Without You

51. Get a Grip!

A/N - I guess the perfect antidote to stress over upcoming final exams is writing - who knew?! 😂 Here's the next installment for you all. It's a bit of a shorter one, so sorry about that, but hopefully it's a worthwhile read. 😁 Enjoy and stay safe! -H. x

After a moment of shocked silence, Georgia excused herself with a hurried apology for her client's unexpected departure, pushing out into the corridor. With a glance in both directions down the quiet corridor, she stepped across the hall and edged into the unisex restroom, thinking Dec had maybe ducked into a cubicle to hide away for a while.

Instead, she was alarmed to find him splayed out, half-lying, half-sitting, curled up against the wall in the corner of the room, head tucked underneath his arms. The empty restroom was quiet except for the sharply punctuated sound of gasps for breath, Dec's chest rising and falling in a staccato rhythm of panic. Dropping to her knees beside him, Georgia shook him before lightly slapping his shoulder to try to snap him out of whatever state he was in. Even though she was incredibly concerned, her managerial hat was on, and she was not at all pleased with her friend and client at the current moment.

A weak groan met her ears after another, harder slap to his shoulder, followed shortly by teary, light green eyes meeting hers through barely open eyelids, his rapid breathing pattern slowing somewhat. "What the hell are you playing at?!" she hissed, relief at getting him to respond warring with the anger flowing through her, "People are going to start talking if you keep up with this type of performance! What the hell happened to your professionalism, your level head, your ability to have a discussion without losing your temper every thirty f***ing seconds?! How do you expect us to keep stories like this out of the press?? We're good at PR, yes, but we're not bloody miracle workers! You've got to get a grip!"

Her harsh words seemed to act like a smarting slap to the face as Dec flinched and looked rather shame-faced, slowly pushing himself up into a sitting position, his back leaning against the wall and his arms wrapped tightly around his legs, making himself as small as possible. "I'm just...f-finding things...h-ard," he choked out, voice aching with pain.

"That's still no excuse to act like an irresponsible, unprofessional teenager, snapping at everyone and then running off like a little kid!" Georgia snarked, "We cut you a bunch of slack during Takeaway because we knew you were under a lot of pressure. Ali would've hung you up by your b*llocks if she'd seen how were behaving at times during those couple of weeks, and you know it! But you've had a month off, you've got no excuse to be like this-"

"No bloody excuse?!" Dec barked breathlessly, "You try walking a f***ing mile in my shoes and let me know what you think when you're done!"

"Look, that's not what I mean," she hurriedly backed off, "I know things are difficult without Ant around, but it's not the end of the world. You're fully capable of doing BGT on your own, you don't need Ant for that show, it's-" She ground to a halt suddenly, seeming to only realize what she'd said when Dec rapidly scrambled up and away from her, towering over her, his eyes wild with an indescribable storm of emotions and chest heaving like he'd just run a marathon.

"I 'don't need Ant'??" he repeated incredulously, "I 'don't need Ant'?!?! Are you out of your f***ing mind?! You've worked with us how many years! And you think we don't need each other?! How can you even-"

"I didn't mean it like that!" Georgia defended herself, not shrinking away from Dec's angry visage but holding her ground bravely, her own temper bristling and frustration with her client overflowing. "You're not listening to a word I say! What happened to you, huh? You used to be a pleasure to work with, now look at you! You can't carry on like this and still expect to have a job, you have to get yourself under con-"