Chapter 6 #2
He ended up standing shoulder to shoulder with Jessica as Nikky started singing one of the songs from Cooked.
The whole thing was so loud, larger than life, and surreal that Lee couldn’t help but be in a good mood.
“Do you guys do stuff like this all the time?” he asked Jessica as she handed him the same sort of specialty drink she’d given to Drew.
“Sometimes,” Jessica shouted back at him over the ear-splitting music and Nikky’s amazing vocals.
“Events like this, where Drew can be seen and photographed, are great for PR,” she went on.
“Drew’s got this whole celebrity thing down to a science.
He never lets things go too long without making some sort of a splash that can carry across social media for a week.
It’s why he’s still in such high demand and why he’s going to have work for years. ”
“This sort of thing gets him work?” Lee asked, his writer research brain kicking in.
“Oh, yeah,” Jessica said as they both turned back to watch not only Nikky killing it on the stage, but Drew dancing along at the edge of the box, in full view of the audience around him.
“He makes it look so easy and carefree, but everything he does and every move he makes is calculated to advance his brand so he can get the offers he wants.”
Lee didn’t doubt it, but at the same time, that didn’t entirely fit the vibe he’d gotten from Drew so far. But Jessica had known him for years instead of days, so she would know.
“What offers does he want?” Lee asked before he could stop himself. A noisy, fun concert wasn’t really the time or place to ask about celebrity career strategy.
“He wants to do films,” Jessica said. “Same as I do. I keep telling him he should shoot for a major blockbuster, but you know Drew. He’s all about the arty-farty films.”
Lee made a surprised face, then sipped his drink. He didn’t actually know that about Drew, but he found it interesting. Also interesting was the weird sense of disconnect between what Jessica wanted and what Drew wanted that he was picking up on.
“You kind of sound like an agent or a publicist,” he observed.
Jessica shrugged with a genuinely thoughtful look. “I’ve thought about it, you know.”
“Being an agent?”
“Yeah. Drew doesn’t like it, but I happen to love the whole Hollywood game. Strategizing someone’s career is like planning a war campaign or, hey!” She brightened as she glanced at him with a genuine smile. “It’s like plotting a book. You can relate to that.”
“I can,” Lee said, taking another drink. He wasn’t really sure what to think of Jessica, but he had a feeling it was too easy to get the wrong idea about her.
“You shouldn’t be standing back here,” Jessica said after taking a gulp of her own drink, her wannabe agent expression returning. “You need to be up there with Drew. People need to see the two of you together.”
“Yeah, I’m still not completely certain the whole fake boyfriend thing is the best idea,” Lee said, trying to keep his voice down but still be heard.
Jessica glared at him like he’d stepped on her toes. “Of course it’s a good idea. Brand is everything, and Drew’s brand is queer as fuck. None of us are going anywhere if that brand crashes. So go!” She pointed to Drew’s back.
Lee was so intimidated by the force of Jessica’s will that he snapped into action, dodging his way around a few people, drink in hand, until he stumbled out to the front of the box by Drew’s side.
Drew immediately turned to smile at him, then hooked an arm around his waist and pulled him into some sort of gyrating dance move that Lee was in no way built for. “Isn’t this fun?” he asked, bumping his hip against Lee’s and encouraging him to get loose.
“I have no idea what this is,” Lee laughed, then did his best to dance along.
It was more than a little nuts and definitely on a whole other level than anything Lee had ever experienced.
But Drew was right, it was fun. Especially once the alcohol from his surprisingly strong drink started to kick in.
Lee had never been a prude or anything, but he’d never really been the sort to go out and get hammered on the weekends either.
The stakes were too high to get drunk at the concert venue.
After the first few songs, and a little banter back and forth between Drew in the box and Nikky on the stage, Lee started to notice that even though Drew had a glass in his hand through the whole concert, he didn’t actually drink that much.
Abby didn’t touch a drop either as she watched Drew like a hawk.
