Nick:

Wow, that was, without a doubt, amazing. I didn’t knew how she did it but she totally knew how to give me the royal treatment . I laid next to her, on her bed, taking a moment to chill out(her bed was very comfortable by the way, lol). I gently caressed her naked back with my fingertips. Her smell, so sweet, made me smile. What a woman.  She sighed. “Sweetie, we should get ready now, Howie can be here any second” she said. I nodded. “I think your right, babe” I replied with a shrug. I got up from her bed and stretched out. I grabbed my grey boxer from the floor.  I grinned “I almost forgot but I love the way you decorated your house”. She smiled “Thank you, I should give you a grand tour through the rest of my house soon” she said with a naughty tone in her voice. I gave her a big naughty smile back “Now that’s a great idea princess. And ehh, will that tour have the same “content?” I asked and blinked. “Maybe, I can’t promise anything” she said teasingly “but for now, I’m going to get dressed babe. Come on, hurry” she pushed me. I saw how she got up from her bed and I glanced at her naked body. She was gorgeous. If we had time enough I swear we could repeat the love making all night long. But time wasn’t on our hands so I had to get myself ready. I walked into her bathroom. “Honey” I raised my voice a little. “Yeah, what’s up” she yelled back. “where do you keep your towels”. “Ow wait up, I have them in my closet. I’ll bring you one” she replied. A couple of seconds later she came into the bathroom with two washcloths and a towel. We both refreshed ourselves. I looked in the mirror and tried to fix my hair a little. I was lucky that she had styling gel and a rough comb so I could fix my hair.

It wouldn’t have been a problem at all but I didn’t feel like walking to the car at that moment.  I had an extra toiletry bag in my car with toothpaste, toothbrush, comb, styling gel, shaving gel etcetera. My glasses of course. Yes ladies, I have glasses. I wear contact lenses and for the night I have glasses
(I’m not the mister perfect you all think I am. I’m only human sorry). Whenever I wasn’t on tour, and I had gigs in the neighborhood, I made sure that I always had a travel bag with an extra pair of clean clothes, shoes, socks and underwear and my toiletry bag too, in my car. It’s a precaution for whatever might happen. It often happened that I’d go out after the show or that I stayed over at one of the guys. I guess this is a left over from all the years of touring with the guys. Whenever we are on tour we live out of suitcases and travel bags and after 19 years I guess you could say that I’m a master in practical touring.     

Kirsten wrapped her arms around my waist and gave me a strong hug. She kissed me on my back and massaged my shoulders a little. “Ow, that feels good” I sighed while Goosebumps run over my back and arms. “Thank you” she said softly. She kissed my back again and walked out of the bathroom into the bedroom. From the corner of my eye I saw her getting dressed and fixed her make – up. I gave one last look in the bathroom mirror and walked into the bedroom myself. I picked up my dark blue jeans and navy-blue t-shirt and put in on. I grabbed my black blouse from the floor and worked myself in it. While I was buttoning up my blouse, I saw her bend over in her mini skirt. She tried to put on her shoes. “Princess, I hope you are aware of the fact that it’s  dangerous to bend over like that while I am in the same room at that point?” I said quasi serious. She gave me a naughty look and wiggled her beautiful booty a little and smiled. “No, I wasn’t” she sighed “but thank you for warning me” she said naughty. I walked up to her and pulled her close. “You are making me crazy” I whispered in her ear. She kissed me and pinched my ass. Ding – Dong… The doorbell rang. AJ barked, downstairs. “I’ll, take that as a compliment” she said. She grabbed her purse and we got downstairs. 

