Synthetic Love

Chapter 8

Saanvi wasn't sure how she was supposed to act around Chris when she saw him. They were going to be in public, with risk of fans taking pictures of them wherever they went. Saanvi had been lucky the last time she'd seen Motionless in White live - despite Chris being near her and touching her a handful of times, no pictures of them had ended up online. She supposed that Chris merely standing next to a woman probably wasn't interesting enough for the Internet - but any pictures of them kissing or anything of the sort would have them toast. Ravi certainly wasn't on the Internet very much in Africa, but they didn't want to risk it. If it were also made public that Chris was "the other guy" in an already established relationship, it could seriously damage his reputation as well. Saanvi hoped that everything this evening would go as well as it possibly could.

When she saw Chris though, Saanvi was filled with so much joy that she almost couldn't help herself. The security guard escorts Saanvi to the green room and her heart begins to pound a mile a minute when the door opens to reveal Chris.

"Hey, Vee. Come on in."

They thank the security guard, then Saanvi steps inside and closes the door.

"Hi, everyone!"

Everyone greets her in return, then Saanvi stands on her tiptoes and hugs Chris.

"It's so good to see you," She says.

"It's good to see you too, Vee."

They come apart slightly, then stare at each other a moment, unsure of what to do next with everyone else in the room. The other band mates look at each other, then Vinny smirks.

"Go ahead, you guys," He says.

Chris rolls his eyes and Saanvi can't help but giggle. He quickly kisses her, then the two of them catch up while Chris resumes getting ready.

"How's work? Do you have any new patients?"

"Yeah, this family that just moved to the area - they have a six-year-old with cerebral palsy and are going to start coming to me regularly. I've made friends with everyone who works there, especially Tara. And a while back, someone even sent me flowers," Saanvi jokes.

"Hmmmm, who could that have been?" Chris jokes in return.

Saanvi smiles, "Boy did I get an earful from Tara about that one. She's hilarious, and full of puns. I'll have to let her meet you."

"Does she know about us?"

"Yeah, but I figured that wouldn't be a problem since all of your friends know about us."

"Oh, we know everything," Justin chimes in.

Chris chuckles, "No, I don't care. Tara sounds like fun, I'm glad you're making friends."

They went back and forth between the green room and the backstage area, looking around the venue and continuing to get ready for the show. There was a time though where pretty much everyone was backstage, and Chris walks over to Saanvi with his phone in his hand.

Saanvi's phone buzzes and she looks it. At first she was confused as to why Chris was texting her while standing right next to her, but then she reads the message:

Did you wear something sexy like I asked?

Saanvi raises both her eyebrows, then opens her phone and responds to the text.

Maaaaaaayybe.

Chris reads the message, then looks around a moment to see if anyone was paying attention to them. He then quickly slips his hand into Saanvi's and the two of them walk off.