Nerves got the better of Tammy for the first five minutes and she chattered non-stop. She’d never been in a limo before. Omigod, look at that. Is that a bar? Oh, no thanks, I’m too young to drink. Oh, there’s sodas. Yes, please, then I’ll have a Coke.
Her head swiveled back and forth taking in the television and the DVD player. There was a stereo somewhere…music was coming in through speakers, but she couldn’t see it. Maybe the driver controlled that.
Patrick handed her the Coke, after pouring it carefully into one of the crystal glasses.
“Thank you,” said Tammy. “I guess you guys are used to this, riding in limos all the time.” She tried to stop babbling. She took a sip of the drink, hoping that the action would just make her shut up.
“I guess,” said Nick. “But I remember the first time. It was pretty exciting.”
“Well, I am certainly excited. I thought I’d throw up.”
“Try not to put that in the article,” said Nick to Tony, laughing. He turned to Tammy, “You know… Backstreet Dream Date Makes Girl Want to Throw Up.”
He was just joking but Tammy was stricken. She put her hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry, that’s not what I meant. You won’t print that, will you?”
Tony shook his head and smiled. “No, it’s okay. I know what you meant.”
“Your friends told me that you’re in the school band,” said Abby, trying to draw the girl’s interest away from her own embarrassment.
“I play the flute,” answered Tammy. “And I’m in the Drama Club and I’m a cheerleader.”
“Cool,” said Nick. “Do you like high school?”
“Oh, yes,” said Tammy and nattered away about how much fun everything was. Nick and Abby looked at each other. He’d never been to high school and she had hated every minute of it. They exchanged a little smile. Tammy didn’t notice. Tony did.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~It hadn’t gone too badly, thought Abby, as she stood in the corner at the after party and watched Nick dance with Tammy. All things considered. Tammy was completely overwhelmed when they got to the venue. The pre-concert atmosphere backstage was one of controlled pandemonium. Everyone rushed here and there. Each person knew exactly what he or she was doing, but to an outside observer, it looked like chaos. And of course, there were four more Backstreet Boys.
Tammy had gone from non-stop babbling to an almost catatonic state. She was only communicating with her eyes now, as they got wider and wider. She made tiny animal noises. “Come and meet the fellas,” was a sentence she would remember forever. So casually said on Nick’s part. So much the introduction to the best moment of her entire life. The ‘fellas’ were very sweet, shaking her hand and teasing her a little. Nice to meet you. Happy that you won the contest. Tammy shook hands and nodded and made little squeaks and whimpers. Her knees nearly buckled at the end when AJ told her that she was cute and Abby had better watch out.
“Oh no,” said Tammy, “I wouldn’t…I’d never…”
“And neither would Nick,” said Kevin, glaring at AJ.
AJ laughed and kissed Tammy on the cheek. Abby knew that Tammy was going to faint now, so she moved up beside her, ready to break her fall when she went down.
“Makeup, Nick,” said Terence.
“Coming,” replied Nick and then waved at Tony and Tammy. Come on.
Tammy linked her arm firmly through Abby’s. “Is this okay?” she whispered, not sure if Abby would mind, but pretty sure that she couldn’t walk on her own.
Abby nodded. “They’re a little intimidating in a group, aren’t they?” she asked.
“Omigod,” whimpered Tammy. “This is a dream come true. I never thought I’d even meet one them, let alone them all.” She touched her cheek where AJ had kissed her and tears started to fall.
Abby grabbed a couple of tissues from the makeup table and moved the crying girl back out of the way. While the makeup girl skillfully applied the accents to Nick’s face, Tammy and Abby sat with their heads together and Tammy told her Backstreet Story to Nick’s wife…what had been the song that had first attracted her to them…how their music had helped her over the painful breakup of her first romance at fifteen…how she had almost lost hope that she would ever hear them sing together again…thank goodness for the solo albums, they had kept her going…
Nick and Tony exchanged a look in the mirror. Tony kept his camera firmly at his side. After a few moments, Tammy calmed down. Tony took a picture of her brushing some makeup onto Nick’s forehead and they moved on.
They stayed backstage during the opening act. Then Patrick led them out to their chairs in the pit. This is it, thought Abby. This is where I have to be careful what I say. Nick has been removed from the equation. There won’t be any more fainting until the Boys come out on stage.
Tammy looked around and exclaimed at the view. “I’ve only ever been able to afford seats up there,” she said, pointing to the upper level. “This is going to be beyond amazing. It’s too bad I wasn’t allowed to bring my camera.”
“Oh, I’m sure you can find what you need on the Internet. There’s probably one or two people here who’ve managed to sneak one in.”
Tammy laughed. “Yeah, no kidding! And Tony said he’ll send me copies of the pictures of me and Nick.” She paused. “Did you have a photographer at the wedding?” She ventured the tiny question.
“Yes and no,” said Abby. “There wasn’t a professional photographer, but Kevin is pretty handy with a camera. He took some pictures. They’re going to be in People magazine in a couple of weeks.”
