Angel

Part 4

Stevie never showed up on time for anything, but even by her standards she was running late. Lindsey looked up at every person, who walked through the door into the designated room for the band at the venue, hoping it would be here, and he was disappointed each time. She seemed fine at lunch with the rest of Fleetwood Mac, but now he was worried. No one else seemed to care. It's Stevie, the same answer from everyone he'd approached.

"You're so tense." Carol Ann noted as she slid into his lap. "Would you like me to do something about that?" She smiled and Lindsey knew exactly what she was referring to.

"No." Lindsey replied and pushed her off. "Leave me alone."

"What is it this time?" Carol Ann threw her arms up in the air, her voice grew louder and turned several heads their way. "Would it kill you to be nice to me for one fucking day?" 

Taking a deep breath, Lindsey stood up from his chair and turned to walk out of the room. He had nothing to say to his girlfriend or to the people with questioning looks on their faces. Just outside in the hallway, Lindsey bumped into Mick, the person, who always knew of Stevie's whereabouts, which Lindsey absolutely hated. Lindsey hated the reason behind that even more. 

"Have you seen Stevie?" Lindsey asked, hands on his hips.

"No." Mick shook his head. "She's got to be around somewhere."

"We're going on stage in 20 minutes. Shouldn't you be more worried that she's not here yet?" Lindsey ran a hand through his hair back and forth a couple of times so he wouldn't punch a wall with it instead. 

"She left after soundcheck, but she said, she'd be back in time." Mick shrugged, not at all concerned. 

"I know that." Lindsey sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "But-" He then turned around at the sound of Stevie's laughter echoing through the hallway. 

Lindsey relaxed a bit, seeing Stevie coming his way with a couple of her girlfriends, seemingly happy. He squeezed out a smile too and opened his mouth to say something, but Stevie didn't pay him any attention and walked right into the same room he had just left.

"Pour one for me too." Lindsey heard Stevie say and as he entered the room, he saw Chris handing Stevie a cup of wine.

Don't make a scene, Lindsey told himself. Somewhat carefully, he approached her and placed his hand on her shoulder to catch her attention. Stevie looked back then turned away to answer whatever question Christine had asked her.

"Uh, Stevie?" Lindsey tried again and heard her sigh. 

"What?" Stevie snapped now facing him. 

"I'd like a word with you." Her eyebrows creased and he was sure, he should have worded that differently. Nevertheless, she followed him to one corner of the room and folded her arms over her chest. "Is everything alright? I was worried about-"

"Will you stop asking me that?" Stevie cut him off and Lindsey frowned, unsure of what had happened in the past few hours for her attitude towards him to change so drastically. 

"Well, I mean, yesterday you were-" Lindsey tried, but she didn't give him a chance to finish again.

"Yesterday was yesterday." Stevie scoffed. "What, you thought that everything's suddenly perfect between us?"

"N-no, but... I at least thought that..." Lindsey trailed off and swallowed uneasily. "Even this morning-" He lowered his voice, remembering that Carol Ann was somewhere nearby. "You made me think that you didn't hate me."

Stevie shifted her weight from one foot onto the other, breathed in deeply and shrugged. "It's not yesterday, it's not this morning. I'm not yours to look after, my problems aren't yours to fix." She told him and left him completely speechless.