AJ was surprised to have a voicemail from Noelle waiting for him when his plane landed that afternoon. He was more surprised by the actual message that was behind that little red notification number.

“Hey, Alex, it’s Noelle. I remember you saying that you were getting back to LA sometime today and since I’m in town I was hoping you’d have time to take your baby sister to dinner,” Noelle sing-songed cheerfully through AJ’s voicemail. “Anyway, give me a call back on my cell when you land.”

For a fleeting moment, AJ wondered what kind of trouble Noelle had gotten herself into this time. The last time that she’d surprised him with the fact that she was in California, he’d learned that she was running away from her life and ended up in bed with his friend. AJ laughed to himself at his suspicions. Noelle sounded like she was in way too good of a mood to be running away from anything. Secretly, that kind of worried him too.

He called Noelle back as soon as he was out of the airport.

“Hey, Noah,” AJ greeted when Noelle answered the phone. “I’m not sure that I want to know, but what are you doing back in LA?”

Noelle laughed softly. She had a feeling AJ would think that he was going to be hiding a fugitive; her just showing up at his doorstep hadn’t gone so well in the past.

“I’m here for productive reasons this time, Alex,” Noelle answered with a hint of humor in her voice. “Are you busy tonight? I was hoping that I could swing by, but I understand if you’re tired or whatever.”

“No, of course not. You can come by whenever you want. Wait, let me guess, you’re already there aren’t you?” AJ joked, teasing her about breaking into his house while he was overseas months earlier.

“No,” Noelle answered. “I’m actually not. I thought that you’d be smart enough to hide the key better this time around.”

“Well, where ever you’re staying, check out and come hang with me. The house is plenty big enough,” AJ insisted. He moved on before she had a chance to argue with him. “So, what are these productive reasons that you’re in town? Nick’s single. Are you tracking him down?”

“Ouch,” Noelle replied, slightly taken aback. “That was kind of low.”

“Sorry,” AJ said. “I was really just kidding. I guess it’s too soon?”

“Way too soon,” Noelle answered.

“Sorry,” he repeated. “Let me start over. What are these productive reasons that you’re back in town, Noelle? Period.”

Noelle laughed. “That’s better. I took your advice, and I had an interview at a school, actually. I’ll tell you all about it when I get there. Will you be home in an hour or so?”

“Sooner than that,” AJ replied. “I’ll see you soon, and I’m proud of you.”

Noelle smiled. “Don’t be proud yet. I’m going to stop by the store and grab a few things. We’ll actually cook dinner. I’m sure that you’re sick of eating out by now, right?”

“Like you wouldn’t believe.” AJ’s stomach growled at the thought of a home-cooked meal. “That actually sounds really great.”

“Good,” Noelle said. “I’ll see you soon.”

AJ threw his phone down on the car seat next to him and smiled to himself. Noelle seemed like she was faring way better than Brian was with everything that had gone down. Maybe Brian’s situation was just more complicated, or maybe Noelle was a better actor than AJ gave her credit for being.

***

Across the country in Georgia, Brian was finally unpacking his suitcases. He had a huge pile of laundry on one side of him and a messy pile of supposedly clean clothes on the other. He sighed and laughed humorlessly at the work that he was going to have cut out for him. In the past, Leighanne would have done the laundry for him. Now, it didn’t feel right expecting that she would.

Brian pulled the suitcases down off of the bed and shoved the smaller suitcase into the larger one for storage. He zipped the larger suitcase and took it into the closet. As he lifted the bags to put them on their designated shelf, a stack of pictures that he’d forgotten he had fluttered out onto the floor. Brian stored the suitcases and then bent over to pick up the pictures.

A sad smile lifted to his face as he flipped through the small stack of photographs that were taken by their tour photographer. Some of the pictures were of him and the guys goofing around backstage at one time or another, but most of the pictures were of him and Noelle. There was one from when they were ‘just friends’ hanging out backstage, Brian attempting again to show Noelle the chords on the guitar. There was one of a silly moment where Noelle had leaned over to kiss Brian’s cheek and he had pretended to be embarrassed by the gesture. And there was his favorite one from after they had started dating. They were on the bus, leaning together cheek to cheek. There were happy grins on their faces and the twinkle of love in their eyes. They were so relaxed, so happy in that moment.

Brian continued flipping through the other pictures with a sigh. He knew that he needed to get rid of the photographs. That was the final step in purging himself of everything Noelle. He walked over to the covered garbage can in the bathroom. He stepped on the foot pedal to open the lip and threw the photographs inside, and then he walked back into the bedroom.

He paused at the door to the bathroom and glanced back at the closed garbage can.  There was a panic growing inside of him at the thought of letting those moments go. Without another moment’s hesitation, he went back into the bathroom, grabbed the photos and stuffed them back into the suitcase. If Leighanne found them there, he could just pretend like he didn’t know they existed. Out of sight, out of mind, but at least they weren’t going to be gone forever.

Leighanne walked into the closet just as Brian was throwing the suitcases back onto the shelf. She wrapped her arms around his waist from behind and kissed his shoulder softly.

