Catch 22

20

"Rowen!" I fall through the backstage area. Ignoring the confused stares of the other crew until I spot her unmistakeable black hair and tattoos facing away from me.

I call out to her again and for a moment I'm concerned that she isn't answering me until I notice the air pods resting in her ears.

I reach out and touch her elbow and she startled before a smile appears on her face and she removed her ear buds.

"Hey, babe! You startled me!" She tells me and it takes me a minute to recover, I don't think she's ever called me anything but Cal or Calum before.

"Sorry...I just wanted to check on you."

"I'm all good." She smiles. I hope she's being truthful.

"I'm worried about you." I admit and a look of hurt flashes through her eyes.

"Mark's gone and I hope the rest of them see you aren't messing around. I don't know, I've kept to myself so far. I hope they don't see Mark getting fired as like a reason to make things worse or try to retaliate against me or something."

"If they start that shit you tell me." I say harshly, glaring around the room and trying to meet as many of their eyes as I can.

"Okay." She brushes me off.

"I mean it Rowen. No more of this staying silent to not cause problems bullshit. I want to protect you, but I can't do that if I don't know what's wrong. I can't watch you get in an ambulance again. When you blacked out and I didn't know if you were okay or if you would be..." my voice breaks.

"You don't know what that was like." I meet her eyes, mine are watery and I don't think she knows what to say.

"I'm sorry..." She starts but I holds my hand up to stop her.

"Don't, it's fine. Just swear to me if today doesn't go well you'll tell me." I practically beg her and she really has no choice but to nod.

"No show tomorrow." I say, pulling her against my chest, a smirk creeping onto my face as the mood lightens and takes a sultry turn. 

"Hotel room tomorrow night." She adds, the same smirk covering her features that currently adorns mine.

I blush at the realization that her thoughts seem to match the filthy images flashing through my own mind. I can't help it. The girl is fucking gorgeous.

"Fuck." I say emphatically. "I'm the luckiest man alive."

"Stop, you're too much." She laughs as I press kisses to her neck and she giggles.

"Okay, okay! I have to get back to work!" She laughs as I release her.

"Remember what I said, Row!" I say to her one more time before heading towards the green room to start my own prep for our show tonight.

"Hey Cal!" Ash calls as I enter.

"Hey boys." I reply, plopping down on the couch in between Luke and Michael.

"Sage's teching for me tonight." Mikey says and I nod. It's weird hearing her called anything but Rowen at this point, though I know I'm the only one she lets use her real name. I like that I'm special to her.