Brian was frozen into place, stunned and oblivious to the stinging in his cheek. As he watched Leighanne run through the crowd, his brain told him to go after her, but his feet couldn’t move. What he wanted to do was to chase after Noelle and fly away with her to Gainesville, or anywhere really, and leave this entire mess behind, which was a really crappy way to be thinking considering that he'd just broken his wife's heart.

When Leighanne disappeared into the crowds, Brian took off behind her. He knew that he had to talk to her before she did something stupid. It was true that he was planning on having this conversation with her anyway, but this isn’t the way that he wanted it to happen. She shouldn’t have had to find out that her husband was leaving her by seeing him and the woman that he fell in love with canoodling in the middle of a crowded airport.

When Leighanne was a few feet in front of Brian, he reached out to her breathlessly, “Leighanne, wait.”

Leighanne pulled away from him, but turned around, furious.

“Don’t touch me,” she snapped angrily. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. She hated that she was crying in front of him, especially after the way that he had been treating her. He’d asked for a separation without even giving their marriage a shot. He’d cheated on her with someone so much younger. It just wasn’t right.

“Leighanne, come on,” Brian replied softly. “Let’s not do this here, okay? Let’s go home. We need to talk.”

Leighanne shook her head and backed away from him. “I don’t have anything to say to you. You’ve been cheating on me this whole time. My sister said that you were. All of my friends, they said it too, but I trusted you and I took up for you.”

“I didn’t cheat on you,” Brian replied, though he didn’t know if that was the case. Technically, they were still married, but a separation counted as not being together, didn’t it?

“How can you even say that?” Leighanne spat. “I am still your wife.”

Brian shook his head, but he didn’t know what to say. They were still in the middle of the airport and people were starting to stare. Luckily, no one was snapping photos yet, but Brian didn’t even care about that. He didn’t think that this whole thing could have gone any worse. “What were you even doing here?”

“What was I doing here?” Leighanne yelled. “I was being a good wife. You texted me what time you were going to be home, which was classy by the way. So, I figured, hell, I’m going to meet my husband at the airport and show him that I still love him and that I missed him! That’s what I’m doing here, Brian.”

When Leighanne disappeared into the crowds again, this time Brian didn’t chase after her. Instead, he sat down a wooden bench that was standing in the airport corridor behind him and put his head into his hands. Now, more than ever, Brian wished that he was back in Europe and not dealing with this mess. How could he tell Leighanne what he needed to tell her now when he’d already crushed her the way that he had? How do you add, ‘by the way, I don’t love you anymore and I want a divorce’ to the pile?

He was in the wrong here, and he knew it. Leighanne should never have had to find out about Noelle the way that she did. She was holding out hope for their marriage, coming to the airport to surprise him, to be there for him when he got back. She was holding Brian to his word, being that Brian had said—even if he didn't believe it at the time that he said it—that they would try to work things out when he got home.

In Brian's mind, however, the marriage was already over. He knew that he had divorce papers in his carryon bag.

So, no, what happened wasn't fair, but was it wrong?

If Brian didn’t have the answers before, he really didn’t have the answers now.

----

When Noelle arrived back home to Gainesville, there was an unbelievable feeling of loss within her, not only because she was away from Brian, but because everyone on that tour had become her family. She didn’t know how AJ had handled getting so close to people only to lose them a few months later.

Noelle’s fingers itched to call Brian as soon as the plane landed, but she didn’t want to catch him in the middle of World War III, which could have possibly been starting in Atlanta, Georgia at that very moment. Instead of calling Brian, Noelle called herself a taxi and took the short ride back to her small apartment near the University of Florida campus.

During the ride, she couldn’t help but to wonder how things were going. Had Brian dropped the bomb yet? Noelle had tried to humanize Leighanne while she and Brian were apart, but without knowing her, it was hard. Still, she felt a little bit of sadness for Brian's wife. Losing someone that you love is the worst possible feeling in the world.

It was such a conflicting feeling for Noelle to love someone so much, but have empathy for the wife that he was leaving. Noelle could almost see the way that people would view the situation. She looked like the bad guy again.

A younger woman comes onto the tour and seduces the unhappily married Backstreet Boy. Yeah, if she read about herself in the tabloids, she would hate her too. The whole situation helped her to understand what AJ had meant by leaving Brian alone until he was really out of his marriage. Still, nothing could keep the smile off of her face when she thought about Brian’s lips touching her own. It was an awkward place to be, especially when she’d just gotten out of this place with someone else not too long before.

