by Shawn Lane
“Yeah. They’re really expensive. The photo-ops and autographs in particular,” I replied, perhaps with a touch of annoyance in my voice.
Sebastian laughed. “Yeah, I hear you. Sorry about that.”
“You’re the most expensive.”
“Am I?”
“Well, he is the captain, Marty,” Jack spoke up.
“True.”
“Are you planning on having your picture taken with me?” Sebastian asked.
Just then, the waiter appeared at our table. Sebastian ordered a glass of chardonnay, whereas I ordered an iced tea and Jack a beer. I really wasn’t much of a drinker. An occasional glass of wine, domestic beer or a whiskey neat, but most of the time I stuck to coffee or tea.
“I’m thinking about it,” I admitted. “But I’ve already decided to have the photo-op with Derek DeLong.”
“Ah.” He nodded. “Yeah, everyone loves his character. Five is very popular.”
“No more than you, though, I’d bet.”
Sebastian shrugged. “You’d be surprised.”
Jack had been watching us. Or rather, he’d been watching me watch Sebastian. He set down his menu and tapped the table with his fingers for a moment. I could almost see the wheels in his head turning. “You know what?”
“Hmm?”
“I forgot there was something I needed to do,” Jack said.
I frowned. “What? What are you talking about?”
“I can’t really stay for lunch after all.”
“B-but you already ordered a-a beer,” I stammered as though that were the most important thing.
“You drink it.” Jack got out of his chair and turned to Sebastian. “Mr. Lookinland, it was a pleasure to meet you. And I’m sorry I can’t stay for lunch.”
“It’s Sebastian, please. And it was great to meet you, too, Jack.”
I had no idea what had just gotten into Jack’s head as I watched him leave our table. I was bemused.
I cleared my throat. “Sorry about that. I really don’t get him sometimes.”
Sebastian smiled. “I have siblings, so don’t worry about it.”
“Yeah? Where’d you grow up, anyway?” I asked. They hadn’t really given a lot of information on Sebastian in the official bio Space Heroes released or even on his IMDB listing.
“Vermont, actually. A hundred years or so ago.”
“A hundred years? You have amazing skin.”
He chuckled and I blushed.
“Sorry, that was lame.”
“Not at all. Do I make you nervous, Martin?”
“Yeah. I mean I don’t really meet a lot of famous actors.”
Sebastian shook his head. “I wouldn’t really call myself that famous.”
“Oh, sure. That’s why you’re all over the magazines. Because you aren’t that famous.”
“Well, okay. Maybe a little famous. Do you live in Seattle?”
“San Diego.”
“I live in L.A. now. It’s been years since I’ve been back to Vermont.”
Before I could reply, the waiter returned with our drinks. He put down Jack’s beer and didn’t comment on the table being occupied by only two now.
I ordered a burger and Sebastian ordered a salad with shrimp and dressing on the side.
“My agent screams ‘bloody murder’ if I gain a few pounds,” Sebastian told me as the waiter walked away.
“Occupational hazard, I suppose.”
“What do you do down there in San Diego?” he asked.
“I teach astronomy at one of the universities there.”
He grinned. “So you’re a real space dude.”
“I suppose you could say that.”
I found myself reaching for Jack’s beer and I took a sip. I wasn’t much for imported beer, but it went down smooth enough. I thought I maybe needed a little liquid courage. I might be wrong, because that had been known to happen, but I could have sworn that Sebastian was flirting with me. I was pretty sure he was straight, though, but with a little bit of alcohol in me, I might be brave enough to find out.
“Vermont, huh? I knew someone who lived there when I was a kid.”
He gave me a quizzical look. “Yeah? Wait a minute. Astronomy. Your brother called you Marty. Shit.” He suddenly looked wide-eyed at me. “You’re not Marty Brooks, are you?”
I frowned. “Yeah, I am. But—?”
