“No." Arnaud shook his head. “I don’t know how you got me into this het drama, man.”
“The show is good and you like girls.” Jaewon rolled his eyes. “You have to admit she’s hot.”
“I likeAmelia,” Arnaud said and the waitress came back with trays of food. She set them down one by one, saying what they were shyly. “I’m a one-girl kind of man,” he said proudly then thanked the waitress for the food. She turned red and left quickly.
“And how many men?”
“Time will tell.” Arnaud smiled and Reno flicked a straw wrapper at him. “You?—”
“Don’t,” Reno said, then pulled his plate to him. There was some kind of sandwich on it and a bowl of fruit.
Sebastian said, “Yeah, don’t.” He dug into his own sandwich and gave a pointed look at Reno.
“O-kay,” Reno said, not wanting to get into it so he picked paying attention to his phone over his friends. He clicked it on and found nothing new from Luka so he flipped over to check his social media accounts.
He was making his way through the bowl of berries and melon when he dropped his spoon. The clank drew the attention of the rest of the people at the table and whatever argument they were having stopped.
“What now?” Sebastian asked and peeked over Reno’s shoulder at his phone. Reno felt him stiffen when he saw what Reno had open. “Oh, I was just hoping it was another shirtless pic of your new twink.”
Reno shook his head, not really in the mood to chew Sebastian out for talking about Luka like that when he waslooking at avideoof him taken from the venue’s balcony last night. His profile was in clear view and Cane’s large hand was on his back, leading him to the stage door.
“What is it?” Jaewon asked around a bite of food.
“Luka, but not hot this time,” Sebastian filled him in. “Well, I mean notintentionallyhot.”
“Oh god,” Arnaud said and set his coffee mug down with a long face. “Already?”
“It’s not that bad,” Reno said, sounding unconvincing. “The post is from a fan account from the VIP section last night.” He set his phone on the table and slid it over for Jaewon and Arnaud to see. “Apparently, they overheard he was going backstage to see me, then caught a video of him going backstage.”
“You’re right, that's not too bad,” Jaewon said with a shrug. “He came from the VIP section; it could be reasoned out he got a meet and greet ticket or something.”
“Flimsy," Arnaud said. “We didn’t sell any for this tour.”
“Well, still,” Jaewon said and finished his food before pushing his plate away.
Arnaud took the phone and clicked on the post, reading the comments. “Ugh, your fans are so nasty.”
“I know,” Reno said and lost whatever appetite he had left. “They traced it back to his account but it’s at least still on private.”
“A sensible man,” Arnaud said and pushed the phone back to Reno and Sebastian’s side of the table. Sebastian took it next and started looking around at the comments then at Luka’s account. “What are you gonna do?”
That was the question, wasn’t it? Reno slumped against the back of the booth and pushed his hair away from his face, feeling himself pout. “I wanna keep him.”
Arnaud let out a low chuckle. “That’s obvious.” He stacked his near empty plate on top of Jaewon’s. “You need to coach himon how to deal with this shit. Or, have him just remove himself from social media completely. If you’re serious about him, you gotta try to protect him. Maybe you can give him Amelia’s number.”
“She’d really help me?”
“Course. She loves you.” Arnaud gave him a sympathetic smile. “But, she’d only help if you’re serious about him.”
“I—” Reno bit his tongue. “You know what this means to me.”
Arnaud’s sympathetic smile turned soft.
“One check or separate?” The waitress had come back for their plates and Sebastian stuffed the last bite he had into his mouth before turning his over too.
“Put it on mine!” Kandi turned in her seat and smiled at the waitress, who left to talk to her.
Reno ignored the intense looks everyone gave him and clicked his phone back on.
