Starling (Love in Los Angeles, #1)

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Alex signs the papers. He tries to read all of them first and fails, not because it’s hard, but because it’s boring. He worries a little bit for his soul as he scratches a pen, not fine enough for the occasion, over page after page of agreements. Victor looms from behind his desk. A network executive stand at his side. When it’s all over, they both shake his hand.

As far as the union is concerned he’s J. Alex Cook. There was already an Alex Cook and an Alexander Cook, and the thought of being called Jasper, as his mother named him, in TV Guide is more absurd than he can reasonably handle.

Work begins immediately.

Six weeks later, in the first week of September, the episode with the unintentional repartee airs. Gemma watches it and cackles loudly enough for Alex to hear from his bedroom, where he’s got headphones jammed on while he goes over his lines for the next day.

Three weeks after that, Zach gets his first plot. From there everything goes crazy.

Somehow, it all harks back to that first line from Liam. The fans who always wanted James to be gay suddenly have someone for him to be gay with, which is infuriating. The actual point of that moment was that James is an asshole who doesn’t view other people as real. But now that corner of the world wants a romance.

The ridiculousness manages to spread to the rest of the audience in part because Liam plays it up on his social media in a way that leads to the appallingly offensive #WhosTheTwink hashtag. Gemma sends him the link, and Alex makes the mistake of looking at it between scenes at work. He proceeds to flip out until Victor, who seems to be everywhere these days, asks him why he cares.

“You’re gay, you’re young, and you’re beautiful, Alex. Why does this bother you?”

“Other than the fact that the straight internet is tweeting it ’til it trends?” Alex snaps.

“Yes.”

“I’m smarter than that,” Alex tells him. “And I’m from Indiana.”

He’s grateful that Victor takes that for the answer it is. The thought of trying to articulate it further is painful.

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