilias was busy, but since Marcus knew Ilias, that wouldn’t work as it was bound to come up in conversation at some point. At the very least, I had to tell Ilias what the fuck I’d said in the hope he’d save my skin at a later date by pretending we’d had some sort of fling.
This was already more complicated than it needed to be, and I’d barely begun.
“I’m waiting… on tenterhooks, believe me.”
“Sorry.” I swallowed. “I had a meeting with Madelyn Rossi today.” Ilias let out an impressed whistle, which I tried to ignore. “She, er, she liked the last piece I wrote, so she was asking me about new pitches. And I told her I wanted to do a piece focusing on LGBTQ+ safe destinations and resorts that welcome queer couples.”
“That sounds fun and sorely needed. But I’m still fuzzy on the complex details part,” Ilias said.
“I’ll get to that.”
“Tease.”
“I… I’m not teasing,” I said. I hated when Ilias did that. It all felt so… unnecessary. Ilias chuckled, and my skin prickled. This was why I hadn’t wanted to work with him. In small doses, I could cope with Ilias, but if I was stuck with him for a week, he’d probably drive me crazy. “Anyway, to cut a long and boring story short, they’re putting a press trip together to St. West Hualālai on Hawaii’s Big Island for me, and I need a photographer. I was wondering if you’d be interested?”
“A free trip to Hawaii with you? Sounds like fun.” There was a pause. “What’s the catch? I’m still not hearing anything I’d consider to be complex details.” I was sure Ilias had already figured it out, but he was pushing me to ask him outright. And I needed to because if this was going to work, I was going to have to communicate with him or risk everything going arse over apex before we’d even started.
“Er… well… because I pitched this as focusing on queer couples, they want to send people who fit… you know, for a genuine experience. And, er, there was some confusion, and Madelyn now believes I have a boyfriend, specifically you… so it would be a press trip for us… as a couple.” Every word felt like it was stumbling out of my mouth, and I had no idea if I was even making sense. There was another long moment of silence broken only by the thudding of my heart against my ribcage.
“Run that by me again,” Ilias said, his voice still rich with amusement. “You told Madelyn Rossi we were together, and now she wants to send us on a couple’s press trip to a luxury resort to review it? I’m not sure whether to be flattered or confused.”
“You can say no,” I said hurriedly. “I can tell them we broke up or that you’re busy.”
“And turn down a free trip? Why would I do that?”
“Because this is ridiculous. You can’t possibly want to pretend to be my boyfriend for a week just for a presser? You can’t be that desperate.”
“Are you calling me desperate?” Ilias teased. “I’m flattered you thought of me. Was there a particular reason you decided to make me your beau? Were you that charmed by our drunken conversation about butterflies in Singapore?”
I’d forgotten about that, and the memory sprang to mind, fresh and vibrant, bringing with it an unexpected sensation of warmth. I frowned. “I just… I’m not sure.”
“Sorry, but I need more than that,” Ilias said. “If I’m going to be your boyfriend for a week, you need to charm me.”
“But you just said you’d go!”
“I know, and I will, but I want to know why you picked me . Come on, charm me… I want to be wooed.”
“You’re insufferable,” I said. “I should have told Madelyn it was a misunderstanding.”
“You and I both know Madelyn Rossi does not like being told she’s wrong.”
“I should have blamed myself.”
“True, but you didn’t,” Ilias said with a note of sickening sweetness that turned my stomach. He had a point, and I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. If I called this off, the truth was bound to get out somehow. I didn’t think Ilias would go around telling everyone what I’d done, but then again, how well did I actually know him?
“Fine, my brain chose you because… because you’re a good photographer, and you’re funny, and you’re queer—which I know because you told me in New York when we bumped into each other there last September—and you’re… handsome.” I said the last word quietly because it was the one I didn’t want to admit out loud.
I kept telling myself I’d subconsciously picked Ilias because he fit the brief, but it was impossible to deny that he was good-looking. He had a beautiful smile that seemed to light up a room and dark eyes that were speckled with green. I only knew that because he’d sat right next to me at the rooftop bar in Singapore, and it had been impossible to miss the flecks of colour in the sunlight.
He was charmingly handsome, and he knew it. There was something in the way he carried himself that screamed that he knew how beautiful he was. During our brief interactions in the past, I’d seen him charm every pretty man that strolled past, and all of them had fallen into his arms.
I think that was what grated on me the most—how boundlessly self-assured and self-confident he was. Ilias knew he was handsome, charismatic, and talented, and he wasn’t afraid to use those skills like he was weaving some kind of magic spell. I wasn’t sure if I was in awe of his charms, or worse, jealous he hadn’t attempted to use them on me. Not that I wanted to jump into bed with him, but it was more the principle of the matter.
“You think I’m handsome?” Ilias asked. “I’m flattered.”
“You’re welcome.”
“And you’re right. I’m a good photographer too. We’d make a good match.” I could hear him grinning, and I hoped I’d done enough to convince him. “Why don’t we meet for lunch tomorrow, and you can tell me all the details.”
“Sure,” I said. “That’s fine. Where do you want to meet? Do you want me to send you the trip itinerary first?”
We hashed out a time and place to meet, and Ilias gave me his email address so I could forward anything Marcus had sent me before we said goodbye. I stared at my phone, wondering what the fuck I’d just agreed to.
My dinner arrived two minutes later, and I ate it while scrolling through the pictures of the hotel. It did look beautiful—exactly like the place I was looking for. I could imagine strolling along the golden sandy beach hand-in-hand with someone I loved, or climbing through the jungles and up mountainous peaks together, wondering at the beauty of the natural world, or spending the evening surrounded by candles under a million stars.
It was somewhere I’d want to share with someone special.
And now I was going with a man I hardly knew, even if I was inexplicably drawn to him.