“Ronni?” James whispered the name.
Ronni woke up immediately. She had had the foresight to down some Tylenol after her shower before she fell onto the bed. “Hey, Baby,” she said and then pouted, “you’re late. I was waiting for you. I guess I fell asleep.”
James was confused. He had told Ronni this morning that he wouldn’t be home until after eight. That wasn’t late in her world, so why had she fallen asleep? Why are you even worrying about that, he asked himself. Your beautiful wife is six feet away from you, naked and waiting…
To emphasize the point that she had been waiting for him, Ronni slipped the comforter off herself. She spread her legs and lay open and exposed to him. She trailed her fingers down over her stomach and then stroked herself idly. “I was beginning to think I might have to do this myself,” she murmured in a sexy voice, “but since you’re here…”
James wanted to tear his clothing from himself, but he also liked what he was seeing. “And what would you have done,” he murmured, slowly loosening his tie, “if I hadn’t come home when I did?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Ronni sat in front of her computer, a glass of wine sitting beside the mouse pad. Mmmm, she thought. James, James, James... She exhaled through pursed lips. Man, he could still do it to her every time. That had been very exciting.
After their lovemaking, she had phoned out for a pizza. They had eaten it together and then James went to bed with some business papers. Ronni said she’d be along shortly and closed the bedroom door on her way out. She knew that James would be asleep when she got back. 11:02. That was his usual drop-off time.
Ronni logged on and went to all the message boards that she had signed up for. She responded to as many of the threads as she could, trying to build up the all-important ‘number of posts’ statistic. When she really started her plan, she didn’t want to look like she’d newly arrived. That might cause suspicion. She laughed to herself, when two of her personas got into an argument about Kevin’s latest hairstyle. That had been good for twenty posts between the two of them, and had dragged any number of others into the discussion. Apparently, Kevin’s hair was an important issue in Backstreet Land. At least, he’s still got his, mused Ronni. AJ hasn’t been seen without a hat in God knows how long and Brian has been doing that comb-down bangs thing since forever.
Ronni clicked her mouse over another thread. Maybe all five of them could congratulate Nick again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~“What do you do when you’re not stuck with me, Patrick?” asked Abby. They were strolling the halls of Madison Square Garden, admiring the display cases of historical artifacts. It was a building full of history. Abby stopped in front of a Knicks display case and pointed at Bill Russell’s jersey.
Patrick nodded at it. “I’m part of the general security team, Ma’am,” he replied and then quickly added, “I mean…Abby.”
Abby smiled at him. It seemed silly to her, to have a security guard, especially in an empty building. But she knew that an hour from now, when they opened the doors to the public, she might be glad she had a special place to go and a large man to watch over her. She fingered her plastic coated pass. It said ‘Abby Carter’. The one in Atlanta had said, ‘Abby Fremont’ because they were still keeping the secret and the one in Boston would say ‘Abby Fremont-Carter’ since she’d made up her mind.
Or maybe it would say, ‘Rich Woman that Nick Married’. Or…
“Well, it won’t be long before you can go back to that,” she said softly. “I’ll be going home soon.”
“I hope not,” said Patrick, sincerely. Not because he didn’t want to go back to general security detail, but because he liked this woman. He liked the way Nick was when he was with her.
Abby smiled at him and shook her head. “I don’t belong here,” she said. She thought that sounded a little sad and pathetic, so she added, “I have my own life…in Chicago. I’m not just a groupie, you know.”
Patrick nodded. He wondered what had happened between her and Nick today. Nick had come hurtling out of the workout room looking upset and gone straight to his dressing room. Abby had followed shortly after and she looked like she might cry. Where is he? she had asked plaintively. Patrick took her there. He noticed her hesitation before she knocked on the door and the pain in her voice when she said, Nick? Nick hadn’t said anything, but the handle turned and the door opened. Abby didn’t come out for half an hour. Patrick didn’t think they’d been doing anything that needed the music turned up.
“Hey, look at that door! I’m guessing this is the Knicks dressing room.” Abby tried to lighten the mood.
“Yeah, that door is about seven and a half feet tall. And the Rangers dressing room has a door that’s normal height, but it’s double doors, so it can open wide…for the goalie.”
“You know a lot about this, Patrick,” she said.
“I’m a New Yorker,” he said. “Born and raised.”
“Oh dear,” sighed Abby theatrically, “I guess that makes you a…I don’t even know if I can say this…”
“What?” asked Patrick.
“A Yankees fan.”
Patrick burst out laughing. “Chicago, huh? I’m guessing the Cubs.”
They walked along and talked baseball until Patrick told her it was time to get in place. He took her backstage and stood beside her while the pre-concert frenzy swirled around her. The excitement was palpable.
