“Thanks,” Lee said, bolstered by the idea that he wasn’t going through everything alone. “I really appreciate it.”
“Okay, well, I’ll let you get back to whatever you were doing,” Javier said, winding down the call.
Lee said his goodbyes, then put his phone down and grinned at Diana through the computer.
“This isn’t real,” Diana said. “There is no way that you’re actually doing any of this.”
“It’s really real,” Lee said. “All except the relationship itself.”
Immediately, he felt bad saying that. Not because he and Drew were, in essence, deceiving the world, but because a larger part of him than he wanted to admit to didn’t want the whole thing to be fake after all.
He liked Drew.
And that kiss….
“That’s it, then,” Diana said, throwing up her hands. “You’re going to need to get an agent to shop your books around to traditional publishers.”
“Why would I do that?” Lee laughed.
Diana gaped at him. “Because when you have this much exposure and clout, you’d be dumb not to go out there and get a million-dollar contract or something.”
The suggestion hit Lee wrong. Drew had enough people trying to ride his coattails already. He didn’t want to be one of those people who orbited around a celebrity just to enjoy the perks.
“It’s not like that,” he insisted, resting one hand over his phone and stroking it, wanting to text Drew to see how he was doing. “I just like hanging out with Drew. I want to be there for him so he can get what he wants out of the deal.”
“You don’t think he’d like to get a little something-something out of the deal, do you?” Diana asked, an impish grin spreading across her face.
“Diana,” Lee scolded her with a flat look.
“I’m just saying that research is research, and if you’re going to write about guys banging with stars?—”
“He’s straight,” Lee insisted, even though he was lightyears away from assuming that was true anymore.
Diana seemed to agree with him. She sent him a look of disbelief, then shook her head.
“Okay, well, this has been nice,” Lee said in an overly chirpy voice. “I have to get some work done now, and I still have a headache from last night, so bye!”
“Lee—”
He ended the video call with a broad grin before Diana could say anything else.
Five seconds later, she sent him a pic of her middle finger.
Lee laughed and typed, “Love ya!”
He then picked up his phone, leaned back in his chair and texted Drew.
One text conversation later,Lee and Drew had plans to do dinner that night. Part of Lee had hoped to see his fake boyfriend sooner, but he had to admit it would be nice to have the rest of the day to deal with work and the social media storm he now found himself in the middle of.
It took him all day to get back to everyone who wanted to know what was going on and to satisfy everyone’s curiosity. Fortunately, storytelling was what he did, and it was easy enough to hint that he and Drew were connected without tipping all his cards and saying too much without consulting Drew first.
Just like he’d said he would, Drew called once he was done filming for the day and ended up sending a car around to pick him up. As Lee cleaned up and made himself presentable enough for dinner with a superstar, he repeated over and over that it wasn’t a date, they were just pretending, and Abby and Jessica would be there anyhow.
When he arrived at the upscale apartments inside a gated enclave and walked up to the first-floor flat, Drew and Drew alone answered the door.
“What happened to Abby and Jessica?” Lee asked as he stepped into the apartment and looked around.
“They headed back to L.A. this morning,” Drew said, standing aside so Lee could enter, then shutting the door and locking it behind him. “Jessica booked this big film she’s been desperate to do since she first auditioned super last minute, and since Abby is both of our manager, she went with her to get her settled in.”