Chapter 8 #2
“Why would I do that?” Lee laughed.
Diana gaped at him. “Because when you have this much exposure and clout, you’d be dumb not to go out there and get a million-dollar contract or something.”
The suggestion hit Lee wrong. Drew had enough people trying to ride his coattails already. He didn’t want to be one of those people who orbited around a celebrity just to enjoy the perks.
“It’s not like that,” he insisted, resting one hand over his phone and stroking it, wanting to text Drew to see how he was doing. “I just like hanging out with Drew. I want to be there for him so he can get what he wants out of the deal.”
“You don’t think he’d like to get a little something-something out of the deal, do you?” Diana asked, an impish grin spreading across her face.
“Diana,” Lee scolded her with a flat look.
“I’m just saying that research is research, and if you’re going to write about guys banging with stars—”
“He’s straight,” Lee insisted, even though he was lightyears away from assuming that was true anymore.
Diana seemed to agree with him. She sent him a look of disbelief, then shook her head.
“Okay, well, this has been nice,” Lee said in an overly chirpy voice. “I have to get some work done now, and I still have a headache from last night, so bye!”
“Lee—”
He ended the video call with a broad grin before Diana could say anything else.
Five seconds later, she sent him a pic of her middle finger.
Lee laughed and typed, “Love ya!”
He then picked up his phone, leaned back in his chair and texted Drew.
One text conversation later, Lee and Drew had plans to do dinner that night. Part of Lee had hoped to see his fake boyfriend sooner, but he had to admit it would be nice to have the rest of the day to deal with work and the social media storm he now found himself in the middle of.
It took him all day to get back to everyone who wanted to know what was going on and to satisfy everyone’s curiosity.
Fortunately, storytelling was what he did, and it was easy enough to hint that he and Drew were connected without tipping all his cards and saying too much without consulting Drew first.
Just like he’d said he would, Drew called once he was done filming for the day and ended up sending a car around to pick him up.
As Lee cleaned up and made himself presentable enough for dinner with a superstar, he repeated over and over that it wasn’t a date, they were just pretending, and Abby and Jessica would be there anyhow.
When he arrived at the upscale apartments inside a gated enclave and walked up to the first-floor flat, Drew and Drew alone answered the door.
“What happened to Abby and Jessica?” Lee asked as he stepped into the apartment and looked around.
“They headed back to L.A. this morning,” Drew said, standing aside so Lee could enter, then shutting the door and locking it behind him.
“Jessica booked this big film she’s been desperate to do since she first auditioned super last minute, and since Abby is both of our manager, she went with her to get her settled in. ”
Lee tried not to see the invitation into Drew’s home so they could have dinner together and hang out alone for the night as anything other than two friends spending time together. He really, really tried.
“Good for Jessica for booking the film,” he said, not sure what the proper way to congratulate someone for something like that was. Did you tell them to break a leg?
“She’s over the moon,” Drew said with a smile that seemed a lot more like a smirk.
“We were in acting classes together way back in the day. That’s how we met.
She’s always wanted to make it big in Hollywood.
Sometimes I think she pursued me the way she did because she knew I had the talent to get there. ”
Lee’s eyes went wide at that statement. “The two of you got together for, like, professional reasons?”
“No, no!” Drew said, gesturing for Lee to move into the lounge area and sit on the sofa with him.
“I love her. I mean, we’ve always gotten along great.
She’s one of my best friends. I know she comes off as driven and ambitious, and maybe a little self-absorbed sometimes, but she’s actually a good person.
She was there for me in the early days, when we were both struggling and taking any job we could get. ”
Lee made himself comfortable on the couch, twisting so he could face Drew fully and study him.
He didn’t want to blurt the question that popped immediately to his mind and ask if Drew was still with Jessica out of a feeling of obligation.
Given their kiss the night before and the way it had flared to inferno levels, he also didn’t want to ask if Drew had been dating Jessica all this time to hide from his own sexuality.
Neither of those questions would be fair, and despite the way things were moving along, he didn’t know Drew well enough to feel right asking.
But the answers were already forming in his head.
“I’m happy for her, then,” he said, treating Drew to a genuine smile to try to put the man at ease.
Because weirdly, Drew was tense, like he was waiting for a phone call or for something to snap.
Maybe like he was waiting for them to start kissing again.
“It’s weird not having Jessica and Abby around,” Drew went on, picking at a nonexistent spot on the back of the couch. “I’m a little embarrassed to say this, but I haven’t ever really spent all that much time completely on my own before.”
“Really?” Lee wanted to shift closer to him so their knees touched. They were only a few inches apart on the small sofa anyhow.
“Yeah, I know.” Drew glanced down with a self-effacing laugh, then glanced up at Lee with warm eyes in a way that made Lee’s heart stop.
“But in my defense, I grew up with four siblings, I had roommates all through school, and I was so dirt poor when I started trying to make it in this career that, up until less than a year ago, I’ve always needed roommates to be able to pay the rent. ”
Lee gaped at him. “Up until last year?”
“Cooked only came out six months ago,” Drew explained with a shrug. “Before that, I was just another film school grad waiting tables and pet-sitting to make ends meet.”
“Pet-sitting?” Lee laughed.
Drew laughed with him. “You’d be surprised how much pet-sitting gigs pay.”
“I probably would.” Another thought hit Lee. “So wait. Even though I’m just a self-published author with a couple dozen books under my belt—”
“I started reading one of them, by the way,” Drew interrupted.
Lee froze, excitement and dread rushing through him. He held up a finger. “We’ll come back to that in a second.”
Drew laughed and blushed in a way that made Lee forget what he was talking about.
Why was Drew so damned cute? For a superstar celebrity who commanded an entire concert venue full of people the night before with just a wave and a couple middle fingers, Drew sure did blush a lot.
He had a soft side underneath his feral energy as well.
Lee wondered if it was a matter of Drew’s public side versus his private side, and if it was that, how had he gotten so lucky to be able to glimpse Drew’s private side?
He would not make a joke about wanting to glimpse Drew’s other private things.
Forcing himself back on topic, Lee shook his head, then continued his previous thought with, “Even though I’m just a regular old midlist author, this time last year, was I making more money than you?”
Drew laughed, tilting his head back and showing his gorgeous, bitable neck. “Were you making more than two thousand dollars a month?” he asked.
A grin split Lee’s face. “Actually, yes.”
“Then there you go,” Drew said, gesturing to him. “As of this time last year, you were a far bigger deal than I was.”
There was something significant about that, something almost sweet and definitely leveling.
Drew Oberlin wasn’t the meteoric, untouchable celebrity that most people thought he was.
He was just a guy who did something creative and unusual for a living and who happened to be successful at it. They had that connection.