Through the Fire (a Les Twins fanfic)

Chapter 7: It's Not THE Les Twins

The interns were so wrapped up they launched into full gossip mode before anybody noticed Gabby standing there. 

All total there were three females and two male students from the historically black colleges and universities in the area.  Patrick believed in giving back to his community.

“Isn’t that…?”

“Mmmmhmmm.”

“You sure it’s him? I know she dates one of those guys from The Les Twins, but I dunno which one.”

Gabby couldn’t take it anymore.  She made herself known.

“Dammit, it’s not THE Les Twins! It’s just Les Twins. Get it?”

The interns nearly jumped out of their skins. The bravest one among them, a gorgeous guy from Morehouse, attempted to speak up for the group.

He looked like he could’ve been an Abercrombie model in his spare time.

“Sorry, Gabby! We were just—”

“Forget it, Tarik.” She didn’t bother to let him finish. “I only want to know where my mail is. This doesn’t belong to me.”

She thrust a stack of envelopes at him while one of the girls wearing a pretty pink peplum top scrambled to find her correct mail in the sorter.

“Here…here it is.” The girl stammered, clearly rattled.  The other interns went mute, holding their breath for Gabby’s reaction.

“Thanks. That’ll be all.”  Gabby turned on her heels and left, but in the corridor she heard a giggle and went back.

“Who laughed?”

Everyone’s eyes bugged out, but no one said anything.

“I’m only going to ask one more time. Who laughed?”

Pink peplum top girl slowly raised her hand.

“I appreciate your honesty. You’re fired.”

****

Gabby was in a shitty mood for the whole rest of the day. 

She was hiding out in her office pretending to proofread some articles when Patrick rang her office line. 

“You fired my interns.”

Gabby half-heartedly threw a ball of paper at the trash can and missed.  “Not all of them.  Only one.”

“And then guess what happened?” he paused for drama. “Two of the others quit because they were scared of you.”

“Oh, well. They better get a tougher skin if they wanna be in this business.”

“Maybe you’re the one who needs to get a tougher skin.”

Gabby sat up straight in her chair and arched an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“Did I stutter? That’s certainly not the first tacky ass photo out there and it won’t be the last.”

“You saw it?”

“Of course, I saw it. Child, I see everything.”

“I know I’m being silly.”  Gabby sighed and rubbed her temples. She was disappointed in herself for caring about the stupid photo. “I don’t know why this is even bothering me.”

“Because you never had to pay attention to it before and now it’s in your face. But don’t worry about all those groupie chicks. You know that man loves you, so get over it.”

“Patrick?”

“What?”

“Those girls. Were they cuter than me?”

“Fake and faker? Are you kidding? Girl, bye.”

Patrick hung up leaving Gabby to sort out her own feelings.

She wasn’t a naïve newbie.  Working for an entertainment magazine of course she had seen and heard things about the twins before, but she also knew that in the industry if someone’s mouth was moving then nine times out of ten they were lying. 

Previously, she never gave rumors or trumped up photos a second thought.  Plus she wasn’t the jealous type so why bother wasting time thinking about who Laurent was with or what he was doing a million miles away from her?

Now she realized it was a lot easier to feel that way when he was somewhere on the other side of the planet.  With him right there it was like someone had turned up the brightness on everything.

And the glare was blinding.