“Fuck. Small world.” He sighed, shaking his head. “Jesus. Marty, I’m Spencer. Spencer Macalister.”
For a moment, all I could do was stare. My stomach felt like it had the lining fall out or something. Of all the things I imagined happening in my life, discovering that Sebastian Lookinland was my old pen pal from school was not one of them.
“But your name—”
“Long story. I changed it years ago when I decided I wanted to be an actor.”
“Spencer Macalister wasn’t enough of a Hollywood-sounding name?”
He winced. “Yeah. I guess. But there were other, more personal reasons I didn’t want the name following me. Wow, I just…I never imagined.”
“Me, either,” I admitted.
“Remember how we signed our letters?”
“Making a Wish. Of course I remember.” I blushed. “I was such a geek then. Well, more than I am now.”
“No,” Sebastian denied. “No more than I was. And look at you now. Marty, you’re gorgeous.”
“You’re the one who’s gorgeous,” I muttered. “Sebastian. Or Spencer? Which do I call you?”
“Sebastian’s good. I legally changed my name.” He smiled. “I don’t believe in coincidences. This must be some kind of fate or something.”
I couldn’t help but snort. “I don’t believe in fate.”
“A science guy to the last. God, it’s really great to finally meet you in person.”
“Yeah.”
The waiter came with our food, then after determining if we needed anything else, moved off once more.
“You know, I always wondered why you stopped writing to me,” I brought up as we began to dig into our lunches.
“I’m really sorry about that, Marty. Things weren’t good for me at home then. I pretty much withdrew into myself. And I left home when I was still a minor. Ran away from home.”
“Things were that bad?”
He licked his lips. “Yeah, they were bad. But I never meant to hurt you.”
I waved that away. “I forgot about that years ago. Mostly, anyway. I just really liked you and was afraid I’d done something to make you not want to be friends with me.”
“It wasn’t you,” he assured me.
“I had no idea you’d become an actor. You never mentioned it in your letters.”
“I didn’t want that then. That all came later.” He glanced at his watch. “Damn, I really have to go. I’m meeting some people in a bit.” He stopped the waiter as he walked by and handed his credit card to him. He shushed my protests when he told me he was paying for it. Then he said, “Listen, I know the convention night goes late and everything. I’ve got stuff to do myself tied to it. You think you might want to get together later to talk some more and whatever?”
It was the “whatever” part that piqued my interest. Sebastian was gorgeous, and as I recalled, he had revealed all those years ago that he was bisexual. I was pretty sure now that I hadn’t misread his flirting interest. And I suspected Jack had recognized it, too, and that was why he had split from lunch. I couldn’t deny that a fling with a handsome super celebrity from my favorite movies would be a complete thrill. Even if I didn’t really do flings. But then again, I had never been to a Space Heroes convention before, and I had never found out Sebastian Lookinland was my old childhood pen pal.
“I’d really like that,” I told him.
He flashed me a winning smile that was sure to make men and women alike swoon, and handed me his card. “This has my cell number on it. Call me tonight when you’re done with convention stuff. My room number is 2121.”
Sebast
ian rose from the table and signed for the check as the waiter returned with his credit card. Then he gave me a final wave as he left the restaurant.
Chapter 4
I found Jack in the hotel bar, perched on a stool. There was one next to it, so I took it.
Jack smirked at me. “So?”
“So, what?” I gestured to the bartender who came toward me. “Bud Light, please.”
As the bartender moved off, Jack nudged me with his foot. “How did things go with Captain Fabulous?”
“He is pretty fabulous, isn’t he?”
“I thought you were into Derek DeLong?’
“I still think Derek is really cute,” I told my brother. “I just acknowledge Sebastian is a lot different than I had assumed. And you…what was that all about? Why’d you bail?”
Jack shrugged. “I could see I was the third wheel.” He lowered his voice and glanced around the bar. “I didn’t know he was gay.”
“He’s not.”
