Avery’s POV

When we entered our room, I couldn’t wait to finally spend some quality alone time with Brian. I had barely seen him all day, with the exception of our little rendezvous in Jimmy’s bathroom, and I was craving his touch. Plus, it was no secret that the combination of pot and alcohol turned me on.

“I’m gonna wait in bed for you,” I whispered in his ear, sliding my hands down his chest with a wink.

“Can’t wait to join you, love,” Brian’s deep voice called before he disappeared in the bathroom, sending shivers down my spine. I couldn’t believe the effect he had on me and I was about to make this a night he would remember—at least that’s what I hoped.

You see, I had spent the last hour thinking about how I wanted to end the night, and I knew Brian wouldn’t oppose what I had come up with. So ever since the bathroom incident, my brain had been pretty much focused on Brian. Even when Jason was talking to me, I was still thinking about him, like Brian was the only thing that really mattered in the scheme of things. Did Brian know that? He had to right?

As soon as the bathroom door shut, I flew across the room to the closet, pulling the dress over my head. I knew I didn’t have a lot of time and everything would be ruined if I wasn’t ready when he came out. So, I quickly hung the dress back up and started digging in my bag for my newest purchase that Brian had yet to see. I quickly changed into my new red lace bra and panty set it and took my place on the edge of the bed. I left my heels on, knowing that Brian loved me in heels, and crossed my legs, waiting for the bathroom door to open.

Seconds later, the bathroom door flew open and Brian looked right through me with narrow eyes. “You don’t wanna tell me something, do you?” he asked in a dark tone, causing me to frown. Why did he sound so angry? This wasn’t how he was supposed to come out…

“I-I.. what? No, what do you mean?” I stammered, looking back at him and shaking my head. What was he talking about? What did I do?

Only he didn’t elaborate, he just walked past me and laid down facing the wall, not even noticing what I was wearing. I gapped at his back in shock and confusion, having no idea what happened in the last five minutes to put me on his hit list. What the hell was going on? “Brian what are you—“

“I’m tired,” his voice interrupted, sounding muffled through the pillow. “I’m going to sleep.”

No, this is not at all how this night was supposed to go! We finally got the okay from my dad and he was going to give me the cold shoulder without talking about what was wrong? I don’t think so!

“Are you sure?” I scooted up in the bed next to Brian and carefully ran my hands over his muscular back. I heard him take in a sharp breath before he tensed up and pulled away from me. What the hell was that about? The next thing I knew he was sitting up and looking back at me with hurt eyes—that look alone crushed me. What had I done?

“I’m sure. Now let’s go to sleep. We have a busy day tomorrow,” Brian said, now refusing to look in my eyes. He only did that when he wasn’t being entirely truthful or he was hiding something from me. I didn’t like either scenario.

Brian slowly laid back down with his back to me and I felt the tears starting to rise. I was confused and alcohol wasn’t helping the situation right now. “Brian please talk to me…what’s wrong?”

Brian moved so quickly that I gasped in surprise when his face was suddenly inches from mine. If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought he was going to either kiss me or hit me, but he did neither. He just angrily opened and closed his mouth a few times like he was struggling with what he wanted to say. But in the end, Brian decided not to say anything.

The look on his face was somewhere between hurt and thoroughly pissed off and I didn’t understand either of them. What had I done wrong? His eyes were burning a whole through my heart and I was having a hard time finding my breath. What was going on between us? How had everything turned down hill so quickly, especially when we finally had the okay from my dad?

“Brian… please!” I begged softly, the tears welling in my eyes. I leaned forward and cupped his face in my hand but he just pulled away.

“It’s nothing. Just go to sleep, Avery,” Brian’s words cut like a knife as he laid back down and pulled the blankets over him, ending our conversation just like that. He never called me Avery—it was always Ave or babe and nothing else—and to hear him use my full name hurt more than anything else.

I took in a ragged breath as I stared at him, the tears starting to run down my cheek. No, this couldn’t be happening and I had no idea what I had done. I hurriedly got off the bed and hightailed it for the bathroom, slamming the door closed behind me. I slowly slid down the back of the door with my face in my hands, feeling the tears coming full force now. What had I done to piss him off so badly?

Chocking back sobs, I pulled my damp towel and my bathrobe off the rack and pulled them around me. I buried my face in the cool towel, letting the confused and hurt tears flow, taking all my makeup with them. I didn’t understand any of this and sitting in this bathroom was only making things worse. I had to get out of here.

Grabbing my phone off the bathroom counter, I pressed my speed dial for Maya. I hoped that she wasn’t asleep because I really needed my best friend right now and I hoped that Matt would forgive me. It took a few rings before a breathless Maya answered the phone.

“It’s really not the best time right now, little gnome,” Maya panted. Wait did she just moan? Fuck, I was interrupting something and I felt even worst than before.

