diff --git a/quartz/components/scripts/popover.inline.ts b/quartz/components/scripts/popover.inline.ts
index ed3c925ce..9506ec412 100644
--- a/quartz/components/scripts/popover.inline.ts
+++ b/quartz/components/scripts/popover.inline.ts
@@ -28,8 +28,11 @@ async function mouseEnterHandler(
     })
   }
 
+  const hasAlreadyBeenFetched = () =>
+    [...link.children].some((child) => child.classList.contains("popover"))
+
   // dont refetch if there's already a popover
-  if ([...link.children].some((child) => child.classList.contains("popover"))) {
+  if (hasAlreadyBeenFetched()) {
     return setPosition(link.lastChild as HTMLElement)
   }
 
@@ -49,6 +52,11 @@ async function mouseEnterHandler(
       console.error(err)
     })
 
+  // bailout if another popover exists
+  if (hasAlreadyBeenFetched()) {
+    return
+  }
+
   if (!contents) return
   const html = p.parseFromString(contents, "text/html")
   normalizeRelativeURLs(html, targetUrl)