When Noelle compared her situation with Rob to her situation with Brian, there really was no comparison. With Rob, Noelle felt a sort of admiration. Not that she didn’t admire Brian’s achievements, but Rob had the type of career that Noelle had always longed for. With Brian, Noelle felt an undeniable passion and attraction. She missed him when he wasn’t there, not just sexually, but personally. Brian made her laugh. She felt safe with him. Even though he was completely capable of changing his mind and staying with his wife, Noelle truly believed him when he said that he wanted to be with her. Brian wasn’t divorcing Leighanne to be with Noelle and Noelle knew that. Brian had decided to divorce Leighanne before he had even met her, but he was having a hard time convincing himself that making that leap was the right thing to do. Eventually, he decided to leave Leighanne for good because he knew that he could be happy.

When Noelle arrived back home, she dragged her suitcases up the two flights of stairs and was huffing by the time that she flung herself through the front door. The small apartment was exactly the way that she’d left it. The clean dishes were piled in the dish rack. A stack of towels were piled up on the couch where she had neglected to put them away when she had made the rash decision of running away instead of facing down the glares of local Gators and Gator fans alike. The only difference was the stack of mail piled up on her small kitchen table. She had asked her best friend Emily to watch over things for her while she was overseas.

As she sat down at the table to go through the various bills and junk that had started to accumulate, she grabbed her phone and started to dial Emily’s phone number. Noelle was startled, however, when her bubbly, red-headed friend burst through the front door carrying a fresh stack of mail.

When Emily saw Noelle sitting at the table, she shrieked and dropped the mail, startled herself. Then, she jumped at her best friend excitedly.

“You’re home!” Emily screeched. When Emily pulled away, she slapped Noelle’s arm playfully. “You scared me half to death! Why didn’t you tell me that you were coming home today?”

Noelle couldn’t help but to smile when her friend pulled her into another tight hug. “I was just calling you. I was actually supposed to be here late last night, but I got held up.”

Missing the rush that rose to Noelle’s cheeks at the thought of what she was held up with; Emily plunked herself down at the table across from Noelle. “So, tell me all about touring with that gorgeous Backstreet brother of yours!”

Noelle knitted her eyebrows in confusion and laughed. “My gorgeous Backstreet brother? You weren’t a Backstreet Boys fan growing up were you?”

“Noelle,” Emily replied in mock-seriousness, “when the Backstreet Boys told me to ‘Get Down’, I got down. When Nick asked if he was ‘sexual’, I screamed ‘hell, yes’. When any one of them asked me to tell them ‘why’, I really wanted to be able to answer that question. When…”

“Okay, okay,” Noelle replied, laughingly. “Enough. Geeze. I can’t believe I never knew that you were a teeny-bopping super-fan. Which one plastered of them your bedroom walls as a teenager?”

Emily laughed and shook her head. “No way. I’m not telling you that.”

“Oh no.” Noelle laughed. “It was Alex.”

Emily shook her head emphatically. “No! It wasn’t your brother. If that was the case, once I found out that your brother was the man of my teenage dreams, I don’t think that we would have been able to be friends anymore. I would have died of embarrassment.”

“Okay, fine. Tell me who it was then. Please?” Noelle knew that she was torturing her friend, but it was too much fun to quit. “What does it matter? It’s not like I’m going to run and tell him or, even if I did, that he would think anything of it if he ever meets you.”

Emily shrugged and rolled her eyes. “Okay, whatever. When I was 14, the love of my life was Brian Littrell, okay?”

Noelle’s face fell slightly when Emily mentioned that her crush was Brian. It was silly, she knew, and it felt a little like high school, but it was weird to find out that your friend used to have a crush on your boyfriend—if that’s even what Brian was to Noelle, her boyfriend. “Brian?”

“Yeah,” Emily replied slowly, “Brian. What? Is he a complete jerk or something?”

Noelle shook her head quickly. “No, not at all. He’s great.”

“You look at me differently now, don’t you?” Emily replied, shaking her head. “You know that your brother’s picture used to be on my wall with all of his friends, who are now your friends, and you think I’m a freak.”

Noelle laughed softly. “No, it’s not that. I promise. Brian and I just, well, we got close. That’s all.”

“Noelle I had a crush on Brian 12 years ago. I’m not going to try to get you to set me up with your new boy-banding best friend.” Emily rolled her eyes and laughed to herself. “Besides, he’s married. I bet his wife is really gorgeous, isn’t she?”

Noelle’s face paled. She’d probably spoken too much. Now, she was kicking herself. “Um, I don’t know. I never really met her.”

“Really?” Emily asked, slightly surprised. “You guys were gone for a while. I can’t believe she didn’t meet up with him at some point.”

“Well,” Noelle started, and then paused. How much was okay to tell her friend at this point? “See, they’re separated, actually, which isn’t really public knowledge. He’s filing for divorce soon. This week, actually.”

