All You Need Is Love

Tre wrote on a piece of the hotel headed paper To Paul, I owe you two backstage passes to see us, promise I won't forget then signed it Tre Cool and he drew a smiley face alongside his signature.

Paul was beetroot red and his armpits were damp, he could hardly believe what had just happened. He quietly handed over Gabrielle's car keys to Tre.

"Thanks dude," said Tre giving Paul his note. "See ya around," he said and walked off towards the hotel exit.

"Paul?" said Beth's voice from behind him "Please tell me that this is not what it looks like," she said.

Paul hung his head.

"Show me the note," said Beth putting out her hand. She was angry, what the hell was he doing giving Tre Cool Gabrielle's car keys. She read the piece of paper. "What is going on?" she said. "This is a sackable offence," she said to him.

Paul was ashamed. "Mr Cool...he...he was so concerned for Ms. Turner...he knows she's ill and...well...he said he'd drive her car back to her seeing as she was too ill to drive it earlier...he seemed real worried," stuttered Paul.

"We're all worried Paul," said Beth "but you should at least have asked me. You've given out Gabrielle's address, she's not going to be pleased you know," she said. Or may be she will Beth thought to herself. May be young Paul here had done Gabrielle a favour. Beth had heard from Erica how Tre had taken care of her earlier that day after the incident in the elevator. Tre apparently had made Brittney apologise to Gabby and had managed to get Mike to apologise too, luckily the hotel reception area hadn't been busy and none of the other guests had witnessed what was going on. Mike and Brittney had gone to Mike's room straight after and hadn't been seen since. Billie left in a taxi to the airport shortly after and Tre, well he had hung around and taken care of Gabby apparently. He had led her off to the back office and insisted that she call a doctor but the doctor had said it sounded like some sort of flu virus and to get home to bed and to take lots of fluids and painkillers, there was nothing else for her to do. Then Tre asked Erica to get her a taxi and they put Gabby in it and sent her home. Now obviously Tre felt the need to see her so he had bribed Paul at the front desk and had left the hotel to take Gabby her car.

*

This is weird, thought Tre as he started up the engine. He was sitting in the car with the steering on the right side, but what a car though thought Tre, a Mercedes CLK cabriolet. He had previously wondered how a girl who worked on the reception desk could afford a car like this, now he knew that the girl who he thought was just a hotel reception worker was in fact the owner of the hotel. How intriguing. She was only young, how on earth could she afford a hotel like this? Had she won the lottery or something? Her father couldn't be rich, as Tre had found out that he was the old guy that pottered about the place, the guy with the friendly smile who chatted to everyone. He felt guilty bribing the young Paul guy but he was easy bait and Tre was desperate to see Gabby again, to explain about Mike and to see how she was. He had been worried about her. He reached over to the CD player to see what music she had in the player.

"Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away... " the familiar Beatles song filled the car and Tre smiled to himself as he slowly set off on the short distance to see Gabrielle.

*

Gabrielle was taken aback when she saw Tre at the door. He had knocked twice and it had taken all her effort and energy to creep along the hall to the front door.

"What the hell are you doing here?" said Gabriele through the crack in the door.

"Hey that's a great welcome I must say, let me the fuck in will you or I think the guy next door will call the cops," said Tre trying to squeeze through the small gap. "I've been knocking and calling you for ages," he said.

He came in; 'masculine' had entered her flat. "Geez that is the worse case of bed hair that I've ever seen," Tre said looking at Gabby and smiling.

"Fuck off, I'm ill," Gabrielle said creeping back to the bedroom. Her head still felt awful but she didn't care, she just threw herself down onto the bed and wrapped the quilt round her, shivering. She looked up at him as he came into the room.

"Anyway that is the worse case of smudged eyeliner I have ever seen," she said but not smiling, although she kind of wanted to but her face ached so much.

He laughed. "Fair enough," he said. "Anyway you sound like you're feeling better, answering me back like that?" he said.

"Oh shut up," said Gabrielle and closed her eyes. "I don't mean to be rude, but I'm dying here and when I'm dying I like to do it in peace and quiet," she said, aware of him going over to the window even though she had her eyes closed.

"That's some view," said Tre. She peeked out of one eye and saw his arm up above him, resting it on the window and then his forehead resting against his arm checking out the scenery.

"If you look out to the left a little you can see the pier," she whispered. "It has a helter-skelter on it, you can't miss it," she said.

