Page 10 of Total Creative Control

Lewis frowned, remembering that. But then he thought of Aaron earlier this evening, his eyes sparkling with excitement as he outlined his breakthrough idea. His eagerness to keep working, even after Lewis had announced it was time to call it a day.

“Do you think I take advantage of him?” he said now, looking at his brother.

Owen regarded him for a long, silent moment. In typical Owen style he didn’t answer the question directly. “I don’t remember any of your other assistants staying late at the office to work with you quite so often—and when they did stay, you always used to moan about how useless they were. What’s different about Aaron?”

Lewis frowned, not liking the curiosity in his brother’s gaze, but he tried to answer honestly. “He’s not actually doing the same job as my old assistants. I mean, he does do all the PA stuff, yes, but he also works on the script side with me, so it’s different.”

“Does he?” Owen seemed surprised.

“Well, yeah,” Lewis said, frowning. Didn’t Owen know this already? Hadn’t Lewis mentioned it loads of times before? “You know he was a massive fan of the show before he came to work for RPP, right?”

Owen nodded, sipping his beer.

“Well, because of that, he has this huge fount of knowledge about it—honestly, when it comes to tiny details, he remembers more stuff than I do—so that’s really helpful with story lining and edits. And besides that, he’s got a great ear for dialogue and a ton of natural writing talent.” Lewis realised he was smiling like an idiot and quickly scowled. He shot Owen a sidelong glance and muttered, “I’m sure I must have mentioned all this before.”

Owen gave him an odd look. “Not really. I mean, I knew he was a fan and that the two of you talked about the show a lot. And yeah, you’ve mentioned working late with him plenty of times, but I didn’t think he was actually working on scripts with you. I kind of assumed he was—I don’t know, typing and stuff?”

Lewis snorted. “What, taking dictation? Um—that’s not really what PAs do. Not this century anyway.”

“How am I supposed to know?” Owen asked, holding up his hands in a defensive gesture. “I’m a getting-my-hands-dirty kind of guy, not a soft office worker like you.”

“Oh, fuck off,” Lewis said without heat. “And no, Aaron doesn’t spend his timetypingfor me. His job as my PA is to work side by side with me, making sure I’m where I need to be, that I know what I’m doing and that I have everything I need.”

“And on the script side of things?”

Lewis considered that. “It kind of… evolved over time.”

“Yeah? How?”

Lewis frowned, thinking back. “It probably started with him making little comments about the show. Insightful stuff. Smart, you know? And then, after a while, I started asking his opinion on bits and pieces, and then sharing script drafts with him, and asking for his suggestions.” He shrugged. “It grew from there.”

“But officially, he’s still your PA.”

And there was that pesky pang of guilt again. “Well, yeah, that’s his job title,” Lewis said, “but everyone knows what he does, and he’s not on a standard PA salary anymore. I make sure he gets paid properly for his work.”

“Hmm.” Owen was wearing his neutral expression. The one he used when he didn’t approve of something Lewis was doing but wasn’t going to come out and say as much.

“What?” Lewis said irritably.

Owen met his gaze impassively. “What do you mean,‘what’?”

“What was that look for?”

“There was no look.”

“Oh, there was a look,” Lewis said, narrowing his eyes. “If you’ve got a point, just fucking make it.”

“I don’t have a point. I suppose I’m just wondering…”

“Wondering what?”

“Well, you spend a lot of time with Aaron, and you obviously have a lot in common.”

“So?”

“So… has anything ever happened between you?” Owen’s expression was mildly interested. “He’s a very attractive guy.”

Weirdly, the thing that irritated Lewis most was the last part—the knowledge that Owen had noticed how attractive Aaron was. Which was really fucking idiotic because yes, Aaron wasobviouslyattractive, and Owen was bi, and with his slim, tight build, Aaron was very much Owen’s type.