The Road Back to Your Heart

Gabi looked at herself in the mirror and sighed, not really wanting to go out but she had promised Cam that she would get Eric to celebrate this win. She hated the feelings that came back the moment she locked eyes with Eric. There was a part of her that knew that no matter how much time passed or how much he hurt her, she would always love Eric Staal.

“Gabs?” Whitney said pulling Gabi out of her thoughts. “Are you ready to go? Marc and the big idiot are waiting in the lobby for us.”

Gabi shook her head, “You really shouldn’t be so negative towards Jordy. He means well.”

“Calling him an idiot is nice,” Whit said rolling her eyes. “He has done nothing but be nasty towards me for as long as I can remember. I will stop being so negative, as you say, towards him when he grows up and starts acting like a human.”

Gabi sighed, “Let’s just go. One day, you’ll see. When Jordan isn’t around anymore, you’ll realize the truth.”

“Gabs,” Whit started as they headed down the hall to the elevator. “I will rejoice when Jordan leaves. I could care less where he is just as long as it is far away from Thunder Bay.”

Gabi ignored what her sister said, mainly because she didn’t want to get into this argument again and because she knew more than anyone that her sister was in denial about her feelings for the second youngest Staal brother but there was nothing she could say that would get Whit to admit to those feelings.

“About time you two got down here,” Marc said when he saw the two of them emerge from the elevator. “Eric has been texting me every five seconds asking when we are going to get there.”

Gabi rolled her eyes, “Let’s go then. Can’t wait for all the fun we will have tonight.”

The ride to the bar was silent. No one wanted to make Gabi upset. They all saw where the night was headed. Everyone saw the turmoil going on inside Gabi. They all knew she didn’t want to be hurt again but they also knew she was still madly in love with Eric. They also knew everything Eric had done during the three years they were apart. The multiple trips he had made to Yale, only to see her with Nathan and that was one of the many things everyone knew that they had to work through. Not that Eric wasn’t with other girls while they were broken up, he had his fair share of other relationships but none of them were as serious as Nathan and Gabi had gotten. Gabi didn’t know Eric knew about Nathan or maybe she was fooling herself into believing he didn’t know about Nathan but either way that was a big topic that had to be discussed. As they piled out of the car and into the bar, Gabi felt something big was going to happen in the pit of her stomach but she didn’t know what.

“GABI!” Cam yelled across the bar. “You’re finally here! We were starting to wonder if you were every going to show up.”

Gabi rolled her eyes and gave him a hug, “Sorry, took Whit and I longer to get ready than I thought.”

“Well, the both of you look beautiful,” Andrew Ladd said winking as he wrapped an arm around Whitney’s shoulders. Gabi looked over at Jordan who was glaring intensely at Ladd’s arm.

Gabi shook her head, “Back off. She is jail bait.”

“I was just being nice,” Ladd said raising his arms. “Can’t a guy be nice?”

Whit giggled, “They can be but most of the time there is an ulterior motive.”

Gabi went and got her first drink of the night and then the rest of the night was a blur from there. She danced with some of the guys, sang a duet with Whit and avoided awkward situations with Eric. Everything was going just great until she was finishing up her rendition of “Ain’t no other man” by Christina Aguilera when the door to the bar opened and in walked the last person she ever expected to see in a bar in Raleigh, NC, Nathan Daniel Munroe. Gabi’s plan to keep Nathan and Eric apart just failed and the shit was about to hit the fan. She froze on the stage and watched him as he walked towards her with a smile.

“Nikki!” Nathan exclaimed and wrapped his arms around her then leaned down and gave her a quick kiss. “I missed you.”

Before she could respond a fist met the side of Nathan’s face and when Gabi turned to see who it was, she wasn’t surprised. Eric stood there breathing hard, with a pissed off look on his face. Gabi opened her mouth to explain but before she could, Eric stormed out of the bar leaving a confused crowd around them. Gabi took a deep breath and helped Nathan up off the floor and back to the hotel, not wanting to deal with any of the back lash tonight. She got him up to his room and into bed and before she left his room, she wrote him a note that said to leave and that she didn’t want him there before heading to her room and changing for bed. As she cuddled down into her bed for the night she grabbed her phone and sent Eric a text: “I didn’t ask him here. I didn’t want him here. I am not with him. Please let me explain.” Eric responded quickly: “No need to explain. We aren’t together.” Gabi sighed and went to bed with the knowledge that any forward progress that she and Eric had made in the few short days they had been reunited was just crushed and they were back at square one. She sighed and turned the light off, and sent up a prayer that everything would be okay.

Notes

I'm so sorry that it took me so long to update. I hit a big case of writer's block but I'm back now and should hopefully update each week. This wasn't originally where I had gone with the chapter that I had lost but I think this twist is better than the other one I had planned. I'll try and have one up again in the next few days. Let me know what you think!