It didn’t take long for his friend to answer, though he sounded exhausted. “Everything okay?”
“No,” Julian said, He flopped down in a pile of loose, soft sand, cold from the winter morning, and he dug his toes in next to a pile of shells. “This was a mistake. Bringing Will here was a mistake.”
Ilan sounded instantly alert. “Did he do something? I can be there in like four hours, and I’m going to beat his ass into…”
“No,” Julian said with a quiet sigh, and he allowed himself a small grin at the sound of his friend ready to fight the world for him. “It’s not him. He just…he’s charming.”
Ilan cleared his throat. “Wasn’t that the point?”
“Yes.” Closing his eyes, Julian let out a trembling breath. “My dad likes him. Really likes him. My mother was being…herself, and Will immediately came to my defense. He humiliated Corinne when she started in on me.”
“You know that’s not a bad thing, right?” Ilan told him gently. “You deserve to have people on your side.”
Julian bowed his head and stared at the space between his feet. “I know that, but…I’m starting to like him.”
“Ah.”
“And I’m not…I don’t have unrealistic expectations. I know what he does. I know his job is to make it seem like we’re in love and that’s bound to be…”
“Confusing?” Ilan offered.
Julian felt his throat get tight, the stirrings of emotions he hadn’t felt in so damn long threatening to choke him. “I’m just starting to wonder if it’s ever going to be real, you know? My dad’s completely miserable, my mother is herself,” he let out a bitter snort, “Corinne still isn’t dating. This thing with Bryce and Ashton is such a transparent joke. Do people actually fall in love?”
Ilan let out a tiny sigh, and Julian could picture him in bed—likely with no clothes, tucked up under a heavy quilt, his fingers pressed into his eyes. “You know I’m the wrong person to ask that, right?”
Julian laughed, because it was one of the most honest things he’d heard in a while. “I know. I miss you.”
“I miss you too,” Ilan said. “How’d it go yesterday?”
“Odd.” Julian shuffled forward and then laid back, not caring about the sand that drifted under the collar of his shirt. He wasn’t really a beach person, but the cold morning felt good on his over-heated skin, and Ilan’s voice in his ear filtered through the hearing aid’s Bluetooth—free of background noise distortions—calmed him. “My dad asked him what he did for a living. We forgot to come up with a plan in the car.”
Ilan laughed. “Oh, shit. What did he say?”
Julian’s cheeks went pink again and he covered his face with his hand. “He said he was an astrophysicist. My dad got that look on his face too, like when we tried to lie to him about the frat party we wanted to sneak into.”
“Why the fuck…?”
“I don’t know,” Julian said, then pushed himself up onto his elbows. “But he actually managed to follow up and sound like he knew what the fuck he was talking about. He told my dad he could get some recordings of what light sounds like or something? I honestly didn’t follow the conversation very well, but I could tell my dad was smitten. He’s probably going to start ordering wedding magazines again. I hate doing this to him.”
“He’d understand,” Ilan told him. “If anyone there would understand why…”
“He wouldn’t understand why I lied to him though,” Julian pointed out, and Ilan went quiet. “There’s only a few days left, but waking up with him in bed is just reminding me that I’m lonely.”
“You could always…”
“No,” Julian snapped. He thought about the soft touches, the chaste kiss, and the one last night that bordered on obscene. He thought about how good it felt—how right it felt—when Will touched him, held him, when he possessed him in front of a crowd of people who would never really believe in him. And he was falling. “I can’t. That is a terrible idea.”
Ilan sighed but he didn’t argue. “I’m going to be there soon. Don’t let Bryce get to you.”
Julian scoffed. “He hasn’t said a word to me since we got here.”
“Good. Hopefully he’s choking on his regret.” Julian heard a sharp sound in the background, then Ilan sighed again. “That’s my alarm, babe.”
“Okay. I can’t wait til you get here.”
“Just be good. I love you, and tell Papa…”
“Ilan, stop fucking calling him that,” he warned, and Ilan laughed.