Chapter One

I don’t believe in love at first sight. It’s in all of these romance novels by people like Nicholas Sparks or Danielle Steel or Joan Collins. You have the simple girl and the simple boy. They meet and their eyes lock. From then on out they have this whirlwind affair and meet back up years later when they’re grown ups, only to fall in love all over again.

I don’t believe in it really. Really, I don’t.

Maybe it’s because I’ve never really been around anybody in love. My parents stayed married until I was an adult and neither was ever ‘in-love’ with each other. Then suddenly after my 22nd birthday, my mother tells me she’s leaving my father. My older brother is gay and I would prefer not to see him in love with someone. Not that it’s wrong, it just doesn’t float my boat if you know what I mean. My younger sister is a little slut who would rather fuck some guy she didn’t know than to wait for ‘the one’.

Me? I”ll never find ‘the one’.

And besides, if I ever found ‘the one’ how will I ever know that it’s the one? When I look him in the eyes for the first time, will fireworks shoot up into the sky behind him? Will this little angel come and sit on my shoulder telling me to go for it? Or, better yet a little devil, telling me to do all of these naughty things to him to prove that we really are meant for one another and we should be together always and forever?

These are things that I’m always asking myself as I’m sitting in the mall, watching people walk by.

Some are people who are what you call ‘nerds’ or ‘losers’. They have never had a boyfriend or a girlfriend and will remain a virgin for the rest of their long, healthy lives. Some will probably become millionaires by the age of thirty by being some big tycoon in the computer world. Others will be making minimum wage working at Wal-Mart until it’s time to retire. Then they will become the old people at the door at Wal-Mart who greets people every day and gives the kids the little yellow smiley face stickers.

Others are people who you know are players, and they get a different girl every Saturday night. They go out drinking with their friends at clubs and end up grinding up on some girl or guy that they’ve never seen before. Then they get so drunk that they end up either screwing each other in the bathroom, in the back of one of their cars, or they go back to one of their places, only to wake up the next morning wonder ‘How did I end up here?’ and ‘Who the hell is this person beside me?’.

Then there’s the people that are in love.

You see the girl and guy holding hands together and you watch them, wondering what it must feel like to be that close to someone. How it must feel to love and care about someone so much that you can’t even stand walking beside them without holding their hand, showing the world that ‘Hey, I love him’ or ‘Hey, I love her’. They stop and look at some little isolated merchandise stand in the middle of the mall. You see her laugh at something and he smiles, leaning over to kiss her. It’s so incredibly cheesy and sickening that, really, you just want the same thing for yourself.

You want it so bad that you lie there at night dreaming about it.

Maybe you dream that it’s with some celebrity that you’ve never met and you will probably never meet. Ben Affleck and I would make the perfect couple if only Jennifer Lopez wasn’t in the way. Of course before her it was Gwyneth Paltrow in the way. With celebrities, something’s always in the way. That’s why it’s not realistic.

You have the guy you had a crush on in high school. He was everything you could have wanted. He was cute, smart, member of student council and the BETA club. We won’t even mention that he was quarterback of the football team, captain of the basketball team, and pitcher for the baseball team. He’s all that and a bag of chips with a free 45 ounce Coke.

But high school’s over. He’s not all of those things anymore and you sit and look at him and he’s this regular college student, who turns out isn’t all that smart because in high school all of the teachers were giving him good grades so he could stay on the sports teams.

Then you have the best friend type. The guy you’ve known since you were in diapers and your mom is best friends with his mom. You can hang out with him and just be yourself. It doesn’t matter if he sees you in your underwear because you’re just that close. You can tell him anything. You talk about guy problems with him and he talks about girl problems with you. It’s almost as if you were brother and sister, but not really.

This is why I don’t believe in love at first sight. It doesn’t exist. Finding ‘the one’ doesn’t exist either. It’s not normal.

Of course I’m not normal either.

I’m 23 years old and I’m a virgin. I’m not one of those ‘losers’ like I talked about before; I just haven’t found ‘the one’ yet. I’m not one of those ‘goody two shoes’ who thinks she’s better than anybody either. I’ve had boyfriends and I’ve been on dates, I’ve just never found the one I really want to be with.

I take that back, I thought I did. I was interning at MTV my senior year of college a little over two years ago and I met someone. We instantly clicked from the moment I met him backstage with Carson Daly, telling him and his band mates that they would be going on 23 minutes into the broadcast. Is it sad that I remember the exact moment? 23 minutes. That’s sad. To make a long story short, I went out with a Backstreet Boy for about six months.

Nick Carter.

He’s blonde. He’s hot. He’s incredibly sexy, a good kisser, and he’s on the wall of almost every 13-year-old girl this side of the California Pacific Coast and all around the world.

Our relationship was great. He was really everything I could have wanted in a boyfriend at the time. I thought for a split second that he was ‘the one’, but somehow we drifted apart and became best friends. It’s like the ‘romance’ died sort of. We both agreed that our relationship was over and that it would be best to stay friends. That’s what we’ve done. He’s seriously my best friend. I know it sounds cheesy that a Backstreet Boy that I almost lost my virginity to is now my best friend. Eh, it’s true.

I tell him everything. I talk to him more than I do my divorced parents, my gay brother, and my whore of a little sister. I like his family more than my own although, I never really talk to them much anymore since we broke up. He’s just Nick, my best friend; my best friend who I wish I saw more of.

My internship at MTV ended and after I graduated from college, I landed a job at CMT, Country Music Television and I now reside in Nashville, Tennessee. I always liked country music and because I’m from Atlanta, Georgia, it’s acceptable I guess. I am co-host on Most Wanted Live, CMT’s country version of MTV’s Total Request Live. Other than that I interview artist all of the time, travel to different spots across the world for special CMT exclusives and hang out with the elite of country music.

