An Illicit Gentleman

                          Chapter Eleven

            “Wait up bitches!” She heard AJ yell as she sat down on the couch.  It was another city and another sound check.  Eve chose to stay in the lounge for this one, she hadn’t been in the greatest moods and the closer she got to going home the worse it got.

“Not watching today?” Kristin asked as she walked into the room.

“No” Eve replied with a light smile.

“Brian still ignoring you?” Kristin asked.

“Yeah.” Eve said as she sat up.

“Don’t worry too much about it, Brian has his fits then he gets over it.” She smiled and Eve tried to smile back.

“We can see how much you care about him and Brian will too.” Kristin said

“I do care about him, a lot.” Eve told her.

“He’s very protective of you I’ve noticed.” Kristin told her.

“I’ve never really had a relationship like this before, being so close to someone; he knows that, so maybe that’s why.” Eve said.  “Not that you know I’ve been with a lot of guys, because I haven’t it’s just that…” Eve paused figuring it was better to just keep her mouth shut now.

“So what has he done to make you go weak in the knees?” Kristin asked with a light smile.

“Lots of things.” Eve replied.  “One night I drove him home from the club, he was pretty drunk, and he asked me in, then freaked out a little and left before I could even answer.”

“Sounds like him.” Kristin laughed.

“When we lie in bed, when his eyelashes brush along my neck, and when I was sick a month or so ago.” She said remembering her break down in front of him.  “He took care of me, brought me breakfast in bed.”

“Now that’s AJ.” Kristin smiled.

“But the one that really does it is how he treats me.” Eve said as she looked at Kristin.  “He doesn’t treat me like a stripper, or even that I dance, he treats me like a person.”

“Kris?” Leigh Anne said as she popped her head into the room.

“Be right back.” Kristin said to Eve with a smile.

As Eve sat there she started thinking about the things he’s done for her, how he treats her and she started feeling worse about leaving.  She only had a few days left before she had to go home and the closer it got the more she wanted to stay. 

Eve was starting to learn the ins and outs of Backstreet Time so when AJ told her they would just hang around here because the concert was starting in an hour, she wasn’t surprised.  She was glad he was in and out of the room most of the time, hoping he wouldn’t notice the mood she was in.

The concert went off without a hitch and Eve waited for AJ to shower as everyone else started to pack up and leave.  She thought she was the last one in the room until Brian walked in.  A light smile came across her face but nothing across his as he looked away.

“I hope you’re enjoying yourself.” Brian finally spoke out and she was about to answer but she second guessed on whether or not that was an honest question.

“I’m sorry?” She said wanting to double check.

“I said I hope you’re enjoying yourself cause when our fans and the media find out what you do, his life is going to go to hell.” Brian said sternly as he picked up his jacket.  “And you can try and quit but our fans will find out.  Ask my wife; ask Kristin, they’ll tell you.  They won’t let him live it down, him dating a stripper and let’s be honest here; can you really quit? What would you do?”

“Well if they want him to be happy…”

Brian laughed sarcastically.  “Yeah they want us to be happy, happy with them.  You don’t believe me look at some of the stuff they said about Sarah.  I can imagine what they’re going to say about you.”  He stopped and looked at her.  “Is Eve your stripper name or real name?” He asked.

“It’s my real name.” Eve said fighting back the tears.

“Well Eve I know it may seem like a sweet set up for someone like you, it’s just not worth it.  If you care about him at all, you’ll just end it now and enjoy the trip you got out of it, cause you’re going to cause him a lot of pain.”

Eve looked down and closed her eyes as Brian left the room.  She fought hard to keep her emotions back, knowing AJ would be out any minute.  Grabbing her purse she searched for her cover up and began applying.  Reminding herself she had heard it before, it was nothing new and to brush it off but she couldn’t, this was not some asshole drunk she turned down, or got kicked out because they got touchy, this was AJ’s friend, his ‘brother’, his band mate. 

“Alright I’m all Zest fully clean now.” AJ said as he walked out fully dressed and cleaned up.

“Ok.” Eve said as she forced a smile hoping her make up hid the redness as she put the cover up into her bag.

They hopped into the town car and headed back to the hotel.  As they rode up in the elevator AJ looked at Eve from the corner of his eye.  She had been really quiet all the way home and now she looked like she wasn’t even in her own head.

He stood at the hotel room table and pulled his arms out of his jacket as he watched her walk over to the couch and sit down.  “Evie?” She looked at him.  “What’s wrong?”

“I’m tired.” She said with a light smile.  “I’m not really that hungry either so I’m just going to crash.”

“Are you sure?” AJ asked as she stood up.

“Yeah” She said as she grabbed her Pajamas out of her bag and headed into the bathroom.  A couple of minutes later she came out and headed over to the bed.  AJ sat on the phone ordering a club house with room service.  He watched as she walked by and crawled into bed.

