Ged swallows and points to Liam. ‘It’s his fault.’
‘No. It was TikTok’s fault,’ says Liam sourly.
The guard shakes his head again.
‘And we’re here for work,’ adds Liberty, pointing to the Dollz. ‘We’re professional singers.’
‘You are?’ the guard says with surprise.
‘Yes. We’re working for Eddie at Talent Star,’ I say confidently. ‘Our agent Nancy has filled out all the necessary paperwork.’
‘Eddie at Talent Star?’ The guard turns to his colleagues with a knowing expression. ‘We know Eddie, right, guys?’ They start chuckling and murmuring among themselves and immediately get to work administering our ESTA papers and taking our fingerprints in the biometric processor. It’s all very high-tech. ‘Well, that’s okay then. Careful how you go, guys. Careful how you go.’
‘What was all that about?’ Ged whispers.
‘Yeah, suspicious, no?’ Big Sue adds, leaning in. ‘Something smells fishy.’
‘Absolutely,’ agrees Ged. ‘We should keep our ears to the ground.’
Oh, my word.These two love to turn everything into a mission.
‘Roger that,’ says Big Sue with a nod.
But as long as it bonds them, I don’t care. The guards authorise our stay in Las Vegas and usher us out towards baggage reclaim. It takes a while for us to replace our wigs and bicker about the suitcases being too heavy, too big, too like every other suitcase.
‘Mine have pink-striped ribbons tied round them to make them stand out,’ says Liam smugly. He has already retrieved two of his cases. Whereas none of us thought to do that and have completely forgotten what our suitcases look like.
‘Mine are black,’ says Tash. ‘No, grey. Mine are grey.’ She points to a huge, lumpy case dropping onto the carousel, but just as Sister Kevin grabs it for her and heaves it off the belt, she changes her mind. ‘No. Mine are dark blue. I remember now.’
Sister Kevin exhales noisily. His little suitcase is on the trolley. He recognised it immediately. This is the third hefty case that he has been instructed to take off the carousel only to put it back immediately when we’ve seen it belongs to someone else. Lord help anyone who ends up with a case full of our Barbie outfits.
Eventually we make it out of there with a trolley each piled high.
‘Look!’ yells Cherry as we make our way through the sliding doors to the arrivals hall. ‘They’ve got slot machines in the friggin’ airport. How cool is that?’
‘Look at them all!’ Big Sue says, pointing to the lines of bleeping one-armed bandits in amazement.
‘Talk about not wasting any time,’ adds Liberty, rooting around in her bag for some dollar bills. ‘Let’s go!’
‘There’s aFriendsone!’ Liam shrieks.
Like a herd of wildebeest they charge towards the slots, leaving me with their trolleys. I sweep my gaze around the busy hall and instantly spot Matteo waiting for me. My heart thuds against my chest. My instinct is to run to the nearest beauty salon for an expensive makeover. FaceTime is no substitute for how attractive he is in real life. His dark unruly hair. His athletic, toned body standing in a relaxed and casual manner. His moody expression. His dark eyes scanning the tourists flooding through the arrival gates. And, as though he senses me near, he turns swiftly in my direction.
I smile shyly. How could I ever have doubted our feelings for each other? He’s trying very hard to look stern and annoyed as he waves me over. Probably forcing himself to recall that photo of Luke kissing me. I walk over slowly, trying to prolong the inevitable, but the nearer I get, the less he can keep it up. By the time I’m standing in front of him, his face has softened. He seems very pleased to see me.
‘Hi,’ I say quietly, almost giggling with embarrassment over how excited I am to see him.
He visibly swallows. ‘Hi.’ He seems equally lost for words.
‘Did you get my message?’ I ask.
He nods. ‘All ten of them.’
‘I wasn’t sure if… The Wi-Fi in Spain can be… and I didn’t want to use all my mobile data without knowing if… You hear these stories about data roaming charges. So, it’s best to always have it switched off.’Oh, God. When did I turn into a mobile telecoms engineer?‘And as for attaching photos to messages. Did you know you both get charged? The sender and the recipient? It’s daylight robbery.’
Thankfully, he stops me rambling on. ‘Speaking of which. About that photo… Care to explain?’
Not really.