“Oh, I can’t wait,” said Tammy.
“Well,” said Abby. “I have one here to show you, if you’d like. You can’t keep it, though. It’s an exclusive contract kind of thing.”
“Ooooh, that would be great,” said Tammy. “And I’d never tell anyone that I even saw it.”
Abby raised her eyebrows. Tammy blushed. “Okay, I’ll tell everyone I know…do I still get to see it?”
“Of course, you do,” said Abby, and she pulled the picture out of her jacket pocket. It was the ‘official’ one. Nick and Abby stood together in Brian’s dining room. Nick had his arm around Abby and she was looking up at him. He was smiling down into her eyes. The cake stood on the table in front of them.
“Oh, the cake hides the dress,” said Tammy in disappointment.
Abby chuckled. Obviously, part of Tammy’s mission was to get details about the dress. “It flared out a bit from the waist…” Abby described the dress and how she and Leighanne had found it.
“You didn’t even have a dress?” said Tammy in wonder. Tammy had been dreaming about her wedding dress since she was ten years old. She knew exactly what it was going to look like.
“We were just having a quiet wedding,” said Abby with a shrug. “It didn’t seem like it needed something really fancy…you know, a veil and all that.”
Tammy’s veil was going to be twelve feet long, two feet longer than the train of the dress. She nodded and tried to decide whether or not to ask ‘the question’.
“You were going to get married in September. That’s what I heard,” said Tammy. “Would you have had a fancy dress if you’d waited?”
Abby shook her head. “I’m not a fancy dress kind of person. It was hard to make my mother understand that, though. She wanted…well, everything.” Abby figured she could say whatever she liked about her mother. Who cared if it went all over the Internet? Sharon Fremont would never see it.
“So you moved up the wedding…to…?” Tammy couldn’t finish the sentence.
“So that what we have wouldn’t get lost in the hoopla,” said Abby carefully. Then she looked Tammy straight in the eye. “And that is the only reason.” She held Tammy’s gaze until the teenager figured it out.
Tammy broke into a big grin. “Okay…okay!” Then, after a moment, “Do you mind if I tell my friends that?”
“Tell the world, if you’d like,” said Abby with a smile.
Tammy reached out impetuously and hugged Abby. “I knew it wasn’t true,” she whispered in Abby’s ear. “I just knew it.”
The lights went down then and the wall of sound washed over them from the audience. Fortunately, it was too loud for the rest of the concert to have any conversation. And Tammy’s eyes were glued to the stage anyway. Abby thought the eighteen year-old was having what could be called a full-body experience. She swayed with the music, sang the words along with them, did the choreography for the numbers from the past tour, hugged herself and cried during Show Me The Meaning.
After the concert, she was quiet, as they were escorted backstage to wait for Nick to change. Abby didn’t speak to her, just let her absorb the experience of the concert. Once it was etched indelibly in her memory banks, Tammy blinked and looked up. Abby could see that there were more questions coming her way.
“How much can you tell me about the wedding without getting in trouble with the magazine?” asked the teenager bluntly.
Abby thought it over. She wanted to give Tammy something. She was a nice kid and Abby hoped she’d be doing them a huge favor as soon as she could get her fingers on a keyboard. So she gave her some details that she knew wouldn’t be in the People article. She talked slowly and asked Tammy lots of questions to fill in the time. She didn’t want a complete examination of her relationship with Nick.
“So how did you guys meet again?” Tammy asked.
“Uh…we…it was in June,” said Abby, stalling for time.
Captain Carter sailed out of the dressing room accompanied by his faithful aide-de camp Terence and rescued Princess Penelope. “Let’s party!”
The after party was a new experience for Abby, as well. She saw another side of Nick. She really hadn’t seen Nick out in public. Most of their time together had been private moments, just the two of them…well, just the two of them if you didn’t count bus drivers, bodyguards and Backstreet Boys.
Abby watched Nick dance with Tammy. The teenager would have quite the story to tell. She had not only met all five of the ‘fellas’, she had danced with them as well. She was a good dancer, thought Abby. Abby was tired, all the tension of the day beginning to take its toll. “Pretend I’m not even here,” she whispered to Nick, as they went through the door of the club. “Just do your thing and have fun.”
Nick took her at her word. He had been spending almost every minute with her since the wedding and that meant he hadn’t been hanging out with the crew like he used to, going out for beers with the guys, playing Nintendo in the dressing room, etc. He moved from group to group, dragging Tammy along after him.
Abby looked at her watch. She knew that Tammy was being taken home at 12:30. She didn’t know how long the party would continue after that. She didn’t know if Nick would want to come back to the party or go to the hotel. She didn’t know if the whole entourage, including photographer would be piling back into the limo to take Tammy home. She didn’t know what time the bus was pulling out tomorrow.
But Abby did know one thing. She wouldn’t be on the bus. She was going home.
