The energy on set was different than normal when Jonah arrived at godawful o’clock in the morning. Usually, everyone was buzzing around, triple checking the sound and making sure props were where they needed to be. Today, though, actors and crew alike had their eyes glued to their phones. Oh god. Who had died now? Jonah pulled out his own phone and scrolled through three different news sites before breathing a sigh of relief. But if no one was dead, what the hell was going on?

He made his way over to the side of the set, where one of the assistants was reading from her phone. Everyone from the director to the gaffer, and even a couple of Jonah’s costars had gathered around to hear what she was saying.

“…my surprise when I look out the window to find him. My high school crush. Back in all his Hollywood glory.”

Jonah nudged Charlie, the gaffer, and whispered, “What is she reading from?”

“Blog post,” Charlie murmured. “This guy’s writing about his week with a hot A-list celebrity. Hasn’t said who, but so far it’s steamy stuff.”

He wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but a scandalous blog post wasn’t it. Those were always fun, even if they were fake a good eighty percent of the time. Setting his bag down, he crossed his arms and leaned in. The assistant’s voice didn’t carry, so he was only able to hear every other word. But the words he did hear definitely stood out. Words like ‘cabin’ and ‘fishing’ and ‘childhood.’

Ice flooded his veins. No. No, surely it wasn’t. Christian had promised him that whatever happened between then would stay private until he was ready to come out. He wouldn’t betray Jonah’s trust by releasing a blog post about their time together. Especially since they hadn’t talked about it first. But he couldn’t deny what was being read sounded exactly like their week in Kentucky.

Grabbing his phone again, he pulled up Google and stopped. What was Christian’s blog even called? They’d talked about it at some point, but Jonah couldn’t quite remember. It was something about LGBT representation in cinema, right? Did he use his own name? Finally, he typed in ‘Christian Miller LGBT blog.’ Sure enough, the first thing that popped up was the article. ‘My Week With an A-Lister.’

Jonah hovered his thumb over the screen. Did he really want to read this? There would be no going back once he did. It could potentially ruin anything he had with Christian. Then Christian should have thought of that before posting the blog. He tapped the link and the article appeared before him.

We all have celebrity crushes. But what if you got the chance to spend a solid week doing everything you ever wanted with them? I had that opportunity last week.

His stomach heaved. Was that all this had been—some kind of sick wish fulfillment fantasy? Jonah had thought what they had was special. Maybe not able to stand the test of time and distance, but definitely special. Apparently Christian hadn’t felt the same way. He forced himself to keep reading.

Everything. Christian had written everything. From the first time they’d met to the very minute they said goodbye, and even afterward, when he’d driven home. Jonah’s heart softened somewhat when Christian wrote of how the week had changed him. If nothing else, he could take comfort in the fact that he hadn’t just been fulfilling a fantasy. Instead, Christian wrote that he had fallen back in love with Jonah all over again. That he couldn’t stop thinking about him, and even though he knew nothing could ever happen, he couldn’t change the way he felt.

Finishing the article, he looked up, his mind reeling. Everyone was still gathered around the assistant, who was still reading out loud. Could they tell? No one here knew he had been to Kentucky lately. He’d made sure Aspen hadn’t told a soul. But if word ever got out that he had been, it would be over. Everyone would know and his secret would be out.

He would be out.

He jumped as the assistant makeup artist tapped him on the shoulder. “You okay there?” Marni asked.

“Yeah… yeah I’m fine.”

“Good. We need you in hair and makeup. Jackson wants us to get things going in the next hour or so. Said to tell everyone no phones allowed from now to the end of the day. ‘We have a movie to make, so stop trying to figure out who’s fucking who,’” she said, imitating the director’s booming voice.

His heart still racing, Jonah turned his phone off and allowed himself to be led into hair and makeup.

* * *

When he finally made it back to his penthouse after a full day of filming, Jonah grabbed his computer. He didn’t turn on his phone just yet. More than likely, he had a dozen missed calls and texts from Aspen. There was no way she hadn’t seen it yet.

Dropping onto his sofa, he opened his laptop and found the article. It was easier to do this time. The blog post was the first thing that came up when he searched Christian’s name. He clicked the link and started reading again, this time allowing the full impact of the words to hit him.

It was a beautifully written article. One thing was clear—Christian could write. The tale he spun could have been a romance movie in its own right. Young gay teenager falls in love with his best friend’s cousin, tracks his career progress, and when fate brings them back together, sleeps with him. It would be one of those Oscar nominated films with a bittersweet ending, like Call Me By Your Name. The kind where both characters realize something about themselves even though they don’t end up with each other.

But this wasn’t a romance movie. It was his reality. It was a very intimate look into his personal life that he hadn’t consented to be shared. No matter how well-crafted the story was, it wasn’t just Christian’s to tell.

Christian talked about their time at the cabin as teenagers, how he had fallen in love with Jonah even then, but when he finally worked up the courage to tell him, Jonah had told him about a girl he was interested in.

