“Ouch,” Cooper said ruefully. “Okay, let me try that again.” He stuck out his hand. “Hi, I’m Cooper. I’m not here to hit on you or give you the third degree on what a nice guy like you is doing in a place like this with Drew Beaumont.”
Steve didn’t like that much better—he had a feeling he didn’t want to know what Cooper meant when he saidwith Drew Beaumontthat way—but he shook hands. “Steve.” Let Cooper find out his last name from someone else, or not at all.
“Nice to meet you, Steve. What do you do?”
“Writing, mostly. Script doctoring. A little acting.” Not a lie, even excludingDog Gone—he was once in a cell phone commercial. It shot in Washington; he was fifteen.
“Is that how you met?”
He obviously meant Drew. Steve didn’t like where this was going at all. He reached for his glass of champagne. “Why do you want to know?”
“I don’t!” Cooper said, too loudly. Then, quieter, “I don’t. I just… look, if I’m out of line, I’m sorry. I just don’t want to see what happened to me happen to someone else.”
Steve’s stomach soured. “What happened to you?” he repeated. It wasn’t a question. He didn’t think he wanted to hear this.
“I mean, I get it,” Cooper went on. “This whole Hollywood schtick is a game, and the people on your team are always changing. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.”
What is he talking about?“I’m pretty sureDrew Beaumontisn’t using me for publicity,” Steve pointed out icily.
“Well, no.” Cooper shrugged. “But think about it. When’s the last time he dated a man, huh? His love life’s practically a matter of public record. He’sneverdone it.”
Steve opened his mouth and closed it. Drew had already spoken about his reasons for keeping his love life private. Or, well, nonexistent, to hear Drew tell it.
“It was years ago,” Cooper said, swirling a glass of wine that had appeared from—somewhere. Steve didn’t know. Maybe he’d had too much of his own. “I’m over it. I just don’t like to see history repeat itself. You know?”
“Yeah,” Steve said, even though he didn’t. “Thanks.” He wasn’t sure he meant that either.
“All right. Well. Take care, Steve.” Cooper stood up. He looked like he wanted to say something else, but he must have changed his mind, because he just lifted his glass in a wordless toast and left.
A waitress came by with their dessert plates, leaving one at Drew’s empty place. Steve picked up his fork and debated taking a bite. It seemed a shame to let it go to waste. But somehow he was even less hungry now than he was ten minutes ago.
“Hey!” Drew flopped down in his chair, startling Steve out of his dessert contemplation. “Sorry about that. Jason’s an old friend, and I sort of got the feeling you weren’t into that today.”
Well, he was right about that. “Good guess,” Steve said without looking up. Ooh. That sounded moody.
“Yeah, well, I…. Is something wrong?”
Steve must be off his acting game tonight. He released a slow breath and reached for his water glass. Obviously champagne was not the way to go. “Everything’s fine. I’ve been meeting famous people all night. Cooper Miles came and introduced himself.”
Silence reigned for long enough that Steve turned to look. Drew was staring at his dessert, his shoulders rounded, head bent a bit. “Oh.”
Steve took a sip of water and set his glass down. “He doesn’t like you very much.”
“Well, no, he wouldn’t.” Drew sighed and pushed his plate away. “We should probably talk, I guess. But not here.”
Their desserts looked so sad sitting there uneaten. It seemed like a shame to leave them, even if Steve wasn’t very hungry. “Do you think we can get a takeout box?”
Between his earnest expression, polite request, and a hefty bribe, Drew procured them a takeout box and two plastic forks. Steve lifted a bottle of Perrier from a serving table near the back of the lawn as they reentered the building, which was almost deserted.
“It’s weird to see this place so empty.” Steve almost expected his voice to echo. “Everyone must still be outside.”
Drew smirked. As if on cue, from outside came the imperfectly conveyed notes of a sound check. “Didn’t I mention? They’re capping off the evening with a performance by Ed Sheeran.”
At least it wasn’t Cooper Miles. “The perks of Hollywood.”
“Anyway.” Drew shifted, looking from Steve to the mostly empty aquarium. “I can drive you home and we can talk there, if you want. But it’s pretty quiet in here, and I haven’t gotten to see my favorite exhibit. So… what do you say?”
How could he say no to that? Steve gestured forward with his free hand. “Lead the way.”
