Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands

I felt tiny like kissed on my shoulder blades and then the kisses traveled up my neck. I had goosebumps from the soft touch on my skin and I couldn’t help but smile and sigh in contentment. I rolled over and Gabe was propped up on his elbow and he was just staring at me.

“How long have you been up?” I moved closer to him and rested my head on his arm that was propping his head up.

“I never went to bed. I have tour insomnia,” He said as he scooted down and laid his head down, but still kept his arm underneath my head.

“How long have you been creepily watching me sleep?” I laughed and moved to lay on his chest. Gabe closed his arm around my and lazily drew his fingers o my back.

“All night,” He said in a creepy voice.

“I wish were in a hotel and we could order room service. I don’t want to leave this position until you really have to go.”

“I’m sure we could convince Rob to come over with food,” He yawned.

“That is true…” Rob really would do anything for us, but I would never take advantage of him like that.

“How’s your arm,” He asked and slipped away from me to sit up and look at me. He scanned my arm and then leaned down to lightly kiss my bruises.

“You know I bruise easily,” I sighed.

“He’ll pay for this,” He growled.

“Don’t ruin the day,” I said and kissed his lips.

“I’m not trying to ruin it, but when I see them it just makes me so mad,” He sighed rolling off of me and onto his back. “He’s lucking I didn’t see him put his hands on you. I would have murdered him,” He exhaled in frustration.

“I’m going and filing for a restraining order tomorrow. I already e-mailed Margot to tell her I was working from home so I could take care of it all. Can we just enjoy each other’s company today? Please?” I pleaded as I sat up and stared down at him. He just looked away. “Fine,” I huffed and got out of bed and went into the kitchen.

I plugged in the coffeemaker and grabbed the coffee out of the freezer. I spooned the coffee into the maker and flipped it on. I was annoyed. I was going to take care of everything tomorrow and we’d be all set. Why couldn’t he just let us have a fun day and not think about everything that had happened last night?

“Maybe if you put a long sleeve t-shirt on I’d be able to stop thinking about it,” Gabe said half-heartedly as he stood in the kitchen. He was just wearing a pair of boxer briefs and he scratched his head as he waited for me to respond.

“I can do that, but only if you promise to just not mention any of this again and we can enjoy the 14 hours that you are here,” I said sternly as stood in the corner of the kitchen.

“Deal,” He smirked and pinned me in the corner to kiss me.

“I like this deal,” I kissed his chest.

“Me too. I also missed your coffee!” He reached around me and grabbed mugs out of the cabinet.

“I made the coffee for me!” I turned around and held him back with my butt so I could pour the first cup of coffee for myself.

“Fine! You get the first cup!” He smacked my ass and then leaned in to pick up the other mug. He held it out in front of him and waited for me to pour him some.

“Here you go,” I smiled and put the put back onto the hot plate.

“What do you want to do today?” Gabe asked and he went to sit behind the bar with his coffee.

“Okay, just one last thing,” I said nervously and he just gave me a nervous look as he waited for me to finish my thought. “I was thinking we could lay in bed with some coffee and I have a fruit salad in the fridge. Then we can get lunch and walk around Union Square and I can check some hotels for Courtney,” I said quickly at the end.

“Fine, I know you won’t relax unless you look a bit,” He grunted a bit in disapproval.

“I just promised I would. I won’t talk about it and I’ll buy you presents to make up for it,” I leaned on the other side of the bar and took Gabe’s hands in mine.

“The presents better involve Nike sneakers, string cheese and a few new hoodies.”

“It involves all of that and maybe some other stuff if I see it and like it for you,” I winked.

“Okay. That’s good enough. Get that fruit salad and let’s get back in bed,” Gabe said and motioned with his head toward the bedroom.

I filled our coffee cups again Gabe grabbed them as I pulled out the fruit salad I had bought yesterday from the fridge. I followed him down the hall to our bedroom and we jumped back in bed and fed each other fruit and put on a movie.

Around one in the afternoon we went and grabbed some lunch and just hung around Union Square. I was so content with Gabe holding my hand and just walking around the city and with everything else going on it was nice to just focus on us and not the drama. I didn’t forget about Courtney and Gabe was nice enough to let me check hotels around the area as we walked. He wasn’t too happy about it, but he knew it’d ease my mind.

