Page 67 of Gabriel's Album

“Yes, here we are…” I respond in a questioning tone.

“Everyone’s been looking for you. Nobody could get hold of you. You weren’t here, you weren’t on the tour bus, and nobody could get through on your phone. We couldn’t even get hold of her.” Cooper nods at Ariana, and I can feel her tense as he refers to her in the third person.

“‘Her’ name is Ariana, and I’ll thank you to use it,” I say coldly while narrowing my eyes at him.

“Whatever. I don’t give a fuck what you’ve been doing, but don’t pull a stunt like this three hours before a concert again, Gabriel.” Cooper strides off, lifting his phone to his ear, and barking into it.

God dammit. I’d forgotten that Cooper was here today for the change to the start of the show. I’m sure that he’s going to berate me the first chance he gets, because he never wanted me to bring Ariana on the tour in the first place.

“Fuck,” I say, unable to stop the sigh that escapes my lips.

“Are you in trouble?” Ariana asks timidly.

“Nah, he’ll get over it,” I lie. “Come on, let’s go.”

I put my hand on her lower back and usher her toward my dressing room. We walk inside to the sound of Ariana’s ringtone. She rushes over to pick up her phone, but it switches to voicemail before she can get to it. She rings whoever it was back, and if I had to put money on it, I’d bet it was Heather.

“Yeah, it’s me. We’re fine. Apparently, you guys have been looking for us,” she says when the person answers.

There’s a mumble on the other end of the line as Ariana listens to what is being said.

“Ummm…” Ariana stalls as she mouths the question ‘where were we?’ to me, and I shrug, unsure of what excuse to use. “…We just went sightseeing and accidentally left our phones at the venue.”

She goes quiet, and I hear Heather’s voice but can’t quite make out what she’s saying.

“Yeah, he seemed it when we saw him,” Ariana says dryly, and I’m assuming it’s something about Cooper being furious with us. “Okay, see you then.”

I walk up behind her as she drops her phone onto the counter in front of the mirror. I wrap my arms around her and kiss the top of her head. We both look like a complete mess, and our eyes are red-rimmed from crying. Ariana’s lips are puffy from my rough kisses, her hair is a tangled mess, and we’re both covered in dust from the floor underneath the stage.

“They’re going to send you down there in your stage clothes?” Ariana asks, raising her eyebrows as she indicates the dust on our clothes.

“Yeah, you might not have noticed, but the tunnel on the way in has been swept so I won’t get any dust on my clothes, and once I’m in there, I can walk to the platform. You’re not exactly meant to be rolling around down there, you know,” I point out with a grin on my face.

“Try and refrain from it tonight,” Ariana laughs.

“I’ll do my best,” I smirk at her. “Do you want the first shower?”

“No, you go first. You’ve got to get ready for the concert, and then I won’t have to rush in the shower,” she says, giving me a cheeky grin.

“Okay, fair enough.” I squeeze her tightly, then release her to go have a shower.

I turn it on and strip off my dusty clothes as the water heats up. When I step into the hot spray, it soothes my muscles and washes away the tension in my body as I grab some shower gel to wash myself.

The last few hours have been intense, and I’m concerned about whatever Cooper will have to say about it. Fuck him. I don’t give a shit about him at the end of the day. The person I care about is the woman in the next room. A smile comes across my face as I think about her, but it quickly disappears when my fears about her leaving come rushing back in.

I sigh as I step out of the shower, grab a fluffy green towel, and wrap it around my waist before heading back into the main dressing room.

“Shower’s free,” I announce as I walk over to the rack where my stage clothes are hung up.

“Thanks,” Ariana replies.

She walks into the bathroom while I pull on a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt, then follow it with a black leather jacket. I’ll probably ditch the jacket within the first two songs, but it’s a cool outfit to start the concert with.

As I’m pulling the jacket on, my phone starts ringing, and I grimace when I see Cooper’s name on the screen. “Hello?”

“Gabriel, can you come to the stage area? We need to talk. Come alone.”

Ugh. Come alone. Translation: Don’t bring Ariana or any of the guys for support or to be witnesses while I ream your ass.

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