Chapter 17 #2
All Drew wanted to do was call Abby. For comfort, maybe. To explain? Abby already knew everything. To see if Abby had some sort of statement or justification from Jessica? Definitely.
Mostly, he wanted to talk to his friend. The old saying that it was lonely at the top had never felt truer.
Sawyer was waiting for him when he finished changing and left the trailer. “Do you want me to walk you to the car?” he asked. “And just to be clear, I’ve seen you and Lee together, and I’ve seen the way Jessica was around you. I’m on your side.”
“Thanks,” Drew said, both accepting the offer and acknowledging his support.
They managed to get to the car, where Sawyer left him so he could get home to his husband. As soon as Drew had some privacy, he called Lee.
“I saw everything,” Lee answered right away.
“How are you holding up?” Drew asked. He could endure just about anything in the celebrity world, but Lee hadn’t signed up for any of this.
“About as well as could be expected,” Lee answered. “Actually, I’m close to your apartment right now. I didn’t think you’d want to be alone tonight.”
The relief Drew felt was epic. “I should be there in a few minutes. If they don’t let you through the gate, just wait and I’ll make sure you get in.”
Under any other circumstance, that would have been good advice. But by the time Drew’s car approached the gates to the apartments, there was another small crowd of reporters and photographers. Even from the car, Drew could see them all hounding Lee as he waited.
Drew jumped out of the car the second it stopped and pushed his way through the wall of people to get to Lee. He didn’t care what they did to him, but if they went after Lee, he would have to chuck his nice guy image out the window and start throwing punches.
“Drew! Drew! What do you have to say about Jessica’s accusations?” more than one reporter called out as Drew joined Lee by the edge of the gate, throwing a protective arm around his waist.
“We’re not taking any questions,” he said, shielding Lee as best he could as they forged through the thick, jostling bodies to where the guard had just opened the gate for them.
“Is it true that this whole thing is fake and that you’re really dating Jessica Nightingale and have been all along?”
“I am not dating Jessica Nightingale,” Drew said, loudly and firmly. Never had any statement been truer than that.
“I’m sorry this whole thing is happening,” Lee said in a hollow, frightened voice as they escaped into the courtyard of the apartments, then into Drew’s building. “Those people are terrifying.”
“I hate them,” Drew said, venting the building emotion within him in those three words.
“Jessica went all out to expose everything,” Lee went on as they made their way up to the apartment, then secluded themselves safely inside. “I assumed she was angry about all this, but I had no idea she would be so vindictive.”
“Neither did I,” Drew said, immediately pacing the living room as soon as they were locked safely away from all the people who wished bad things on him. And there were probably a lot more than he was currently aware of.
He paused his pacing to toss his coat aside and empty his pockets, then walked back to Lee, who had been standing in the middle of the room, watching him with a pale face and eyes wide behind his glasses. “How bad is it really?” he asked, coming to a stop in front of Lee.
“Bad,” Lee said. “She has a lot of proof that the two of you are more than friends. A lot.”
“Shit.” Drew wanted to kick something. He also wanted to fling himself out the window or scream and run as hard as he could through the night until the whole thing went away.
“She told them all about Rent-A-Boyfriend,” Lee went on. “And the press has worked like lightning to put everything they can possibly find about me out into the public sphere.”
Drew whipped back from where he’d resumed pacing, his heart bleeding for Lee. “Baby, I’m so sorry.” He crossed the room to hug Lee.
He would worry later about the fact that was the first time he’d called Lee a pet name.
He didn’t know if he liked it, but saying something had made him feel closer to the man, to his boyfriend.
Because if they were going to go through shit like this together, Drew sure as hell was going to call Lee his boyfriend and mean it.
“Are you okay?” he asked, holding Lee at arm’s length again. “This must be scary.”
“It is,” Lee admitted. “A lot of things about being with you are scary, but—”
He was cut off by the jarring sound of Drew’s phone ringing. As much as he wanted to ignore it, he knew he couldn’t afford to. Especially when he pulled his phone from his pocket and saw his agent’s name on the screen.
“Avery,” he answered the call, overwhelmed in an instant.
“Drew,” Avery answered in a no-nonsense voice. “You’ve seen what Jessica did?”
“Yep,” Drew said, pacing again to get all the adrenaline rushing through him out. “Have you spoken with her at all?”
“I haven’t had a chance to. I’ve been doing damage control from this end, but I need to know a few things.”
“What do you need to know?” Drew asked, glancing at Lee as he marched passed. “I’m an open book. I’ll tell you anything and everything.”
“How about starting with whether your relationship with Lee Cresswell is fake or not?” Avery asked. More like demanded. Her tone wasn’t reassuring.
“It’s—”
Drew stopped, glancing back at Lee again. Shit. He’d been backed into a corner. He was going to have to confess everything now. Everything.
He huffed out a breath, then said, “I met Lee through Rent-A-Boyfriend, yes,” he said, looking at Lee for support as he spoke. “Not that it matters, but it was Jessica’s idea as a way to stop all the queerbaiting rumors.”
“Drew,” Avery said, like a disappointed mother. “You realize that fake-dating a man to protect your image when you’re straight is the dictionary definition of queerbaiting, right?”
“I’m not straight,” he said, maybe a little too loudly. “I’m bi. Which I didn’t know until I met and started dating, legitimately dating, Lee.”
Okay, maybe that timeline was off a little, but he really was with Lee.
Or at least he wanted to be. They still hadn’t sat down and had the “are we dating for real” conversation.
But Lee was the first thing he thought about in the morning and the last thing before he fell asleep every night.
He’d never felt like he did with Lee with anyone else.
He was in love. Deeply, ridiculously in love.
And it was a shit time to come to that conclusion.
“Honey, I’m going to break this to you gently, because I only just found out about it myself, and because I love you and don’t like the idea of you getting hurt,” Avery said.
Drew didn’t like the sound of that at all. “What’s going on?” he asked.
Avery sighed. “You know I used to be a literary agent before I became a talent agent, right?”