Through the Fire (a Les Twins fanfic)

Chapter 26: Snakes in the Grass

"I don't know why she won't call me back."  Gabby hung up the phone from trying to reach Shauna for the millionth time.  "I'm going to drive to her dorm."

Laurent had a good idea of what Shauna was busy doing, but he certainly wasn't going to say it to Gabby.  He pulled her back down onto the couch.  "Why don't you just let her cool down.  She'll call you back when she's ready."

There was only a week until Laurent had to leave again and he didn't want to waste any of it.  Over the next five days he and Gabby made love.  A lot of times.   But something felt off.  Something wasn't right, although Gabby couldn't put her finger on exactly what it was.

The night before he had to fly out Laurent gazed down at her sleeping in his arms. He felt unsettled.  He hated lying to her even if maybe it was for the best.  Burying his face in her hair, he fell into an uneasy sleep hoping that the rest of his months away from her on the road with the tour would go smoother than the first.

****

After Laurent left, Gabby tried to settle back into her normal work routine.  But despite her best efforts her mind constantly wandered to him at all times of the day.

The tour was hitting one city after another with barely a day's rest in between.  Did his flight land safely? Is he eating right? Is he thinking of me? Will he remember to call?  Meanwhile, Shauna had texted her a couple of times, but she still didn't want to talk or meet.

She made a mental note to try to call her sister again after lunch.  Somehow Larry had managed to never turn up for Gabby to get her hands on him, but that was alright, she'd jack him up the next time he came to town.

"You ready?"

She snapped out of her thoughts.  "Yeah, let me just make one phone call then we can go."

"No problem."  Tarik took a seat and let his eyes roam around Gabby's office.  In no time flat he'd graduated from her coffee fetcher to being her daily lunch buddy.

Even better, some ratchet named Cinnamon was making his job a whole lot easier.  He'd been following all the gossip online for the past few weeks and watching Gabby pretend not to be bothered by it.  She wasn't a very good actress.

On their lunch excursions she was always tight-lipped about her personal relationship with Laurent, but Tarik noticed the small changes in her behavior.  She wasn't quite as confident as she once was.  She was doubting her man.  And that's all the opening he needed.  He would lie back and wait to make his move, but it was only a matter of time now.

****

Cinnamon returned to her tiny New York studio walk-up exhausted.  She'd been to at least three auditions a day for the past two weeks and not one call back yet.

She tossed her duffel bag by the door, walked over to the nook that passed for a kitchen, and put on a tea kettle.  Then she reached into the cabinet for a box of soda crackers.  On a saucer she carefully arranged exactly eight crackers and one dollop of fat free creamed cheese.  She couldn't afford to gain an inch while she was looking for a new dance gig.

After scarfing down her meager dinner she flopped across her futon bed, flipped up her laptop to check her Instagram, and frowned.

Last week she was trending from the Laurent scandal.  This week she was barely a blip on the map.  She still had a ton of new followers though.  And she figured it was high time to do something to make them thirsty again.

She scrolled through the photos on her phone.  Aha.

"Here you go, snitches,"  she muttered to herself as she posted the first new picture.

Within minutes the likes and comments started rolling in.  Cinnamon smiled.   It was working.  But that wasn't good enough.  She wanted to turn up the volume.

She tapped "les twins" into the search box and immediately a page full of photos of Larry and Laurent dancing on stage beside Beyoncé and in different clubs taking selfies with celebrities popped up.  Why was Laurent living the fabulous life on tour while she was pressed for cash and struggling to make ends meet?

Ah hell naw!  She should have either been by his side or at least being taken care of by him as his side chick after the whole month of work she'd put in pampering him during the New York rehearsals.

What was his girlfriend's name again?  Ginger?  Daphne?  Anyway, whatever her name was Cinnamon knew she was supposed to be some big time writer at Trend Magazine.

She wouldn't be hard to find.