You Should Know

“Sadler, better wake up and get ready,” I felt a nudge on my shoulder. I opened my eyes to see Gabe sitting next to me on the bed.

“When did you get home?” I asked and pulled him down to give him a kiss.

“Just now, sorry you couldn’t come get me at the airport. We had to go drop shit off, it was a hassle,” He mumbled against my lips.

“It’s so good to have you back here.”

“You looked like you were having a good dream,” He kissed me again.

“I guess you could say that,” I smiled remembering my dream and hoping it would come true.

“What are you wearing tonight? You buy something special?” He asked lying down completely next to me.

“I got a little something special. What about you?” God, I missed you,” I said staring at him with a smirk.

“Whatever you like me in and I couldn’t stand being away from you!” He pulled me into him and kissed me.

“Can we just stay here and forget the party. I don’t need one,” I ran my free hand through his hair.

“I’d love to, but they have everything ready and it looks amazing.”

“What? What’d you do to the place? It’s just a birthday, you know.”

“For a special girl, now go,” He shoved me toward the edge of the bed and he got up as well.

I ran into the bathroom and into the shower. I had fallen asleep after the gym, so I was incredibly disgusting. I took a quick shower and then started getting ready while Gabe showered. I was excited for tonight, to be with Gabe and our friends, but the dream rattled me a bit. I wanted it so bad, but he seemed to avoid talking about it with me, which just fed my insecurities. I fought them off pretty well with him because at the end of the day he still makes me feel like I’m the most important person in the world and that’s all that really matters.

We left for Angels and Kings and instead of walking because we were already late, we hailed a cab. When we go to the bar the music was loud and I could hear all my friends inside. I was excited and yet still letting the dream get to me.

“You okay?” Gabe asked before we went inside.

“Perfect,” I forced a smile and he gave me a look, as if he knew I was lying. “Seriously, I mean maybe I’d like to just have you to myself, but who wouldn’t?” I teased.

“True, very true,” He laughed and held the door open for me.

“Sadie!” Meghan ran over to me and gave me a huge hug. She had been away on business for two weeks and just got back. I had missed her terribly.

“Meg! I missed you!” I laughed and we rocked back and forth.

“I missed you too! Come! We’ve got drinks!” She pushed me toward the back area where I saw Emily and her boyfriend, the rest of Cobra Starship, a few work people and Gabe’s brother Ricky. “Gabe, welcome back!” Meg punched his arm and he hooked his arm around her neck and pulled her into a hug.

“Happy Birthday Sadler!” Emily shouted and pulled me onto her lap and into a hug.

“Thank you!” I smiled and hugged her tightly. I had great friends. “Holy shit! What are you kids doing here?” I screamed as I got off of Emily’s lap. My friends Mike and Sean were in Angels and Kings. I was floored.

“We made the trip, it’s been too long,” Mike said scooping me up into his arms. I was going to cry.

“God! It has been too long. You move to Arizona and you fucking fall of the map,” I gave him a huge kiss on his cheek and then moved to Sean.

“Come to papa!” He teased holding his arms out for me and gave me fatherly looks.

“Seanimal!” His nickname in college. “How’s Ontario, eh?” I just held on to him.

I hadn’t seen Sean or Mike since I left school. I had talked to them a lot, but we all went our separate ways. Mike actually came to visit me while I was in California, but I hadn't seen Sean since we left school and over the last year we’ve all been so busy we sort of lost touch. It was so good to see them and see that they were doing well.

“Missed you munchkin,” Sean said and pushed my shoulder, like a brother would do.

“Missed you too!” I grabbed Gabe’s hand and pulled him over. “You remember Gabe, right?” I smiled up at him.

“Can’t believe he’s still falling all over you,” Mike teased and shook his hand.

“Seriously, we actually moved away because we couldn’t take it anymore,” Sean teased and winked at Gabe.

“Fuck you,” I laughed at Sean and Meg came and gave me a drink. “Thanks,” I said taking a sip.

“Gabe actually asked us to be here,” Sean said.

“Really? You didn’t willingly come?”

“We did, but he gave us directions,” Mike winked at me.

“Thank you…” I said turning to Gabe. “I love you,” I leaned up to kiss him and he kissed me back.

“Of course, anything for you.”

The night was a lot of fun. It included a lot of reminiscing about college and I talked to the band about the tour. I was able to forget about the dream and just have fun, which is all I wanted.

“Happy Birthday, boo,” Rob said putting his hand on my back and coming up to Alex, Nate and I in the corner.

“Hey boo, thanks for all of this,” I gave him a hug.

“Where’s our man Gabriel?” Rob asked.

“I don’t actually know, I saw him with Emily and her boy earlier. I’ll go look for him,” I smiled.

“Typical Gabe disappearing at a bar or club,” Alex laughed.

“We’ll go out and not see him for hours, usually he’s mobbed by fans or something,” Nate rolled his eyes playfully.

“I’ll be back,’ I smiled and put my drink down to make it through the crowd. “Have you seen Gabe?” I asked Meghan as I made my way through.

“Nope, not in a bit.”

“Okay, thanks…” I continued on my search for him and I spotted him at the other end of the bar, looking a little drunk, but he was telling a story and laughing and flailing. I made my way over to him and he was talking to this girl who hand her hands on his knees as he talked.

