“Yeah, I’m fine,” said AJ, distractedly.
Howie drove awhile in silence. It had been an interesting evening. Nick had spent most of the day saying, Let’s get to work, whenever the weekend was discussed. Howie guessed that made sense, but it seemed strange that Nick was the one with the work ethic all of a sudden and the rest of them were the goof-offs. But after his initial description of the Italian restaurant, Nick had seemed reluctant to discuss his weekend.
Tonight it was completely different. At dinner, Nick had been positively giddy. He asked Howie for detail after detail about his weekend and then threw in some information about his own. They’d gone to the Cubs game. They’d gone shopping. They’d gone to the zoo. Abby said this. Abby did that.
The more Nick talked, the quieter AJ got. And he couldn’t stop staring at Nick. AJ didn’t have anyone at the moment, Howie thought. Maybe he was jealous that Nick did. No, not jealous, Howie corrected himself, maybe just wishing he had someone too. AJ didn’t like to be alone.
Dinner was barely finished when AJ stood up and said he wanted to call it a night. He was tired. He said he’d grab a cab back to his hotel, but Nick and Howie said that they were ready to pack it in too. AJ didn’t say one word while they were driving to Nick’s hotel. Howie said goodnight and AJ gave a small wave.
“So…uh…Nick and Abby, huh?” Howie put out a feeler, as they drove off.
“She’s not real, D.”
Howie disagreed. He thought that Abby sounded like a very real person, down-to-earth, not all fake Hollywood-style. “I thought she sounded pretty normal.”
“No, D, she’s not real. He made her up.”
“What?” Howie wasn’t following this at all.
AJ sighed. “There is no Abby. Nick didn’t go to Chicago. He made it all up.”
“What are you talking about? You heard him. All that stuff about shopping and the zoo…How could he know all that?”
“He researched it on the Internet,” said AJ and then he told Howie what he’d found in Nick’s room.
Howie tried to puzzle it out, but he couldn’t. “What about the emails? Where are they coming from?”
“I dunno, D. Maybe he’s sending them to himself. You know, maybe he got one of those hotmail accounts in her name or something. Or maybe he’s not even getting any. Maybe he’s making that up too.”
“But why?”
“I dunno. I’ve tried to think of a reason but I can’t. Didn’t you say he had a girl out in California?”
“He did. I met her once, a few months ago. Man, was she gorgeous! I thought they were serious, maybe even thinking about living together. But that’s over.”
“What happened?” asked AJ.
“I don’t know. When I asked about her the first day we were here, Nick just said they’d split up. That was all he said. He didn’t seem too bummed by it, though. ‘Cause he’d met Abby. Are you sure about this?”
AJ shrugged. “All I know is that I saw a list of websites and information about Chicago, like he’d been taking notes or something.”
Howie pulled the car up in front of the hotel. “What are you going to do about it, Bone?”
“I dunno,” said AJ with a sigh. “I dunno.”
Howie sighed to himself as he drove away. Damn! Everything had been going perfectly. They were all getting along really well. And now AJ seemed to be going off his rocker. It was one thing to be envious of someone who had a relationship when you didn’t, but to try and make theirs unreal…not real…whatever the word was. Howie scrunched up his forehead. The word doesn’t matter, he told himself finally. AJ’s mental state does.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~AJ still hadn’t decided by morning what he should do. He’d tossed and turned all night long. When he was awake, he puzzled over Nick’s motivation. When he was in a half-sleep, he’d think he’d found a solution, but it would drift away or it would be something bizarre. By morning, he was more confused then ever. And he was tired to boot.
“You okay, Dawg?” asked Kevin. “That’s the third time you’ve yawned in five minutes.” He and AJ were the early arrivals, a rare occurrence for both of them.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just didn’t sleep well. Got shit on my mind. You know how it is.”
“Anything I can help with?”
