“What do you do next?” Lee asked.
Before Drew could answer, his phone rang. The name Simon Underhill appeared on the screen.
“Shit,” Drew hissed. “With everything going on, I completely forgot I was supposed to meet with Simon on Thursday.” Drew tense before he answered the call. “Hi, Simon.”
The cautious smile on his face dropped almost at once. Lee could hear a voice, but he couldn’t make out the words Simon Underhill was saying.
“I understand,” Drew said, his voice sober. “No, no, I really do understand, and I respect your decision. Yes, completely.”
Simon Underhill said a few more things that Drew nodded at, and before Drew could so much as say goodbye, he pulled his phone away from his face and lowered it. Simon must have ended the call.
“That doesn’t sound good,” Lee said, putting his arm around Drew’s back.
“Simon has withdrawn his offer to meet with me,” Drew said, quiet and serious.
Lee knew enough to know it was a big deal. His protective instinct toward Drew shot into overdrive. “Well, there goes the Oscar,” he said, hugging Drew from the side and hoping humor was the way to go.
Drew laughed, so maybe he was right about humor after all. “It’s okay,” he said, planting one hand on Lee’s thigh. “It’s just one job, one director. I’m sure there will be other offers.”
He smiled at Lee, but there was enough uncertainty in his eyes to make Lee’s heart melt for him. “I’m sure there will be,” he agreed.
They kissed, and that would have gone on for much longer, but Drew’s phone rang again, this time with a different ringtone.
Drew pulled back from Lee quickly and instantly tapped his phone to accept a video call. Abby’s face appeared on the screen, but it wasn’t just her. Jessica was there with her, looking miserable.
“Hey,” Drew answered the call uncertainly.
“Hey,” Abby said right back. “I hope we didn’t catch you at a bad time.”
“Nope, not at all,” Drew said, resting one hand on Lee’s thigh again and holding his phone so they were both in the picture with the other. “What’s up?”
“Drew, I’m sorry,” Jessica blurted, tearful and snotty. “I’m really, really sorry.”
There wasn’t any reason to ask what she was sorry for, and Lee was surprised that he didn’t really care if she was serious about her apology or not.
“It happened,” Drew said with a shrug, which was far kinder than Lee would have been in the same situation. “And now we move on.”
“I wasn’t thinking straight,” Jessica went on, despite all the cues that she should let the whole thing go. “I was angry, hurt. I shouldn’t have lashed out like that.”
“And?” Abby prompted her, which was a dead giveaway as to why the apology was happening.
“And I will admit that I did know things were pretty much over between us a while ago,” Jessica went on.
“Jess, it’s okay, really,” Drew said, kindness laced with just a hint of annoyance.
“We had a good run,” Jessica went on anyhow. “I really did love you.”
“And I really did love you, too,” Drew said, going all soft and nostalgic.
“But yeah, we probably should have called it quits last year,” Jessica went on. “I knew it was over, but I panicked, because I still love you so much and I don’t know what to do.”
“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Drew said. “Breakups are hard, even when they’re not super messy. We both changed, but we had a lot of history together.”
“I just—” She paused, then shook her head. “I’m sorry. That’s really all I want to say.”
“That’s all you need to say.” Drew smiled sadly at her. “We’re all good.”
“Okay,” Jessica said, then started crying harder. “Excuse me.” She got up and left the picture.