An Address Book Romance

When Did you Become My Therapist

Grace clutched onto the shelf above her head as she attempted to steady herself on the wobbly stool that she was trying her hardest to stand on.
In hindsight this probably wasn't the safest way to go about doing this.

She was currently trying to restock all of the salons supplies in the very small back room which doubled as an employee break room. It was a job that consisted mostly of shoving insanely heavy boxes of hair dye, extensions, and other assorted tools of the trade, onto high shelves.

This wasn't even part of her job. Her boss was the one that was actually supposed to be doing this, but Rose simply couldn't be bothered to show up in her own salon to take care of anything. So everything seemed to fall onto the employees.

Grace clutched even tighter onto the shelf as she felt her knees begin to grow a little weak below her. She finally succeeded in shoving the box that she was trying to balance with her one free hand all the way back onto the shelf thankful that it didn't slip from her grasp.

She hopped off of the stool just as one of the salons two nail techs slipped into the back room. The back room slash employee break room didn't even have a door to separate it from the rest of the salon. There was just a heavy set of wooden beaded curtains separating the two areas.

Grace stared at the other employee as the women stared down at her own nails frowning slightly. “There's a man here to see you. He doesn't have an appointment, but he's insisting that he speak to you.”

Grace nodded her head attempting to give the women a friendly smile. To tell the truth she was pretty sure that the nail tech didn't like her very much. Then again she didn't know her very well considering the women hadn't been working here that long. “Thanks Laura. I think I'm done stocking up the back room so maybe that will keep Rose off our backs for a little while.”

Laura did give her a slight smile as she finally quit staring at her nails. “Yeah that is if Rose ever shows up to be on our backs.”

Grace went through the beaded curtains widening her eyes as she spotted a familiar face. “Tre what are you doing here?”

Tre gave her a crooked grin as he stood up from his spot on one of the salons chairs and put down the hair styling magazine he'd been flipping through.

He spoke up trying his best to keep a straight face as he talked. “Well I was thinking about getting extensions. I was hoping I could get a nice runway supermodel look before the new album comes out.”

Grace rolled her eyes slightly as a few of the salons clients gave him some odd looks. Jen however seemed to be giggling from her spot at the shampooing station.

Jen spoke up laughing a little as she massaged some conditioner into an elderly clients hair. “That would be a pretty good look for you Tre. Make sure you put some platinum blond highlights into his hair Grace. I think It'll bring out his eyes.”

Tre grinned at Jen's input. “Why thank you Jen.”

Grace shook her head finally having enough of this nonsense. “Tre I don't think the supermodel thing will work for you. I like your hair the way it is now. Seriously though what are you really doing here?”

“I just wanted to see you. Can we talk outside?” Tre asked sulking a bit obviously disappointed that they were no longer joking about his hair.

Grace nodded her head noticing that a few of the salons clients were still watching them curiously. She wasn't surprised that they hadn't recognized Tre. Most of the clients that were in at this time were probably old enough to be his grandmother.

Tre spoke up giving Grace a quick kiss on the lips as they finally stepped outside. “So I've been thinking a lot lately.”

Grace couldn't help but to grin slightly as she responded to his comment. “Oh wow so does all that thinking hurt?”

“Like I haven't heard that before. So anyway I was thinking that since we hadn't really had the opportunity to really see each other that much lately, that I should come here today and kidnap you from work.” Tre said pulling her towards him and wrapping his arms around her waist.

She raised her eyebrows as she heard this. “I don't know Tre. I really shouldn't just blow off work like this.”

Tre frowned a tiny bit before he let out a huff. “Oh come on. Just this once. I really want to spend the day together. We've been so busy lately that we haven't had time to even see each other. Lets go get lunch and then go hang out at my house with Franky please.”

She shook her head deciding that she would ignore her conscious screaming at her to be a good girl and go back to work. For once she would just go with this. “Okay fine just let me go in and make up some excuse as to why I have to leave.”

“Oh let me.” Tre insisted dragging her inside before she had the chance to argue with him.

