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His girl was cheating on him with the local speakeasy owner. He didn't like what he was hearing and he was going to put a stop to what was going on. He'd warned the guy that if he didn't leave his dame alone there would be serious trouble. Sucking his teeth clean with his tongue and glancing around the joint, he knew he had to not only mess his place up, but he had to mess him up as well.
Anthony looked around at the broken bottles and overturned tables. Where could they be hiding? he thought to himself. With one step, Anthony was in a different part of this place; it was a room, a backroom. A desk in the middle of the room was the only thing he could see. He smirked as he turned to his boys and nodded at them. Anthony walked out to the bar and poured himself some whiskey and listened to the sound the gunfire go off in the office.

After drinking down the bootleg liquor that he himself had provided, he made an appearance back in the office. The bloodstained desk told him he had found his mark; that was all he needed. "Teach you to mess with me," was all he said as he left the premises a few minutes before the cops arrived.

*****

Nick tried hard not to let his excitement show while he sat with Mandy before she was about to go on stage. After the show, if all went well, Mandy would be having a girls' night with LeighAnne and he would be holding Lorena close. Nick didn't want to sneak behind Mandy's back with another girl, but he feared what would happen if he were to tell her that he wanted out of the relationship. They had been together for so long he often wondered if he would feel right without her by his side.

He thought of that morning after he had met Lorena. It was a common thought to him after he awoke in the middle of the night, many times after having his nightmare. The nightmare was something that Nick wanted to write her about often, but the paper always ended up crumpled in a wastebasket or burning in a fire. How was he supposed to start a letter like that?

'I've been having nightmares where you are the queen I'm having an affair with before I'm torturted to death.'

Not exactly the way he wanted to sound in his letters to Lorena. He had decided, however, that he needed to tell someone, and Lorena was going to be the person to tell. He was sure Mandy wouldn't take the dreams very lightly, considering another girl was in them. Nick could see her laughing it off and telling him that it was nothing, and then making sure that she spent more time with him than she did already. No, Lorena would be the person to tell. If anything was meant to happen between them, then she would be understanding towards him and his nightmare.

"Five minutes, Miss Ford," a roadie popped in to announce.

"Nick, give me a good luck kiss. I'm in New York performing, I can't believe it."

"You're on your way, babe," Nick said as he leaned in and gave her a kiss for good luck. "You're gonna do great."

Nick stayed in her dressing room for at least five extra minutes to make sure that she was onstage before he went back to his dressing area. He walked over to his coat pocket and grabbed a stack of papers tied together. He pulled one out of the bunch and began to read:

...then the professor told me that I had to do it all over again so that it made more sense to him. I can't believe he did that, he just ripped it up in front of the whole class. What I wouldn't give to be out of school and teaching already, or, better yet, to be with you wherever you are. Nick, tell me in your next letter that we will get to see each other again, tell me that you are single and we can be together.

He tied the letter back with the rest of them and shoved them back in his pocket. Nick hadn't been able to tell her he was single in his next letter, because he wasn't. He put his head in his hands and wondered why he couldn't tell her what she wanted to hear. Why was he still with Mandy, was it familiarity? He wanted Lorena, but couldn't break it off with Mandy. Mandy was in it for the long run, he told himself. She's been with you since it started and she'll be with you, but Lorena is a gamble; she could just be trying to get at you because you are famous. That was the reasoning he told himself when he started thinking about it, but he was starting to wonder if his reasoning was still holding up.

"Nick, you need to get ready," a voice from behind him said.

He turned around quickly and saw Brian with LeighAnne behind him. "Yeah, I guess I do." He watched his friends walk off together hand in hand, whispering to each other. He and Mandy never did that.

*****

Lorena felt guilty watching Mandy on stage. Nothing major had happened between her and Nick, yet she felt like she was the girl he was cheating with. She was fine with what she was doing until she sat looking at 'the girlfriend'; now the guilt was starting in. She watched painfully as she considered not meeting Nick after the show.

She was starting to feel like she really had made out with Nick that morning in her hotel room. What was she doing? She was sitting in an audience, preparing to meet with a guy from the group so that he could cheat on his girlfriend. She was not brought up this way, to think this way, to want to do something like this. Why then, if she was not brought up to be like this, did she want to meet him so badly? Why did she want to break this girl's heart so that hers could feel more complete?

Lorena slouched in her seat as she waited for Mandy to finish performing and the boys to make their appearance onstage.