Page 87 of Gabriel's Album

“Wait, so your telling me this bitch has the best boyfriend in the world, and she doesn’t want to be seen with him? Ducking moron.”

“Gabriel is the sexiest man alive!!! Ariel doesn’t deserve him!!1”

“I swear I met that chick at a meet and greet. She was an udder cow.”

“Fuck Ariel! Wot a birch!”

I’m grateful that they don’t have her real name, but I don’t know what the fuck to do about this. Everything’s been so hard with Ariana as it is, after this…I just don’t know. I have to trust that she loves me enough to work through it.

I hear her sniff, and she raises an arm to her face before she turns away from the screen and bumps into me. I look back at the screen again and sigh at the harsh words written there, hating that they’re hurting Ariana.

“Oh, sweetheart,” I say, reaching past her to close the laptop and hide the offending commentary on our relationship. “Don’t read that crap. You know it doesn’t mean anything.”

I hold her tight and feel her nod her head.

“Yeah, I know, Gabe. It’s just hard to read,” she sighs.

“Of course it is; that’s exactly why you shouldn’t read it.” I kiss the top of her head. “I hate to leave you like this, but we’re having an emergency meeting with Cooper and the record label to talk about damage control and how best to handle this.”

“That’s fine. It’s important; I’ll be okay here.” She gives me a wan smile.

“Do you want me to get Heather to come over?” I frown at her.

“No, don’t do that. I’ll just shower and read a book or write or something,” she tells me.

She’s completely pale and her eyes are red. She’s visibly shaken by what’s happened and I really wish she’d take up my offer to get Heather to come be with her while I’m gone.

“Okay, leave the Do Not Disturb on; if I need you, I’ll call your cell.” I squeeze her again, feeling that sense of peace from having her with me come over me. “The room service arrived while I was on the phone, so have something to eat. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

I pull a t-shirt on and kiss her quickly before I leave. I head across the hall and knock on Sebastian’s door.

Harrison opens it almost immediately. “Come in. We’re going to leave in five minutes.”

I walk in to see Hayden sitting in an armchair, and Sebastian is sitting on the sofa across from him. They’re deep in conversation, but they break off and both of them turn to look at me when I walk into the room.

“Hey, guys,” I say with a sigh.

Sebastian grimaces at me, “So, it turns out that all the blowback didn’t come my way.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” I say with a tight smile as a wave of anger washes over me.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t think it would hit you and Ariana.”

I shrug at him and shake my head. “Nothing you can do about it now. Shall we go?”

Sebastian nods but doesn’t say anything more, which is unusual for him. We make our way downstairs in tense silence, with Harrison and Hayden trailing us. A car is called for us and it comes to the back of the hotel so that we don’t have to battle our way through the pack of paparazzi at the entrance.

I can count on one hand the number of visits I’ve made to the actual offices of Sierra Capitol Music. Most of our business with them has been done through contracts sent through lawyers, or business meetings in other places, so it’s strange to be coming here under these circumstances.

Unsurprisingly, there’s paparazzi here as well. They look thrilled when we all get out of the car together.

“Gabriel, tell us more about Ariel!”

“Sebastian, what’s it like to have a woman reject you for once?”

He rolls his eyes but doesn’t reply to their comment.

“Why was Ariel crying on the red carpet?”

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