Chapter 17 #3
Drew definitely didn’t like where this was headed. He looked at Lee, praying the man would tell him everything was okay and no other shoes were about to drop.
“Well, I used to work for Jerry Turnbridge’s literary agency,” Avery went on.
“He’s one of the biggest names in the business.
Maybe the biggest. Jerry and I are still friends.
” She paused before saying, “Jerry signed Lee shortly after it came out that the two of you might be dating. There’s a major publishing company, and I mean super major, that’s offered him over a million dollars for a tell-all book about dating you. ”
Drew was pretty certain his entire body turned to ice in an instant.
He stared at Lee, unable to pull his eyes off the man.
He couldn’t breathe. Everything suddenly made sense.
The way Lee had been so tense and distant for the last week, the way they’d become so close so fast. Everything that had once been good suddenly felt tainted.
“Honey, are you still there?”
Drew blinked at Avery’s question. “Yeah,” he said, his throat raw.
“I can find out more information for you, who put Mr. Cresswell up to this stunt, how Rent-A-Boyfriend is involved. Hell, I can even find out if this was all Jessica’s idea in the first place to paint herself as a victim so she could get her foot farther in the Hollywood door.”
“No,” Drew said, not sure how he even had a voice left. “I’ll handle this.”
He was vaguely aware of saying goodbye to Avery and her making some sort of promise to call him at a more decent hour the next day, but all of that was forgotten at once. The only thing in his focus was Lee.
“Everything okay?” Lee asked, like he knew it definitely wasn’t.
Drew swallowed, even though his throat had gone dry. There was no way to get through this but to just get it all out there. “Were you offered a million dollars to write a tell-all about me?”
He knew immediately from the way Lee’s face lost all color and his eyes went wide, like Drew was pointing a gun at him, that it was true.
“I was offered a deal,” he said, his voice thin. “I did not say yes to it.”
Drew tried to swallow again, and when that failed, he licked his lips. He couldn’t breathe, and it was starting to make him dizzy. “Is Jerry Turnbridge your agent?”
Lee looked more panicked by the second. “Sort of,” he began, “We’re in the process of working out a contract, but I’m not sure—”
“I need you to leave,” Drew hissed out, barely above a whisper. “I need you to leave right now.”
“I didn’t say yes to the deal,” Lee said, jerking forward like he wanted to go to Drew, but someone had grabbed him and pulled him back. “I haven’t actually signed any agreement with Jerry at all yet.”
But the man had made Lee an offer, and Lee hadn’t immediately cut all ties with him.
“Please leave,” Drew said, so close to hyperventilating it was scary. “I need you to go.”
“Drew,” Lee said, sounding like he was trying to be calm. “Can we wait a second and talk about this?”
“Not right now,” Drew said, walking to the door and opening it. “Go home.”
“Drew,” Lee appealed to him, walking over like he would either do what Drew wanted and go or try to hug him. “I would never do anything to hurt you. I care about you far too much for that. I…I’m falling in love with you.”
They were the right words at absolutely the wrong time.
Drew didn’t know what the fuck to do with them.
They did break his horror a little. “I need some space to figure this all out in my head,” he said, body still overly tense, voice wavering.
“I’ve got a fuck-ton of damage control to do, and honestly, I don’t know how I feel about you right now. ”
“Drew,” Lee appealed to him, hands raised.
“I need to figure this out, and I don’t want you in the crosshairs as I do.”
Lee lowered his arms, dropped his shoulders, and looked like he might burst into tears. That in itself triggered a part of Drew that wanted to believe everything Lee said, that he loved him, that he would never do anything to hurt him. He just didn’t know, though. He wasn’t sure he knew Lee at all.
“Please,” he said, his voice cracking with emotion. “I’ll…I’ll call you in the morning. I just can’t deal with this all right now. I need to…I don’t know, call Jessica, call Abby, sort everything out. I need to do that first before I deal with—”
He couldn’t even say it. The horrifying prospect that he would have to break up with two people he genuinely cared about within just over a week’s time was a lot to take in.
“I’ll go,” Lee said, defeated and hurt, but with so much affection in his eyes that it brought tears to Drew’s.
“But I’m going to check up on you. And we’re not done talking about this.
There’s so much more going on than you know, than either of us know, I suspect. We can get through this together.”
Drew could only nod. His throat had closed up, and he was afraid if he tried to say anything, it would end up in messy tears. He couldn’t even say goodbye. All he could do was hug Lee quickly, then point him toward the door.
With a final, backward look, Lee stepped out into the hall, and Drew shut the door behind him.