“I-I-I…never mind,” I cried into the phone, now wishing I hadn’t called. Damn it, I just was ruining everything tonight. “I-I’ll be o-okay…”

“Matt stop for just a minute,” I heard Maya say in a distant voice, followed by a loud groan. A second later she was back to me with her full attention. “Ave, what’s wrong? What happened?” Her motherly tone was shining through but it wasn’t helping the guilt I felt for interrupting her and Matt.

“I-I’m fine,” I lied, trying to stop crying so she would believe me.

Maya sighed and I heard the bed creak from her end of the line. Fuck, I was the worst friend ever right now. “Bullshit. What is going on?”

“I’m sorry….I-I-I don’t want to ruin your night…I-I’ll be fine. I promise,” I sniffed into the towel, willing the tears to stop falling but all I could see was Brian’s angry expression.

“I will fucking kill him,” Maya grumbled. “Hold on little gnome I’ll be right there,” And the line went dead.

A few minutes later I heard pounding on the front door, followed by Brian’s curse as he opened the door. “Maya what are you doing here?” I heard him grumble through the bathroom door as I tied the robe tightly around my small frame. He sounded like he had actually been asleep which hurt even more.

Just as I took a step forward to open the door, I heard a loud thud and grunt. “I fucking warned you not to hurt her, Gates! I fucking warned you. Where is she?”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Brian moaned as the bathroom door flew open and Maya pulled me into her arms.

“What the hell is your problem?” Maya yelled back at him, running her fingers through my hair and pressing my head firmly to her shoulder. She was so much like a mother sometimes that it shocked me.

“What the hell is my problem? I’m not the one fucking around with Jason Berry behind my back!” Brain yelled back, his hands up in the air. I felt like I had been slapped in the face. What the hell was he talking about? I hadn’t done anything with Jason beside have a friendly conversation.

“What are you talking about?” I gapped at him, feeling the tears fall again.

“Come on, Ave. Don’t play fucking dumb! I know about your little ‘mud wrestling’ tournament and your little private conversations. It all makes a lot of fucking sense now,” Brian scoffed, running his hands over his face in frustration. It was obvious that he was still highly intoxicated but he couldn’t stop the words from coming out of his mouth.

“I’m not fucking around, Brian!” I raged back, taking a step away from Maya. “Jason and I are just friends. That’s it! You know that!”

“Yeah, just like you were just friends when you accidently fell on his dick,” Brian shot back, and my jaw dropped. He seriously didn’t just accuse me of cheating on him with Jason did he? Sure, Jason and I slept together once, but I thought it was Brian the entire time. Not to mention that I didn’t even remember the incident.

“What are you talking about?” I asked again, my vision blurred from the tears. I was hurt that he would even think that I would be with someone else.

“You don’t have to answer to him, babe,” Maya said, her arm moving around my shoulders as she shot Brian and dirty look. “He’s obviously delusional right now and maybe a night alone will get his act together.”

“No,” Brian reached for my hand and pulled me back towards him. His eyes looking like he regretted what he just said, but I couldn’t forgive that hurt so easily. His words stung and for him to think that I would even do something like that crushed me. Did Brian not know me at all? “I didn’t mean it…I—“

“Save it, Gates. Enjoy your night,” Maya said before pulled me out of his grasp and out the door.

“No, I’m not fucking done here!” Brian yelled after us but Maya just kept pulling me down the hallway. My heart broke a little with each step I took away, but I knew I had to do it. I couldn’t stay there tonight after that accusation.

“Oh, yes you are,” Maya yelled back. “Cool off and then maybe we can have a rational conversation in the morning about your girlfriend who fucking loves you.” Maya sounded just as angry as Brian did and just hearing them both like that made me feel like I was going to be sick. How had this all gotten so out of hand?

The next thing I knew, I was in Maya and Matt’s room on the couch with a cup of tea in my hand. The sun was slowly starting to make an appearance over the horizon but I couldn’t sleep. Everything just kept replaying over and over again in my head. There had to be something I could have done to end the night differently. Maybe if Jimmy hadn’t placed me next to Jason or if I would have denied his dance request. I don’t know, there had to have been something that trigged that irrational thought in Brian’s head. I just wished I could change it because now we were both hurt and for no real reason.

“It’s okay, little gnome, relax. Everything is going to be okay,” Maya said, petting my head after she pulled me down into her lap. She had been with me all night, even though Matt had begged her on multiple occasions to come to bed with him. I told her I would be fine in the living room area of the suit but she never listened. Typical Maya. “I’m sure he will come and apologize in the morning.”

“It is the morning,” I sniffed, trying to end the new wave of tears that started. “And you didn’t see the look that I saw…he really thinks I did something…and that hurts the worst.”

“That was the alcohol and drugs talking love,” Maya assured me again and again. “Trust me, he will come around. Just relax and try to get a little bit of sleep. We’ve got an early show today and we have to go set up the booth in a couple of hours.”

“But what if he doesn’t?” I cried; the tears starting all over again.