I opened the door and let Howie in. Kirsten was standing in the hallway also, ready and waiting for us to leave to the club. “Hey man, how are you” I said cheerfully. I gave him a hug. “I’m fine thank you. And you?” he asked. I’m fine too” I said. “Great” Howie said. He looked in Kirsten’s direction.  “You must be Kirsten?” he said and he walked up to her. He shook her hand. “Hi I’m Howard, but feel free to call me Howie” he said. “I’m Kirsten” she said “nice to meet you” she said. He gave her a hug. “So you are the reason why Nick isn’t as focused lately as he should be?” he asked serious. I smiled and Kirsten got shy and blushed. “I guess so” she said. “I’m sorry for that, It was never my intention to cause problems’’ she said. “Ow don’t be. I was just kidding” Howie smiled. “We’ve all been through that. One of the traditions, when girlfriends are introduced, is to tease them and make them feel sort of guilty that they make their boyfriend less focused as they should be. But it’s all just teasing. So don’t worry okay?” He grinned. Kirsten smiled “Okay, I’ll promise” she said. “Shall we go” I asked, and I looked at both Howie as Kirsten. “Sure, let’s go” Howie said. We walked outside and Kirsten closed the front door and locked it. We walked to the cab and went inside.

In the mini – van she got introduced to AJ, Rochelle and Leigh. They were really nice to her. During the drive to the club we chit-chatted about all sorts of things. Kirsten told about her past and that she’d lived in Holland before she came the USA. She also told about her study here in the USA and about the differences between the Dutch culture and the American culture. I noticed that especially AJ was really interested. Howie and Leigh also but AJ was the one who dropped the most questions. Rochelle never had visited the Netherlands but she was really interested in the culture and the typical Dutch things. AJ promised her to show her Amsterdam, as soon as they got the chance. Kirsten offered them to come to the Netherlands in winter time. Especially in Hindeloopen, which was part of the Eleven City skating tour when it was cold and the waters where all frozen, you could skate for miles and miles. And she told them that the most nicest thing was that you skated over the frozen water and then you could, on your skates, enter some bars for coffee or to eat. And during these periods of freezing cold weather, alongside the waters, there were lot’s people who sold coffee and tea and things like that while people where skating on the waters. In Hindeloopen you had the feeling that you went back in time. It was like you stepped back into an old postcard. Awesome.

 I joked around that when there was ice, this winter, the four of us should go to the Netherlands to skate part of the Eleven City tour. I noticed that Kirsten and AJ were very enthusiastic about it. I smiled. I didn’t knew if I was really up for that. I’m not a cold weather fan. And I wasn’t a star on ice skates also. Kristen told us that she, as a child, had ice skate lessons. She also skated in competitions. But that was before she went to the USA. I chuckled, the last time I had been skating was with Brian. He challenged me for a competition and after five minutes I’d hit the ice three times and I promised myself never to do this again. After an hour full of falling down, hitting the ice really hard and feeling, and looking, like a complete moron I decided that this was the last time I ever got my feet on ice, again. I was grateful for the fact that in that period the cell phone’s where just about to rise up. And  there were no camera’s on them yet and, thank God, that this awkward happening hadn’t been taped. But of course, Kristen didn’t need to know this. It was embarrassing enough that the guys knew about this.  The only bad thing about being a part of a nineteen year old band is that the guys knew almost everything about you. The embarrassing stuff included. And of course Howie began telling her about that day and told her about me literally facing the ice more then I intended to. They all laughed really hard after that story and at that moment I wished that I could disappear in the ground.  “Thanks for reminding me bro’, I almost forgot about it” I said with a sour smile. “You’re welcome” he said with a naughty smile and laughed with AJ. “Ahh guys, come on. Don’t pick on him” Rochelle said. “Thanks Rochelle, at least you are a real friend” I said quasi sad. “Ahhh” Leigh said and laid her hands on my shoulder. “We have to stop now guys, Kirsten might get the wrong impression of us. We are just teasing Nick a little, I hope you don’t mind” she asked Kirsten. Kirsten laughed “Oh no, I like to hear this stuff about him”. “Aha” AJ said with a smile “well I know some good stories about him. I’ll tell you some of these stories tonight okay” he said and blinked to me. I took a deep breath and laughed “You guys suck. You just want to embarrass me in front of her” I said. “Yep, you did that to me, Brian and Howie. And I’m a man who follows my word. I promised you that you would get it back. And now is the perfect time” AJ said with a dirty grin on his face. The others, including Kirsten, laughed about it. I chuckled. 

