When the summons came, it felt like I was being called into the principal’s office.

“I need you to come to Ransom’s suite today,” said Toby, without even saying hello. His voice was tight on the phone.

“I thought I’d be the last person you’d want around Ransom.”

“There are millions of dollars on the line, Cave. You’ll forgive me if I don’t want a flippant response.”

“What’s going on?”

“I’ll explain further when you arrive. The car should be there shortly to get you.”

“Fine, I’ll be there. Can I bring Jojo?”

“Is that the dog?”

“What? No, he’s my son.”

I kicked myself for even asking. Toby wasn’t anything in my life, I didn’t have to ask permission to bring my kid with me.

Clearly, the idea bothered him, though, which made me a little happier. Good. He should be bothered.

A sigh. “Yes, fine. Bring Jojo. But not the little mop dog. Rhody will also be here soon.” A click and he was gone. He didn’t say goodbye either. Not one for basic greetings, I guess.

How had Ransom managed to work with him this long? It made me jealous, the idea that cold-hearted Toby got to see my boyfriend more often than I did. I was feeling all kinds of sick emotions these days.

The atmosphere of the suite was busy. Some of the grimness had left; a few of the guys at the computers were actually smiling. Ransom was nowhere to be seen, but Toby pounced the minute I came in. He led me to a quiet room off to the side, not Ransom’s bedroom, but something smaller, far less grand.

“I have a few items to go over with you,” he said.

I wasn’t sure I liked being alone in the room with him. It felt sinister. He had a list in his hand. Was item one, slay Cave Mathis?

“Where’s Ransom?” I asked nervously.

“Hair and makeup. He has really let himself go the past week or so. He needs to look his best for the big event today.”

I suddenly felt very afraid. Part of me knew why Toby had brought me here, but I hadn’t wanted to face it. I swallowed. “What’s the big event?”

“Didn’t he mention it to you last night, when he was at your house? Maybe it slipped his mind.”

The look he gave me was so skeevy. Of course he’d know where Ransom was, every minute of the day, but it felt wrong that he knew, that he’d hold it over my head like this. There was a sick sensation in my gut. I knew what was going on. Of course I did.

“I guess I’m being recast as the straight pal after all,” I said.

“You know it,” said Toby. “It’s going to be great. Very beneficial to you, I might add.”

He sounded like he was selling me a life insurance policy.

“How so?” I asked.

“Why, you get everything you wanted, don’t you? You get to keep seeing Ransom. That’s the whole point of this charade, isn’t it? So you can get your claws into a big star?”

I would’ve slugged him, had Jojo not been with me, asleep in his carrier.

“You know this has nothing to do with getting claws into Ransom,” I said.

“So be it. It’s true love. Beautiful. Fabulous. And you’ll get to resume your relationship with him after a fairly short time.”

“After a...what now?”

He held his hand to his mouth as though he’d revealed a secret, but his eyes were dead and cold. “Oh dear, did Ransom not tell you? You’re his friend, as far as the world knows. It would be a little weird for him to be hanging around you twenty-four hours a day after getting engaged to Giselle, wouldn’t it? The world is going to expect him to be absolutely absorbed in her. So you two will have a little break from one another, and then after things have settled down--”

“Did he agree to this?” I demanded. “Can I see him? Where is he? Let me talk to him.”

A grim smile creased his face. “Of course you can see him. He’s very busy, though. Don’t take long.”

I had never really seen Ransom in his element before. When Toby opened the bedroom door, it seemed like a madhouse, so many people talking and rushing and ordering each other around. There, somewhere in the midst of them, was Ransom, calmly sitting in an adjustable chair, his head back, a paper bib covering his shirt. His face looked different than I’d seen it before. His expression harder, more set.

The room was so busy he didn’t notice me at first, but when Toby cleared his throat, Ransom suddenly looked up, and that hardness softened away. “Everybody out!” he said.

“Okay, I have a few items to go over--” began Toby.

“I said out! Everyone!”

As the room emptied out, Ransom turned towards me in his chair. “Am I beautiful?” he asked.

He was joking, and yet...the answer was no. His hair was transformed into a well-styled but rakish cut, and his stubble was gone. Subtle lining darkened his eyelids, and his skin seemed unnaturally smooth. He looked good, but I liked him better when he was natural, his hair a little messed up, his skin not covered up by glare-reducing cosmetics.

“You didn’t tell me that Operation Make Cave Straight was happening today,” I said.

“I didn’t know until a little while ago.”

“You couldn’t have called?”

“It’s all been such a madhouse today,” he said, rising from the chair and taking my hands. “Can you forgive me? You have been on my mind all day.”

“I’m trying not to be mad,” I said, “but out of nowhere, I hear that I can’t see you for days, weeks? Will it be longer than that?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Toby said you’d need time with Giselle. Time where you weren’t frolicking with your big straight buddy.”

