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Another jelly baby lost its head. “No.”
“Oh, come on, we said it would be a great idea. And you have your membership.”
“Doesn’t mean I’m going to use it. I’m not what you’d call good in gyms… I’m not a gym person.”
Dorian wasn’t above begging or coercion. “Please.”
Alex huffed. “All right, I’ll consider it. But not this evening. Maybe once you’ve got an agent—as a reward.”
That might be the best he got. “I’ll hold you to it.”
“Of course you will. Now please sod off before I waste another jelly baby by bouncing it off your head.”
Dorian chuckled as he left. Riling up Alex was fun, but he would ask Mrs Weather to keep a stock of jelly babies in as he suspected chewy sweets might be the only way to soothe the savage beast. He’d just make sure Ben was none the wiser so he wouldn’t have to listen to him take the piss.
CHAPTER30
“Thanks for coming, Rowan, I appreciate it’s a bit of a trek out to the provinces.” Rowan was the one person on the shortlist of agents who hadn’t rubbed him up the wrong way during the first round of phone screens. He had a decent client list and a reputation for not being a stain on humanity. Dorian liked him, which Alex had warned shouldn’t be his sole consideration.
“Hardly a chore. Nice bit of the world this, have you bought the hall?”
Dorian chuckled and took a seat. “No, Crofton Hall is still Ben Redbourn’s, I’m a house guest while I figure out some of my future plans.”
“There are worse places to use as a base to find yourself.”
Rowan sat opposite, making a huffing noise as he landed, his broad frame filling the chair. He had the physique of a man who unapologetically enjoyed gala dinners. That he was the polar opposite to Zak made him even more appealing.
Alex let himself into the reception room. “Ah, this is Alex. I know you’ve spoken. I’ve asked him to sit in to take notes and make sure I cover the points I have so I don’t forget something.”
Dorian waited for the kickback, he knew Zak would have hated an additional person in these types of discussions, and it had caused a number of arguments with Robin when he’d been sent out of a room. “Perfect,” Rowan said. “I bet Alex will do a better job of capturing everything than we would.”
“Anything we discuss in front of Alex will of course be kept confidential.”
Alex had his notebook at the ready. “You won’t know I’m here until I’ve issued the minutes.”
Rowan snorted. “I suppose we should start as we mean to go on. I’ve had a couple of instances where minutes would have helped, but with some production companies I insist on recording conversations on my phone.”
“Sounds like a story.”
“Nothing I can divulge, just rest assured I know how to deal with a slippery customer or two, and there’s a surprising number of them in the theatre and TV land.”
He’d met his fair share in La La Land too, and it was why he wasn’t willing to go out and negotiate roles without someone who knew the business. “We touched on it briefly when we spoke about where I saw my career going. I’m hoping you’ve had the chance to think about it.”
“Theatre is a different beast to the movies. The time commitment and rewards aren’t favourable in any way to what you’re used to.”
“I’m not going in with my eyes closed. I did theatre when I was younger and enjoyed it.”
“Fair enough, it’ll be knackering though, and long-winded. But there’s a lot of opportunities for a man like you. I’m thinking you don’t want to dive straight intoKing Lear, in fact, you might be better looking for something not so well-known or with a new spin. Then you’ll avoid a lot of the comparisons.”
He had similar thoughts. “Just a matter of finding a project. I actually have access to a previously unperformed play from a writer I happen to know quite well.”
“Please don’t tell me you wrote it.” Rowan smiled tightly. “It would be a step too far for a debut.”
“No, Chris is an ex-Hollywood screenwriter and he’s got some great credentials, although none in the theatre. The play was half written by a contemporary of Shakespeare and Chris has filled in the missing parts. Around an actor playing his twin sister, fooling the court and falling in love with a duke.”
Rowan rubbed his chin. “I think it sounds like a potential future project, and I could probably help with getting him connected to a few folks who would be interested in the material, but if you were to take my advice you’d want to start with something that was a bit more solid.”
Dorian was impressed that Rowan hadn’t tried to dismiss the idea outright and was leaving it on the table for a future project, including using his network. He couldn’t imagine Zak having done that, especially during the first few years of them working together. But Dorian was a different prospect these days, a household name who, before his coming out, could have had his choice of anything.
