An American Braviour's Fantasy

Part 7 : Melkweg ~ Crazy American!

"Di, what the fuck?" Rashelle heard Jai say. She placed her laptop gingerly into it's case and put it and all her camera equipment into a customized padded briefcase used for storing and protecting everything during travel. She closed and locked the case, then positioned it atop her travel trolley, and attached it with special locks that secured it to the steel frame. She grinned at the moment of completion and turned around just in time to see Dioni and Jai scrolling through what looked like her phone. She looked down at the table and realized when it wasn't there that they did indeed snatched her phone while she wasn't looking.

"Really?" she said, placing her hands on her hips and raising an eyebrow at them. They looked up at her sheepishly and Sam glanced over at her, then over at Dioni and Jai, then his expression transformed and anger flashed across his face.

"Hey!?!" he said to Dioni and Jai, then followed up with some choice words in Dutch. Dioni addressed him and putting on an innocent face, spoke back to him in Dutch.

"I just wanted to see her music! I didn't look at anything else. Seriously." Dioni told him in defense as he backed away from Sam who had stood up and began walking towards him. Rashelle then felt the need to defuse the situation. Last thing she wanted was for her presence among them to start a fight!

"Sam, it's okay. I don't have anything to hide. Really. I don't care." Rashelle said attempting to assuage Samuel's malcontent. He turned and looked at her and she could see the frustration in his eyes but it quickly faded as his gaze met hers.

"You don't have to say that just to be nice." He told her seriously. She nodded in understanding.

"I know. If I didn't want him to have it, I'd just ask for it back, but I'm fine. Let them snoop. It's alright. What are they going to get into? My contacts? My search history? My naughty pictures?" Both Dioni and Jai's heads snapped up in unison and stared at her, then at each other, and then back to her in complete disbelief. Sam looked horrified!

"I'm kidding! It's a joke." she reassured everyone and they all breathed a sigh of relief (or possibly disappointment), it was hard to tell which. Perhaps a little of both.

"Besides, if I had naughty pictures on my phone, they'd all be password protected. Sheesh!" Rashelle said nonchalantly as she hoisted her purse over her head and situated it comfortably across her body. "Ready to go?" she asked and was quite amused to see them all looking at her with uncertainty and giving each other confused glances.

"Where are we going?" Samuel asked her with an approving smile. Apparently he was pleased with how she had handled the snatched-cellphone situation. "Is your hotel nearby?" he followed up.

"Yeah, it's just a quick walk down the block and around the corner. I'm at the "Hampshire Hotel Amsterdam American" she told him.

"Oh, nice." Dioni said. "Very posh. Very expensive." he prodded. Rashelle rolled her eyes at him.

"My boss paid for it. If it were my choice, I'd have stayed at your equivalent to a Motel 6." she attempted to explain. "It was a last minute gig and hotels were hard to come by so Dimitris sprung for the one closest to the venue. He was concerned for my safety and didn't want me walking around the city too far by myself after dark. Besides, he gets to write stuff like this off on his taxes at the end of the year as a business expense and then we all get a bonus. It's a win-win." she explained as she disengaged the brakes on her trolley. "I need to put my stuff in my room and then I'm all yours." She said, pointedly making eye contact with Sam. All the guys smirked at him. Sam rolled his eyes back at them, but smiled shyly at her. It was adorable and despite her show of bravado, Rashelle got butterflies in her stomach.

Rashelle took a deep breath and then began heading out of the room towards the rear entrance used for entertainers and staff members, the same way Cees had led her in earlier that day. She pushed her trolley like a hand cart and the boys all surrounded her and began talking amongst themselves in Dutch. Their tone seemed conversational and they would occasionally laugh. As they headed out the back door, and turned the corner, they were met by a thirty-something man dressed in khakis and a leather coat. The guys all greeted him and then introduced Rashelle to him before they all resumed walking down the alley towards the street. They called him Dennis and he seemed to be in charge of watching the doorway.