[Karie]
The moment I walked into the office today and turned the corner where my desk is, I saw flowers. Several different kinds of flowers. There were daisies, roses, lilies and a little pot with a sunflower, my favorite flower, in it for my desk. Everybody was looking at me and I’m sure they were all wondering where or better yet who they came from.

The one thing I miss about working at The Tennessean is my office. Right now I don’t have my own officebut a cubical that isn’t very private.

“Hey Karie, you and Bryan back together?” one of my co-workers asked as I shook my head and laughed.
I looked around for the card to see them on the vase of roses.

Karie,
Just wanted to remind you that I love you. We can find a way to make it work no matter what our jobs are. I’ll be waiting.
You know who

I turned my computer on and leaned up to see that my supervisor was in her office. Now was as good as any time to go talk to her.

I walked slowly up to her office and peeked in to see her reading something.

“Liz, can I talk to you for a minute?” I asked as she motioned me to come in. She was a very petite woman with fierce short red hair, almost like Reba McEntire.

“What’s up?” she asked, taking her glasses off and looked at me.

“I kind of have a question for you,” I said, becoming nervous. “Hm, I don’t know where to start with the question,” I said, wanting to laugh.

“Start at the beginning,” she said as I nodded.

“I dated this guy for a little while a few years ago –“

“Is this business or personal –“

“Both,” I said as she looked intrigued. “Anyway, I loved him more than I had ever loved a guy and we ended things kind of badly –“

“Are you talking about the Backstreet Boy?” she asked as I froze. “Honey, we all knew about it when you came on board.”

“You did?” I asked as she nodded.

“I didn’t want to give you that assignment of interviewing them out there but didn’t have any other choice in the matter,” Liz said as I nodded. “I know you like writing about country music and that’s your job. We just didn’t have any choice in the matter and you’re our best writer. Nothing was going on in the country world at the time –“

“So you were okay with me interviewing them?” I asked as she nodded.

“It was a quick little update,” she said. “It’s not like a huge feature.” I nodded. “So,” she said.
“This guy…”

“Nick,” I said. “We saw each other again during the interview and we talked later that night and kind of made peace with all the stuff in the past.”

“Well that’s good,” she said.

“So they’re in Nashville right now doing some recording and he kind of wants me back,” I said as she smiled. “The reason we ended it is because, well one of the reasons, he got a girl pregnant before we met and my old boss at The Tennessean made me write about it. He told me that if I didn’t, I would lose my job.”

“And you obviously wrote about it,” she said as I nodded. “You were the Entertainment reporter then, right?”

“Yeah and I know that’s what I was supposed to do, write about it,” I said. “But now, even though I do country only, I’m just so scared that if I were to even think about getting back with him, that I would be forced to choose again.”

“Sweetie, everybody has a right to a private life,” she said as I sighed. “If you let us know that you’re dating someone within the industry, then we would make sure not to give you anything that deals with them. Besides, he’s not going country anytime soon, is he?”

“Him and one of the other guys wrote a country song that Luke Bryan just released, but that’s it,” I said as she laughed.

“Something I learned a long time ago,” she said. “Don’t put work before the person you’re in love with.”

“Yeah, but I worked so hard to get to where I am,” I said. “I’m a really paranoid person and that’s what freaks me out.”

“Karie, you have my blessing, is that what you want?” she asked as I smiled. “I’ll make note not to give you any stories that deal with him or any boy bands and for you to stay strictly country.”

“Now I didn’t mind interviewing Brad Pitt,” I joked, causing her to laugh. “Make a note of that.”

“Will do,” she said as I stood up. “Now go get me that Carrie Underwood feature and let me see what you have so far,” she said as I smiled, practically leaping out of the office. I walked happily back to my cubicle.

“So are you ever going to tell me who the flowers are from?” someone asked as I smiled, leaning over to smell the roses.

