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“I didn’t know.”
Audra peered down at him from her perch. “Well, you are a little self-absorbed.”
“Did you tell him yet?” asked Hector.
“Not yet,” she said. “Now put me down, I’m getting dizzy.” Hector obeyed, and after Audra had fixed her barely mussed hair, she informed Patrick that the cast were having a little shindig.
“Everyone is sick of these endless reshoots and rewrites and needs to blow off a little steam,” she said. “So we’re doing karaoke in my suite tomorrow night to celebrate this hell nearly being over. BYOB: bring your own bangers.”
“I don’t know,” said Patrick, remembering what had happened the last time Audra convinced him he needed to let his hair down. “I’m not really a karaoke kind of guy.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Just do some Bon Jovi or Bruce Springsteen. You’ll have fun.” She paused, then added: “And if you wanted to invite somebody, that would be fine, too.”
“Invite somebody?”
Audra glanced sideways at Hector, and Patrick was thrown back in time to the apartment where he grew up. It was the same look his parents would exchange when they had clearly been talking about him when he wasn’t in the room.
“You’ve seemed very…preoccupied lately,” said Hector. “Going off on your own. Sometimes you’re not here in the mornings. We just figured that maybe you’d, you know…”
“We figured you were getting laid,” said Audra. “And if you wanted to bring them to karaoke night, it could be fun!” She placed a hand on her hip. “I promise I won’t even tell them about how you just made me cry.”
“That’s sweet of you,” said Patrick, “but—”
“I insist, actually!” said Audra. “Come on, Patrick. We’ve been on a closed set for weeks. I love these people, but at this point the pool is so small we’re becoming conversationally inbred. We need new blood. Please. Bring them.”
This was the third time she had used “them.” Which could just be a turn of phrase, but what if it wasn’t? Audra could be remarkably perceptive on the rare occasions when she turned her gaze outward. She’d clocked that Estelle was pregnant before Estelle told anyone simply because the makeup artist had changed her morning coffee order.
“I know you value your privacy,” Audra said, gentle but still pushy, “and you should. The vultures are always circling. But who gets that better than us? Who else can you trust to be discreet?”
She knew. She had to. God, Patrick felt so naive. This was the woman he’d danced with in a gay bar. Who must have noticed that he started disappearing off someplace almost immediately after that night. She wasn’t stupid. She never had been.
“I…” he said, but he choked on whatever he had been about to say next, his face hot, throat thick.
“It’s OK, buddy,” said Hector, sitting down beside him, but the impulse to cry was already subsiding, as it always did. Years of practice.
He had become so scared of what might happen if he acted on his feelings, he had not thought any further than that. Had not even realized he wanted this: to bring Will into his life, to share him with others. To introduce his date to his friends, like other people did.
Patrick felt Audra take a seat on his other side and lean her head on his shoulder.
“Bring him,” she whispered. “Or I will cry again.”
Chapter 23
“Karaoke is straight culture,” Jordan announced as they filed into the lift on the ground floor of the Grand.
“Is not,” said April.
“You think everything is straight culture,” said Margo, looking up from her phone. “Some things are just embarrassing no matter what your identity. Karaoke is one of those things.”
“And yet you are a serial murderer of ‘You’ve Got the Love,’ ” Will pointed out. “I’m surprised Florence hasn’t sent her machine after you by now.”
Margo shrugged, firing off a text and dropping her phone into her bag. “I’m a thirty-something single mum. I reserve the right to be embarrassing.”
“Fine,” said Will, “just please don’t be too embarrassing tonight? That goes for all of you.” He was rewarded with a round of shocked, offended stares. “I just mean…”
“We know what you mean,” said April, rubbing his arm affectionately. “We’re all about to go out with your secret boo and his fancy friends. You’re nervous.”
“But there’s no need to be a dick about it,” cut in Jordan.
