chapter twelve | missing you

THE DAY STARTED like any other regular for Gracie: get a coffee and breakfast, go to a meeting, and write songs for the new project. The only difference was that Mila was nowhere to be found and Gracie was in a new location. Mila was back in LA, while Gracie was on a plane, on her way to be a surprise guest in Boston for a show. She would have asked Mila to join her, but like the last few times she had to do something for work, Jordan had told her there was no time to get her or tell her.

So, she had to inform her after she was already on the plane.

Every time she had to drop the news on her, she could only imagine the sad yet disappointed look on her girlfriend's face. She would feel the same way if she were in Mila's shoes right now.

Now, she was in the air, looking out the window. She watched as birds and other planes flew by in other directions. She tried to focus on the positive emotions that come with an exciting thing like this. The show was in a couple of days, but she was asked to show up early to rehearse with the artist she was working with, they had to make sure everything was perfect.

Next to her sat her manager, the small table pulled out with paperwork spread out on it. She was trying to get as much work done as she possibly could. Jordan had glanced over at her client and friend a few times, expecting her to say something, but she was silent. "Is everything okay? You seem very distracted. You have been since we took off out of LA." She acknowledged, glancing over at her once again. She felt that she might regret this later, but they would cross that bridge when they got to it. "Is there something going on?" She added.

Gracie shrugged and let out a sigh. "I just feel bad for leaving Mila behind the way we did. I know she would have loved to be here for this...to support me." Gracie replied, coming out with a sad yet disappointed tone. Now that the two were together, she couldn't stand to be away from her for so long. She wanted to be around her all the time and take her along on every trip she had to take for work. "It just doesn't seem fair to just up and leave without some type of warning first."

Jordan couldn't help but roll her eyes at the statement. Since Gracie had told her that she wanted Mila to join the tour, she hadn't been the same. It got worse once they were on the tour bus together. She felt that she had to get this sorted out immediately, to get Gracie back on track.

"Gracie, I know you like Mila and stuff, but she's just some girl," Jordan started, soon earning a glare from her client. It was clear that she was offended and getting defensive about the comment. When it came to Mila, she was protective when she wasn't there to defend herself. "Girls come and go, but without Mila, you still have a career. You have a career that you've loved for years and worked so hard for. You can't let some girl get in the way of everything you've built. You haven't even known her for very long, she could just be dating you for the fame. She could be using you."

That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Jordan had gone too far.

"Admit it, you don't like Mila for whatever reason it is. You have something against her, it's not my career so you can't use that excuse again." Gracie argued, her tone sharper than usual. She tried to stay as quiet as possible so as not to cause a scene. Lucky for her, everyone else was in their dream lands, focused on their tasks. "You call her a distraction and treat her like an inconvenience when she's not."

"Let's be real here for a moment, she is a distraction."

"No, we're done with this conversation and we won't be having it ever again. If you bring it up one more time and try to blame Mila for anything, I will not hesitate to fire your ass and get a new manager."

As Jordan opened her mouth to speak, she earned one last glare from Gracie. She let out a sigh before going back to her paperwork.

Gracie let out a breath to calm herself down before taking a sip of the wine that was served to her a few hours ago. This was meant to be a happy and fun trip for her, but it was already off to a rocky start. She could only hope that it got better from here.

Mila sat in the studio, working on her laptop. Sat across from her was someone that she was asked to work with. It was a very famous artist that she was working with, one of the most famous in the world. She was in the process of re-recording all of her stolen albums and by some off chance, Mila was asked to feature on one of the vault tracks.

She had to say yes.

If Gracie hadn't taken a surprise trip for work, she had planned to tell her that morning. She would have freaked when she heard the news. She still never got the chance to tell her. At this rate, she was sure that she wouldn't get to tell her until she came back, whenever that would be.

Mila let out an aggravated breath as she ran a hand through her hair, soon earning the attention of the person she was working with. "I've seen this type of thing before, what's bothering you? Work or relationships?" The blonde in front of her asked curiously, showing that she was listening.

"While work is a pain in the ass sometimes, it just feels like my girlfriend's manager doesn't like me for some reason and is trying to separate us." She replied, letting out a sad sigh. She knew that Gracie had tried to change her manager's mind, but she could tell that there was some level of dislike against her, she didn't know why. "I've been nothing but nice to everyone and I do my job, I don't see what the issue is."

Taylor nodded with understanding. She had been in a similar situation before, just under different circumstances. "I know it's not fun. The only thing you can do is just defend yourself and trust that you're girlfriend would defend you in a room you're not in." She replied soon realizing that she didn't know who Mila's girlfriend was. "Who is your girlfriend anyway?" She asked curiously.

