Forty

~ Chicago, IL … Day One ~

After Philadelphia we had a four-day stay in Chicago with two days off, then two days on followed by an overnight to Michigan. Chicago was always a fun place to be, and we definitely took advantage of it.

Things seemed to be going well between Nick and me after our night in the bus. We’d gone back to communicating openly again, if not more openly than we had been before, and things just felt comfortable with him again. Things with AJ meanwhile were pretty great too. We were going ahead with going public with our relationship and hadn’t yet received any negative feedback. We figured the true test though would be in Chicago when we had two days of being out in public together with press and fans around every corner. If we were going to run into any trouble, it was going to start in Chicago.

"Mr. and Mrs. Richardson! Are you coming to dinner or not?" I yelled as I banged on Kevin’s suite door. Kristen had surprised him by flying in for our two days off and they’d barely surfaced for air once we got to the hotel.

"We’re coming… geesh, Kel!" Kevin laughed as he opened the door while putting his coat on. "Obnoxious much?"

"Nope, just hungry!"

"You sound like Nick…" Brian laughed as he joined us in the hall.

"Do I?" I asked Nick with a grin.

He nodded, "A little, but I don’t see why that’s so bad…"

We all giggled and I looked at Kevin, "Where’s the wifey?"

"Putting on her shoes, I’ll go get her…"

"Oh no you won’t!" I laughed pulling at Kevin’s hand. "If you go back in there you’ll take her to bed again and we won’t get to eat…"

"Here I am…" Kristen laughed. "And you’re right… good move not letting him go back in there for me…"

Kevin pouted, "Am I that bad?"

"No, baby…" Kristen cooed as she stood on her tiptoes and kissed Kevin. "You’re that good…" She winked at him and he grinned from eat to ear.

Nick laughed and nudged me. I shot him a death look and smacked him in the arm. Ever since I’d revealed to him about Kevin and my one night stand he’d been teasing me about it secretly. He’d walk past me and whisper in my ear, "God, Kevin has a nice ass doesn’t he?" Or one time after a concert he sat next to me in the van on the way back to the hotel and he looked at me and said, "Did you see the hard on Kev was sporting during the concert tonight?" He was ruthless, but I had to admit it was funny.

"So we’ve got everyone but AJ…" Howie said as he looked around the group of us standing in the hall. "Kel? Your man?"

"I have no idea. He said he was going to meet us there because he had something to do." I shrugged. "He and Marcus left about an hour an a half ago…"

"Well then you’re my date…" Nick smiled and offered me his arm.

"Thank you…" I smiled and took Nick’s arm. "Let’s go…"

Dinner was a hilarious, to put it gently. We hadn’t all been together like that in a long time, and it was a blast. We ate dinner in a fairly fancy restaurant that Howie had contacted about getting us a private room, which meant that we were able to totally relax without worrying about fans and the press. After dinner we headed to a nearby jazz club that Kevin had heard good things about and we danced all night long and closed the club at 3:00.

"Who wants breakfast?" Brian asked as we rode back to the hotel.

"Oooh… you know what sounds good is an omelet," I smiled.

"That’s what I was thinking…"Brian smiled.  "Nick, you up for breakfast in the hotel restaurant?"

"Yup…"

"Howie?"

"No thanks, I’m beat…" he yawned.

"Kev?"

"The only thing that sounds good to me right now is sitting here next to me holding my hand… we’ll get our own breakfast later, but thank you." Kevin kissed Kristen gently and I smiled watching them.

When we got to the hotel we went in the back entrance to avoid the bulk of the fans and then walked through the lobby as muffled screams could be heard from outside the doors of the hotel where the fans were camped out in the cold. The guys waved through the windows a bit and cameras flashed. I shook my head knowing that none of the pictures would turn out because of the bad lighting and the ricochet of the flash on the glass doors.

AJ tugged at my hand slightly and I stopped walking to look at him, "I think I’m going to skip breakfast…"

"You are? Are you okay?" I asked as I ran my fingers over his cheek.

"Yeah I’m just tired and I drank too much. I don’t want to eat."

I looked into AJ’s eyes silently, "You sure that’s all?"

AJ smiled and nodded, "Yes… stop looking at me like that…"

"Like what?"

