“Hi, Alisha, good to meet you,” he said, taking the next fan’s hand and leaning close, so Alisha could take a selfie while she told him how much she loved him. Alisha had been a fan since the PoP days and had a theory about why they broke up. She didn’t get to finish telling him about it before his minder brought the next fan forward.
Ahmed didn’t want a selfie, just a handshake. After Ahmed came Yoshi, Ruby Lee, and Daquan, then a person called Wizard Excelsior.
Wizard had a long white beard and a purple cape and certainly looked the part. Jay grinned for the selfie, holding Wizard’s curly handled staff for him while he juggled long batwing sleeves and his camera.
“It only comes when you risk. Never make decisions for someone else.” Wizard said in parting. Wizard clearly knew things. It felt a little like Jay had been blessed.
Everything about moving to the States and starting World’s End had been a risk. It’d been going against all the advice he’d ever received. As he handed Wizard back his possibly magic staff, he caught sight of Evie. She’d captured that exchange on video. So far, she’d not posted anything to embarrass him, or earn the wrath of his own marketing people, but that didn’t mean he was in the clear. Evie wasn’t one to back off from a challenge.
When the next fan stepped up, he was still thinking about Evie on her knees, the way she’d gasped when he gathered her hair, a little sound of pleasure he hadn’t expected to receive. “Hi, Yael, nice to meet you. Thanks for coming along.” He leaned into Yael’s side for the photo.
He shouldn’t have touched Evie, not like he’d done. It was intimate, a rim shot of the kind of foreplay they’d once loved, but seeing her like that with Grip again had messed with his game plan to keep his distance.
“Lucas, cool shirt,” he said, high-fiving a guy wearing an incredibly faded PoP Sun and Chaos tour T-shirt. Lucas turned his back and Jay signed the shirt, adding his signature to the ones already collected.
He should’ve walked away when Grip did, not stood there willing Evie to show she wanted more of his touch. Without seeing her face, her eyes, he couldn’t tell. He’d run the shower water so hot it was scalding, trying to work the wrong-footed desire out of his body. Now seeing her train her camera on him, it came thundering back.
“Good to meet you, Melissa.” He shook the fan’s hand and smiled.
There’d been two women in his life before Evie and a lot since. He wasn’t short of options for company, never had been, but it was Evie he wanted at a fuck near-cellular level. Was it about revisiting his youth, or some fucked-up competitive thing that made him want to claim her again? Claim her before Grip got it together to.
“Hi, Addison.” The woman pressed her boobs into him, so he stepped back and put his hand on her shoulder to hold her off. “You’re beautiful, but I gotta keep it G-rated.” It was one of the reasons he didn’t do closed-room grip and grins, wore well-fitted clothing without obvious pockets or places for sneaky hands to drift, and had to have training in how and where he could touch a fan to stop them mauling him without getting complaints.
Not all of the guys minded the boob thrusts and the arse pinches, the sly grazes against your dick or the not so sly hands that came in for a grope. Jay wasn’t partial, and since he was an easy target, he didn’t want to get sued for seeming to grope someone back.
Fifteen more minutes. All the guys were tiring. Only the fans challenging themselves to make Oscar smile were making a noise now and the room was starting to empty out. They’d all get a break before heading off to record a TV appearance. There was no sign of Errol or Mum, but Evie was everywhere, documenting, posting, talking to fans, handing out signed promo materials and checking to see if he was watching her. Whack-a-mole.
“Sorry you had such a long wait, Min,” he said, arm out and raised for the tiny girl to scoot under and take her selfie. Evie took a picture of that and when Min stepped away, pinged the photo to her, making Min jump up and down. Cute, also good for business. His people never did super thoughtful stuff like that for fans.
“Thanks, Evie,” he called, not sure she heard. He had five people left to see. He said each of their names, apologized for the wait, contorted himself and smiled, or pulled a face for the selfie if that’s what they wanted.
Evie didn’t take any more footage, but she made a study of him. Reading him like he was a bar code and she could learn all about where he came from, and what he was made of by watching him work. And didn’t that make for some mental gymnastics. Why was she doing that? What did she want from him?
He was the last one in the room to finish. All the other guys had gone. He thanked his minder and accepted a bottle of water and turned to find Evie close.
“I need a favor,” she said.
He scanned her face
to see if there was a catch. “Okay.”
“You’re a natural at this,” she said, with an arm wave at the rope barrier and the strip of red carpet fans had waited on.
Doing fan meet and greets always made him self-conscious. He found it more exhausting than playing a gig. But it wasn’t supposed to look like that and he’d learned to hide his discomfort. "We’re nothing without fans buying our stuff.”
“You know how to avoid the worst of the groping and how not to creep on people. Teach Abel and Isaac. No one wants to maul Oscar, no one would dare, and Grip wants everyone to maul him.”
Jay took a sip of water while he thought about that. Letting Abel take the lead had worked well at rehearsals. It might not work so well if he tried to ram his expertise into Abel’s face.
“Unless it’s too much trouble,” Evie said into the silence with an eye roll, before she turned to walk away.
“Evie.”
She ignored him. Kept moving.
“Evie. About yesterday.”
She stopped.