Girl That You Love

Patrick stared out the window of the plane, watching New York City come into view as they were landing. He barely slept the night before as his head was filled with Emma. He missed her, desired her, and was thankful that Pete’s walls were thick in his house or else Pete and his girlfriend would have heard how much he missed her. He tried to reign in his apparent impatience while they dealt with security and fans who had waited for them at the airport. Usually, he didn’t mind these interruptions, but when he was about to go back to see his now pregnant fiancé and get married in seven days, his mind had no place for interruptions.

He glanced over at Pete and Tracy who were both sitting in his aisle. They were passed out on top of one another. Although it was nine in the morning in New York, they all had to get up extra early in LA in order to make it that early. In front of them were Andy and Joe, who were also sleeping, and beside them was Marcus, whose eyes were focused on a Tom Clancy book in his lap. Patrick had tried to sleep, but found he could not. So he watched the clouds and skylines pass them by on their way to New York.
Once the plane had landed, Patrick nearly jumped out of his seat, his knee knocking Pete’s arm.

“Ow, Christ Patrick, watch it,” Pete grumbled, rubbing his smarting elbow.

“Sorry,” Patrick mumbled, his ears getting red.

“Give him a break, honey, he’s just excited to see Emma,” Tracy said though a yawn.

“Speaking of Emma,” Patrick grabbed his phone out of his pocket and turned it off of airplane mode. He waited for it to find the signal and then waited to see a text or call from Emma. One did appear from
Emma at about 7:30. It said, CAN’T WAIT TO SEE U. UP AND GETTING READY. LOVE U.

But that was the only one. Patrick figured she must already be waiting for him at the baggage claim area with Marie.

“They waiting for us?” Joe said looking to Patrick for an answer.

“I guess so. Emma hasn’t texted me since 7:30 this morning.”

Joe glanced at his phone. “Marie texted me. She’s here. So Emma must be too.”

Patrick couldn’t wait. He could feel his excitement growing with each step they took out of the plan and toward the baggage claim. A few fans would cry out when they saw them or run over to get pictures, but Marcus, thankfully, kept them moving.

When they made it down to baggage claim, they saw Marie standing there with Wendy and a few other security guys on Marcus’s staff that were mainly called up when the guys were in New York. They were quickly surrounded and Marcus sent two guys off to collect the guys luggage.

Patrick watched Joe and Marie reunite, kissing and laughing. He looked around, worriedness coming over him. “Hey Marie, where’s Emma?” he asked her pointedly.

Marie pulled away from Joe. “I don’t know Patrick. Robbie was supposed to be bringing her here. Maybe they got stuck in traffic?”

“Dude, why don’t you call her?” Andy said.

Patrick nodded and pulled his phone out. “Yeah why didn’t I think of that,” he said sarcastically, and the other boys exchanged amused grins. Patrick dialed her number and put the phone to his ear. He expected to hear the phone ring, but instead it went straight to voicemail. “Hmm, that’s weird.”

“What is?” Pete asked.

“Her phone must be turned off or something. It went straight to voicemail.”

Marcus pulled his phone out. “I’ll call Robbie. He has to have his phone on at all times. I’ll find out where he is.”

Patrick anxiously watched Marcus dial Robbie’s number. In the meantime, the security guards had retrieved the rest of their luggage and had taken it to the SUVs out front. He watched Marcus’s brows knit together in confusion. “His went directly to voicemail as well.”

Patrick started to absently fidget with the strap of his backpack. “Well, let’s just wait a little, yeah? I mean they should be here soon. I’d hate to leave and they still be on their way.”

“Patrick, we can’t hang out here forever,” Pete said. “I don’t’ know if you know this, but the four of us together attract a lot of attention.” He gestured at the ogling passengers and fans who were staying just
out of reach of their security.

Patrick shook his head. “I want to wait for Emma. I mean, Marie, she did say she was coming right?”

Marie nodded. “Of course. We had dinner last night and talked about it. She was supposed to be here.”

“Do you know anyone else who may know where she is? Like Christian? Maybe she went to work this morning, I mean we all know Emma can’t stay away from a deadline,” Patrick pressed.

Marie bit her lip. “Well, the only person she’s talked to besides me last night was Joel, maybe he knows?”

Patrick stiffened at the mention of Joel’s name. Even after everything, he still couldn’t shake his reaction to Joel’s closeness with his fiancé. “Well, I don’t have his number.”

Marie pulled out her phone. “I do.”

“You do?” Joe looked at her with suspicion.

“Oh calm down you crazy buffoon. How else do you think he knew where to find you guys in LA?”

“I don’t like this sneakiness missy,” Joe said, and Marie flipped him off.

Joel answered her call on the second ring. “Marie, good morning.” He sounded as if she had awakened him from a deep sleep.

