Page 54 of Saving Ian Pope

“As he should be. I’m not doing anything behind his back like that.”I’ll do other things behind his back, but not this.

“Ian doesn’t know what’s good for him, right now. I don’t see the downside. You want to be with him, he wants to be with you, and the record company is willing to make this happen. It’s a win, win, win, for everyone.”

My nostrils flared. “You forgot one win—for yourself. If Ian goes down, you’re going down with him. No more cushy job, no more perks, no more rubbing elbows with celebrities.”

Jack exploded into harsh laugh. “You think it’s been a cushy job managing Ian Pope? I’m trying to rescue him from his own bad impulses, and apparently, yours too.”

“I can’t accept money to date Ian Pope.”

“Are you playing hardball with me? Because the record company is in a position to pay you a very generous monthly stipend, and all you have to do is be with the man you love.”

“Hardball? You think this is a negotiation tactic?” The pain in my head had migrated to a pain in my gut, and I regretted every spoonful of ice cream.

“Ivy—” Jack’s voice had grown cold, and my heart flip-flopped “—do you really think I would allow Ian to meet some woman at a book fair and spend two weeks with her without vetting that woman?”

The coldness of Jack’s voice had seeped through the phone and had gripped the back of my neck in its icy fingers. “Wh-what do you mean?”

“The day Ian brought you by the hotel, I hired a private investigator.”

I pressed my hands against my fluttering belly. Looked like I might go to prison, anyway. “And?”

“I tried to do a little background investigation on Ivy Chase, but I ran into loads of brick walls. Do you know why?”

He paused, waiting for some kind of response. All I could manage to croak out was, “Why?”

“Because there is no Ivy Chase.”

Chapter 18

IVY

I stirred my margarita as I touched my tongue to the salted rim. I’d lost my taste for alcohol when I’d been teetotaling with Ian. I’d been too busy getting drunk off his kisses.

My friend, Diego, snapped his fingers. “If you’re just going to play with that, girl, hand it over to me. I need as much booze as I can guzzle down tonight after the day I had.”

Pushing her own glass out of the way, Chloe said, “You don’t need to suck down her margarita. Our second round is incoming.”

“Don’t...” Diego held up his hand, the low lights of the bar catching the multiple rings on his fingers and throwing off sparks “...use the wordsuckin my presence. When I think of the effort I put in with that man, I feel like telling him to kiss my gay, Latino ass.”

With Diego’s words hovering over the table, the waitress, in the middle of delivering our drinks, hit the base of a margarita glass on her tray and the pale-yellow liquid spilled onto the table. “Sorry. I’ll get you another.”

“That’s okay.” I blotted the spill with my already soggy cocktail napkin. “I’ll take that one.” I could barely finish the first one, melting in front of me.

When the waitress finished delivering the other two drinks without a mishap, Chloe lifted her glass. “Don’t use the word ass in my presence. When I think of all the uncomfortable things I did with Trent to make him happy, I feel like force feeding him one of these chilies.”

Both Diego and I dropped our jaws at the same time and stared at Chloe, obliviously sipping her drink. I shifted my gaze to Diego and said, “Don’t you dare ask her.”

“What word shouldn’t we mention to you, Ivy?” Chloe dabbed her lips with a napkin, leaving a smear of bright red lipstick. “Money?”

I splayed my hands on the table in front of me, touching my thumbs together. “No words are off limits for me. Knock yourselves out.”

Diego, fully informed about the situation, hunched forward, stroking his sleek black goatee. “I don’t see the downside, Ivy. You get to be with the man, the very hot man, you love...” he cupped his hand around his mouth and leaned toward Chloe “...and stop moping around here, and Ian gets to be with you, which he obviously needs right now, and you can keep your slimy, but also very hot, brother quiet. What’s the problem?”

“It’s deceitful and disrespectful to Ian. I’d be like a paid girlfriend. I’d hate it. That’s why his manager wouldn’t tell him about the arrangement. He knows Ian would shoot it down.”

“Celebrities have paid girlfriends and boyfriends all the time, and I should know.” Diego, a costume designer in the business, patted the breast pocket of his silky green shirt. “Hello, you ever hear of a beard?”

“Except Ian’s not gay, sorry to disappoint you, and he doesn’t need to pay me to be with him.”

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