Page 55 of The Sounds of Her
Rather than be a grown up, I texted our manager as we boarded the flight and turned off my phone. I’ll wait till we get to the hotel to turn it back on.
“Do we… hold hands or something?” Brooke asks.
“Be natural.” I grab my jacket and pull it on. “We’re going through an airport after a long flight. We don’t need to make a big deal of it today.”
“Then how are we going to have people believe there is something going on between us?”
“By you walking with me, and me carrying your bag,” I take it from her. “And me doing this,” I put my hand on her lower back and guide her ahead of me, keeping my body close to hers so we’re touching.
As we reach the door to the plane, she pauses and looks back at me. “Oh. You’re good.”
“I know,” I wink.
We follow the others off the jet and walk through to the terminal building. Stone and DiMarco are there to keep us all together and airline security meets us as we approach. We need to cross to the front of the airport, to get to the waiting cars. I watch Brooke and as promised, keep her near me. It’s kinda weird seeing it through someone else’s eyes. All the years we’ve been doing this, it’s become normal to me.
There aren’t a ton of people inside, but the press has got wind of our arrival and a few die-hard fans who’ve been staking out the airport arrivals area. People call out to us and cameras flash. Brooke watches out of the corner of her eye, following Jenna, who is holding Adam’s hand.
“Archer, who’s the girl?” someone yells.
Brooke turns, but I step in the way and put an arm behind her back to keep her close to me.
“That’s paparazzi. We don’t respond to them,” I lean in and whisper to her. She nods and keeps walking forward.
More people yell my name, fans, and reporters. I keep my head down and hurry Brooke along. We’re through the gauntlet quickly and out of the building. There are a shit load of fans out here.
People scream and shout, some of them are holding up signs declaring their love for us or asking us to marry them. They’re pressed up against barriers, yelling our names. Stone keeps watching every single one of us as we’re hurried towards the cars.
“You don’t stop to talk to fans?”
“Not like this,” I steer Brooke to one of the waiting SUVs and wave to the fans behind us.
“What about customs? We don’t need to show our passports?”
“It’s all sorted for us, don’t worry.”
Brooke climbs into the car, and I get in behind her. Dale, the assistant manager, gets in with us. I didn’t notice him, he will have already been in the terminal waiting for us to arrive. DiMarco takes the passenger seat. Jenna jumps in, surprising us all. I glance behind her, but don’t see Adam.
Once the door closes, all the noise outside cuts off.
“You’re taking your life in your own hands,” I warn her.
“He’ll get over it. You okay?” she asks Brooke.
“That was intense.”
“That was tame,” I point out as Dale passes me a bottle of water and offers the women one. Brooke accepts, but Jenna is already holding a bottle of soda.
“Tame,” Brooke gives me a funny look. “Great.”
“Adam says we’ve changed hotels because the other one was surrounded.”
“Surrounded?” Brooke’s voice is high pitched.
“Well, not surrounded, but people found out the band is staying there.”
“How do they get this information?” Brooke asks. “Whoever is booking these things for you needs to answer some questions.”
I stifle a laugh as Dale stares at Brooke.