Page 43 of A Very Snowed In New Year
What. The. Hell?
I stare down at the message bubble, look over at Piper, who covers her mouth, then frantically types on her phone again.
I look down and find the text bubble edited to say…
ShayAnything.83: LOL what?! I don’t have a brother.
What. The. Fuck?
Why is PiperThanFiction pretending to be Shay Nicholls?
This makes no sense.
This is the kind of thing that only happens in romantic comedies.
And stalker thrillers.
Of course this was all too coincidental to be anything but psychotic.
The PA system announces general boarding for my flight, and I really have to get going now.
“Hey, you’re Holden Archer, aren’t you?” asks one of the shy teenage girls.
“Yeah, hi.”
“Oh my God! Can we get selfies with you?!”
The girls flank me on either side and hold up their phones to take pictures before I can answer.
“Sure,” I mumble.
“Oh myGawd, oh myGawd, it’s Zephyr!” another teenage girl shouts out from fifteen feet away, and suddenly, there’s a crowd of teenage girls and women around me—dare I say a mob of them—holding up their phones and telling me they love me.
“Hey,” I say, politely trying to move through them, trying to smile. “My flight’s boarding.”
“Just one more picture for my friend—she’s obsessed with you!” a girl pleads.
I look around for Piper as I slowly make my way through the crowd, heading for my gate, and spot her standing up, staring at me. Like a deer in headlights. I remove my sunglasses and hold her confused gaze.
For a few surreal seconds, the chaos around me is slowed down and muted, and all I see is Piper and those big brown eyes, her red lips parted. Not like some crazed stalker, like a girl who has so much to say but can’t. And even as I’m staring into those big brown eyes, I get a sense of how her sweater is hugging her curves, and I like it a lot. I give her an apologetic shrug and then continue toward the gate, putting my aviators back on, stillsurrounded by ten or fifteen or twenty girls who are moving along with me. When I reach my gate, someone from the airline ushers me through and tells the girls to stay back.
It all happens so fast and I have no fucking clue what’s going on; I just wish I could talk to Piper.
I think.
When I’m settled in my first-class seat, they still haven’t closed the door, so I have time to call Rita Baskin. I try her cell phone, and thank God, she answers right away. I don’t think I’ve ever called her on her cell phone before unless I was returning her call.
“Oh myGawd, Holden Archer, you’re obsessed with me,” she says wryly.
“Hey, my flight’s about to take off, but I need you to do me a favor. Can you find out if Shay Nicholls has an assistant, and if so, what her name is? Just don’t let it get back to her that I’m asking.”
After a beat, she says, “I can get Audrey to ask her business manager.”
“Great. Text me when you find out. Thank you.”
“You owe me a rom-com for this.”
“No, I don’t!” I say right before hanging up.
