It took a bit more finagling for them to escape the crowd of fans and to move on down the street.
“Should I call a car to come get us?” Drew asked as he slipped on a pair of dark shades and hunched into his leather jacket a bit more. “Most of the time, people are respectful, but as soon as word gets out that I’m in London, heading to Trafalgar Square, you can bet there will be people with phones looking out for us.”
“It only bothers me if it bothers you,” Lee said, mimicking his stance and thrusting his hands in his hoodie pockets.
Drew shrugged. “I can handle it. And it’s such a nice day. I’d rather walk and risk grabbing more attention.”
“You seem to handle attention well,” Lee said as they crossed the street and headed down toward Charing Cross Road.
“My life has been nothing but attention for the last six months,” Drew said with a thin laugh.
Lee’s smile slipped a bit. Drew was obviously a people person, but he wondered if even an extrovert had their limits with attention. And he was certain he hadn’t been imagining things when he noted the twist of tension in Drew’s expression just before he’d silently asked for help. Things might have been smooth and calm for Drew on the surface, but like all good characters Lee had read or written, there was a lot of tension and probably an entire backstory underneath.
“So dragons, eh?” Drew asked as they walked on, making Lee realize he’d been staring at his famous new friend and maybe fake boyfriend for a little too long. “Is that what Abby is reading about all the time?”
Lee laughed. “I write fantasy romance. At least, that’s what I’ve been writing. I’ve started branching out into contemporary romance lately, though.”
“Oh, right. I think I remember Abby saying something about that now,” Drew said, squeezing closer to Lee to avoid a pedestrian coming the other way. Their arms brushed, and Lee tried to tell himself he was being overly dramatic by thinking there were sparks. “Why are you changing genres?”
Lee was grateful for the question and the way it kept his imagination from running away with him. “The money is in contemporary these days,” he said. “And I feel like a new challenge.”
“Writing contemporary romance is more of a challenge than writing fantasy?” Drew looked both surprised and impressed.
“Believe it or not, yes,” Lee laughed. “I think I’ve always been a dreamer with my head in the clouds. I grew up on Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and things like that.”
“They’re classics,” Drew said with a smile, veering closer to him again as they dodged a school group walking in the other direction. A few of the teenagers did doubletakes as they passed.
“I figure if I’m going to have an imagination, I might as well put it to good use,” Lee continued, sensing that it would be better for Drew if he ignored everything but their conversation.
“I’m assuming you’ve built a name for yourself doing fantasy books if even I’ve heard of you,” Drew went on.
The pure, surreal joy of that comment had Lee laughing. “It was a one in a million chance that you knew who I was. I’m not a big-name author at all.”
The memory of Dan holding his hand as he lay in his hospice bed, telling him he’d be a bestseller someday, briefly sideswiped Lee. He fought not to let his grief show and ruin the cheerful mood between him and Drew.
Drew noticed. “Is there something else?” he asked, studying Lee with a curious look.
Lee smirked. “How do you know there’s something else?”
Drew shrugged and grinned at Lee. “It’s my job to observe people and to pay attention to emotions. Even if I wasn’t an actor and filmmaker, I would probably do something that involves people and emotions.”
“Like becoming a therapist?”
“Yeah, something like that.” Drew’s smile grew.
“That’s pretty cool, actually. Psychology has to be really important when you’re acting.”
“It is,” Drew said with a nod. “And I guess I’m good enough at it to know when you’re avoiding the question I just asked.”
Lee laughed. He couldn’t help it. Not only was Drew preceptive, he had a sense of humor, too.
“I’m not really avoiding anything,” he said as they reached the northeast corner of Trafalgar Square. “I just didn’t want to bring you down.”
“Bring me down?” Drew sounded and looked genuinely interested in him.
Lee grimaced slightly, then went for broke and told Drew everything. “I lost my older brother about six months ago. Bowel cancer.”
“I’m sorry.” Drew’s smile morphed into warm concern. “That must’ve been hard.”