EIGHT
He should have saidsomething sooner. Jude beat himself up as he and Nally were driven away from The Chameleon Club and Quentin. He absolutely should have said something to Nally about the DMs and other messages and comments Nally’s socials had been getting. He felt like a complete idiot, now that Quentin had approached Nally in public. Quentin had to be the one leaving Nally those DMs. NallyFanNo1? Hadn’t Quentin said he was Nally’s biggest fan the night of the premiere?
“That was seriously weird,” Nally said breathlessly, glancing over his shoulder and out the rear window into the London night. “I haven’t thought about Quentin in days. There’ve been too many other things on my mind.”
“Yeah,” Jude said, forcing himself to breathe and act normally. “He’s not a member of The Brotherhood, is he?”
Nally adjusted the way he was sitting to stare straight forward. “I don’t know. I hope not.”
“That guy?” Clinton, the driver, asked. “He’s been hanging out in front of the club for about half an hour.”
“Why would he stick around for half an hour?” Nally asked. “Are we sure he wasn’t just passing by?”
Clinton shook his head and looked at them in the rear-view mirror. “He asked one of the other drivers if you were inside. Said something about seeing a post on social media?”
Jude swallowed hard. “I might have posted some of the pics I took of us picking out costumes on your socials.”
This was his fault. He knew Quentin was a little obsessed. But what could he do about it? Someone like Nally, whose star was rising, couldn’t just shut down all their socials because of one overeager fan.
“At least it’s over with,” Nally said, flopping back in his seat and rubbing his hands over his face.
“I don’t know,” Jude started.
Before he could go on to share what he knew and offer some suggestions of how they should proceed, Nally rushed on with, “This has been such a weird night. I don’t know how I feel about anything anymore. It’s like my entire life is spinning out of control right now and I just want everything to stop and be still.”
Jude pressed his mouth shut, dying on the inside. What was he supposed to do? Nally needed to know what was going on with his public persona. He didn’t even know he had one. Jude had built it without really telling Nally anything about it. But that was his job, wasn’t it? It was his responsibility to manage Nally’s career and his publicity. They hadn’t agreed on anything formally or signed anything, but Jude felt seriously responsible.
He felt responsible for Nally as if Nally were a part of him. Right now, Nally was upset and stressed out. Telling him a stalker was after him wasn’t going to help anything.
“Clinton, can you just drop me at Victoria Station?” Nally asked, landing another blow hard on Jude’s already flagging spirits. “Seriously, right now all I want to do is go home.”
“Dressed like that?” Jude said with a forced smirk. He hated the feeling that Nally was leaving him because he’d done something wrong.
Nally turned his head and grinned at Jude with exhaustion. “I’ll return the costume to The Chameleon Club tomorrow and pick up my clothes then.” He must have seen the stricken look on Jude’s face, because he reached for Jude’s hand, held it softly, and said, “It’s not you, it’s me.”
An electric chill shot down Jude’s spine. Those were break-up words. Nally was breaking things off with him before there was anything to break off.
Not that he wanted things to begin with. Nally was his bestie, his mate, not his…he couldn’t even make himself think the words.
“Yeah, I get it,” Jude said, answering his friend’s tired smile with one of his own. “Once we drop you, I’ll probably just go home and sleep until next week myself.”
Nally laughed, his eyes drooping with exhaustion despite the intensity hiding there. “It’s too much,” he said vaguely. “All of this is just way too much for me to deal with right now.”
Those words pierced deep into Jude’s heart. He had to protect Nally at all costs. The premiere and everything after was becoming as much a burden as a springboard to take Nally’s career to the next level. If he was a good manager, a good agent, a good friend, Jude had to do absolutely everything on God’s green earth to make Nally’s life easier.
That meant keeping his lips zipped about Quentin.
They reached the drop-off area in front of Victoria Station and Nally straightened and let go of Jude’s hand.
“You’d let me know, wouldn’t you?” Jude blurted before he could think better of it. “If something was wrong? Like, with us?”
Something close to panic flashed through Nally’s eyes. He put his hand on the door handle like he wanted to bolt from thecar. “Nothing’s wrong,” he said a little too quietly, eyes slightly lowered. A second later, he lifted his head and stared dead at Jude. “You’d let me know, too, right? If something was wrong? With us?”
Jude swallowed. Nally suspected something.
“Of course I would. Everything’s fine.”
Absolutely nothing at all was fine. In the space of a couple weeks, both of their lives had taken a massive turn that might just have them on entirely different paths for the first time in their lives.
