[Karie]

Nick is something else… to say the least. He came back with a suit and said that his tie and buttoned up shirt would be delivered the next day. He said he was able to get it matched perfectly with my dress, which he is still begging to see but I won’t let him.

I admit though that I’m nervous as hell, especially after seeing my ex’s wife. When she told me who she was married to, all of these thoughts and feelings began rushing through my head. Did he have something going on with her besides sleeping with her when we were together? How did they get together? Did they still do those kind of sex games like we used to do back in the day?

“Your order,” the waiter said as he sat down my steak in front of me and Nick’s steak in front of him. We both wanted to order the same exact thing which cracked us up.

“Can I have some ketchup?” I asked as the waiter nodded before walking away. “I’m weird,” I said to Nick as he smiled.

I’m scared about eating dinner in this hotel. I’m scared I’m going to run into other people when I lease expect it.

I’m scared of what they’re going to think when they realize that I’m with someone who’s famous and who wants to be here with me.

I shouldn’t be scared of what they are going to think but deep down, it’s Matty that I’m worried about. I know for a fact that after I came back from Nashville that he wanted to get back together and I let him know that I wasn’t interested. Was he with Tracy then? Was he already married?

“Your eyes are bouncing back and forth,” Nick said as I looked up at him. “What are you thinking about?”

“Nothing,” I smiled, pulling the strap to my black sundress up on my shoulder. I thanked the waiter as he brought me the ketchup I requested and looked down at my food. Suddenly I had no appetite. The thought of being in the same building as Matthew Waters makes me sick to my stomach.

“Don’t think about it, Karie,” I heard Nick whisper. I looked up to see him smile at me. Him, sitting there with his hair going every which way, a navy blue polo shirt and jeans, still confused me. I couldn’t get over the fact that he wanted to come to this thing. “Just eat and then we can go walking outside around the lake.”

I nodded, taking my knife and cutting a piece of steak. I began eating, listening to Nick as he started talking about the tailor that fitted him for his suit. I looked over, seeing a couple walk in and I recognized them but had no idea who they are. They obviously knew who I was because I saw them mouth my name.

I just really had to get used to this.

“I’m so full,” Nick said as we walked out the back of the hotel a little while later. The slight wind that was blowing sent chills up my spin and Nick laughed. “Are you cold? I’ll run in and get you something.”

“I’m fine,” I said as we walked down the path towards a gazebo near the lake. Pink and white flowers surrounded it and I admit, it was beautiful. “You know, you didn’t have to get that suite. We could have had a simple room.”

“Hey, it’s my money,” Nick said as I shook my head. “You know, that’s one thing I like about you,” he said as I looked at him strangely. “You never want me to buy stuff. Like when you bought me dinner at the Hard Rock. Why is that?”

I shrugged. “I just don’t want anybody to think I owe them anything, you know?” We reached the gazebo and I looked around and smiled at him. “It kills you that I do that, doesn’t it? That’s how you usually lure girls is buying them things, right?”

“It doesn’t hurt,” he smiled as I leaned up against one of white pillars that was closest to the lake. I watched him as he began walking closer to me.

“You don’t have to do that stuff for me, Nick,” I said as he walked up to me, putting his hands on my hips. “You’ve done enough by actually caring about how I feel with this crap this weekend and by coming with me so that I don’t look like a total loser.”

“I don’t know, you still might look like a loser,” he said as I looked at him questionably. “Being a Backstreet Boy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Boy bands aren’t in right now,” he said as I smiled. “I want to hear some of your songs.”

“All in good time,” I smiled, causing him to laugh. I felt his hands move on my hips a little and I looked down before looking back up at him. “I have one memorized, but it’s not finished. I just wrote it in my head the other day while I was at work…”

“Just recite the lyrics, you don’t have to sing.”

“Okay,” I said, closing my eyes. “I don’t want to talk about the weather. I don’t want to go out on the town. I don’t want to watch TV together. I just want to kiss you on the mouth,” I whispered as I opened my eyes to look at him. “We don’t have to spend a lot of money. We don’t need to get up off this couch. I just want to turn the lights down honey and kiss you on the mouth.”

“That’s about us,” he said softly as I nodded.

“That’s all I’ve written so far.”

“Will you finish it for me sometime?” he asked. I nodded and smiled, watching his face move closer to mine.

I smiled, closing my eyes and felt his lips against mine. I leaned my head against the pillar behind me and lost control in the kiss. His hands moved from my hips to my waist and I could have easily died right then and there. I wrapped my arms around his neck loosely, running my fingers through his hair on the back of his head. We backed away from the kiss, sucking on each other’s lips and opened our eyes to look at one another.

“My heart is beating so fast right now,” he whispered, putting his forehead against mine. He took my hand and put it on his chest and I smiled, doing the same thing to him. “So is yours.”

“I like kissing you,” I whispered as he rubbed his nose with mine, before leaning in to kiss me again. Just as we were getting lost in the kiss again, we heard someone clearing their throat. We both stopped and looked around to see someone standing to the side.

Matty. Fuck.

“There she is Matt, I told you she was here,” Tracy said as Nick backed away from me. I looked at Nick and saw the intense look in his eyes.

