"Hey." She smiled. "You look worried."
"Yeah, just a little." He said nervously.
"Don't worry, I chose you." She hugged him. Nick breathed a sigh of relief but was feeling for Kevin.
"Is he okay?"
She shook her head. "No, but he will be."
They looked up to see her parents and Amber approaching them.
"Mom, did you call Kevin?" Corinne asked.
"He asked me call him when Megan had the baby, remember?" She said. Yeah, but that's when we were still together... Corinne wanted to say but she decided it was better left unsaid.
"That was nice of you." Was all she said.
“Would you two like to join us for dinner?” Peter asked. Corinne looked at Nick and whispered, “Do you want to?”
“Sure.” Nick was actually able to relax around her family now and didn’t mind spending more time with them. It would give him more insight into the woman he loved.
“It sounds good, Dad. Where do you want to go?” Corinne asked.
“Uh, count me out. I’m hooking up with my old work buddies down at Clancy’s. So, I’ll see, Mom and Dad at home and Corinne, I’ll guess I’ll see you later.” Amber replied.
“Yeah. How long are you staying in LA?”
“Until Wednesday. I have to be back at work on Thursday.”
“Oh good. Well, we could meet for lunch tomorrow and then come here to visit Megan and Tyler if you want. I’ll call you.” Corinne said.
“Sounds good, sis. See ya later, Nick.” Nick nodded as Amber got into her rental car and sped away. Show-off. Corinne thought. She pitied the poor guy that hooked up with her tonight. But then again, he would have a helluva good time. Amber could be the life of the party, especially with some drinks in her. She wouldn’t have any problems getting laid if that was her main objective and Corinne suspected that it was. Just be careful, sis, she thought.
Dinner with Nick and her parents turned out to be an enjoyable time. They joked and laughed and it was all so easy. Her parents had questions for Nick, of course, but they asked them in a way that didn’t make him feel interrogated. Corinne was thankful they were so good about making him feel comfortable.
After dinner, they sat around, sipping wine and talking.
“Did Corinne ever tell you that I like the Backstreet Boys’ music? And I always thought Howie was so cute!” Bonnie blurted out.
“Mom!” Corinne blushed. Funny, she had never mentioned that to Kevin. Although, now thinking back, whenever they four of them had gotten together, there was no drinking involved. Corinne looked at her mom’s wine glass, which was empty. Bonnie didn’t drink very often, so one glass of wine obviously gave her the liquid courage to speak up. She smiled. She looked over at her Dad who seemed amused by his wife’s confession.
“Well, I do.”
Nick laughed hysterically. “No, Corinne didn’t mention that! Hey, did you want to meet him? I could call him and see if he’s free.” He was half-kidding.
“Nick, don’t encourage her!” Corinne said, still embarrassed.
“Shush, Corinne. Could you do that? I’d love to meet him! Peter, you don’t mind, do you?” Bonnie said.
Peter crossed his arms and smiled. “I’d like to see my competition. Sure, give him a call, Nick.”
Corinne sat there, shaking her head at her nutty parents. She laughed, though. She knew Howie and knew that he would be cool with all of this. It would actually be fun having him join them if he could.
Nick looked at Corinne who shrugged and then said, “Okay.” Nick pulled out his cell phone and started dialing Howie’s home number. There was no answer. “Let me try his cell.” Nick dialed that number and waited. On the second ring, Howie answered.
“Hey, Nick, how’s it going?” He recognized Nick’s cell number.
“It’s going great, Dude. Hey, I’m having dinner with Corinne and her parents. Corinne’s mom, Bonnie would love to meet you. Are you able to come by TGI Friday’s to hang out for awhile?”
Nick was glad he had already told Howie about he and Corinne or he might be really confused as to why they were together.
Howie laughed. “Corinne’s mom? Sure. I was just about to leave Pollyanna’s house anyway. Which Fridays are you at?”
Nick gave him directions and hung up the phone.
“Well?” Corinne said.
“He can’t…” He looked at Bonnie’s crestfallen face and then decided he couldn’t do that to her.
“I’m just kidding. He’s on his way.”
“Oh, good!” Bonnie said, sounding giddy.
“Now, Mom, you aren’t going to embarrass me, are you? I mean, what are you going to say to him?” Corinne asked.
“Don’t worry, Honey. I’ll be proper. I just want to look at him really.”
Both Nick and Corinne burst out laughing.
“I think I’m getting a complex over here!” Peter chimed in. But he was laughing so they all knew he didn’t really care.
