Maximum Commitment (Sin City #13) - Tricia Owens Page 0,8
lashes up at Theo. “Please?”
He smiled apologetically and gave her a consolation squeeze. “Sorry. The big guy says no. I gotta obey him or he’ll break both my legs.”
She giggled and threw Ethan another resentful look, though this one was tempered with a healthy dose of caution after Theo’s remark. She reluctantly released him and rushed off into the crowd with her friend, both of them staring at her phone.
Theo should have had a handler here. Publicity events like this one always had one. Ethan wasn’t sure if the guy and his agent were being cheap and using Ethan for double duty, or if neither of them felt a handler was needed. It made Ethan work extra hard to not only keep an eye on the crowd and who joined it, but also run interference when some of the fans became too handsy or demanding. The one young girl employed by the venue seemed barely capable of corralling newly arriving fans into line.
Ethan felt tired, though nothing he had done today was physically wearing. He was used to standing for hours at a time, often while not moving anything but his eyes. It was the noise that was getting to him—the constant calls out to Theo that he encouraged by chirping back with quips and flirty remarks, that bothered Ethan. He’d never begrudge a celebrity from acting friendly toward their fans, but the disingenuousness rubbed him wrong. Theo had reiterated at least three times during the drive from the first venue to this one that he couldn’t stand people and could barely tolerate his own fans.
“Is Loren coming here?”
The question pierced Ethan’s depressing thoughts, drawing his attention to a brown-haired man in his late twenties who stood next in line for a photograph with Theo. Freckles spread in a horizontal constellation across the bridge of his nose.
“Loren’s in California,” Theo said as the crowd finally quieted down, apparently eager to hear gossip about the duo. “I’m going solo this week.”
“Is it true you guys are living together?” Freckles persisted. The intent way he stared at Theo as he waited for an answer made Ethan uneasy.
“That’s kinda personal, as in Loren would personally kick my butt if I talked about him while he wasn’t here,” Theo said with a wide grin, earning laughter from everyone but the man who’d asked him the question.
“But you guys are living together, right?”
Theo finished taking a photo with the two girls he was with currently and motioned at the questioner. “Alright, partner. Let’s get this photo for you.”
“You sure he won’t be jealous?” the man asked, not moving forward. “Or are you not worried because you know he’s actually straight?”
“You want your photo or not?” Ethan said, stepping toward them. “This isn’t a Q&A. Please step aside and make room for others if you’re not here for a photo.”
Freckles looked Ethan up and down. “Are you Theo’s real boyfriend?”
Ethan inwardly sighed. “Let’s go have a talk.”
He moved forward, but the other man turned around and walked away without another word. Ethan watched him go, making sure the man left through the front door.
“Lucky you,” Theo said brightly to the woman now at the head of the line. “You’re my new favorite person.”
She beamed and eagerly hurried forward to take her place beneath his arm. Theo was good. Very good.
~~~~~
The event finally ended, though not without Theo doing his best to drag it on even longer, as though he took a private, masochistic pleasure in torturing himself with as much contact with the public as possible. Ethan had to continually remind himself that when Theo claimed to the crowd that he wanted to stay all day, he was lying to their faces.
Forty-five minutes after the official end time, Ethan had Theo in a limo and heading back to the Strip.
“Holy shit,” the reality star blurted as soon as the vehicle pulled away from the curb. “Were you going to let me keep taking photos until I died or what?”
Ethan gaped at him for a moment before regaining his composure. “I’m sorry. I must have misunderstood. You appeared to be content to continue the event past its scheduled end time.”
“I was pretending. I was on TV, you know. That’s what being on TV is about. Pretending.” Theo grabbed a small bottle of Jack from the limo’s mini bar, unscrewed the cap, and downed the contents in one gulp. He shuddered while he replaced the cap. “I needed that. I thought I was in Purgatory that entire time.”