“Is that your girlfriend, Drew?” someone called out. They didn’t sound nice at all.
The all-too familiar, sinking sensation of his career about to end because of an inconvenient truth hit Drew square in the chest.
Before he could answer, Jessica whipped back to face the young man who had made the accusation. “For the last time, no,” she said, scowling. “Drew and I are just friends. I’m here in London to meet with a director.”
It was a lie. Both statements were lies, actually. The trouble was, despite being an actor, Jessica wasn’t a convincing liar.
“Come on,” Abby tugged her away from the crowd and practically pushed her out the door, to where a private car was waiting for them.
Drew smiled and waved and blew a few more kisses to defuse the awkwardness. The fans seemed to lap it up, but his stomach roiled as they climbed into the car. Maybe it was because he needed to eat something or because of jetlag, but probably not.
“You handled that well,” Abby reassured Drew, who sat in the middle of the back seat between her and Jessica as the car rolled away from the airport and onto the highway. She’d already pulled her book out of her purse and was reading again.
“Every time something like that happens, I feel like I’m closer to the truth getting out and losing everything,” Drew sighed, rubbing his hands over his tired face.
“The truth is not going to get out,” Jessica said definitively.
“The truth always gets out,” Drew countered her.
“Not if I have anything to do about it,” she said with a triumphant smile.
Drew had no idea what that was about…until she thrust a flier she’d evidently picked up in the airport into his hands.
Drew stared at it for a moment. It had a picture of what appeared to be a happy gay couple on the front and a list ofservices and phone numbers on the back. “Rent-A-Boyfriend?” He blinked at the flier, then looked at Jessica. “What’s this?”
“I found that near the magazine stand,” Jessica said, bristling with excitement, as if she’d pulled off a coup.
“Yeah, but what is it?” Drew asked, handing the flier over to Abby when she closed her book and reached her hand out for it.
“It looks like a sort of cross between a dating service and an acting agency,” Jessica said. “I looked them up online, too, while you were posing for selfies.”
Drew’s eyebrows flew up. The tight coil of uncertainty in his gut expanded. “So what do they do?”
“Apparently, they set gay men up with other guys when they need someone to stand in as a boyfriend,” she said. “Like for family functions or, I don’t know, work outings where you need a partner for some sort of activity. Their website is really specific about them not being a matchmaking service.”
“You are not thinking what I think you’re thinking,” Abby said flatly, looking across Drew at Jessica and handing the flier back to Drew.
“Come on, it’s perfect,” Jessica argued, even though there wasn’t really any argument. “Drew needs the world to believe he’s gay in order for him to keep his star shooting. What better way to convince everyone than for him to go public with a boyfriend?”
“Hold on just a second,” Drew said, the butterflies in his gut raging like a private party at Chateau Marmont.
“No, it’s perfect!” Jessica argued. “People will stop thinking we’re together?—”
“Are we together?” Drew mumbled.
“—and they’ll all know you’re definitely gay if you’ve found yourself some amazing, London boyfriend,” she continued, avoiding Drew’s question. “You don’t have to do much with your rented boyfriend. Just go out a few times, have your picturetaken together, maybe kissing. That’s it. You can break up with him before—how can you read in a moving car?”
Drew flinched at Jessica’s abrupt change in conversation as she glanced past him to Abby.
“What? It’s Lee Cresswell’s latest book,” Abby defended herself. “He’s my favorite author. Who wouldn’t be riveted by reading about fucking dragons.”
Drew laughed out loud.
“Whatever.” Jessica rolled her eyes, then turned back to Drew. “Just give this place a call and see what they can do for you.”
Drew stared at the flier as they drove on. Jessica and Abby got into a pseudo-fight about reading in the car and the value of reading dragon-fucking romance novels to begin with. Abby defended her habit fiercely, and Jessica, who only ever read scripts and gossip magazines, insisted reading was a waste of time.
It didn’t take long for them to reach the apartments where the cast and crew ofSleuthwould be living during filming. Drew liked the two-bedroom flat he’d been assigned well enough, but Jessica complained it was too small and not fancy enough.