“What are you doing in here?” Leighanne asked as Brian turned around guiltily to face her.

“I was just unpacking,” Brian replied, wrapping his arms back around her.

“Judging by that laundry pile on the floor, that’s what I assumed,” Leighanne laughed and pulled away. She walked over to the pile and began scooping up her husband’s dirty clothes and throwing them into the laundry basket.

“You don’t have to do that,” Brian started, but Leighanne stopped him.

She rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Of course I’m going to do the laundry. I always do the laundry.”

Leighanne picked up the laundry basket and walked over to Brian. She leaned up and kissed him softly. “I’m glad that you decided to stay here rather than keep up with that whole separation thing. I know that it would be easy to live in separate places while all of this marriage counseling and everything is going on, but I’m glad that you aren’t.”

Brian smiled and nodded his head slowly. “I’m just glad that you’re still alive and that we have the chance to try to sort this out.”

Leighanne tried to smile, but it fell flat. Brian took the laundry basket from her and followed her into the laundry room. He dropped the basket onto the floor and then walked out to give her the space that he knew she liked in the small space.

Leighanne sighed as she started to load the washing machine with her and Brian’s clothing. His last comment was running through her mind. What she’d done had happened weeks ago by now, but she knew that Brian would never forget. She didn’t want him to be with her simply out of guilt; she hoped that soon the entire mess would be behind them.

Leighanne stopped loading the washing machine when a pair of women’s underwear fell out of the tangled mess of Brian’s clothing. It was a black, lacy pair of boy-short cut panties. Leighanne couldn’t do anything but stare down at the pair of underwear that she knew wasn’t hers. She felt foolish when tears came to her eyes, but it was easy to pretend that Brian hadn’t been—or even still wasn’t—in love with someone else when he was at home with her making promises. But to see those panties mixed with Brian’s clothing was a slap in the face. All of the memories came flooding back—the hopelessness she felt when Brian told Noelle how he felt about her, the life that Leighanne had seen that Noelle and Brian were starting together.

Leighanne wiped her tears quickly and picked up the underwear from the floor. In one fatal swoop she threw the lingerie into the garbage can, hoping that the gesture would rid her of the memories as well. It was in that moment that Leighanne realized how much she and Brian were avoiding. They could only push their problems and the past into the background for so long before the whole façade blew up in their faces. Leighanne knew now, more than ever, just how badly she and Brian needed as much marriage counseling as they could get.

***

“So,” Noelle laughed along with AJ as she regaled him with the story of her interview. “He told me that he knew that Rob was a jerk and laughed about you being a Backstreet Boy. I stood up at that point ready to give up on that interview and a little frustrated that he wasted my time just so that he could get his jollies hearing all about my problems, but then he told me to sit down because he was actually impressed with me and that there was a lot more time for me to mess it up.”

“That’s hilarious,” AJ said as he swiped the vegetables that Noelle was cutting for the stir fry she was cooking. “So then what happened?”

“He told me that he was going to recommend me to the board. There’s a whole process beyond that so I’m not completely in yet,” Noelle finished quickly. She smacked AJ’s hand away from the vegetables when he reached in again. “Will you stop that?”

AJ shoved a piece of broccoli in his mouth. “Sorry, that was the last one. Don’t doubt yourself. You’re totally gonna get in.”

“Don’t jinx me, Alex,” Noelle laughed. “The dean was very amused that my brother is a Backstreet Boy. I may need you to get together an impromptu performance for him if I get in.”

AJ laughed. He had to admit that it was good having Noelle around. He grabbed a bottle of water out of the refrigerator and decided to change the topic a bit. “That would mean running into Brian again.”

Noelle sighed and threw everything into the pot on the burner. “Well, I figure that we’ll run into each other again eventually. I should probably get used to the idea.”

“Noelle,” AJ replied talking to the back of her head from across the island counter in the center of his kitchen. “Are you really that okay with everything? I mean, I know that it’s been a couple months, but it’s not like you’ve been dating or anything. You loved him. It’s okay to be upset about how everything changed.”

“I know,” Noelle replied. She inhaled deeply and then continued speaking, “It was hard letting him go, especially since neither of us really wanted to walk away. It would be harder if everyone was tip-toeing around it, I guess. He’s a part of your life which means that if I’m going to be in your life, indirectly, he’s going to be a part of my life. See?”

AJ knitted his eyebrows in confusion. “Um, I think so.”

“Look, I love Brian,” Noelle stopped and corrected herself, “loved Brian. I loved Brian. But I’m moving on with my life and so is he. I knew that there was no way that it was going to last, anyway.”

Both AJ and Noelle fell quiet as Noelle continued to work the stir fry. After a second, she continued with a sigh, “But it would have been really great if it had.”

AJ glanced at Noelle as she mindlessly stirred the mixture of chicken and vegetables. He walked over to his sister and pulled her in for a hug. “It’s all going to work out for the best, Noelle. It won’t hurt forever.”

Noelle wiped away her stray tears and laughed at her own emotion. “You promise?”

AJ smiled. “I promise.”