“Hello?”
“Rinda! Thank God you’re home!”
“Carly? What’s up?”
“What’s up?! How can you ask me that! Derek is over here and he just dropped the bomb to me and Nick about your engagement!”
“Oh my God, I was going to call you. I just got home from a photo shoot and it all just happened so fast…”
“Apparently!” Suddenly Carly heard a commotion at the door and three male voices talking instead of two. Who was here NOW?
She chose to ignore the interruption; her curiosity about her friend’s engagement overpowering her need to find out who had just arrived.
“How did you guys get engaged anyway?!”
“Well, it’s kind of a long story…”
“Yeah, I heard the long version from Derek. What I want to know is how did things progress from you clinging to him and him breaking up with you to you’re both suddenly in love and…” What the hell? There was shouting now coming from the kitchen.
“Rinda, I’ve got to call you back. Something is going on here!”
“O…kay…” Rinda said, puzzled.
Carly hung up and practically ran into the kitchen.
“Connor! What is going on?” Carly walked in to see her brother yelling at Nick and Derek who were both trying to defend themselves and calm him down at the same time.
“Sis! Oh my God, you’re okay! Thank God!” He went over to hug her. She looked at Derek and Nick with a confused look and they both just shrugged and headed towards the direction of the living room.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be okay?” Carly asked when they parted. She smelled alcohol on his breath, which explained his aggressive behavior towards Derek and Nick. That’s the only time she ever saw his aggression, when alcohol was involved.
Suddenly Carly saw tears well up in her brother’s eyes. “Connor, oh my God, what’s wrong? Come sit down and talk to me.”
Connor complied and they both sat across the table from each other. “What’s going on?” Carly demanded.
“I got fired today.”
“What!”
“How did that happen?”
“I don’t know, I don’t want to go into it. But I go over to mom’s house and she tells me that you had a miscarriage a few days ago! Car, I had no idea! Why didn’t anyone tell me!”
Carly looked at him sheepishly. Really, someone should have let him know. But she had not been in a position to be the one to do that.
“I’m sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry. My baby sister. I’m so sorry. I know you really wanted to have kids. Can you still have them?”
Carly nodded. “Yeah, as far as I know. I’m healthy, so that’s good. If you don’t mind, I really don’t want to talk about it. I’m okay, but thanks for caring. I really appreciate it.”
“Well, I may not show it a lot of times, but I really do care.” He smiled at her and squeezed her hand.
Carly smiled back at him. He was the only sibling she had and she cared about him a great deal. They may not have always been close, but they would always be family and have each other.
“So, what did you say to Nick and Derek when you came in? I heard yelling!” Carly asked him.
“Oh, that. Well, I demanded to know who knocked you up and they wouldn’t give me any answers, so I got pissed.”
“Connor! You didn’t!” Carly put a hand over her mouth in shock.
“Well, I just wanted to make sure the real father was taking care of you, that’s all. I’m sorry. I’ll apologize to them.”
“Yeah, you will. They don’t deserve that. For your information, they were both really good to me. You don’t need to know any details other than that. Except I will tell that Nick and I are in love and we are really happy. I wanted you two to meet, but under better circumstances.”
“Yeah, well, I screwed that up, didn’t I?” He looked down, ashamed.
“No, it will be fine, but when the hell did you get drunk?” Carly asked, waving her hand in front of her face to indicate that his breath stank of alcohol.
Just then Derek and Nick’s laughter could be heard from the living room. Carly discerned noises resembling Derek’s latest video game and she groaned inwardly. She couldn’t stand that video game and now Derek was sucking Nick into it. Damn you, Derek!
“Hey, would you two keep it down in there!” Carly yelled, frustrated.
“Uh, sure, Car.” She heard Nick’s reply. She could imagine Nick and Derek exchanging smirks as if she was the shrew of the house.
“Ugh!” She groaned and looked up at her brother. He was smiling.
“What? Don’t tell me you want to go play with them?”
Connor nodded excitedly.
“God! Go ahead!” She threw up her hands and watched Connor jump up to join the adolescent men.
Fifteen minutes later, Carly walked into the living room with her purse over her shoulder.
“Eh hem!” She cleared her throat loudly, but the three guys were so engrossed in the game that they didn’t notice she was standing there, let alone hear her.
“Nick!” She finally shouted. Nick jumped and put down the joystick.
“Yes, baby, what’s up?” He looked like a little boy who had gotten his hand caught in the cookie jar.
Carly had to suppress a smile. He looked so cute. “Rinda is on her way to meet me in San Dimas – it’s about 10 minutes from here. I’m sure you won’t miss me while I’m gone. “ She said sarcastically.
Nick grinned, stood up and walked over to her. He didn’t give a damn that her ex-boyfriend and brother were right there, he wanted to kiss the woman he loved. He gave her a juicy kiss to Carly’s surprise and she gave him a big smile in return.
“Wow! Maybe you will miss me.” She giggled.
“Always.” He smiled back.
“Hey,” she whispered, as if the other two could hear anyway, “I’m glad you are all getting along. Connor means well, you know.”
“I know. He’s cool. He was just protecting his sister – I get it.”
Carly’s smile widened. Nick Carter gave her a reason every day to love him more; she was a very lucky woman.
Carly reached up to kiss him again. “I love you.”
“Back at you, baby.” He teasingly reached around her and patted her bottom.
“Hey!” Carly laughed and turned around to walk out. “Bye, guys!” She waved, knowing they wouldn’t even notice her absence and she left.
