Page 17 of Harrison's Wedding

“Two shots to me. Sorry, Heather!” he says with glee.

She frowns, looking annoyed with herself. She walks over to me as Gabriel takes his turn, and I wrap my arms around her from behind again as we watch him play. Ariana smiles and waves at Heather and Heather’s body stiffens against me. She doesn’t do anything in response, just watches Gabriel taking another shot after he sinks a ball.

I sigh quietly, then lean down and kiss Heather’s neck, squeezing her to let her know I’m here, and she leans back into me as she places her hand over one of mine and softly strokes it.

I release her to let her take her next turn, but she doesn’t do very well at all. She only sinks one more ball before Gabriel knocks down the eight ball in the center pocket to win the match.

We sit at the dining table to eat the Chinese food that arrived near the end of Heather and Gabriel’s pool game. The conversation over dinner is civil, but Heather’s replies are short. I don’t think she’s doing it on purpose because when I look at her, she seems to have run out of energy. I slip my arm around her shoulders and kiss her temple as she picks up her glass of alcohol to take a sip.

After everyone’s finished eating, Gabriel pushes his chair back from the table and asks, “Who’s going to play me, then?”

“I will,” I volunteer.

We make our way over to the pool table, and I start racking up the balls as Gabriel grabs a cue.

He smiles at me. “It hasn’t gone too badly tonight, don’t you think?”

“It’s been a good night,” I agree. “All right, your break since you won the last game.”

As Gabriel leans over the pool table to take his shot, Ariana walks quickly to the side of the room and climbs onto one of the stools. She turns her head away from us to stare out the windows at the view.

Gabriel gets down the blue number ten as well as the brown fifteen on his first shot, and as he shoots for and misses getting the purple number twelve down, Hayden walks toward the area we’re in with a frown on his face.

“Are you okay, Ariana?” he asks, heading over to her.

Gabriel and I both look up and over at her as she nods, though she keeps her face turned away from all of us. When she speaks, her voice is small, and she only offers one word in response. “Sure.”

Gabriel rests his pool cue against the wall and walks over to them. “What happened?”

Hayden glances quickly at me, then back at Ariana. “She tried to talk to Heather about Fashion Week, and Heather shot her down.”

Gabriel’s face clouds over and he clenches his teeth before growling, “That isit.”

He begins to walk away, and Ariana finally turns her head away from the window. I can see tears running down her face and I feel guilty that Heather has upset her like this.

“Gabriel, don’t make a scene,” Ariana begs, but he’s already on his way to the kitchen.

I sigh and follow him to see what’s going on. I’m frustrated as fuck that everything seems to be going to shit after all.

Gabriel reaches the kitchen and sounds pissed off as he says in a cold voice, “Are you sure that you want to finish that sentence, Heather?”

I can see that his entire body is tensed up, and his fists are clenched at his sides.

I can’t see past him into the kitchen, but he growls, “Good, you two are together. I’ve got something to say to both of you. Ariana is my girlfriend; do you hear me? We will be together for the rest of our lives if I have anything to say about it, and I willnothave you two treating her like shit.”

“But will you have a say in it, Gabriel?” Sebastian's cool voice is clearly audible, despite me not being able to see him. “Did you have a say in it the last time she left?”

Gabriel strides into the kitchen, giving me a view of him standing barely an inch away from Sebastian, with Heather looking at the two men with wide eyes.

“How fucking dare you, Seb. You don’t have a single goddamn clue what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t I? You don’t think thatwe”—he indicates to himself and Heather—“have any clue? We were there, Gabriel. Who the fuck do you think covered for you in fucking interviews about the Grammys? Who do you think carried the load at those first few concerts? Heather wouldn’t fucking speak to anyone, either. Who do you think was there comforting Harrison when he was terrified for Heather’s wellbeing because she wasn’t eating anything? Who was it that was watching their friends fall the fuck apart and couldn’t do any goddamn thing about it becauseshewouldn’t talk to any of us?”

For a moment, I’m taken back in time to what that was like. How had I forgotten how bad it was? I guess because, over time, we all moved on and put it in the past. Obviously, Sebastian hasn’t forgotten, and he certainly hasn’t forgiven, but I feel as though bringing up that painful past isn’t helpful for anyone. Certainly not for Heather, who is staring at Sebastian with her mouth slightly open.

“Well, if you hadn’t brought that bitch to the Grammys, none of it would have happened,” Gabriel snarls.

“Oh, fuck off, Gabriel.” Heather whips her head around to snap at him. “That’s bullshit, and you know it. If it hadn’t been Sebastian’s bitchy date, it would’ve been something else. Ariana was just looking for a reason to leave, I don’t know what her fucking problem was but she sure as shit had one.”

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