Chapter Three
After the Boys left, Tony and Anderson told me to head back up to my room. I would have the rest of the day and all the next to prepare my presentation before heading back home.
I would like to say that I enjoyed the sights and sounds of Orlando, but unfortunately I spent every waking hour working at the laptop. Even so, the last few hours of my presentation were finished out on the porch, enjoying the sun and the view of a gorgeous beach and crystalline water. The next morning I handed my presentation to Anderson and Tony and three hours later was flying back home.
In the hubbub that ensued, I had almost forgotten that I had flown to Florida without telling my husband. As I arrived back home, I looked around for my mom and almost swallowed my tongue when I saw Hunter standing just paces away, arms crossed over his chest.
“Hi!” I said, pasting on a nonchalant smile as I walked up to him.
“Get in the car,” he said, stomping off towards the exit.
I quickly found my luggage and hurried off after him. After buckling in, I turned to look at him. His jaw was set, but I could tell that I could break him.
“Are you mad?” I asked sweetly.
“What do you think?”
“I think you are. But if I get the internship it pays a lot of money.”
“How much?”
“Ten thousand.”
“DOLLARS?”
That seemed to do the trick. After almost running off the road, he quickly looked at me, the road, and back at me.
“Yes, dollars. And if I get it I promise I will keep applying for a job once summer’s over.”
“Well…” he said, trailing off. “I suppose…when do you hear if you’ve got it or not?”
I smiled. I had him right where I wanted him.
“They said next week.”
With the ice thawed, Hunter returned to his normal self. We talked, ate dinner, and settled in to watch television. Ah, the life of an old married couple.
Hunter and I married four years ago. Aside from the Backstreet Boys, Hunter was my high school crush. Unfortunately, it took him five years after graduation for him to ask me out. As soon as he did, we never looked back.
Life was great until I lost my job. I prayed that things might return to normal once I was a productive member of the family again. Our biggest wish in life was to find stability and to work on a family. Before losing my job, we struggled for two years to make that a possibility. With the prospect of exploring more scientific options to grow our family and the expense associated with it, our dream had dimmed. The stress from that and everything else had made us grow distant in the past few months. As I curled up next to him on the couch, I crossed my finger for the phone call.
May 11
As a week came and went, I made up my mind that the phone would never ring again. Several times a day I picked up the phone just to make sure there was a dial tone. Each time I was disappointed to find that the phone was indeed functional. In fact, if the time and temperature operator was a real person she would have blacklisted me already for as many times as I called per day.
Finally, one night as I was fixing dinner the phone rang. Wiping spaghetti sauce off my fingers (I’m a messy cook), I scooped up the phone.
“Hello?”
“Olivia? This is Anderson.”
“Anderson? Anderson! Oh, yes, hello!” I said, wincing at my overenthusiastic tone.
“We have some news for you.”
“O-ookay.”
“This was an extremely tough choice for us. Everyone’s work was very well done. In the end we had the Boys come in and give their honest opinion. They helped us make our choice.”
”Oh. Well thank you anyhow.” Somehow in the course of his speech I had already heard him in my head saying that I wasn’t chosen.
“Thank you anyhow? No, you don’t understand. I’m calling to tell you that you were chosen for the internship.”
“I appreciate your t---what?”
“We need you down here in four days. Will that be a problem?”
“A problem? No, no…me? I was picked?”
“Yes. The Boys said that you were very easy to talk to. They liked that they didn’t feel grilled about personal issues; you have a good conversational tone that translates well and it’s what the fans are interested in. Now, can you fly down on Friday?”
“Friday. Friday?” I looked at the calendar. Four days. “Yes, yes I can.” I saw Hunter mouthing to me. Making a frantic waving motion, I grabbed a pen and paper.
“Yes. Just give me some specifics. I’ll be ready.” I jotted down the flight number.
“Congratulations Olivia. See you Friday.”
I hung up the phone slowly.
“So?” Hunter said, dunking a noodle into his mouth.
“I got it!”
“Yes! – Wait. What are you doing down there?”
“Oh…”
I should probably mention at this point that my husband absolutely hates my fixation with the Backstreet Boys. I already knew he wouldn’t take this information well. I could almost see the word “forbid” dance in the air.
“I’m taking pictures and promotional materials for a group who’s touring this summer.”
“Which group?”
“The Backstreet Boys.”
“What?!”
“It’s a dream come true. Opportunity of a lifetime. Ten thousand dollars.”
“No, no, no. I don’t need you to be some groupie gallivanting around with four guys on a bus. That’s disgusting.”
“I’m not gallivanting. I’m doing a job. I’ll get to see the country. You can visit me. They’re coming around here. It will be fine. Ten thousand dollars.”
Luckily for me, the word forbid didn’t enter into the equation. The phrase “ten thousand dollars” was hard to argue with when more bills arrived in the mail daily.
“You trust me don’t you?” I finally said with a smile.
“Of course. It’s other people I don’t trust.”
“Don’t worry. Everything will be fine.”
So, four days and one long goodbye kiss later, I took my second flight to Orlando for what I was sure would be an amazing summer.
Little did I know how amazing it would be – amazingly good and amazingly bad.
