HDU (11 page)

They quieted soon anyway, seeming to hold a
collective breath when Liam stopped in his tracks upon reaching the vestibule.
 
He turned around, holding out his hand.
 
It took a second for Amanda to realize
that he was waiting for
her
.
 
With about a half dozen strangers’
phones and cameras trained on her face, she entered the vestibule and took
Liam’s hand.
 
He intertwined his
fingers in hers and held on to them loosely, flashing her a bit of a laugh before
they continued walking together.
 
Amanda reminded herself not to be tickled by the gesture.
 
He was only pleased to be appearing so
gentlemanly in front of cameras.

“Who’s that
girl
?”
she heard several fans hiss.
 
She
of course wasn’t surprised by the lack of an answer, though it struck her that
sooner than later, she would be identified to the public – perhaps even
by Ian.
 
He was far more zealous
and in control of their plan.

“It’s happening already,” he whispered in her ear
giddily.
 

By the time they boarded the plane, Amanda had lost
count of the number of people who had paused to cock their heads at her, asking
their friends and family if they knew who was holding hands with the movie star.
 
It had been far more entertaining to
her than it had been to Liam, who went through the motions of airport protocol
without a single glance at anyone else, least of all his onlookers.

“Might want to put your sunglasses on,” Liam said
when they took their seats on the plane.
 
He allowed her the window seat beside him in the front row of first
class, Ian a few rows behind them.
 
Before Amanda could ask why she might need sunglasses, Liam
nodded subtly towards their left.
 
Amanda peered over, spotting a young woman in the aisle, using her phone
to take a picture of the view out their window.
 
Amanda glanced out as well, noticing the purple sunset.

“I don’t need them.
 
The sun is setting,” she said with a smile as she too
admired the scene.
 
Liam gave her
an incredulous look before reaching over her and shutting the shade.
 

“She’s not taking a picture of the sunset, she’s
recording a video of you,” he said before turning his attention to his iPad.
 
Amanda laughed, though she realized how
right he was when she turned to see the girl still holding her phone up despite
the window shade being drawn.
 
She
was utterly shameless about it, even cracking a smile when Amanda stared into
the lens.
 
Amanda blushed and faced
forward, not knowing what to do or how to act.
 
It was different when pictures had been taken at the airport
entrance because she was on the move.
 
Now she was stationary and would be for the next two-and-a-half hours,
just a few yards away from her photographer.

Liam glanced up from his iPad to smirk at Amanda’s
discomfort and borderline panic.
 
He relished her reaction for a little bit longer before motioning to the
steward.
 
With just a few hushed
words, he was able to get him to approach the girl in the aisle and politely
ask her not to film other passengers.
 
The girl obliged, and Amanda relaxed somewhat, though she knew there now
existed footage of her acting like a jittery fool.
 
It was behavior Merit had come to know her for in the past
couple of days, but now a stranger had recorded it for the rest of the world’s
entertainment.
 
She could only
wonder how long it might take for the video to appear online.
 
As she did, Liam leaned over in his
seat to whisper in her ear.
 
To
others, it may have looked like a lover’s sweet nothings, but for Amanda, his
words sent a chill down her spine.

“If you think that was bad, just wait till we get to
New York.”

~

Around the time of the plane’s landing, the aisle
girl’s phone reemerged and began recording once again.
 
Amanda would have cared were she not so
overwhelmed by the scene outside her window.
 
It was New York.
 
It was nighttime, but the bright lights of the metropolis
rose above the dark of the sky.
 
The only city Amanda had ever traveled to outside of the ones in
Missouri was Chicago.
 
Even then, she
had been completely floored.
 
Now,
gazing at the aerial skyline of Manhattan, she wanted nothing more than to
cry.
 
But there was that damned
camera pointed at her face.

Oh, well.
 
It’s happening
, Amanda thought, too
joyous to try and control herself.
 
Just hours ago she had been in the pit of nothingness that was Merit,
and suddenly, here she was in a place that she had only seen in her dreams and
in movies.
 
A fat tear rolled down
her right cheek, and she was grateful that it was at least on the side hidden
from view of the aisle.
 
But as the
plane descended onto the tarmac, Amanda found that her face had become streaked
with more tears.
 
She wondered if
she should let them drip, if perhaps they weren’t noticeable on a camera
phone.
 
But when one dropped from
the bottom of her chin to her chest, she began wiping all the wetness away with
her hands.
 
She had forgotten that
Liam was even next to her until she felt him sitting forward, facing her as she
cried.
 

“Shut up,” she said, prepared for his snark.
 
But she glimpsed up to see that he wasn’t
actually looking at her.
 
His head
had turned briefly, probably to check on the pesky aisle girl.
 
Amanda wasn’t sure though, because the
view of her was obstructed by his broad chest.
 
Oh, that’s what he’s
doing
, she realized.
 
He was giving
her the chance to blubber in private, blocked from sight of anyone else.
 
Before she could rescind her snappy
words or offer him thanks, he turned back to her again.

“God, you’re embarrassing,” he said.

Despite it being nearly 10PM upon landing, Amanda
opted to wear the Ray Bans that Ian had gifted her.
 
She needed to hide the emotion in her eyes, which ranged
from gratitude for being in New York and annoyance at Liam for being generally
rude.
 
By now, there had to be some
image of her with him on the Internet, whether it was from the cameras of the
fangirls or the phone of her pseudo-stalker on the plane.
 
There had been other pictures snapped
along the way too, so word of Liam Brody’s odd new companion had to have
reached the East Coast by now.