Tre led her straight over to Jen before he managed to speak up. “Jen I have to take Grace up to the hospital. Her niece Annie is up there getting her tonsils removed and Grace really needs to go up there and see her. She's just too worried that you'll need her here at work and her boss obviously isn't here. So she really hasn't been able to ask for the day off.”

Jen frowned knowing that Grace didn't have a niece. All Grace had were her three nephews. She widened her eyes as she saw the pleading look Tre was currently giving her. “Oh okay. Uh Well tell Annie to get well soon.”

Grace grinned a tiny bit as Tre and she finally made it out to his SUV. “Tre seriously my niece Annie? What happens when everyone finds out I don't have any nieces?”

“Yeah it was the first thing that popped up in my head. No ones going to figure out that you only have nephews. Trust me I'm pretty sure your coworkers bought it.” Tre said attempting to convince her that she had nothing to worry about as they pulled away from the salon.

Grace shook her head as he spoke up giving her a cheesy smile. “So where to pretty lady?

---------------------------------

Tre widened his eyes as he spotted a large bruise on his girlfriend's arm. He reached out next to him happy that they had chosen a booth and then sat on the same side.

He placed a hand on her arm and gave her a look of concern. “What happened to your arm?”

Grace grimaced at the memory of how she'd gotten that bruise, as she closed her menu and sat it down. “I had a little accident at work.”

“What did someone not like their haircut so they hit you in the arm or something?” Tre asked smirking.

“No. I was stocking somethings in the back room a couple of days ago and I slammed my arm into the shelf . I was just trying to stop myself from falling off the stool that I was standing on. Those shelves are made out of metal and their really high up so it really hurts if you slam something into them. Jen even tried to make me go to the hospital because she was convinced that I'd somehow broken something. It's fine now. I just have an ugly bruise left over.”

He shook his head as he heard this story. “Oh god you're almost as accident prone as Mike.”

“Hey it isn't nice to describe your girlfriend as accident prone. What are you going to say when you introduce me to people 'this is my accident prone girlfriend Grace, please keep sharp and heavy objects away from her'.” She blurted out frowning at his smiling face.

“No I'll probably say something like 'this is Grace my very sexy but very clumsy girlfriend'.”

She let out laugh before she took a sip of water. “Oh great so now I'm clumsy instead of accident prone.”

“Yeah, but you're sexy. So that should totally balance things out.” He responded finally removing his hand from her arm as the waiter approached their table.

Tre spoke up again as the waiter finally left their table with their lunch orders. “So the album release party is coming up pretty soon and you're my date.”

She let him sneak his hand across the table and clasp it in hers before she spoke up. “Oh so you're just ordering me to go with you now instead of asking me politely.”

“Yeah pretty much. I need you to be my arm candy for the night.” He stated.

She rolled her eyes as she ran her thumb across the top of his hand. “Why don't you get Mike or Billie to be your arm candy. I think one of them may enjoy it.”

Tre smirked at this comment before he leaned over pressing a kiss to her cheek. “No it wouldn't be the same. Mike and Billie don't look as nice in a dress as you do. Besides I think Brittney and Adrienne would get a little cranky if I stole their dates for the night.”

“Okay fine then. Is there anything I need to know about release parties? I mean what exactly would I wear to one of these things?” She asked smirking a little bit as she tried hard not to picture Mike or Billie in a dress.

“Just wear a dress or something like that. You can probably call up Adrienne or Brittney and ask one of them exactly what you should wear. It's just going to be at some club or something like that. They'll play the album and the guys and I'll have to mingle with some record exec's and other music bigwigs. Our back up musicians will be there too so you'll get to meet them as well as a couple of our friends. There will be free drinks so that should make things pretty fun.”

She nodded her head trying not to show how nervous she was about this. She wasn't the type of person who could enter any social situation and become an automatic social butterfly.

Yes she'd been nervous about the barbecue and she had been just fine, but that was different. At the barbecue Tre had been the one to introduce her to everyone and get the conversations rolling for her. She hadn't been really left alone and forced to be the one to start a conversation with anyone.

