Isabelle Rossi glanced up at the airport in front of her. The person next to her gave her hand a quick squeeze and brought it to his lips affectionately. “Don’t worry about it, beautiful. Everything’s gonna work out perfectly.” He winked. Sometimes his perfection scared the shit out of her. She took in a deep breath as they walked into the airport, pulling their luggage behind them.
“Brady! Hey man, how’s it going?” A large man approached the couple as soon as they walked towards check-in. Brady Robinson chuckled and shook hands with the man.
“It’s good,” Brady nodded politely. “How have you been? How’s everyone?” He asked and motioned towards a group of people not far behind the man.
“Good, good,” the man smiled and grinned a toothy grin in Isabelle’s direction. “This must be Isabelle.” He winked and put his hand out politely. Isabelle smiled back and shook his hand sweetly.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, I’m Isabelle Rossi,” she introduced.
“Marcus,” the man nodded. He was completely blown away by this woman’s beauty. She had very tan skin with dark hair and dark, mysterious eyes. Her entire demeanor was professional and polite, yet absolutely lovely at the same time. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear after a moment, a bit embarrassed from having the attention all on her at once.
“Brady!” A tattooed man that Isabelle finally recognized stepped into the picture. “Man, how the fuck have you been?” He chuckled and hugged Brady with a manly hug.
“I’ve been great! How about you? Jesus, it’s been forever,” he chuckled. “Oh, Isabelle, this is AJ McLean.”
“Alex,” AJ corrected with a wink and shook her hand politely. Like Marcus, he was completely blown away. This girl was beautiful. Then again, she went along quite well with Brady. Brady Robinson was one of the most attractive men AJ would ever admit to laying eyes on. He was tall, dark and handsome. People swore he was a model of some kind, not a business man. “It’s a pleasure.”
“Nice to meet you,” Isabelle smiled sweetly after shaking his hand. “Um, is there a restroom somewhere around here?” She glanced around the lobby of the airport. Brady pointed to a back corner and she hurried off while he continued conversation with AJ. She really just wanted to get away from it all. Brady had been working with the Backstreet Boys during their Never Gone tour. He would help, business wise, with all the venues and sales of merchandise. He had talked Isabelle into getting a job with them, as well, to sell merchandise. She would be the Manager of Merch, as Johnny Wright called it, and would be the permanent person that traveled with them to help out. To start off the Unbreakable tour, she was headed with them to Europe. Brady thought this would work out best so the couple could remain together.
As soon as Isabelle rounded the corner towards the women’s restroom, she ran smack into a tall blonde. “Oh, sorry.” He muttered, completely unfazed until he saw her face. “Hello.” He grinned, wanting to get to know this girl.
“Oh, it’s my fault,” she laughed softly. Her laugh was captivating – along with her eyes and smile. “Oh! You’re Nick.” She grinned, recognizing him from a picture Brady had shown her before. Nick’s smile faded slightly when he realized she knew exactly who he was. Yet, he didn’t really care. A beauty like this didn’t really matter.
“Yeah,” he chuckled. “And you are?” He tried to keep conversation going.
“Isabelle Rossi,” she put her hand out politely. “My boyfriend is Brady Robinson…we’re touring with you guys this time around. I’m in charge of merchandise.” She rambled off. Nick mentally slapped himself – Brady’s girlfriend?! He should have known this girl would be taken, by one of his friends, at that.
“It’s nice to meet you, Isabelle,” Nick winked flirtatiously, emitting a giggle from her perfectly shaped lips.
“You too, Nick,” she beamed. “Well, I’m going to use the restroom quickly before this plane takes off. Is it really like, a twenty-four hour flight?” She asked incredulously.
“Yep,” he nodded with a chuckle. “Something like that.”
She made a cute face before entering the restroom and Nick turned to walk back to the group of guys. He saw Brady chatting with the guys. How come all his friends ended up so lucky? Brian was married with a kid, Kevin was married with a kid, Howie was getting married and AJ was with someone he really thought a lot of. Granted, Nick didn’t believe in marriage whatsoever. He never wanted to commit to it because of the horror stories he experienced as a kid. He shrugged it off and tried to push the thought of Isabelle – the gorgeous woman he had just met – to the back of his mind.
