The second I feel my phone vibrate, I dig it out of my back pocket. Still, I can’t stop the smile from spreading across my face as I read the message.

5 minutes. 2214.

I feel a heat course through my body in anticipation as I read the message. I glance around the hotel suite and see more than a dozen crew members crowded around the television set, watching some movie and drinking beer. They’re all oblivious, and thank fucking God, because I know I have a ridiculous smile on my face and an emerging hard-on in my pants.

The next five minutes are painfully glacial, but I’m easily able to slip out of the room and make a quick exit. Most of the team has the night off tonight, since Daphni is back in L.A. for three days for the Teen Choice Awards. When Gabby had told Daphni she wanted to stay in Houston to study, Daphni had suddenly decided that I needed a few days off as well and insisted that I also stay behind. Say what you want about her, but Daphni Monroe was quickly becoming one of my best friends.

Most of the crew had also decided to hang back in Houston, and despite the fact that we’ve all been living on top of each other for the last three months and spend our free time bitching about our lack of privacy and desire to get away, we’ve somehow all also inevitably decided to spend every minute of our free time together too, drinking beer kept in the ice bath in the hotel bathroom and ordering pizza delivery.

Needless to say, I’ll take any excuse to leave.

I knock on the door to 2214 and a second later, it clicks open and I slip inside. Gabby’s arms instantly wrap around my neck as she pulls me in for a kiss. I happily oblige as I follow her and we collapse onto each other on the couch.

“Did anyone see you leave?” she asks as she pulls herself off me.

“No one was paying attention,” I respond before pulling her back in for another kiss. She responds just as eagerly, and I feel the blood racing through my body begin to flow to my dick, hardening it instantly. This has become an ongoing issue now that Gabby and I are…whatever the fuck we are. Ever since we first kissed a week ago, we’ve been sneaking in stolen moments alone to be together. Though it’s been exciting, it’s also been fucking exhausting. I am trying to be respectful of Gabby’s desire to be more private, especially after everything that happened with Jordan, but it’s tiring. I also don’t particularly like hiding my relationship. And though I try to push back the anxiety, I can’t help but wonder: Does she even think this is a relationship?

“Liam, what’s wrong?” Gabby asks, a concerned look on her face as she watches me.

“Let me take you out,” I blurt out.

“Out? Like on a date?” Gabby asks, her brow knit in confusion.

“Yes, I want to take you out on a date.”

“I thought we agreed that we didn’t want to be public about this.”

“No, you decided that,” I say, raking a frustrated hand through my hair. “If it were up to me, I wouldn’t hide you from anyone.”

Gabby sits up. “Is that what you think I’m doing? Hiding you?”

“Well, what else do you call what we’re doing? You only talk to me when there’s no one else around. You won’t let me hold your hand or kiss you unless we’re behind a locked door,” I reply, the frustration obvious in my voice.

“Liam, every day we are surrounded by dozens of people. Staff, assistants, publicists, paparazzi. I don’t want people to think they can see what we have and judge it and ruin it. I want for whatever we have to be for just us.”

“So you want to keep me your hidden secret?”

“Yes! No! I don’t know!” Gabby pulls her knees up to her chest and rests her head. “I don’t know, Liam. The first relationship I ever had ended with him trying to assault me in a bathroom while fifty cameras captured it for the world to see. I’m just scared.”

I reach for Gabby, lifting her chin, forcing her eyes to look into mine. “Gabby, I am not Jordan. I would never hurt you. I don’t want anything from you. All I want is to take my girlfriend out for a nice date. Buy her flowers, take her out to a nice restaurant where we can get two meals for $25 with a free appetizer.”

She lets out an adorable snort and rolls her eyes. “Wait, did you just call me your girlfriend?”

“Yeah, why?”

“You think I’m your girlfriend?”

“Of course you’re my fucking girlfriend, Gabby.”

Gabby’s face lights up and she jumps on top of me, pinning me with her legs on either side. Wrapping her arms around me, she presses a firm kiss on my lips. “Okay,” she says. “Let’s do it.”