We finally arrived at the club after a forty five minute drive. We got out of the van and, after the driver gave Howie his cell number for when we’d like to go back, we went inside the club. Q was there with us. Our longtime bodyguard and close friend. He was like an older brother. Me and the guys grew up with him around and honestly, he was one of the most loyal and trustable persons in our lives. We’ve also had been in strange situations together. Fans trying to get in the tour busses, or in our hotel rooms. But also with the mass hysteria in the early years. It got to a point that there where thousands of fans hanging around the hotels we stayed and in the streets around them were  filled with thousands of fans. So when we tried to get in the hotels it sometimes was really dangerous. Or when we had to leave with our bus, the driver wasn’t able to drive because of the crowd being all over the bus. Banging on the door and the windows. There was a real danger that some fans could get under the bus.  Thank God that it wasn’t like that anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I really didn’t want to miss it but it was crazy back then. Terrifying sometimes. We still had the most loyal fanbase ever. And our fans were great. The best in the world. And through the years that relationship improved. Everybody was older now. More responsible and in a way this relationship became more respectful. The fans respected our privacy more and maybe they learned that there is also a downside on being famous and being in the spotlight all the time. Besides all the great stuff and opportunities and all there was a downside to it. And besides the pressure one of them was the media trying to find dirt about you. That was still something that I hated. I had a sort of love – hate relationship with them. In one way they were great for promotional purposes but the dark side was that some journalist would make up stories. The last time that happened was when my sister died. Leslie died by taking an overdose of substance. Me and my family where devastated about it. My relationship with my family is sometimes complicated. But we talked everything through and we are fine now. And even though I didn’t went to Leslies funeral, due to some misunderstandings, my family  and myself, now understands why things happened that way. But suddenly there it was, the article in some gossip magazine were they wrote about me being selfish and all. They tried to make it look like as if I didn’t love Leslie and all. And that I didn’t went to the funeral because of my career and the tour being more important than her funeral. Normally I never took notice of these things except for this article. This article felt like a knife stabbed in my back. I honestly can’t understand why someone would write something like that. It was also the first time that an article made me burst into tears. But enough about that. I didn’t wanted to think about this anymore.

The good thing about the fans being mature was that now I could go and enter a restaurant or a beach, something like that, without having to fear for my life. And that’s nice. Of course I got recognized and all but it’s livable now. I can almost live my life like a normal person would. And that’s nice.   

I grabbed Kirsten’s hand while we walked to the VIP section. “I love you” I whispered in her ear. She gave me a dazzling smile. “I love you too” she whispered back in my ear. I kissed her in her neck. “Ah Honey, look at them” Rochelle squeaked at AJ. They walked right behind us. I grinned and looked behind me. AJ and Rochelle where walking right behind us. AJ wrapped his arm around Rochelle. “We can clearly see the chirpin’ of two lovebirds” AJ joked a little loud. We walked in the VIP section and I looked around a little. There were some people we knew but most of the crowd was unknown for us.  We ordered some drinks. The DJ played some good stuff and the atmosphere was great. Within the VIP section it was pretty crowded. It was one of the best known clubs in the neighborhood. It wasn’t all celebrity that walked around there. To get into the VIP section you had to pay extra money or you had to be a VIP-member. And we all where members except for Kirsten. But that wasn’t  a problem. She came with me as a guest, so that was cool. Kirsten chatted with Leigh and Rochelle. It seemed that they got along really well. It felt really comfortable. And of course Rochelle and Leigh were really nice to her, as usual. Rochelle was such a sweetie. She’s is a make – up artist and she toured with the group for a while before AJ and her got in their relationship. Rochelle is one of the sweetest persons in the world. So nice and kind, and always willing to do anything for you. With Leigh the same story. Although Leigh had a bit of Latino - spice in her. But that only made it more fun to hang around her.