Chapter 4 #2
Recognition lights the woman’s face. “Is that the one where people jump off crazy buildings and cliffs and stuff?”
“And out of planes,” Nate adds. “That’s the one!”
“Oh my goodness, I do recognize you! Sort of. I nearly wet my pants watching some of those leaps. That show’s magnificent.”
“Sure was.”
Is, I mouth to Nate multiple times. Brody gave up that show to pursue his solo career, but Just Jump lives on with an ever-rotating cast. Something the real Brody would know.
“Sure is,” Nate amends. “I was watching it the other day, in fact. Big jumps.”
Okay, now he’s overselling it while also undermining all our work, but the woman doesn’t seem to register that. She takes in his passport one more time before handing it back to him. “Enjoy your flight, Mr. Bannam.”
Nate smiles before hurrying past her.
“Big jumps?” I whisper as we head to the security checkpoint. “Real smooth. I thought you said you had done this switch thing before? Given what I just saw, I’m surprised you ever got away with it.”
“It was never on this scale before! It’s like going straight from the minor leagues to majors…or from kiddie league to the majors. I’m literally committing a crime here, Abigail.” He waves Brody’s passport to illustrate his point.
“Don’t say that so loudly!” I look around to confirm no one overheard us. Safe, for now. “You need to take this more seriously so we don’t get caught.”
“Trust me, I’m taking this seriously. Switching places isn’t as easy as the movies would have you believe, and I’m a bit out of practice. It’s coming back to me, though.”
We pause our conversation to pass through the security checkpoint without Nate raising any more suspicion. I wait until we have our belongings and are walking toward the gate to raise the question echoing in my mind.
“When was the last time you two did this?” There’s a long pause, and I regret not asking back at the hospital. “You have done this before, right? You said you had.”
I hadn’t imagined that part; I’m sure of it. Then again, if someone said they overheard me agreeing to this half-baked plan in the first place, I don’t know I’d believe them.
“We’ve done this countless times. It’s just been a while.”
“How long of a while?”
“Since college?”
“College?”
“Don’t echo me like that was eons ago or something.”
“It was over five years ago.”
“Well, excuse me! There wasn’t much time or need for twin-switch shenanigans when we hit the real world and became professionals in entirely different fields, building entirely different lives.
As you might imagine, Brody doesn’t enjoy sitting at a computer all day any more than I enjoy jumping out of airplanes. ”
“Fine, but why are you doing it now? Why was this posed as a viable plan in the first place? We’ll get caught if you can’t pull your part off, and it’ll make things so much worse for everyone involved.”
Except for Nate. I’m still not clear on how the person arguably doing the most in this situation could somehow have the least on the line.
“We’re doing it because we don’t have much of a choice if you still hope to save your career and Brody’s brand and show.
” Nate ticks each reason off on his fingers, holding the three digits up to me.
“There. In one second, I came up with three good reasons we’re doing this.
Can you come up with three reasons we shouldn’t? ”
I stop in the middle of the walkway, not caring that other travelers need to go around us to continue to their gates.
Holding up my fist so I can flip up fingers with my reasons, I say, “Getting caught. Ruining my professional reputation. Spending time with you. Oh, look! Three as well.” I wiggle my fingers to make sure he sees them. Three freaking reasons right there.
Nate reaches over and lowers the last finger I raised, his touch tickling my skin like a heat rash I can’t escape.
“I would think having to quit your job, as you put it, and only having one client now is enough to ruin your professional reputation. And we won’t get caught so long as you stop freaking out about the plan and trust me to do my part.
” He lowers another finger and then the final one, his touch lingering as if to hold them down.
“Lastly, I’m a delight to be around, so that can’t be a factor on the negative list.”
His hand drops, and I flick my index finger right back up.
“It definitely is a factor.” Nate is intolerable at best. At worst…I guess I’d find that out in Fiji.
Nate shrugs. “At least it wasn’t a different finger.”
“Seriously?”
“Be annoyed all you want, but keep in mind I’m the only one on your team right now. And don’t kid yourself; pulling this off is most definitely a team effort. So, what’s it going to be?”
He’s right. This plan will never work if we’re at odds.
Even if we can work together somehow, it still seems impossible.
Nate Bannam is too unserious and unfocused to pull off something as critical as this, but what choice do we have now that it’s in motion?
We’ve both signed on and taken the steps to start it. We need to see it through.
“Okay, let’s go,” I say, heading toward the gate. “Fiji awaits.”