Since I Saw Him Last: A Gary Barlow Fanfic

Chapter Fifty Five

I couldn't stop sobbing. Charlotte helped me into my hotel room and lay me down on the bed. "I know this is upsetting but there's no need to be so hysterical." Charlotte said. I could hardly see her face through the floods of tears. She lay on the bed next to me with her arm over me. "Ssh. There, there." Charlotte said attempting to console me. "Gary will be here soon I'm sure. There's no need to get so upset. He loves you Tash." Charlotte said as she handed me a tissue. "Dry your eyes. I'll be having no more tears from you." I managed to calm my sobbing as I patted my eyes. "He said I've made things ten times worse. And instead of looking after me, he's sent you up to do his dirty work whilst he's dealing with her." I could feel my eyes welling up again. "Don't be silly. He's probably cursing her as we speak. He'll be up here before you know it and then I can go see my Markie." Charlotte smiled warmly at me. I shrugged my shoulders. "I've ruined it. I know I have. He won't want to see me again after this." I rolled over to lie on my back and held my hands to my forehead. Charlotte got up from the bed. She walked into the lounge. I could hear glasses clinking. She appeared with two glasses of brandy and handed one to me. "Drink up." She asserted. She sat crossed legged on the bed in front of me. "Tash, I can't be sure what Gaz has been hiding from you with regards to Scarlett. But what I do know is that he loves you very much. Pure and simple. It's very clear to see. And that's why Scarlett  is putting her nose in where it's not wanted. She's jealous. You just have to be more assertive with Gaz and demand that he tell you everything, even if it's upsetting. If you love him, you need to know, even the ugly stuff." I sat up and swivelled my body to sit up next to Charlotte. I let out a heavy sigh, "I know. You're right. But I'm scared of opening a can of worms. I'm scared of Gary saying something that can't be unsaid. I'm scared I won't be able to handle it. I'm scared I'll hate him." "But it's got to be done. You can't ignore what's right in front of you." Charlotte rubbed my back and smiled softly. Charlotte's phone started buzzing. She answered straightaway, "Mark? What's wrong?" I couldn't hear Mark on the other end but I gathered something unfortunate had happened. "Okay. Yeah, we're coming down." Charlotte hung up. "Come on, put your shoes back on. We're going downstairs." Charlotte hurried. "What's happened?" I said with astonishment. "I don't know. Mark just said we need to go down quick." Charlotte stood at the door waiting for me. I hope Gary's okay.

We arrived at reception to see a flashing blue light outside. What the!? Charlotte and I could see a police car pull off and accelerate down the drive. Charlotte grabbed my hand and walked aimlessly around the hotel. "Where the hell are they?" Charlotte said under her breath. We turned a corner to see Howard on the phone. "Doug!" Charlotte shouted. "I'll call you back Zoe. See you." Howard ended the call and turned to us. "What's happened? We just saw the police car drive off." Charlotte hounded. "Let me take you to the lads." Howard walked off to the other end of the corridor and opened a door. It was an empty function room similar to the one we were in just an hour before. At the far end, sat at a table, was Mark and Gary. I let go of Charlotte's hand and ran to Gary. I placed my hands on his face and lifted his head up so I could get a better view. "What has this bitch done to you?" I yelled. Gary looked at me with tired eyes and a face of guilt. He knew he couldn't keep hiding things from me. "I think we'll leave you to it." Mark stood up and smiled faintly. "Yeah, it's a shame we had to cut the party short." Howard nodded. I smiled a half smile as they left the room. I sat down next to Gary, grabbed his hand and cupped it in between mine. Gary looked downwards. He couldn't muster the courage to look at me. I freed my right hand and nudged his chin upwards. I stared into his stainless green eyes. His lip was bleeding from what looked like a scratch and a bruise started to appear on the left side of his face. I raised my hand to his cheek and stroked it. "What has she done to my beautiful man?" I could feel tears prick my eyes. Gary moved forward and kissed me on my forehead. He winced a little. He's in pain, my poor baby.

