The Charm Offensive(83)
“Chaz!” Josh shouts when he sees Charlie. “Bro, it’s been too long!”
Josh hugs Charlie. Charlie tenses.
“Still weird about touching, huh?” Josh chuckles and gives Charlie’s arm the most patronizing pat. “That’s my Chaz.”
There is no version of Charlie Winshaw that would willingly consent to a nickname like Chaz, and Dev is pissed about this whole thing before he even sits down.
“And who’s this?”
Charlie turns awkwardly to Dev, his brow a jumbled mess of anxiety. “This is my… producer. Dev.”
My producer.
Josh looks momentarily confused as to why Charlie brought his producer to a business meeting, but he eventually shrugs, as if to say only Charlie. They sit down, and Josh has already ordered a round of Bloody Marys to get them started. Dev ignores his.
Josh begins talking about second-quarter earnings and Nasdaq and some summit in Tokyo while Charlie nervously sweats all over his linen napkin. Dev studies the man who humiliated his boyfriend and iced him out of an entire industry.
Sorry. His talent.
Josh Han is as handsome in person as he always is in product launch videos. His thick dark hair is perfectly styled, and he has a gorgeous jaw Dev would like to stroke before he punches it.
Except Dev can’t punch Josh Han, because this is Charlie’s chance to get everything he wants.
“Honestly, I couldn’t believe it when I heard you agreed to do that show,” Josh is saying, stirring his celery around his empty glass. “But the hype for the season is insane. It’s all anyone is talking about.”
“Oh, well, I… um…” It’s like someone flipped a switch to turn him back into that version of Charlie who fell out of the town car on night one.
Under the table, Dev puts a hand on Charlie’s knee to calm him. “We are so lucky to have Charlie as our star. He’s honestly been one of the best princes we’ve ever had. I think the season will be fantastic.”
Josh laughs, and it’s clearly at someone’s expense. “You should’ve seen him in college. Girls used to follow him around campus, but he was totally oblivious,” he says, speaking about Charlie like he isn’t right here. “I don’t even think he kissed anyone until— What was her name? Senior year? Remember, I had to arrange it for you, and you still managed to fuck it up.”
Josh laughs again, and Charlie becomes smaller, shrinking in his gray suit.
“Ha. Ha.” Dev makes those two syllables as cutting as possible. “It’s so humorous when you mock him for not conforming to your hypersexualized notions of masculinity.”
“Whoa, dude.” Josh Han holds up two hands. Next to him, Charlie shoots Dev a look.
“You, uh, said in your text you might… work?”
A server comes to the table, and Josh takes the liberty of ordering for everyone before he deigns to offer Charlie a glance. “Yeah, I might have a gig for you, actually,” and even this is so laced with condescension Dev has to clamp his jaw shut to stop himself from screaming. “We’ve acquired this new startup for their dating app—great concept, runs like TikTok—but our engineers are having problems integrating the app into our existing codebase, and we’ve run into a ton of problems. No one knows the WinHan codebase like you do.”
Dev can feel the way every muscle in Charlie’s body seems to be holding its breath. “You’re offering me a job?”
“Unless you’ve already got something else lined up when you’re done with the whole fairy-tale thing.”
Josh knows Charlie doesn’t have a job lined up, knows he has effectively prevented his college best friend from working anywhere. Charlie was a liability with investors before, but now that Charlie is about to become one of the most famous men in the country when his season finally starts to air—now that WinHan needs him—Josh is going to act like none of that ever happened.
“You want me to run this startup?” Charlie asks. He sounds so damn hopeful.
“Well, not run it, no. I just need you to integrate the code. We’d hire you as a contractor. I know it’s been hard for you since everything went down at WinHan, and I figured you need this. And who knows? If this goes well and you’ve got your little quirks under control, maybe we can even talk about bringing you back into the office.”
And then Dev has to say something, or else he truly will punch Josh Han in his chiseled jaw. “Are you kidding me right now?”
Charlie manages a warning “Dev” under his breath, but Dev is already too far gone, only dimly aware that one shouldn’t shout in a restaurant with four different crystal chandeliers.
“How can you sit there and insult him like this, offer to hire him as a contractor when his name is still half the company title? You built your fortune on his brain, and now you want him to beg for a chance to be let back in the building? Fuck you.”
“Hey, now,” Josh says, scanning the room to see which important people are witnessing this little blowup. Even in humiliation, Josh is handsome and poised, and some part of Dev’s brain that isn’t overwhelmed with rage wonders if some part of Charlie’s brain loved Josh Han before he knew what it meant to have feelings for another man. Is that why Josh has the power to make Charlie feel so powerless?
The thought only intensifies Dev’s anger. No wonder Charlie came on the show believing he doesn’t deserve love the way he is. Every single person he’s ever loved has only reinforced his conviction that he’s not enough.