September 02, 2001 Tampa, Florida

With a smile Tina checked the precious cargo in the backseat, seeing that both Zoey and Parker were fast asleep from the drive home.

She had been out shopping for the better part of the day, needing to stock up on a bunch of things in preparation for a big Labour Day cookout they were hosting. Nick had invited Howie and his girlfriend as well as a few of their friends over for a barbeque, conveniently timed with Tina’s parents spending the long weekend in Ohio.

Without her mother around Tina had ended up taking both kids to the store with her since Nick had still been fast asleep in bed when she’d left in the morning. It wasn’t too much work, just a bit of a hassle to always having to stop to feed the baby or bring Parker to the washroom.

She started to feel uneasy as she approached their home, noticing an awful lot of cars parked in the driveway. Either Nick was taking the day to wash his car collection or there were people over to the house already. Howie and company weren’t supposed to arrive until the next day and everyone else lived close by so it didn’t seem likely that people were arriving a day early.

As she pulled up to the gate and punched in the security code she realized that there was no way she was going to get back into her parking spot because of the oversized SUVs that were badly parked across their circular drive.

“What the hell...” Tina muttered to herself, pulling out her cell phone. She hit the first speed dial, letting the phone ring in the house and eventually go to voice mail, “Pick up the phone Nick,” she sighed then hit the second speed dial to call his cell phone.

It rang several times but just before the phone switched over to the voicemail he picked up, “Hey Baby, what’s up?”

“Hey Baby, what’s up?” she repeated sarcastically, “Um, what’s up is that there’s a bunch of cars at our house so I’m just wondering what to expect when I walk through the door...if I can get to it.”

He was silent for a few moments and she heard him let out a grunt of annoyance, “Don’t start this right now. Why’d you call me?”

Tina kept her eyes straight forward and took a calming breath, “Can you please come out front? The kids are asleep, I have a ton of groceries to bring in and I need you to park my car because I don’t know where I should put it.”

“Yeah,” he replied testily and the line went dead. She knew just by his macho, pompous tone of voice that he’d invited his guy friends over to talk shit about women, play pool, and mess around in the house. He always had something to prove in front of them, he never realized that he didn’t need to because he was the one with the house, and the cars and the money and they were the leeches.

Stepping out of her air conditioned BMW station wagon Tina immediately felt the weight of the air’s humidity against her. This type of weather was one of the many reasons she never wanted to move to Florida. Sure it got humid in Cleveland but it was rarely 90 degrees in September.

After a few moments the front door swung open and Nick walked out, his flip flops slapping against the concrete. He was shirtless, wearing just a pair of swim trunks low on his hips and a ball cap with the brim set to the side.

“Don’t be pissed,” was the first thing out of his mouth as he rounded the front of the vehicle.

Tina raised an eyebrow, “Why would I be pissed?”

Nick chuckled sarcastically, taking a quick glance into the car at the children, “Because I know you and you’re going to walk in the house and get all mad that I didn’t ask you before I invited people over.”

“You know we’re having people over tomorrow right? People that you invited...”

“These are different people,” he clarified, “I didn’t invite them tomorrow because they’re not couples. Tomorrow is our mutual friends. Today I wanted to hang out with some of my other friends.”

“Your single friends,” Tina said more as statement than question as she moved to open the back hatch where the groceries were.

“Yes, my single friends,” he said, following her behind the car.

Tina started filling his arms with bags without any regard for how heavy they might be, “And did your single friends bring single girls?”

Nick shuffled from one foot to the other which was more than enough answer for Tina, “Ok, so there are a couple of girls, it’s no big deal.”

“No big deal?” she repeated him for the second time, “It’s painfully obvious that you’re already drunk and it’s early afternoon. So you have a bunch of drunken guys in our house trying to hook up with some sluts they invited over so it wouldn’t look like a sausage party? That’s kind of a big deal Nick because we have children that are going to be asleep, and I doubt your friends are going to be very accommodating to the noise level.”

“You haven’t even met those girls how can you call them sluts?” Nick asked but knew it was the wrong part of her speech to focus on when Tina’s eyes went wide with what he was sure was rage.

“I really wish you had just run this by me.”

“I don’t need your permission,” he shrugged, idly looking at the groceries that filled the paper bags, “Now come on, let’s get this stuff inside, get the kids down for a nap and then you can come out back with us. You know some of the people here.”

Tina just stood silently, giving him the evil eye.

Nick let out a heavy sigh and rolled his eyes, “I’ll ask them to be quiet and I swear the first girl that tries to hit on me I’ll throw them all out.”

She knew it was a losing battle given that Nick would just use his ‘I own the house’ defence against her so she finally relented, “Alright, just help me get this stuff put away. I’ll grab the kids.”

“I love you,” he smiled cheekily, walking with the groceries back to the front door.

Nick hadn’t really kept up his end of the bargain. She was never much of a jealous person; it was just not in her nature. With Nick though, he inspired jealousy in people. At first Tina had sat at a table with the baby monitor and watched as everyone messed around in the pool, including Nick. Everyone seemed to be leaving him alone when he was swimming; it was when he was out of the pool and sitting in a lounge chair that the wolves went in for the attack.

She couldn’t stand watching them flipping their hair and pushing their barely covered boobs in his direction as they talked – no, giggled – to him. Annoyed, she got up to get a drink then went upstairs to check on the kids to make sure they were still sleeping.

The window in Parker’s room was open for some reason, letting all the air conditioning out. Tina moved to close it but as soon as she heard talking, she paused. The little boy’s room faced the back of the house so what she was listening to was the commentary from downstairs by the pool.

“Yo, dude,” one of Nick’s friends spoke, “You gotta ditch the old lady.”

“What do you mean?” Nick wondered.

“Your girl,” the other man explained, “All she does is sit there and watch all of us. It’s kind of creepy.”

“That’s your girlfriend?” a female voice asked, clearly surprised, “Isn’t she kind of fat?”

Tears sprung to Tina’s eyes at the suggestion. She had always been a thin person, and she would go back to being one, but for now she had been struggling to get rid of the left over belly from having Zoey.

She waited for Nick to come to her rescue and was relieved when he did.

“Shut up, she just had a baby like two months ago, she looks great,” Nick said defensively and Tina peeked out the curtains to see him standing at the edge of the pool.

“Baby or no baby, she’s boring,” his friend shrugged and swam off to the other end of the pool. This time Tina didn’t hear him defend her, or even say anything in response. He just slipped his sunglasses back on and settled onto his chaise lounge.

Tina tried to silence her sobs as she slid down the wall opposite Parker’s bed, her hand covering her face. It wasn’t the insult itself that had hurt her feelings; it was the truth behind it. She had used to be a fun person who loved parties, and hanging out with friends. But now, with no friends to be found that weren’t related to her and two giant responsibilities always on her shoulders she had become a bore. Nick somehow was absolved from being boring, probably because of his celebrity status, but she was no one. She had gone from happy, fun, carefree Tina to Nick Carter’s boring baby mama in just a few short years, and it pained her to think about it.