“Hey Nick!” Brady exclaimed once Nick approached the group. Brady pulled Nick in for a quick manly hug and smiled. “How have you been, man?”
“Busy,” Nick nodded with a smile. “How about yourself? You still living out in LA?” He asked, trying to catch up. Nick and Brady had been pretty good friends. They were closest in age – Brady was 26 – so they had more in common.
Brady rolled his eyes. “Kinda. My girlfriend lives in North Carolina so I’ve been staying out there with her a lot.” He shrugged with a sigh. He glanced over his shoulder to make sure Isabelle wasn’t in ear range. “I just don’t get it. She loves me enough to live with me in North Carolina, but there’s nothing I can do to get her to move to LA with me.”
Nick shrugged and glanced back towards the bathrooms. “Maybe she doesn’t want to,” he shrugged. “I’m not sure I’d pick up and move somewhere besides California or Florida if someone asked me to.” He threw in his two cents of information.
“Yeah, but that’s California and Florida! It’s like, who doesn’t want to live there, ya know?” Brady sighed. He saw his girlfriend was back on her way over and he quickly stopped chatting. “Here she comes.” He muttered and formed a smile over his lips. “Hey, beautiful. This is Nick Carter.” He introduced.
“We met,” she grinned but politely shook his hand. “Nice to officially meet you, though.”
Nick nodded and chuckled. Then, to answer Brady’s curious expression, he continued. “We ran into each other when I was on my way out of the bathroom and she was on her way in.” He explained.
“Oh!” Brady nodded with a smile. “That’s great that she’s met everyone now.” Brady beamed. “Isn’t she perfect? Absolutely beautiful.” He kissed her cheek affectionately. Isabelle rolled her eyes and pulled back from him a bit. “What? It’s the truth.”
The way she was acting, Nick almost got the impression that she didn’t want to be called beautiful, even though she was absolutely breathtaking. “Just stop.” She giggled but Nick could tell she was serious. Brady kissed her cheek one more time and then turned back to Marcus, completely avoiding the fact he had done something wrong. Isabelle caught Nick’s stare and smiled sheepishly, then turned to her cell phone for some kind of distraction. Nick bit on his bottom lip to turn away from the conversation and let it go. But something about this girl completely intrigued him. Her eyes were so mysterious and yet so full of love and joy and happiness. He couldn’t tell why she was so sad.
“Beautiful, we’re gonna make a quick run to the baggage claim before we go through security,” Brady said referring to him and Marcus. “If you guys get through security before we get back, I’ll just meet up with you at the terminal.” He kissed her sweetly.
“Kay,” Isabelle smiled up at him as he hurried off and the line for the security guard moved a little.
“How long have you and Brady been together?” Nick asked to try and make small talk, as well as get to know the girl a little better.
“Just about two months,” Isabelle answered with a soft sigh. “He’s kind of a friend of the family. My father was good friends with a man in the business department working for Jive management, and he met Brady through that. We started dating shortly after.” She explained. They hadn’t known each other long at all. Nick was surprised Brady was disappointed she wouldn’t move in with him already. They barely knew each other. Nick was definitely the ladies’ man, however he held off on the “living together” aspect of the relationship a bit longer than two months. He didn’t believe in marriage, or love for that matter.
“Wow, and you’re coming along on tour with us?” Nick chuckled, trying to sound playful.
Isabelle nodded, as if she had been thinking about that. “Brady and I really have a lot in common. My family encouraged me to go, so I figured I’d give it a shot.” She shrugged. She tucked her cell phone away in her pocket and smiled up at Nick again.
“That’s good,” Nick replied, trying to remain encouraging. “Besides, if you two get tired of each other, there are four of us to hang out with along the way.” He was hoping she’d decide to hang out with him more often than not. He already had the vibe that they could get along really well together.
Author's Chapter Notes:
SO, this is my new addition to my fan fiction family, lol. I waited a little while to post it, simply because I know I'm already working on My Girl and Before it's too late. No worries, those are both still being worked on. I've written five chapters of this one, so I thought I'd get it started! Please review!!