“Hey,” I interrupted.

“Hey,” Gabe smiled at me.

“Rob’s looking for you,” I said flatly.

“Okay, I’ll go over,” Gabe got off of his stool and gave me a kiss.

“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?” I whispered to him angrily.

“She’s just a fan,” He said taking my hand and pulling me toward our crowd.

“She certainly was a touchy fan,” I scoffed as we walked.

“Sadler, really?” He asked angrily stopping in his tracks.

“You’re drunk, let’s not do this now,” I said and put my hands on his stomach to push him to turn around and keep moving.

“This is my life,” He said in reference to the "rock life" and walked away from me.

“Here we go,” I sighed to myself and went to the bathroom instead of back to the party.

“Hey, you okay?” Victoria asked me as I ran into her coming out of the bathroom.

“Fine, just fine,” I said blowing past her into the bathroom.

“Gabe?” She asked following me back in.

“I know he’s very flirty, but you guys would tell me if it was more than that, right?” I asked nervously.

“He’s faithful to you, just flirty and maybe sometimes it’s too much, but that’s just him,” Victoria put her hand on my back as I stood in front of the sinks and mirror.

“I just don’t want to be naïve and think he’s faithful if he’s not, you know?” I asked her turning around to lean my butt against the sink.

“You’re not naïve. You know how he is. We wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t faithful to you and if we didn’t love you just as much as him,” She laughed.

“I just saw him talking to some girl that had her hands all over him and it’s not what I want to see. I want to be supportive and let him be close with his fans, but sometimes I think he needs to put boundaries on that kind of stuff. Am I wrong to want that?”

“No, but just tell him. I’m sure he’s not receptive right now, but when you both aren’t drinking do it. I mean that’s why Nate isn’t always out signing. He just wants to set that boundary for his relationship and Alex is amazing with fans, but doesn’t cross that line for his lady either…it can be done,” Victoria assured me.

“I know, I just usually don’t see it, so it’s not an issue usually, but seeing it makes things different. Thank you for listening to me be crazy,” I smiled.

“Gladly, you’re part of us now,” She gave me a huge hug and took my hand. “Let’s get back to the party.”

“Let’s!” I smiled and we made our way back to our spot.

“Here she is!” Ryland shouted and stopped me in my tracks. “Get Gabe!” He shouted again to someone. I couldn’t see over the crowd.

“1, 2, 3,” Gabe counted off as he walked toward me with a birthday cake and everyone started singing “Happy Birthday,” I was embarrassed. “Happy birthday dear Sadler, happy birthday to you,” Gabe put the cake in front of me to blow out the candles. I made a wish in my head and blew them out.

Rob cut the ice cream cake, my favorite and passed it out. Gabe made his way back to me after he put the cake down.

“I’m sorry,” He said sincerely.

“It’s okay, but we’ll talk when we get home,” I smiled feeding him a piece of cake.

“Fine!” He said and ate the piece of cake. “You’re gonna make me fat.”

“I like some meat on my man,” I smiled.

We shut the place down and Gabe and I got a cab home. I couldn’t wait to take my heels off and get into pajamas. I changed and crawled into bed with Gabe.

“I’m sorry about tonight,” He said. He was sober now.

“Can we just set some boundaries? Like with fans? I want you to be close with them. I don’t care that they call you and all that stuff, but when they’re trying to sleep with you…I just don’t like seeing that,” I told him.

“I don’t cross the line, Sadie,” He sounded almost defensive.

“Well, the way that girl was touching you was a little inappropriate. Her one hand was practically on your cock,” I said trying to stay calm.

“I didn’t do anything.”

“That’s exactly it. You didn’t even have her take her hands off of you. I mean, you act like it’s okay for you, but seriously if I had some guy all over me and didn’t say anything you’d be pissed.”

“It’s different,” He stuttered, knowing he was wrong.

“You can’t play the rockstar card in this, Gabe. It’s not different,” I snapped sitting up and look at him.

“Fine, I’m sorry, it won’t happen again,” He huffed and rolled over.

“Am I wasting my time here? I’m not asking for anything outrageous,” I couldn’t believe him right now.

“Wasting your time?” He asked rolling back over and looking at me. Gabe was defensive.

“Why can’t you just do that one thing for me? Do I ask that much of you?” I asked really hurt.

“No...you really don’t,” He said after a long silence and you could hear that he felt bad in his voice.

“I’m just asking you to not let girls caress your cock,” I smiled.

“What about just one girl?” He asked raising his eyebrow at me.

“If that one girl Is me, yes.” I leaned down and kissed him. “And don’t ever pull that rockstar bullshit on me again,” I scolded and he pulled me back down to kiss me.

“I promise, that’s why I keep you around. You keep me in check.”

“Someone’s gotta do it,” I smiled and settled down on his chest. He put his arms around me and kissed the top of my head.

“I want to marry you, you know that right?” I asked as he held me tighter.

“Are you proposing to me?” He teased with a bit of a laugh.

“Actually, yes,” I said after I thought about it. I sat up and looked at him. “I don’t have anything, but I want to marry you more than anything. You’re my best friend and I can’t imagine my life without you nor do I want to,” I was so nervous I was shaking.

“You’re serious?” Gabe asked almost in disbelief as he sat up.

“Very serious,” I sputtered. “Will you marry me?”