“Oh, Leighanne, you look beautiful! So elegant!” Annie cooed at her new friend as she turned around slowly to model her ensemble.

Leighanne laughed. “Well, I at least match Brian, and somebody had to do something to offset that terrible turquoise tux.” Annie giggled as she studied her own reflection in the mirror. She parted her hair to the side and pinned some curls behind her ear carefully, then donned a pair of tear-drop marcasite earrings. “You look amazing, Annie,” Leighanne told her. “Purple is definitely your color.” There was a soft rapping on Annie’s door and Leighanne rushed to answer it. “That’s probably Brian.” She opened the door and gasped, then let out a little giggle. “It’s for you, Annie!” she said in a sing-songy voice as she slipped by the person in the doorway and across the hall to fetch her husband.

Annie traipsed over to the open door and subsequently clamped a hand over her mouth in an attempt to quell an onslaught of laughter. She failed miserably. “What are you wearing?” she managed to squeak out in between giggles. Nick simply smirked and smoothed out an invisible wrinkle on his orange lapel with the fingers of his left hand. “This is a ‘Dumb and Dumber’ thing, isn’t it?” she asked.

“Yep.” He flashed her a cheeky grin.

“The hair’s a nice touch.” She lifted a hand so that her fingers barely grazed the tips of his deliberately messy blonde locks, stiff with hairspray and sticking out in all directions. “Let me guess. AJ’s tux is powder blue,” she said with a giggle.

“Yep.” He rocked back and forth from heel to toe with his hands behind his back like an excited child. “What makes you think Brian or Howie wouldn’t dress as my Jim Carrey?”

“Well, I know for a fact that much to Leighanne’s chagrin, Brian’s wearing an obscene amount of turquoise. And Howie.....” She smiled slyly. “Well, Howie’s my favorite current Backstreet Boy. He would probably know that I hate that movie.”

Nick’s shoulders dropped in defeat. “You do?”

“Yeah. I tried to like it, I did. It was just too.....dumb, I guess.  And kind of gross.”

Nick pouted. “Does that mean you won’t go to the prom with me?” he asked pitifully as he pulled a wrist corsage made of tiny white roses out from behind his back. “Technically, my date is supposed to be my pre-selected prom queen, but that doesn’t happen until after the crowning. I never went to prom, you know. So, I at least need a beautiful girl to escort to the dance.” He laid it on thick, the smile he flashed down at her laden in Carter charm.

“Well.....” She pondered his proposition for a moment. “My red hair’s going to clash with your orange tux.”

“Your hair’s not red. It’s.....” He brought his hand up to the curls nestled behind her right ear and let his fingers graze them ever so slightly, much like she’d done with his hair just moments before. “Reddish......brown,” he admitted clumsily. “Like cinnamon, except... shinier. It’s nice.” Annie could feel the color rising in her cheeks as she bit her bottom lip and considered his proposition. Silently, she held her hand out towards him. He furrowed his brows for a moment then grinned in realization as he looked down at the corsage in his hands. “Is that a yes?” Annie nodded, and he beamed proudly as he stretched the corsage’s elastic to slip it carefully over her hand and onto her wrist. “Leigh told me to get white because it matches anything. I hear the trend now is for the young ladies to carry a bouquet to prom. At least that’s what the florist here told me. I didn’t even know cruise ships had florists. Anyway, who really wants to have to carry a bouquet around all night?”

“It’s beautiful, Nick,” she told him as she admired the tiny flower arrangement adorning her wrist.

Like you, he thought to himself. The words were on the tip of his tongue, but they just didn’t come out. He was taking baby steps with Annie and didn’t want to scare her away. He bent his right arm, and held it out to her. “Shall we?”

“We shall.” She smiled up at him as she looped her newly corsaged left wrist through his arm and clasped her fingers inside the crook of his elbow. As they started out the door, she looked down at the hand she had wrapped around his arm and noted the ring finger that had now been bare for nearly two months. She gripped his arm and stopped walking. “Nick, wait.”

Nick stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes wide in horror. “I knew it was too good to be true,” he muttered under his breath.

Of course, Annie heard him. “Nick, no...” she stammered. “It’s just that I-- I’m not wearing any shoes.”

“What?” He looked down at their feet. His own were clad in white patent leather oxfords, while here were nearly covered in dark purple satin that pooled around her ankles on the carpet. Her bare toes, the nails painted ruby red, peeked out from underneath and she hiked up the hem of her dress to reiterate her point. Nick took in a sharp breath at the sight of her bare feet. There was just something about a woman’s bare feet, especially with neatly painted toenails, that he found incredibly sexy.

“I guess I just got a little carried away with all the prom date talk.” She gave him a little wink and darted back into her state room. While Annie retrieved her shoes, Nick couldn’t help but continue thinking about her feet. He wondered what they would feel like rubbing up and down his legs underneath the dinner table or better yet, in bed with her toes grazing his bare calves.

He didn’t get to fantasize long, because she was back out in the hallway with him in mere seconds. “You ready?” she asked with a big smile, her eyes glimmering in excitement.

He smirked and held his elbow out for her again. “What are you so happy about?”

“Well, I always wanted a Backstreet Boy to take me to prom.”

“Except you hoped it would be Kevin, right?”

She sighed dramatically. “Yes. But I guess you’ll do.”

Their “date” didn’t last long, as the Boys were kept busy entertaining their “prom queens.” Nick made sure to act like his goofy self, but still lavish attention on his “queen,” effectively making her dreams come true. After hours of cheesy prom dancing to the likes of “YMCA” and “Electric Slide,” the party started to wind down. Nick had to admit to himself that he’d had a good time, but he found himself scanning the deck in search of Annie. His “queen” thanked him for an incredible evening and headed for bed after taking one last picture of the two of them together with her cell phone.

Soon after, he spotted Annie. His breath hitched in his throat as he studied her. Her hair was now windblown, her curls a little wilder than the beginning of the evening, and her previously glossy red lipstick was now more of a muted pink. While he’d found her gorgeous all dolled up at the beginning of the night, it was this look-- just a little undone- that he found irresistible. Her earrings glinted ever so slightly in the moonlight, and the skin of her bare shoulders seemed to glow. His eyes trailed down to the bustline of her strapless dress, where a sparkly brooch rested between her breasts. He gulped nervously and tugged at his orange bowtie, removing it and stuffing it in his pocket, then undoing the first couple buttons on his ruffled tuxedo shirt, suddenly feeling very warm and uncomfortable. He wanted to approach her, but instead stood still on the dance floor in the exact spot his prom queen had left him seconds before, watching as she talked animatedly, her eyes dancing with laughter as she danced ......with Kevin.