She almost wished that she could have Tre's confidence. She could admit that was one of the things that probably attracted her to him. He seemed to have no fear at all when it came to social situations. He could probably walk into a room and befriend everyone in the room.

She just guessed she was more of the wallflower type. She was the one who stood aside at parties and didn't really talk unless she was spoken to first.

Tre gave her a slight smile as he pressed his lips to hers giving her a deep kiss, only pulling away when the waiter arrived with their food.

He smirked noticing that Grace's cheeks had darkened after the waiter left their table. He spoke up as she took a bite of her pasta salad. “I want you to come out on tour with me around late October. I'll arrange for you to get a plane ticket and everything. All you'll have to do is pack your bags and show up.”

Grace nodded her head feeling her stomach drop slightly as she thought about the fact that as soon as the album was released he would be leaving town to promote the album and do whatever else it was he would have to do before touring.

She had actually been avoiding talking about it with him too much because the thought of him being gone was upsetting.

She felt ridiculous being that upset about it. They had only been together for what would be about a month next week. It was hard to believe that it had been a month already.

Of course most of that month had been spent talking on the phone. The last time they had really had the opportunity to go out anywhere together was to that barbecue and that was almost three weeks ago.

Both of their schedules had become so crazy lately that when they saw each other the both of them were so exhausted that all they wanted to do was just lay around at one of each others houses.

Her time had been taken up by more hours being added on at work because her boss apparently enjoyed overworking her. Most of Tre's time had been split in between preparing for the album and trying to squeeze in as much time with Frankito as possible before he had to leave.

“How long will I be able to be out on tour with you?” She questioned taking a quick sip of her water.

He smiled as he took a bite of his club sandwich. “That's the beauty of it. You can be with me for as long as you want. I'm going to pay your way so don't worry about a thing. All you have to do is worry about getting off work.”

“Tre you can not pay my way. I won't let you spend that much money on me. Please let me at least pay some of my way.” She blurted out a little annoyed at the thought of him spending money on her this soon in their relationship.

He shook his head not surprised that she may have a problem with him paying her way. He did her best to give her a patient smile as he spoke up. “Okay I'll make you a deal. I'll pay for things unless you speak up and offer to do it first. We'll just figure out how we'll pay as we go.”

“Okay I guess that sounds fair enough. I just don't want you to have to pay for everything. It makes me feel like I'm using you for money or something.” She said causing him to snicker slightly.

“Oh that's okay. I know it isn't my money you're after. It's my hot body.” Tre blurted out grinning proudly as he flexed his arms.

She shook her head smiling at this comment. “Damn you're on to me. I've been after that body since we met.”

Tre finally quit flexing his arms as he spoke up changing the subject. “So did Jen ever say anything about our make out session after the barbecue that night?”

“No. I think she noticed how mortified I was about her almost walking in on us.” Grace said shaking her head slightly.

Tre swallowed his bite of sandwich before speaking. “Next time I think we should just take things to the bedroom. I mean it seems to work at my house.”

She smiled a little as she spoke up. “That's because when we're at your house we can't make out in the middle of the living room because you have a three year old wondering around. Your bedrooms the only safe place at your house if Franky's up.”

He shrugged his shoulders giving her an amused smile. “Yeah that's true. I wouldn't mind getting into your bed though.”

She felt her cheeks flush as she heard this. She was surprised when he spoke up apparently satisfied since he successfully had gotten her to blush. “So speaking of Franky. I know he's going to want us to play with his new side walk chalk when we get back to my place so be prepared.”

She nodded her head deciding that letting Tre kidnap her from work was probably the best thing she'd decided to do in a while.

------------------------------------------

It was late by the time Grace made it back to her place. Though Tre had tried to talk her into spending the night at his place they'd both decided that it would just be easier for her to go home since she had work the next day.

Since she had work she technically would need a change of clothes for the next day. She knew that if she spent the night with Tre she wouldn't have the time the next morning to run to her house, change clothes and get to work on time.

