Catch 22

21

"Hey, Cal?" Rowen says, her voice losing confidence as she turns to face me. The fading sunlight through the window of her hotel room casts a golden hue over her.

"Yeah, babe. What is it?" I ask, a little hesitant because of the look on her face.

"Um, so I know we had talked about just going to the hotel and like spending all night.." she trails her words off and raises her eyebrows at me as I catch her hint.

"Yeah, and?" I ask, already feeling my annoyance grow. She's about to flake on me.

"Um, well the crew is going out tonight and I was wondering if you would mind if we just pushed our plans back a few hours so I can go with them?" She question, tucking her bottom lip between her teeth.

"You sure that's such a good idea?" I ask her. Though what I want to say is, "Are you fucking joking?"

"I mean, I don't know." She admits. "They've been nice to me today and they invited me along. I feel like this is the first chance I've had to really become a part of the team in a while. I'm scared if I don't go they'll see it as me thinking I'm above them because we date or something and things will get bad again."

"I turned down the boys for tonight." I frown, pouting like a child but unable to help myself.

"Well then that works out great. I can go with the crew and you can go with the boys!" She smiles.

"I just want to go to bed with you, though." I whine and she rolls her eyes.

"Just a few hours, bub."

"Don't you think that'll look weird. I mean, shit, the press just got wind of us and now you want to go out separately."

"Jesus Cal, don't make this a bigger deal than it needs to be. I have to go. They may not give me another chance to prove I can fit in with them. If we want our relationship to have any hope for longevity, I would want this to not be my only tour working for you. Thus, I need to be able to get along with them. You'll be fine without me for one night." She laughs. "Besides, just because we're dating now doesn't mean we have to be joined at the hip, we can do our own thing." She says it so confidently that it stings a little. I know we don't have to be together always, I just wanted to be with her tonight.

"All the girlfriends are here and I wanted you to meet them." I try, a desperate attempt really to get her to do something with me instead of the crew.

"I can meet them tomorrow. Me not being there will just make it easier for Ash not to feel like a tag along since he and his girlfriend are still having issues, aren't they?" She asks.

Fuck, I forgot I had told her that.

"Cal." She breathes, placing her hand flat against my chest. "It's one night. You'll be fine. I have to go get ready." She kisses my cheek and walks past me to the bathroom. My eyes trail after her, enjoying the view I'm given of her heavily inked skin. The outline of her unfinished back piece drawing my eyes down to her ass just as she steps behind the frosted glass shower door.

I swear as I feel the cotton of my briefs grow tighter. I adjust myself to hide my half hardened dick and head for the door and down the hall to my own room.

•

"Hey, Sage!" Caleb called, waving me over as I arrived downstairs in the lobby to meet the crew.

"Um, hi." I greet back.

It's not that I'm worried or scared about tonight. I'm just a little hesitant still around the crew. These are the same people who were just making my life so miserable. Even with Mark gone I still am unsure how much they can really be trusted.