Free See You at the Show by Michelle Betham Page B

 
    She needed her mind taken off things anyway.   She’d asked one thing of Mark, just one thing for a couple of nights, that was all.   He’d promised her he’d be there for her and he’d chosen to break that promise.   He’d chosen to please nobody but himself and leave her on her own last night and she saw no reason why he was going to be any different tonight.   All she’d asked was for him to spend one post-gig night with her, that was all.   She always gave him what he wanted, she was always there for him before he went on stage, always there with the now almost-habitual pre-concert sex, and he couldn’t even be bothered to spend one night away from playing Mr Rock Star to be with her when she needed him most.   He didn’t know that, of course.   He didn’t know that she needed him, that she was feeling uneasy and unsettled and vulnerable because she was in a place that brought back too many memories, and she didn’t really want him to know.   She didn’t want to have to explain.   Stevie Stone was strong, defiant, tough.   Nothing got her down.   But sometimes, just sometimes, all she needed was her rocker boyfriend to only want her.
    It was after 3am by the time she got back to the hotel.   She’d stayed down in the bar for a little while, taking some time out with the rest of the guys in the crew to wind down and have a few drinks, and in a way it felt good to be apart from the band for a while and be with the people she could really identify with.   She’d known some of these guys a lot longer than she’d known any of the band and they’d been good to her.   They were good for each other.   Some of them had told Stevie that Mark was no good for her, that he’d only end up hurting her and their concern was nice to have.   It was almost like a brotherly love and it meant a lot, but she couldn’t do anything except ignore it.   Because Mark Cassidy was under her skin and, no matter what, she needed to be around him.
    Tired and more than ready for sleep, she pushed open her hotel room door, surprised to see the light on.   She could have sworn she’d turned it off when she’d left all those hours earlier.
    “Hey, you’re home.”
    She turned round to see Mark coming out of the bathroom, dressed only in his jeans and boots, his hair all messed up in a look that probably was just-got-out-of-bed.   Literally.   Just not her bed.
    “What the fuck are you doing here?”
    “I came to see you, baby.”
    He tried to slide his arms around her waist but she wasn’t in the mood, slapping them away.
    “Too late, Mark.   Too fucking late.”
    “Come on, Stevie.   I’m here now, aren’t I?”
    She swung round to stare at him.   He was heartbreakingly handsome but a first rate bastard all the same.   And she was in no mood for him tonight.
    “I asked you to do one thing, Mark.   One thing.   To leave the bimbo’s alone for one fucking night and be with me , somebody who actually fucking cares about you, and you couldn’t do it.   Could you?”
    “Baby...”
    “Don’t ‘baby’ me, Mark; I’ve had it with you.”
    She walked into the bathroom, pulling off her t-shirt and throwing it on the floor.
    “Stevie...”
    “What?   What do you want, Mark?”
    “I want you .   Come on, I came back, didn’t I?   I came back to you.”
    “Fuck off, Cassidy.   I’m really not in the mood.”
    He grabbed her round the waist and pulled her against him, kissing her with a force that almost sent her reeling, just before she pushed him away with a force that was just as hard.
    “I said, fuck off!   I’m not doing this tonight, Mark.   Not with you.”
    “You gonna run to Johnny then?   You gonna go sleep with him?”
    “I’m not you, Mark.   I don’t feel the need to always have to be with someone, to have my ego fed like some over-hungry animal.   You’re a legend in your own fucking head sometimes, you really are.”
    She slipped out of her denim shorts, leaving her