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AJ, becoming bored, walked over to the bar and asked the bartender for a coke. As he waited he looked around to see if Bianca had come back from the bathroom. She had been gone longer than she should have to only have been going to the bathroom. He mumbled thank you to the bartender and made his way back over to the table where Kevin was seated.

“Have you seen Bianca?” he asked and sat down across from Kevin.

“No. I thought you stole her away from Brian to dance?”

“Yeah, I did, but she had to go to the ladies’ room and she never came back.”

“Maybe she fell in,” Kevin mumbled with a shrug. “You know how women are, man. They have to spend more than two minutes in the bathroom. Imagine if she had a pack of her girlfriends to go with her…they could be in there for days.”

They both shuddered jokingly.

“Women kill me sometimes,” AJ laughed. He and Kevin became quiet again as they listened to the music, but AJ soon became restless. “She’s been gone too long…I’m gonna go check on her.”

“Okay,” Kevin nodded, fully understanding AJ’s worry.

AJ walked to the edge of the dance floor and quickly scanned the crowd for Bianca. He wanted to make sure Brian or Howie weren’t dancing with her before he went to check the ladies’ room. When he was sure there was no sign of her, he turned and headed for the bathrooms. As he neared the bathroom, he could see two figures standing against the wall. They were standing close and engaged in a fiery liplock. Looking closely at the pair, AJ lost all patience and grabbed the guy’s arm, jerking him away from his friend.

“What the hell?” Nick cried angrily as he turned to look at AJ. “What is your problem?”

“You are,” AJ’s voice was low and angry. He turned his cold glare to Bianca who just looked at the floor. “What the fuck is going on?”

“We were talking,” Nick said as he tried to control his temper. “Is there something wrong with that?”

“That sure as hell didn’t look like talking to me. Unless there’s a new way to communicate like that,” AJ turned his attention back to Bianca. He didn’t care about what Nick had to say; he wanted the answers from her. His tone softened slightly as he looked at her, “What’s going on?”

She was crying now but she still did not look up at him. “N-nothing.”

“Don’t!” AJ yelled and hit the wall causing her to jump. “Don’t fucking lie to me!”

Seeing AJ’s reaction, Nick grabbed his shoulder and jerked him away from Bianca sending him crashing into the wall. He put his finger on AJ’s chest and narrowed his eyes. “You need to calm down before you talk to her. If you wanna act like that, you talk to me when you do it.”

“Get your hands off me, Nick,” AJ said without attempting to control the anger bubbling inside.

Bianca wiped her eyes furiously and began to walk away. She wanted out of the stifling situation so she could think. It was all becoming too much for her to handle at once.

“No,” AJ said and shoved Nick out of his way and to the floor. Grabbing Bianca’s arm, he turned her to face him. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“AJ, stop it,” she hissed as he roughly brought her back to him and forced her to look at him. Through all the roughness and anger, she could still see the hurt in his chocolate eyes. “We don’t need to be talking about this right now.”

“The hell we don’t. I think-” he was interrupted by Nick grabbing him and throwing him back against the wall.

“Wrong choice, Nicky,” he sneered and punched Nick in the jaw. He got a few more quick jabs in and sent Nick out into the crowd of people. “You aren’t the center of the universe. Just because you don’t have what you want you have to make others miserable. Well, pat yourself on the back, Nickolas. You’ve succeeded. Let’s all give him a nice round of applause.”

The shocked dancers all stood awkwardly not knowing how to react. AJ was standing over Nick, clapping furiously.

“Are you happy now? You have the attention of everyone here; anything you wanna say?”

“Fuck you,” Nick said hatefully as he wiped the blood flowing from his nose.

A security guard came up and swiftly grabbed AJ by the arm. “I’m sorry, Mr. McLean, but I’m gonna have to escort you out now.”

“Fine by me,” he tried to sound nonchalant.

Bianca swallowed hard as she absorbed the situation. Oh my god…what have I done? Gathering her senses, she quickly followed the security guard who still had a tight hold on AJ. She watched as the guard released AJ’s arm as soon as they were outside the club and AJ turned and said something to the large man beside him. The guard nodded and reached in his pocket, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.

