Page 9 of Best Supporting Actor
To Jay’s surprise, he had found he actually enjoyed these casual dates with Mason. Mason could be good company when he wasn’t in one of his introspective moods, and today seemed to be a good day. He was happy, smiling, eyes bright and skin flushed from the cold.
Objectively, he was an extraordinarily beautiful man. It puzzled Jay that Mason didn’t have a queue of men a mile long panting after him. Of course, Jay himself didn’t feel any interest in pursuing anything with Mason beyond friendship, but then, Mason wasn’t really his type. Mason was the sort of guy who wanted a proper, healthy relationship, and that absolutely wasn’t Jay. No, Jay had tried the relationship path and realised he wasn’t cut out for it. So, these days, he stuck to one-off hook-ups. That was why this arrangement with Mason was so handy—he had a perfect go-to plus-one for all the dinners and parties he got invited to with absolutely no risk of creating expectations.
“Can you skate?” Mason asked as they circled the rink, heading for the skate hire area.
“Yes, fairly well. My father had a house in Aspen. We’d spend a few weeks there every winter when I was growing up.”
The corner of Mason’s mouth lifted. “Wow, nice.”
“It was, yes.” His father, the eminent sculptor Ford Warren, had been an American, and although he’d made London his home, they’d spent a lot of time in the States while Jay and his siblings were growing up—especially when their mother, Dame Cordelia, had been working over there. Which she’d done a lot. Jay had fond memories of the family Christmases they’d spent in Aspen, which was probably why he still loved this time of year so much. He nudged Mason’s shoulder as they walked. “How about you? Can you skate?”
“Well, no house in Aspen so…expect me to look a bit like Bambi out there.”
Jay laughed and glanced at the rink. It was crowded, which was never good if you were a beginner. “How about we fortify ourselves with a drink before we hit the ice?”
“Something to numb the pain?”
“I was thinking more about a hot chocolate,” Jay said, nodding towards a cosy-looking faux Alpine chalet with a long wooden bar, twinkling fairy lights, and an enticing aroma of coffee.
“Sure,” Mason said, agreeably. “I’ll take an Americano, though.” He made a regretful face. “I have a shoot this week.”
Mason was always watching his weight. Jay counted himself lucky that he didn’t need to be quite so careful, although he did have to keep in shape forLeeches. Nobody would be happy if he couldn’t fit into his costume when filming started. Unlike Mason, though, Jay wasn’t expected to strip down to his undies in front of the camera—and thank God for that.
They joined the end of the queue, which wasn’t unreasonably long, and Jay was just debating whether to take off his sunglasses when Mason exclaimed, “No way. Look, it’s Tag!”
Jay felt an uncomfortable lurch in his chest—heartburn, probably—as he searched the crowded tables. “Where? I don’t see him.”
“No, serving,” Mason said. “Behind the bar.”
And sure enough, there he was. Jay realised he’d been unconsciously looking for a guy in silver shorts and body paint, which was possibly why he hadn’t recognised Tag sooner. Today, he was wearing an outrageously tight-fitting black t-shirt bearing the coffee bar logo, the spectacular tattoos on his right arm on clear display, and his thick dark hair poking out from beneath a red bobble hat. It should have looked daft, but combined with his ridiculously cute, boyish face and cheeky grin, it provoked an inconvenient jolt of attraction in Jay. Mortified, he hid his reaction behind his professional smile. “So it is,” he said smoothly, aware that his tone had stiffened but somehow unable to soften it. “That’s a coincidence.”
Bad bloody luck, more like.
“Tag works at City Beans,” Mason said. “This must be one of their pop-ups.”
“I thought he was an actor,” Jay said, watching Tag flirt with a group of young women as he served them.
“He is.” Mason sounded surprised. “You do realise that most actors have side gigs, right?”
Jay dragged his attention back to Mason, aware of the teasing in his words. “Of course I do,” he said, flushing. “I just thought—Tag made a point of telling me he was an actor. That’s all.”
Mason hummed thoughtfully at that and then leaned forward over the bar and called Tag’s name.
The grin that broke out on Tag’s face when he saw Mason was… well,spectacularwasn’t hyperbole. The way his face fell at the sight of Jay was equally dramatic, and Jay felt a beat of something ridiculous, like hurt or disappointment. He covered it quickly with a smile—a deliberately smug smile—and looped his arm around Mason’s waist, making a point.
Tag’s expression cooled further, not that those whisky-gold eyes of his could ever really look anything but molten. “Be with you in a sec!”
A few minutes later, they’d reached the front of the queue, and Mason was saying, “I didn’t know you were working here.”
Tag grimaced. “Yeah, we’re all rostered onto a few shifts down here at the moment. I drew the short straw today.” His gaze slid to Jay. “This is your idea of a hot date, is it?”
“Nothing wrong with a bit of festive fun.”
“Sure, if your idea of fun is staggering around an ice rink with crowds of tourists.”
Jay offered his most charming smile. “We don’tallstagger.”
“Oh, you're an expert, I suppose?”