It’s been an hour and I’m starting to worry about Ria. I know this phone call is an important one and could take some time, but I also don’t want to leave her on her own after she collapsed. So I look back to see no movement and decide to just go and check on her to make sure she’s okay.

As I walk back I notice our bed curtain is closed and the sounds of someone upset coming from behind it. I tense up and slowly bend down to pull back the curtain. Ria’s off the phone and curled in a ball crying into her pillow. Sighing, I climb in over her, yanking the curtain closed behind me and pull her gently against my chest. She cuddles into me immediately and continues to cry into my chest.

“Hey hey, it’s okay. Let it all out. Whatever it is we’ll get through it together.”

She wipes her face and shakes her head. “I didn’t s-see this c-coming. Patrick’s always b-been this strong p-pillar in the community…” she stutters out and continues, “… I-I never thought I’d s-see him fail, or my mom b-be the type of person to q-question standing by him…” she takes in a deep breath, “… when h-he needs her the most. I m-mean… who does that? Bails when it g-gets tough? She should stand by h-him, right?”

“Shhh… baby, it’ll be okay. But yeah, I agree… strange that she’d leave just because it got hard. That’s kind of a cop out.”

“Exactly. God, I don’t even know who she is right now.”

“Once everything settles down maybe she’ll remember why she loves him… and that sticking by him is important?”

“Maybe, I just hope it’s not too late and he won’t forgive her.”

“I’m sorry, babe. This is all happening and you’re miles from home. Do you want me to get Tillie to take us to an airport and we’ll go see Patrick?”

She shakes her head. “No. I signed a contract, my obligations are to Recoil.”

“Ria, family’s more important than a fucking press junket.”

She shakes her head. “No, really it’s fine. I’m better distracted anyway.”

“Well, if you change your mind, just tell me and we’ll get on the first plane out of here.”

“You’re so good to me.”

“I try. Now wipe those tears and kiss me woman,” I say lightheartedly.

She chuckles, wiping her face and leans up on her elbows pressing her lips down to meet mine. I kiss back passionately running my hand through her hair. In any other circumstance I would’ve rolled her over and made her feel all kinds of good to help her forget, but I don’t want to push her no sex on the bus ban and especially after her fainting. She needs to rest, so I ease the kiss and she pulls back leaning her head down onto my chest. I wrap my arm around her for comfort as she traces lines up and down my shirt covering my chest.

“Nate…”

“Mmm…”

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For coming to find me. For being here for me. For looking after me.”

Lightly I run my fingers up and down her arm, feeling the silkiness of her skin caressing my fingertips. “Babe, I’m always going to look after you. You’re stuck with me now.”

 

TWO WEEKS LATER

 

Over that last two weeks Ria’s been stressed to capacity. Things within her stepdad’s production company went as we all thought. It completely collapsed leaving hundreds without jobs, billions of dollars lost in transactions and one marriage in tatters—that of Ria’s mother and her stepdad. And Ria had to deal with it all from the road. Every interview segment we appeared in was banned from talking about it, which helped, but it doesn’t stop the paparazzi screaming about it every stop we make. The problem is she’s becoming so stressed she’s passed out on two more occasions.

She’s completely off her food and she’s not herself. The stress is really getting to her and to be honest I have no idea how to help. She’s been talking to Danger a lot in their down time before interviews and their closeness is disturbing. It just doesn’t sit right in the pit of my stomach. Jealousy is not a good color on me, I know that, but I get such little time with Ria as it is and knowing that she confides in him does my fucking head in.

Trying to keep my ‘cool, calm, collected’ mantra is slowly fading and not having the same effect on me that it used to. Whisper’s Fung Shui obviously doesn’t work the further I am from him, or maybe he’s just a hack and it’s all bullshit like I thought. What the hell am I thinking, of course it is!

Lunar seems to be having trouble with it all like I am because she snaps at Ria constantly, but Ria’s either too busy or too sick to take it in.

We’re on our way to Sioux Falls, South Dakota and it’s pretty quiet on the bus. We’ve been on the press junket now for nearly seven weeks and the tension in the air is palpable. Everyone is just sitting around basically ignoring each other. There’s only so much of the same conversations you can have before it becomes monotonous.

Suddenly, Ria’s cell rings startling us all. She winces as if in apology and then answers, “Hi Mom,” she says monotone. “Wait! What? Slow down,” she says making me look up at her. “He what?” Her face turns pale as she stands up from her seat and starts pacing. “Oh my God… how bad?”

My ears pick up and I watch her as she starts turning pale again. I know the signs, she’s becoming too agitated. Tears well in her eyes as she continues to pace the floor. “Is he gonna be okay?” There’s a small pause, she exhales and slumps her body in a sign of relief. “Thank God.”

I step up and wrap my arm around her waist to hold her up just in case. She’s turning a slight shade of green instead of her usual white. I gotta say I’m quite concerned about her.

“I can’t leave, Mom, I’m under contract. But if he’s gonna be okay that’s all that matters. Mom, I have to go. Love you…” She hangs up then bolts toward the bathrooms.

