Chapter 39
Thirty-Nine
A lfie scowled at his phone as he shot off another email. The scowl, however, wasn’t directed at his work, it was for me. “I just don’t get the problem. Damien’s jet is already here, even Keira and Maia are coming instead of flying coach, you might as well come too.”
Alfie had woken up in a strange mood and spent the morning distracted by his ever-pinging phone.
I guess taking time off work to spend with me was taking its toll.
I was trying to be understanding but I couldn’t help but be frustrated.
This wasn’t how I’d thought our first day back together as a couple would be.
He sat on my bed while I packed my things. Keira was doing the same with far less finesse in her own room, Maia had been sitting downstairs next to her packed bags for the last half hour.
“Because I paid for my ticket and I don’t want to waste the money. Besides, you might actually enjoy it.”
Alfie flicked his narrowed gaze up to me, dragging his eyes away from his phone for the first time in ten minutes. “What is that supposed to mean?”
I gave him my sweetest smile. “You’re flying coach with me.”
His scowl returned in full force. “Lola?—”
I raised my hand, cutting him off. “This is my show, remember? We made a deal to try this out for three months and we’re only halfway through. You agreed that I would get to have control, so until these three months are up, your ass is mine, Tell.”
Alfie put his phone down, holding my gaze with so much seriousness it was almost comical. “Lola, like hell will I ever fly coach.”
I folded my arms, arching an eyebrow. “Oh really?”
“You’re flying coach?” Damien burst out laughing, even Eli was close to forming an expression. Keira, Maia, Alfie and I had all ridden together to the airport, bypassing the main airport for the private air strip nearby. Damien and Eli had met us on the tarmac. “Why the fuck are you flying coach?”
Alfie just gestured at me. “She’s persuasive.”
It hadn’t been that hard. I’d denied Alfie my mouth and after roughly three minutes he’d crumbled like an old biscuit.
“Got it.” Damien grinned at me. “Well, good luck with that.”
I watched the four of them disappear up the steps into the jet, not missing the wolfish grin Damien gave Keira.
Alfie and I got back into the car to return to the main airport, his phone was back in his hand and once again I felt an invisible distance between us.
I tried not to let paranoia get the better of me, I knew that his company was weighing on his mind.
“What did Damien mean ‘good luck with that’?” I glanced up at Alfie as Elliot set off. He looked down at me, a little hesitant.
“You sure you want to fly coach with me?”
“Yes.”
He gave me a small, secretive smile. “Alright, just remember, you asked for this.”
“What? Are you going to complain about the peanuts?”
Alfie didn’t answer. We arrived at the airport and headed through the sea of people, Alfie attracting admiring glances as ever. We gained even more attention as we boarded the plane.
Elliot helped us with our bags before taking the seat in front of us that should have been Maia’s.
“Do you want the aisle seat?” I asked Alfie.
“That’s alright, I should probably take the window.”
I eyed him as he sat but didn’t say anything.
I was settling in for the journey, checking out the in-flight movie, when a giggle caught my attention.
I looked up to see a couple of girls side-eyeing us.
I ignored it at first but by the third time I caught them staring my patience was wearing thin, and when one of them got her phone out to take a photo, it snapped altogether.
“Can I help you?” I asked, loudly.
The girls looked startled for a minute before the one with the phone asked, “Are you two together?”
“Yes, do you want to take a picture of me too?” I snapped and she turned around whispering. I sat back in my seat, ignoring the extra attention we’d just gathered.
“What was that about?” I muttered but Alfie just looked at me, not saying a word. When it finally dawned on me why Damien had wished me luck flying coach with Alfie, I felt like an idiot for not realising it before. “You’re famous. Why do I always forget that you’re famous?”
“Because I’ve never taken you anywhere public like this.”
“What are you talking about? We’ve been in public loads of times.”
“When?” he asked.
I opened my mouth to give him a dozen examples but paused when I found none there.
I thought back through the entire catalogue of our relationship.
Any restaurant or concert we’d attended had been private.
We’d been to the pub once, a badly lit pub where everyone was too drunk to care who was there.
We’d been in the lobby of The Carlton Hotel and had been stared at but I always thought that was because of my antics, not his.
He was right. He’d smoothly avoided putting me in a situation where this might happen and I was grateful, but now I was very uncertain.
“How bad is this going to get?”
“Not bad. Just don’t cause a scene.”
“When would I ever do something like that?” Just then, Elliot passed back his phone and Alfie smirked at it before passing it to me.
Staring back at me from an Instagram feed was my own face, filmed from a few minutes ago.
She hadn’t been taking a picture, she’d been filming me.
Filming me admitting to being the girlfriend of Alfie fucking Tell.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I gasped, staring at the screen. I looked up, my eyes finding the back of that bitches head. I stood up, rage pooling in my gut. “Hey, what the hell is your?—”
Alfie grabbed me, yanking me back into my seat. “Leave it.”
