For One Beat More

“It’s fucking huge,” Lexi grinned. They were nestled in the bed in their Vegas hotel room, the sunlight filtering through the blinds over their view of The Strip.

Matt shifted in the bed, puffing his chest out, “Thanks very much love, the ring’s not rate bad either.”

She rolled her eyes but leaned up and kissed him softly, running her hand up his bare chest and sliding her fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck, “You’re silly.”

“Are ye trying to say I don’t have a sufficient package t’ fulfil yer needs as a woman?” he wiggled both his eyebrows and left one raised, a dopey grin on his face.

“As much as I love you, I’m not going to have a discussion about your penis on our first morning as a married couple,” she finished with another kiss.

“Plenty of time,” he smiled, pulling her closer to him with the arm curled around her waist.

She smiled and kissed him again, she didn’t know why but she couldn’t get enough of him, couldn’t stop touching him, kissing him. His hand trailing up her bare thigh made her think he felt the same way.

“We should get up,” she mused half heartedly.

He dropped his head into the crook of her neck and mumbled something against her skin.

“Come on,” she pushed against his inked chest and gathered the sheet around her as she tried to manoeuvre under his weight.

“Can’t we jus’ stay in bed forever?” he dramatically threw himself back into the mound of soft pillows behind them and watched as she, somewhat unnecessarily, attempted to cover herself with sheet.

She shook her head and he couldn’t help but stare as she walked towards the bathroom, his eyes trailed down the curve of her spine to where her hand was holding a bunch of fabric, “Why not?” he whined.

“You have the small matter of a show,” she smiled at him over her shoulder before closing the bathroom door behind her.

***

All she had meant to do was check her e-mail.

That was really all she did, it was Kaylah who’d sent her the link to the website, she thought it was best to let her friend know what was being said about her. Apparently.

She knew that fans didn’t like her, they tended not to like any of the boy’s girlfriends, well the younger ones did anyway. The ones who still dreamed about getting into an after show party and wooing one of the band and making them fall madly and deeply in love with them. It was almost laughable that she and Matt had first met when Amanda had invited her around for a night of movies and beer. She knew they were just jealous, she did. It didn’t really make it much easier to read that Matt was going to realise that she wasn’t good enough for him and leave her, or that she was a whore who had worked her way through the band and crew and some other bands too.

A knock at the door made her jump and she closed the laptop with a snap.

“It doesn’t smell like sex in here,” Oli remarked, standing with one hand on the door handle and the other on his hip.

She frowned, “Huh?”

“Ye know,” he closed the door behind him and wandered over to the couch she was sitting on, “Newlyweds an’ shit.”

“Oh,” she nodded.

“But ye liked the wedding present,” he shifted the lid of the pale pink Agent Provocateur box on the coffee table with one tattooed finger.

“Yeah, thanks. It was really sweet of you and Amanda.”

He shrugged, “She picked it out I jus’ paid fer it. Matt’s my best mate but I’m not choosing his bird’s knickers.”

Lexi smiled feebly.

“Where is hubby dearest anyway?”

“Um,” she tucked her hair behind her ears and stood up, smoothing down her t-shirt, “Something about needing a replacement cymbal or something? Him and Tom are away to find one I think.”

Oli nodded, “Was gonna say I thought ye’d have him on a short leash but that’s one think yer not guilty of,” he smiled.

She made a quiet agreeing noise and picked up Matt’s discarded Thrasher t-shirt from the day before and started to fold it neatly.

“Ye won’t mind if I wait here fer ‘im?”

Lexi turned to tell him that she thought it was more likely that the boys would head straight back to the venue rather than the hotel when she saw that he’d lifted the lid of her laptop.

“What’s this?” he asked her.

She shrugged, “Just daft stuff. Kaylah forwarded it -”

“Yer best mate sent ye the link to people talking shite?”

She shrugged again, “She thought it was better that I knew what they were saying.”

“Why? What difference does it make? Ye shouldn’t give a shit, ye know none of it matters.”

“I know it doesn’t, it’s just difficult to forget that people think like that.”

Oli scoffed, “It’s really not, love. People are always going to be jealous of other people, tha’s the way it works an’ is gonna work. It’s bullshit.”

She nodded and picked up another discarded shirt at her feet.

“You do know it’s all just crap, don’t ye Lex?” he asked, “That it’s all bullshit? I mean it’s the las’ thing ye need jus’ now what with everythin’ that happened.”

Lexi paused and looked over her shoulder at him, “Everything that happened?”

His eyes didn’t leave the computer screen as he jabbed at the keyboard with his index fingers, “Er… ye know. Stuff,” he shrugged.

She crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes, “What stuff Oli?”

“Oh look, Tommy’s stuck the photos from the other day on his blog.”

“Oli,” she said, threateningly as she moved to stand in front of him and closed the shiny black screen.

He shifted nervously in the over stuffed chair, “Jus’, ye know. Thestuffaboutyebeingwithsprog.”