God, he hadn’t thought about her in years. Her name had been Alicia Holloway and she was one of the most beautiful girls Jonah had ever seen at the time. Of course, the fling had been short-lived, as she’d gone to college and Jonah had moved to California. He didn’t think Christian would remember. Apparently he remembered everything.

The one thing he had going for him was that he never mentioned Jonah by name. He didn’t talk about the movies the mysterious A-lister had been in, or where he was from, although that could be inferred from the fact that he’d vacationed on the Cumberland River in the middle of nowhere Kentucky. Not that Christian had ever mentioned where he was from, but a simple Google search would reveal that easily enough.

Scrolling to the end of the blog, Jonah glanced at the hit count and froze. The post already had half a million views and it had been shared on just about every social media site he could imagine hundreds of thousands of times. It was only a matter of time before all the major entertainment news organizations latched on to it. When that happened, he’d be well and truly fucked.

There was really only one option. With a sigh, he turned on his phone and waited for everything to load. Sure enough, Aspen had left him three voicemails and he had fourteen missed calls from her. He didn’t bother listening to the voicemails, instead hitting the ‘call’ button. She answered on the first ring.

“What the hell were you thinking?”

Jonah fought the urge to snap back. Instead he let out a slow breath. “Hello to you, too.”

“You were supposed to go away for the week to clear your head, not get your brains fucked out of you!”

“Yeah, well, for the record, I wasn’t the one getting my brains fucked out of me.” He couldn’t just let that one slide.

“You’re fucking hilarious, Jonah. Do you have any idea how serious this is?”

“Oddly enough, the thought had occurred to me.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. The lecture was nothing he hadn’t expected, but he really needed her to skip straight to the part where she offered him viable options for how to handle this.

“Who is this guy, anyway? Do we even know what he wrote is true? It could just be a load of bullshit.”

So that was the angle she was going for. Try to discredit the blogger. It wouldn’t work, they both knew that. Stuff like that always backfired.

“It’s… it’s true, Aspen.” His voice cracked. Fuck. He didn’t need to cry right now. “His name is Christian Miller. He’s been a friend of my family for years. And when I went to the cabin last week, we were… intimate.”

“Fuck.”

Unable to help himself, Jonah chuckled weakly. “Yeah, we did that too.”

“How many times? How many times have I told you that you can’t just hook up with whoever you want? You have to be careful about this.”

“I know,” Jonah said. “Look, I know I fucked up. I know I did everything you told me not to do, but he was supposed to be different.”

He held his hand over the microphone and let out a sob. Christian had promised. He’d sworn that Jonah didn’t need to worry about coming out until he was ready. Take your time. Do what feels right for you, Christian had said. And then he went and forced Jonah’s hand.

Something in his voice must have clued Aspen in to his mental state, because instead of coming back with some snarky remark, she just sighed. “Oh, honey, they all say they’re going to be different. Even the ones who’ve known you the longest can hurt you. Just ask Lindsay Lohan. Look, the good news is, no one knows it’s you yet. Will they at some point? Probably. I’m not going to sugar coat that. But we’re going to put together a plan, okay? Give me two hours. I’ll call you back.”

“Okay.”

“And Jo? If I ever meet this guy, I swear to god I’m gonna kick him in the nuts.”

He managed a watery smile that she couldn’t see and swallowed the lump in his throat. “He’s… he’s a good guy. One of the best people I’ve ever met. I just don’t know why he would do something like this.”

“Because he’s a guy. Look, I love you, but if you’re gonna start batting for the other team, let me be the first to tell you, men are dumb as shit. They don’t think about things like this.”

“But he’s a journalist.”

“Trust me, I know who he is. I know everything about him. What, you think I was twiddling my thumbs the entire time you had your phone off?”

“No.” More than likely, she already had four drafts of a press release ready to go, depending on what he wanted to do. “But um… you should probably know, I’m not exactly gay. I’m bi.”

His heart beat so loudly he was fairly sure it was going to jump right out of his chest. The first person outside of Christian he told, and it was his agent. Still, she would be the most helpful at a time like this.

“Thanks for the clarification. I need to edit a few things now.” She sighed into the receiver. “Listen, I know it seems like everything’s going to go to shit, but if we play this smart, we can use it to our advantage. Just trust me, okay? I know what I’m doing. It’s why they pay me the big bucks.”

“Okay. I trust you. Just tell me what to say and when.”

“Don’t worry, I will. And in case you were thinking about it, don’t call him. Don’t text him. Don’t give him anything else to work with. We need to get this forest fire under control before we go starting another one.”

She hung up a moment later and Jonah sat back against his couch. His entire life, he’d worked to get to this moment, where he could afford the penthouse with the sleek, modern furniture and killer views. He had nice cars, expensive suits, and more money than he really knew what to do with, and now the life he’d built was suddenly in jeopardy of being taken away from him.

Scrolling through his contacts, he reached Christian’s number and stared at it. What would he even say if he called? How could you? Why did you do it? You promised? None of it would matter. What was done was done. Instead, he tossed the phone onto his coffee table and closed his eyes. Maybe tomorrow he’d wake up and this would all be a dream.