Page 143 of Hayden's Stalker

We all laugh, and we talk for about ten more minutes before Tati escorts them to the door to let them leave. She nods at Jesse, who is sitting outside the door as usual when she lets them out, and as soon as we’re alone, I smile at her.

“Come sit with me,” I tell her, eager to have her next to me again.

She walks over and drops onto the sofa next to me, though she remains about a foot away from me when she does. After our experience with my dressing room being bugged and thatpicture being sent, Tati has insisted on this because she doesn’t trust herself not to somehow miss something.

I know she’s got a very good reason for this, and she’s worried about the stalker being somehow triggered by our relationship, which they clearly know about. The violation of my safe spaces weighs heavily on me, and I find it hard to relax anywhere but on the bus now.

“I dislike not getting to be near you,” I tell Tati with a sigh, saying a million things in that one sentence.

“Me, too. Your friends coming on the bus means we’ll have to be apart for longer, too.”

Crap.

I didn’t think about that when I agreed to them coming on the bus. Tati seemed fine with it at the time, but now I’m not so sure.

I look at her carefully as I offer, “I can always tell them I’m too tired to hang out tonight.”

She shakes her head. “Sorry, I wasn’t trying to guilt you into bailing on them. I’m looking forward to talking to April some more.”

My heart swells with love for her, and this is one of the sweetest things about her. Her being such a huge fan of April is really cute.

“Good job with not fangirling too hard,” I grin at her.

“I did my best. You do need to try to look a little less like you’re about to burst into song when you look at me, though. You’re going to give it away,” she teases me.

“You do make my heart sing,” I joke with a wink at her.

Her cheeks turn pink. “That’s cheesy as hell, Hayden Vega.”

“I know, but that’s why you love me.”

I give in to the urge to hold her, and I put my arms around her to squeeze her tightly. Her body is stiff for a moment beforeshe relaxes against me, and I revel in the feeling of having her in my arms again, the way she always should be.

She lifts her head and looks into my eyes. “Do you think we would be together if we’d met under different circumstances and hadn’t been forced to spend so much time with one another?”

I consider what it might be like if we’d met in a different situation. God knows, I imagined it enough times before we got together. In a lot of ways, it would’ve been much easier for us to come together, but I know without a doubt that I’d have loved her for sure.

“I can’t see any scenario where I wouldn’t fall madly in love with you. You could’ve been a barista at my local coffee shop, and I still would’ve fallen for you.”

“Probably even faster if I was your source of caffeine.” She smirks at me, and I laugh.

“Almost certainly.” I consider a scenario for her and ask, “What if I wasn’t a rock star? Ooh. What if I was attempting to assassinate a foreign leader you were protecting?”

She grins at me. “I’d stop you for sure. Then, I’d hand you over to the authorities to deal with you…”

I gasp, place my hand over my heart, and pretend I’m wounded that she would’ve turned me into the authorities in this imagined scenario.

“Of course, I wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about you. So I’d start writing you letters in prison. You’d reply, and when you got out, we’d make sweet, sweet love before riding off into the sunset together.”

I burst into laughter and squeeze her tightly again. As always, she’s come up with a response that I couldn’t have expected, but I love her for it. In this pretend situation, she gets to hold on to her principles while we still end up together.

“Fuck, I love you. I’m glad we met, no matter how it happened. I think I’ll probably always be grateful to my stalker on some level for bringing you into my life.”

It’s strange being grateful to my stalker, but I am. I still wish they weren’t in my life, but if they weren’t, then I would probably never have met Tati, and I wouldn’t trade having her in my life for anything.

We head out to the stage when it’s time for the show, and Harrison gives a pep talk before we go onstage. Our support act comes offstage, and I grin at them as we head on to take our places.

I’ve started to get more on edge during the concerts since Tati’s shown me the emails from the stalker. I can see Jesse down in the Pit, and I know that Tati’s behind me, but it’s harder and harder to perform without the worry at the back of my mind. I try to let the music take me away, and the energy in the arena is just as good as it always is, but I can’t shake the feeling that something will happen to me.

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