Chapter Twenty-One
Alex
I was deep in our tiny stock cupboard, armed with a scrap of paper and a shitty biro and attempting to do a quick stock check before placing next week’s order, when my phone flashed from its position on top of a giant tub of cocoa powder.
Somehow we’d ended up with six of the fucking things because both Mina and Spencer had separately insisted we needed some and instead of crosschecking with each other, they’d both added tubs to our last order instead.
It was partly why I was crammed into the cupboard because I wasn’t going to pay for more shit we didn’t need because nobody had bothered to check what we actually had.
“Bollocks,” I cursed as I accidentally elbowed the shelf behind me, sending several rolls of blue towels spilling onto the floor. I tried to turn and tripped over a crate full of empty plastic boxes that had been shoved onto the floor. “What the fuck? Who the fuck left this shit here?”
If I didn’t break my neck getting out of here, everyone was going to get a long lecture on health and fucking safety.
I stuck my pen between my teeth and grabbed my phone, unlocking the screen with my thumb and glancing at the new message.
Henry
Jason and Lewis are coming up on Friday for a week so he can film his cameo. I’m going to book a table somewhere for dinner on Saturday and I was hoping you’d come too? I’d love to introduce you. Just let me know x
Shit. That was new.
I’d known that Jason and his boyfriend were coming up soon, but I hadn’t realised it was this weekend soon. It had always seemed so far away, and yet somehow time had slipped away from me and it was already here.
It meant that Henry and I had been doing this whole real-not-actually-fake boyfriends thing for a good five weeks now, and that sudden realisation stopped me in my tracks. Or it would have done if I wasn’t crammed into a cupboard barely bigger than a cardboard box.
Had it really been that long since our conversation on the front after I’d dragged him to the Sleeping Goose for the first time? It didn’t feel like it. It felt like it had barely been a week, maybe two at the most.
And yet… time must have passed because we’d spent so much of it together.
There’d been the afternoon we made enough dumplings to feed the cast of Llewelyn for a week, and the weekend after where we’d made pizzas at mine and eaten them in front of the telly while watching Alien.
We’d played board games and video games and I’d made the mistake of introducing Henry to Stardew Valley, thinking he’d have something to play while he was on set, and had found myself on the end of his endless delighted conversations about his many chickens.
We’d introduced our friends, spent endless hours in the pub, and I’d even taken him out to Will’s farm to meet the lambs.
And we’d spent so many evenings curled up on my sofa or in my bed, talking about whatever popped into our minds and abandoning our conversations in favour of losing ourselves in each other’s touch.
The days had both stretched out and merged into one, but I knew two things: my life was totally different with Henry in it and being in a relationship with a celebrity was weird as fuck.
As much as I’d wanted to pretend this was a normal relationship, it wasn’t.
Normal relationships didn’t include hundreds of random people attempting to contact you on social media or flooding your business’s email with weird and wonderful branding offers from companies all over the world, hate mail about both Henry’s and my sexualities, and creepy messages from the extreme ends of Henry’s fandom.
Cas had connected me to a friend of his to upgrade our internet security and filter out all the shit, which Henry had insisted on paying for. It seemed to have dealt with the problem, and I tried not to wonder whether we’d just stuck a plaster over a gaping wound and hoped it would hold.
Normal relationships also didn’t involve random people trying to take your photo in the middle of the street or stopping your boyfriend to ask for a selfie. The first time it had happened, I’d been so weirded out I’d just stared at them in disbelief until Cas had politely shooed them away.
We’d started relying on him more and more, and I was intensely grateful for the man’s terrifying stare.
The one thing I had noticed, which I found fucking hilarious, was the way that Heather Bay seemed to have closed ranks around us.
Everyone here had always been gossipy as fuck, but the locals seemed to have adopted Henry as one of their own and now nobody batted an eyelid when they saw us in Tesco or in the pub garden.
And heaven help any poor fucker that attempted to come into Novel Tea for a scoop.
I’d seen at least three photographers be sent packing by my regulars, who refused to have their peace disturbed, and by my staff, who’d taken a very dim view of people trying to target their boss.
