Chapter 27
Grayson
I find Ezra inside the in-home gym and stop in my tracks.
He’s wielding a wooden sword, grunting as it hits the hanging bag he’s using as target practice. His motions are fluid. Precise.
“Ez?”
He flashes me a quick grin before slashing the bag again. “Got the role.”
“The period piece?”
“Mhm.” Another strike.
“That’s great. I know how much you wanted it. I thought, maybe…”
I don’t need to say it aloud for Ezra to understand. “Guess me being queer wasn’t a deal-breaker.”
“It shouldn’t ever be.”
His smile is rueful. “No, but you know we’re not there yet. Maybe someday.”
“I hope so,” I tell him truthfully. “You remember we have a premiere to get ready for, right?”
Ezra curses, whipping around to look at the clock on the wall. “Lost track of time. Shit.”
I laugh as Ezra all but tosses the wooden sword aside and runs past me. A door upstairs slams shut a minute later, and the shower comes on.
I head back to my room, pulling my suit out of my closet.
It’s simple and black, but I prefer that to trying to stay up-to-date with the latest fashion trends.
I dress as Ezra showers, picking a white t-shirt to go under the suit jacket, knowing Ezra would choose it for me given the chance.
This is a movie premiere, after all, not an office event.
Suit on, I head to my dresser for socks.
I pause as my gaze lands on the brass telescope sitting beside the old photograph of my star-boy, as Ezra would call him.
There’s a pang in my chest as the man looks back at me, a sort of ferocity in his gaze I admire.
Not for the first time, I take in the star tattoos mapped across his chest. I heavily suspect they’re covering top surgery scars, although I have no proof. Just a gut feeling.
Whoever he is, he looks confident showing off the lean line of his torso. I slip the button on my suit jacket so it lies open, wanting to share in that confidence. To bring him with me tonight. Even if no one else knows it, I’ll know.
The water down the hall shuts off, and I run my finger along the edge of the frame.
“Whoever you are, you’re stunning.”
Ezra is in the living room when I emerge. He’s still shrugging into his clothes, his own jacket a deep navy that fits him to a T. The man makes the fabric look like priceless art.
“You’re wearing a tie?” I ask, surprised.
He adjusts it with a grin, the slim fabric gold, like his namesake. “Thought I’d be fancy. And don’t you dare go change. You look great. ”
“I look underdressed compared to you.”
He scoffs, tugging his jacket sleeves straight. “Please. You look phenomenal. Grab one of those for me?”
I look where he’s pointing and spot a bouquet of deep red roses sitting atop our table. “Where’d these come from?”
Ezra sounds smug. “Me. Picked them up earlier. Happy premiere, Gray.”
I shake my head. The flowers are beautiful. A good three dozen of them if not more. “Such a sap,” I say to myself, reaching for the vase. Careful of the thorns, I pluck a single rose free from the rest and bring it over to Ezra.
He grabs the kitchen shears and snips off the end of the stem, leaving only a couple inches of green below the starkly red flower. Hand on my lapel, he tucks the rose into my front pocket. “Perfect.”
I clear my throat. “You know, for being a fellow aromantic, you’re quite the romantic.”
Ezra barks a laugh, winking at me as he pats my chest. “Call it romance. Call it what you will. All I know is you’re the only person I’ve ever bought flowers for.”
“That can’t be true.”
“It is. Would you like to see my credit card receipts?”
“Not necessary,” I assure him, knowing full well he’d show me his purchases from the last twenty-plus years if I asked. My phone dings, and I pull it free, pressing the button for the gate to open. “Our car is here.”
Ezra smooths down his jacket as we walk toward the door. “Are you ready to watch yourself off me in cold blood up on the big screen, Fox?”
“Excuse me,” I say, indignant. “You drew your gun first.”
“I didn’t aim it at you!”
“Semantics. You were the bad guy. ”
“Bad is so subjective.” Says one of the most golden-hearted people I know. Ezra’s expression sobers quickly, turning thoughtful. “This is the first time people will see us together since we announced…”
“Being together?”
“Together adjacent.”
I snort a laugh. “For all intents and purposes, you’re my damn boyfriend now, Ezra Gold.”
His eyes go soft. “How about…partner?”
I mull that over, liking the sound of it. “Partner. Yeah. That fits, doesn’t it?”
He nods, checking his pockets one last time before grabbing the doorknob. With a smirk I’d recognize anywhere, he twists his wrist and opens the door.
Flashes go off from just outside the fence, paparazzi and reporters alike stationed outside our home as they have been for weeks.
We’ve given the media very little to splash across the tabloids, not for lack of trying on their part.
The frenzy will die down eventually, but for now, eating at home and going out as little as possible has helped us avoid the sharks.
As Ezra said, this will be the first time we’re appearing together in public.
Ezra reaches for the back door of our ride, but before either of us can get in the vehicle, one of the members of the crowd rushes forward.
I’m absolutely shocked, considering I’ve never seen a single person try to breach the walls surrounding Ezra’s home before.
Ezra himself goes still in an instant, snapping to attention as the woman’s camera flashes inches from my face.
“Grayson,” she says in a rush. “What do you have to say about the end of your relationship with Camilla? Was Ezra the reason for your split? ”
“Hey.” Ezra’s voice is harsh, and he moves to stand between us.