“But I?—”
“Lola, so help me God I will spank the ever-loving shit out of you,” he hissed. Elliot cleared his throat, reminding us we were very much in public. Alfie sat back, smoothing his mask back into place.
“Alfie, I can’t just let them?—”
“You can and you will. Trying to reason with insipid people doesn’t work.”
“How do I deal with this?” I whispered, well aware of the growing attention we were gathering, of the tittering girls trying to angle their phones to get another photo.
“Ignore it,” he sighed, “this doesn’t happen often anymore. We just have to be discreet.”
“Hence the jet?”
“Hence the jet.”
I realised then that so much of Alfie’s life wasn’t about materialism, it was borne out of necessity. Alfie didn’t just not want to fly coach, he really couldn’t, not comfortably anyway. He had to do everything in private.
“You have to seal yourself off from the world,” I said, unable to hide the sadness in my voice.
“I’ve grown up this way.” He’d never known any different. I wasn’t sure if that made it better or worse.
“Are we safe?”
“Elliot is here and I have a team meeting us at Heathrow.” A team? A security team? A sick feeling pooled in my stomach ? why the hell hadn’t any of this occurred to me before? “Plus, we’re insured.”
“Insured?”
“Kidnap and ransom insurance,” he said, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
I stared at him. “That’s a thing?”
“Yes, Lola, it’s a thing. I’ve been insured since birth.”
My mind was reeling as I struggled to keep up. I’d never even heard of that before. “Well, I don’t have kidnap and ransom insurance.”
“Yes, you do.”
I blinked, hit by another wave of shock. “Since when?”
“Since you started to mean something to me.” His voice was low, trying to keep our words away from eavesdroppers.
“So, would that be the day I crashed into your car? Or the day I threw spring rolls at you?”
He grinned and removed his sunglasses, looking down at me with a soft look in his eye. “Since the day you ate a cake in my jacuzzi.” The day I’d told him about the Evergarden .
“I’ve been insured all this time? Even when…”
“We were apart? Yes.”
Alfie…
I took a deep breath, trying to ignore the sly looks we were getting from the other passengers. This was all so much to digest. Needing something to do with my hands I grabbed the bag of complimentary peanuts and popped them open, tossing a handful into my mouth.
“So, how much am I insured for?”
“Ten million,” he answered and I almost choked on a peanut. “Deep breaths, baby.” He leaned in, whispering in my ear. “You’re one of us now.”
We landed at Heathrow and I heard them before I saw them. Paparazzi. Everywhere. Alfie had forbidden me from tracking the progress of that girl's damned post but from the amount of cameras waiting for us, I was guessing it had done enough damage.
We stopped before they saw us, Alfie’s team had met us at the gate and formed a tight circle around us.
“I thought you said this wasn’t going to get bad?” I whispered fighting the ever-rising tidal wave of anxiety.
“It’s never usually like this, but I’ve never had a confirmed girlfriend before so…”
“So, I’m big news, huh?” My attempt at humour went down like a deflated balloon.
“Lo, you don’t have to deal with this. Elliot can take you separately so they will just follow me.”
I couldn’t see his expression behind his Ray Bans, but I could hear the edge in his voice.
Should I ditch him and take the easy route? Or stay at his side and face the vultures together?
I slipped my hand into his. “I’m with you.” I put on my sunglasses and we walked into the chaos. I gripped his hand tight, pressing myself close to him and keeping my head down. My heart rate picked up and anxiety pooled in my stomach. I’d never liked being the centre of attention.
Somewhere in all the noise, I felt Alfie’s thumb rubbing gently on the back of my hand, that one touch soothed me and kept everything else at a distance. His team helped us to our car and flanked by vehicles front and back, we sped away from Heathrow and camera flashes.
“Baby…” Alfie took off his glasses, a worried expression on his face.
“I’m alright.”
“You’re shaking.”
“Oh…” I looked down at my trembling hands. I shook them out, trying to rid myself of the tension. “Will it always be like that?”
“No, they’ll have moved on in a few days. I can usually go about my daily life and they never bother me. It’s just when there’s?—”
“A scene?” I filled in for him.
“Right.”
If I hadn’t been filmed giving that girl attitude then the paparazzi frenzy probably wouldn’t have happened.
Accepting Alfie back into my life was accepting a lot more than I’d bargained for.
I’d known he was somewhat in the public eye, but the reality of it had never really hit me until now.
I swallowed, this was going to be an adjustment.
Alfie was watching me process all of this, a worried line creasing between his brows.
He needed my reassurance that I wasn't about to run away screaming.
“So, does this mean I’m actually going to have to listen to you when you tell me not to do something?”
He broke out into a wide smile. “Yes.” He tilted his head to keep Elliot from hearing. “I was serious about the spanking.”