Spencer refused to tell me how many had been in, and Cleo had perfected the most disturbingly sweet smile that screamed You have five seconds to get out before I make you.
I hated how much it had affected them, even though they’d all promised they didn’t care.
I’d still given everyone a pay rise, though, mentally referring to it as hazard pay for all the shit they were dealing with.
I’d also added extra locks to the front door and gotten a quote to have blinds fitted to the windows so nobody could try and peer through them when we were closed.
And normal relationships didn’t involve people speculating about your relationship all over the internet either.
Thankfully I’d managed to avoid most of it since I’d never been the biggest social media person, although Noah had told me Theo had recently started piling onto people in comment threads.
I didn’t know why Theo thought I needed defending, but it was kind of sweet.
Theo might look soft and cute, like some sort of fluffy bunny, but he was vicious if provoked.
If he was a video game character, he’d be the one in the shortest, pinkest dress with knives strapped to his thighs and a grenade launcher.
But despite all the media exposure, which luckily I didn’t have to engage with beyond approving a story being sent out, Henry and I had managed to exist in relative seclusion.
I still hadn’t met anyone from Henry’s life outside of Llewelyn, but I guessed that was about to end. I didn’t know how the fuck to feel about it, though.
It was obvious that Jason was important to Henry just from the way he talked about him, which meant this was a big fucking deal.
In my head it felt different to Henry meeting Spencer because I didn’t think Spencer and I were as close.
It was more like Henry meeting Lane, and even that hadn’t felt as scary as this did.
Maybe because I knew Lane and I’d been able to vaguely predict how the situation would unfold, even if I hadn’t been able to control it.
The more I thought about it, stood there in the tiny fucking cupboard and staring at tubs of cocoa powder and boxes of coffee beans, the more the idea of meeting Jason fucking terrified me. But it didn’t feel like something I could say no to.
Sure, I could make an excuse, but everything that flashed into my head sounded paper thin and like I was scrambling for an exit. Henry would know it too, and I’d just look like a proper twat. And while I might act like an asshole half the time, it didn’t mean I actually was one.
I might not be able to spell out exactly how I felt about Henry, mostly because the idea of examining my feelings was another thing that fucking terrified me, but I knew I didn’t want to nuke what we had. And using some piss-poor excuse to ditch dinner with his brother would do exactly that.
Alex
Sure, sounds good.
Henry
Awesome! I’ll get something booked! I can’t wait for you to meet them.
Henry
Also… could I maybe stay at yours for a few nights while they’re here?
They’re going to be taking the spare room in the cottage, which is fine, but it’ll be very busy.
And the spare room is right next to mine and I don’t want to listen to Jason and Lewis fucking.
The walls are a lot thinner than we first thought.
Alex
How the fuck did you discover that? But yeah, you can stay. I’ll even make you coffee before you leave.
Henry
That’s because you’re the best <3
Henry
And I found out because Kane is NOT quiet when Austin’s here. Even if he promises he is!
I chuckled to myself and wondered if that was why Henry had wanted to stay last weekend as well. He’d said it was because my bed was comfy and had me in it, but now I was suspicious.
Alex
Would you be quiet if your boyfriend was Austin Carter? Is that why you wanted to stay last weekend too?
Henry
Firstly, I don’t need Austin Carter—I have you! And maybe… but also your bed has you in it. And I like you.
Alex
Lol are you twelve?
Alex
But I like you too.
Henry
HA I knew it! You think I’m sexy!
Alex
You’re definitely something. Not sure I’d say sexy… maybe hot as balls.
Henry
Are you feeling okay? You just complimented me.
Alex
You get one a week. Two if you’re lucky.
Henry
One day I’ll get it up to one a day.
Henry
Okay gotta go, I’m being shouted at. Speak later xx
I grinned and slid my phone into the back pocket of my jeans, finally extracting my pen from my mouth and glancing down at the crumpled bit of paper in my hand. I wasn’t going to tell Henry he was right—I’d happily give him all the compliments if it would make him smile.
It took me fucking forever to finish the stocktake because my brain had kept wandering off when I was supposed to be counting boxes of filters.
Meeting Jason was a big step, and the more I thought about it, the more I started to freak out. And that made me angry.