He reached for my hand and stood up. He led me down the corridor, towards reception and outside onto the drive. "Let's walk around the grounds." He let go of my hand and put his arm around my shoulders. I put my arm around his waist as we roamed. Eventually, we stopped at a bench just a little way off from the hotel. I looked at Gary and he looked at me. He knows he has to confess everything. "So." Gary said sheepishly as he sat down on the bench. "So." I repeated as I mirrored his moves. Gary sighed. "I know I need to tell you everything. The very thing I was trying to protect you from has happened. I'm feeling a bit dejected." He paused to look up at me. "Gary, enough is enough. Good or bad, I need to know." I intertwined my fingers with his and edged closer to him. "Okay." He paused and looked down to our hands before looking up at me again. "I know we haven't discussed Scarlett  at all. I am aware that Mark and Howard have told you bits of information. I should've been open about this from the start but I didn't want to hurt you. Scarlett  and I used to date. Well, not so much date, it was more of a lengthy fling. We'd been sleeping with each other for years during various tours. It was never anything serious. We agreed we would only get together whilst on tour and then go our separate ways after. We never dated outside of touring. She's a good looking girl and a larger than life character but never in a million years would I ever consider her to be girlfriend material. She's had a crack on Mark before and I think she's even had a snog or two with Howard before we started seeing each other. Our last tour together was four years ago so it's been awhile since we last got together and so much of my life has changed since then." He searched my face for some kind of reaction. I remained collected. "When we met up again at rehearsals a couple of months ago, Scarlett  knew I was dating you but that didn't bother her. She attempted to flirt with me and she'd text me each evening asking me over to her's. This was something we'd never done before, she's never been to mine or I to hers. I knew something had changed for her. On the final night of rehearsals, we all went out for dinner and I explained to her that I was off limits. I was taken. I explained that this tour would be very different and there was no way I would be sleeping with her again. Ever. I thought she'd accepted that. She was sweet about it. She asked me so many questions about you. I thought she responded well until the first day of the tour." He looked up again to read my face. I nodded for him to continue. "Scarlett  pulled me away from the cafeteria on that first day. I know that I should've told you everything after our conversation but I was scared that you'd hate me or worse leave me. I didn't think you could handle the truth." Gary lifted my hand to his lips and he kissed it gently. "I know Mark told you a bit of info that day. I'm glad he did because I was too much of a coward to tell you. Scarlett  told me she loved me. She said she never saw it coming but seeing me with you made her realise that I was all she wanted. She wanted to stop sleeping around and make a go of her and me. I shrugged it off, I told her she was feeling this way out of a reaction to you and that she'd soon get over it once she got used to you. She point blank refused and has been hassling me ever since. Scarlett  is not used to someone saying no to her." Gary paused again. I nodded and let out a sigh of relief. I'm okay. I can handle that. "You okay?" Gary looked despondent. "Yes, actually. I've been going through so much these last few weeks. I've been second guessing and building it up into something much larger than it is." Gary looked a little ashamed. "I'm sorry, that was all my doing. And I'm sorry if you ever thought I would give you up for her. She doesn't even come close to you." Gary kissed me softly on the lips and attempted a smile. I didn't want to distract Gary's attention from the topic at hand. He's doing so well at being honest. I don't want to ruin the moment. "What I want to know is what happened tonight? What was all the drama?" Gary's eyebrows lifted as he scratched his beard. "I'm just going to come out and say it. This last week Scarlett  has been threatening me. Well, blackmailing me. She has something on me and has been telling me that she will go to the tabloids if I don't end things with you." I was stunned. What a bunny boiler! "What was she blackmailing you with?" I said a little hotly. "This is where I don't want you to hate me. I didn't know she was doing this at the time but I'd been paying her off to keep her quiet. I guess she was pretty desperate." My eyes darted left and right as I searched Gary's face. "Gary, just tell me!" I urged. "She made a sex tape of us. I didn't know until the end of the last tour. I asked her for it but I couldn't be sure that she hadn't made copies so I had no option but to pay her a sum of money to keep her quiet." I was shocked. Gary rested his hands on my thighs. "Natasha, I want you to know that a sex tape is not my thing. I'm Mr. Cautious. I would never do such a thing and especially not with someone I'm casual with. But please don't worry. It's all sorted." Gary tried to reassure me but failed miserably. "What do you mean it's sorted? Look at you, she's carved your face off." Gary sounded exasperated, "It is sorted, I mean it. She lashed out on me when I said I'd had enough of her bribes. I told her that I'd have to be honest with you. I couldn't keep hiding this from you. I told her that she had better stay out of our way otherwise she'd be sacked. And that's when she started attacking my face like this. She was screaming at me and that's when the boys rushed out. They called the police because they couldn't restrain her. When the police arrived, I explained to them that she'd attacked me and there'd been accounts of blackmail. My lawyer said I needed to fess up about it anyway so I guess it all came to a head tonight. I'll have to go down to the station tomorrow morning to answer some questions but as far as I'm concerned, we're a dancer down now."

I stared at Gary wide eyed. I'm speechless. "Natasha?" Gary placed his hands on my arms and shook me. "Natasha? Please say something." I looked up into Gary's pristine gaze. He looked like a little boy lost. "Quite frankly, I don't know what to say." I hunched my shoulders forward and sunk my head into my hands. "Natasha? Please. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. It's been a stressful time trying to keep you away from Scarlett. I realise now I was being overbearing. I should've told you before coming on tour instead of leaving it this late. I should've given you a heads up. I should've given you more credit. I should've..." I turned to Gary and grabbed his arm. "Stop, Gary. Stop." His eyes widened. "It's okay. I understand why you didn't tell me. This all happened before you met me and you thought it was resolved. There was no reason to tell me unless it became a problem. I would have rathered you'd told me though. The only way we can be a solid couple is if we're honest about our skeletons. Scarlett  sensed that you'd keep things private and that you wouldn't tell me, so she manipulated the situation. She used it to come between us. This has shown me we're not as strong as we think." Gary looked gormless, "But we are." I shook my head. "I thought we were too but this is evidence that we need to work on us. We shouldn't be keeping things like this from each other. If I had known about it, I wouldn't have been intimidated by Scarlett  and I wouldn't have shied away from any confrontation. This wouldn't have escalated as it has done." I was surprised at how frank I sounded. I looked up to a dispirited Gary. I placed my hand on his bruised cheek. "Don't get so down. What's done is done. Let this be a lesson for us. I love you. I'm not letting a slapper like Scarlett  get in between what we have." He looked up with a crooked smile, "This is why I love you so much." He wound his arms around my waist to hug me. His smile widened. "I've never met a girl more open, understanding and loving. You're a special one, aren't you?" He winked. I could feel my heart beat a hundred miles an hour. He still stirs up the butterflies. Gary stood up, grabbed my head in his hands and kissed me sensually. His kiss was soft yet deep. He broke away from our kiss, hugged me tightly and whispered. "You make me so happy." I pulled away from our embrace. Gary was wearing the widest grin. "Come on beautiful, let's go back in. I want to devour you." He lifted his eyebrows. Devour? My eyes lit up. Yes, please!