"Like you’re going to skip breakfast to make sure I’m okay…" he smiled.  "I promise, I’m okay." I continued to watch his eyes for any flinch of hesitation in them. "Do I lie to you?"

I shook my head, "No…"

"Go have breakfast… then tomorrow is KJ and AJ date day okay?"

I smiled, "Okay… I love you ya know?"

AJ smiled and wrapped his arms around my waist pulling me to his body, "Yeah I do… and I love you…" He leaned down to kiss me and I tiptoed to meet his lips. We must have given the fans a pretty nice show because when we pulled apart both of us were breathless.

"Damn…" I sighed with a giggle.

He laughed, "You’ll get more of those later… now go catch up with the guys."

We went our separate ways and I joined up with Brian in the restaurant. "Where’s AJ?" Brian asked as I sat down.

"He went to bed…"

"You’re kidding? He okay?"

I shrugged, "He said he was, and I can usually tell if he’s lying. Said he was just tired and drank too much tonight and didn’t want to eat."

"That’s weird…"

"Yeah I thought so too…"

"Thought what?" Nick asked as he slid in the booth next to me after coming back from the restroom.

"AJ went to bed. I thought it was weird that he didn’t want to come with us."

"Huh… that is weird. Maybe he’s just tired…"

"That’s what he said," I said quietly.

"I’m sure he’s fine, Kel…" Brian said supportively and handed me a menu.

"Thanks, honey…"

Brian and Nick worked their Frick and Frack magic on me and before long I’d stopped worrying about AJ because I was laughing too hard at the two of them. Between them picking on one another, telling jokes, doing imitations and telling stories about one another that I’d never heard before, my cheeks hurt from smiling so much. Brian was the first to get tired and left Nick and me alone at the table as he decided to turn in.

Nick moved to the other side of the booth so that he could see me better as we talked and we continued picking at the food we’d ordered while continuing to talk. "So how are the pictures coming along?"

"Good… I can see how hard it’s going to be to choose which get into the book though. This is only what… the third week of tour? I’ve already got enough to make a book now…" I smiled.

"That’s okay, we’ll just have lots for our own photo albums then…"

"Exactly. Oh and I have an idea that I’m going to try soon too. I’m giving you guys an assignment. Probably the day after tomorrow."

"An assignment? What kind of assignment?"

"I’m not telling… but you’re going to do just fine at it so don’t worry."

Nick made a face at me and I smiled, "Whatever you say, Kel…"

"Don’t you trust me, Nicky?"

"Sure I do, but sometimes your ideas frighten me!" he laughed.

"Frighten you?" I giggled. "Wow… such power I have!"

"You’re nuts…"

"You keep telling me that…"

"Repetition is the best tool for teaching, don’t you watch Blue’s Clues?"

I cracked up, "Actually I do, but the thought that you do scares me…"

Nick scooted out of the booth and stood up and began to sing and dance, "We are lookin’ for Blue’s Clues… We are lookin’ for Blue’s Clues…"

"Oh my god…" I laughed and let my head hit the table in front of me.

Nick smiled, "Steve rocks…"

I shook my head and stood up, "And you call me nuts… Take me to my room, Carter…"

"But, Kel… your boyfriend is there… don’t you think we should go to mine?"

"Nah…" I shrugged. "He’s been asking me about a threesome, I figure I might as well indulge him…" I winked as I threw cash on the table and took Nick’s hand in mine leading him out toward the lobby of the hotel. "Come on, sexy…"

"Threesome? I don’t think so… I mean, that would mean I’d have to touch AJ…"

I laughed, "Yeah and?"

Nick shuddered, "Nope…"

"Nope?"

"Now Kev maybe… he’s so hot you know? And I hear he’s wild in bed…" he snorted.

"You are such a shit!" I laughed and attacked him.

He overpowered me as usual and managed to tackle me to the floor of the lobby as we both cracked up and the overnight desk clerk chuckled at us. Nick smiled as he looked down at me, "You should know better by now that I’m stronger than you…"

"Yeah well I like it when you’re rough…" I winked with a laugh. "I got you on top of me didn’t I?"

"Tease…"

"Yes?"

Nick rolled his eyes and then kissed me quickly before getting up and pulling me up with him. "Come on, I’ve gotta get you back to AJ before he gets worried that I’m trying to steal you… or I take you up on the threesome…" We laughed and teased each other all the way back to our floor.