Chapter 19 #2
As soon as the message ended, he called Lee. He couldn’t stop himself. He had so many things he wanted to say.
“Hey!”
As soon as Lee answered, he forgot how to speak. Words weren’t wording. His heart beat so hard against his ribs that it made him regret eating lunch.
“Drew? Are you there?” The worry Lee mentioned was sharp in his voice.
“Yeah,” Drew said, forcing himself to breathe. “I’m just really glad to hear your voice.”
“That’s good,” Lee said breathlessly. The tension of the moment they balanced in was clear through the phone. Drew felt it all around him. “So you got my message?”
“I did,” Drew said, scrambling for how to be cool when he felt anything but.
“How are you holding out?” Lee asked.
“Oh, you know,” Drew said, trying to be funny. “I’ve just got about a million fans pissed off at me for pretending to be queer while I’m sitting around wondering if my not-fake boyfriend hates me.”
He winced hard as soon as the words were out. So much for being cool.
He heard Lee exhale. He also heard a lot of noise and distraction behind him, like he was out shopping or something.
“Sorry,” he said immediately. “It sounds like you’re busy.”
“Um,” Lee said, drawing the syllable out. It wasn’t at all the response Drew was expecting. “I’m sort of doing something, but I was going to call you about it.”
“Oh?” Drew was completely lost.
“Yeah.” Lee hesitated. “Okay, this is weird, but are you filming this evening?”
“No. I actually just got done for the day.”
“Really? You’re free right now?”
“And for the rest of the day,” Drew reiterated, his heart beating even faster.
“Wow.” Lee was silent for a minute, but the background noise continued. “So I know this is a longshot,” he went on in a quieter voice, “but do you want to come down to my mum’s house this afternoon?”
“Your mom’s house?”
“Yes. The one with the garden.”
“I remember your mom’s house.”
“So do you want to come?”
Drew thought about it for a second. Honestly, yes. He wanted to get as far away from the mess around him as he could. “I’d love to.”
“Great. Do you remember how to get here?”
The conversation took an entirely different turn as Lee gave him the address again and they made plans to meet.
After that, the phone call ended, and, feeling like he was in a daze, Drew called Ali to come back and get him.
Half an hour later, he was in the car on his way to Kent. He had no idea what was going on, but his entire soul seemed to thrum with promise, as if his life was about to turn another corner.
He was still in a daze when he walked up to the front steps of Sharon Cresswell’s house and knocked on the door.
His body buzzed as he waited for Lee to answer, and when he did, Drew was so happy to see the man that it was a miracle he didn’t fling himself straight into Lee’s arms and beg him to never let the two of them fight again.
Instead, he said, “Hi.”
“Hi,” Lee replied, face going pink.
They stood there, staring at each other like lovesick fools who had gone up on their lines for a second.
“I don’t know—”
Lee shushed him, then took his hand and drew him into the house. Not just into the house, but through the house and into the back garden.
The back garden that had been transformed into some sort of fairy tea setting, complete with tulle bunting, glittery decorations that looked like they belonged at a four-year-old girl’s birthday party, and a gorgeous table set for tea, including a beautiful cake.
“What’s all this?” Drew asked, not sure whether to laugh or gape.
“It’s a grand gesture,” Lee said, pulling out one of the chairs at the table for Drew to sit.
Drew couldn’t sit, though. He could only stand and stare, first at the table, then at Lee. “A grand gesture?”
Lee’s gorgeous face went even pinker. He glanced down modestly, then adjusted his glasses and gazed up at Drew with such softness in his eyes that Drew’s throat squeezed before he could say anything.
“It’s what heroes in romance novels do when they’ve messed up and want to make amends, or when they want to win their love interest but don’t know how,” he explained.
“Lee,” Drew said, already melting from the inside out.
“I fired that agent,” he spoke over anything Drew might have said. “Well, I never signed with him in the first place, so it wasn’t exactly firing.”
“You said so in your voicemail.”
“Yes, but I wanted to say it again. To you. In person.” He took a step closer to Drew, his hand twitching like he wanted to grasp Drew’s. “I would never sell you out, Drew.”
“Won’t it hurt your career?” Drew asked, his voice sounding strange to himself.
Lee shook his head. “I would never put anything before you. Not even the chance to be trad published. And honestly, I like what I do the way I do it anyhow. But that’s beside the point.”
He reached for Drew’s hand then, and Drew was happy to give it to him.
“This all makes me miserable,” he said, emotion strong in his voice.
“The misunderstanding, I mean,” he clarified.
“You make me happy. Being with you makes me happier than I ever thought I could be. You’re so amazing, Drew.
” He rested a hand on Drew’s cheek. “You’re talented and funny and so easy to be around.
And that’s all I want to do. I just want to be around you, whatever that means and in whatever way we can.
I don’t care how many zeroes are on a publishing contract, if it means I can’t—”
“I love you.” Drew cut him off before he could go any farther. He didn’t know the words were going to burst out of him, but once they were out, he wanted to hear them again and again. “I love you,” he repeated. “Wow. I love you.”
“Did you just—” Lee gaped at him for a second before almost shouting, “I love you, too! Damn. I wanted to be the first one to say it.”
“I love you,” Drew repeated, laughter bubbling up from him. He couldn’t hold back any longer. He threw his arms around Lee and tugged him close. “I can’t believe how much I love you.”
“I love you, too,” Lee repeated, tightening their embrace. “I love you, Drew Oberlin.”
Nothing else mattered. The troubles of the world and the betrayals that went with them melted away. All Drew cared about was the way his heart called to the man in his arms and how he never wanted to let him go.
He kissed Lee before either of them could get bogged down in all the things they needed to say to each other, all the apologies that needed to be made and the plans that needed to be ironed out. He kissed him like his life depended on it, and who said it didn’t?
Lee kissed him back, eager and laughing at first, then with a deeper seriousness and passion. Their tongues explored and their teeth nipped, but through it all, the thing that really mattered for Drew was the overwhelming joy of kissing the man he loved.
“What are we going to do about this?” Lee asked breathlessly, some indeterminate time later, when their kissing finally stopped.
“I…I don’t know,” Drew said, unable to stop himself from smiling or to let go of the man in his arms. A second later, he blinked and loosened his hold on Lee so he could take a step back. “Yes, I do know,” he said, more certain of anything than he’d ever felt in his life.
“Do tell,” Lee said, looking like he couldn’t stop smiling either.
“We record a video,” he said. “We come clean about everything. We talk about how we met, what the original intent was, how, yes, it was just fake at first, but how we fell in love. How we’re together now.”
Lee’s eyes went wide. “You would really go public with all of that?”
“Yes,” Drew answered without hesitation. He lowered his head for a second, then glanced up at Lee. “I think we have to. I think the only way to counter a lie is with the whole and complete truth.”
“But the truth could hurt you,” Lee said, a warming protectiveness in his voice. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Drew shook his head. “It will be worth it if you’re safe, if we can be together.”
He cupped the side of Lee’s face, drinking in the sight of him for a moment, then leaning in to kiss him again.
Lee kissed him back, making a sound of delight and acceptance. It was everything Drew wanted to hear from him and more.
Well, he wouldn’t say no to hearing Lee moaning in pleasure as they tangled up and got sweaty, but that could wait for later.
“So what do you say?” he asked once they came up for air.
Lee smiled at him. “If you think this is what needs to be done, and if this will make you feel better, then I say we do it.”
Drew smiled, his heart light. He could see it now. One video to come clean, and he could finally be the man he was supposed to be all along, Lee’s leading man.