“Thanks, man,” AJ took a cigarette and the lighter. After lighting it, he handed it back to its owner and turned to look out at the passing traffic.

Bianca stood waiting for the security guard to leave before making her way over to AJ. “Aje…” she spoke softly as she gently touched his arm.

AJ stiffened up and shrugged her hand away. “What do you want?”

She cringed at the hate seeping from his voice and placed her hand back on his arm. “I want to talk to you.”

AJ jerked her hand from his arm and threw his cigarette to the sidewalk. “Don’t touch me.”

“AJ, please,” Bianca said desperately as she began to follow him. “Talk to me.”

He quickly spun around and looked at her, brown eyes meeting blue. “What is there to talk about? I poured my soul out to you and you shoved that in my face. I would’ve done anything for you and you took advantage of that. I loved you with everything I have, and you walked all over me like I was nothing. Well, guess what? I think that’s fucked up.”

“AJ, no, it’s not like that.”

“Bianca, you are obviously not over Nick. I can see it now and I don’t know why I didn’t see it before; I should never have told myself you could love me as much as I love you.”

Swallowing back the tears that were well on their way, Bianca placed her hands on his face and shook her head. “No, that’s not true. I love you so much and I want to be your wife. Yes, Nick has a place in my heart, but my heart is yours. Can’t you see that?”

“No, Bianca, I can’t,” he said and roughly pushed her hands away from his face. “You might love me, but Nick is who you want to be with. I was just a temporary fill in and I’m not gonna let you or Nick walk all over my any more. If you want to be with him then don’t let me stop you.”

“AJ, wait, that’s not true.”

“No, Bean, just stop! Okay? STOP! I’m done with this shit. You are not gonna have another chance to do this to me. I’m walking away before you can because I don’t know how much more I can take. It’s not fair to you, and most of all, it’s not fair to me. I’ll go get my stuff from the hotel and be on the next flight out so don’t worry about a thing.”

Bianca stood in the warm Manhattan night with tears streaming down her cheeks as AJ walked away. She had never been more confused in her life. Loosing him in the crowd of people she whispered, “I love you, AJ.”



“Man, are you okay?” someone asked as the helped Nick up off the floor.

“Get your hands off me,” he cried angrily as he stood up. He had never been more furious and humiliated in his entire life and he had AJ to thank for it all. He pushed his way through the large crowd that had formed to watch as AJ embarrassed him, ignoring the stares and whispers from the onlookers. “Move.”

“I think we need to get you back to the hotel,” Brian suddenly appeared beside Nick with a damp towel. “Here, use this for your nose.”

Nick cringed a little when he placed the towel on his face, but ignored it. He looked around for a minute before turning back to look at Brian. “Where’s Bean?”

“I dunno man, I was too busy getting that for you to see where she went,” Brian answered.

“I think she may be outside,” Kevin said from behind the two men.

“Okay,” Nick nodded and started for the exit.

“Do you really think you should try and talk to her now? I mean, what if AJ’s still outside?”

“Fuck AJ,” he stated simply and continued for the door.

Once outside in the humid night air, Nick looked around for Bianca. He finally spotted her leaning against the wall a few feet away and he was glad to see that AJ wasn’t anywhere to be found.

“Bean, are you okay?”

Looking up, she quickly wiped her eyes. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

Nick sighed quietly and stood in front of Bianca, tilting her chin up so she was looking at him. The tears shining in her eyes broke his heart and he gently brushed one away as it slid down her cheek. “I’m sorry,” his voice came out a choked whisper. “I really am, but Bean, I meant what I said in there.”

“Nick,” she said quietly, not really sure if she wanted to get into that right then and there.

“Please don’t do that,” he said softly and cupped her face in his hands. “I don’t know how I went this long without you; I’ve been miserable.”

Leaning into his embrace, Bianca took a deep breath. “Nicky, I just wanna go home right now and talk later.”

Nick wrapped his arms around her and breathed in her soft scent. He placed a delicate kiss on her forehead and nodded. “Okay.”