The gossip columnist dude moved around to take Kix’s abandoned chair. “I’m Jado,” he said with a flirty grin. “And you’re goddamned adorable up close.”
“Thanks,” I said with my media smile. “I think I remember you from the Rampart release party.”
He nodded enthusiastically. “That party was wild, man. I barely remember it.”
Logan leaned over and spoke low in my ear. “Shelly is going to let a few more fans in here. That okay with you?”
It was so nice of him to ask, I immediately agreed like an idiot.
Jado laughed and leaned against my shoulder. “Man, that night was sick. You were there with… gosh, I can’t remember now. Who were you with?”
I’d been there with Iris’s assistant, Dawson, because he’d begged for an introduction to one of my co-stars.
“What do you do, Jado?” I asked, as if he hadn’t been talking about the party.
He laughed again and nudged my shoulder harder. “I work in online marketing. It’s not as boring as it sounds, I promise.”
I didn’t care. I didn’t care about any of this. I was at a private party with some of the world’s biggest celebrities, and all I wanted to do was go home and pull out my well-worn copy of Hamlet so I could think up exercises for Solomon.
“That’s great,” I said instead. Thankfully, the fans Shelly invited into the room quickly surrounded us, begging for selfies and autographs. For once, I was happy to engage with anyone and everyone in Aster Valley who wanted to meet me, but I quickly realized doing this in the evening at a place that served alcohol wasn’t the best idea.
Many of the fans were getting handsy.
I made my way over to Shelly and told her I needed someone to help keep people from getting in my personal space. She laughed. “I thought you were joking when you expressed security concerns to Nolan.”
I opened my mouth to ask her what the hell she was talking about since that wasn’t at all what had happened, when Jado came up behind me and slid his arms around my front like he had rights to my body. I quickly pulled him off me and lifted an eyebrow at Shelly.
She dropped her smile and nodded. “I’ll call the sheriff’s office and see if we can’t get—”
“No!” I blurted before she could finish. The last thing I wanted was Sheriff Stone coming out yet again to find me surrounded by fans like an idiot. This was my fault. I should have known the private room wouldn’t make a difference, and I’d even said yes to inviting more people into it. “Not necessary. Actually, I’ve got those climbing scenes in the morning, so I’m going to go.”
She nodded and agreed that was probably a good idea considering my call schedule the following day.
When I turned to make my apologies, Jado begged me to stay for another drink. I politely declined. After finally pushing my way out of the bar and into the clear night, I noticed Jado jogging up behind me.
“Please god let me come home with you. Let me blow your mind. I’d give anything to suck you off.”
My stomach turned over. I didn’t feel physically threatened by him at all, but I’d also heard enough horror stories not to be naive about interactions with fans.
“No, thank you. I really need to get some sleep.”
“At least let me have your number so we can arrange another night,” he said with that same flirty smile.
I shook my head, wondering if I should tell him to try it on with Kix since Kix was usually up for anything. But I didn’t want to be responsible for Kix saying something stupid that might end up online, so I kept my mouth shut.
“Good night,” I finally said, wishing I had a standard set of keys instead of this useless Senturion key on my wrist.
Thankfully, he didn’t follow me to the car. I drove away with shaky hands and a familiar feeling of being terrible at the public-facing side of this business. Even though Roshawna had been a miracle worker in helping me tackle my acting nerves, I’d never felt fully confident in front of the public again. Maybe it was a side effect of growing up. Maybe all young children had nerves of steel and lost them at some point along the way.
Regardless, the drive back to the chalet was filled with second-guessing and negative self-talk, the exact opposite of the way I’d begun the day. No. Unacceptable. I reached for my phone to connect it to the car so I could play some cheer-up music on the way up the mountain, but the phone slid out of my hand and tumbled to the floor beneath my feet.
I swerved a little but quickly gave up on retrieving my phone in order to concentrate on the curvy turns.