I chase after her getting there in time to see her throw up in the toilet. Leaning down, I pull her hair back as she heaves into the bowl.

Rubbing her back, I try to comfort her as best I can. “Hey, you’re okay. Let it out… I’m right here.”

She coughs and splutters until there’s nothing left. My chest is heaving watching her and how upset she is. I wish I could help her.

“Babe, you feel like you can tell me what’s happening?” I ask handing her some toilet tissue to wipe her mouth.

She nods sitting back as I hold onto her. “Patrick had a heart attack.”

“Oh fuck.”

“He’s okay, they caught it, and he’s having a bypass and should make a full recovery.”

“Right… we’ll get on a plane at the next stop and go to see him.”

She takes a deep breath shaking her head. “No, Mom said he’s going to be completely fine. Nothing to worry about. We only have two more weeks on the road anyway… I can wait.”

“Ria, you’re so stressed this isn’t healthy for you. You’re fainting all the time. Now you’re puking as well. Babe, you need to be with your family.”

“Honestly Nate, I’d rather be here. Like I said this is a distraction from the chaos and being around a sick dad with Mom in crisis mode won’t be my idea of less stress.”

I pull my brows together. “Okay… whatever you think is best. But I’m here for you every step of the way.”

“That means so much…” she closes and opens her eyes. “Hey, I’ve been thinking… when we get back you should look into getting that gallery up and running,” she says changing the subject abruptly.

I raise my eyebrow at the one eighty change in topic—like she hasn’t just been told things at home are not great. To be honest, it’s kind of weird. “Ahh… yeah, I hadn’t really thought about it much.”

She stands up flushing the bowl and faces me. “I really think it’s something you should do, Nate. Seize the day. If today has shown me anything it’s that you have to act now, because there may be no tomorrow.”

I sort of half-nod because I don’t know what else to do. “Okay, I’ll look into it. I’ll need to find a manager to run it while I’m away I guess.”

“Exactly. Someone to sell your paintings and run the gallery while you’re not there. Someone to sell you to the world. You could even be one of those exclusive artists who sells the paintings, but no one knows who the actual artist is. You can be… artist anonymous.”

I chuckle pulling her to me. “I like the sound of that. Having a gallery, but being an anonymous artist. I think I’ll go with that.”

“I can help you find a curator come manager, and they can help you run everything. It will be amazing, Nate!”

Smiling, I nod. “It really will. Thanks, Ria, but right now let’s get you to bed, yeah?”

“Okay... sorry you had to see me like that.”

“I’m in this with you, babe, puke and all.” I move some hair behind her ear and she cuddles into me as we head down to our bunk all the time thinking how very strange she’s acting.

 

TWO WEEKS LATER

 

We pull up at the office a little over two months after we left. It’s great to be back in LA after traveling all over the states and Ria, even though her parents are sticking together for now and her stepdad’s recovery is going well, is still stressed. There have been moments when she feels nauseous and weak which is more than a little concerning. She’s become slightly more distant too, which worries me as she spends more and more time with Danger between interviews. Their friendship scares me and as we get off the bus I stretch my arms out taking in the sights of my surroundings—my home.

“God, it’s good to be back,” Danger says.

“I can’t wait to get back in our own bed,” Lunar says.

“Yeah, me too.” Danger winks at her and I look to Ria who’s watching me with a sly smile. I’m not sure what she’s thinking, but suddenly all I can think about is that for the last two months I haven’t been inside of her, and right now my cock is begging for her. She seems to read what my mind is thinking and giggles to herself as she turns to Tillie and starts talking to her. I shake my head and grin knowing tonight’s going to be a damn good night.

Oliver steps off the bus and is talking on his cell. “Okay, we’ll have a look now and let you know what we think. This is just the pick me up we needed at the end of the tour, thanks Grant,” he says while we all look at him.

“Was that Grant from the video production company?” Ryan asks.

Oliver nods. “Sure was. And if you guys aren’t too rushed to take off, we have a first copy of the edits to check out.”

“Shit! Really?” Danger asks.

“Yes. Shall we go have a look?” Oliver questions.

I tense slightly, glancing over at Lunar—she has the same apprehensive look I do. Seeing Danger and Ria’s time together live was hard enough, now watching it enhanced by production effects will be difficult. But this is what this whole thing was about, so, I put on a brave face and pretend to be excited.

“Let’s see it,” I say with a little too much gusto and race forward toward the office doors.

Ria grabs my hand and I turn to look at her. “Always you, remember that,” she whispers and it’s enough to stop my heart from exploding with anguish.

“Thank you.” I give her a warm smile.

We walk into the boardroom and Matt turns on the projector as Tillie hooks up her notebook. She sends the video to the projector and we wait for the countdown as my knee bobs up and down in a bundle of nerves. Ria gently places her hand on my knee and I chew my bottom lip as she squeezes gently for comfort. The song starts playing and Danger walks into the hotel room. It starts off innocently enough, then it moves to him encasing her against the window. I breathe a little heavier as I watch, but the sinking feeling I was expecting doesn’t come. The intensity I felt between them live, doesn’t seem as obvious on screen so I relax a little as I keep watching.

