I’d bowed to the pressure, but then, the night before I was supposed to meet Jacinda Lockwood in the hotel lobby of the St. Regis, I’d chickened out and called it off. Someone else had done the interview instead. It turned out just okay.

“Oliver is the one who introduced us,” Gabe says. “We all thought it would be a mutually beneficial thing, but…”

He pauses.

“I didn’t expect you,” he says.

I freeze.

“I didn’t expect you to show up at my house with your very big eyes and your bad questions and your smart mouth and…”

I’m clutching the counter behind me like it’s the edge of a pool in the deep end and I’m a brand-new swimmer who isn’t sure she’s not going to sink straight to the bottom if she lets go.

Gabe looks up at me, and I hold on tighter.

“You surprised me,” he says.

He smiles, that devastating grin of his—the one that launched a thousand memes.

“They weren’t bad questions,” I say.

“They were.”

We stare at each other for ages.

“What is this?” I finally ask.

Gabe glances down at his glass.

“Water?”

I glare at him.

“What is this?” I ask again, gesturing emphatically between us. “What do you want from me?”

He seems speechless at the question, and I wait for what feels like an eternity for him to answer.

“I wanted to see you,” he finally says.

I throw out my hands, knocking my own glass off the counter, getting water and glass everywhere.

“Shit,” I say.

“Don’t worry about it,” Gabe says.

He doesn’t move.

We stand there, water and glass at our feet, saying nothing.

“I’d like to take you somewhere,” Gabe says.

“Somewhere else?” I ask.

He nods.

“Montana,” he says.

I stare at him.

“You want to take me to Montana?” I ask.

“Yes,” he says.

“You’re nuts,” I say.

He smiles at that. “Yeah, probably,” he says.

“I can’t go with you to Montana,” I say.

“I’ll take care of everything,” he says.

“That’s not why and you know it,” I say.

“I know,” he says.

We stare at each other for a long time.

“I can’t go,” I say.

He nods.

“I can’t,” I say again.

We both know that I’m lying.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

MATTHIAS AND PARKER:
Dynamic Duo
[EXCERPT]

BY ROBIN ROMANOFF

I had been warned that trying to interview Parker and Matthias at the same time was a feat in and of itself. The two friends have known each other for so long and are so enamored of each other’s company that it isn’t long before the interview devolves into the two of them swapping inside jokes and speaking in the kind of shorthand only available to two people as close as they are. It’s clear that their much-lauded friendship is the real deal.