The confirmation came quickly upon stepping out of
the plane and into John F. Kennedy International Airport.
 
There had already been a crowd at the
gate, but it was dwarfed by the one waiting at the terminal.
 
Amanda quickly spotted a few paparazzi
– it wasn’t hard to because they got right in her face, the flashes of
their cameras blinding her through her sunglasses.
 

“Who’s the new lady, Liam?” one called out his
question over the shouts of the fans.
 
When Liam didn’t answer, he turned to Amanda.
 
“What’s your name, pretty girl?” Amanda wanted to scowl, but
she didn’t.
 
They had to be
ridiculing her for not being a model.
 
They were accustomed to snapping shots of true beauties alongside Liam,
not plain girls wearing less remarkable clothing than the fans who were mobbing
them.
 

Her silence forced the photographers to turn their
attention to Ian, whom Amanda realized, was ready for it.
 
He had put on a pair of aviators and
had his act of nonchalance down to a science.
 
His hood was pulled up over his head again, his hands
stuffed in his jean pockets, looking almost bored.

“Who are you?” the same photographer asked.
 

“Who are
you
?”
Ian countered.

“I’ll tell you my name if you tell me yours,” the
photographer said.

“My name is Ian Marsh,” Ian answered.
 
“And I don’t care what yours is,” he
said before pushing out the front doors of the airport, following Liam and
Amanda into a car.

Once they were in the privacy of the black GMC Yukon,
Liam immediately turned to his phone, uninterested in either Amanda or
Ian.
 
He made a call, his
conversation drowning out Ian’s child-like squeal of excitement.
 
Amanda was thankful for that –
Liam would have no doubt said something mean had he heard.

“Look!” Ian said, practically shoving his iPhone into
her hands.
 
Amanda looked down on
it, barely having to focus her eyes before knowing what the photo
depicted.
 
She had been in the very
setting not too long ago.

“Oh man,” she murmured, letting out a breath of
disbelief.
 
She had known it would
happen, but somehow it still came as a surprise.
 
On the front page of Celeb-O-Matic’s website was her image,
her uncovered face managing a hesitant smile for the cameras that belonged to
people she didn’t know.
 
The
photograph was taken inside Missouri Regional Airport, when she was on her way
to the security check.
 
To her
great relief, she looked fine.
 
Certainly unlike most people whose photos graced Celeb-O-Matic, but at
least nothing strange stuck out about her.
 
She was just… there.
 
Liam’s perfectly plain Jane.
 

With that thought, she suddenly went from happy to kind
of sad.
 
It was starting –
her foray into fame for being a girl considered borderline ugly for Hollywood
standards.
 
Why did I think this would be easy?

Her mood continued even as the car rode into the
fabulous SoHo, where Liam lived.
 
Seeming to read her mind, Ian put on a face of embarrassment and showed
her a picture that the paparazzi had snapped of him, open-mouthed and
responding to that one photographer.
 
He looked silly, but honestly, still kind of glamorous in his hoodie and
shades.
 
It didn’t make Amanda feel
much better, but she offered him a laugh anyway.

“We’re here,” Liam said when the car stopped.
 
Amanda looked up and out the window at
the brick Mercer Street building.
 
It was where she and Liam had agreed on working out further details of
their concocted romance.
 
Planted
against the side of the building was a sole photographer, camera ready and
waiting for them to step out of the car.
 
After sighing at the sight, Liam turned to face Ian.
 
“The car will take you to your
apartment.
 
I don’t think there needs
to be any more photos of you with us.
 
It’s confusing.”
 

“Oh.
 
Okay,” Ian agreed, too easily for Amanda’s taste.

“But he – ” she began to protest.

“Don’t worry,” Ian shrugged it off.
 
“We don’t want it to look like some
weird threesome or something.”
 
Both Amanda and Liam cringed.

“Okay,” she agreed, convinced but still uneasy.
 
Ian had been her source of confidence
since the start of the lie, albeit a paltry one.
 
But what little courage she had for the whole situation had
been found in him somehow, and she had anticipated having it while deliberating
and negotiating in the privacy of Liam’s home.
 

“You’ll be fine,” Ian mouthed once Liam got out of
the car.
 
“Make sure you negotiate a
fancy dinner out of him!” he whispered, trying to get her to laugh before
nudging her out the car.
 
He gave
one last thumbs up before Liam shut the door on him and the single camera
started flashing.

~

The exterior of the apartment did no justice to the
magnificence that lay within.
 
Amanda felt truly small in the loft that boasted twenty-foot ceilings
and vast walls of exposed brick.
 
To her left was a windowed mezzanine above the open industrial kitchen
of glass top furnishings.
 
To her
right was a grand sitting room, in it a massive leather sectional before a fifty-something-inch
TV.
 
It was definitely the ultimate
bachelor’s pad.
 
“This place is
amazing,” Amanda breathed.
   

“Thanks.” Liam tossed his coat over a chair.
 
He held out his hand for Amanda’s coat only
to toss it onto the chair as well.
 
“You want a drink?” he asked, heading for the kitchen.
 
Amanda forgot to answer as she stood
and watched him look in his fridge, reminding herself that she was in the actor
Liam Brody’s home, watching him do at-home things.
 
It was too weird for her to handle, but she forced herself
to.

“Sure, whatever you’re having,” she finally answered,
timidly wandering over to the couch and taking a seat.
 
When he was finished in the kitchen,
Liam met her in the sitting room, already half done with his own Stella.
 
He handed her one before taking a seat on
the coffee table instead of the couch.
 
From his jean pocket, he retrieved a folded paper, handing it over.