“Ok thanks.” AJ said into the phone when the hostess told him how long.  He hung up the phone and walked over too her.   Kneeling down beside her he helped tuck her in better. 

“I’m going to eat and then crash, we don’t leave till the afternoon tomorrow.” He said as he brushed her hair from her face.  “Are you sure nothings wrong?”

“Nothings wrong, I’m just tired.” She replied. 

“Ok” AJ said quickly.  “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Night.” She said as she closed her eyes.

“Night sweetheart.” AJ replied sadden.

He sat on the couch and decided to not watch TV and let Eve sleep.  Laying his head on the arm of the couch his feet at the other end he watched her sleep.  Something wasn’t right about her today.  It could just be a bad day thinking about her Brother but why wouldn’t she tell him that.  He sighed wondering if he was reading too much into it and she really was just tired.  When his food showed up he sat at the table and ate and after letting his stomach settle, he called it a night and climbed into bed next too her.

A noise woke him much later into the night and as his eyes slowly opened he looked at the small clock on the night stand.  “Four Thirty?” He thought in his head as the noise became clearer.  His head popped up and he looked around the room waiting for his eyes to adjust.  When they did he saw a figure sitting on the couch.  He looked to his right and saw that Eve wasn’t beside him.

“Evie?” He mumbled as he looked back to the figure on the couch.  She didn’t say anything back so he slowly climbed out of bed and walked over to her, turning the light over top of the TV on before he sat down.  “Hey” AJ said with great concern when he saw she was crying.  He reached for her but she looked away.  Pausing for a moment remembering the last time he saw her this upset. “Talk to me.”

Her head turned back towards him, her eyes puffy and red, the corners of her nose red too, and her lips were dry.  “I want to go home.” She said her voice shaky and quiet.

“Home?” AJ said confused and concerned.

Eve nodded.  “I want to go home today.”

“Why? Did I do something wrong darling?” He asked.

“No” She replied and her bottom lip began to quiver, her eyes fell in pain and a tear dripped from her lashes.  Taking a deep breath she finished her sentence.  “You didn’t do anything, it’s me.”

“You?” He said even more confused.

She nodded.  “I can’t do this; I can’t be in this world.  I can’t have people I don’t know ask me questions about my Mom and Brother, I don’t want people judging you because of what I chose to do with my life, and I can’t be the reason you and Brian are fighting.”

“Brian and I always fight.” AJ said still taken back by what she just said.

“You haven’t talked the entire time I’ve been here Alex.” She told him as she wiped her eyes on her sleeve.  “I don’t belong here andI don’t want to hurt you anymore than I am right now.”

“Yes you do, you belong here with me.” AJ said taking her hand.  “Eve don’t do this darling please, I’m begging you, we’ll talk about it, we’ll get through it, I don’t care what everyone else thinks.” Now it was his turn to start crying.

“Please don’t make this any harder than it is.” Eve told him.  “You deserve better than some stripper.”

“I don’t see you like that.” AJ said shaking his head.

“But I do.” She said with anger.  “I’ve made up my mind AJ I want to go home.”

“Oh you’ve made up your mind.” AJ snapped angrily.  “Well ok then. To hell with Alex’s feelings, I thought you were different, I thought you actually gave a fuck about me!” He looked at her waiting for a response but she sat there, staring at the coffee table letting the tears drip down her face.  This annoyed AJ even more.  “Now you have nothing to fucking say. Fine.  I’ll call the airline, go the fuck home.”

He walked over to the phone and picked it up.  The motion of Eve walking to the bathroom made him look up as she disappeared behind the wall and he heard the click of the door closing.  Quickly he hung up the phone and started crying.  He couldn’t believe what was happening.  Covering his mouth he fought them back, he didn’t want to give her the pleasure of seeing him like this.  Again he reached for the phone and picked it up.  When the front desk answered he asked them to patch him through to an Airline.

“Here.” He said as he handed her a piece of paper.  “All your flight info is on there, it leaves at eight in the morning.”

“Thanks” Eve said quietly as she took the paper from him.  He turned away from her not saying anything and started getting dressed.  As he did he noticed she started gathering up her things and it sunk it deeper what was happening.  More anger rose through him as he slipped his shoes on.  He walked over to the table and grabbed his jacket.

“When you’re ready to go just call the front desk and ask for a car and leave your keycard on the table.” AJ said as he stood at the door.

“You’re leaving?” She said a little shocked.

“Yeah, because I’m going to fucking stick around for this.” He said looking around and then at her.  “I hope you have a good life in ‘your world’.” He shot at her as he turned the knob and opened the door.  It slammed closed and it made her jump.  AJ pressed the elevator button and waited. When the door opened he walked in and pressed the lobby button, before the doors closed he got one last look at his hotel door, one last thought about who was in there, and what he was losing.