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19
SCAR
“You’ve gotta be fucking joking…” I stare with wide eyes at the building in front of me, feet cemented to the ground. “Skydiving?”
Walker grins, rubbing his hands together, silver rings glinting in the sunlight. “Epic first date, right?” He can’t hide his excitement as much as I can’t hide my terror. He bounces on the balls of his feet, looking like he needs to pee.
“We’re in Texas,” I state the obvious. “Shouldn’t we be bull riding or line dancing, or I don’t know, something other than skydiving?”
“Indoor skydiving,” he corrects.
I hold my hands up in mock surrender. “Oh, my apologies. Indoor skydiving.”
“It’ll be fun!”
I can’t keep the cringe off my face as he guides me inside, one of the band’s bodyguards, Usman, trailing behind us. I shoot him a pleading look, and to give the guy some credit, he looks like he’s sharing in my pain. But Usman quickly diverts his attention into scanning around the lobby, always alert and monitoring for possible threats.
Walker and the guys typically go out solo without security, normally only having them join when they are out as a group or doing media events that they expect to draw high volume crowds. But since some of the security guys have been on the road and fairly bored by the lack of regular use for them in the past few days, Usman jumped at the opportunity to get out of the crew bus and on an outing today.
“Two for skydiving if you please.” Walker leans on the counter and shoots the young girl working a megawatt smile. The girl looks at him for a beat, before her eyes go wide as saucers and her jaw unhinges.
“J-James Walker…” she stutters. A flush of rosy blush spreads from her cheeks to her neck, the red stain matching her red polo.
Walker is unfazed. “That’s me. What’s your name?”
She’s wearing a nametag and I know Walker can read, so he must be trying to be polite.
“Natasha,” she says, barely squeaking the words out. Walker reaches out to shake her hand. She shyly averts her gaze, and it lands on me, once again doing a bit of a double take.
“I didn’t see you at first, sorry, Scarlett. I’ve been listening to your songs ever since I found out you’d be on tour with Whisper Me Nothings.”
“I appreciate that more than you can know,” I tell her sincerely.
You can see the gears turning in her head, doing a bit of subtle back and forth glances between Walker and I.
Yes, Natasha, it’s what it looks like.
“So…about the whole skydiving thing,” Walker says. “I have a reservation at 10:00am for two.”
“Right.” Natasha nods her head once, focusing her attention onto the computer in front of her and scans the screen. “I’m sorry, I-I don’t see you on here.”
“Sorry, forgot,” he says. “It should be under Arun Kapoor.”
I nudge him with my shoulder. “Too famous to put your own name on it?” I tease.
“Let me feel cooler than I am, all right?”
Natasha finds the reservation and pages our instructor to come meet us at the front. After we’ve signed our waivers and Walker’s paid, we start to walk over to a bench to wait, but he stops short.
“Are you coming to our show tomorrow night?” he asks Natasha.
“Of course.” She lights up.
Walker pulls out his phone and starts typing on it. “What’s your last name, Natasha?”
She gives him her full name, as well as the name of her two friends who are going with her.
“What section are your seats?”
