Just one more day and you’ll be in Chicago. I can’t wait for you to see the apartment. I know I’ve sent you pictures and everything, but I want you to see it for real.
Oh, Abby, back that up. You sound like a giddy schoolgirl.
I am a giddy schoolgirl, she thought. I want him so much. I want to hold him and kiss him and…oh, for heaven sakes, girl, get a grip. Abby put her hands to her face. She was flushed and warm. She shook her head at herself. Wouldn’t that be great, showing up at the hospital looking fevered! They’d probably surround her with stethoscopes and thermometers. What’s your diagnosis, Doctor? Is it strep throat, rheumatoid arthritis, encephalitis…? No, Nurse, she appears to be fine, just hopelessly in love.
Hopelessly in love. Yep, that was her, she decided. She sighed and glanced over at her wedding picture. She and Nick had found their stride in the last month. They continued their daily email correspondence and talked on AIM whenever they could, at least once or twice a week. She checked the message boards for him, but things seemed to have died down. Rokmyworld, Sweet4D and a couple of the others on Abby’s list had disappeared completely.
The apartment was ready for Nick’s inspection. She had sent him digital photos of everything she had done. She knew that he had little to no interest in decorating, but she wanted him to be ready for it, to be familiar with it, to feel like he was in his own home, not a guest in someone else’s. His replies had always been neutrally positive. It looks nice. It looks fine. Man talk.
Life outside the apartment was good too. Sharon pressed until Nick coughed up the third weekend in June. That was going to be the big party to celebrate the wedding. The Boys were all planning to attend. Kristin and Leighanne were coming too.
It was amazing, thought Abby, how well she and her mother got along when they lived in separate houses. They should have tried that years ago! Also, now that the pressure of coming up with the perfect wedding was off…and it just had to be the perfect party…Sharon didn’t get quite so bent out of shape over the details. And since there was no talk of veils and lace, neither did Abby.
Sharon read Abby’s stories and handed them back without comment. At first, Abby was hurt but three days later, she received a note in the mail…with constructive criticism and many, many compliments. Abby realized that it was hard for her mother to say something nice to her face. She decided that she didn’t reciprocate that too well either and determined to make more of an effort. At first, Sharon was taken back when Abby hugged her in greeting, but soon accepted the hugs, if she didn’t actually hug back yet.
It got out there that Abby was having the stories published and that Nick was doing the illustrations. Lawrence Shapiro was delighted that he could plead innocence and still have the publicity. He ordered a larger printing. Now if he could just get her to go on a book tour…
Ronni continued to be a thorn in Abby’s side, popping up more than Abby liked. Abby wasn’t sure if Ronni had turned over a new leaf, if maybe it was Abby that had to get over things. Ronni seemed happier in her marriage. At least James did. Abby met with him a couple of times to discuss the fund. She was very happy with James’ management of it and told him so. At the end of the second meeting, James asked about Nick…in a friendly way, not nosy, just how’s it going?
Abby smiled and said that everything was good, and how about with him? James smiled as well and said that yes, married life was a good, good thing. He and Ronni were very happy together. She seemed to be settling down to life in Chicago.
Dear Nick,
I’m off to the hospital now
Don’t be an idiot, Abby! That’s no way to start something off. If you got something like that from him, you’d be panicked before you got to the second line. What’s the matter with you today?
Dear Nick,
Please come home.
Abby felt tears coming. She pushed back her chair and stood up. This was ridiculous. She checked the calendar. No, no problem there. She took a deep breath. If the anticipation was this bad with a couple of days to go, Nick’s life might actually be in danger when she saw him.
A glance at her watch told her she had to get going. She sat down again and set her fingers determinedly on the keyboard.
Dear Nick,
How’s your day going? What’s the weather like in Dallas? It’s very springlike here, warm…with blue sky, one of those days that tells you that winter really, truly is gone for good. Of course, you’re from Florida, so this means nothing to you. LOL!!
I’m off to do my volunteer work at the hospital. Then dinner with the parents. Tuna casserole tonight. My mother finally feels safe serving it. LOL!!
Take care,
Abby
It wasn’t the best thing she’d ever written, but it would have to do. She hit Send and headed for the hospital.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Ronni looked at her calendar. Tomorrow was the committee meeting. It was her last chance to get a backstage pass out of Ducky. Ronni had played her cards very close to her chest for the last month. She’d gotten bored with the message board stuff and dropped that. She was determined to find a way to get to Nick when he was here for the concert. Jeannette Fenton had told her that Nick was coming back in June for the wedding party, but Ronni wanted to do the groundwork in May. She didn’t think even she could seduce a man at his own wedding reception.
Ronni had made good use of committee meetings and lunches with the girls. She started inviting Abby. She knew Abby didn’t want to go, but Ronni was very skilful at the game and never left her an opportunity to say no. Ronni never brought up Nick’s name or the Boys. She didn’t have to. Clarice and Suzie did that for her. Even Maggie chimed in, although she always insisted beforehand that she wasn’t a fan. Clarice and Suzie had tickets to the concert, as did Ronni. Their husbands were bewildered. They were married women, why were they still gaga over this boyband? The husbands obviously hadn’t seen them lately. Ronni had no intention of sitting with Clarice and Suzie at the concert.