"Oh yeah, the famous Brighton Pier," said Tre. "When you're better you can take me for a walk on it, you mentioned that I should go for a walk on the pebbly beach and you owe me fish and chips for bringing your car back and then...we'll go for a slide on the helter-skelter, it's been years since I've been on one of those," he said still staring out the window.

"I do not remember promising that I would take you for a walk on the pebbly beach, it was just a suggestion," said Gabrielle. She threw back the quilt suddenly, a hot flush rising in her, god this temperature thing was pissing her off, one minute she felt cold, the next hot.

She glanced over at him and noticed his t-shirt was still hanging out. She suddenly had a thought that it the t-shirt wasn't meant to be tucked in at all, that it was meant to be hanging loosely out, but for some reason he had it tucked in one side, as though he'd caught it up in his trousers and hadn't realised. He needs looking after, she thought to herself.

"Anyway.. thank you," said Gabrielle suddenly. "For yesterday."

Tre turned to her. "Mike was an ass, if it's any consolation he doesn't usually act like that. He's been with Brittney for a while now and he loves her, but she's the insecure type, constantly phoning him and turning up when least expected, I think she's trying to come to terms with this touring thing, Mike being away and all that. I think she finds it difficult, some women can't handle it and I think he'd had a bad week, they'd been arguing. I don't know what came over him so I'm apologising for the guy, he's a good guy you know. Anyhow Gabs, you're not going to get your temperature down like that," he said coming over, "let me feel how hot you are," and he laid his palm and fingers across her brow. To her they felt cool to the touch and comforting.

"Yeah, you're fucking burning up, are you drinking enough? Where's your water?" he Tre glancing at the bedside table. "This glass is empty, let me get you some fresh water and...you really need to get out of those clothes, wearing your work skirt and blouse still Gabs is not going to get that temperature down," and he walked out of the bedroom taking her glass with her. Gabs?

She sat up dizzily and started to unbutton her blouse, it took all her energy and she just flung it over onto the chair, then with a huge effort she stood up and unzipped the skirt, tugging it down over her hips and stepping out of it, this too was flung onto the chair. She laid herself back on the covers, just taking her clothes off had zapped all the energy out of her, her bones were aching and she wanted to curl up and die.

Tre had never seen an apartment so bare and empty of things, not necessarily furnishings, there were plenty of those but pictures, ornaments, plants; no personal little item seemed to be around, apart from that picture on her bedside he'd noticed earlier. Who could that be? There was nothing stuck to the plain white refrigerator, no magnets or memos, messages or notes. May be she'd just moved in he thought. It was all very clean and neat, yeah; she must just have moved in, that would be it.

He took a bottle of water out of the refrigerator and noticed that that too was bare apart from the large bottle of water, a small carton of milk, an out of date yoghurt and a bar of chocolate. He sneakily broke a piece off the chocolate and popped it into his mouth, closed the refrigerator door, and poured the water into the glass. He had emptied the water bottle and decided that he would have to go out and get a few provisions for her; she didn't seem to have anything here at all.

"Get out of the quilt, you need to get that temperature down," said Tre coming into the bedroom.

"Who are you telling?" said Gabby, dozing.

"I'm telling you, I know about these things, you need to cool your body down to get the temperature down." He placed the glass of water onto the bedside table then went to the window and opened it up wide.

"Hey its blowy out there," said Gabrielle.

"That's what you need, a little fresh air. Now get out of the quilt or am I going to have to pull it off you."

"You wouldn't dare," she said yawning. "On second thoughts, actually you probably would," she said and reluctantly flung the quilt back revealing herself in a white lacy bra with matching knickers.

Tre couldn't help but look and he liked so much what he saw. Her noticed her flat stomach with rounded hips and toned legs and her creamy breasts were caught up in the bra with the locket still nestling between them. He quickly turned away and looked out of the window again, his hair blowing slightly from the breeze and the curtain flapping around close to him.

"So how do you know about these things?" said Gabby. "Are you a Dr., Dr. Cool?"

"Yeah, I'm Dr Cool," said Tre glancing over "specialising in gynaecology."

"That's gross," she smiled, it hurt to smile but she now couldn't help it.

"No I have kids," he said looking outside again and watching the people on the beach going about their daily lives. He watched a child of Frankito's age flying a red, yellow and blue kite out on the pebbles with a dog jumping around his feet and barking, the dog was so excited and so was the boy who seemed to be looking up at his father proudly as he held his kite string, obviously proud that he was flying his kite with his dad and Tre felt sad, he missed his son.

I have kids. Those three words cut through Gabby's heart like a knife through butter. I have kids.

