“Well, lucky for you, there was a hot guy a hundred and forty-three meters away. He kept me occupied,” he says, with a slight shoulder lift and a dirty look. This is followed by a mischievous grin on his face as he leans over and pulls a can of Pimm’s out of the bag. He chucks one to me and grabs the remote beside him to turn on the TV.
“What happened to Nico?” I ask, opening the can and taking a swig. I’m barely able to keep up with Stephen’s sexcapades.
“Oh God, that one?” he says, scrunching up his face. “He was three guys ago. He was good for my hole, but not good for my soul.”
I close my mouth to stop from spitting out my drink.
“Anyway, what about you. When are we going to find you a man? I read your star sign. It looks promising, and the moon is in Venus.” He waggles his eyebrows up and down.
“Stephen, I’m not praying to Venus for a penis,” I say, waving him off and turning away. I catch sight of myself in the mirror and realize I’m in no fit state to be heading out.
I get up to pull clothes out of my suitcase, when all of a sudden, I hear Alexander’s voice coming from the TV speakers.
“London’s one of my favorite cities in the world. I’m so glad to be back here. Everyone’s been so nice. The fans, the folks at the hotel, right down to the people at the gym who were kind enough to lend me a helping hand.”
My heart skips a beat.
He can’t be?
He’s talking about me on national television.
“Fuck me, he’s hot,” Stephen says, pulling out his phone from his short shorts.
“You think?”
I try to play it down, but Stephen and I have always had similar types, which has caused issues in the past. At one point we were forced to set an “I saw him first” rule if we both liked the same guy. It gave the other person space to try it out rather than us fighting.
“Don’t tell me you wouldn’t fuck Alexander Morgan,” Stephen says. His attention is split between me and the screen.
I’m half tempted to tell Stephen what has happened with Alexander since I arrived, but I wouldn’t even know where to begin.
“Sure, he’s fuckable.” I shrug my shoulders.
Until I know whatever this thing is between me and Alexander, it’s best to keep it under wraps. Stephen always gets way too excited and overinvolved whenever I meet someone new, and it invariably only lasts a date or two. So it’s best to avoid even mentioning it.
“With arms like those, he could throw you around the room and break you in two.” A smile rises on his face. His gaze is now locked on the screen, watching Alexander, who is sitting alongside other guests on the couch. An actress gushes over him.
“My daughters are head over heels in love with you,” she proclaims in a seductive Mrs. Robinson-style tone. She reaches over and touches his leg, making me squirm inside.
But I’m not sure if I’m the only one who is uncomfortable, or if everyone else tuning in feels the same way. I look over at Stephen to check his reaction, but I’ve lost him to his phone. Pings of Grindr echo from it.
I turn back toward the TV and study Alexander’s face to see if he’s uncomfortable, but the camera cuts away before I can decipher his expression. All I’m left with is a slimy feeling in my stomach.
Is it envy?
Jealousy?
7.Alexander
Friday
We’ve barely been off the air five minutes, yet Rita Watson has taken advantage of the opportunity to corner me against a table filled with snacks in the green room. She leans into me, talking loudly into my ear over Nelly Furtado’sPromiscuous, which is playing from the speaker in the ceiling above us.
“A little dickey bird tells me you’re planning to move into acting. Maybe I could bring my girls to one of your shows and we could exchange notes.” One of her hands rests on my shoulder. The other grazes past my arm to grab a carrot stick. She dips it in some hummus and seductively licks it off.
My whole body shudders at the thought.
She’s almost old enough to be my mother. Except for my mother wouldn’t be dressed in a red cocktail dress with a slit almost to her hip and her boobs pouring out. I’m also pretty sure the two girls she’s referring to aren’t the ones she waved to through the camera lens ten minutes ago.
