“Whatever.” Jeremy shrugged. “Bill can wait.”
Immediately, the phone started ringing again.
“Apparently, he disagrees,” Reg said.
With a frustrated sigh, Jeremy answered the phone. “What?”
Reg shook his head at yet another display of Jeremy’s frustration with the people who worked for him. He still struggled to understand it.
“What do you mean a leak?” Jeremy said. “How can there be a leak? The only two people who know anything about it are right here, and neither of us is leaking anything.”
Reg coughed out a laugh. Jeremy glared at him.
“Whatever. Why should I care what they think anyway?” Jeremy was quiet while Bill spoke. Reg couldn’t make out what he was saying, but he could hear enough to realize the words were coming fast. “That doesn’t make any sense.” Another pause from Jeremy, with more fast talking echoing from the phone. “You know what? I can’t deal with this right now. I feel like crap. You figure it out.” Jeremy hung up the phone, threw it across the bed, and then rolled onto his stomach and covered his head with the pillow.
“What’d Bill sa—” The phone rang. “Do you want to answer it?”
“No,” Jeremy said, the word muffled by the pillow.
Reg waited for it to stop ringing and then tried again. “What’d he sa—”
As if on cue, the hotel room phone began to ring.
“I’m not talking to him,” Jeremy insisted, peeking out from under the pillow. “I’m sick. Shouldn’t people leave me alone when I’m sick?”
On that point, Reg agreed. “I’m sorry, JJ.” Reg rubbed circles on his back. “You’re right. It’s not—”
During that short back and forth, the cell phone started up again. “What do you want to bet he sends someone up here next?” Jeremy sucked his shirt into his mouth and hid his face again. “They’ll bang on the door until we open it.”
Gaping at the prospect that Bill would do that and then realizing Jeremy was right, Reg snapped, “This is ridiculous,” and he lunged for the phone. “Hello.”
After a pause, Bill said, “Reggie?”
“Yup.”
“I need to talk with Jeremy.”
When Jeremy whimpered, Reg ground his teeth and said, “No.”
“Pardon me?”
“You heard me. He’s sick. I heard him tell you that. He woke up with a fever, and he threw up. No more stress today. He needs to rest.”
“I’m not causing him stress,” Bill said, and Reg could practically hear his eyes rolling. “I’m having a simple conversation about a developing issue we need to deal with. It’s called being an adult.”
“Uh-huh. Stress.”
“Look, Reggie, I don’t have time to debate this with you. Put Jeremy on the phone.”
Reg wasn’t looking for a debate either, so he once again said, “No.”
“I’m his manager, and I need to talk to him right now.”
Really, Reg wasn’t clear on what Bill wasn’t getting. “No.”
“I don’t know who you think you are, but—”
“I’m his boyfriend, who cares about him, and there’s nothing he can do about whatever it is you need right now anyway, so I’m not letting you talk to him.”
“That’s what I wanted to talk about, actually.”
Suddenly feeling lost, Reg said, “What do you mean?”
“There’s been a leak. The boyfriend thing isn’t flying, and we’re starting to see backlash. I think we need to go in a different direction.”
Reg patted Jeremy’s back one final time, climbed off the bed, and walked out of the room so he wouldn’t disturb him with the conversation. “I have no clue what you’re saying, man. Try it again in civilian-speak, okay? I’m new to the whole, uh, industry lingo or whatever.”
With a deep sigh, Bill said, “Basically, a source close to Jeremy told the press you’re not really his boyfriend. They’re saying it’s a front.”
After being with Jeremy nonstop for two months, Reg was hard-pressed to come up with a single person who he’d consider close to Jeremy. Well, other than him. As soon as he had that realization, his chest ached. Jeremy Jameson was a wonderful man. He deserved to have a lot of people in his life who truly cared about him, not only some guy he’d just met.
“Putting aside the fact that I didn’t speak to the press, so there’s no possible source who’d have access to that information, are you seriously saying they think Jeremy is in the closet about being straight?” Shaking his head at the latest example of things he’d never understand about the people in Jeremy’s life, Reg said, “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would anybody pretend to be gay?”
“You tell me,” Bill said pointedly.
“I would if I could, but like I said, it makes no sense.”
“And yet….” Bill let the thought trail off, leaving Reg in the same confused state.
“And yet what?”
“Come on. There’s no reason to lie to me.”
“Dude, I’m gay. That’s not a lie. I don’t have a clue why someone would lie about that.” Well, unless they wanted a friend by their side while they moved from location to location and felt like it was the only way to have it. But that lie had less to do with being gay and more to do with being lonely. “Like Jeremy said, whatever. Their source is bullshit, and I don’t see why it matters, anyway.”