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Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Alex and Annie walked over the restaurant next to the hotel to get some takeout. They made it through the lobby and outside without being seen by the hundreds of fans that were milling around the hotel. There were also fans outside the hotel as well, but they used a side door and without bodyguards, they looked just like two people staying at the hotel.

“How do they find you?” Annie asked, breathing easy as they passed the last group of fans standing outside.

“I’m not sure, but I think the big tour buses in the parking lot give them some indication,” he teased. “Honestly though, I think they just drive around from hotel to hotel until they see the buses, and then they call their friends, and their friends call their friends and so on and so on.”

“That actually sounds like something Andrea and I would have done when we were sixteen,” she admitted, smiling as she remembered the first concert they went to in Milwaukee during the summer of 1998. She and Andrea were not that different from most of the fans the boys had, but they have calmed down a bit over the years, as maturity would tend to cause someone to do. AJ grabbed Annie’s hand and entwined his fingers in hers as they walked through the doors into the restaurant.

“I’m glad you found me,” he said sweetly, grabbing a couple menus for them to peruse. She smiled back at him, thinking to herself that she was glad she found him too.

Since AJ knew what Nick liked to eat and Annie knew what Andrea liked to eat, the decision on what to order was not a very complex one. They decided on Buffalo wings, a cheese quesadilla, four personal pizzas with each person’s own favorite toppings, side salads, and some soda.

“It’s going to be about twenty to thirty minutes; do you want to wait or have it delivered to your room?” the server asked.

“We’ll wait,” AJ answered after getting a nod of approval from Annie. They walked over to the lounge area and grabbed a private booth. They each ordered a drink while they waited and immersed themselves in each other’s company and conversation.

“Tell me more about what makes you ‘Annie’,” AJ prodded. “What is your favorite color, your birthday, your….shoe size?”

“My shoe size?” she asked, laughing. “Are you planning on buying me shoes?”

“You know what they say, ‘big feet….”

“Yeah, I know what they say,” she said cutting him off. “And they are right, I found that out earlier,” she said quietly, referring back to the sexual interlude they had prior that morning.

“I think I may love you!” AJ exclaimed jokingly as he kissed her on the forehead. The scary thing is, I think I really do, he told himself. The best part would be though if I love someone that actually loves me back.

“I think I love you too,” Annie responded, not so jokingly. She looked down at her hands, unsure if she should have disclosed that to him or not. Alex took his hand and lifted her chin up with it so that her eyes met his. She gazed into his deep beautiful brown eyes and melted just like butter being poured over popcorn at a movie theater. He leaned in and kissed her on the lips, very quickly but very sensually.

“Good,” was his only response. He continued to ask her questions and she continued to answer them; favorite color: blue, birthday: August 12, shoe size: 10, pets: three dogs, four cats, two horses, favorite food: Indian cuisine, coffee: black with sugar, eggs: scrambled, and other various inquiries that are associated with getting to know someone.

When a brief pause came during the third degree he was giving her, she sat contemplating a question that had risen in her mind but she was hesitant to ask. After some internal deliberation, she decided in favor of it. “Alex, don’t you think it’s odd that we have already boned before we knew any of this about each other?” She looked up at him after asking the question, and was relieved to see the look on his face that showed he felt the same way.

“I was thinking that same thing. Don’t get me wrong, I have had ‘sex with no information’ quite a few times in the past, but that’s not what I am about anymore. I want something real, and meaningful, and..” he paused, taking a deep breath. He took Annie’s hands in his once more and finished his sentence, “permanent.” He looked at Annie, hoping to catch a sign, something, that would illustrate she felt the same, or at least felt okay with what he had said.

Annie sat there for a moment, wanting to respond, but uncertain of what to actually say. She so much wanted that too, she wanted to find love, true love, that would stop when she was out of town, or when she got sick, or when she was having a bad hair day. She wanted a long-lasting, unconditional, deep, passionate love, the kind of love that Andrea and Michael had. She wanted to be happy like they had been. She looked up at AJ and into “those” eyes once more. “I want that too,” she said. “But I don’t want you to think for one minute that I regret what we did, or that I am trying discount it or lessen what it meant for me. I just don’t want that to be the end, you know?”

“Okay guys, your order is ready,” the server said, walking up to their booth with a bag of food in each hand. They looked at each, the trance they had been in was broken, and they knew they would have to wait to finish their conversation. They walked back to the hotel hand in hand, both with an optimism that wasn’t there on the walk to the restaurant, both of them encompassing the excitement and anticipation of things to come.