Page 12 of Saving Ian Pope

Several minutes later as we were eating, two women approached us. “Hi Ian, can we get a picture with you?”

He dropped his plastic fork and wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Yes, my pleasure.”

I continued eating as the women got selfies with him on their phones and had him sign various items. Before he could sit down, another group mobbed him, requesting his picture, his signature, his time. The fandom wasn’t limited to females. A young, Latino man held out his tattooed arms to compare his ink to Ian’s, and Ian graciously consented to more photos.

As the crowd continued to press on him, they chattered as if they knew him personally. In fact, they seemed to know a lot more about him than I did. They commented on his long hair and how it was different from how he usually wore it. They wondered where he’d been for the past several months and why they hadn’t seen him on social media. They asked him about the other boys in the band, and if he’d seen them, talked to them, gone to their concerts. One or two asked him if he was feeling better. Had he not been feeling okay?

As the frenzy around him dissipated, a final fan approached him, a middle-aged woman who wanted a picture for her daughter, who’d plastered her bedroom with Five2Go posters as a teen.

Ian offered to take her phone and do the honors of a selfie and as the woman stepped forward, she noticed me. I’d finished my dinner by this time.

“Oh, are you a couple? Is this your girlfriend, hon? You two look so cute together. Come, come.” She gestured toward me. “I’d like a picture of you both.”

I plastered a stiff smile on my face, as I swung my leg over the picnic bench, plate in hand. Ian put his hands together in a pleading gesture. He just couldn’t disappoint a fan. Had to be the sea lion.

“Sure, let me drop this in the trash first.” I tossed my plate into the trashcan and turned back toward Ian. I stood beside him, my jaw aching from the smile on my face.

He curled an arm around my waist and pinched me.

“Thank you, so much.” The woman turned away, and I grabbed her arm. “I’m sure your daughter would love a proper picture of her mom with her favorite boybander. I’ll take your picture with Ian.”

“Thank you, hon. She would like that.” The woman handed me her phone and stepped forward to stand beside Ian, who put his arm around her.

With my thumb, I switched to the woman’s photos and deleted the two pictures she’d taken of me and Ian. I had no idea what the woman planned to do with the pictures, but I couldn’t risk them going out on social media.

Not if I wanted to keep Matt’s nose out of my business.

I lifted the phone. “Smile.”

Chapter 5

IVY

Ian captured my hand again as we walked back to my car in the lot. “Sorry about that back there. It must be overwhelming for you.”

“What about you? I’ve experienced it with you a few times already, and I’m not even the target. Can’t you politely decline?”

“I suppose I could, but then you have people attacking you online for being stand-offish.” He shrugged. “You get used to it.”

“I know...the pact.” I muttered, “sea lion,” as I aimed my key fob at my car and pressed it, my car answering with a beep. When we got into the vehicle, I drank some water left over in the bottle in my cup holder and fished around in my purse. “Do you want some gum?”

Not that I was thinking about kissing him again or anything.

He held out his hand. “Thanks.”

I dropped a piece in his hand and started the car. “I don’t even know where you’re staying, but I can drive you there.”

“I’m at the Beverly Hills Hotel.”

“Of course you are.” I wheeled out of my parking space. “No freeway to get there from here, so it’s going to be a stop and go drive down Santa Monica Boulevard.”

“You’re not going to drive me all the way to the hotel and then back to your place.”

“I’m not?” My pulse ticked up a few notches. What did he have in mind?

“Just drive home, and I’ll get a ride from there.”

“Okay.” I’d aimed for a bright tone to cover my disappointment and ended up sounding like a deranged Mary Poppins. I clicked through the source button on the steering wheel to get to the music on my phone and turned it up to cover the awkwardness.

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