Page 22 of Seeking Stars
"You're the boss."
"Am I, though?"
"You're right," he said, opening his door wide but not stepping down yet. He still faced her. "Neither of us is really running the show."
***
Ana balanced a tray with two large coffees in one hand, and carried a bag full of convenience store goodies in the other.
As she approached the car, she realized Liam didn't stand alone— a father-son duo chatted with him, the kid jumping up and down in his place. Liam took off his sunglasses and took a selfie with them. Not wanting to intrude, she silently opened her door and set the coffees in the console's cup holders, and the bag at the feet of her seat.
"Oh, you're here," Liam exclaimed, drawing her eyes to him. Ana noticed the strain in the slant of his shoulders but said nothing. "Shall we?"
"Yes, let's go." She hoped her smile looked friendly to father and son; she hid her perplexity behind it. Of course she'd known people might approach them if they were in public, but she hadn't thought to prepare for it at a lonely gas station. The whole situation seemed surreal, but her intuition told her that a friendly demeanor was the best way to support Liam.
She got in the car and buckled her seatbelt. She glanced at Liam's side window as he did the same. Together they waved at the two standing there next to the car; they hadn't moved away. The father gave Ana a curious look, before lifting his phone and taking another picture of them. With a slow roll of the car, they left the gas station.
"Fans?" she asked, trying for an overture a couple of minutes later.
Tension quirked the corner of his mouth; he wasn't fully back to his typical self, yet. She caught herself expecting him to be used to people asking for pictures in random places, and frowned at the thought. Could one ever get used to it?
"Yeah." His voice sounded gruff. He cleared his throat. "I hoped that staying out of the store would be enough to avoid recognition, but they parked right at the pump next to ours and the kid recognized me fromSpace Bureau."
Space Bureauwas one of his top grossing films. The boy must have been into the franchise enough that a hat, sunglasses, and short beard weren't enough to disguise him.
"It probably didn't help that you had a bit of a beard in the second movie, when your character went rogue."
"So you watched that movie."
"Yep. I've watched a few of your films."
"Did you like them?" Liam inhaled deeply and let it out slowly; the tension in his shoulders went down somewhat.
One of her favorite scenes from one of his romcoms hijacked her mind: when he's fighting with the heroine and she could see the moment his anger turned to lust, the very green of his eyes appearing to burst into flames… and how he made his intentions clear by unbuttoning his shirt, white tan skin filling the screen.
"Yeah, they're good." She hoped she'd hidden the intensity of her reaction to the memory.
"Glad to know." His voice relaxed and a small smile appeared on his lips.
Ana remained quiet, unsure what to say.
They drove for a while in silence, the soft music playing low in the background. Liam was the first to speak again.
"Have you posted anything on social media about the documentary? There's the statement TCA made announcing the film but I haven't checked social media." His tone held a worried note, but Ana couldn't make out what the problem was.
"Not yet." She guessed at his line of thinking. Perhaps he worried about privacy. "I had been planning to talk to you about it. Diana gave me your PR guidelines and said she wants me to post every few days, but I can wait to post something if you'd prefer—"
"No, I think you should post something about it soon," Liam said, surprising her. "Did you see the way the dad looked at you? He'll likely post about meeting us on his profile somewhere and, if he says anything about you, some people might jump to conclusions. If he's private it'll be fine but, if he's not, the scary fans may decide to find you online and who knows what might happen after."
Ana's brain seemed to be having trouble processing his words. "Are you saying that some of your fans could target me online?"
"Yeah. I don't know if you thought about it when you agreed to the documentary, but it's a possibility."
"I didn't think…" She gulped and sorted through different scenarios filling her head: hateful private messages on her social media, mean comments on her videos. She didn't pale often, but her blood rushed away from her face all the same. "I expected some people to think I'm too small a director to be working with you, but— targeted?"
He stole a quick glance at her, his frown deepening. He went back to focusing on the road, but his eyebrows remained furrowed.
"Ana… I think you may not have realized this yet, but—"
