Page 85 of Hittin' the Right Note
“I do too, for what it’s worth,” Damian said begrudgingly. “I guess maybe Lukeisgood for you.”
As he sat there listening to his friends praise him, thoughts of Luke and what they were doing together dancing in his head, Mikey smiled. Unlike so many other times, this time it felt like it came from the heart.
It’s all gonna be okay,he thought.I can feel it.
A few minuteslater Tricia said she was going to go take a nap, and Damian said he was going to do the same. After a few minutes, however, he came back, a very concerned look on his face.
“What’s up?” Mikey asked. “I thought you were going to go take a nap?”
“There’s something I have to tell you,” he said. “And you’re not going to like it.”
A cold fist grabbed hold of Mikey’s chest, because when Damian said he wasn’t going to like something, he meant it.
He sighed and leaned back, closing his eyes.
“What is it?” he asked, not even bothering to open his eyes.
A moment of silence followed, and acid started churning in his stomach.
“Do you remember a night last year when we went to Luke’s concert, got drunk, and you told me all about him? And I wondered what you saw in him?”
Mikey’s eyes flew open. He leaned forward, his mind already scrambling to put together the memories of that night. They were hazy at best and, though he could remember bits and pieces, for the most part they were nothing but an alcohol-fueled haze. Even so, a dark and terrible suspicion was taking shape in the back of his mind.
“I think so…,” he said slowly. “What about it?”
“Well, I never told you, but you made a few calls that night,” Damian said, and he actually sounded…hesitant, like he didn’t want to bring any of this up but didn’t really see much choice about it. “I tried to keep it under wraps as long as I could, but the truth is you were the one who called the paparazzo who eventually found out the truth about Luke.”
Mikey was pretty sure his heart stopped, as he tried to map what Damian had just revealed with what he knew to be true about that night.
Damn it,he thought again and again.I really wish I hadn’t been so drunk. I wish I could remember what happened. I mean, maybe Damian’s lying.
“And I have worse news,” Damian said. “Apparently the guy decided to blab the truth to Gina LaBun of all people. I just got the e-mail from her producers just a few minutes ago. They’re going to be reaching out to Luke soon, I think, to see what he has to say about the fact his soon-to-be collaborator had a key role in ruining his career. I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen or how long it’s going to be, but I’m guessing it’s not going to be too far from now. I’m really sorry.”
Mikey snorted. He highly doubted Damian was sorry, because Damian wasn’t really sorry about anything, particularly when it came making sure Mikey stayed under his thumb.
“Why do I get the feeling you know more about how Gina got ahold of this than you’re letting on?” he asked. The truth was he was pretty sure Damian was behind everything, but he wasn’t about to make the claim until he had the evidence to back it up. It was one thing to think about firing Damian in the abstract, it was quite another to think about accusing him right here and now.
“Think about it, Mikey,” Damian said. “Don’t you remember what you were like a year ago? You hadn’t yet come out, but you were going to. You were just waiting to do it on your own terms so you could control the narrative. Then there was also this chatter Luke might be going to take the initiative and do it for you. I distinctly remember you saying you were going to make sure he didn’t get to write your story before you were ready to write it yourself.”
A part of Mikey’s mind told him this was all too neat to be true; something it didn’t add up. Sure, he’d been drunk, but he had trouble imagining even an earlier version of himself would be capable of doing something so terrible.
“I know you don’t want to hear this, Mikey,” Damian said, “but let’s be real. You’re just as desperate to keep your career as I am, and you were even more desperate back then. I know you better than you know yourself.”
Mikey couldn’t breathe, and he felt like the walls were closing in around him. He wanted to call Luke and tell him…what, exactly? That he’d been the one who’d brought about the end of his career, even if he couldn’t remember it?
Now, thanks to Damian, bits and pieces were swimming up out of the soup of his memory. He wasn’t quite sure he could remember all the details, but he thought he could hear snippets of a conversation with a reporter, could hear someone’s voice–his own, he supposed–telling him he should keep an eye on LukeCarter, that he’d been seen with other guys and that he could get a major scoop if he tried.
His hands gripped the arms of his chair as the memories started to crash on him.
“Luke’s never going to be able to forgive me,” he said. “And I don’t think I’d want him to.”
To his surprise, Damian actually had a sympathetic look on his face. Mikey didn’t know whether it was fake or not and, to be perfectly honest, he didn’t care. It was nice to know someone, at least, was going to be on his side when the shit inevitably hit the fan.
Which, as it turned out, happened much faster than either of them had anticipated, as his phone began to ring.
It was Luke.
CHAPTER 29