Jack arched a brow. “Well, he was sure ogling you.”
“He was hardly ogling me. I just meant as far as I know, he’s bi.”
“Swings both ways, huh? I haven’t heard much about that in the Hollywood gossip stuff.”
I almost choked on the beer the bartender had set in front of me. “Since when do you pay attention to that crap anyway?”
He shrugged. “Here and there. I’ve got no life. Might as well read about someone else’s. Are you going to see him again?”
I took a long swallow of the beer, then set it back on the bar. “Yeah, actually. After all the convention stuff.”
“Aha. And did he provide you his room number?”
I flushed. “He did.”
“I can’t believe it’s our first night here and you’re getting lucky with a big star.”
“Keep your voice down, will ya? This place is crawling with convention-goers like us. Nobody needs to know our business. Anyway, it’s not like that. Exactly.”
“What is it like, exactly?”
“You need another drink?” I flicked my head in the direction of his empty beer bottle.
“Yeah.” Jack motioned to the bartender, who brought him another bottle. Fancy imported stuff, I noticed.
“We sort of know each other,” I said after a while.
“What do you mean?”
“Remember years ago when I had that pen pal?”
“Even then you were a major dork,” Jack commented judiciously.
“Thanks. Anyway, Spencer—I mean, Sebastian—well that’s him.”
“Wow, really? How weird is that? Small world.”
“Completely.”
“So is it Spencer or Sebastian?”
“It’s Sebastian now, I guess. But when I used to keep in touch with him, it was Spencer. He said he legally changed it. A lot of actors do.”
“Not so much anymore. Studios used to make them when they had oddball names. Most of them keep their names now.”
I shrugged. “I got the impression he may have changed it even before acting. I don’t really know.”
“And it just came up in conversation that you two are old pen pals?”
I lifted my beer to my lips. “Pretty much.”
Jack shook his head, then dug in his pocket for something.
“What are you doing?”
“Looking for the schedule for tonight. Want to plan what we can see.”
He smoothed the schedule out in front of him and I leaned over to look at what was listed for Thursday. He stabbed his finger at an item. “We’ve got the Gold Ticket cocktail party and buffet dinner at seven. A few of the minor actors from the movies are supposed to be in attendance for that. We’re not supposed to ask for autographs or anything during the dinner.”
“Right, because that all costs extra.”
Jack glanced at me. “You know how these things work, Marty. It’s all about making a profit.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Before that, the producers are having a question-and-answer thing in the Farady room.”
“Farady? Like the planet from the movies?”
“Of course like the planet. They name all these rooms after stuff in the Space Heroes movies. That’s at 5:30. Let’s go to that, then the dinner.”
“Do we have to dress for the dinner?”
“I’m sure some will be in costumes.”
“Well, yeah, but I meant like wear nice clothes.”
Jack rolled his eyes at me. “No, Marty. It’s a convention. Not the Academy Awards. So looks like we have time if you really want to unpack your shit.”
I nodded. “I do. I hate wrinkles.”
“What are you going to do when you’re old?”
I shoved him and he just laughed.
* * * *
We’d gone to the Farady room a few minutes early to pick seats, but I quickly realized we hadn’t arrived there early enough because the room was almost entirely full. Jack and I managed to spot a couple of seats together way in the back.
As the producers took the stage, I kind of got why it had turned out to be so popular when, accompanying them, were stars Dee-Dee Cabot and Derek DeLong. No sign of Sebastian, though. Still, the crowd murmured with excitement. The program hadn’t indicated the stars would be in this room this hour, but judging by the crowd, news had leaked out.
“There’s your boy,” Jack said, leaning over to me.
I had to admit, Derek looked really good. He was dressed in tightfitting jeans and a shirt with three quarter sleeves that looked like it might have been painted on. It was a light shade of lavender.
“Still got the heart eyes for him?” Jack smirked.
“He’s really cute.”
“Cuter than Sebastian?”
