Page 65 of Not Your Golden Boy

“Nikky! There you are.” Charlotte stepped forward from the crowd, a cocktail of some sort in one hand. “I’ve been waiting for you. You have to come talk to Colin Nell. You know Colin Nell, right? He’s a fantastic producer who works out of New York, but he’s in London recording with Kelly Bevan!”

Before Nikky could react, Charlotte grabbed his hand and tugged him away from Harry.

The gesture knocked him off balance in more ways than one. He twisted to glance back at Harry, begging him not to leave him on his own with a look.

For a heart-stopping second, it looked like Harry would do just that. He watched Nikky, his feet planted to the ground. Regret seemed to blanket him, and Nikky was certain he would turn back to the elevator and run.

When he started forward, catching up to Nikky’s side and touching his hand in the same way Nikky had tried to comfort him in the elevator, immense relief filled him.

For half a minute at most.

“Nikky Smith,” the slick-looking, middle-aged man Charlotte introduced to him as Colin Nell greeted him with a wolfish smile. “What a pleasure to meet you at last. Everyone who’s anyone is all abuzz with your accomplishments these days.”

“Yours and Drew Oberlin’s,” the fashionably dressed woman glued to his side added. She glanced around, eyes hungry, and said, “I thought I saw him here tonight. Did the two of you come together?” Her eyes flashed back to Nikky with all the inuendo he’d thought had died in the spring when Drew announced he was together with Lee.

“No, I’m here with Harry,” Nikky said, boldly taking Harry’s hand.

At least, he tried to. Harry raised his hand to rub his neck, seemingly randomly.

The avoidant gesture left Nikky bereft and worried, until Colin Nell huffed with laughter and looked down his nose at Harry. “The shooting star of the moment and the faded asteroid of yesteryear,” he said, like he thought the juxtaposition was hilarious. “You sure know who to hang out with, don’t you, Harry.” The man clapped Harry on the shoulder like he was some wide-eyed kid who would think the gesture was great.

He was damn well going to set the record straight.

“Harry is my⁠—”

“Nikky is working with Dean Albion on an album right now,” Charlotte blurted, stopping him dead.

“Is that so?” Nell asked, his expression bored.

“Yes,” Charlotte answered. “And once recording is finished, Nikky is headed back to L.A. to film a Toni McGovern film.” That earned a chorus of impressed noises from Nell, the woman with him, and the three other people who had scooted closer as soon as they noticed Nikky so that they could be included. “He’s also just had an offer from Peter Lubavitch.”

The impressed sounds turned even louder.

Nikky hated it. He felt like a prize pony Charlotte was showing off. The well-dressed partygoers with their flashy jewelry and caked-on make-up weren’t interested in him as much as the aura that people had created around him.

“Can I get a selfie with you?” the woman with Nell asked, breaking away from him to fish her phone out of her bejeweled clutch. “I loved you in Cooked,” she added as she moved to stand by Nikky’s side, touching him before he’d given her the okay. She pushed Harry out of the way as she did. “Your arse alone was worth the subscription price for the streaming service,” she laughed.

Nikky acted his way into his best smile, though inside frustration and offense warred with his usual anxiety and desperation to please. What was the point of bending over backwards to make people like the woman who had her arm around him and her hand a little too low on his back happy when the person he really cared about, Harry, was being pushed farther and farther to the side?

As soon as the pic was taken, Nikky stepped deliberately back to Harry’s side. “I’m looking forward to all the projects I’ve got lined up,” he said, as amiable as possible, even as a new sort of determination not to let himself or Harry be steamrolled filled him. “Harry and I have been working together on some music as well. I hope to record it all with him soon.”

Everyone, including Charlotte, looked surprised at that.

“I had no idea,” Charlotte said, her smile all teeth and irritation.

Nell snorted. “I should have known that’s why you grabbed onto this one, Harry. Cradle-robbing Hollywood’s latest golden boy has its rewards.”

The people who had slipped over to join them chuckled and snorted. “Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, eh, Harry?” one of them teased.

Nikky didn’t even try to smile at the remark. “Harry is extraordinarily talented,” he said.

“Oh, of course, of course,” the man who had made the comment said, not looking particularly penitent.

Nikky just stared at him, but he wasn’t the only one to take a shot at Harry.

“I suppose there’s one way to try to make a comeback,” the woman who had her arm linked with the man who’d made the nasty comment said. “I’ve seen the pics of the two of you together on social media. Harry, you dirty old man, you.” She laughed, the sound like broken glass.

“Excuse me,” Harry said, nodding, then turning to go.