Page 101 of Jace 4Ever
“You’re not mad?”
“At Jerrod? That’s a yes, but what else do I have to be mad at?”
“Grossed out?”
“You were a rent boy, Jace. You did what you had to do to survive. That you still found it to care about your brother, who doesn’t really give a shit about you... I just wish I could have helped you.”
I cocked my head. “If you want to help other kids who are in shit situations, the one shelter I stayed at a few times can always use help. There’s an LGBTQ and a female shelter. They never made me feel like I was doing anything wrong, or that there was something wrong with me.”
“Really?”
“Absolutely.”
“Done. Whatever they need.”
I laughed. “And that’s why I love you. Your big fat generous heart.” I paused. “You don’t care?”
“Only that you had to do that to survive.”
Nestling in closer to Nelson,my fiancé, I put my head on his chest and wiggled into a comfortable position.
“I have another question.”
He could totally feel my smirk against his skin. “Look what the last question did.”
His chuckle shook the bed. “We’ve been having so much fun together, some of the bigger questions about life escaped us. Like, kids.”
An image of a towheaded boy with Nelson’s eyes pulling me down the street toward an ice cream store invaded my brain. It was one of the best things my brain had ever graced me with. “Oh, yes. Definitely.”
Somewhere in the room, one of our phones rang. Nelson rolled his eyes and reached for his pants. “Sounds like mine.”
“Mmm. I’m glad we were done.”
“Ha, I won’t be done with you for a long time.” He gave me a fast kiss and pulled the phone out triumphantly.
His eyebrows went up when he saw the face of it. “Hey, Tom. What’s up?” After just a few seconds, his face fell. “Tom, stop. I’m not in the US right now. I’m definitely not on the west coast. Iceland, my father had a heart attack and I need to—no. You don’t get to dictate where I am. Filming was wrapped two weeks ago and…” He slumped in the bed. “You are kidding. Did you fire him? Good. Good. What are you—Now? To South Africa? Jesus, man. Well no, I get that. You called the others back? Uh-huh. Well, I don’t have a choice, do I?”
His hand traced a path up and down my arm, more to comfort himself, I suspected. The conversation resumed a moment later, after Nelson had looked at the clock. “It’s one in the morning in Iceland, jackass. I’m not going anywhere until the morning. No! I’m two hours from Reykjavik, and I have to take my fiancé back to—No you heard me right. He has to go back—Are you going to interrupt me every time? Yes! I’m engaged to a dude! Tom! I’ll send you my plans in the morning. And I get that there’s a time limit on his. Okay? Fine. Goodnight.”
He ended the call and slumped.
“The price of fame,” I teased.
“Yeah. Somehow about two days of filming got deleted because someone put a magnet near the drives.”
“Oh, that’s why someone got fired.”
“Exactly. And our filming permit runs out in two weeks. We have to go back. Come with me?”
“I have four more weeks of the contract, and I have to go back on Monday.”
“Damn it.” He sighed. “All right, it makes no sense for me to go back to New York. Can I send you back and I’ll go straight there and hope this is all done and over in a week?”
“Oh, next Saturday is Robot Servants’ listening party,” I said. “We told them we’d be there.”
“I will make sure that we’re done with the damn reshoot in that case.” He smiled. “We can tell everyone we’re engaged that night.”
The sad feeling that had started to take over disappeared. Telling the whole Gaggle at once that we were getting married would be a blast. “Deal. Just send me back to New York so I can work this contract out.”
“Done.” He looked at the clock. “And I think we have time for another round…”
I glanced at the clock. “Maybe two.”
