“Is she going to be okay?” Drew asked Abby.
“Yeah, eventually,” Abby said, shrugging one shoulder. “It’s just a lot, you know?”
“I definitely know,” Drew said with a lopsided smile.
Abby’s smile grew. “Now, are you okay?” she asked.
Drew glanced at Lee. “More than okay. I’m so happy.” He kissed Lee, which Lee didn’t mind at all, then adjusted his phone and looked at Abby again. “Whatever happens next, I’m confidently entering it all with a clear conscience and an open heart.”
“You’re such a poet,” Abby laughed.
“Um, no.” Lee stopped him, holding up a hand. “I’m the writer here, not you.”
Drew laughed. “Alright. You write our love story and I’ll play my part.”
“I like the sound of that,” Lee said, then kissed him again.
“Okay, if you two are just going to make out and get all horny, I’ll end the call,” Abby laughed.
“Sorry,” Drew said, sitting straighter and holding the phone level again. “Are you able to take care of Jessica?”
“That’s what I’ve been doing all day,” Abby said with a wink. “She’ll be fine. You’ll be fine. We’re all going to get through this and be better people because of it.”
“We absolutely will,” Drew agreed.
They said a few more parting words, then Drew put his phone away. Darkness had well and truly fallen at that point, but neither of them were in a big hurry to go inside.
“So is this the end of something or the beginning?” Lee asked after a few moments of cozy silence.
“Oh, it’s the beginning, definitely,” Drew said, hugging Lee from the side. “We probably still have a lot to work out and some social media turbulence to endure, but we’re absolutely just beginning this love story.”
“Good,” Lee said, resting a hand on the side of Drew’s face. “Because I love you, Drew Oberlin, and all I want is for us to be together.”
“I love you, too,” Drew said, kissing Lee quickly. “And we will definitely have a long and happy ending.”
It was the best promise he could have made, and Lee was certain he would make good on it.
epilogue
. . .
Nikky Smith walked past the entrance to the towering office building housing Rent-A-Boyfriend’s flagship office at least half a dozen times before finally making the decision to go inside.
Two steps toward the spreading glass doors and he turned around and walked back to the sunshine of the street on the other side of the road.
“Why is this so hard?” he whispered to himself, pulling up the collar of his jacket.
It was the same ratty canvas jacket he’d had for years, since long before he’d stumbled into international superstardom, thanks toCookedand a well-timed album release. He’d bought it in a thrift store back in the day when he’d had to take on extra shifts at the restaurant where he waited tables in order to make rent. Maybe it was just superstition, but he’d developed a belief that people couldn’t recognize him as long as he was wearing the jacket.
The sunglasses and hair product that slicked down his trademark curls helped with that, too.
Superstardom wasn’t what he’d thought it would be. Everyone dreamed of making it big, of having all the money andattention. People dreamed of fame and legions of fans. God only knew that his good friend, Drew, had soaked it all up.
Well, until the frantic attention had smacked headfirst into his personal life.
It’d been two months since Drew and Lee had posted their video coming out. Drew coming out as bi and the two of them coming out with the entire story about how their relationship had been fake at first, thanks to Rent-A-Boyfriend, then how it had turned very real. The world had screamed. Social media had gotten so bad that even Nikky closed his accounts down. People kept asking for his opinion, and when he’d told them Drew was for real and he and Lee were perfect together, he’d been accused of everything from lying to having an affair with Drew during the filming ofCooked, which wasn’t a new rumor, actually, to being straight himself.
Anyone who bothered to scratch the surface of the past ten years of his life would know he was definitely gay. He had the ex-boyfriends, old pictures of him being lewd that had made the social media rounds whenCookedblew up, and lyrics from the songs he’d released since then as proof.