“You are unrelenting.”
“This time,” I corrected. “Only this time, Mel.”
The wetness in her eyes told me what her silence tried to deny. She understood exactly what that meant, I had never been relentless with my attentions toward any other woman before. Only her.
~*~
The next two weeks moved by similarly, and I feared the fact that mobility wasn’t really an issue for me at that point. It still hurt to move around my leg, and I did so with a cane, so as not to overwhelm the wound I’d sustained, but it was doable. It also made me worried that Mel would soon be leaving me. She had started joining me for breakfast on the balcony outside my bedroom, and she would stay long after, helping me flush out song and after song. They were no longer just for my son. Some were for her, though not in the same way I’d once written songs about the loss of Kendra from my life. These were happier, more upbeat songs about finding the woman you love, and not fucking it up. It was probably ridiculous thinking, but I was hoping my therapist was right and that life would give back more of the energy I put out into the world.
Mel helped with songs about falling in love, about waking up to smiles, and feeling complete for the first time ever. I don’t think she even realized they were all for her. That was what had been happening until she walked in my room that morning with a perplexed look on her face.
“What’s up, Mel?”
“Your lawyer is downstairs and says he needs to speak with the both of us,” she told me before biting into her bottom lip nervously. “Do you think this is about the hospital in New York again? I thought all of that was settled?”
It had been, which made me wonder if more had come of it since then. I’d been out of the loop with my legal team as they were focused on Wen’s issues with Janet since I was busy healing up.
“Do you want me to bring him up here or do you think you can manage the stairs today?”
I hadn’t been downstairs again since we got here. That initial climb up, even with John’s help, had taught me a quick lesson about my stubborn ass. Sometimes, it just wasn’t worth the trouble. Considering I’d been conducting strengthening exercises, I didn’t think it would hurt so much now. “I think I can try it, but might want to get one of the guys up here to help me down, for now. Just in case.”
“Sure, give me a minute to go track someone down.”
By the time Mel got back, I had myself dressed in track pants, a t-shirt, and my trusty cane. Chevy had gone all out and got me a cane befitting my ‘rock star style’. Those were his words. The damn thing had been wrapped in black leather and had blunted studs placed in a circle, just under the base of the handle. Mel arrived with Wen and Chevy to help assist me down the stairs.
Wen took up position on the side with my wounded thigh, while my son took up the other side and Mel walked down behind us, nit-picking every step without meaning too. If I dropped my foot down too hard, she would hiss a breath through her teeth. If Wen didn’t have a good enough hold on me, she popped him in the back of his head and told him to pay attention. Chevy chuckled, and while I held in my own laughter, I also enjoyed every moment of her showing just how much she cared.
“I could have come up,” my lawyer, Ian, expressed as he watched our slow descent.
“It’s fine,” I told him as we got to the last step. “I haven’t been down here in weeks. The change of scenery will do me some good, I think.” We started the slow stroll to the sitting area just off the breakfast nook. I preferred it to the living room when talking legal shit, because for some reason, it didn’t seem fair to feel comfortable and at home when lawyers were involved, even if Ian was also my friend.
“What exactly is going on and what does it have to do with me?” Mel asked as she took the seat beside me.
“This is about something that took place in Gainesville, Florida,” Ian told us both and immediately, Melanie stiffened beside me. Ian didn’t notice as he leaned over and pulled some papers from his briefcase. “A Darcie Gardner filed suit against you, Gabe, for physical assault, abuse, pain and suffering, and so on and so forth,” Ian recited in a droll tone.
“Who?” I asked, confused.
“What in the world?” Mel asked, also confused.
Ian’s brows rose at that since neither of them seemed to know what the hell he was talking about. “She claims in her affidavit that one Gabriel Northman, whom she described by the stage name Gabe North, did willfully throw her to the ground after fooling around with her and having her body pinned up against a wall.”
“Are you kidding me?” Mel shrieked as she stood up, leaned over, and snatched the papers out of Ian’s hands. “This bitch has some serious nerve right now,” she went on as she continued to read. “Someone get Lonny on the phone, now!” It was a demand that Wen listened to as he contacted Deacon to get Lonny’s information.
“Do you mind if I ask why we need to contact this Lonny person, Melanie?” Ian asked her, amusement written all over her face.
“Well, unless you were making out with another groupie that night,” she said while turning to look at me. I quickly shook my head and then let it hang there on my shoulders as shame filled me again. I couldn’t believe things had started to go so well, and now this was being dredged up again. “Right,” Mel went on. “Then, this is the same woman who viciously bit Lonny’s penis after finding out, while giving him fellatio, that he was not in fact a member of any of the bands. I had to sew his penis up, both top and bottom, where her teeth punctured it.”
“Did she now?” Ian asked, his amusement even more pronounced.
“Yes, and when Gabe accidentally dropped her, because she was too stupid to put her feet down on the floor, she admitted that she bit Lonny’s dick earlier in the evening too, so I was definitely witness to her admitting to being the one who bit him.”