“Perky cute, yeah,” I replied. “But Sebastian is sexier.”
“Never thought I’d hear you admit that.”
I shrugged. “Well.”
“Dee-Dee is smoking’.”
They began their presentation then, so we quieted down. The producers talked about all the prior movies, and Derek and Dee-Dee both even answered a few questions. Then at the end, the Executive Producer announced they were in the planning stages for another sequel. The room fell into chaos with my fellow geeks going wild. This was the first real confirmation there would be another movie in the franchise. They didn’t take any more questions after that, but they did confirm before leaving the stage that the cast would be back for the next one. All the cast.
Things kind of went fast from there as Jack and I had to get to the cocktail party and buffet dinner for Gold Ticket holders. As the program had said, there were no main cast members at the dinner, but it ended up being pretty fun just the same.
Jack and I went for another drink in the bar. It was nearing eleven when Jack finally wandered up to our room, more than a little tipsy but happy.
I stayed behind in the lobby and fished my cell phone out of my pocket. Now that hours had passed since I last saw Sebastian, I wasn’t sure if him wanting to see me had been sincere or just something he said to any lust-struck fan he ran into that happened to have a prior connection to him.
With a shaky breath I mostly tried to ignore, I called the number. It rang a few times. I tried not to get obsessive and count.
Finally a muffled, “Hello.”
“Uh. Hi. It’s Marty. Martin Brooks.”
There was a pause that seemed more than a little awkward, and for a moment, I thought he was going to say he’d forgotten he told me to contact him and would blow me off.
“Marty.” His voice sounded soft, almost lilting. “Want to come up?”
I swallowed. “To your room?”
A low chuckle. “Where else? You remember the number?”
“It’s 2121.”
“See you when you get here.”
And the call was disconnected.
Chapter 5
As I stood outside the room marked 2121, I kept waiting for some hotel employee to come dashing up to me to
tell me I didn’t belong on this floor. Even the carpet was plusher, cleaner. The light fixtures in the hallways were chandeliers.
Of course I knew that wouldn’t happen. There’d been a guard stationed just outside the elevator doors who demanded what business I’d had on that floor the minute I’d stepped out of the elevator. I quickly explained, the guard phoned Sebastian, and here I was.
I tapped lightly on the door. I could hear the faintest sound of footsteps approaching and half-expected a butler to open the door, but instead, it was Sebastian himself and he looked…glorious.
“Hi.” He flashed me a great smile and stepped aside to let me into his giant hotel room…suite.
It was a suite. It had a large living room, a kitchen, a wet bar, and what looked like two bedrooms off either side of the living room. There were sliding glass doors next to the dining room that apparently led out to a balcony overlooking the Seattle skyline. It was bigger than my own house.
As though he read my mind, Sebastian smiled rather sheepishly. “They insisted. The convention organizers. A little bit much, wouldn’t you say?”
“Nah, it’s beautiful. A great room. Rooms.”
Sebastian looked like he had showered recently as his hair was damp and a little unkempt, but it just made him look sexier, and there was a slightly pink hue to his skin. He wore only a pair of low slung jeans. No shirt. And I had to admire his six-pack abs, and perfectly defined biceps. Not too muscular, just about right.
“How’d your first evening go?” he asked as he headed for the wet bar. “Brandy?”
“I’ve kind of already had too much to drink as it is, so I’ll pass.”
“Mind if I do?”
“Oh, go ahead. It’s just that I’ve visited the bar twice with my brother since I got here and normally I’m not much of a drinker.”
“The celebratory atmosphere.”
He filled the snifter with amber liquor and turned to me with his lips curved just slightly upward. It made his dimples come out in both of his cheeks, and for a moment I wondered why I never really thought about how hot he was. He no longer wore the glasses he had on earlier in the day. I still wore mine, of course. I wouldn’t be able to see him in all his gorgeousness otherwise.
“So, you never answered.”