"Two kids but I hardly get to see them when I'm away. I've been and done the temperature thing, been up at night, dosing them up and bathing them down, wiping their noses, their asses and clearing up their puke but I wouldn't change it for the world," he said. "Anyway, when was the last time you took painkillers?" Tre aked looking over at her, her auburn hair fanning the white pillow.

"When I came back from the hotel," answered Gabby. Where was his wife? Did he have a wedding ring? She glanced over at his finger. No ring, but that didn't mean anything, lots of guys didn't wear their wedding rings.

Tre checked his watch. "That was at about 3pm, it's now 7pm you could do with taking some more. Where are they?" he asked

"In the bathroom, through there," Gabby nodded to a door off the bedroom.

She watched him walk off to the bathroom and wondered what he really was here for? I think he likes me and I like him but what's his story? He's famous, what would he want me for? Images of huge baths and blonde bimbos ran through her mind.

"Fucking hell, it's fucking huge," said Tre from the bathroom. She could hear him rummaging through the cabinet.

"I bet you always say that to the girls," mumbled Gabby from the confines of her quilt.

"Actually its usually what they say to me baby," said Tre entering the bedroom. He had noticed that there were no signs of maleness in the bathroom whatsoever, just a huge corner bath with candles surrounding it, luxurious bales of towels in one corner and a walk in shower. The cabinet had contained hardly anything either, some medicines, tampons and women's razors, also he had noticed her favourite perfume, he'd been wondering what she wore. Now he knew and of course, he'd had to open the lid of the perfume and take a little sniff to remind himself.

"Oh really?" Said Gabby yawning again.

"Yeah really. Have you a store around here; you have absolutely nothing in your refrigerator? I think I'll go and buy you a few things, you could do with some Vitamin C, some fruit and fresh yoghurts, don't you look after yourself properly?" he said.

"Of course I do but yeah I could do with some orange juice," she said. "My purse is over there," she said pointing to the chair with her clothes strewn on the top.

"Oh for god sake," said Tre rolling his eyes. "Just tell me where this shop is," he said.

"Go out the front door and... take the first right and then first left and you'll see it. They sell almost everything, oh and... on the hall table is a set of keys. I am NOT going to get up to let you in again." She said falling asleep. Tre smiled to himself and quietly left the flat.

*

"Hey, you've been asleep for about two hours" said Tre checking his watch. He was lying on his back stretched out on the bed next to Gabby. She had been snoring slightly and the sound had made Tre chuckle. Women, they always think that they never snore; they say that it's always the guys that snore. He folded up the newspaper that he'd been reading and lay it down on the bedside table on his side. "How are you feeling now?" he asked her folding his arms across his chest. While she had slept he had now and again placed his hand on her forehead just to check her temperature, and was pleased that it seemed to be coming down. While reading he couldn't help but occasionally glance at the woman sleeping next to him, he kept catching sight of the dusting of freckles over her nose and shoulders and the way her eyelashes sat darkly against her flushed cheeks. He couldn't help but look at the tiny purple scars that she had on her neck, eyebrow and jaw but he found them strangely attractive. What was her story? He wondered to himself.

"I'm feeling a little better thanks" she said stretching out her arms in front of her. Suddenly her stomach made a noise.

"No way," laughed Tre "was that your stomach?" Then his growled too.

"Yeah and that was yours, you hungry?" she said looking up at him with those emerald green eyes that sparkled even though she was ill.

"Yeah, how about we have ourselves a bed picnic?" said Tre getting up off the bed and stretching his arms over his head.

"As long as we don't make too many crumbs, I hate lying on crumbs," she said.

"How about some cheese and crackers and some fruit then?" Said Tre. "I've bought you some fruit, you need to eat fruit and I've got some orange juice that you requested yer ladyship," he said in his best cockney accent.

"Please do not speak like that, why is it that when Americans try and do an English accent they sound like Dick Van Dyke from Mary Poppins? Nobody speaks like that, nobody." She said snuggling into her pillow once again.

"Sorry yer ladyship," said Tre again in the strange American cockney accent.

"Anyway, thanks Tre," she suddenly said.

"What are you thanking me for now?" said Tre.

"For getting me some groceries and...for staying with me," she said.

The phone rang then and Tre didn't hesitate, just went over to answer it. "Hi. Gabrielle's personal assistant speaking," he said.

Gabby cringed for she knew exactly who it was going to be, Pops.

"Its your dad," said Tre putting his hand over the mouthpiece and bringing it over to her. He was like a naughty little schoolboy she thought with his lopsided grin and twinkling eyes.

