James could feel his phone vibrating in his pocket, but he ignored it. It would be either Sophie or Brandon, and either of them could wait until later. If it was an emergency they’d call a second time; if not, they’d leave a voicemail.

How could he have been so stupid? He’d started the day by flirting with his director’s boyfriend. Never mind that Ned had seemed to respond—he knew plenty of people that flirted just for the sport of it, and it seemed that Ned was that type. He couldn’t hold it against him. Hell, Brandon flirted with anything that had a pulse, even though he seemed to be strictly attracted to men with an obscene number of tattoos. No, James was the one emotionally invested. He was the one who wouldn’t be able to handle the difference between flirting for fun and flirting with a purpose.

He finished returning his mask and weapons to props—always had to turn those in right away—and turned to head towards makeup and wardrobe to get his regular clothes back on. The shirt that he was wearing to play Jerry was just a tad too small, on purpose, so that it showed off his muscles and made him look more physically intimidating compared to Dex, who played Tyler.

Try as he might, he just couldn’t hate Dex. First off, Dex was a completely different body type from James, wiry and ricocheting limbs with an expressive, almost goofy face. He could be handsome when he got serious and focused in a scene but it was a surprising kind of handsome. When he was just being himself, he looked like a normal, slightly geeky guy. That must have been why he didn’t get the part, James realized. He must not have physically fit the style that they were going for with Tyler. That made him feel a little better.

Second, any lingering resentment he might have felt towards Dex was gone once he got to chatting with him. Dex was a fun person, loved Star Wars, and carried his stuffed walrus in his car with him to auditions for good luck. James thought that Dex was the kind of guy who he wouldn’t mind going out with for a few beers to shoot the breeze.

In fact, the entire cast and crew was like that. Jack Wallace had assembled himself a good group of people, all hard workers, but with a positive energy and a fun, laid-back nature once they didn’t have to focus on the next take. James liked it. He actually felt like he could fit in here.

If only Jack and Ned weren’t dating.

They were very professional on set, of course. James didn’t see Jack show any favor towards Ned, treating him just like another member of the crew. There was no excessive touching, no pet names, nothing like that. The only times they showed their true feelings was when Jack needed something, and Ned would step forward, the thing—be it a water bottle or information about a person’s whereabouts—already in hand. Or when Ned would say something that Jack had obviously been thinking, and they’d give each other fond, conspiratorial smiles.

It made James’s heart clench.

Which was stupid, he shouldn’t be getting this worked up about someone that he barely knew, but despite his conviction to avoid Ned at all costs, he couldn’t help but sneak looks at him throughout the day when Ned was occupied. It quickly became apparent how intelligent and competent Ned was. He was technically only Jack’s assistant but it felt like he was everywhere, helping everyone, from the craft services person that got hot coffee on her hand, to the camera guy who needed help lifting his equipment. He even spent time helping Dex with his lines—and, to be fair to Dex, Tyler had an obscene number of lines, at least twice as many as everyone else, so James couldn’t blame him for not having them memorized yet. It definitely couldn’t be in Ned’s job description, and yet there he would be in between shooting, patiently going over the lines with Dex and reading for him. Sometimes James could hear Ned’s laugh, soft and clear, when someone told him something amusing. Even across the set, he could see the little flash of dimples in Ned’s cheeks—dimples. James was really going to die, or at least get himself off in the shower that night in the most shame-filled jerk-off session he’d ever had.

It was just that Ned seemed like a legitimately good guy. Luckily Jack seemed like a good guy too, so James didn’t think Ned was with some guy who wasn’t good enough for him or anything. It was just…the more he saw of Ned, the more he liked him, and the more he wished that he was single. James had a feeling that he was headed for a very long few months of filming if this unrequited crush got even more serious with time.

He pulled out his phone to check who’d called him as he started to cross the set. They had wrapped filming for the day, so he didn’t have to worry about accidentally stepping into a shot and ruining a take. It looked like he had two missed calls and a voicemail. The voicemail was from Sophie, as was one of the missed calls, but the other one was from Mom.

Ah, shit. James quickly called her back, ducking to the side of the zoo. The old zoo at Griffith Park was a series of manmade caves carved into the side of a rock face, with some of the metal bars still in place. Kids love to climb around them, but it was pretty depressing when you realized they’d once stuck animals in the tiny, cement holes in the wall. The wall curved to the side at one point, and he shuffled over there, into the shadows, so that he could have a conversation without bothering any of the crew.

“Hey, baby boy.”

“Mom, I’m so sorry I missed your call. I was filming.”

“You were filming? Does that mean you got a gig?”