“Do you want to go grocery shopping and stock up before you go back?” I asked as we left the final hotel Gabe allowed me to look in.

“No. I just want to take you home and cuddle with you,” He said pulling me into him by the neck.

“I love when you come home in the middle of tour, but I hate it too,” I whined.

“We’ll be in town before you know it, boo.”

“I know, I know. Thanks for letting me check out the hotels,” I said as I rolled out of his grasp and to his side as we walked back toward the apartment.

“I know you. You would have been running it through your mind all day,” He laughed.

“As crazy as I am and you still married me,” I squeeze his waist.

“That’s why I tour.”

“Asshole,” I laughed.

Gabe and I went home and curled up on the couch. I turned on the TV, but I didn’t know why when we wouldn’t be watching much of it. The TV played in the background as we made out like a middle school couple for a while. Eventually, after exhausting ourselves we fell asleep for a bit.

I woke up at nine in a panic and Gabe wasn’t on the couch next to me. Did he leave without waking up and saying good-bye? I shot up off the couch and threw on some of my clothes and walked to our bedroom. The shower was running.

“You scared the shit out of me, so you know,” I said as I walked into the bathroom.

“You just scared the shit out of me,” Gabe said and poked his head out from behind the shower curtain.

“Good,” I said and sat on the counter across from the shower. “I was thinking when I come to Europe I don’t want to do anything touristy. I want to ask the kids where the cool places are to go and where the locals go, you know?”

“Yeah, let’s do it,” Gabe chuckled. “Do you want me to leave this on for you?”

“Yes!” I said and stripped off my clothes. I got in the shower and Gabe hopped out to get ready.

After I showered I got ready and I drove Gabe to the airport. I walked with him all the way up to security.

“I’m so glad that you came to visit me,” I sighed as I leaned my body into Gabe’s and he rested his elbow’s on my shoulders and ran held my head tight to his chest.

“I don’t want to leave you. This is why I hate coming in the middle of tour because it’s like ten times harder to leave you,” He kissed the top of my head.

“Safe trip back. Tell everyone I love them. Victoria, Nate, Ryland, Alex, Pete, Patrick, Joe, Andy, William, Sisky, Chiz, Butcher, Mike,” I was stalling him walking through security by naming everyone he was on tour with.

“Go through the crew and then I’ll have to go,” He teased.

“Danny, Chris, Lipski, Dirty, Tony, um…I don’t know who else,” I sighed.

“That’s good enough. I love you and I’ll see you soon,” Gabe said as he put his hands on my shoulders and pushed me back a bit to look at me.

“I love you too,” I didn’t hide any of the sadness I was feeling, even though it may have been better for both of us in the moment. I was going to miss him so much.

“Be good, okay?” He said raising an eyebrow at me.

“Me? I’m supposed to tell you that,” I leaned up and kissed him.

“I’ll call you when I get in, okay?”

“Please do,” I gave him one last kiss and then he went down the line toward security. I waved to him and waited till he was all the way through. Gabe turned and waved and blew me a kiss before disappearing.

I walked out of the airport and reached in my bag to check my cell phone. I had been checking it all day when Gabe wasn’t looking to see if I had a text or a message from Courtney, but nothing. I reached in and I had two new voicemails.

My first voicemail was from Gabe.

“I’m sitting here at my terminal and I just wanted to tell you that I love you and this leaving stuff sucks, but having you to come home to, to talk to, to love makes it all worth it. I love you,” He sighed sappily and hung up. I welled up a bit. I hated having him gone and then being so sappy and sweet made it worse.

I saved the message and skipped to the second one.

“Hey, it’s Courtney…I’m sorry I ran out. I know it was wrong to come to your place, so I’m sorry again. I’m fine; don’t worry about me, okay? Okay…I gotta go, bye,” Courtney sounded frazzled and scared. I hung up and dialed her back, but it went right to voicemail.

“Court, it’s me. Sorry I missed your call. You are always welcome to my house and I would really like it if you came back. Call me, I’m here and I’d love to know where you are. I’m worried,” I told her and hung up.

I got into my car and all I could do now was wait to see if she called back. I didn’t want to call Lucas just yet because I wanted to keep my distance and because I was going to file a restraining order against him tomorrow. I wish Gabe was still with me because he kept me calm and not focused on all of this. I drove home and put on some music and sang along to the songs and that calmed me down a bit. I hated this waiting game.