“Shh!” I swat at him and look around us, even though he’s whispering and no one is close enough to hear anything.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Eric scoffs. “You’re worried about me being quiet right now?”
“Oh my God,” I groan, burying my face in my hands. “Fuck my life.”
“Have you not had enough? Could you possibly wait until we get back to the hotel? Our car doesn’t have a divider this time, so if you don’t mind…”
“Alright, alright,” Will says, holding up his hands while obviously trying to hold back laughter. “That’s enough.”
“I hate all of you,” I say, on my way to the back doors of the stadium.
Hot on my heels, Will ducks down to whisper right in my ear. “No, you don’t.”
I hate that I shiver.
But he’s right. I don’t. I kind of like that someone that’s close to us and has our best interests at heart knows. It’s a weight off my shoulders to have one less person to hide from. Not that I want to be walked in on or caught fucking somewhere we shouldn’t, but not having to hold back affection or pretend to be uninterested is really nice.
We have a full staff meeting coming up in New York in just over a week, and I think now is the time.
“I think we should tell the rest of them at the meeting,” I say on the ride back to the hotel. “Rip the bandage off and whatnot. Stop acting like we’re doing something wrong.”
“Fucking you three feet from where the crew was tearing down the stage wasn’t exactlyright,” Will says, though I can tell from his voice that he’s not sorry.
I laugh. “Yeah, that was dumb.” I squirm in my seat. “For more than one reason.”
Will bites his lip and leans in to murmur in my ear. “Don’t worry, when we get back to our hotel room, I’ll make sure to wash you up real good, then soothe that sore little hole with kisses.”
My eyes nearly roll back in my head. “You’re killing me.”
“You’re killingme,” Eric grumps from the front seat. Zane snorts. My face burns.
THIRTY-FIVE
ARI
The conference room is cold, but I can’t decide if it’s the temperature or the modern décor. It smells like glass cleaner and anxiety—but that last part could just be me. The last three weeks have been so good, I think I’ve worked myself up too much over telling Blake and the guys about us. I’m not ready for our blissed-out, happy bubble to be popped.
Will’s fingers are warm where they rest around my ankle, my feet propped in his lap while we scroll through our phones, mostly sending each other stupid memes. His thumb absently traces the bone just above my heel, grounding me before the legal strategy session about Jesse’s life imploding in real time.
When the man himself walks in, he’s looking even better than he did a few weeks ago. He looks healthy, skin and eyes bright, and rested. Luc has done what none of us could manage alone. He’s reminded Jesse who he is and what he has going for him.
“Missed you, man,” Will says, opening his arms for a hug.
Jesse gestures for me to stay where I’m at and bends down to give us both a hug.
“It’s been quiet,” I agree. “Too quiet.”
He fills us in on everything he’s been up to—mostly getting turned out by his pro-footballer boyfriend and writing music about getting turned out by said boyfriend. I almost say I’ve been doing the same but catch myself. Will pinches my calf and smiles knowingly.
When everyone arrives, and I do mean everyone—PR, legal, and the entire security team lining the back wall—there’s a small beat of silence when they all turn their attention to Blake. The room being this full of so many stoic faces reminds me that the peace we’ve felt lately has only been because we’ve all been in hiding and avoiding the news.
Blake jumps right into things. “The source of the leaks has been identified as Curtis Howard.”
The name isn’t familiar to me, but once Blake explains that he is a far-right conspiracy blogger, I understand what we’re working with. Most of these guys work from the dredges of the internet on a fringe platform, getting barely any views or attention outside of their echo chambers. But these days, it doesn’t seem to matter how far-fetched the theories are, it only takes one loud mouth with the right amplification to get attention. And good ‘ol Curtis has a history of hacking the private data of politicians and celebrities and either posting it or selling it to certain politicians. Which is how only certain news sites with a propagandist agenda got their hands on Jesse’s very private videos. Curtis Howard provided the ammunition, and the powers that be used them for a coordinated attack.
I meet Will’s eyes. We’ve been talking about this a lot, about the strategic attacks that escalated when we started making enough noise to challenge the political state of our country.We’ve always been vocal about civil and human rights, but when the administration started doubling down on using trans kids and immigrants as political scapegoats, we got louder. We put money behind organizations they targeted. We’ve used our stage to say names they’d rather erase. And with our partnership with theWavesapp, we’ve been making a lot of waves.
It’s not a surprise they’d use any leverage they can.
