Page 76 of I Dreamt That You Loved Me
Gabriel was nowhere to be found so I walked back to the cabin where I found him and my mom sitting on Adirondack chairs. “There you are.”
When I climbed the porch steps, my mom stood up and gave me a hug. “Take care of him,” she whispered in my ear.
I watched her walk back to the party then turned to Gabriel. “Hey. What’s wrong?”
He shook his head. “Nothing.” He tugged me into his lap and buried his face in my hair.
“I was looking everywhere for you,” I said. “I thought maybe you were…”Doing shrooms.I lifted my head and studied his face. He looked pale in the dim porch light. I leaned over and picked up the glass next to him. Water, not vodka. “What happened?”
“Just a headache. It’s mostly gone now.”
“A headache?” My brow furrowed. My mom made it sound like something more than just a headache and she wasn’t the type to overreact. “Do you get headaches a lot?”
He pulled me close, tucking my head against his shoulder and ran his hand over my hair in long, soothing strokes. “Stop worrying. I’m fine.”
“I can’t help it.” I burrowed my face into the crook of his neck and breathed him in. “I love you.” My voice was muffled so it came out garbled.
“Say it again.”
I lifted my head and kissed his stubbled jaw. “I love you.”
He smiled, but I thought it looked strained. “My twin flame.”
I stroked his brow and cupped his cheekbone. “If you go out, I go out.”
What Gabriel had failed to mention was that he’d blacked out.
Thankfully, my mom and Ian had been there. They said he wasn’t drunk, and he hadn’t, in fact, touched any of the mushrooms. But he’d completely zoned out for a good thirty seconds and it had taken him a couple of minutes to remember where he was.
I was no doctor but that didn’t sound like a good thing.
So as soon as we’d returned to the city, I nagged and cajoled and even threatened to kick him out of the apartment, until finally, he agreed to go and see a doctor.
When he got home from his appointment, he was fuming. “I hope you’re happy.” He yanked a beer out of the fridge and flipped the cap off with his key. “I just wasted good time and money for nothing.”
He grabbed his notebook and climbed onto the fire escape. I abandoned my stir-fry and charged after him. “I can’t believe you’re pissed off at me for caring about you.”
“I told you I was fine but no, you pushed, and you pushed?—”
“Because I don’t want anything to happen to you,” I yelled. “It’s not normal to black out?—”
“I asked your mom to keep that between us,” he gritted out.
“Oh, don’t you dare blame this on my mom.” I stabbed my finger at him. “You should have told me yourself.”
He shook his head and let out an exasperated sigh. Then he completely blanked me out and started writing in his notebook like I wasn’t even there. He looked all moody and sulky sittingout there on the fire escape, and I knew he wouldn’t answer my questions, but I asked anyway.
“What did the doctor say?” I prodded.
Gabriel took a swig of beer, shot me a warning glance, and went back to scribbling in his notebook. I let out a strangled scream and marched back into the kitchen to finish making this stupid dinner for him.
Chicken and broccoli stir-fry was the only thing I knew how to make, and he probably wouldn’t eat it anyway with the way he was acting.
When it was done, I turned off the burner and retreated to my design studio, slamming the door shut behind me. Two could play this game.
Unfortunately, with the door closed, I didn’t have a cross breeze and it was baking hot in this room even with the fan turned on full blast.
A little while later, I heard the front door slam shut and flew into the living room. I was about to chase after him and scream at him to come back and discuss this like an adult when I saw his open notebook on the coffee table.
