“Victoria,” he calls out, “come back, baby.”
I don’t respond because I can’t. The minute I have the door shut the tears spill down my cheeks. I want Gabriel back. My rough, possessive, dominant Gabriel. But somehow I fear this is the end. We’ve been through too much. I pulled him into my fucked up life, and now he doesn’t want to deal with it. It’s the only logical conclusion I can come up with.
I turn on the shower and strip off my clothes, leaving the door locked behind me. As I relax under the stream of hot water, I think back on my time in prison. How I imagined what it would be like if I got out and came back to Gabriel. I envisioned it in my head hundreds of times but never was it anything like this.
When the water finally runs cold, I step out and dry off, my skin as raw as my nerves at the moment. The bed is empty when I open the door, and Gabriel has disappeared again. I’m sure he’s holed back up in his office, and if last night was any indication, he’ll be there all night.
After throwing on comfortable clothes, I text Alanna and ask her if she wants to meet for drinks. To my relief, she agrees right away.
Gabriel’s office door is shut as I pause in front of it, debating whether I should even say anything. But then I realize it would just seem childish if I didn’t, so I knock lightly, feeling a little awkward as I wait for him to call out. When he does I open it to find him sitting in front of his desk with a stack of paperwork.
“How did your meetings go today?” I ask.
“Good,” he mutters, not even bothering to look at me. “Yep, everything is good.”
Okay then. “Alright, well I can see you’re busy, so I’ll leave you to it. I’m going to meet Alanna for a while.”
Gabriel spins around in his chair and looks up at me, a lingering note of sadness in his eyes. Again I want to beg him to tell me what’s wrong with him, but I can’t. I’ve already asked him several times since I’ve been home, and he needs to tell me on his own.
“Victoria, I….” His words fall short with a deep sigh, and I can tell he doesn’t know what to say.
“It’s okay, Gabriel,” I reassure him. “I’m going. You can do your work in peace. I’ll see you when I get back.”
“Okay,” he says softly.
***
When I get to the bar, a Mexican themed place named Cabo, I’m greeted by Alanna and two Pina coladas. She hands me one of them and eagerly takes a sip, motioning to our table.
“We’re over there,” she says. “Ladies night out. I have so missed this.”
“Me too,” I manage to say between sips. I did miss her. It’s weird not having a place together anymore when we’ve been living together for so long. I didn’t even have time to prepare or get used to the idea. I just came back to find my apartment, and my life as I knew it, gone.
I follow Alanna to the table across the room and sit down. There’s upbeat music playing from the speakers above, and I feel myself relax as I look across the table at my happy companion.
“So,” Alanna starts. “You said Gabriel’s acting weird. What’s going on?”
I smile at her eagerness to get to the bottom of the situation. At least she hasn’t changed drastically in my absence. “I don’t know what’s going on,” I say. “Was he acting weird while I was gone?”
“If by acting weird you mean him brooding the whole time and throwing a temper tantrum every time you refused to see him, then yes.” Alanna laughs. “I think he went mad without you around.”
“Well, it sure doesn’t seem like it now.” I frown. “He seems like he can’t get far enough away from me. He spent all night in his office, and I don’t know if he even came to bed.”
Alanna furrows her brows in disbelief. “Really?”
“Yes, really,” I groan. “He’s treating me like I might break. The sex has been… I don’t know different. And besides that, he’s hardly touching me.”
“Hmm…” Alanna taps her fingers across the table. “Is he stressed at work or something?”
“Could be, I don’t know. We don’t really talk much about his job. He’s trying to start up his business, so I guess he could be stressed about that.”
“Well, maybe that’s it then.” She smiles reassuringly.
“I don’t know. It could be, but I don’t think it is. Something just doesn’t feel right. And I don’t like it.”
“Well you are still having sex though right?” she asks as she scrunches up her face.
“Yes, well we have. But not like before. And I practically had to throw myself at him today.”
“Well,” Alanna says, “I don’t know what’s going through his mind babe, but if there’s one thing I know for certain, it’s that he loves you. You should have seen him when you went away, he was devastated. You were all he talked about. And if I had to guess, I would just say he is stressed from work or something. You just need to take his mind off of it.”