“Hey Karie,” Matthew said as I gave a slight wave before grabbing Nick’s arm, holding onto it. He looked different, but the same at the same time. He looked older than he did the last time I had seen him and he was a little more built than he used to be. “Well, did you loose your voice?”

“Hey,” I finally said. I cleared my throat and looked at Tracy and knew she recognized Nick. “Nick, this is Tracy and Matty. We went to high school together.”

“Nobody’s called me Matty in a long time,” Matthew said as they walked closer to us. “Sadly, I know who you are. My wife and her sisters are big fans.” He stuck his hand out to shake Nick’s and Nick stared back at him, not budging. “Guess you know we dated,” he said as he laughed, looking at Tracy.

“Yeah,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

“You look the same, just grown now,” Matthew said as Tracy agreed with him, telling him that she barely recognized me in the elevator.

“So you’re Karie’s boyfriend?” Tracy asked as Nick looked at me and back at her. “She said her boyfriend booked them the Presidential Suite. How long have you been together?”

“Yep,” Nick said, wrapping his arm around my waist and pulling me closer to him. “For a while,” he said as I looked at him. “She’s a really big journalist up in Nashville, you know?”

“Oh, is that where you and your Mom ran off to?” Matthew asked as I looked away. “So do you guys have any kids or anything?”

“Hell no,” Nick and I both said at the same time, wanting to laugh.

“We’ve got three,” Tracy said, pulling her wallet out of her purse. “Kasey is nine, she’ll be ten in October. Matt , Jr. is six and Hannah is two.” She showed us the pictures but I couldn’t look at them.

Nine. Ten in October.

She got pregnant before we graduated high school.

She got pregnant before Matt and I broke up.

“Is she yours?” I asked Matthew as he looked at me, confused. “Kasey, the oldest one.” I looked at Nick and I could see it in his eyes – he knew why I was asking.

“Yeah,” Matthew finally said as I rolled my eyes. “Why is that important?”

Why was that important?!?

“Because if she was born in October, unless she was a preemie, you got her pregnant while we were still together,” I spat out. Matthew stared at me and Tracy looked away.

“Well, you know, the stuff that.. went on,” Matthew said as Nick snorted. Matt looked at him and I could tell that Nick was getting pissed off.

“You fucked her in front of me and I fucked her boyfriend in front of you,” I spat back at him. “You used condoms when we did that shit. Besides, that was junior year, not senior year, Matthew.”

“Not that it matters now, but yeah, fine, I cheated on you,” he said as I sighed, shaking my head. “But what do you expect me to do now? Apologize? I’m not sorry I cheated on you because I fell in love with her.”

“So you just fucked me and put me in horrible situations for fun?” I asked, looking at Tracy. “Good luck with him. I’m so glad I left his sorry ass or I’d be stuck in some domestic hell like you.” I grabbed Nick’s hand, practically dragging him behind me as I walked back to the hotel back entrance in a hurry. I heard someone else say my name as we walked through the back lobby but I didn’t pay attention to them.

At this point, I didn’t give a fuck about any of these people.

[/Karie]

[Nick]

If I could, I would go kill that bastard and toss him in the lake. I can look at Karie’s body language right now and know that she’s upset. The way she’s pushing the buttons on the elevator told me that she was upset and pissed off.

“Karie,” I said but she didn’t budge. The elevator doors opened and she dragged me in there, hitting our floor button.

She turned to face me and her eyes were welled up. She was on the verge of crying and I knew that any minute, she was about to lose it.

“I fucking hate him,” she seethed as I reached up, touching her face. “I always had this suspicion but it just fucking pisses me off,” she said, looking me up and down. “Why the fuck should I be so paranoid and shit about guys now when he didn’t give a shit about me?” She reached down and started to unzip my jeans and I grabbed her hands.

“Dude, you don’t want to do that,” I said.

“You don’t like it?” she asked.

“It’s not that, it’s just you’re upset right now,” I said. She glared at me and I could tell that she was so confused inside that head of hers that she didn’t know what to do. “Karie, be glad that you got away from him. Would you want to be married with kids right now? You would have never made it in Nashville and wrote all of those great articles and made your dream come true or hey, even met me.”

“It’s just… it hurts, you know?” she said as I pulled her to me, wrapping my arms around her waist. “Like what did I do to get shitted on so much back then?”

“This is your weekend to show these fuckers that you’re better than them,” I said as she leaned back to look at me. “You’re better than him and he never deserved you. You’re probably the best thing that ever happened to him and he fucked that up. Don’t worry about him.”

“Where is this going?” she asked as the elevator finally reached our floor. I took her hand, leading her to our door. She watched me as I unlocked the door and we walked into the suite. I turned to lock the door and looked back to see her staring at me. “Well?”

“Why?” I asked, shyly causing her to smile.

“Just wondering because it seems like it might go somewhere but with my luck and well, let’s be honest, your past relationships,” she said as I chuckled.

“Just take it one day at a time,” I said, walking up to her. “But when we leave Nashville after we’re done recording… that doesn’t mean I’m done with you,” I said, smiling as I walked past her to go into the bedroom.

[/Nick]