AJ was tempted to discuss it with Kevin, but he knew that Kevin would talk to Nick about it immediately and AJ wasn’t sure he was ready for that. His mind kept going around and around. Maybe he was jumping to conclusions. Maybe there was a perfectly good explanation. Maybe he hadn’t seen what he thought he’d seen. It was just a bunch of websites and notes, after all. Maybe Nick had done that before he went to Chicago, so he’d have some idea of what he was doing. Yeah, right! Nick doing homework! That was a laugh! And there was that cryptic comment beside the name of the restaurant. ‘How say?’
Nick and Brian arrived together and Howie followed shortly after. He looked tired.
“Hey, D, you look drained,” said Brian. “How late did you guys party?”
“Not late at all. I just didn’t sleep very well. You know, thinking about stuff.”
“Anything we can help with?” asked Kevin, wondering what had happened. Three of them went out last night and two of them didn’t get any sleep after it. He looked over at Nick.
The blond man was pouring a cup of coffee from the urn on the table. He hummed to himself as he stirred sweetener and low-fat milk into it. He saw Kevin looking at him and raised his cup in salute. “Mornin’, Kev.”
“Mornin’, Nick. Sleep well?”
“Like a baby.”
Brian snorted. “Have one. You’ll never use that phrase again.” And Brian was off on a parental tale of woe and lost sleep that lasted until they were all in the studio. They went over the work from the day before, listening to the tapes, each taking notes, smiling at each other when there’d be a moment where they knew it was perfect.
“So Nick,” said AJ, when the technician was switching tapes, “where did you stay in Chicago? At Abby’s house or at a hotel?”
“At a hotel. The Hyatt. It’s right on the lake. Nice place.”
“What room number?” They all looked at AJ. Why did he want to know that?
Nick scrambled for an answer. “411,” he said, grasping at the number on Abby’s AIM name. “Why?”
“No reason,” said AJ. “Just, you know, sometimes numbers are lucky.” They were all gaping at him. What the hell was he talking about?
“Okay, fellas, the next one’s set up.” The technician’s voice came through the speaker. They turned back to the headsets. Kevin looked at Howie and raised his eyebrows in question. Howie gave him an enigmatic grimace which brought more questions than answers.
“I’m getting some juice,” said Kevin, after they’d listened to one song. “You guys want to take a break?”
This wasn’t like Kevin. They had barely started, but what the hell…they agreed on fifteen minutes. Kevin went to the bathroom and when he came out, he found Howie standing outside the door. “What’s up, D?” asked Kevin.
Howie told him. The two men looked at each other in silence. They had thought AJ was over all that mental crap.
“That would explain the question about the hotel room, I guess,” mused Kevin after a moment.
“Yeah,” said Howie. “I think he’s trying to trip Nick up. What should we do, Kev?”
Kevin ran a hand through his hair and then rubbed his neck. “I guess we wait and see. Um…Howie…he’s wrong, right? I mean, Nick didn’t make this girl up, did he?”
Howie just looked at him. “Come on, Kev, don’t you start!”
“No, no, I’m not. I’m just considering all the possibilities.”
They went back into the room. Something was going on. Brian was looking very confused. AJ and Nick looked tense.
“…restaurant, again?”
“I already told you, AJ…Maggiano’s.”
“How do you say that?”
They all looked at him.
“I mean, spell. How do you spell it?” The point AJ was trying to make was evaporating before his eyes.
Howie tried to help Nick out. He figured the best way to get AJ over this was to prove that he was wrong. “So Nick, you went to the Cubs game. Where’d you sit?”
“Abby’s dad has a private box. We sat there. It’s on the right-field side. Good view. He had a couple of business guys there with him. They didn’t even watch the game. We did, though. Abby loves baseball.” Slow it down, slow it down, he told himself. Too much information. “Um, are we going to get back to work or what?”
“Sure,” said Howie, “let’s do that. Maybe we can get done early and go shopping.”
AJ picked up on Howie’s words. “Did you do any shopping when you were in Chicago, Nick?”
Nick had already told them that he had shopped. Why was AJ asking him again? “Yeah, they have this place called the Magnificent Mile. It’s got all the big name stores. We bought a blouse for Abby.”
“Did you get recognized? Were there any fans?”