He had forgotten to tell her. James officially felt like the worst son in the world. Someday, he reminded himself, he was going to be rich and famous and buy her a huge mansion in Pasadena or Bel-Air or somewhere.

“I did, a big role, too, with a great director.” He told her a bit about the part. “I can’t say too much more, confidentiality and all, but it’s really great. I’m making good connections.

“Sweetheart, that’s amazing.” His mom had always been a very touchy-feely person, always ruffling hair and giving hugs, and also big on the pet names. James suspected it was her way to show him and his brother love since she couldn’t afford to buy them presents and hadn’t often had a lot of time to spend with them, since she had been working a lot while they were growing up, but he’d never brought it up. After all, what kind of kid complained that his mom hugged him all the time and called him sweetheart? And if he’d picked up his mom’s super-touchy habits, well, Sophie and Brandon hadn’t complained.

“That’s so great, I’m really proud of you,” his mom went on. “You’ll be sure to tell me the title and when it comes out so I can see it, right?”

“I’ll take you as my date to the premiere,” James promised.

“And how is everything else? Sophie and Brandon doing okay?”

“Sophie’s keeping on. Still stuck on that one guy. Brandon continues to be the grumpy old coot we all know and tolerate.”

“Don’t be too hard on him, he’s had his fair share of frustrations in life too.”

“I know, Mom. I’ll tell them both you said hi.”

“What about you? How’s life besides acting?”

“There is no life besides acting,” James said in an overly-serious voice.

Mom laughed. James loved that he could make her laugh. It had taken forever to manage that, after Matt, but he’d eventually gotten her to smile and joke again. It was what Matt would have wanted, after all. “I’m serious, sweetheart, you haven’t told me a thing since you were pining for that one boy, what was his name…”

“Doesn’t matter, I’m pining after another guy now.” James tried to keep his tone lighthearted instead of bitter. “But hey, this time he’s gay instead of straight, so my track record’s improving.”

“Is he single?”

“No, hence the pining.”

He could hear his mother’s sigh. “Well, don’t worry, James, you’ll find someone. You’ve got your father’s charm, after all.”

“I suppose that’s a compliment.”

“Honey, his charm was the only good thing about him.”

James laughed. “I need to drop some stuff off at wardrobe, so I should really go. I’ll talk to you soon, okay? Maybe I’ll see if I can send you a picture of myself in costume, if our director says it’s okay.”

“That would be great. You have fun, let me know when you win an Oscar.”

“You’ll be the first to find out. I love you, Mom.”

“I love you too.”

James blinked hard against the mist forming in his eyes, the way it always did after talking to his Mom. He hit ‘end’ on the call and noticed Sophie’s voicemail. He’d better check it now, in case she needed him to pick up groceries or something. He hit ‘play’ and put the phone up to his ear to listen.

“Hey, James, I know you’re going to be annoyed with me for meddling, but I did a little investigating, and…”

James didn’t hear anything else that Sophie said in her voicemail message. He turned to look back at the set and ended up staring in shock at Jack and Mandy.

Mandy was the girl who played Julia, Tyler’s sister. She was definitely pretty, with thick auburn hair and hazel eyes, and James hadn’t been surprised to see a lot of the crew flirting with her throughout the day. What did surprise him was to see Jack, of all people, now taking his turn.

This wasn’t just casual flirting, either. This was serious flirting, with Jack tucking a lock of hair behind Mandy’s ear and Mandy toying with one of Jack’s belt loops before releasing it to tug on her shirt, exposing just slightly more of the tops of her breasts. Jesus Christ, it was bad enough that James was a little worried they were going to start banging each other in the middle of the set.

Then Jack said something low in Mandy’s ear, making her blush, and oh, this was bad. This was very bad.

James didn’t know what to do. Should he say something to Ned or not? How would he even bring the subject up? “Hey, I just saw your boyfriend hardcore flirting with the lead actress?” That would be a cruel way to do it. And Ned might not believe him. Was it really any of his business, he wondered?

His sense of common decency warred with his sense of keeping out of other peoples’ business, like his older brother had always taught him. Keep away from the business of others, Matt had always said. Who was to say that James’ meddling wouldn’t make things worse?

“James?” Oh, no, oh no, that was Ned’s voice. “Sorry to bother you, but wardrobe was looking for you.”

James found that he had a sudden instinct to turn and block the view, to protect Ned, somehow, even if that was impossible, and it was probably better for Ned to find out now rather than later. He still turned, putting a hand out to stop Ned from striding forward. He’d seen men and women confronted with a cheating partner before, and he’d found that the general instinct was to go over to the cheater and slap them. Jack—and any cheater—might deserve that, but the middle of a film set wasn’t the place for it. Ned didn’t deserve to have his personal life become gossip.