The woman doesn’t get the hint, her camera clicking away as she tries to edge around Ezra. The heavy device clips my shoulder in her haste, and I internally groan.
Ezra is the nicest person there is. Until you piss him off.
In a lightning-fast move, Ezra snatches the camera from the woman’s grip.
She reaches for it. “Hey, you can’t—”
“You are on my property.” His tone is clipped.
“Threatening the man I love with a blunt object, no less. I most certainly can.” Ezra chucks the camera into the bushes at the front of our house, whipping out his phone in the process and pointing toward the gate.
“Get the fuck out before I call the police.”
She wavers, taking a step toward the bushes, but Ezra starts dialing. With a curse, she dashes out of the gate, the reporters trained on her now.
“Jesus, Ez,” I say, keeping my voice quiet. “That’ll be in the news.”
He looks unrepentant, opening the car door wide and waving me in. “She fucked up.”
I can see him firing off a text to Shawn as I slide into the vehicle, likely to have the camera taken care of before the woman tries to get it back.
“Everything okay?” our driver asks.
Ezra gets in beside me and closes the door. “Peachy. We’re ready to go.”
Cameras continue to flash as we drive out through the gate. It closes behind us, and I gaze at Ezra’s scowl as he taps angrily away on his phone.
“It’s a good thing you didn’t have your sword,” I mutter .
Ezra’s grin tells me how very much he would have enjoyed that.
As our driver brings us toward the premiere, something Ezra said a while back niggles at my memory. “What did you mean? When you asked if I’d want to move?”
Ezra sets down his phone, blinking a few times as the anger melts off his face.
“I thought, well, maybe you’d enjoy living somewhere quieter.
It wouldn’t have to be all the time, or even right away, but…
I could see it. Couldn’t you? Somewhere private out of the city, where you’d actually be able to see the stars and I could go grocery shopping without being mobbed? ”
I huff a laugh, and Ezra smiles in response.
“What about our house?” I ask him.
He shrugs. “We’d keep it. Like I said, it wouldn’t have to be all the time.”
“Where would we go?”
His face brightens immediately. “Anywhere we want. That’s the point. It’d be ours and ours alone, Gray.”
I consider it, the notion more and more appealing the longer I think it over. We’re often away when filming anyway, separately or together. Having a second base to come home to? Somewhere off the beaten path without paparazzi at our doorstep?
Ezra must be able to read it from my expression because he pounces. “You like the idea.”
“I don’t not like it.”
“A glowing review, everybody.” He throws his arms out theatrically, going so far as to bow in his seat. “However will I cope with such accolades?”
I shake my head as Ezra wipes a fake tear from below his eye. “It’s a good thing I know how to tolerate you. ”
He clutches his chest as if betrayed. “Tolerate. Ouch. The pain, Grayson. You wound me.”
I give his cheek a pat, and Ezra snorts. “I like it,” I finally say. “The idea of having another place.”
“We’ll tell Madison but no one else.”
“Not even Shawn?”
“Doesn’t need to know.”
Our car slows, pulling up behind a procession of vehicles. It’s mayhem up ahead, a red carpet rolled out and countless reporters vying for a snippet from the many movie stars heading inside.
I can’t help but sigh just a little.
“I’m sorry.” Ezra’s softly spoken words startle me.
“What for?”
He waves a hand toward the chaos. “For this. I didn’t know you did this for me. And now that I do…”
“Hey. Don’t start thinking like that. I don’t hate this gig.”
“You don’t love it.”
“I enjoy a lot of it,” I tell him seriously. “Especially when I get to act with you. It’s all the rest I could do without.”
He eyes me as if to make sure I’m telling the truth. “We could quit.”
It’s not the first time he’s said it. It warms me. It really does. But I shake my head.
“No, Ez. Not yet. I’m not done. And neither are you. I think we have a good few more movies to make together, don’t you?”
“You sure?”
“Positive.”
He nods slowly, and our car inches forward. There are still a few vehicles in front of us, and we wait our turn .
“When you’re ready, tell me.” Ezra’s tone is serious. “We’ll quit together.”
“Planning on going out with a bang?” I joke.
He winks in that devastating way of his. “It’s almost like you know me.”
I chuckle, and the vehicle moves again.
Ezra rubs his hands together. “Here we go. Our moment, Gray. Ready to go supernova?”
“This isn’t our end,” I point out.
He scoffs. “Of course not. After all, dying stars birth new ones. Isn’t that what you said? This is just…our next step.”
I suppose it is.
Ezra offers his hand as our vehicle stops in front of the red carpet. Our driver steps out, but Ezra doesn’t once look away from me. “I love you, Grayson Fox. With everything I am and everything I will be. Don’t ever forget that.”
I swallow down the swell of emotions threatening to overwhelm me. I’ve never doubted Ezra’s love. Not for a single second.
I accept his outstretched hand, bringing it to my lips and placing a kiss on his knuckles, as he so often does to me. “More than all the stars,” I tell him, my own love so vast I ache with it.
His smile is blinding, and it’s all too easy to see why the world fell for Ezra Gold as I did. There’s only one difference.
They don’t know him the way I do. And they never, ever will.
“Supernova, huh?” I mutter, earning another wicked smirk from my friend. “I guess it’s time.”
Ezra knocks on the window, and our driver opens the door.
Cataclysmic. Ruinous and miraculous.
Ezra and I step out to a brilliant flash of stars.