We were ushered through a separate queue while most people stood in a line that seemed not to move. “Wow, this TSA-pre thing is really nifty! We seriously don’t have to take our shoes off for security?”
“Nor do we have to remove laptops from bags.”
“Amazing.”
“Well, I can understand that,” I said.
“Understand what?”
“Understand you having to relate to your business acquaintances by Doctor Vidal.”
“I feel like there’s a ‘but’ coming.”
“But I feel like it’s going to raise eyebrows if you don’t take my name.”
She scoffed. “We’ll be fine. We’ll have to stay together, what, until the summer? That’s the blink of an eye.”
“That moderator called you Doctor LeBlanc like three times today. You don’t think that’s foreshadowing?”
She shifted her eyes around, and I could see she was thinking hard.
“Next!” the TSA pre-check security officer said, waving us over to her podium.
Catarina went first, handing over her Spanish passport.
The woman looked at her with the same dry, objective face I assume she looked at everyone with. “Remove sunglasses and hat, please,” the woman said.
“Oh, sorry.”
She put Cat’s passport under the blacklight on her podium, to make sure it was real, I assumed. Then something made a funny beep noise that I’d never heard before in the security line. The woman at the podium waved another security guard over and whispered something to him.
The security guard nodded and walked over to Cat.
“Miss Vidal, you’ve been red flagged.”
A look of horror spread across her face.
“Red flagged?”
“Have you had visa issues lately? A grounding ordered has been issued for you. Please come with me.”
“But, I . . .”
I cut in. “Excuse me Sir, but?—”
“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to keep your distance.”
“Pardon me. There must be some sort of mix up. This is my wife,” I interjected. “She still needs to have her passport updated.”
The security guard hesitated momentarily and looked my way. “Holy shit. Aren’t you Dustin ...”
“LeBlanc, yes.” I flashed him a subtle grin that wasn’t too kiss-assy. “That’s me.”
“When did you get married?” he asked, and I was reminded of how much of an open book my life probably seemed to people who didn’t know much about me.
I leaned in a little like I was telling him a secret.
“We’re kind of trying to keep this on the down low. Ceremony was small and everything.”
