Page 30 of Coming Out at Crofton Hall

“Oh. Wouldn’t that be a bit awkward… given the history?”

“Robin’s my ex, and I want to show I’m supportive of him and his new partner.”

He’d been poking around on some of the Instagram posts shipping Robin and Dorian. People were engrossed in the lives of the rich and famous, obsessively so in some cases, with reel after reel discussing perfect destination weddings or houses they’d love. There were even a couple discussing how to persuade Robin to ditch his boyfriend.

“Some of your fans are rather excited by the option that you and Robin could get back together.”

“Yeah, I know. So having Simon and Robin there as a couple will signify I’m backing them. And that was something else I’d like you to help with. If I give you the details, could you contact the event organiser and get them added?”

Dorian was more thoughtful than he’d given him credit for. “I can call on your behalf, but they might want you to verify that it’s you asking.”

“I doubt they’ll mind them coming.”

“I’m sure they won’t. You and your ex on the red carpet will be great publicity. Especially as he’s a Flint.” He chuckled. “It’s more they might not believe me.”

“Oh, I see.”

He wondered if there was an easy fix for this. “We could have me listed as one of your contacts on your official website with a dedicated email address, no doubt it’ll get flooded with all sorts of weird stuff but I can do a search for things we might be expecting and set up some rules to funnel things to the bin.”

“Yes, I suppose. I don’t manage that either, but I have the details of the guys who do.”

“I know you want to keep a low profile, but we’re going to need to put a few things in place and that’ll mean people need to know an official way to contact you in the interim.”

Dorian didn’t look comfortable with the idea but he was going to have to accept the way the world worked. “I’ll email Jarrett, the IT guy and get the site updated.”

“If you have an email you use for business then you could give me access and the log-in details and I could organise things that way.”

“Yeah, I do. I’ll send you them.

“Did you have a think about the list of non-normal people concerns we talked about?”

“Yeah. Hang on.” He pulled out a crumpled piece of paper and handed it over.

Alex had dealt with documents in a worse state and he smoothed out the wrinkles to read Dorian’s ideas. Some of them were not inconsiderable, such as selling three US-based properties and hiring pretty much an entire team of people. “These will take a while.”

“I know. But on the top of the list is changing my manager and agent. I want to make sure things are coming to me not them so I’ll need to get the word out somehow and quickly.”

Alex knew Dorian wasn’t a businessman, but he needed to protect himself. “I really think you should consult a lawyer first, I’m sure you’ve all sorts of contracts in place and you don’t want to be liable or sued for something. Do you already have a legal team?”

Again Dorian appeared pained. “Yeah, they’ve got offices in London and LA. I’ve been in touch with the LA team about the next film I was supposed to do and the promo things for the last one that I might be able to get out of.”

“Then give me the details—the price you’ll be paying they can send someone from their London branch here.” He scribbled down a note. “Do you have them with you?”

Dorian extracted his phone from his jeans pocket. “I should do, might take me a while.”

Alex grabbed a sticky note and wrote down his Crofton Hall email and mobile number. “Here, send them on by email or text. I’ll set up a spreadsheet to capture everything and share it with you so you can see how everything is being kept.”

“Thanks, Alex, it’s all a bit overwhelming. I just want to get the premiere over and have the space to think things through.”

He smiled encouragingly. “Just do the best you can. You’re trying to figure out what your life will look like for you in the future—be kind to yourself as you do it.”

“Being famous isn’t what I thought it would be like. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had the best of everything, but it’s come at a price.”

“You don’t have to pay the piper anymore. You could just retire and enjoy being out of the limelight. The fuss will die down and if you want you could fade away.”

He shook his head. “That’ll feel like I’m hiding. And I do want to continue acting, just not what I was doing before. My fans are great—mostly—even if some are a bit obsessed about my love life.”

“Or lack of. Which is why they are filling the void. I have to say some of them have amazing Photoshop skills.”

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