“Oh my God, really?” Emily gasped, shocked. “I mean, I don’t really know him, of course, but that sounds crazy. He must have really opened up to you.”

Noelle shrugged. “Yeah, I guess you can say that.”

Emily glanced at her friend. She knew that Noelle was holding back, but she didn’t exactly know what she wasn’t telling her. “Okay, spill. What’s going on with you?”

Noelle shook her head quickly and stood up from the table. “Nothing’s going on with me besides some jet lag and a severe burger craving. Want to grab something to eat? Let me just change really quick.”

Emily watched as Noelle ran her hands through her hair nervously and then threw her suitcase up onto the table and unzipped it quickly. “Noelle, you didn’t… did you?”

Noelle stopped sifting through her suitcase and stared at her friend. “I didn’t what?”

“You did!” Emily shook her head. She wanted to be understanding, but she just didn’t know how Noelle would allow herself to be put into this situation again, especially in such a high-profile way. “You slept with him!”

Noelle fell back into her chair and nodded her head slowly. “I did, but it’s worse than that.”

“How could it be worse?” Emily questioned.

“It’s not even that it’s worse. It’s okay, really, because this time I’ve seen the divorce papers. This is really happening, right now,” Noelle replied quickly. “And, at first, I didn’t know about his wife. I mean, when we first met, I didn’t even know he was a Backstreet Boy. So, we slept together, decided it was a mistake, tried to stay away from each other, slept together again, I found out that he was married, AJ broke Brian's nose, he threw down separation and divorce papers in front of us, and then he broke AJ’s nose and the story goes on from there.”

Noelle finished in one breath and then bit down on the corner of her bottom lip.

Emily’s eyes were wide opened in shock. “How exactly does it go from there?”

“Um, I came down with pneumonia and Brian took me to the hospital. We talked a little bit about the situation. I was really determined to stay away from him. I mean, I didn’t want to have to go through all of this again, but the truth was there. He’s legally separated from his wife. He’s getting a divorce; the situation is a little bit different.”

“Do you know how long it takes couples to actually get divorced though, Noelle? This isn’t that cut and dry. Do you really want to be the woman that breaks up marriages?” Emily didn’t want to hurt Noelle, but Noelle needed to hear the cold hard truth, because this was now two marriages that she was caught in the middle of.

“I didn’t break up the marriage. It was already broken when we met,” Noelle replied softly. “I wasn’t even going to tell you. I know how it looks, but he loves me—really loves me—and I love him.”

“You thought that Rob really loved you, too, Noelle.” Emily shot back. Maybe she wasn’t telling Noelle what she wanted to hear, but she was being a friend and she hoped that was enough.

“This is different,” Noelle replied, shaking her head. “Brian isn’t Rob.”

“You’re right. It is a little different, but the facts more or less remain the same. There is someone else in his life right now. She’s still his wife until a judge says otherwise. Can you handle the backlash that’s going to come?” Emily asked gently.

“I’m willing to try.” Noelle shrugged. “I feel different with Brian, Em. I really tried to hate him. I tried to stay away and just leave and never talk to him again, but the thought of not having Brian in my life is enough to make me physically ill. He’s amazing and gentle and sweet and kind and sensitive and passionate and … everything that I can’t put into words.”

Emily sighed and shook her head slowly. “You do love him.”

Noelle nodded. “I do.”

“And he feels the same way about you?” Emily questioned, though she knew that by Noelle’s answer alone, she was going to have no way of knowing the truth.

“He does. I promise he does,” Noelle replied. She took her friend’s hand into her own with tears in her eyes. “You have been there for me through everything Emily and I love you for that. Even though it’s hard, I need you to be here for this, too, because it’s good. I promise you, it’s good and it’s different than with Rob, really different.”

Emily nodded. “I love you, too, Noelle. That’s why I just don’t want to see you get hurt again by the same situation. Either way, I’m going to be here for you when you’re either standing at the altar as Mr. Littrell’s second wife or when the whole thing falls apart. But I’m not promising not to say ‘I told you so’.”

Noelle laughed and wrapped her arms around her friend’s neck. “If things end up like they did with Rob, I want you to tell me you told me so. Then, lock me in a closet and put me in a chastity belt, just in case.”

Noelle held out her pinky for Emily to loop hers around in a pinky swear.

Emily laughed as she linked her finger with Noelle’s and sighed jokingly. “I have no idea where I’m going to find a chastity belt.”

“Don’t wish for me to fail, Em.” Noelle laughed.

“Not wishing,” Emily laughed, shaking her head. “Just getting prepared.”