“Is that what you want?” Callahan turned sideways and poked Sebastian in the leg until Sebastian rolled his eyes and met Callahan’s stare.
“I don’t know how to break free of this life,” Sebastian rasped, clearing his throat and sniffing loudly. He smiled and shook his head quickly, but his glassy eyes betrayed him. He raised his drink and Callahan batted his hand out of the way.
“You can’t drink yourself to a new life.”
“I can try.”
“Sebastian.”
Callahan set Sebastian’s drink down on the table next to his.
“Dinner will be good for you tonight,” Callahan told Sebastian. “Remington doesn’t know who Sebastian St. George is. He’ll be someone unbiased to talk to.”
“I don’t want to talk about this.”
“About anything,” he clarified.
Jace walked back into the living room, his phone in his hands and a confused look on his face.
“What’s wrong?” Callahan asked, a spike of fear stabbing at the base of his spine. Jace was always easygoing and carefree, meeting most of Callahan’s questions with a smile or otherwise lascivious expression. He hadn’t seen this look of worry since they’d returned from Mallardsville.
“Nothing?”
“You don’t sound sure.” Sebastian chuckled and used Callahan’s change of focus to pick his drink up and take a huge swallow. He smacked his lips and settled back into the corner of the couch.
“It’s an invitation for a gallery event.”
“To attend?” Callahan asked, sliding over and patting the space beside him. Jace came to him and sat, brows still furrowed and his attention still solely on his phone.
“To be featured.” He blinked and looked up.
“That’s great! When? Where?” Callahan rested his head on Jace’s shoulder, wrapping his arm around his boyfriend’s side and giving him a squeeze.
“Two weeks,” he answered with a rough breath.
“That’s no time,” Sebastian said.
“It’s a new space opening up and they’ve been planning their grand opening.” Jace scrolled the email again. “But they decided at the last minute to feature an artist and would I be interested.”
“Do you have prints?” Callahan asked.
“Not new ones.” Jace sighed. “I could get new ones in time, but it would wipe out my savings.”
“Can you not use the old ones?” Sebastian asked.
“I could, but there’s not a real point to that.”
“Getting your name out there,” Callahan said.
Jace sighed.
“I’ll pay for it.” Sebastian tipped his cup back and poured the last of the liquid down his throat.
“What?” Jace balked. “I can’t let you do that.”
“Consider it payment.”
“For what?”
