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Before: Calling for Favors


Nick

"You regretting not coming on tour with us yet, Frack?" AJ chanted as he answered his phone two days later. I'd been trying to get a hold of him to talk about serving Chris, but he was a lot harder to get in touch with these days.

"Tour with y'all and miss Zoey gettin' bigger? Nawh, I don't think so. You guys aren't as cute as her, sorry," I said.

"Well damn I can tell I've been replaced," AJ said with a sigh. "So how's Zoey anyway? When the hell do I get to meet her?"

I laughed, "When are you back in town?"

"Tomorrow, actually. We got a couple weeks' break before heading out again."

"Well come on by then," I said, "I actually had some stuff I wanted to talk to you about. I have a favor I need."

"A favor, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Like I owe you a fuckin' favor," AJ snorted.

I laughed, "Didn't you get the memo? You love doing shit for me."

"I must've missed that memo."

"Maybe you should pay more attention."

"So what's the favor?" AJ sounded wary.

I cleared my throat, "Well, Ashley filled out the forms for a request for annullment and the papers need to be served to Chris by a third party." I paused.

AJ was quiet for a long moment. I got the feeling he was purposely not catching on to what I was asking of him.

"AJ."

"Yes?"

"That's the favor."

"Yeah. About that."

"What?"

AJ cleared his throat, "Look. Chris is... fucking psychotic. He's horse shit. He's a wart on the ass of humanity."

"A wart on the ass of humanity. Wow," I said. I couldn't help but laugh. "Wow."

"Dude, he is. And God knows humanity is a pretty dirty, fucked up piece of ass. And I for one do not wish to piss off a wart on that ass. A wart on that ass that is pissed off is like opening the flood gates of hell and begging for wrath. I ain't treadin' on that water, dude, I'm sorry."

I sighed. I really couldn't argue with AJ's logic. "I get it, man, it's a'ight. We'll find someone else to do it."

"I still get to see the baby, yes?" AJ asked.

"No, mother fucker, you don't serve the papers and you can't see the baby, that's final."

"Awesome. Ro and I will drop by tomorrow around six. We'll bring Ava. They can play or something."

"Sounds good."

"Peace."

AJ hung up and I sighed, leaning back into my recliner and closing my eyes.

Ashley called out from the kitchen, "Nick, dinner's almost ready."

I got up and tossed my phone onto the coffee table, and walked out to the kitchen. Ashley had made shepherd's pie and the kitchen smelled like meat and potatoes and veggies and deliciousness and she was putting dishes up on the bar counter and glasses. I came up behind her, pulling her back first into me. I put my chin on her shoulder. "I could eat you up," I said, fake-biting her shoulder.

"I'm not dinner," she laughed.

"Damn. You taste good."

Ashley spun in my arms and put her hands on my chest. "Did you get to talk to AJ?" I nodded. "And?"

"He said no," I said. "But he's bringing Rochelle and Ava over tomorrow night to see Zoey."

"He said no?" Ashley asked, surprised.

"He says he doesn't want to mess with humanity's ass wart."

"What?"

"You know AJ's creative with dialogue," I answered. I let my arms drop from around Ashley and pulled open the stove, peeking in at the sweet-potato covered meaty goodness baking inside. I closed it and looked back at Ashley, "I'll ask the other fellas and if none of'em wanna do it then we'll call and hire someone."

"Okay." Ashley held out potholders, "Here, take the thingy out of the oven and I'll get the rest of the stuff out of the fridge." She proceeded to pull out milk, sour cream, and a salad.

I pulled the shepherd's pie out and put it on the stove top. I picked a piece of potato off the corner and ate it. Ashley caught me and hit my hand, "Don't pick," she said.

I made a face. "Meanie."

"Nickolas, go sit over there and wait."

I laughed and sat at the bar while Ashley spooned out servings of the shepherd's pie.




Ashley

The next day Nick called Howie, Kevin, and finally Brian. Of the four other Backstreet Boys I honestly had thought that Kevin and AJ were the only ones with balls enough to attempt to serve Chris the annullment papers. But I was surprised when Nick reported back the results of his phone calls to me over a lunch of chicken salad sandwiches. "Brian says he'll serve Chris the papers."

"What?" I looked up, shocked, "Brian is gonna do it?"

"Yeah. He was kinda eager, actually."

"You're... shushing... me," I said, glancing over at Zoey, who was gurgling at us from the carrying portion of her car seat, which we'd put up on the counter next to us. She was staring at us with her wide, globe-shaped eyes and chewing on pink giraffe's head, drooling all over his antler things. "I never would've believed Brian would want to do it."

Nick shrugged, "Brian said it'd be nice to be the server instead of the servee."

"Did he actually get the divorce from you-know-who?" I asked. Leighanne was never my favorite of the Backstreet Women. When she and Brian first started going out, Nick had hated her ever lovin' guts and that feeling had been passed on to me just by association when Nick so that when I first met her it was very hard to be unbiased and actually judge her according to how she treated me. Then she'd found out that I was Nick's "wingman" and that I'd never hit on any of the Backstreet Boys before, and asked me if I was secretly a lesbian.

I'd called her The Bitch for years. You Know Who was my code word. Since Zoey was there and all. Much like fluff had become a code word.

"Yeah," Nick said, "They finalized that awhile ago now."

I took a deep breath. "The end of an era."

"Bye-bye era," Nick muttered. He stuffed a huge bite of chicken salad sandwich into his mouth.

"So he's gonna serve the papers, huh?"

"Yup," Nick's mouth was full and a piece of celery snuck out and hit the counter. He scooped it up and stuck it back in his mouth. Moments like that made me remember that Nick is a gross boy and not an angel after all.

I looked at Zoey, who had thrown pink giraffe as her dad ate prechewed celery off the counter. I picked pink giraffe up and put it back onto Zoey's lap.

"I'm gonna go with him," Nick said around his sandwich.

I looked back at Nick. "What? Why?"

"Because it's Brian. He's liable to get to the prison and freeze up or something. He's a bit neurotic if you haven't noticed."

I remembered quite vividly this one time in a car with Brian where he'd been driving in midafternoon traffic and it was like reliving the scene in Clueless when Cher and Dionne get on the highway by mistake and scream for a solid three minutes.

Neurotic was a good word for Brian.

"I just don't like the idea of you being that close in proximity to Chris," I said.

"He's behind bars, Ashley, what's the guy gonna do?" Nick said with a laugh.

"I dunno, it's Chris. He probably has some kind of creepy Vulcan power or something. Or like that mind thing like Darth Vadar." I pinched my fingers together.

Nick laughed. "It turns me on so much that you can make Star Wars references."

"You know I love that movie."

Nick grinned, "I know. You're amazing like that."

I laughed. "Because I love Star Wars."

"Well not many hot women like Star Wars," he said, "It's like a ratio thing. Hotness and Star Wars fandom don't usually rise at the same time on the lady scale. You are a defiance to nature."

I stuck out my tongue.

"Hey, keep that where it belongs," he said, "Or I'll make you use it."

"Soon enough, Carter."

"Oh baby."

I laughed. And when I did, Zoey mimicked me, tossing her giraffe yet again out of her lap and onto the counter. Nick grinned and picked up the giraffe and handed it back to her. "Look at you, already laughing at daddy's dirty jokes," I said, shaking my head. "I dunno Nick, we have a wild one here."

Nick's eyes twinkled, "Just like her momma."