It was a week later and Millie hadn't heard anything from Jesse. She wondered if he was ok. She'd also not seen Dex all week and was missing him like crazy. But being completely snowed under at work helped to keep her mind focused and not just sit and think about the situation. She was at least enjoying some time with Ricco, movie night, pamper night, board game night, as much as she craved some time with Dex, Ricco was a lot of fun and she couldn't say she wasn't having a good time with him. He was literally the best friend a girl could want, having him certainly eased the loneliness of a long distance relationship, especially when she was reading stories on an almost daily bases on social media about her boyfriend with various different women. One in particular was Isy Brennan, for some reason Millie felt a little jealous of the stories involving her and Dex, it's not that she believed any of them were true as such but the fact that she was British, around the same age as Millie but spent more time around her boyfriend than she did made her feel uneasy.
Dex was often being photographed at festivals and tv shows and various star studded events where her girlband we're in attendance.
Millie didn't know too much about the girlband, all she knew is that they had been runners up on one of the find a pop star tv shows and had shot to fame over the past few months after their stint on the show.
Millie had googled them and read a little bit about Isy, it was always her name cropping up in magazines. Millie felt very out of the loop, she wasn't in their circles, her life was a million miles away, both literally and metaphorically. Her life was quiet and mostly 9-5. She didn't go to fancy award ceremonies, she didn't appear on tv shows performing in skimpy outfits that looked like underwear. Her hips couldn't pull that off in a million years, nor could her confidence.
Every now and again it all made her question if she was the right person for Dex, was she good enough for him or did she pale in comparison with some of these pop babes he was around a lot.
Not being with Dex for the week actually felt quite refreshing. She was a bit of a home bird, a little introvert even and his jet-setting lifestyle wouldn't be one she'd have chosen for herself. She wished Dex could just retire and move to England so they could have a normal life. But the truth was his career had barely started, she knew if they stayed together she had years and years of this life.
It was 9.40pm, Millie was sat on the couch at Ricco's plush penthouse apartment. She'd barely been home at all since they got home from their New York trip. Ricco was in the shower. Millie's phone beeped, excited she grabbed her phone, assuming it would be Dex
As she began to read the message her heart sank a little
Just thought you should know that at this precise moment your boyfriend is with me in a hotel room. Sorry to have to tell you this but these things happen on tour. Isy x
Millie felt sick! Every single time she got a text or read a story in a magazine a piece of her heart died. She wasn't sure if that was because she believed it or because of the invasion of her privacy in having her number and sending such a horrible message. She immediately tried to call Dex but his phone just went to answer phone.
She frantically tried to write a text, struggling to type properly, her fingers were shaking, tears began to stream down her cheeks. She was becoming so fed up of all this. There were cheating allegations on an almost daily basis, how could every single one be a mistake, a lie. Surely for it to happen so often there had to be some truth in it. Millie pulled the sleeve of her sweater down over her hands and wiped her eyes with it.
She was beginning to feel like maybe she wanted out of this, she couldn't keep crying over the same thing over and over again and with her situation with Jesse, not being with Dex seemed a lot easier right now.
She looked up as Ricco walked into the living area, with a white towel wrapped around his waist his body glistened with beads of water, his hair wet and messy, he looked beautiful. Millie couldn't help but stare as he ran his hand through his hair, he smiled at her at first but his smile soon turned to a frown as he realised she was crying.
"What's up darling?" He asked, his pace quickened towards her.
Millie handed him her phone with the message on the screen. Ricco quickly scanned through it.
"What the fuck!" He exclaimed
"This is obviously some stupid jealous person winding you up!" he said reassuringly
"But is it?" She replied, tears still streaming, wishing she still had Dex's hoody to check if it was actually Isy's number.
"I read this stuff all the time now and 9 times out of ten it's this same fucking girl! Why are they all saying the same thing if it's not true?" She replied. She had a point, but Ricco was never going to admit that!
"It's all just jealousy babe, that's not really Isy, no celebrity would be stupid enough to send a text like that, it could ruin her career!
people see them so much as in the same room they're bound to come up with crap like this, they want Dex, they're just trying to split you up" he explained, though in the back of his mind he wondered if it was true. There was rarely smoke without fire.
"Just call Dex and talk to him about it" said Ricco, he sat down beside her and put his arm round her, pulling her into him
"Eww you're all wet!" She exclaimed as her face stuck to his bare wet chest. She laughed a little. Feeling safe in the arms of someone she trusted with her life. He was the one constant, the one person she trusted more than she trusted herself
He was the one man who had never let her down.