Brian looked over at Kevin. What was going on here? AJ seemed to be interrogating Nick, and Nick looked very uncomfortable for some reason.
“Well, you know, I wore a hat and sunglasses and you know…it’s not like anyone knew I was there…you know…maybe I got a few looks, but no one…” He paused. “So, if we’re not going to work…I guess we might as well all go…”
“No, no, we’re going to work,” said AJ.
“Good,” said Brian. “Bone, you need to get more sleep. You’re acting weird.”
AJ was pissed. Yeah, he was acting weird. Uh huh! What about the guy who’d made up an entire relationship, complete with a freaking shopping list? He didn’t know what the hell Nick was doing or why, but he was sure of one thing. Nick was lying about being in Chicago. AJ hoped that there wasn’t some serious mental defect responsible for Nick’s behavior. God knows, AJ had enough of those for them all. But they were going to be putting it out there again, as a group…putting themselves on the line…and he didn’t want shit like this to blow back on them.
“I had a couple of thoughts about Ribbons of Light,” said Brian. He shared them and they played with the song for awhile.
“Man, that’s amazing,” said Nick, after an hour. “Thanks, Bri. That really lifts it, you know.”
“Let’s take another break,” said Kevin. “I need to stretch my legs.”
“Yeah, me too,” said Nick.
“Aren’t you going to check your email?” asked AJ.
“I…uh…no…” said Nick.
“Why not? There might be something from Abby.”
“No, there won’t. She has a tennis game this morning. I’ll probably hear from her this afternoon.”
“Really?” said AJ and there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that he didn’t believe Nick.
“What’s going on, Bone?” asked Kevin.
“What’s Abby last name?” demanded AJ.
“Fremont,” answered Nick. “What are you trying to say, AJ?”
“What’s her father do for a living?”
“He’s a big wheel in the family business. I don’t think I want to talk about this any more.”
“What was the weather like in Chicago on the weekend?”
And he had him. Brian had no idea what was going on, but even he could see that Nick was stumped by the question.
“It was okay,” he said, after a minute. “It didn’t rain. It was hot.”
“What the hell is going on here?” demanded Kevin again. This shit had to stop!
“Nick wasn’t in Chicago on the weekend,” said AJ. “There is no Abby. He made her up.”
“There is so,” said Nick, hotly. “Have you lost your mind, AJ?”
“Have you lost yours?” AJ threw back. “What’s all that shit in your room, all the websites and crap for Chicago? You never went anywhere but the Internet. And your room is a friggin’ pigsty. Even you couldn’t get it that messy in just one day!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Time out!” Brian stepped into the fray. “What are you trying to say, Bone?”
“I’m trying to say that I think Nick made this girl up. He didn’t go to Chicago on the weekend. He stayed here and got a bunch of shit off the Internet to make his story look real.”
They all looked at Nick. Nick spread his hands in a pleading gesture. Come on, get real, AJ.
Brian turned back to AJ. “But what about the jam?”
Nick took a deep breath. Go carefully, he told himself, carefully. “I told you before, Bone. This girl has class. I didn’t want to seem like a total dork, so I checked out a few things before I went. So I wouldn’t look stupid.” He turned to the others. “She’s real. I’m telling you, she’s real. Her name is Abby Fremont. Her parents are John and Sharon Fremont. They live in Oak Park, in this ritzy house…old money, you know…lots of wood on the walls and floors… She’s twenty-four years old. We met at the Lodge, like I told you. And we’re…well, I guess dating is the word. We’re dating.” He paused.
“Prove it,” said AJ. “Get her on the phone.”
“I don’t have to prove anything,” said Nick. “I’m telling you the way it is.”
The other three watched the byplay between the two men. Big choice here, they thought. If AJ is right, then Nick is crazy. And if he’s wrong, then he’s crazy. Great! Suddenly, Kevin’s head came up.
“John Fremont?”
“Yeah,” said Nick, “That’s her dad.”
“Fremont Corporation?”
“I guess,” said Nick, “Something like that. It’s real. It’s a real company.”
“It sure is,” said Kevin. They all looked at him. “It owns most of Chicago,” he said.