Ransom shook his head. “Toby is out of his fucking mind. I’m sure he’s just trying to nudge you away. He knows it won’t work, but he feels like he has to try. Don’t worry about him. I’ll deal with it.”

There was a tiny dot of powder on his shoulder. I flicked it off with my fingernail. I wanted to accept what he just said. I wanted it to be true, and I wanted it to be enough. But I had to be honest. (Why did I have to be honest? Wasn’t that what made all this so hard?)

“I just don’t know about all this,” I said. “This...this is against everything I believe in. Lying to people? It’s the opposite of everything I’ve worked my whole life for.”

“I know,” said Ransom, “but it protects everything I’ve worked my whole life for. And I swear, it’s just for a little while, just until the press finds some new scandal to salivate over.”

“And then what? I stay on the backburner until you break up with Giselle in...two months? Six? What good will that really have done, though? We’re still going to be hiding after that, aren’t we? Pretending we’re not together? Ransom, I just don’t think I can live like this. What are the people in town going to think of me? What kind of example does it set for Jojo?”

“The example of someone loving you and not abandoning you!” said Ransom. “This way, we never have to be apart again!”

“But you are abandoning me, in a way. Abandoning the part of me that lives in public, the part that values honesty.”

He looked panicked. “Listen, please Cave, just show up to this thing. Be my pal while the media guys do their thing. We can talk this through. We can make it work, I promise.”

There was nothing I could say. I couldn’t lose him again. People came flooding back into the room, lapping against us like ocean waves, carrying Ransom back to his chair. The noise woke up Jojo, and I held him while I was swept into a chair of my own. Someone I had never seen before shined bright lights at us, clipped my hair quickly, brushed me off.

I felt like I was in a dream, some strange dream where I could not talk. I was worried Jojo would be scared, but he looked curious and interested, and I held him tight. “Rah?” he asked, watching Ransom be led out of the room.

* * *

I watched it later on the news. Strange, seeing yourself on television.

“It would never have happened, if it hadn’t been for my old friend Cave,” said Ransom to the cameras. On TV he looked exquisite, his eyes huge and excited, his mouth sensual. His arm was around Giselle, who looked like she had descended from heaven to grace the stage. She practically glowed. “I hadn’t seen Cave in years, but he told me, Ransom, you have to follow your heart, and I followed it right to Giselle.”

There was an audible awwww from the crowd.

Rhody and I were standing near the beautiful couple. She was staring out insouciant at the crowd, as though they’d all come to see her. I couldn’t even look at myself. I looked devastated. When I’d been up there, I’d tried to be brave and look like Typical Guy Pal. It didn’t work.

Jojo looked from me to the TV. “Dah-dah?” Who is that man that looks like you?

“That’s me, all right. That’s daddy. Getting my heart broken on national television.”

“Dah,” he said, and leaned his head against my chest. His little finger pointed at Ransom. “Rah?”

“Yes, baby, that’s Ransom. I don’t think we’re going to see a lot of him for a while, though.”

I’d made a horrible mistake, agreeing to be up there in front of the cameras. I’d sold out every shred of decency and honor I had.

So why did everybody look so happy?

There were no questions from the press--or, rather, there were, but Ransom and Giselle waved them off. Beaming their smiles, so happy. Lovely, lovely couple.

“I have to admit, they do look good together,” I told Jojo.

“Exciting news tonight,” said the anchor on TV, “the announcement that Ransom Pope and girlfriend Giselle Richter are engaged to be married! And what of those gay rumors? We asked Ransom earlier today.”

They cut to Ransom, sitting in front of the fireplace. Oh. That’s what he had been doing instead of calling me to warn me. He’d been giving an interview.

“People get such crazy ideas,” he said to the interviewer. “Cave and I go back years. It would be like dating my brother or something!”

Big laugh.

“A million women are going to be very glad to hear that!” said the interviewer.

I eventually switched to a cooking show, after finding the next three channels were all showing bits from the same interview.

A million women being very glad...that was a good outcome, wasn’t it? Ransom had his career, Giselle had hers...wasn’t that worth it?

I’d been part of something today that had excited the world, that had brightened the day of people who might otherwise be sad. How much more of a good deed could a person do?

Then why did it feel so bad?

My phone was buzzing, pinging with texts and calls. I slid it under the couch, so I wouldn’t hear it. I didn’t want to talk to anybody tonight. Didn’t want to answer the confused questions of all my friends. There would be enough time to face them tomorrow.

I held on to Jojo and sang: Fiddle-de-dee, fiddle-de-dee, the fly has married the bumblebee, says the fly, says he, “Will you marry me? And let us announce it on national TV?”

“Bee,” he said sleepily.