Chapter Seven #2
“He… I don’t think he sees me as special. To him I’m just another guy who walked into his coffee shop and tried it on with him, and while most people would be flattered by my attentions, he just thought it was bollocks. And he called me out on it. I’ve never had anyone do that before.”
“Ah, I see,” Jenny said, sitting back in her chair with an amused smile. “He said no, and now you’re desperate to know why.”
“Yes, I was. That’s why I went to see him.
I wanted to ask why he turned me down and we just got chatting.
” We must have walked up and down the front for nearly an hour, stopping every so often to look out over the sea.
After my initial questions, we’d started talking about ordinary everyday things.
I’d learnt that he owned Novel Tea along with his brother, he preferred tea to coffee, he couldn’t play guitar despite trying to learn for years, and he had a soft spot for David Bowie.
With every word, I’d found myself getting drawn in further and further, but I’d promised him I wouldn’t push.
I didn’t even know if he’d want to see me again and that idea hurt because I desperately wanted to spend more time with him, walking up and down the beach and talking about everything under the sun until we lost our voices.
Jenny was quiet for a moment and her smile faded into a pensive expression. “Does this young man have a name?”
“Alex.”
She nodded. “I know you said he wasn’t interested in actually being your boyfriend, but do you think he’d be open to pretending to be?”
I stared at her, my mouth falling open in shock. Of all the things I’d expected to come out of Jenny’s mouth, that hadn’t been one of them. “W-What? Why?”
“Honestly? Because if you had a boyfriend and appeared to be in a stable relationship, it would solve a lot of problems,” said Jenny. Her expression implied it wasn’t something she wanted to suggest but I got the feeling there weren’t many options for me to choose from.
It felt like there was a net closing in around me and I’d become aware of its existence too late to escape its clutches.
“How?” I asked, even though deep down I knew the answer.
“Given what I’ve been hearing, I’m assuming you have somewhat of a reputation as a flirt, and when combined with our current artistic goals for Llewelyn, our streaming service partners and your pop-culture overlords are already looking at their spreadsheets and seeing red.
But if you were in a relationship, something that could be spun to protect their hoard of gold, then I think you’d be forgiven. ”
“For what? I haven’t done anything wrong!” It was all bollocks and the fear I’d felt was quickly being replaced with anger.
“I know,” Jenny said calmly. “Believe me. I’ve asked them to spell it out to me numerous times in the past eighteen hours and nobody has given me a satisfactory answer.
I can only assume that they’re worried we’ll offend people, which I don’t care about, and that will mean cancelled subscriptions and lower box office returns. ”
“And me being in a relationship will magically fix all of that?” I snapped. Then I sighed, because I knew taking out my anger on Jenny wouldn’t fix anything. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have snapped. You haven’t done anything wrong.”
“It’s fine,” Jenny said with a comforting smile.
“I understand your frustration. But if we want a second season, and more importantly if you don’t want to incur the wrath of the people who sign your very large paychecks, it might be worth considering.
A Hollywood superstar falling for a local man who runs a coffee shop?
The story practically writes itself. It’s the foundation of more than one Hallmark movie, and everyone loves those. ”
“God, this is so fucked up,” I said. “This is worse than Jason’s Celestials drama. At least the homophobia was more overt then. Here it’s just the implication that I should surrender to cosy heteronormativity if I want to have a career left at the end of this.”
I almost wanted to laugh. That would be better than crying, at any rate. “At least tell me you’re not being forced to turn this into some single season tragedy where we both die or fall in love and have to be parted forever and die alone in our misery?”
“God no! I’m not moving on any details for Llewelyn. You don’t get to my age without learning what not to negotiate on.”
I did laugh then. I was glad I’d finally gotten to work with Jenny. “That’s one thing, I suppose.”
“Do you think your brother might be interested in a small part, by the way? I have a nice small role as your visiting cousin and I think he’d do quite well.”
“He might be,” I said, trying to remember Jason’s current schedule.
“You’d have to ask him or his agent. I don’t know when his latest play closes.
I can give you his number. Or you can try his boyfriend, Lewis, since he’s the one who makes sure Jason ends up where he needs to be. Like a PA, but one he’s dating.”
“You can give me their numbers before you go,” Jenny said, scrawling a note on a piece of paper beside her.
“Do think about it, though, asking Alex if he’d consider something for appearances.
It could just be until we leave or until we announce the show.
You could probably get the production company to offer a financial settlement too—you know, for his time and to cover any costs. I know it’s not ideal, but…”
“But it would hopefully stop the high and mighty from throwing a tantrum, suing me for some invented breach of contract, and making sure Llewelyn never got a second season, if the first one even aired at all.” I sighed and drummed my fingers on my knee.
On the one hand, this was the perfect opportunity to quietly negotiate my way out of my superhero contract and walk away forever from the franchise I hated.
But on the other hand, no lawyer I hired would stand up against theirs and they’d make sure I never worked again for this invented slight.
I still wasn’t quite sure what their problem was, but reading between the lines and with the implications from Jenny, it seemed like while they were happy to have a queer actor on their roster, they didn’t actually want me doing anything where I was queer or that might tarnish their family-friendly values.
Which had always baffled me anyway, because the amount of violence and collateral damage in those films was insane.
We could literally shoot bad guys in the face and blow up whole buildings, but we couldn’t say arse and we definitely couldn’t do anything more than softly kiss our love interest. No sex at all.
And apparently that attitude now extended to their actors as well.
It was like the days of the Hays code all over again.
God, this was a bloody nightmare.
Fake relationships were part of the fabric of Hollywood and had been for as long as it had existed.
I’d never been in one before, but I knew people who had.
It was always just for appearances—to make them seem more stable, more desirable, more…
whatever the studio wanted—and they were useful for getting enough attention to sell whatever the project was to the public.
Which was exactly what they wanted from me.
And Jenny was right, the story practically wrote itself.
The studio’s PR department would have a field day spinning it, even more so than they had done with my coming out announcement last June.
In conjunction with another PR firm Celeste had hired, they had pitched it as me being inspired by the spirit of Pride month to be my true and authentic self while encouraging my fans to do the same.
It had been a bit sickening in my opinion, but I’d gone with it because at the heart of it, the message had been a good one.
Overall, the response had been incredibly positive, especially from fans, and even though I wasn’t supposed to ever read the comments, I’d loved seeing ones from people who told me I’d inspired them.
And while there had been some conservative politicians and other assholes who’d shrieked loudly about protecting children from my immorality and how could someone like me be allowed to portray a character so rooted in truth and justice, I’d mostly ignored their bile and bullshit and started posting photos of myself in rainbow Converse. Just to piss them off.
“He’ll probably say no,” I said as my thoughts turned back to Alex and how the fuck I was going to explain all this to him.
“I don’t think he gives two shits about the Hollywood way of doing things, and he doesn’t owe me anything.
He doesn’t really like me anyway, and this isn’t going to convince him I’m not a total dick.
And I doubt he’ll care about the money either.
I can’t think of a single reason he’d say yes to me, and if I was him, I’d tell me to fuck off. ”
Jenny chuckled fondly. There was a look in her eyes that I couldn’t place, like there was something I was missing. “If he does, then we’ll deal with it.”
“I’ll just lock myself in the cottage like a hermit and make Cas go get me coffee instead. He’ll love that.” I snorted at the idea. “At least I won’t get myself into trouble then.”
The only problem was, I already had.