The film clip is good, great actually. It keeps flicking between scenes of Danger and Ria and then moments of us as a band, but it’s kind of… lacking… to me in a way. For all the hype and buzz surrounding this clip, the energy in Danger and Ria’s parts just doesn’t seem ‘on.’ We all sit back in our chairs and as the clip ends and silence filters through the room.

Danger looks to Ria and exhales. “Zaria, you’re the actress… you tell me. Was that… bland to you?”

It’s funny, at the time it felt anything but bland, but seeing it on screen it’s exactly how it felt. The chemistry was off. There was no buzz to it, at all.

She shifts uncomfortably and looks to me briefly and then back to Danger. “I think the problem was we didn’t know each other at all, and not being an actor you didn’t know how to get ‘in the zone,’ so to speak.”

He nods and exhales. “We’ve done all this hype and I’ve fucked it up,” he says running his hands through his hair.

Oliver chews on his bottom lip. “Okay, if we can re-shoot some of the scenes and get them to do some edits, would you both be willing? I know this is asking a lot of you, Zaria… but if you don’t ask, right?”

I tense up wondering what kind of scenes he now has in mind.

“I think that’s a great idea. Danger and I are way more acquainted now, we should be able to get that chemistry buzzing a lot more than what we’ve just seen on the screen.”

“Yeah, I’ll be far more comfortable this time around. Knowing Zaria is going to help big time and she doesn’t scare me anymore.”

She bursts out laughing. “I scared you?”

He chuckles. “I was petrified of you at the start—”

“That explains a lot—”

“Yeah, but you’re a pussy cat now—”

“Oh… palease!” Lunar murmurs.

I glance at her kinda feeling the same way at the mutual exchange between Danger and Ria.

“Give me some time and I’ll get onto the production company. See if we can shoot some more scenes to spice it up and how long it will take to splice them in. Hopefully, we can push it through quickly. I’ll be right back,” Oliver says rushing out of the room with his cell firmly placed against his ear.

“Great, now we’re gonna have to watch more filming of you two together?” Lunar states and Danger flinches.

“It’s just this one last time, babe. Then never again, I promise.”

She nods, stands up and walks out of the room. I look to Ria as Danger follows Lunar.

Ria sighs. “Maybe we should leave the video how it is?”

“As much as I’m gonna hate it, too, we’ve spent too much time promoting and put too much hype into this video for it to be substandard.”

“I agree, it should be perfect. But Nate that means Danger and I will probably be more… intimate.”

“Yeah, I get it. At least this time I’ll be better prepared.”

“Exactly, you’ll know what to expect because I will prepare you and I won’t let you go in blind, okay?”

“Yeah,” I reply but it comes out in a murmur.

Oliver comes back into the room with Danger and Lunar in tow and claps his hands together. “Right, we start re-filming tomorrow morning. Hopefully, we can get the new takes done and dusted in a day and back into production tomorrow evening.”

“So you don’t think we’ll have to do a heap of retakes?” Danger asks.

“Not a lot, mainly just the in bed at the hotel scenes. The band’s shots were awesome… the clip just lacks chemistry and we need to find that to make this successful.”

Swallowing hard, I grit my teeth. That was the worst part for me. Ria, topless and grinding on Danger. Having to watch that again, but with it even more intense will be like torture. I’m not sure I’ll be able to sit through it multiple times, but, we’ll see. I have to suck it up and support Ria. I have to show her I can do this.

“Okay, will the scripts be sent through tonight then?” Ria asks and Oliver nods.

“Yes, we’ll go over the adjustments today, and send them out to you asap to go over. We’ll see you all at the studio bright and early first thing in the morning.”

I stand along with everyone else. “Right, well our luggage should be off the bus by now, guess we can all head home,” Tillie says.

Glancing over at Ria she smiles at me, and I’m kind of unsure where to go to from here.

“Wanna come back to mine?” she whispers.

“God yes,” I say back, probably a little more enthusiastically than I should. She laughs and we head out to grab our luggage. After saying our farewells to everyone and putting the luggage into my car, I drive us back to Ria’s Hollywood Hills mansion.

“I’m so glad to be home. Being on tour’s fun, but there’s nothing like being home,” she says and I smile at her as we pull up to her guarded gates and security let us in.

“Do you wanna go see your parents?” I ask.

“I probably should, but maybe tomorrow after filming is done. I don’t want to be distracted from the job.”

I nod and pull up at the front of her door. “Home sweet home.”

“Thank God! I need a real shower,” she says stepping out of the car with a smirk.

I slide out, grab her luggage and head for the door. But as we walk up the steps the door swings open shocking us both.

“Ria… darling!”

Ria stops, her mouth wide open as she looks at her doorway seeing the visitor she didn’t know was coming.