“Good job,” I said when I couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“I can’t wait to see the place you rented for the Japanese production,” Tyler said. “Thank you for allowing us to stay there for the photo shoot.”
I cocked my head and turned to my girlfriend. It was the first she’d heard of more house guests, and we both turned to my manager. Caryn at least had the decency to blush.
“I probably should have told you, but your dad said it would be okay since you had plenty of room.”
Before it got awkward, I smiled at Tyler.
“It’s my fault that I didn’t know you were coming. I made it clear that I wanted to back off from all my business responsibilities and focus on my last year of high school. But sometimes a heads-up might be nice,” I said to needle Caryn.
“Your dad knew,” she replied.
I was sure everyone knew, but I let it go. Brook and I then excused ourselves so we could talk to other people. I was surprised to find Dare and his mom there. Dare was new to our school and was our genius nerd. Our vice principal had paired the two of us up because Dare had been bullied in the past because he was different. Brook and I’d been working on getting him to come out of the shell that he’d developed to protect himself.
“Good morning, Darius,” Brook said sweetly.
If I’d said that, he would have given me a dirty look. I glanced over at his mom, and we both rolled our eyes when he lit up as my girlfriend teased him. Brook still didn’t believe he had a crush on her. He had a carrying case next to him that looked suspiciously like the drone case he’d had at Tracy’s, only smaller.
“I was able to get the new drone ready for your trip to LA. I showed your security guy Fritz how to work it yesterday,” Dare told me.
Something else I hadn’t known. As far as I knew, Dare was doing this little project on his own.
“I want to say goodbye to some people. Why don’t you tell Brook everything about it?”
He launched right into a detailed explanation as I slunk away. I might be glad after all that Brook and I wouldn’t see each other for a couple of weeks. She still had to finish the semester, while I left early so I could meet the filming schedule for the J-drama.
I told my family goodbye. I spent some time with my cousin El. She told me all about Tami’s brothers and how they’d just gone home. They’d wanted to see the football game and sat with her. I was devastated that I was no longer the object of her affection. She couldn’t decide yet, but one of them would marry her someday. Women are crazy, and somehow, I’d fathered one. Little Carol, my only daughter, would be the death of me when she was El’s age.
My cousins lived in Florida, and I never got to see them enough. I wished her luck with her new quest and moved on.
Soon Dad collected me and said we had to go to make our flight. I gave him a thumbs-up when I saw he had a bag of food because I hadn’t had time to eat.
◊◊◊
When we arrived at O’Hare, it was a zoo, as you could imagine on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We checked our bags, which now included a drone, and then got in line to check in. Our boarding passes were marked “TSA PreCheck,” so we were able to skip the horrendous lines trying to get through security. I didn’t even get inappropriately groped this time.
We’d planned for long lines, so we were more than an hour early for our flight. I hooked up my phone to the airport’s Wi-Fi and started shopping for a book to download. Dad went old-school and found a bookstore where he paid a premium to get an action paperback to kill time. Fritz was busy watching our surroundings, as a good security guy should be doing. He caught my attention and then sat down between my dad and me.
“Something’s wrong with that girl over there,” he said.
Of course, we both snapped our heads around to stare at her.
“You both suck at this,” Fritz hissed.
I hated to admit it, but my first thought was that he might be profiling the girl, who looked to be in her late teens or early twenties. She had a darker complexion that I would place as having come from either the Middle East or South Asia, while her dress and hairstyle screamed ‘foreign.’ The problem was, that I agreed that something was off about her. My uncle had told me that if you got a gut feeling something was wrong, not to ignore it. That was what made me check closer instead of dismissing Fritz out of hand.
She appeared to be sweating, and her eyes darted around as if she were paranoid. She also was fidgeting, with periodic toe-tapping and fingernail biting. Just looking at her made me nervous.
“I’m going to go make some inquiries,” Fritz said, and then gave us our marching orders. “Neither one of you move, and if you see her get up, text me.”
I thought about asking him about a hundred questions but decided to let him do his job and kept them to myself. A few minutes later, he came back and sat between us.
“When I say so, gather your bags and follow me,” Fritz ordered.
Soon after that, we spotted two Chicago police officers come into our area.
