Jess’ POV
Just as Aston was about to shut the door I grabbed his hand, pulling him towards me.
“I said not right now,” he sighed, trying to extract his hand from my own.
“Just be a gentlemen and help me out of the damn car,” I bit out, grasping his hand harder and starting to slide towards the door.
“But…”
“We’ll talk about this later,” I replied. “Right now it’s showtime.”
Gently Aston helped me slide out of the car in a graceful manner, and then he placed his hand on the small of my back as we started to walk up the red carpet. I plastered the best smile I could muster on my face and let him lead the way, stopping in front of the cameras and posing together for a picture.
I waited while Aston signed a few autographs with fans, and then he guided me towards the media, giving a few interviews. I was in such a daze by the frenzy that surrounded me that I hardly had any idea what was going on.
“Is this your girlfriend?” asked one reporter, snapping me out of it. I turned and smiled at Aston who responded with the affirmative before pushing me further down the carpet.
Before I knew it we were done with the red carpet and being escorted to our table. I sat down next to Marvin and Rochelle who had arrived before us, Aston sliding down into the seat next to me.
You could cut the tension between us with a knife. I sat fiddling with my napkin as Aston messed around his phone.
“What’s going on with you two?” asked Marvin.
“Ast is cross with me…” I started.
“I thought we weren’t going to talk about this right now?” mumbled Aston.
I just shut my mouth and sat there awkwardly, I caught Marvin’s eye and could see he was well confused. “He’s mad because I wasn’t going to come,” I said quickly.
“Yeah, she goes on this whole bender while we’re in the car line and says she isn’t coming, and then I’m literally standing on the carpet and she grabs my hand and is like ‘I’m coming!’ Been doing my head in,” he said with a massive tone of frustration on his voice, still obviously annoyed.
I gave Marvin and Rochelle a sheepish smile as the other boys joined us at the table and the event began.
Luckily there was enough going on during the event that I didn’t really need to talk to Aston. I spent most of my time chatting with Rochelle or watching the proceedings of the gala.
As the boys went up to collect their award I couldn’t help but shed a little tear. They looked so excited and they were so gracious to everyone for the recognition, vowing to continue their hardwork.
As Aston sat back down next to me I couldn’t help but lean over and place a gentle kiss on his cheek, grasping his hand in my own. “I’m so proud of you,” I whispered in his ear.
He didn’t say anything back to me, but he didn’t release my hand either. I knew it was going to take a long conversation at home before this was all sorted, but this little action had me a bit less on edge than before.
Eventually the night wound down and we climbed into a cab headed back towards home. The entire ride was silent, we both just stared out of our respective windows as thoughts about the evening swirled about in our heads. Upon arriving at home I let us in, kicking off my shoes by the door and preparing myself for the conversation to come.
“I’m shattered,” said Aston, heading towards the stairs.
“But I thought we were going to chat?” I asked.
“In the morning,” he sighed. I watched him climb the stairs before I dashed up after him. I ran into my room and sorted myself out for bed and then I slipped into Aston’s room. He was still in his en suite, so I took the chance and climbed into his bed.
“Babe…” he sighed when he noticed I was there.
“No Ast,” I replied. “I don’t want to go to sleep until we’ve sorted this out.”
“Ok go on then,” he said as he slipped into bed next to me, sat up with his back against the headboard, leaving a large space between us. “Will you please explain to me what was going on in your head?”
I took a deep breath and laid back into Aston’s pillows, staring up at the ceiling. “I was scared,” I said.
“Babe, I told you when I invited you that it would be no big deal. I’d have you the entire way…”
“I know… I wasn’t scared about the attention and walking down the red carpet. Honestly, being on the red carpet was fine, I hardly realized where I was.”
“But then why didn’t you want to do it?”
I sighed again as I felt tears welling up in my eyes. Trying to be strong I willed them away as I replied to his question, “We’ve spent the last month living in this little bubble, right? No one really bothers us, we do what we want, we have fun together. There is no pressure to be anything more than ourselves. And I just got scared that by going in front of the press like that, our little bubble might pop or something.”
“That’s what all of this is about?” asked Aston, slipping down into the bed so he was laid next to me.
“I’m sorry I freaked out earlier,” I said. “I just had this moment where I saw our relationship becoming this crazy press fueled beast, and I froze. Absolutely shut down.”
“You think that’s going to happen to us?” he asked me.
“I hope not,” I sighed.
“Well you better believe that I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure that what we’ve got doesn’t turn into a beast,” he replied. “I let you go once and it was the hardest thing I ever had to do, and now that I’ve got you back, I’m in this for the long haul. The press ain’t getting in my way babe,” he smiled.
At this I couldn't help but burst into tears and I slid my way closer to him, letting him wrap his arms around my waist as I cried into his chest.
“I’m sorry I got cross with you earlier,” he said. “I have this strong desire to share everything with you and I couldn’t really understand why you didn’t want to come. I was just really disappointed I guess, it sort of blinded me a bit from whatever you were feeling.”
“It’s ok, I was being a bit mental,” I said, in between sobs, “Let’s just not have that happen again. I don’t like fighting with you.”
“Me neither, especially because I hate it when you cry babe,” he said, tilting my chin up and wiping my tears away with his fingers. “We ok now?” I nodded my head and before I knew it he’d pressed his lips gently against my own. I was so relieved to be back in this happy place with him, our little bubble. “You know what the one good part about fighting is?” he whispered to me after a minute.
“What?” I asked.
“Make up sex,” he whispered in my ear flirtily. With that he slid on top of me and started covering me in kisses from head to toe. It didn’t take long for things to escalate beyond that, and as we reached that point of climax Aston whispered “I love you,” in my ear for maybe the fiftieth time in just a few short minutes.