Ricco laughed, rubbing his wet hands over the side of her face, Millie wriggled to get free from him. Life would be so much easier if her and Ricco were a couple she thought. He was utterly perfect.. besides being gay!
They settled down to watch a movie together, Ricco still in just a towel, Millie found it hard to concentrate, he seemed to be in a towel more than clothes lately, she could swear he was doing it on purpose! her mind continually wandering, her eyes as well! She kept thinking about how much she loved Dex but how she'd probably cried more times in the last few months that she'd been with him than she had in any past relationship. She wasn't sure how long she could continue, the stories and accusations were always going to be there with dating a famous musician and at the start she felt prepared for that but the reality was turning out to be more than she was able to cope with. She focused her mind back on the movie but it wasn't long before she was tearing up again at the thought of the message she'd been sent possibly being true.
Her phone began to vibrate on the coffee table, she lifted her head from Ricco's lap to see who it was.
Dex Rose
Flashing across the screen, she got up, grabbing her phone she hurried off to the bedroom to talk to him alone. It wasn't that she didn't want Ricco to hear her conversation but more that she knew his presence would make her tear up worse and she really wanted to appear strong and defiant. Not the broken mess she felt inside.
"Hey baby" he said, his accent never failed to send a shiver down her spine, even at the most annoying of times.
"Hi" she replied quietly
"You ok?" he asked sensing her lack of enthusiasm
"Yeah" she replied, again with an obvious sadness to her voice her words quivered ever so slightly.
"What's the matter? You sound upset" he asked
"Nothing, I'm fine, where are you?" she asked, knowing that he wasn't going to buy it and she was going to have to explain herself whether she wanted to or not
"Austin, Texas" he replied
"Oh, at a festival?" she asked, it seemed totally plausible that the message she has got may be true if he was at a festival, there would be many other bands there, most likely Isy Brennan's band would also be on the line up.
"Yeah, Austin City Limits, why babe? Are you coming out?" he asked, his voice optimistic that the questioning may have been planning a trip to see him.
"No" she replied bluntly
"Are you ok? You don't sound yourself" he asked. Millie was silent for a minute, she really didn't want to get into this, she didn't want to argue, she knew he would talk his way out of it and she would be the one who ends up looking like a jealous girlfriend, she wondered if it was ever worth it. But despite knowing the outcome, she needed some closure or it was going to eat away at her for days.
"I got a message from Isy Brennan this evening, it said that you were in a hotel room with her and that that's just what happens on tour" Millie explained, her bottom lip quivered.
"What?!" said Dex
"You know that's not true, right?" he asked. Millie hesitated.
"I don't know" she replied
"Millie, come on! surely you've been with me long enough to know that girls are going to keep making up this shit constantly, you gotta ignore it, Isy would never have sent that herself" he started
"You trust me, right?"
"Yeah...uh.. I guess.. it's just I'm getting this all the time, every magazine is saying the same thing, every social media site, surely they can't all be lies, every single time?" she asked, feeling like she was pushing him and that he was going to get mad soon. She braced herself for his reply.
"Yeah, they can be lies, every single time and they wont stop, they'll keep doing this and doing this for as long as I have fans. I really thought you could handle this?" he said
"So did I" she replied, a single tear streamed down her face. Maybe she couldn't handle this. Maybe she wasn't cut out for his lifestyle and all the came with it. Maybe she should just accept she'd had a really great 'fling' this summer with a pop star and leave it at that. Her heart was telling her different, her heart was telling her 'You've never loved anyone as much as you love him, no one else will ever compare, you have to fight for him' but her head was telling her 'this can never be anything more than it is, it's never going to be a stable family life, it's never going to be marriage and children, it's going to be this endless struggle with fame for the next ten years or more, your personal life on show to the world, a different tabloid story every week, get out while you can, this isn't the life you want' Millie wasn't sure whether her heart or her head ruled her, it wasn't a decision she could make on the spot, or even in the next week. She needed time, away from Dex to figure this out.
"I have to go, I'm sorry" she said, trying to hold it together.
"Why?" Asked Dex, he hated that he was always so far away, over the phone just wasn't the same. He wanted to look her in the eyes, to hold her in his arms, to reassure her that he was 100% committed to her and that he had never and would never cheat on her, he wasn't remotely interested in any other girls. As far as he was concerned Millie was the girl he was going to marry, no one else came close. But that was hard to convey from the other side of the world.
"I'll call you back in a little while, I'm just eating my dinner" she lied.
Dex waited but the call back never came