Howie and Brian rushed over to hold AJ back as Nick jumped up and grabbed Kevin. “What do you mean it’s yours?!” AJ screamed, struggling against the hands that held him.

“I mean it’s mine!”

“How? When?”

“Vegas.”

“Vegas?!”

“Yeah, Vegas. You know...when you dropped her for some stripper!”

AJ stopped struggling and sank back into his chair. He grabbed Brian’s drink since his was soaking the glass-covered floor, and tossed it back with one gulp. Of course, while AJ’s was just Mountain Dew (he was still 20 years old), Brian’s was alcoholic. “That was the only time?”

“It only takes once,” Kevin crossed his arms and stared him down.

“Get him out of here,” AJ rasped. “I can’t look at him right now.”

“Kevin, let’s go.” I touched his arm gingerly and he shrugged away.

“I don’t have to go anywhere!” he slurred indignantly. I looked to Howie for help.

“It’s probably a good idea, Kevin.” Howie walked over to him and gave him a little nudge towards the door. “You’re trashed.”

“No, I’m not!” Kevin insisted with a big stumble backwards.

Howie and I caught him and started leading him out. “We probably need to tell Amy what happened before anyone else does,” I told him. That was when he started singing.

“Having my baby.....What a lovely way of sayin’ how much you lo-ove me....”

I looked over at Howie and raised an eyebrow. “Is this really happening?”

“He sings when he’s drunk,” Howie replied matter-of-factly with a shrug as he pushed Kevin out into the night air. “Come on big guy. Let’s go.”

I glanced down at my watch. “Hmm. It’s 11:30 and Joey hasn’t called me...weird. I should probably let him know where I am.” I pulled my cell phone out of my purse and dialed his number. He finally answered right as it started to go to voice mail, sounding breathless. 

“Lo?”

“Joey? Hey, it’s me.”

“Emily?”

“Yeah. Who else would it be?”

“Oh, no one, babe.” He laughed. “What’s up?”

“I just wanted to let you know I’m not at the club anymore. There was a...a thing, and...”

“Actually, that’s fine. I’m not feeling too hot,” he interrupted me.

“Are you okay? Where are you?” He didn’t sound good.

“I’m in my room.”

“I’ll come check on you as soon as-”

“You don’t have to do that,” he insisted. “Have fun with your friends.”

“But I’m a good nurse...” I said suggestively.

“No, no. I don’t want you catching what I have. It was a rough concert,” he groaned.

“Okay, then. I’ll check on you tomorrow.”

“Thanks. Love ya.” He hung up before I got a chance to tell him I loved him too. I turned around to find Kevin sitting on the sidewalk with his back up against a brick wall, and still singing. Howie had his arms hooked under his armpits and was trying to hoist the man, who almost twice his size, back up to his feet.

“You sure we can handle him alone?” I asked doubtfully.

With one more big grunt from Howie, Kevin was back on his feet with his arm around Howie’s shoulder. “Hey, Sweet D,” Kevin said as he scrunched up his nose and grinned at him.

Howie ignored him. “In case you’ve forgotten, Kevin and I were the only two who could drink for a while. I’ve done this before.” He winked and started down the sidewalk. “Are we still going to Amelia? She at your place?”

“Actually, we have rooms at the hotel next to the venue,” I answered as I turned to hail a cab. “Tomorrow’s a press day, and all our interviews are going to happen there.” We managed to get Kevin to pour himself into the cab without much of a fight and told the driver where to go and to let us out at the service entrance. Howie threw a wad of cash at him and thanked him politely, and we struggled to get Kevin into the elevator.

I gasped as the door opened on our floor. Joey heard me immediately. He jerked his mouth from the lips of the short, busty brunette he had pinned against the wall outside his hotel room door, and stared at me in shock. I turned my attention back to Kevin, and helped Howie pull him out of the elevator. Howie’s jaw was clenched tightly and his eyes flashed at Joey in anger. I’m not sure Kevin even saw him. I pulled my key out of my purse and slapped it in Howie’s hand before turning back to Joey. The woman he’d been kissing had suddenly disappeared, but I heard the echo of a door slamming in the stairwell. “Em...” I vaguely remember hearing Howie’s voice in my ear and pointing him and Kevin in the direction my mine and Amelia’s room before I stomped over to Joey. I stuck my hand in his back pocket, pulled out his keycard, unlocked the door and pushed him inside before I said a single word.

“Em, calm down. We need to talk.” Joey held his hands out as if trying to protect himself.

“Not feeling so hot, huh?” I pushed hard against his chest as the heat rose in my face and tears threatened to spill out of my eyes.

“Em, it’s not what you think...” He tried to reason with me.

“Not what I think? You think you know what I think?”

“Em...”

“Shut it, Joey.” I held my hand up to silence him. “I think you lied to me and told me you were sick so you could come back to the hotel and cheat on me with some groupie!”

“She’s not a groupie!” he roared back at me, turning defensive.

“Well then who is she?” I crossed my arms across my chest and gave him an icy stare.

He clasped his hands behind his back and hung his head down, then started kicking at the carpet fibers with the toe of his shoe. “Kelly,” he answered quietly.

“Who’s Kelly?” I stepped closer to him and twisted my neck so that I was looking in his melancholy eyes.

“She was my high school sweetheart.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets and kept looking down.

“Okay.....what is she now?”

He looked up at me and pursed his lips. “I- I don’t know.”

“Well, don’t let me stand in your way.” I turned to leave, but his hand grabbed mine.

“Emily, wait!” I spun back around and glared at him.

“What?” I hissed through clenched teeth as I struggled to pull my hand from his.

His hand tightened around my fingers. “I never wanted to hurt you.” His eyes softened.

“Ha!” I scoffed, finally jerking my hand out of his grasp. I’d heard that one before-- from the singing drunk man who was probably groveling at Amelia’s feet at the moment. “I gave you my virginity!” I yelled at him. “Less than a week ago! What was all that crap you fed me about love and hoping you were the only guy I was ever with? Were you just trying to get me to sleep with you all this time? You were pretty damn persistent if that’s what it was!” The more I shouted, the madder I got. Without my even thinking about, my cell phone was sailing through the air, and he ducked his head so that it cracked against the wall and slid down to the floor with a thud.

I started towards him and he grabbed my wrists. “Emily, calm down! I meant every word! Kelly just showed up today. I thought I’d never see her again, and there she was standing in my dressing room door. I love you....I really do, but Kelly’s always been the--” He stopped and I pulled away from him with my mouth agape.

I took a few steps backwards. “The what, Joey? The one?”

He closed his eyes and took in a few deep breaths. “Yeah.”

“What were you doing with me all these months? Just leading me on?”

He sat down on the edge of the bed and hunched over with his elbows on his knees. “When we first met, she and I had just broken up, and you kind of reminded me of her.”

“What? Joey, that’s.....” I stared at him wide-eyed.

“Horrible, I know,” he finished for me. “But then I fell in love with you. Just you. Not a reminder of Kelly. I thought I was over her, until she showed up today.”

“Why didn’t you just come to me? Tell me the truth instead of sneaking around? And why couldn’t you wait until you’d broken it off with me to be all over her?” Tears finally spilled out of my eyes and rolled freely down my cheeks.

He looked down at the floor in shame and shook his head back and forth. “I just wasn’t thinking.”

What I really wanted to say was that he most certainly had been thinking, but that the thinking apparatus was much further south. Instead, I grabbed the injured cell phone and the overnight bag I’d stashed in Joey’s room before the concert, and walked out.