Chapter Six
Kai looked up from licking his plate to see Wyatt stalking over to him, scowling deeply. The look didn’t suit him at all, his otherwise warm, friendly face strange to look at with anything other than a smile.
Obviously, he was upset. And he was about to tell Kai about it.
Kai didn’t let that stop him from cleaning up the last few streaks of chocolate before passing the plate off to one of the people hovering around the set to clean up. The cake was good, and he wasn’t going to let it go to waste just because Wyatt was mad at him.
Wyatt stopped in front of him, arms crossed over his chest.
“What,” Wyatt began, “the hell was that?”
“You’ll have to be more specific,” Kai said, though he had a fair idea what Wyatt was talking about. He’d expected Wyatt to just… respond, like he always did, because Wyatt was good with people. It was what he had that Kai didn’t. It was the thing that made him so popular.
“You suddenly… making every single innuendo that popped into your head,” Wyatt said. “Were you just trying to make me uncomfortable, or…?”
Kai swallowed thickly, a stab of guilt hitting him in the stomach. He’d thought Wyatt would take well to it, and once he was committed, he didn’t feel as though he could just stop, even when it was obvious that Wyatt wasn’t responding.
Donna had been watching the whole time. He’d been under a lot of pressure.
At first, he’d thought Wyatt was just ignoring him out of spite.
But he’d been aware ten minutes in that Wyatt wasn’t comfortable, and he’d kept pushing because he’d been told he had to for ratings.
Which, while potentially smart from a career-saving point of view, hadn’t exactly been fair to Wyatt. The look on his face told Kai everything he needed to know. Wyatt was genuinely upset, and he’d done that, and he could have avoided it if he’d chosen Wyatt’s comfort over his own career.
Kai knew he had a reputation as being kind of an asshole, but he tried not to intentionally hurt people. Expecting them to be competent at their jobs was one thing, but this had been…
Hell, the idea had made him uncomfortable in the first place, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise that Wyatt felt that way. Kai had just thought that, since Wyatt was several orders of magnitude more approachable than he was, he’d be the only one who was uncomfortable with it.
“Donna pulled me into her office before filming and told me that the audience wants to see me flirt with you. They like that,” Kai said. “The online ratings are apparently amazing because of… what I said last week.”
“About the promo photos?” Wyatt asked.
Kai nodded.
He knew he needed to apologize, but he wasn’t quite sure how to do that without making the situation worse.
“I was told it could make or break the series, and both of our careers are riding on it, and you flirt with everyone anyway…” he said, realizing he was digging a deeper hole for himself but unable to stop.
Wyatt was still looking at him like he’d committed murder in front of him.
“So you’re just gonna… play gay for ratings? Like it’s no big deal?”
Kai blinked.
Wyatt didn’t…?
That was what he was upset about?
“I am gay, you ignorant hick. I’m just pretending to be attracted to you,” Kai said, and immediately regretted it as Wyatt’s face turned to stone, his eyes narrowing.
He’d always had a knack for pushing people’s buttons, and he knew that was one of Wyatt’s. Wyatt thought that other people thought he was stupid.
He wasn’t, he clearly wasn’t, but it was his big insecurity. Kai could see that from a mile away by the way he explained everything he was doing, even when it didn’t need explaining.
Before, Wyatt had been annoyed, maybe a little upset.
Now, he was angry. It was rolling off him in waves like a physical force.
He’d gone too far. And he’d assumed the worst of Wyatt, he realized, without really knowing what was going on.
Instead of talking about this like an adult, he’d shut the conversation down. His grandma would have been so disappointed.
“I’m-” Kai began, planning to apologize.
“I don’t wanna hear it,” Wyatt said, glaring at him. “You should have talked to me first. None of that was fair on me, and no matter how ignorant you think I am, I deserve a little basic respect. Don’t tell me you couldn’t tell you were making me uncomfortable.”
Kai swallowed. He had known. He could tell.
He’d just felt like he had to. Outside of work, he would never have pushed. With someone he was actually interested in, he would have backed away immediately if they’d given even a hint of resistance.
He’d let the fear of losing his job get to him, and he’d hurt Wyatt in the process. They might not have been the best of friends, but Wyatt was right: he deserved a little basic respect.
Kai had completely failed to show him that, and he deserved to hear about it now.
“Right, but you kept going,” Wyatt said. “I… need to think about this. I’ll see you next week.”
Wyatt turned and walked away before Kai could say anything else.
Kai’s stomach sank to somewhere around his knees. This wasn’t good, not at all.
He needed to apologize. Not just for the sake of their respective careers, but because he’d done the wrong thing. Good reasons didn’t make it okay, and he’d obviously rattled Wyatt a lot more than he’d realized, even once he could tell that Wyatt wasn’t responding.
Then he’d gone and insulted him in the most effective way he could manage. Saying he was pretending to be attracted to him probably hadn’t helped, either.
So the apology needed to be good, and sincere, and to get Wyatt talking to him again, or Kai had just completely blown his chance to keep his job.
He’d have to come up with something good.