“So, walk me through this, step by step. I want to hear everything.” Carly said to Rinda.
They were sitting in Starbucks over lattes, happy to finally be alone to talk.
Rinda smiled, sipped her coffee and said. “Well, it was the weirdest thing. I decided I wanted closure, you know, tell Derek how sorry I was about the way I acted and to say goodbye with dignity, you know, and after that, we kept talking and then laughing and then talking and then laughing. It was like we were discovering one another for the first time. I mean, before it was just sex…” She paused and looked up at her friend hesitantly.
Carly waved her hand and said, “I’m over him; I’m over the whole cheating thing – who am I to judge anyway?”
“True!” Rinda laughed. “And so this time, it was getting to know one another without the sex and we found out that not only do we have a lot in common – a lot of the same interests, desires, personality traits, etc., but we actually loved spending time together. It was like a rebirth so to speak; like we had just started dating and we clicked instantly. It was so weird and surreal, but wonderful at the same time! We spent two days straight together having the best time WITHOUT sex. We decided to leave that part out of the equation this time and it really helped! It was like we were thinking with our heads and hearts and not our libidos. It was fucking awesome, Car!”
Carly finished her coffee and smiled at her friend. It was amazing how she really wasn’t jealous at all. It was hard to believe that her best friend of almost 12 years was now marrying her ex-boyfriend and it didn’t bother her. In fact, it made her happy. It really cemented in her mind that Nick was the man for her and it hadn’t been Derek. Thank God she had not married him.
“I am so happy for you guys. I really mean it.” Carly smiled at Rinda.
Rinda smiled back. “I really believe you do. Thank you so much. You have no idea how much that means to me!” She reached over and gave Carly a hug. And when they parted, Rinda had tears in her eyes.
“Oh, Dorinda…” Carly’s heart melted.
“Dorinda? You never call me that!” Rinda laughed, wiping her tears away.
“Yeah, well, you seemed like a Dorinda to me. You’ve really matured these past few days and I’m so proud of you.”
“Thank you.” Rinda said, the tears spilling over generously now. She grabbed her napkin and dabbed at her face. “You have too, Car. I am so happy for you and Nick – I really mean that.”
Now it was Carly’s turn to cry, so she grabbed her own napkin to imitate her friend’s action.
They both looked at one another and laughed. “Look at us! What a couple of saps!” Rinda said as they held each other’s hands and were thankful they still had their friendship.
“Car, I still wish I could have been there during your… well, you know…”
“Oh, God, don’t start that. If you think I’m crying now, just wait… let’s not go there. It’s okay, really.”
“I just have to know and then I’ll shut up about it. Are you doing okay, really? I know you put on this brave face, but what about on the inside…?”
“I’m good. It’s still hard sometimes thinking about what happened and that it was Nick’s… oh, shit, I can’t, I just can’t… please change the subject NOW.” She demanded, the water works threatening to spill out and soak her face even more.
“Alright. So, what color bridesmaid dress would you prefer – black or white?”
“What?” Carly laughed, grateful to have the subject changed. “Oh, Rinda, you always were unique, always wanting to go against the grain, instead of with it. Who has black bridesmaid’s dresses! And certainly no one has white ones! That’s reserved for the bride!”
Rinda laughed. “Well, this bride is not wearing white.”
Carly smiled. She knew her friend well. “Ah, that’s right. No white for you. Let me guess, purple? Orange?” She teased.
“No, pink.”
“Pink! God, no!” Carly protested.
“Not bright pink, more of a champagne pink, subtle.”
“Subtle! I would never use that word to describe you! Not in a million years!” Carly giggled.
“Ha ha. I’m serious. I’ve already contacted a designer who will design the dress I want.”
“In two weeks! Are you kidding? Who?!”
“You’re not going to believe this. It’s actually a friend of AJ’s!”
“AJ’s! Oh my God, too funny. When did you talk to AJ?”
“A couple of days ago. He had mentioned to me that he was thinking about starting his own clothing line with Gwenn Gilbert, a famous clothing designer from Hollywood. They are just in talks about it, but since AJ had raved about her, I asked him if I could get her number. I had already seen some of her designs in magazines and from my shows; some of the models modeled some of her designs, so…”
“Wow, that was cool of him. So, isn’t that going to be expensive and again, how can she make it in two weeks?”
“Actually, Gwenn isn’t really designing the gown. I just wanted to consult with her on some things since I’m going to be using two of her finished designs and molding them into one dress. My sisters said they would help me make the gown.”
“What? You, Sienna and Lauren are going to make this dress? Are you crazy?”
“Yes, I guess we are, but we’re going to attempt it.” Rinda laughed. “I meet with them tomorrow to buy the material, do you want to come?”
“Uh, no thanks. You know I’m not into that stuff, besides I have to work tomorrow. I haven’t worked in a few days. It will be kind of nice to get back. But I will do anything you need me to do.”
“Thanks! Best friend and Maid of Honor!” Rinda smiled.
“That is so weird to hear – Maid of Honor!”
“Yeah, hopefully it will be Matron someday.” Rinda smiled.
“Hopefully. If I can ever get Nick Carter’s butt off of my couch with my ex-boyfriend and my brother to ask me!”
Rinda looked at her quizzically. What the hell was she talking about?
“Yeah, Nick Carter’s butt. Now, that’s a nice butt.” A woman said behind them…