That was one of her favorite questions to answer. If she could, she would talk about Gracie for hours. When she's on the phone with her family, that's what she does anyway. It happens so often that they say she's in love with her, however, Mila felt that it was too early in the relationship to say it was love. After her last relationship, she didn't want to go too fast. "Gracie Abrams," Mila replied with a smile as she said her girlfriend's name.

"Oh yeah! I know her, I love her music. When did you guys start going out?"

"Not too long after the US leg of her tour ended. I had to work past some shit before I could think about another relationship. The last one wasn't that great."

"I get it, you're preaching to the choir," Taylor spoke, and the two of them began to laugh. "Look at us though! Two girls in happy and healthy relationships!"

The excited tone in Taylor's voice was enough to force Mila to crack a smile. Taylor always had that effect on people. She was convinced that she knew that and used it as her superpower.

"Let's get a little more work done, then we can go out for coffee and hang out," Taylor suggested, making her way back to the recording booth, her phone in her hand. That was an idea that Mila could get behind.

The remainder of the day had been spent alone in her hotel room. Gracie had explored the city, met some fans, and met up with Noah to discuss the plan for the concert. It was a very exciting moment for Gracie, a moment she wished she could have experienced with Mila.

No matter what she was doing or who she was with, she wanted Mila to be around too. It was almost like she couldn't function without her.

Since she had left LA, she had felt so badly about leaving Mila behind. She wished that Jordan hadn't forced her to do that. That was who she blamed for it, Jordan. Before she could play the blame game in her head, her attention was directed toward her laptop as she heard the ring of a Facetime call.

She opened her laptop once she picked it up and sat down on the bed, positioning the camera the way she wanted. Once she accepted the call, Mila's face popped up on the screen, making her smile instantly. "There's my pretty girl, how are you?" She asked her curiously, the look of pure love in her eye.

"I'm alright I guess, I just miss you." She replied honestly, a little hint of sadness in her voice. That broke Gracie's heart. She hated seeing Mila as anything other than happy, her smile was one of her favorite things about Mila. The fact that she was upset killed her. "How are you though? How's Boston?" She curiously asked

"I'm pretty good, and Boston is okay, it'd be better with you here though." She replied, soon seeing a smile forming on Mila's face. "There's that smile I love so much. You have a beautiful smile." She complimented, flashing a smile in return. Mila's grew wider at the comment and shook her head in disbelief. "I do miss you though, I'm sorry I couldn't ask you to join us."

"I couldn't have gone anyway." Gracie raised an eyebrow at that. She wasn't sure what the reason was, she wondered if she was working on new music. About a week ago, Mila had mentioned that she was working on a new album, maybe it was something to do with that. "I was in the studio today to work on a new collaboration with a famous singer. If my memory serves me right, it's an artist you adore." She hinted.

Within a matter of seconds, one name in particular had come to mind. The one artist she had hoped to meet and work with someday.

"You were in the studio with Taylor Swift?!" She asked with an excited yet shocked tone. She had acted as if something so unbelievable. "When were you going to tell me this?" She questioned, picking up a bag of chips that she had bought herself earlier that day and began to eat a few the way a person does when they're so invested in a movie.

"I tried to so many times, but it seemed that every time I tried, you had suddenly gotten very busy." She admitted with a slightly awkward chuckle in an attempt to lighten the mood. She saw Gracie's happy attitude and smile melt away to a sad one at that statement, it was clear that she felt very badly about the matter. "I kinda get the feeling that Jordan doesn't like me very much." She added with the same tone from before.

Gracie nodded with understanding, remembering the conversation she had with her manager on the plane. She could have mentioned it to Mila, but she opted to keep her in the dark instead. "I promise you that she does, she's just very business-oriented and puts business over everything. That's on her though, she won't even talk to me unless it's about my career." Gracie explained, earning a grin from Mila once again.

"Well, I'm so glad that we could clear that up then."

"How was it working with Taylor?"

Mila grew more excited as she started talking about her meeting with Taylor. She had even described it as the best moment of her life a few times. Gracie watched her with a smile, admiring the woman on the screen. She loved it when Mila would talk about something she loved or an experience that meant a lot to her. It was clear that this moment was up there for her, it was the same for Gracie too.

She was excited for the concert tomorrow, but most importantly, she was excited to be with Mila once again.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE!

guys, this might be the

longest chapter for this

story so far. i hope you

all enjoyed and i hope

there's no mistakes!