“Hey, Brian and AJ are kind of cute, too. You want me to call them?” Nick asked, teasing.
“No, that’s okay.” Bonnie said.
“Nick, how are they doing by the way? It’s been awhile since I’ve seen them. We’ll have to get together one of these days.” Corinne said.
Nick took another sip of his wine and said, “Well, I’ll see them tomorrow at the studio to start recording. You can come by the studio with your sister if you want.”
Corinne hesitated. Bring Amber to the studio so she can flirt with the guys? It didn’t sound appealing to her since that was her job, she smiled. What the hell. She knew Brian was with Leighanne so he wasn’t available, but there was always AJ, Brian and… Kevin. Oh, God, no. She couldn’t bear it if she and Kevin hooked up. No, bad idea. Definitely, a bad idea.
“I’ll let you know.” Corinne gulped down the last of her wine and Nick leaned in towards her while her parents talked to each other.
“What’s the matter, Sweetheart?”
Corinne smiled at him. She loved his pet names for her. “I just don’t think that’s a good idea.” Corinne whispered.
“Are you afraid she might flirt with the guys?”
Corinne looked at him, surprised. “How did you know that’s what I was thinking?”
“Because I know you like to do that, plus, I got a little bit of an idea of how your sister is. She and I met in the waiting room while I was talking with your dad and she seemed all into me until your dad said I was your boyfriend and then suddenly, not so much.”
“Oh my God, my Dad said that? Wow. That’s kind of cool. Anyway, Amber is definitely an interesting woman. She got married to a serious man, felt stifled, got divorced and now it seems like her inner wild self has been dying to come out because it’s here!”
“It sounds like someone else I know.” Nick said and Corinne laughed. He was right. Wasn’t she just confessing to Julia the other night how she wanted to act like her old, wild self? Well, now that she with Nick, she could still be wild, but only with him. He was a keeper.
Corinne kissed him. “You know what your problem is?”
“No, what?”
“You know me too well.”
Nick smiled. “Oh and that’s a problem?”
“For me it is!” Corinne laughed and they turned back to a conversation with Peter and Bonnie.
Howie arrived a few minutes later. Nick had told him where they were sitting, so he walked right up to them.
Bonnie seemed to be frozen to the spot and speechless.
“Hey, Howie. How’s it goin', man?” Nick greeted him.
Howie went over to give Corinne a hug and quick kiss.
“Hi Howie. It’s good to see you again.”
“Yeah, you too, Corinne. You look great.”
“Thanks!” She blushed.
“Easy there…” Nick warned, acting jealous.
“Howie, this is my dad, Peter Whitman and my mom, Bonnie.” Corinne said.
“Nice to meet you, Howie.” Peter shook his hand.
Bonnie just stared at Howie and then finally took his extended hand. “So, nice to meet you, Bonnie.” He smiled at her.
“Oh, you are so cute!” She finally burst out.
“Well, thanks!” Howie said, laughing.
Nick and Corinne burst out laughing, too.
“She has a major crush on you, Howie, you better be careful.” Corinne teased him.
“OK, I promise to watch myself, Mr. Whitman.” Howie smiled at Peter who was finding all of this amusing.
“Yeah, you better, Mr. Backstreet Boy.” He laughed and the rest of them roared, even Bonnie. Who was feeling a little more sober now and a little more embarrassed about the whole thing.
They ended up talking for another hour and then Corinne’s parents confessed they were tired and Peter had to get up early for work the next day. The five of them walked out together.
In the parking lot, Bonnie said, “Well, thanks, Howie, for humoring me and coming to the restaurant. Maybe I’ll get to one of your concerts one of these days!”
“It was very nice to meet you, Mrs. Whitman. Nick can hook you up with tickets anytime when we start touring. We’d love to have you.” He beamed.
“It’s Bonnie. And thank you.”
“Yeah, it was a pleasure to meet you both. See you at work, Honey.” Peter said, shook the two men’s hands and kissed his daughter goodbye.
“Okay, Dad. Mom, I’ll call you tomorrow.” Corinne said and soon they were gone.
Nick, Corinne and Howie ended up going to a bar down the street. Corinne thought the name of the bar sounded familiar for some reason, but didn’t know exactly why. Maybe she and Kevin had been there before. It did kind of look like a place they had been to. It wasn’t that busy since it was Sunday, so the three of them were able to get a table with no problem. They picked one in the back corner so they could talk. The bar’s stereo was blasting Coldplay’s “Speed of Sound” and Corinne looked at her watch. Wow, it was already 8:55 pm. She wondered if they were going to have a band tonight. She looked over towards the stage. Nope. Just a deejay. That was cool. Hopefully they’ll play 70s and 80s songs, she thought.