The only one who did indulge and enjoy themselves was Jessica.
Frankly, Jessica was a lot easier to deal with when she was warm and happy.
“You guys really are cute,” she told Lee and Drew as they all packed together, along with Nikky and a few of his bandmates, in the back of the limo that would take them from the concert venue to the afterparty. “Aren’t they cute?” she asked everyone else crammed into the car.
“They’re adorable,” Nikky laughed, finally having a drink himself, now that the concert was over. “Where did you two meet again?”
Panic hit Lee fast enough to make him lose his buzz.
He turned his head to look at Drew, who was looking right back at him with the same stunned, flushed look.
Worse still, the way their bodies were plastered together in the crowded car, all Lee could think about was how built Drew must be under his clothes and how good he smelled.
“Lee is my favorite author,” Abby spoke into the brittle silence. “I dragged Drew to see him at a book signing a few months ago and we all really hit it off.”
Thank god for Abby! Although if anyone bothered to check, they would find out Lee hadn’t done a book signing since the summer before.
“I didn’t know you were a reader,” Nikky told Drew, his eyes dancing with amusement as he looked at his friend over his drink.
“Sure, I read all the time,” Drew said, staring right back at Nikky with a sly look.
They were never going to be able to pull the whole fake dating thing off, Lee was certain of it. Drew had too many friends who knew him well enough to guess the truth, and Lee was a terrible actor.
At least, that was Lee’s initial thought. Once they reached the lavish estate where whoever Edward was lived and hosted parties, he wasn’t so sure.
“God, Drew, you really know how to find them,” the already inebriated and deliciously campy Edward observed as he swept Lee with a hungry look once they were in what looked like a nineteenth-century ballroom. “Yummy.”
“Get your own boyfriend,” Drew laughed, clamping his arm around Lee’s waist like he had at the theater and pulling him away from Edward.
It was a tiny moment, one most people would miss, but it had Lee breathless and pulsing in an instant. This was it. Drew had thrown down the gauntlet. So much for testing the waters and seeing how things unfolded. Drew had pulled out the B-word right at the beginning of the afterparty.
“Oh, is that how things are?” Edward asked, eyes lighting up with mischief.
“Shut up,” Drew said, blushing and lowering his face slightly in the perfect picture of sheepishness.
He looked so beautiful that Lee was about three seconds away from falling in love with him then and there.
“We’re going to mingle,” Drew went on, marching Lee away from Edward and over to the other side of the ballroom.
“So this is it, then, is it?” Lee asked once they were far enough from everyone else that they could talk without being overheard. “We’re going for the whole boyfriend thing?”
Drew took a long sip of the drink he’d been handed as soon as they’d entered the room and nodded. He also darted his eyes around to make sure no one was listening in before saying, “I think this will work. People are buying it. Hell, I’m buying it.”
They both froze, staring at each other. Lee’s awareness of reality narrowed to the sensation of Drew’s hand on his waist and the shock in Drew’s eyes.
“I mean, I think we’re convincing, don’t you?” Drew asked quickly, then downed at least half of his drink.
“Yes,” Lee said, deciding to just go for it. “I think we can pull this off. Do you want another drink?”
“Yes, please,” Drew said as soon as he finished his first one.
Lee took the glass from him. “I’ll get you another and one for myself.” Something told him he was going to need it.
He peeled away from Drew, who immediately spotted some friends and greeted them loudly and with open arms, then headed for the bar at the far side of the room.
Abby was already at the bar, watching them and Jessica, who had gone to dance with a group of beautifully dressed women who she seemed to know. “Having fun?” she asked, smiling broadly at Lee.
“I think so,” Lee said, jitterier than he wanted to be. “This is a lot to take in. Do you guys do this all the time?” he asked the same question he’d asked Jessica.
Abby shrugged one shoulder. “Sometimes. Drew likes to go out and be around people. He’s an extrovert, in case you couldn’t tell.”