Page 35 of Heartbreak Honey

Before

Hurrying off toward his dressing room after a great show, Skyler couldn’t wait to change out of his tight, sweaty clothes. But the sound of clacking heels rapidly growing closer behind him caught his attention. And as he turned to look over his shoulder, Maggie grabbed his arm harshly, spinning him around to face her.

“What in the hell did you think you were doing tonight?”

The shrill tone of her voice ringing through the practically empty corridor made him shrink back against the wall. She only barely released her grip of him before he had to yank his arm away. Her gray blazer was buttoned incorrectly, pieces of her hair had fallen out of her clip, and Skyler was so surprised at seeing her looking anything less than perfectly put together that it took him a second to figure out what she was yelling about.

It had to be his small lyric adjustment tonight. But geez, it was one word. Changing the girl in “My girl’s always been everything I need” to guy. The audience had probably barely picked up on it. He didn’t even look at Trevor when he sang it. Which took some self-control, might he add, and he should get credit for that.

Okay, or not. But still. She was overreacting.

“I didn’t do anything,” he hedged.

“Don’t play innocent,” she bit out, thrusting a finger in his face. “You know exactly what you did, and you know the chaos your immature little stunt is going to cause. And who do you think will have to clean up your mess? I have people to answer to too. How am I supposed to convince a stadium full of crazy fans that they didn’t hear what they heard? How do we make the videos disappear?”

“Don’t call our fans crazy,” he managed to say, inching back as far as the wall would allow him to go as she stepped closer, getting right in his face. He was used to her acting indifferent or even cold, but she’d never flat out yelled at him before, and it unnerved him.

“I’ll call whomever I want whatever I want. You may think you’re in control here because you’re out singing on that stage, but guess what, kid? We created you, we own you, and you do what we say!”

“Hey!” Trevor appeared out of nowhere, like a knight in shining armor and ripped jeans, and stepped right in between the two of them, forcing Maggie to move away. “You need to back the hell off,” he demanded, voice loud and firm without shouting. “I don’t care if you’re in charge, you don’t have the fucking right to talk to him like that.”

Maggie opened her mouth like she was going to yell some more, but then she pressed her lips into a thin line, shook her head, and smoothed a strand of hair away from her face. Just like that, her professional demeanor was back. “I’m sorry,” she said. “We’ll continue this discussion at a later time when everyone’s had the chance to cool off.”

“Right, sure,” Trevor told her sarcastically. Then taking Skyler by the crook of his elbow, he pulled him swiftly down the corridor and into their dressing room.

“Thank you,” Skyler said as soon as the door had closed behind them.

Trevor sighed and turned to him, shaking his head. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

“Seriously?” he asked, taken aback. Because it wasn’t a big deal. Honestly, he hadn’t given it that much thought before he did it, and he didn’t expect management would even catch it. But regardless, Trevor was supposed to be on his side. Trevor was always on his side. They were the dream team.

Trevor knew how frustrated he’d been at the crafted ladies’ man image Maggie was still forcing on him. At all the dates or hookups or girlfriends, or whatever the heck they were supposed to be now. All the nights out where he was “caught” photographed with them. And on top of that, Maggie had made him cut his hair for this new tour when he’d wanted to let it keep growing, and she’d had his stylist remove his favorite pink button-up from his wardrobe, along with everything else she deemed too flamboyant.

He could only let her push him around so much before he had to push back.

Trevor should have understood, but instead he said, “Come on, you know the fans pick up on every move we make and word we say. They’re going to know you sang that on purpose.”

“I don’t care.”

“But then we have to deal with management. It’s not worth it.”

“Our relationship’s not worth it?” Skyler asked. And he wasn’t sure what made him say it. Maybe because he didn’t fight back enough when he was getting yelled at, so now he wanted to pick a new fight that he could win.

Trevor’s face screwed up in confusion, and Skyler was about to tell him to forget it, that he didn’t know what he was talking about. But before he could, Trevor said, “What does this have to do with our relationship? This is about you purposefully creating rumors.”

“If they can do it, so can I. At least these rumors will be closer to the truth than the nonsense Maggie creates.”

“You sound like a child,” Trevor said. It stung, but Skyler tried not to react. “Are you really willing to risk everything just to give the fans a hint that you’re gay?”

“Yes!” he shouted, taking Trevor by the arm. “How many times do I have to say it? I’d risk everything for our relationship.”

Trevor’s lips parted, but he didn’t speak. He glanced down at where Skyler was holding on to him, and then back up at his face. “Well… I don’t think I would.”

The moment those words left Trevor’s mouth it felt like all the air was sucked out of the room.

Skyler dropped his arm and struggled to breathe. “You—you wouldn’t?”

“I don’t mean…” Trevor started, looking pained. But he couldn’t possibly be in as much pain as Skyler was in right now. “It’s not only our careers we’d be risking if we came out, you know. It’s Oli, Jermaine, and Noah’s too. We have to think about them.”

“The guys would support us.”

“Maybe,” Trevor said. “But not everything is about us.”

“Maybe it should be.” Finally able to take a deep breath, Skyler used it to try to clear his head because this was important. “I hear what you’re saying, I do. I don’t want to fuck things up for the rest of the guys. But for me and for you, it should be about us. Our relationship should be the most important thing.”

Trevor tilted his head like he was trying to figure him out, which, good luck, because Skyler wasn’t even sure if he was making sense. “No one’s stopping us from having a relationship.”

“No. They’re just stopping us from being honest about it.”

“Does it really matter whether or not the whole world knows we’re together?” Trevor asked.

Yes.

No.

Skyler didn’t know.

All he knew was that, since he’d met him, Trevor had never disappointed him before. Until now. “So what it comes down to,” he said slowly, “is you’re not willing to risk our careers, but you’re willing to risk us.”

“What? I didn’t say that.” Trevor reached out and took his hand, tangling their fingers together loosely. “I’m not risking us.”

He frowned. “I think you might be. Because I don’t know how much longer I can do it like this.”

Trevor’s hand went slack before dropping away. He swallowed visibly, and then—“Are you giving me an ultimatum?”

“No.” Skyler’s heart felt heavy like it was filled with sludge. “Not yet.”

He wasn’t trying to be mean or dramatic—he was only being honest. Because he couldn’t be any other way with Trevor. Nothing bad had ever come from telling Trevor exactly what he was thinking and feeling.

But this time the pain was evident in Trevor’s eyes before his face suddenly hardened. And Skyler had never seen Trevor look at him that way.

“Screw you,” Trevor spit out. “You’re doing all of this over some cheesy song lyrics. Grow up.”

Skyler opened his mouth, but he couldn’t make a sound. He couldn’t move. All he could do was stand there numbly as Trevor stepped around him and walked out the dressing room door.

How did this happen?

He wasn’t sure how long it took him to come back to himself, but the moment he did, he wanted to go after Trevor and apologize. Tell him he was right, that Skyler was being childish, and he hadn’t meant anything he’d said. Except when he turned for the door, something stopped him.

He had meant it when he’d said he would risk everything for their relationship.

And he could still hear Trevor’s voice ringing in his head.

Trevor saying that he wouldn’t.