21

Brough and Oscar Buzz stood face to face at Birmingham International. Oscar’s flight to L.A. was due to leave in a few minutes. Around them, camera flashes went off and reporters yelled questions, and called Oscar’s name trying to get his attention. But Oscar only had eyes and ears for David Brough.

“Your hair looks great,” he grinned.

“You saw it last night,” said Brough.

Oscar’s eyebrows flew up. “Oh, was that you?”

They laughed.

“I can’t believe it happened,” said Brough. “I can’t believe you were really here. It all seems so... unlikely.”

Oscar shook his head. “You put this down to coincidence? You really are -what’s that word again? - a plum. You forget I have clout. I was determined to come to England and meet the friend who’d kept me going these past twelve months. So when I heard they were going to make a movie in your home town, well - I pulled all the strings I could get my hands on.”

“You - you chose to come here?”

“Of course I did. I didn’t want to be in a crappy hospital-stroke-terrorist movie. I wanted to meet you. But I didn’t know where to reach you; you never gave me your address. And then -”

“And then Dan the stand-in turned up!” Brough blushed. “I knew I should have been straight with you from the start.”

“Oh, no,” Oscar laughed, “the last thing I want is for you to be straight with me.”

The public address system announced last call for the flight.

“You’d better go,” Brough’s face fell. “Hollywood awaits.”

“Fuck Hollywood,” said Oscar. “I’m going to spend some time with my brothers. I’ll set the one up with whatever he wants, and make sure the other has everything he needs. Movies can wait.”

“So this is goodbye, then?”

“No, this is just a ‘see you’,” Oscar took Brough’s hand. The camera flashes went into overdrive. “This is a ‘tweet you later’.” He pulled Brough closer to him and folded his arm around him in an embrace. “This is a - well, I guess this is a status update.”

He kissed Brough long and hard on the lips. The reporters couldn’t believe their luck. They clamoured for Oscar’s attention but he ignored them. With one last killer smile, he turned from Brough and walked towards the gate.

The reporters swarmed around the mystery boyfriend and bombarded him with questions, but the mystery boyfriend didn’t answer. He was watching his movie star lover walk away until he disappeared from view.