Not the One

Part 13

The loud almost banging on the door of Stevie's dressing room made her jump. She rolled her eyes, hearing Karen's voice on the other side. Her assistant always did this before it was show time, in case Stevie wasn't alone.

"I'm ready! I'll be out in a sec, Jeez!" Stevie yelled back and got up on her feet to put her boots on.

Karen was leaning against the wall, waiting for Stevie. Lindsey passed right by her without any sort of acknowledgement. Karen frowned, it was weird. Usually, she'd be holding one of Stevie's hands, while Lindsey held the other, to walk the short distance to the stage.

When Stevie emerged from her dressing room, she only found Karen. She didn't even have to ask as her assistant offered a sort of explanation. "Lindsey left on his own. Don't ask me why."

With a sigh, Stevie held onto her assistant as they walked together, just the two of them this time. Stevie was worried as soon as she saw Lindsey, waiting to go on. He was gripping the neck of his guitar tightly, his knuckles had turned white. Shooing her assistant away, Stevie stood by Lindsey and tried to reach for his hand, but he immediately pulled away, placing his hand on the body of his beloved instrument.

"What's going on?" Stevie asked in a low voice.

Lindsey replied, without turning to look at her. "I think, I should be asking you questions, since you're the one, keeping secrets."

Stevie didn't get a chance to respond, when it was time for the band to go out on stage. Walking up to her mic stand, she knew it wasn't going to be a pleasant couple of hours. Lindsey was clearly mad, which meant he was going to put all of his frustration into his performance, but he was going to ignore Stevie to the best of his ability. 

And Stevie was right. The show was incredible for the audience, but it sucked for her. There was no touchy-feely stuff going on with Lindsey. He looked at her at times, but once she caught his eyes, he shifted his gaze towards their fans, the ground, the other musicians. When the band took their final bow, Lindsey wrapped his arm around Stevie's back, but his grip was loose and he refused to look in her direction again.

"So, are we heading straight back to the hotel?" Karen asked, lingering in the doorway, when Stevie returned to her dressing room.

"No. I need to catch Lindsey, before he leaves."

Muttering her disappointment under her breath, Karen sighed and nodded. "Fine. I'll be waiting in here then."

Before Stevie left again, she went over to her bag, lying on the couch. She quickly rummaged through it and pulled out something, Karen wasn't sure what. Without saying anything, Stevie walked out into the hallway and turned towards Lindsey's dressing room. 

"He wants to be left alone." Lindsey's assistant gave Stevie an apologetic look, when she knocked on the door.

"Well, tough. I need to speak to him." She demanded, her arms folded over her chest. 

"But Lindsey insisted-"

"Lindsey!" Stevie yelled and she soon heard his voice from inside.

"Jesus, just let her in." Lindsey rolled his eyes. 

Staring up at his assistant, Stevie wordlessly let the poor man know, she and Lindsey had to be left alone.

"What's your problem?" She asked, closing the door behind her.

"My problem? What's your problem?" 

Taking a couple of deep breaths, Stevie went over to where Lindsey was pouting and took a seat beside him. "Okay. We're grown ups, so can we not act like children?" Lindsey scoffed, looking away. "I don't know, what I've done to upset you. So, please, talk to me."

"You lied to me." He shrugged.

"About what?"

"Well, you made Mick lie to me for you." Lindsey added. "You went somewhere after we checked into the hotel. I needed you and you had disappeared. Mick told me that you went out for lunch with the girls, but five minutes later, I bumped into Christine, who had no clue either of where you were." At last, Lindsey's eyes focused on Stevie and he narrowed them. "What, Dave paid you another surprise visit?"

Stevie sighed, shaking her head. "You're such an idiot, Lindsey."

"Excuse me?" 

"When are you going to stop jumping to conclusions? Okay, it wasn't right of me to have a friend cover for me, but I asked Mick to because I was out, looking for something nice for you, you asshole." Stevie tossed a rectangular gift box into his lap and jumped to her feet. "I was upset that you and I had so little time left together." She said, pointing at Lindsey then herself. "I thought, you might be feeling the same, so I went out and got you a present, which would remind you of me, when we went back home!"

Before Lindsey could react, Stevie had stormed out of his dressing room and he could clearly hear the loud slam of the door to hers.