She sat up slightly putting the pillow up behind her and slowly leant against it. "Hi Pops, you OK?" she said.

"Of course I am but are you Angel?" said Pops

"Just a touch of the flu," she said watching Tre walk back over to the window.

"Are you taking care of yourself?" he said. "I can get anything you need, do you need anything Angel?" he said, concerned.

"I'm doing fine" said Gabby and watching Tre said, "I have a friend here with me, he's ... he's taking care of me." Tre was looking out the window but it was obvious he was listening.

"Hey is that one of those American rock stars from the hotel Gabby?" said Pops.

"Yeah... yeah it is," said Gabby hesitantly.

"Well you know where I am Angel if you need anything else," he said ignoring the fact that his daughter had some famous rock star in her apartment with her.

"I know Pops, I love you," she said.

"Love you too Angel and I may come by tomorrow."

"Ok Pops that'll be great, see you then" she said.

"Bye Angel."

She put the phone down over onto the beside cabinet then leant back and sighed. Even talking on the phone had taken it out of her.

"He's the guy from the hotel isn't he?" said Tre. "The guy who does the gardening and the odd jobs, I thought I recognised his voice, we had a long conversation yesterday," said Tre

"Yeah, that's him," said Gabrielle. "He's my dad, well he's Pops, most people call him pops, all the guests love him but he hardly gets any work done as he chats to everyone nearly all the day. We don't say anything to him though, just let him do stuff about the place, he's getting on a little but it does him good, feels like he's part of something," said Gabrielle.

"He's a good guy," said Tre "he wouldn't give me any information about you though I did try. His lips were sealed and so were your friend Beth's."

"Oh and when were you talking to Beth?" said Gabrielle although she sort of already knew, it was that very morning when he was leaning over the desk and she thought he was chatting Beth up.

"Actually it was this morning but she would not give anything away. Are they your loyal protectors or something?" he laughed coming over to the bed and sitting on it. She felt his weight on the bed and it pulled the quilt tighter over her and even though she felt so hot and clammy she didn't care, she liked him sitting there.

"If you look in that drawer over there you'll find something you could do with using," said Gabrielle smiling.

"What do you mean?" said Tre.

"Nail polish remover. Your nails need doing, there's nothing worse than nail polish that has been chipped, take it off and start again, I've got loads of shades for you to choose from" she said mockingly.

"I only wear black," said Tre checking out his nails.

"I guessed that," said Gabrielle. "Is it a rock star thing?" she said.

"Must be" said Tre. "But you're right, I could do with getting the stuff off," he said.

"Actually I was kidding," said Gabrielle. "It suits you, I was teasing but when I'm better I do a good manicure and hand massage," she said. "And I'll reapply your rock star black nail polish for you Dr. Cool."

"I'll bear it in mind," said Tre getting off the bed. "Now for something to eat," he said and went off to the kitchen.

**

"I thought you were ill," said Tre watching Gabby.

"I am," she said. "But yeah, I like my food, nothing much stops ME from eating," she said picking at some more cheese.

"You matched me cracker for cracker," said Tre his eyebrows rising in surprise.

"Yeah, AND I'm ill," said Gabrielle. "just wait until I'm better," she said laying back onto the bed and sighing.

Tre couldn't wait.

"Listen, you're getting tired, I shall get a taxi and head off back to the hotel, let you have some rest." He said.

"OK." said Gabrielle snuggling down into her quilt.

"I shall come tomorrow," said Tre then as an afterthought, "if that's OK?" he said.

"Of course its OK," said Gabrielle. "I'd like that," she said closing her eyes.

"Oh just one thing," said Tre walking towards the bedroom door.

"What's that?" said Gabrielle she peeked out of one eye.

"Can I take your nail polish remover with me?" he said.

Gabrielle chuckled. "Help yourself," she said indicating the draw where she kept her nail stuff.

He took the nail polish remover than headed for the door.

"See you tomorrow then," said Tre opening the bedroom door. "and make sure you take your painkillers and drink loads of water," he said.

"Yes Dr Cool," said Gabrielle nearly asleep.

He left the room then and walked down the hallway but just before he reached the front door he hard Gabrielle call out to him.

"Tre?" she shouted.

"Yup," said Tre hesitating and listening to what she had to say.

"Take my keys, you can use my car, and let yourself quietly back in tomorrow," she yawned.

"Yes milady," said Tre in that strange cockney accent. He took her keys from the hall table and smiled to himself.