She had been extremely tempted to just forget about work and stay with him.

No they hadn't had sex yet. The closest they'd come to it was making out which they'd had the chance to do only a couple of times since Jen had interrupted them that night on the sofa.

Grace was pretty sure that she may be ready to actually give into him pretty soon though. Maybe before he went away on tour.
Okay so maybe it was just her paranoia about the possibility of him finding someone else while they were apart that was leading her to believe that she should sleep with him.

She knew that the healthy thing to do would be to talk to him about these fears, but she just couldn't make herself bring it up. She didn't want to make herself seem like a jealous, paranoid, and needy girlfriend.

That was the last thing he needed her to be. She knew in the back of her mind that she needed to put her trust in him. Part of her was still unsure though. After all she'd put her trust into Brent and he'd thrown it in her face.

Brent had just been a stupid nineteen year old boy that hadn't known what he wanted though. Tre was a grown man who wanted a serious relationship with her.

She shook her head trying hard not to think about all of this especially after the wonderful day she'd had with Tre.

Grace was surprised to see Jen sitting up on the sofa reading a book obviously waiting for her to come home. She sat down on the sofa beside her slipping her shoes off.

Jen sat her book down on the coffee table as she spoke up. “So what did you and your lovely drummer do today?”

“We ate lunch and then we went to his place where we drew with chalk on the back porch with Franky.” Grace stated leaving out the fact that they had technically had a little make-out session in Tre's room as soon as Franky had gone down for a nap.

“Oh well then..........So I never got the chance to apologize for walking in on you two that night.”

Grace frowned trying to ignore the amused look on Jen's face. “That was like three weeks ago.”

Jen shrugged her shoulders not helping but to smile slightly. “I know. I'm just saying I'm sorry. I probably stopped you from getting laid huh?”

“No. I wasn't going to sleep with him thank you very much. You know it's times like these that I wonder why I started hanging out with you when we were kids.” Grace blurted out widening her eyes.

“You know you started hanging out with me because you knew I was awesome even back then. Why haven't you done anything more than dry hump on the sofa then? I mean is he a really bad kisser or something?” Jen asked ignoring the embarrassed look on Grace's face.

Grace shook her head. “No he's actually a really amazing kisser. I'm just not ready yet.”

Jen bit her bottom lip wondering if she should just come out and say it. “He isn't Brent. Tre is really a great guy. So whatever it is don't worry about it.”

“I don't want to lose him.” Grace found herself blurting out as she stared down at her nails starting to pick at the chipping red polish.

Jen shook her head as she nudged Grace's arm slightly. “You won't lose him. Just do what you feel like doing.”

“I don't know. I mean he wants me to come out and join him on tour around October. I'm just scared what if I do it and things get completely screwed up. I mean I just don't want to put too much of myself into this and then have it all fall apart.”

“Nothing is going fall apart. He cares about you and I know you care about him. Just go out on tour with him and enjoy being with him. Don't think about it.” Jen said sighing when Grace shook her head.

“What about work? I need to be here to work so I can pay you my share of the rent.”

“Don't worry about work. You hate the job at the salon and you've been talking about maybe working as a freelance hairdresser for a while. This tour would give you a chance to clear your head a little bit. You know my dad sends me checks like every month so I could probably pay the rent all by myself. We only half the rent since we both agreed that it would be fair when we decided to move in together. Go be with Tre please. Go have fun on tour for me.” Jen stated grateful that Grace finally looked up at her giving her a slight smile.

Grace shook her head giggling slightly. “Oh god when did you become my therapist? You must get really sick of sorting out my love life. I guess your right about all of this. You know how I can get though once I start to freak out about something I go overboard.”

Jen shook her head grinning. “I could never get tired of helping you out. You would do the same for me. You know Dr. Jen Garrison the doctor of love does sound pretty cool doesn't it?”

Grace shook her head not helping but to laugh slightly at this. She couldn't help but to thank the powers that be that she had the best friend in the entire world.