Ned gave James an odd look, like maybe James was the crazy one here. “I hope you’re not upset,” Ned said. “I know you were flirting with her at the table read.”

That made James’s mouth almost drop open. “What?”

Ned nodded towards Jack and Mandy. James shook his head. “I wasn’t—no, I’m not—I’m gay,” James blurted out.

Ned blinked at him, a little like a startled owl, and it was so adorable that James had to bite hard on the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing and offending him. “Okay then.”

Ned turned and started walking off, leaving James to just stare at his retreating back. That was it? Ned wasn’t—Ned was worried that James might be upset about Mandy? Why wasn’t Ned freaking out about Jack? Did they have some kind of open relationship or something?

James realized that he was still holding his phone in his hand. Right. The voicemail. He put it up to his ear and listened again.

“Hey, James, I know you’re going to be annoyed with me for meddling,” Sophie’s voice said, “but I did a little investigating, and everyone I talked to said that Jack is straight. Ned’s gay, but they’re not together. They’re just best friends. Everyone says they bicker like an old married couple, but Jack’s definitely straight. He was known as a bit of a player in college actually, and Ned’s not in unrequited love with him as far as anyone knows. Also, don’t ask how I got all this info. Let’s just say I owe a lot of people drinks for the next month.”

James almost dropped his phone as his grip went slack, Sophie’s words sinking in. He thought of how he and Sophie bantered, and he and Brandon, and hell, Sophie and Brandon. Just yesterday he’d joked that he should marry Sophie. Somebody could easily mistake that for a relationship. And there had been no touching, no pet names, none of the intimacy that he saw in couples, even the tired, casual intimacy of older couples, where it was more than natural to put a hand on someone’s shoulder as you walked by them.

Had he really been such an insecure idiot all this time?

He risked a glance back at Jack and Mandy, who were continuing to stand too close, talk too quietly, and smile too wide for them to just be acting as friends. Ned hadn’t even blinked at their behavior. He’d thought that James might be envious, instead.

Ah, shit.

James hurried in the direction that Ned had gone. He was totally going to get heat for this from wardrobe, who was still waiting for him, but he had to get to Ned first.

He found him helping wrap up camera cord for the day, using the over-under technique perfected by crewmembers the world over. James had never been able to get that done right, his wrapping had always made the cords turn into an unholy mess.

“Hey, Ned,” James said, trying not to make it too obvious that he’d been running around looking for him.

Ned looked up. “Do you need help with something?” He asked, his tone carefully polite.

“I just wanted to apologize,” James admitted. If simple assumptions had been what got him to this point, he was all for open and honest communication, even if it wasn’t the coy flirty style that most people seemed to go for. “I thought that you and Jack were dating.”

“You what?” The noise that came out of Ned’s throat sounded strangled.

“So, I’m sorry,” James went on. Ned looked pale and then flushed, a blush creeping up his neck to his ears. It was ludicrously cute, although James suspected that Ned would kill him if he said something like that out loud. “I’ve been running a little hot and cold on you, and that was unfair of me. I thought—”

“You thought that I was flirting with a guy while I was dating someone else?” Ned’s blush intensified. “You must have thought I was a total cad.”

“Not a cad,” James said, enjoying Ned’s slightly more old-fashioned term. He would have gone with “asshole,” personally, but he’d been informed by both Sophie and Brandon that he had a swearing problem. “Just maybe someone who flirted for the fun of it or wasn’t aware of how flirty he was being.”

“I thought you might be straight,” Ned admitted. “Or that I was doing this all wrong because you kept—”

“Running away? Yeah.” James shrugged, hoping that he didn’t look quite as embarrassed as he felt. “Anyway, I’m sorry about that. I just thought I should apologize.”

Ned nodded, his eyes a bit glazed like he couldn’t quite believe that this was happening. James had to concede that this was definitely one of the more awkward experiences of his own life as well. “Thanks.”

“Good.” James shoved his hands into his pockets, suddenly unsure what to do now. “Just so we’re clear, we’re both single, we’re both gay, and I think you’re cute. Is that all sorted?”

Ned swallowed hard enough that James could track the movement of his throat, could easily imagine the way Ned’s pulse must be fluttering. It made him want to press his lips to Ned’s throat, feel the movements with his mouth. “Yeah,” Ned croaked, “it’s all sorted.”

“Great.” James decided to beat a hasty retreat before he embarrassed himself further. “Have a good night, then.”

He hastily made his way to wardrobe, where he got chewed out for being so late to return his outfit, but he didn’t care. He was already thinking about how the next day was going to go. Now that he knew Ned was available, he was going to dial the flirting up to eleven. By the time he was done with him, Ned wouldn’t even know what had happened to him.