“Wait a minute,” Chevy interjected. “This woman had Lonny’s dick in her mouth, tried to bite it off, and then she went in for some tongue wrestling with you?” I just groaned in response, already knowing where my son was going with this. He chuckled then, not realizing how uncomfortable he was making things with Mel standing right there. “So, you basically tasted Lonny’s dick first hand that night?” He asked, laughing still. “Sounds to me like he already got the karma he deserved for that shit, Mel.”
To my surprise, Mel laughed. “I hadn’t thought of it that way,” she told my son, then turned to me, eyes bright with amusement too.
“Okay, well, I’m going to take each of your statements, on camera, and then we’ll talk to Lonny and file both criminal charges and a civil suit against this woman for him, if he chooses to. That should be enough to make her drop her lawsuit at any rate. Then, I’d like to work with the district attorney to make sure she’s brought to justice. That wasn’t just a physical assault, it was a sexual one on her part.
We each did our part, offering up what was basically a video deposition about what happened that night, focusing solely on the facts about Lonny and the groupie, as well as what happened between her and I, while leaving out the messy ‘why it all happened,’ parts. There also turned out to be another witness. The bassist of the opening act had been with the same woman earlier in the night too, just after the incident with Lonny. It didn’t leave me with the best of impressions for the bassist, since that had to be a pretty quick encounter. Then again, according to his statement, that’s exactly what it was, just a quick session to blow off some of the leftover adrenaline from being on stage.
21 - Spotlight
Thanks to the initial press debacle concerning the woman who had accused Gabe of assaulting her, my name ended up back in the press too. It was said that Gabe and I had a lover’s quarrel that ended with him in another woman’s arms. Honestly, they were almost too close to the truth on that one, but still, people were going to believe what they wanted. It was also speculated that I was involved, and it was a threesome gone wrong, since I was too jealous to handle it. I simply rolled my eyes at all the things
that were said and let it roll right off.
I’d come to understand that the only people who really paid attention to those things were the people who already existed in the flawed world Gabe told me about. While ignoring the things people had to say about me seemed like the healthy thing to do, it didn’t end there.
I was still trying to find gainful employment outside of relying on Gabe in any way. With the new whirlwind of gossip, it was harder than ever to get people to take me seriously when I interviewed.
I threw the pen down that had been in my hands, in case I needed to write down any pertinent information about in-person interviews, but it hadn’t been necessary. So, far, the only people who had bothered to call me back were more curious about what was going on with me and Gabe, the lawsuits, and if Lonny really had his entire dick bit off.
“Not going so well?” Gabe asked as he came into the living room and sunk down on the too-comfy sofa.
“Not at all. At this rate, I think I’m going to have to change professions.”
“What if I told you that there was an alternative, where you could stay in your profession, but work with people who couldn’t give a shit what the press said about you? Actually, the fact that you don’t comment at all, would be seen as a bonus to getting the job, not a detractor.”
“I’d say what kind of dream job are you talking about?”
Gabe handed me a sheet of paper. “It’s in Atlanta, so you’ll need to leave early tomorrow in order to get there on time, but I think it will be a perfect fit. The paper had a time, an address, and the name of a doctor written on it. I clicked on my tablet and immediately looked it up. The name of the company was simple enough, and yet expressed the gist of what they did.
“Performance Medical Professionals, Incorporated,” I read aloud. “Is this what I think it is?” I asked Gabe.
“Probably. They send medical professionals out to movie and television sets as well as some other traveling performances. Now that you tested the waters for him, Deacon was looking into making sure we were better staffed for future concert tours. Apparently, there are traveling Broadway productions and aerobatic circus performances that use their services too.”
“Oh wow. I didn’t even know something like this existed out there.”
“Honestly, I didn’t realize it either. They’re not always used as medical staff either. Some television or movie sets call for people to come in and look over scripts, sit on set and help the actors make their scenes look more believable, and whatever.”
I smiled at the thought of doing that. “This sounds like a dream job.”
“So, you’re going to take the interview then?”
“Of course, I am. I don’t even care anymore if I’m getting the job just because I know people who know people. It’s better than not getting a job because of people thinking they know things about me when they don’t.”
“Mel, I was hoping that if you get the job, you’d stick around. I know you’ll have to travel for some of your work, but when you’re home. It would be great if you could be here.”
“Here?”
“Here,” He confirmed. “Home. With me and Chevy, in this house.”
“Gabe, I don’t think that’s the best move to make.”
“Why not?”
“We’re not even together. We’ve never been officially together. We had one real date, and then it immediately went to shit the following day. Do you think that’s the best way to start off a situation where we’re living together?”
“What exactly are you saying?”
“I’m saying that I’ll find my own place to live.”
“What does that mean for us?”
“What do you want it to mean?”
“I want you, Mel. I don’t just want you, I need you in my life. Please, don’t give up on us.”
“Let’s do this like normal people, for once,” I demanded. “How about I move out, then we can date, and see where this goes?”
“I don’t like the thought of you out there somewhere without us around, but if that’s what you need, then how can I argue?”