“Then he is an ass and doesn’t deserve someone as awesome as my little gnome,” Maya chuckled, but I didn’t find anything funny about it all. I didn’t want it to be over between us because what we had was something special. At least that’s what I felt. “And beside, if he doesn’t come around, Jason is a viable option.”

“I don’t like Jason like that, okay?” I yelled, sitting up and shaking my head at Maya. “I want Brian, not Jason. It’s that simple!”

“Okay! Relax, gnome, it was just a joke,” Maya sighed.

“Well, it’s not fucking funny,” I sighed, moving to the other side of the couch and putting my head on the pillow.

The morning passed and I still had not seen or heard head or tail from Brian, so the girls and I headed down to set up the merch booth again. Thankfully everything had dried over night, giving us a great start to a beautiful day. Normally I would have been super cheer and excited, but today I was anything but.

When I went back to my room in the morning to get a clean change of clothes, Brian was nowhere to be found. So not only was he avoiding me but he also didn’t even come down to breakfast this morning. That wasn’t like him and I knew that he was still pissed off at me about something and I hated that idea. What could I do to fix this?

“Are you okay?” Jess asked, pulling me from my thoughts as she set the tote of t-shirts on the table.

“I’ve had better days,” I admitted, ignoring the sympathy frown from Maya. I swear I couldn’t take it much longer if she kept that up.

Jess nodded and started to lay out the shirts. “So I heard about last night…” Great so now everyone fucking knew about our fight? Great! “I think he’ll come around…he was talking to Jimmy this morning for a long time.” Well, at least that explained where he was.

“See, I told you so!” Maya said, throwing me a wink but it didn’t make me feel any better. “I bet he’ll be down here anytime…don’t you worry.”

By the time we had the whole booth set up, the sun was blazing down and the humidity was killing us in our black uniform shirts. I sat in the back of the booth in the shade but not even that was helpful. This humid heat was pure torture, unlike the dry heat we had in California. How I longed to be back there on days like today.

“It’s fucking hot today,” Maya sighed, handing change back to a customer. “I would almost take the rain over this any day.”

“So let me get this straight, you’re asking for rain? The person who hates it more than anything else in the world?” I teased, only to have a t-shirt thrown at my face.

“You hate the rain? I love it? Specially walking around barefoot. That’s my favorite,” Jess said with a smile. She looked like she was recalling some memory and I couldn’t help but nod in agreement. I also enjoyed the rain.

“I don’t hate it, its just not my favorite thing but right now, with this humidity, I would be okay with it,” Maya laughed and I rolled my eyes. “So Jess how was your night last night?” Maya continued as I checked my phone, only to see a message from Jason. Fuck, why wouldn’t Brian talk to me? He had to know he was being irrational right? There was nothing between Jason and I besides friends. I didn’t really see how our situation was any different from Jimmy and Maya.

“No he didn’t!” Maya gasped and I looked up confused, having missed that part of the conversation. “Fuck! I wish we hadn’t of left now! I would have paid a million dollars to see that!”

“See what? Your savoir with ice cream cones?” I looked up to see Jason and Matt Berry standing in front of our booth with ice cream. No way, they didn’t really do this right? It was some kind of heat mirage!

“Let’s see, chocolate for Miss Maya,” MB said handing her a cone that was starting to drip down the side. “You girls better eat these quick before you lose them. And we took a guess that you like bubble gum, Jess…”

“How did you know?” she squealed, jumping up and down as Jason approached me in the back.

“Let’s just say a very tall and obnoxious bird told us so,” Jason laughed, handing me my cone. “And a mint chocolate chip for beautiful Miss Avery,” he said, poking me in the nose.

“Thank,” I said, eagerly licking at the cone. It tasted so damn good that I couldn’t help but let out a light moan, and the other girls did the same.

“Whoa, easy now, no need to scare away the customers with porno sounds,” Matt laughed, taking a seat on the table. It was pretty dead this morning, but maybe it was because the show wasn’t about to start for another hour and half. We just thought if we set up early then we could make up for yesterdays sales.

“No, I think that would bring them flocking over to us,” Maya countered, making the noise even louder. We all laughed when some guy walking by turned his head and looked at us. “Okay, so maybe it would only arouse them…but still it would get them looking at the merchandise.”

“You know what else would get them looking,” Jason said, taking a step towards me with a mischievous grin. “Sexy body paint.”

“What?” I asked just before he shoved his ice cream into my face. “Jason!” I gasped, feeling the cold sensation almost like brain freeze on my nose. “You’re going to pay for that!”

I lunged after him with my ice cream cone and the next thing I knew, I was up in the air on Jason’s shoulder, hitting his back for him to put me down. I had no idea where my ice cream had gone to in the process. “Put me down!” I yelled just as my eyes met the one person I had been waiting to see all day. He was standing at the end of table with flowers that fell to the ground as soon as he saw who was holding me. “Brian! Brain wait!” I called after him, squirming my way out of Jason’s strong hold.

He turned around and was storming back toward the buses but I couldn’t let him go, not like that. “Brian wait! I can explain! It’s not what you think!”

Notes

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