Page 112 of Total Creative Control
Unable to speak,Aaron turned his head and caught Lewis’s lips with his own in a desperate kiss, his heart slamming in his chest. When they finally tore their mouths apart, they were both panting and grinning stupidly at one another.
“You do realise that there will be pictures of this on the internet already?” Aaron murmured, flushed and laughing softly at the pained expression that appeared on Lewis’s face.
But when they finally turned around to face the music, Lewis said drily, “Erm, are you sure about that?”
No one was paying them the slightest bit of attention. Every single head was bent over a phone, looking at… something. Some people were wearing headphones, while others were listening to tinny voices playing out over their phone speakers.
“What are they all watching?” Aaron asked, puzzled.
“Uh, Aaron?” He turned to find Janvi holding out her phone to him, eyes wide. “You and, um, Lewis, should probably take a look at this.”
He took the phone from her and glanced down at the video waiting to play on the screen. It was a still of a man. His mouth was open—the video seemed to be starting when he was already mid-speech—and the glass of wine he held looked about to spill.
It was Charlie Alexander.
“What the hell?” Lewis said beside him. Aaron started the video.
The still image stayed as it was, but now acid-yellow text rolled onto the screen.
“Charles Alexander is Head of Global TV at Telopix Entertainment. He is currently working on adapting cult British TV show, ‘Leeches’, for the US audience.”
The text faded out, and new text appeared.
“Mr. Alexander’s profile on the Telopix website says he is ‘passionate about improving diversity and representation in the entertainment industry’.”
The text faded again.
“Now hear what he really thinks.”
Then the still image came to life. It wavered for a moment as the camera was moved, clumsily adjusted, and settled in place. When the picture resolved, a woman could be seen at the far edge of the frame. She was wearing a purple halter-top dress.
Toni.
This was Safehaven. This was the night of that disastrous dinner.
“Jesus, Mils,”Charlie said. “Lewis won’t be interested in Tristan—he’s obviously banging his twinky assistant.”
Beside him, Toni stiffened with affront and began to say something—Charlie chose that moment to reach across and snag the bottle of wine on the table in front of her and refill his glass. The sound of his movements obscured her words.
“Don’t be so bloody bourgeois, Toni,”he said next. He rolled his eyes in her direction to underline his point but only succeeded in looking utterly wankered. Which, yeah, he probably had been by then, after all those cocktails and the wine that had been flowing all night.“Lewis isn’t even here. And if he was, he wouldn’t be offended. From what I hear, he’s a very open-minded guy.”He winked at whoever was on the other side of the table.“Well, gays are, aren’t they? All that masculine energy’s bound to make you horny as fuck, am I right, Geoff?”
Geoff. It was Geoff on the other side of the camera.
Poor Geoff.
Poor Geoff watching his wife practically climbing into Charlie’s lap all night.
Poor Geoff fiddling with his phone while everyone else talked. Aaron bit his lip against a smile, torn between amusement and horror.
“Oh yes, bound to,”Geoff said mildly.“The main character in his show’s gay, isn’t he?”
“Skye?”Charlie shrugged.“Who the fuck knows? Officially, Skye’s straight, but all the chemistry’s with the male sidekick.”He sighed.“Maybe Lewis just can’t write a straight love story.”He achieved a slow, drunken wink. “But we’re fixing that in the new version.”
“Fixing it?”Geoff said. “Why do you need to fix it? You’re into diverse representation, aren’t you? Milly’s always banging on about it.”
On-screen-Charlie drained his nearly full wine glass, then leaned across the table.
“You have to say shit like that these days,”he said.“But you know what, Geoff? The truth is, in this industry, you gotta work within the limits of the possible. We’re going to sink tens of millions into this project, and if Lewis fucking Hunter thinks I’m going to jeopardise a cent of that money by letting him shove his homo-agenda down everyone’s throat, he’s insane. US audiences won’t put up with that shit. They don’t want a pair of arse bandits as the leads. They want boy meets fucking girl, okay? And anyone who tells you different is a fucking liar.”