I didn’t bother to tell him that his answer made me all swoony on the inside. Nor did I bother to discuss logistical things with him, like making sure I had a secure enough apartment considering all the press I received thanks to the band, the crew, and their legal woes that settled around them making everyone in close proximity to them fodder for gossip. That was something I had already talked over with Kendra’s man, Josh, who insisted I call him Hex. He worked closely with Phoenix to make sure that the place I picked I was both within my price range and secure enough that they would be comfortable with me staying there without needing a security detail of any kind.
I earned myself a new job and managed to get moved into my own place within a week. It was only then that I was able to really think about starting over with Gabe.
22 – The Next First Date
Mel asked for a little bit of transition time to get her feet underneath of her with starting the new job and living in a brand new place. It was the most difficult thing I’d ever done, leaving her alone as she found her own place in the world, without me. I managed, but I had my own rules too. We still had to communicate daily. Even if it was just a text to say hello and let one another know we were alive and well.
She agreed. While it was great to hear from every day, it wasn’t the same as seeing her in person. The weeks dwindled away as she worked on the set of a popular television show being filmed in and around Atlanta. Her days on set were long, and she claimed exhaustion at the end of each day. Despite that, Mel also sounded happy with her new lot in life.
I was proud of her and I let that carry me through each and every day where I missed seeing her face, her smile, her eyes shining at me the way they did when she thought I was being ridiculous. Mel’s presence was missing in my life and there was not a damn thing that could be done on my end to change it. Thankfully, my phone chimed with an incoming text just when I was about to go out of my mind.
Chevy: spending the night at Mom’s to hang with Ford and Dak for a bit.
Gabe: Have a good night. Tell them I said hi.
Chevy: I’ll let them know. Love you.
Gabe: Love you too.
Well, shit. That meant I would have the house to myself for the night. Wen and his daughter found a place just down the road, closer to where Kendra’s house was. John had flown back to Los Angeles for some sort of emergency with his wife, and Tim lived in LA so he had gone back a couple of weeks ago.
The refrigerator suddenly seemed to be full of only things I could make if someone else planned to join me for dinner. It was fucking depressing. I closed the door, went back up to my room, and got dressed in some baggy jeans, a bulky sweatshirt, and a baseball cap, pulled low over my eyes. Then I headed out, in my truck, to the local grocery store. I figured I blended in well enough that I shouldn’t get recognized easily.
I’d made it down two aisles before I spotted Melanie. My heart kicked into overdrive just at the sight of her. She was wearing black scrubs with little blue guitars all over them. It made me chuckle at the thought that maybe she wasn’t able to get me off of her mind as well as I had thought. I moved to where she was examining a package of chicken while trying to stifle a yawn. Then I devised a plan.
“Hey,” I called out as I stood next to her, appearing to check the prices on the meat there.
“Hello,” she called back without even glancing my way.
“I don’t suppose a beautiful lady like yourself knows anything about how much meat it takes to do a lonely, one-person taco night?” I asked her nonchalantly, but she had turned then and was checking me out. At first, she didn’t recognize me, but then I saw understanding dawn.
“I was thinking chicken tacos though. I’ve been on this anti-beef kick lately.” I tapped my chest. “Thought it might be heartburn, but the ache is constant.” She gasped, and I knew she caught my meaning well enough. Still, I pressed on as if
we really were strangers meeting in a grocery store. Sticking out my hand for her to shake, I smiled. “I’m Gabriel, and you are?”
“Melanie,” she answered as she took my hand and shook it. Her fingertips felt cold to the touch, thanks to the poultry she had just been examining. “I think you could get away with just chopping up a breast or two, depends on how much you eat,” she suggested.
I hummed a noise in the back of my throat as I pretended to think about it. “Maybe. Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure,” she answered, somewhat hesitantly.
“Are you married?”
She chuckled and held up her empty ring finger. “Not for a long while now.
“Boyfriend?” I asked. She shook her head. “Well, that’s great news.”
“Why’s that? Sounds like I’m lonely to me.”
“I can change that for you though. How about you let me take you out to dinner tomorrow night? Then neither of us has to figure out what to cook for a single person, and we can keep one another from feeling so alone.”
“Wait,” she called out in lieu of an answer. “You need to answer the same questions, Mr. Gabriel. Are you married?” I shook my head and held up my finger the same as she had done.
“Never been,” I admitted.
“Girlfriend?”
“Hopefully, if this date goes well tomorrow,” I suggested while Mel laughed in response. The sound was music to my ears.
“I see, you’re the charming type.”
“Shall we exchange numbers?” I asked. Her goofy grin told me she was enjoying our little charade.
“I’m pretty sure you’re charming enough to figure it out yourself,” she tossed back at me.
“You’re probably right. How does seven tomorrow night sound?”
“Perfect,” she whispered.
“Okay, see you at seven tomorrow, Ms. Melanie Perfect.”
Her giggle followed me out of the aisle where I ended up abandoning the grocery cart that only had a loaf of bread in it. Suddenly, I was feeling full and satisfied. There was literally nothing else the grocery store had that could compare to what I’d just found in their meat department.
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