“So, Babe, what do you want to drink?” Nick asked and Corinne looked up to see the cocktail waitress standing there.
“Hmm, I’m not sure. What are you having?”
“Just a beer. Did you want one?”
“Sure, why not?”
Howie ordered the same thing and the sound of a man’s voice came crackling over the PA System.
“Good evening! I’m Steve and I'll be your deejay tonight. If there’s anything you would like to hear, let me know! Right now, let’s try a little Bryan Adams for ya. Here’s ‘Summer of ‘69’!”
“Yes! I love this song!” Nick said.
“Me, too. Did I ever tell you that I met him?”
“No. Do tell.”
“Yeah, we want to know.” Howie smiled.
“Well, this was in high school. It was my senior year and my friend, Shannon was gaga over Bryan. She loved him so much that she paid like $100 each for both of us to see him in concert. We had third row seats, which was awesome. I liked him, but not quite as much as her. Anyway, after the concert, she staked out the limo and we waited for him to get inside be driven away. She was such a dork! When we reached a stop light, she pulled up next to the limo and yelled out the window, “I love you Bryan!” as loud as she could. I was so embarrassed so I scrunched down into my seat, but Bryan actually did roll down his window and agreed to pull over so we could meet him. He shook our hands, signed an autograph for Shannon on a photograph she had bought at the concert – I was too embarrassed to ask for one and got back in the limo and took off. I’m sure he was thinking stalker, but he was really gracious about it. He’s very cool.”
“Yeah, I know him. And he told me about Shannon. You’re right, he thought she was stalker!” Nick said and Corinne looked at him, not knowing whether to believe him or not.
Nick giggled. “I’m just kidding, but I actually did meet him. He’s awesome. I love all his music. I had his music in mind when I wrote some of my songs for Now or Never.”
Howie smiled. They were just too cute together. He didn’t know exactly what happened with Corinne and Kevin, but he thought Corinne and Nick made a very nice couple. They seemed happy. He remembered that Corinne and Kevin didn’t always seem happy.
“Oh, well, you talked through the song and now it’s over. I was going to ask you to dance.” Nick said and winked at Howie. Howie smothered a laugh.
“Yeah, right. Don’t worry, I’ll get you out on that dance floor when they play the right song.”
Right now Billy Idol’s White Wedding was playing. Definitely not the right song. The waitress came by with their beers and Nick paid her.
Nick and Howie started talking business, discussing the tracks that had been written for them for the new album and which ones they liked and would be working on tomorrow. Corinne halfway listened, sipping her beer and listening to the music. Nick grasped her hand under the table to let her know he was still thinking about her and she smiled.
After a few minutes, Howie said it was time for him to head out but he would see Nick tomorrow. Nick and Corinne said their goodbyes and sat back down at the table.
“How long do you want to stay here? You know, we could go home and…”
“I know, make a story of our own.”
“You bitch. You’re constantly using my song lyrics against me.” He laughed.
“You love it. Well, I wouldn’t mind making a story or whatever you want to call it, with you, baby. Feel free to take me home and have your way with me, but not before we have one dance together. I have never danced with you and I want to grope you on the dance floor and make all the women here jealous.” She grinned at him.
“Oh, is that your plan? Well, in that case, pick your song and let’s do this!” He laughed and kissed her.
“Not this one. The next one.”
“Whatever it is?”
“Whatever it is, I promise, we’ll dance to it. Let’s hope it’s a good one, like a Journey song or something.”
“Yeah, Journey would kick ass!” Nick said.
But it turned out to be Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time”. “Ugh, not this one…” Corinne grimaced.
“You promised and a promise is a promise. Now, get your ass up and let’s dance.” Nick stood up and took her hand. Corinne agreed begrudgingly.
They made it to the dance floor and joined the five other couples slow-dancing. Nick happily took Corinne into his arms and held her close. He loved the feel of her in his arms. He didn’t think he would ever get tired of holding her. Corinne put his head on Nick’s shoulder and danced in sync with him. She closed her eyes and smiled happily. This was the life she wanted. She didn’t want anyone else but Nick. It was interesting then that when she opened her eyes she saw that the couple dancing a few feet away from them was Kevin and her sister, Amber. Not only were they dancing, but they were flat out making out, groping each other as if they were going to disrobe each other at any moment. Corinne was trying to stop her head from spinning because at any moment she thought she was going to be sick.