Abby tried her best to fade into the background and was reasonably successful at it. The people backstage were there to work. They were focused on the task at hand and didn’t have time for idle conversation. The guys came out of their dressing rooms and did their group prayer/hug/ good wishes thing. They were very focused. Abby didn’t know if it was because Nick was intent on the concert or if he was still upset, but she did know that he ignored her. Until Kevin pointed her out to him, just before they headed out to the area under the stage.
Nick came over to her and pursed his lips. “Don’t smudge me,” he said.
Abby reached up and kissed him gently. “Have fun,” she whispered.
“I will,” he replied and turned away, thinking ‘she gets it, she really gets it’.
Patrick took Abby out to her spot in the pit. She sat on a chair with some other guests and contest winners. “Wow! Look at all the signs!” she said, looking around. “I didn’t think you were supposed to bring signs in.”
Patrick laughed. “You’re not. And you’d wonder how they do it. I mean, how do they get past the entrance check with a big sign?”
One of the contest winners leaned over. “We cut them into smaller pieces and shove them up our shirt. Then we go into the bathroom and tape them back together.”
“Okay, mystery solved. Thanks!” said Abby. She stood up and moved her eyes over the crowd. Congratulations, Nick!...Nick and Abby Forever…We love you, Nick!...Hey, Howie! Want to Be Next?Abby pointed that one out to Patrick and they laughed.
Suddenly, the lights went down and the perfectly rational teenager beside her turned into a screaming, hysterical lunatic. Abby was so startled that she took a step back into Patrick. The girl just started screaming…not words or anything, just sound. She jumped up and down, her eyes scanning the stage, looking for the Boys. And she wasn’t alone. The whole arena was a mass of screaming, bouncing girls and women.
And then out came the Boys…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Ronni looked at the time. Almost two o’clock. She really should go to bed. She’d done a lot of work here tonight. She decided to make the Howie fan the dim bulb that would ask the stupid questions and cause the damage. On most of the Boards, you could get away with saying almost anything. You had to be a little more careful at the Mature Fan Club. Ronni smiled to herself. But that was the best place to do it. Because they would all start arguing about what was appropriate to say and that would just keep it going.
Ronni perused the threads carefully until she found what she was looking for. One of the posters talked about Nick’s radio interview and said wasn’t it cute that they got married because they “couldn’t wait”. Ronni went in as the Howie fan and quoted the words “they couldn’t wait”. You don’t really think they had to get married, do you? she asked. The Nick fan responded that she thought the Howie fan was out of line even to suggest such a thing. The Kevin fan replied that what the Boys did in their private life was nobody’s business but their own, and they shouldn’t even be discussing it. The Howie fan came back with, Hey, I didn’t mean to offend anyone, and if they had to get married, so what? It’s not like it doesn’t happen every day in the real world. And quite frankly, I’d love to see another Backstreet Baby.
Ronni did a variation on the same thing on all four message boards and then called it a night. She went to bed with a smile on her face and wondered what the boards would look like in the morning.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Abby had a splitting headache. The sound of the screaming crowd was boring into the middle of her brain. But she knew better than to put her hands over her ears. How would that look? And she knew there’d be pictures. Patrick couldn’t understand how they got signs in. Abby didn’t understand how they got cameras in, but apparently every one of them did, as there were constant light flashes. Abby stood with a smile plastered on her face and never took her eyes off Nick. If he looked at her at all, she wanted to be looking back.
It had been a very tense half hour earlier in his dressing room. She couldn’t understand why Nick was so upset. Finally, he’d said, “If I’d only known…” Abby thought her heart would tear out of her chest.
He looked at her and realized what he had said. “No, Ba…Abby, no…” He pulled her into his arms and hugged her. “That’s not what I meant. It’s just…”
And then it all came pouring out. And Abby realized that Nick wasn’t upset because of the amount of money she had. He was upset because he’d been too stupid to realize just how much money she had. “Here I was, offering to help you finance a little apartment. You must have thought I was an imbecile.”
“I thought you were a sweet, generous man,” said Abby. And then she tried to explain again how the money meant nothing to her and she’d be happy to give it all away if she could.
“How much?” he finally asked. And she told him. And he got upset again. “People will think I married you for your money,” he said.
“Of course,” said Abby, through quivering lips. “What other reason could there possibly be? Certainly not my looks.”
Nick felt like a first-class asshole. Why did he always say the wrong thing? He opened his mouth to apologize, but was interrupted by a knock on the door.
It was Terence. “Makeup, Nick!”
“Okay, I’m coming,” he called out. “Abby, can we talk about this later?”
Abby straightened her shoulders and cleared her throat. “There’s no need, Nick. As long as you and I are clear on it, I don’t care what other people think and neither should you. So are we clear?”
Nick wanted to say, no, actually, I’m not all that clear. Things have changed a little from my perspective. But Terence knocked again, so Nick just said, “Friends forever?”
“Friends forever,” said Abby with a smile. “Now go make some music.”