[/Karie]

[Nick]

I haven’t heard from Karie since last night. I sent over a hundred dollars worth of flowers to the AP office for her and I’ve heard nothing. Now I’m off to my hotel room where I’ll probably just watch episodes of “Entourage” until I hear from her or fall asleep first.

“Cheer up, bud,” AJ said as I looked at him in the elevator up to our floor. “It’s a big decision so I’m sure she’s just rethinking everything.”

“It’s not like I asked her to marry me. I just want to date her again,” I said as AJ laughed.

“Yeah, but she’s a girl,” he said as the elevator door opened.

“Hey, if I haven’t called you by ten in the morning, call and wake me up. My alarm is acting screwy,” I said as AJ and I walked in different directions.

“Peace!” he shot back as I walked down to my hotel room door. I slid the card in the door and opened it to see flickering lights all over the place.

Who the fuck lit candles in my room? I walked in, shutting the door and looked over to see Karie.

She was sitting on her knees in the middle of my bed wearing a little black sundress.

“Hey,” I said, tossing my bag and keys over on the table. “How’d you get in here?”

“Got them to call Brian to confirm it,” she smiled. “I have my ways too.”

“So?” I asked, walking up to the bed. “Think any today?”

“Did you know that one of the guys from Rascal Flatts is married to a journalist from CMT?” she asked as I shook my head.

“And my supervisor put down that I’m not allowed to write about boybands,” she said as I smiled. “I was like good, I don’t really like them anyway.”

“So?”

“So…” she smiled, grabbing my shirt and pulling me closer to her. “You don’t have any girls pregnant do you?”

I shook my head.

“You’re not hiding any secrets from me, are you?”

“Maybe,” I whispered, causing her to smile.

[/Nick]

[Karie]

“What secret are you hiding from me?” I asked. Nick smiled like a jackass in return. “This is a do or die moment, Nick. Don’t fuck it up.”

“That I bought a house today,” he said as I stared at him. “And if you can stand living with me in it, I want to live with you.”

“You bought a house?” I asked as he pulled the keys out of his pocket. “Why? How? I mean, why?”

“For us,” he said, pushing a strand of hair out of my face. “I knew you couldn’t turn your back on me, Karie. It’s too strong.”

I couldn’t say anything.

“Plus, I wrote you a country song,” he said as I smiled. “You, it’s yours. You could never turn me down after that.”

“It was perfect,” I finally whispered, staring him in the eyes.

“So do you?” he whispered as I nodded slowly. “Do I still turn you on?” I nodded again. “Do I still drive you crazy?”

“I’m sorry for turning my back on you,” I finally spat out as I began to cry. “I’m sorry I couldn’t support you with the baby –“

“Shhh, that’s over now,” he said as I wrapped my arms around his neck, hugging him.

“I’m sorry I wrote –“

“Karie, that’s history,” he whispered in my arm, rubbing his fingertips slowly across my back.
“That’s volume one. We’re starting volume two.”

“We are,” I whispered, leaning back from the hug to look at him. “We have to make some guidelines.”

“Absolutely.”

“We have to tell each other everything,” I said as he nodded. “No secrets.”

“We can’t let work come between us, whether it’s you or me,” he said as I agreed.

“We can’t spend no more than a week apart,” I said as he smiled. “Whether you come to me or I come to you, we can’t.”

“I like that idea,” he said as I smiled. “We can do that.”

“Tim McGraw and Faith Hill have a similar promise,” I said as he smiled.

“And no kids,” he said as I smiled. “I want whatever you want and if there’s no kids in our future, then we’ll just buy dogs and cats. Maybe even a monkey.”

“Monkey?” I asked, leaning up to kiss him softly on the lips. “Maybe adoption when we’re a lot older, but right now, it’s just us.”

“Just you and me,” he whispered as we laid back on the bed, him staring down at me. “Promise? Just you and me?”

“Just you and me,” I replied, smiling as he leaned over to blow the candle out that was next to the bed. “You and me…”

The End!