Page 2 of Home Grown Talent
Lewis groaned. “I hate magazine shows,” he whined. “They’re so inane.”
“Yeah, well, anything’s better than watching you channel-surf,” Aaron said, wresting the remote out of his hand. “Besides, this is one of ours.”
“One of yours?” Owen said, puzzled. Lewis and Aaron both used to work on Lewis’s show, Leeches, a popular vampire drama series. Aaron had been Lewis’s PA back then, but now he was a script writer in his own right, working on another show. Some historical thing.
“Not ours-ours,” Aaron explained. “RPP’s.”
RPP—Reclined Pigeon Productions—was the company Lewis and Aaron both worked for.
On-screen, the silver fox began moving away from the two yoga women, talking to camera as he walked. He was nattily dressed in tweed trousers held up by braces over a round-collared shirt.
“Male beauty and grooming is one of the fastest-growing markets out there,” he said, his expression earnest, “with an increasing range of products, from hair and beard grooming to moisturisers and skincare solutions—even cosmetics for men. But what if you also want the products you buy to be ethical and sustainable?”
Lewis made a scoffing sound, and Aaron elbowed him. “Shh, I’m listening.”
The silver fox emerged into another part of the studio where a young, handsome guy was waiting behind a table, blond hair gleaming under the studio lights, an array of bottles and jars set out in front of him.
Owen felt an immediate and shocking bolt of recognition, but it was Aaron who gave voice to that recognition, exclaiming, “Oh my God! It’s Mason!”
Mason bloody Nash.
Mason, who had been Lewis’s boyfriend for a while, before Aaron. For a blessedly short while, Owen thought darkly, even as his eyes greedily ate up every detail of Mason’s appearance. He looked as gorgeous as ever. As gorgeous as he did in all his pictures—and since Mason was a model, there were plenty of those kicking about. There really was some truth in that old cliché about the camera loving some people.
Lewis glanced at Aaron. “Didn’t I tell you he got a gig on Weekend Wellness?”
“No!” Aaron replied, a note of outrage in his tone. “Since when?”
“A few weeks ago?” Lewis guessed, shrugging a shoulder. “It’s my fault actually. I was talking to Misty at the monthly budget meeting.” He glanced at Owen, adding as an aside, “She’s the producer of this show,” before turning back to Aaron. “She said she wanted to get someone on to talk about male beauty stuff, and I suggested Mason. His influencer thing is about all that sort of crap, and you know how much he wants to get on TV. It’s probably the only reason he went out with me.”
“You do have some other attractive features,” Aaron murmured, shooting Lewis a heated look. “And I seem to remember him being pretty upset when you dumped him. He said you left ‘quite a gap’.”
Lewis snorted. “Yeah, on his Instagram. The truth is, the main reason he was upset was because I dumped him before he could line up teaser posts for his next boyfriend.”
“Hmm. Well, it’s true that he’s a grandmaster at making the most of his love life on Insta.”
“Yeah, the only thing Mason’s ever been in love with is his follower count.” Lewis huffed a laugh. “But at least you know where you are with him. He might be as deep as a puddle, but he doesn’t pretend to be anything he’s not.”
Lewis’s expression was amused but tolerant. His relationship with Mason had been as short-lived as all his relationships—until Aaron had come along. As short-lived as most of Mason’s relationships too, apparently. Not that Owen followed what the guy got up to but… okay, he might have googled him once, a couple of months after he and Lewis broke up. Which had been a good thing. The results of that search had made him realise… Well, it had satisfied his curiosity. He’d spent an hour scrolling through endless celebrity photos featuring Mason on the arms of a bunch of other guys—all of them at least a little bit famous.
It had been enough to put paid to the idiotic idea he’d been formulating up until that point of maybe, possibly, asking Mason out for coffee. Which was good. It had saved him the bother of raising the topic with Lewis, which would have been excruciating, not to mention the inevitable rejection from Mason. Honestly, Owen didn’t know why he’d even been considering such a thing. On the few occasions Owen had met him, Mason had been more interested in taking selfies than talking to Owen. He’d probably have been totally bewildered to get a call from Owen.
Christ, even thinking about that now made his neck heat with embarrassment.
“Anyway, after I mentioned Mason to Misty, she spoke to Mason’s agent, and unsurprisingly, he was up for it,” Lewis continued. “I think he might have already appeared on the show once before, a couple of weeks ago? It’s not a weekly gig, but I think it is intended to be semi-regular.”
On-screen, the silver fox was saying, “I’m joined today by Mason Nash, our favourite model, brand ambassador, and Instagram star.” He sent Mason a flirtatious look. “Is there anything you don’t do, Mason?”
Mason smiled, a practised tilt of his lush lips. “Oh, plenty. I don’t do yoga for a start—you should see my downward dog, Marc. It’s a disaster.”
He gave a little shudder, and the presenter—Marc—laughed.
“But,” Mason went on, with dramatic emphasis, “I do know the best ethical buys for male beauty products. So, let’s start with skincare.”
“Downward dog,” Lewis said, chuckling. “Look at him flirt. He can’t help himself. The viewers will love all this.”
“He’s actually coming across pretty well,” Aaron said, sounding a little surprised. “He’s a natural on camera, isn’t he?”
Owen watched, mesmerised, as Mason squeezed a tiny amount of cream onto the back of his hand and rubbed it into his smooth skin, his forefinger moving in small circles as he blabbed on about the ingredients and the manufacturing process, and that this moisturiser was plant-based, cruelty-free, fair trade.