Page 29 of The Billionaire's Fan

“Hey, Ash?” Tate pulls on my sleeve.

“Yup?” I swing my gaze at him.

“Is that the chick from last night?”

“What chick?” Mikey asks looking at the line.

“Some chick had cornered me in a booth last night at the club.”

“Rabid fan. And look, she’s first in line,” Tate says.

“She was nice. But the conversation was brief. I realized I was too drunk to formulate cohesive words. That’s about when I made us all leave.”

One guy from the station claps and walks toward us.

“Alright guys, we cut off the number of people in line and this should go relatively quickly. We’ll have Becky and Kate over there to help move along the line and our photographer will take around 5 photos for each person or group. There will be no cell phone photos to keep in time. Are you guys ready?” he asks.

A collective grunting from us and everything begins. The same guy announces to those standing in line as we get in our places.

I take in a deep breath as the woman from last night smiles as she approaches. She has two friends with her in tow, and each of the guys shakes her hand. She turns to me.

“Remember me?” she tilts her head.

“Good morning,” I reply.

“It was great talking to you last night.”

“I don’t recall you mentioning that you were going to be here today.”

“Must have slipped my mind.”

“Alright ladies, get ready in one, two, three.” The cameraman holds up his hand and starts clicking away after the girl from last night, threaded her fingers through my lifeless hand at my side and kisses my cheek.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Jordyn

I’m standing at the counter of Pie Squared clearing up a few customer checks on the register as Ryan steps in front of me.

“Um, Jo-Jo. You off soon?” Ryan asks.

“I mean, I’m not technically working right now. What’s going on?”

“I’ll wait until you’re not busy.”

“Honestly, I’m just closing these up. What’s going on, you’re kind of worrying me.”

“Have you talked to Asher today?” he asks.

“Yeah, well, a bit.”

“What did you guys talk about?”

“He called me early this morning from the airport and told me he and the guys all have a ride. Boring stuff. Why, what’s going on?”

“There’s something that you need to see.” Ryan pulls out his phone, types something onto the screen, and holds his phone out to me. “Take it.”

I do as I’m told and look at the screen. The headline is catchy, and it takes me a moment to understand what I’m seeing.

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