Page 56 of Home Grown Talent

Lewis eyed Aaron silently for a moment, then glanced back at Owen and mouthed, Obsessed.

Owen laughed, and laughed again when Aaron elbowed Lewis and Lewis gave a short hmph.

“It’s not a big deal,” Owen said, grabbing a pack of Scampi Fries and ripping it open. “It’s just a short bit—blink and you’ll miss it. Besides, between that and the business, I’ve been working like crazy all month. Saturday morning will be the first chance I’ve had in ages to veg out in my PJs.”

“Hear that?” Lewis said, giving Aaron a significant look. “He doesn’t want to trek all the way over to ours to eat fucking smoked salmon bagels. He wants a lie-in.”

Aaron sighed. “Well, what time is it on? We can at least make sure we watch it.”

“Misty said it’d be about eleven-fifteen,” Owen said.

Aaron opened his mouth again, but Lewis forestalled him with another look. “We’ll be watching,” he assured Owen. “And you can come to ours for dinner on Sunday to celebrate instead. Deal?”

Owen grinned. “Deal.”

Aaron looked mollified by that compromise, at least.

“Speaking of Misty, how are you getting on with her?” Lewis asked.

Owen took a drink of his Fullers. “Okay. She’s a real sergeant-major, though, isn’t she? Poor Naomi, her assistant, looks like she’s on the verge of nervous breakdown most days.”

“Misty would be so pissed off if she heard you say that,” Lewis said, looking highly amused. “She told me the other day that if I shared more of my inner self with my team and encouraged them to bring their whole selves to work, like she does with her team, I’d get more out of them.”

Owen rolled his eyes. “That’s rich. From what I've seen, her whole team’s terrified of her. Luckily, she likes Mason, and I get a free pass by riding on his coattails.”

Lewis raised a brow at that, a question in his eyes that Owen wasn’t too keen on answering. He pretended fascination with his Scampi Fries, poking around inside the bag.

“From what I overheard the other day, I think you’ve earned your own free pass,” Aaron said. When Owen looked up, interested, he added, “Misty and Naomi were ahead of me in the canteen queue, and they were blabbing about you—well, Misty was. Naomi was just listening. It was pretty obvious Misty knows you’re not that bothered about being on TV. I think she realises she needs to keep you sweet.”

That surprised Owen. It certainly hadn’t seemed to him like Misty was trying to keep him sweet. But then, it wasn’t like he asked her for anything. He mostly tried to avoid her, letting Mason do all the heavy lifting on that front. Mason seemed to know how to keep Misty on-side.

“What else did she say?” he asked, curious.

Aaron looked amused. “Well, she was talking about all the flirting Mason’s been doing with you on social media.”

Owen felt his cheeks warm. “Yeah?”

“Yes, she’s very happy about it—thinks it’s going to play out well with the viewers.”

“What’s all that about anyway?” Lewis said then. “You’ve never been one for social media before.”

Owen opened his mouth to speak, but Aaron got in first. “Oh, you know Mason and his Instagram. He’s got to have a new celebrity boyfriend to show off every month. It’s all a bit—” And then he broke off, shooting a slightly mortified glance at Owen, as though just remembering he was there.

“All a bit what?” Owen said, amazed that his voice came out sounding so easy and normal when he felt suddenly and weirdly uptight.

“Oh, you know,” Aaron said, shrugging. “It’s all a bit… well, fake.”

“Fake?” Owen echoed. “Fake how?”

Lewis said quietly, “Aaron—” but Aaron didn’t seem to notice.

“Look, I like Mason,” he said, “but have you looked at his Instagram? More than the recent posts, I mean? If you actually believed what he posts there, you’d think he has this amazing, wonderful life, and he’s blissfully happy. It’s all… it’s all very airbrushed, you know?”

“Well, sure, it’s ‘curated’,” Owen replied, trying not to sound too defensive. “But the photos he’s posted of the two of us together—we weren’t pretending to smile and laugh in them. We were having a good time.” He paused, then added self-consciously, “And I do like him. He’s a great guy.”

There was an awkward silence for several long moments. Then Aaron said, too brightly, “You know what? You’re right. He probably is just that happy. I mean, why wouldn’t he be? He’s a gorgeous model who goes to flashy celebrity hangouts and gets given expensive stuff for free all the time. Hell, if I was him, I’d probably be sticking all that on Instagram too.”

Lewis snorted. “Sweetheart, you’re flailing.”