“Daly?”  Howie poked his head through the doorway across my shoulder and raised an eyebrow at the young women standing outside my bedroom door.  “Why is Carson Daly calling Cassie?”

“That’s what I want to know!”  Amelia shouted from the living room.

My eyes landed on Mel, as I expected her to voice her concern next.  “I know everything,” she said with a smirk, as she turned on her heel and sashayed back towards the living room.

“Why’d he call?”  I asked Cassie.

She shrugged.  “He was in a hurry, because he was just on a commercial break, but he said we needed to turn on TRL and watch the ending.”

Howie glanced down at his watch.  “Crap!  TRL’s already on!”  He rushed towards the front door, then stopped on his tiptoes and ran back to me to plant a kiss on my lips before tearing back towards the door. “I’m late. Gotta go!  Love you!”

“I love you, too!”  I yelled at the door he’d already slammed behind him.  

Cassie, Mel, and I wandered back into the living room, where Amelia was sprawled out on the couch with her swollen ankles propped up on the coffee table and a bowl of microwave popcorn balanced atop her burgeoning belly.  I plopped down beside her and shoved my hand into the bowl to retrieve a handful of the buttery snack.  “Did anyone call Christina?”  

“Yup,” Amelia answered, her voice muffled by the mouthful of popcorn she was chewing.  “She was at Orlando Commons maxing out the credit card Nick gave her last week.  She’s on her way over.”  As if on cue, we heard the tell-tale metallic click of a key in the lock.  When Chrissy had moved out, we encouraged her to keep her key to the condo, insisting on frequent visits when Nick was working.  

“What’s this all about?”  She asked curiously as she closed the door behind her and crossed the kitchen into the living room.  

“Carson says we need to watch TRL together,” Cassie answered, turning up the volume as Carson’s face filled the screen after the

commercial break.

Christina sighed.  “Cass, what are you doing?”

“Shh!”  Cassie quieted her as Carson started talking, obviously avoiding the question.  

“Welcome back to the February 22, 1999 edition of Total Request Live.  I’m your host, Carson Daly, and here’s a recap of of today’s countdown so far.”

“Ooh...” Mel gushed.  “I wonder what number we are today.”  We’d become accustomed to being a staple on the show, albeit usually hanging out somewhere around number 6 or 7.  Our second single, a ballad called “Forever,” just like our group and our album (management’s choice, not ours), hadn’t yet been as popular as our debut single, but considering that we’d done little promo for it, we were happy to see it getting airplay on TRL, even if we hadn’t broken the top five.  We all leaned forward in anticipation as Carson reviewed numbers ten through five: 10.) Monica “Angel of Mine,” 9.) 2Pac “Changes,” 8.) Eminem “My Name Is,” 7.) 98 Degrees “The Hardest Thing,” 6.) Limp Bizkit “Faith,” 5.) Britney Spears “Baby One More Time.”

I subconsciously let out a little squeal of delight.  We hadn’t beat Britney since the week “Baby One More Time” debuted back in the fall. Carson introduced the #4 video, which was Korn’s “Freak on a Leash,” and we chattered excitedly throughout the video about the possibility of making it to number three again.  #3 was “All I have to Give,” and #2 was “God Must Have Spent a Little More Time on You.” I was sure I’d be hearing complaints about that later.

“What the hell?” Mel asked incredulously, as Carson cut to the final commercial break.  “Did your boyfriend call us so that we could see ourselves fall off the countdown?”

Suddenly, all talk of TRL countdown numbers vanished as Amelia put two and two together.  “What?!” she shouted as she jumped to her feet and the popcorn bowl, empty now except for a few unpopped kernels and some salt, tumbled to the floor.  “You and Carson?  He’s such a jerk, Cassie.”

I waited for Cassie to explain that she and Carson weren’t technically “together,” so much as they had a business arrangement, but Cassie’s only response was a quietly mumbled, “I like him, Amy.”  What?

“How?”

Cassie started biting her fingernails nervously.  “When he’s not in front of a camera, he’s really sweet.”  Now I’d heard everything. Carson Daly-- sweet.  Right.  “We talk every day,”  she went on.

“He always calls or sends me an e-mail, or we chat on ICQ, or....something.”

“But, Cassie, I thought you told me...” I stammered.

Cassie held up her hand.  “I know.  That’s what it was at first, Em, but now....”

“What are you talking about?”  Amy interjected.  “How did I not know anything about this?”

“Well, she wasn’t ready to deal with the crazy pregnant lady hormones,” Mel remarked.

“How did you know about this?” Cassie glared at Mel with her arms crossed over her chest defensively.  Mel just shrugged nonchalantly.

Carson’s voice cut through the awkward silence.  “And now, for a brand-new number one!  These ladies have made the largest jump of the month.  They were number seven on Friday, and today they’ve moved all the way to the top!”  Wait a minute, we were number seven on Friday.  I diverted my attention from my feuding bandmates and stared wide-eyed at the television screen.  “Congratulations to the ladies of Forever on their number one video for,” he paused and winked at the camera.  “Forever!”  Amelia shrieked in excitement while Mel and Chrissy started hugging each other and jumping up and down.  Cassie kept her eyes trained on the screen with a big grin on her face.  “Well done, baby,”  Carson said softly as the camera panned the audience and our video started playing.  I wasn’t even sure if any of the others noticed, save for Cassie and myself.

Chrissy’s phone rang, and she lunged for her purse.  “Hey, sweetie!” she chirped cheerfully. “Yes, we’re watching it.”  Her face fell and I could hear Nick’s voice whining loudly on the other line while she attempted to keep a straight face.  “Well, it’s not like we’re N’Sync, honey,” she soothed through suppressed laughter.  “Well, that’s true....” She trailed off and listened patiently while Nick apparently got some stuff off his chest.  “Aren’t you happy for us?  I mean, I’m your wife, and Amy’s the mother of Kevin’s child.  Emily is Howie’s girlfriend....”

My cell phone started ringing.  I smiled at the number on the caller ID as I answered it.  “Hey,” I breathed happily.

“Hey, you....congratulations!” Howie said excitedly.

“Thanks!”

Howie chuckled. “Nick’s happy for you.  Really, he is.  We all are.  I think he’s mainly throwing his hissy fit over dropping down to #3 and losing out to Justin & company.  Christina knows that, doesn’t she?” Ah, my Howie.  Always looking out for everyone's best interest.  It was what I loved most about him.  

I glanced at my friend and watched as her expression went from amused to frustrated and back again.  “Yeah.  I think so.”

“So, which one of you is Carson’s ‘baby’?  And does it have anything to do with him calling Cassie before I left?”

I sighed.  “Yeah, apparently Cassie and Carson are ‘a thing’.”  And apparently I was telling him the truth?  That girl had me so confused.

“Ew.”

“Yeah, no kidding.”