Ronni sat back and waited while Clarice got the information that Abby would be seated in the secure area in front of the stage, that there were a very limited number of seats there, mostly for contest winners from local media outlets and personal guests of the Boys.
Suzy gleaned the fact that backstage was a madhouse before the concert, everyone rushing here and there. Organized chaos, was the way Abby described it.
And after the concert? Come on, you idiots, ask the question, thought Ronni.
“What about after the concert?” asked Clarice. “Is it true that they’re on the buses and gone before the audience leaves the building?”
“It depends,” said Abby, which told Ronni nothing.
“On what?” asked Maggie.
“Well, mostly where they’re going next. If it’s a short run…that would be under eight hours…then they might wait at the venue until later and then leave. They could sleep on the bus and wake up in the next place. That way, it’s less hectic after the show. If it’s going to be a long haul, and they need every second, then yes, they go straight from the stage to the bus and away.”
“Interesting,” said Clarice.
“Of course, if they’re in town for two nights, they go to a hotel, right?” Suzie wanted to know.
“Yes. They’ll be doing that this time. They get in on a Friday in the late afternoon. The concert is Saturday, so they’ll have Friday night to themselves and then they’ll do the publicity thing on Saturday. Then concert and onto the bus…”
“It’s nice that they’re getting Friday night,” said Clarice.
Abby blushed. “They’re doing that for Nick, so he can be home for two days. His bus isn’t leaving until Sunday morning either.”
“Lucky you,” said Maggie and they all laughed.
Ronni filed the information away. He was getting in Friday afternoon and leaving Sunday morning. Okay, that was a start.
As they walked out of the next Symphony meeting together, Ronni maneuvered the conversation until the word publicity was said. Then she said, “You said that Nick had to do publicity on the Saturday that he’s here. Will you get to go with him?”
“I could, I guess,” said Abby, “but I won’t. It’s not about me and I’d just be in the way.”
Truer words were never spoken, thought Ronni. She smiled, “Just doesn’t seem fair, somehow. I mean, you’re only going to have a couple of days together. Couldn’t they do it without him, just the four of them?”
Ronni felt perfectly safe asking this question. The Boys might go off in twos or threes to do interviews and such, but there was no way they would do any kind of public thing as four of them without Nick. Not after the solo thing. There was no way.
Abby shrugged. “It’s not that big a deal. I think they’re doing a couple of publicity spots for the music channel in the morning. You know…intro spots for the weekly countdown…and then they’re having a fan conference at the venue in the afternoon.” Abby paused. “Oh my, listen to me…fan conference at the venue…” She mocked herself.
Ronni laughed. “What’s a fan conference?”
“It’s actually a way of doing a lot of stuff all at once. They have the reporters from all the media outlets and then a hundred or so fans…contest winners. The fans get to ask the questions.”
“And they do that right there at the ‘venue’?” Ronni made a little face when she said the word. Both she and Abby laughed.
“Yes, it’s easier. Then they get ready for the show.”
“Will you at least get to go to that?” asked Ronni. “The fan thing?”
Abby shrugged. “We’ll see. I don’t know.”
They had reached the door.
“Well, bye then. See you next time,” said Ronni, with a wave. She went home to start calling in favors. She wanted to be at that fan conference.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~It turned out that it wasn’t as easy as she thought. First of all, not that many people owed her favors. And the people that did, didn’t have any connections to the world of pop music. Finally, Ronni realized that the only way she was going to get close to Nick was through Abby…and Howie.
“Suzie and Clarice are really starstruck about the Boys, aren’t they?” asked Ronni one day when Abby was driving her home from a luncheon. Abby couldn’t figure out how the hell Ronni had finagled her into doing it, either the lunch or the driving. But here she was, heading out to Oak Park, with Ronni in the passenger seat. She was kind of glad she was driving and not the other way around. Ronni had had a little more wine with lunch than the law allowed for people getting behind the wheel of a car.
Abby agreed politely, but added nothing.
“And they never seem to mention Howie, for some reason,” mused Ronni.
They never mentioned AJ either, thought Abby.
“And he is one sweet guy,” said Ronni, almost to herself.
Abby waited to see where this was going.
“I know him,” said Ronni. “I mean, I’ve met him personally, as a friend, not just a star.”
“Hmmm,” said Abby, non-committally. In all the luncheon conversations about the Boys, Ronni had never let on that she knew Nick, let alone Howie. Abby wondered why Ronni had kept it a secret that she knew Nick. Abby was glad she had, whatever her motive.
“Say ‘hi’ to him for me the next time you see him, okay?” said Ronni, as Abby pulled the car into the driveway.
Over my dead body, thought Abby. “Sure,” she said with a smile.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Ronni circled the date on the calendar. Tomorrow was it. She’d done all she could do. She’d brought Howie’s name into the conversation twice more with Abby, and had got nowhere. So tomorrow, she was going to come right out and ask her at the meeting…in public…in front of everyone. Could Ronni please have the opportunity to renew her acquaintance with her friend Howie? Ducky was far too well-bred to refuse.
