Looks Can Be Deceiving

Chapter Twenty Eight

"Really?" Richard's eyes brighten.

"Yeah." Chris smiles. "Of course. You know I was more angry that-"

"That you caught us hooking up with my shirt off?"

"Don't remind me. I just wish it hadn't been a secret."

"I know bro. I'm sorry." Richard pats Chris' shoulder.

He wants to share this moment with Chris but he's desperate to run to Stella and tell her Chris said it's okay.

"Go," Chris gestures his head towards Stella's room.

Richard laughs and rushes to the door. He opens the connecting door, surprised it isn't locked. Stella stands from the couch expecting Chris to walk in behind Richard. The smile on Richard's face is all Stella needs to understand how the chat went. Before Stella can speak, Richard places both of his hands on either side of her face and pulls her in for a kiss. When they pull away, both are smiling brightly.

"It's all good baby."

"It's all good?" She asks, smiling.

"Yeah, yeah." Chris responds before fake gagging. "Just don't kiss in front of me again."

Stella nods profusely as Chris exits the room. Richard waits for the door to close before he picks Stella up and spins her around.

"I told you we were going to be fine!" he screams.

"No you didn't." she laughs, "neither of us thought it would be fine!"

"Ok true. Erick knew though."

Stella and Richard spend their day locked away in their rooms. Chris remembered all the other times the both of them were locked away together, the hints and clues to their relationship flooding his mind. He was confused that he was ever so clueless to their relationship.

"You good bro?" Erick asks rubbing Chris' shoulders.

"I'm good bro." he smiles, patting Erick's hands.

Tour was coming to an end. They had one final show before everyone had a few weeks off. Tonight was the last chance they all had to spend time together, so everyone - the crew, managers, choreographers, Stella and the boys - went out for dinner together. Stella and Richard sat together with Erick on the other side of her. The crew were confused by Stella and Richard's sudden relationship but the confusion ended there. Their choreographer commented that he felt their tension for years and all of management knew thanks to Ali. Stella blushed when it was brought up in their dinner conversation.

While Zabdiel diverts the conversation for Stella's benefit, Richard rubs his nose against her cheek. "You look amazing tonight." he whispers.

"You're just saying that because you're excited that we are in public together." Stella turns her head looking into his eyes.

"This isn't the first time we're in public together. We had all our fake dates that were real dates!"

"Yeah but they were real dates that we had to pretend were fake dates." she clarifies.

"Honestly it was all very confusing, wasn't it?" he laughs.

"Mmmhmm."

Richard leans over pecking her lips lightly before turning his attention to Joel.

"You seem happy." Erick comments.

Stella turns her head. "I am." she nods.

Steven - one of the members of the crew leans over to Erick and Stella, "You know I had 20 bucks on you two shacking up!"

"Ew." Erick recoils.

"No way!" Stella exclaims, "Just best friends."

"Yeah well someone should've told me that!" He laughs. "You and Richard? No way! You nearly had a brawl like a week ago!"

Stella looks down embarrassed remembering their fight.

"Sexual tension works in mysterious ways." Erick jokes.

"Shut up!" Chris interjects. "No sex comments about these two!" he growls lightly.

Erick throws his hands up in defence. "Sorry." The rest of the dinner goes past as normal without any mentions of sex or Richard and Stella's relationship.