“Huh?” He shakes his head, focusing back in on his friend.
Jermaine cuts his eyes sneakily over to Trevor then back before saying quietly, “I’m really happy for you, you know.”
Skyler ducks his head to hide the blush creeping up his cheeks. “Thanks. Sorry. I’m paying attention to you, I swear.”
“Uh-huh,” Jermaine says with an indulgent smile.
The rest of the night passes by in a blur of drinking, dancing, laughing, and secret touches. Right before Trevor’s about to head out—they already planned for Mike to pick him up first—Kassi King, a former member of a girl group who Skyler and the rest of the guys were friendly with back in the band days, asks to take a picture with him, Jermaine, and Skyler.
“I can’t believe I’m reunited with three-fifths of Boys Will Be Boys!” she yells excitedly over the music. “I’ve got to send this to the rest of Girl Talk. They’ll get such a kick out of it!”
Skyler’s mind races, trying to come up with a reasonable excuse to get them out of this, but then he feels Trevor’s arm around his waist, tugging him in.Jermaine throws an arm over Skyler’s shoulder, Kassi squishes in on Trevor’s other side, and they all smile for whoever’s holding up Kassi’s phone.
“I’ve got to get going,” Trevor announces after the group separates. “My ride will be here in a minute. But congrats again, J! So proud of you!”
Jermaine gives him a hug and a slap on the back, and then Trevor leans in to hug Skyler. Skyler rubs a hand briefly between Trevor’s shoulder blades and watches his face carefully when Trevor pulls back. He doesn’t look worried about the fact that someone took a picture of them together. He looks like he genuinely enjoyed himself tonight. He looks happy.
Skyler tries not to grin when he says goodbye as if he won’t be seeing Trevor at home in just a little bit. As if the first thing he’s going to do won’t be stripping his own shirt off Trevor’s chest.
He’s so glad the night went well.
TREVOR
Trevor huffs with impatienceas he watches the floor numbers climb higher until the elevator reaches the penthouse. The takeout bag he’s carrying jostles his leg when he steps into the apartment. He went out to pick up salads for lunch from the super hippie health food place Skyler loves, and on the way back he popped into a bodega to grab a bag of chips to offset all the healthiness. Sitting there in a rack right beside the counter was a magazine with his and Skyler’s faces on it. Jermaine and Kassi were conveniently cropped out of the photo.
They’re dead center on the cover, with the headlineskyler james and trevor blue spotted together in nyc: is it old friends reconciling or something more?
Of fucking course.
He bought the magazine, rigidly avoiding eye contact with the cashier, and read the article as he walked back.
Now he drops the takeout bag on the counter and moves over to the couch where Skyler is sprawled out, one leg thrown up over the back of it. He tosses the magazine onto Skyler’s lap.
Skyler lets out a littleoofand asks, “What’s this?”
“It’s ridiculous,” he says, shoving Skyler’s leg aside so he can sit. “The same old crap starting up again.”
Skyler swings his other leg down and sits up, grabbing the magazine. He glances at the cover with a frown before flipping throughto find the article. “We knew there was a possibility of something like this when we went to the party, right?”
“I know. But we were atJermaine’sparty! Shouldn’t the story be something about how we both showed up to support our ex-bandmate? Why do they have to make everything about us?”
“Did you read it?” Skyler asks.
He nods. “It’s just a whole lot of speculation. Mentions how fans have been talking about us on social media ever since we’ve both been seen in the city.”
Skyler rubs Trevor’s leg. “They’re always going to speculate, no matter what we do. One time a couple years ago, I wore a bright blue suit to an awards show, and in my speech, I thanked ‘all the people who’ve been with me on my journey as an artist since day one.’ The shippers swore that was meant directly for you because my suit matched your eyes.”
That makes Trevor chuckle. “You looked good in that suit.”
Skyler’s eyebrows shoot up his forehead and then his face settles into a satisfied smirk. “You watched my speech?”
Trevor considers telling him that he’s watched every single thing he’s done for the past five years, but instead he says, “Focus,” and yanks the magazine out of Skyler’s hand to hold it up. “Did you know some fans actually believe we gotmarriedyears ago?”
“They printed that in the paper?” Skyler asks, reaching for the magazine back.
“I wouldn’t call this gossip rag a paper, but yes. Isn’t that insane? I know the shippers were dead on about a lot of stuff, but how did such a wild theory like that even get started?”
A guilty look crosses Skyler’s face as he mutters, “Er. Um.” Trevor waits him out, then Skyler exhales and says, “I might be a tiny bit responsible for that.”