“Joel, hey, so we can’t find Emma anywhere. She didn’t show up at the airport and her phone’s turned off. Any chance you might have spoken to her last night after dinner and she may have mentioned something about where she was?”

“Dinner?” Patrick asked, his voice raising an octave. Marie rolled her eyes and waved her hand at him.

“Wait a minute, she’s not there?” Joel said in surprise.

“So I’m guessing you didn’t talk to her again last night.” Marie gave Patrick a sideways glance.

“No, I did… she called me, but Marie, if she’s not there, you guys need to leave right now and get back to Patrick’s house.” The urgency in his voice caught her off guard.

Patrick noted anxiety cross her face. “What is it? What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Guys, we need to get into the car and get back to your place now,” she ordered firmly. The tension in her voice frightened Patrick a little bit.

“Wait, is Emma all right?” he asked her, as the crew booked it to the SUV. They all piled in and Patrick watched Marie listening to Joel intently, her face not hiding the outward shock of what he was telling her. “Marie, talk to me, is my fiancé okay?!” Patrick exclaimed, as the car door was slammed shut and
Marcus was racing to the driver’s side.

“Hey Joel, I’m going to put you on speaker okay?” She turned her speaker on so that everyone could hear him. “Okay, Joel, I’m going to need to you tell Patrick everything you just said.”

“Patrick, can you hear me?” Joel said through the phone.

“Yes, dummy, you’re on speaker,” Joe said grouchily.

Patrick shot him a look. “Yeah Joel, what’s up?”

“Okay, well last night, I had talked to Emma when she was at dinner with Marie, Marie already knows this, about the pictures and stuff that keep popping up in the tabloids. Well, long story short, my friend who works at US Weekly gave me the email of the person sending stuff in and it turns out it’s Robbie.”

“Holy shit,” Pete exclaimed.

“What’s he talking about Patrick,” Marcus said as he sped out of the terminal and onto the highway.

“Yeah Joel what are you talking about?”

“Okay, so basically, the guy you hired as Emma’s body guard has been selling off your pictures, including the one of me and her, to the gossip columns.”

“You sure about that? I mean Robbie doesn’t seem like the type,” Patrick replied.

“It sounded fishy, well, Marie what were you saying?”

Marie looked at the guys. “Emma told me this and she also told me she was going to sneak into
Robbie’s room to go through his email. He was supposed to be going out last night with some friends?
Yeah, so she thought it was going to be a good time to do it.”

“And she did,” Joel finished. “I got a call from her around 10:30 last night. She snuck in there and sure enough, she found emails and tons of pictures of you guys that he was selling off to everyone, Perez, TMZ, you name it. Apparently he even paid the girls who attacked Emma back in November.”

“What the fuck! Why the hell would he do something like that?” Joe exclaimed.

Patrick shook his head. “This all makes no sense.”

“It’s not all. She said she found stuff that he was using to make the death threats she was receiving. So in fact, he was sending those the whole time.”

“But why? I didn’t think he hated Emma, or me for that matter?”

Marie frowned. “Actually, he’s not too fond of you.”

Patrick did a double take. “Me? He doesn’t like me?”

“Yeah Emma said its because he’s looking out for her and thinks well,” The rest didn’t need saying,
Patrick knew what she meant.

“No, Marie, that’s not it,” Joel said.

“What do you mean?” Patrick asked.

“When we were on the phone, Emma found something. Patrick, I don’t think Robbie doesn’t like you because he’s looking out for a friend, I think he doesn’t like you because you’re in the way.”

The silence that followed was palpitating. Patrick could feel the blood in his veins going cold. “Joel are you saying Robbie’s in love with her?”

“I think love is the wrong word,” Joel responded. “Obsessed is better. See Emma said he had a whole folder of pictures, of her, in various states of undress that were unknowingly taken. I’m assuming he did it when you were away from the house. She said there were some of her sleeping and stuff.”

“Fuck,” Patrick muttered. He felt Pete’s hand on his shoulder, and he realized he was shaking.

"Man, and we thought Joel was the worst," Joe commented. "Uh, no offense Joel."

"None taken," Joel said in a tight voice.

“I still don’t understand why they aren’t answering their phones though,” Andy piped up.

“I told Emma, do not confront him. I’ve studied this kind of behavior before and people who act the way he is acting, they can get violent, especially if confronted about their wrong doing. I told her to wait until you guys were back.”

“But Emma wouldn’t want to,” Patrick said softly. “Marcus, can this thing move any faster?”

Marcus glanced at him in the rearview mirror. “Patrick we’re 10 minutes away, but I can only go as fast as this traffic will take me.”

“Patrick,” Joel said, startling him. “You don’t have ten minutes. I don’t know what’s going on, but if she did confront him, I’m not so sure he will take it easily.”

Patrick nodded. “Thanks Joel. Pete,”

“Yeah, I’m on it,” he said as he started dialing 911.