That Blue Gibson

CH 80

"Oh fuck... I forgot to call Andy." 

Liz rolled to sit on the side of the bed and grabbed her phone, swatting Dave's hand when he snaked it around her waist and between her thighs.

"Hey, it's me... yeah... yeah we're good. It's all yours tonight... we're on the same floor, other side... okay, goodnight, Andy."

Dave frowned, wondering why she even needed to make that call. "You got your own room?"

She looked back at him and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Well, I kinda ambushed you."

"Liz," he sat up and turned on the light so he could see her better. "Did you honestly think I would turn you away?"

"I don't know...," she muttered, looking down. It was almost 3 in the morning and she didn't have the energy for this discussion. "I just didn't want to assume. I didn't know what I was going to walk into."

He sighed and scratched his beard a little. "I guess I deserve that." He was a serial cheater. He wasn't proud of it, but he had to admit to it since it had been well documented in the press, much to his horror.

"No..." she crawled back up the bed and into his lap. "That's not... Dave, please look at me." He kept his head down, staring at the sheet next to them. "Dave," she tried again, this time more sternly and he sighed, putting distance between them by leaning on the headboard. "That's not what I meant. I'm not accusing you of anything..." the memory of his hand on hers on the icy rail flooded her mind again. "Unless you have something you'd like to confess."

"For once, I don't," he said truthfully. There had been several gorgeous women trying to get his attention on this tour and he had been tempted, he was human after all, but it never went past a fleeting glance in the VIP room. "That was kind of my thing back in the day, though."

"Oh, I'm well aware," she said quietly, a half smile pulled at her lips as she reached across him to the nightstand. 

Dave panicked, watching her flip through her phone. Someone had obviously said something to make her think he had cheated, though he had no idea who it could have been. "Please don't go," he whispered when she tapped on Andy's name, knowing that his voice would break if he spoke any louder. He hadn't done anything wrong, but he had always braced himself for the karma that would eventually hit him from all the past indiscretions he had gotten away with before she came around. She answered his plea by moving off his lap to sit next to him and nestling her head into his shoulder. Finding the picture Andy had sent her, she handed him the phone.

He stared at the image of them standing in the freezing rain with a metal fence between them and his arm around her, trying to remember anything about that night. All those stadiums and arenas, they all looked the same to him anymore. He knew it was Seattle only because he remembered Andy's story and he knew it was post-2003 because of the wedding ring on his finger. They looked so young; her hair was a lighter red and much longer, and her own engagement ring gleamed in the camera's flash as she gripped the metal rail separating their bodies. He looked a little drunk, a little tired and the realization of why she was showing him this hit him all at once. 

"Did I hit on you?"

Liz laughed softly and took the phone from him. "You absolutely did. You said it was a shame that I was wearing a ring."

His eyes went wide and he turned to see her face. "Did we-?"

She laughed and shook her head against the pillow. "No. I turned you down then I got blackout drunk and had Andy tattoo me."

"Liz...," he started. She was remarkably relaxed for a woman that knew her boyfriend was a habitual adulterer. He would expect her to be agitated, maybe angry that he was admitting to being weak when it came to a pretty face and a willing nature, but she was completely at ease next to him.