Then, when I’m not working, I’m sitting right back here at Opry Mills, the local mall, watching those same people: the losers, the players, and the people in love - wishing that one day, it’ll happen to me.

But like my mom always said, don’t count your chickens before they hatch - and I don’t.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Elisabeth Geller sat there on a park bench in the mall. She had her long, dark brown hair pulled up in a ponytail and had her dark sunglasses on, hiding her eyes from watching people walk by. She did it everyday before she went into work. It was a regular routine.She took a sip of her soft drink through the straw, leaning back to watch a older couple walk by, obviously on vacation and looking very touristy, holding hands. She smiled a little as they stopped to look in the window at a toy store at some huge stuffed bear that was being marked down. She could tell that they were out of town, since they had on t-shirts from the Wildhorse Saloon. Nobody in Nashville actually wears them.

Suddenly the woman moved her bag to show a round stomach. She was probably six or seven months pregnant. Elisabeth smiled, watching the lady rub her hands on her tummy as her husband walked into the toy store to purchase the bear which was probably going to be for their future son or daughter.

Then someone stepped up in her way, blocking her view.

“You are always here,” the guys voice said as Elisabeth looked up and moved her sunglasses down to see her ex-boyfriend, now best friend, Nick Carter, standing in front of her with a baseball cap on backwards and sunglasses himself, “Don’t you ever get tired of watching people?” he asked as he leaned over, kissing her on the cheek and sat down beside her.

“What are you doing here?” Elisabeth asked as she reached over, giving him a small hug and then looked back up to see that the couple was gone. She looked down at her watch to see what time it was. It was almost time to get to work, but now that Nick was here, she knew that she’d be late.

“In town looking for some songs,” Nick said as he looked over at her, “I tried calling last night but your machine wouldn’t pick up and your cell said that you were unavailable.”, he said as he took his sunglasses off and looked around. He leaned over, placing his elbows on his knees and holding onto his sunglasses with both hands while looking at Elisabeth.

“Machine’s broke and I was working last night,” Elisabeth said as she smiled at him. He smiled back and looked back down at his sunglasses. He was the only person that she could do that with. Anybody else would have told her to get her machine fixed or make sure her cell was on at all times, but Nick understood and his smile could really take away any problem, “So how long are you in town for?”

“Don’t know,” Nick whispered as he looked back over at her, “I can’t believe I was right about where you would be. Do you realize how big this mall actually is?”

“Yes.”

“It’s huge.”

“But I’m always right here,” Elisabeth said as Nick laughed a little, leaning back and crossed his arms across his chest, “How’s Samantha?”

Nick just groaned in response.

That probably wasn’t a good sign. Whenever Nick did that, it meant something bad happened and when it comes to Samantha, it was never good. He started going out with her after they had called their romantic relationship off and decided to be friends.

“Broke up with her for good,” Nick said as Elisabeth looked at him in shock, “I was tired of it you know? It was always ‘Buy me this Nick’ or ‘I want this Nick’. It got annoying. She was using me. I knew it. You always knew it. Kevin knew it. My parents knew it.”

“About time you got rid of her,” Elisabeth whispered as Nick smiled over at her and she cut her eyes to him, “You’re smiling today.”

“Well I haven’t seen you in a few months. Not since the show here in Nashville. I miss ya,” Nick said as he nudged her a little, “Gotta work tonight?”

Elisabeth closed her eyes in response and just smiled.

“Well?”

“The show ends at seven and I’ll probably have to stay ’til 8 o’clock,” Elisabeth said as she looked at him, “Got plans?”

Nick smiled in response. Maybe she shouldn’t have asked that. He had that devilish ‘I know something you don’t know’ smile come across his face. Whenever he did that - trouble was going to follow.

“No, just wanted to hang out with my best friend. Maybe we can listen to some of the songs I’m picking up today,” Nick said as he moved his hand over, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. Elisabeth just looked over at him, not saying a word, “Well?”

“Yeah. I’ll call you before I leave the studios,” Elisabeth said as Nick smiled, “Are you sure everything is okay? You seem really weird.” Not that he wasn’t weird everyday.

“Fine. I’m fine,” Nick said as Elisabeth looked over to see another couple walk by, with their arms wrapped around each other, “Just in a good mood lately.”

“Okay,” Elisabeth said as she stood up, and picked up her messenger bag that she carried around everywhere. She put the strap across her body and then looked down at Nick who was looking up at her, “I’m glad you came to town.”

“Good. For a minute there I thought you had some secret boyfriend that you didn’t want me to know about or something,” Nick said as he stood up and started to laugh.

“Nope, no boyfriend. You know better than that,” Elisabeth said as she reached up, hugging him again, “I better get to work.”

“Yeah, I’ll see ya later,” Nick said as he kissed her on the cheek. Elisabeth smiled as she turned around and began to walk away from Nick. She looked over her left shoulder to see that he was watching her and then he began to walk in the opposite direction.

Nick was acting really weird, but like she said earlier, that wasn’t unusual. She hoped to God he didn’t want to get back with her because she had this weird feeling that’s what he wanted. Especially the way he was acting just now. Something weird was going on.

She sighed, reaching up and tightening her ponytail and pushed the mall door open to go into the parking lot. She didn’t have time to think about it. She had a busy day ahead of her. She had to set up questions for her interview with Rascal Flatts on the show tonight. Not to mention there was a huge production meeting about the big Tim McGraw special that was being taped in three days. Oh, and her trip that she was going to take to London to make a Making The Video special about Shania Twain’s new video.

And now her ex-boyfriend / best friend was in town acting weird.

This was going to be one interesting week ahead of her.