A few hours later, Alyssa found herself never happier to be back home in New York City. She loved her family, but after spending any long stretch of time with them, she was reminded of exactly why she enjoyed living on her own. She had to admit though that all things being considered, Christmas had gone a lot smoother than she had first anticipated. Of course there had been the awkward conversation with her father earlier that morning and the constant dodging of the "are you or aren't you?" questions that everyone had been throwing at her. But, all in all it could've been worse. Much worse.

Alyssa didn't have much time to dwell on the success of this past Christmas though. She only had a little more than 24 hours to prepare for her trip to LA with Nick. In this time, she figured she'd probably need to do some shopping, pack, and somehow squeeze in at least a manicure and pedicure. Then of course, her and Nick had plans for that evening. He promised to take her out for a fancy dinner before the show. She couldn't help, but to realize that in a sense this was actually like a first date for the two of them. A new beginning to their unconventional relationship.

She felt bad leaving Nick to go shopping with her sister, but she knew that Nick had little patience for perusing the sale racks. He'd assured her that he'd be fine by himself and that he'd probably stop by and visit with Izzy and Tristan, since he had Christmas gifts for them and the baby. Alyssa wished that she could go with him to see her friend, but knew that it was impossible on the time schedule she was on. So, after stopping back at Alyssa's to drop off their suitcases, they'd split into two different directions. Nick to visit Izzy and Alyssa to The Manhattan Mall with Stephanie to do some serious shopping.

Their first stop was Victoria's Secret. After doing a quick survey of her lingerie collection, Alyssa had found it in pretty sad shape. Most girls usually had one particular clothing item or accessory that was their weakness such as shoes, handbags, or t-shirts. Alyssa's was underwear. There had been a point in her life when if she hadn't went shopping and not came home with a new bra or a few new thongs, it was considered a miracle. Since she and Nick had broke up though, the novelty had worn off, and eventually once she'd came to the realization that there was no one to impress anymore, she'd let her collection dwindle. But now... Now with her going off to LA to visit Nick, she figured that she could use a few new things.

Alyssa was thumbing through a table of lace thongs, when Stephanie's voice interrupted her. "I'd go with this one," she advised, holding one of them up for Alyssa to see. "Nick will go crazy after seeing you in this."

Since when did she get so smart? Alyssa wondered. From the moment she'd told her sister that she and Nick had started to hang out again, she'd been insisting that they were secretly sleeping with each other. Okay, so maybe that was actually true, but she'd denied it to her sister more times than she could count, and still Stephanie was convinced that there was more going on than Alyssa was telling her. Keeping the charade going, she wrinkled her nose. "There's no way he's seeing me in that."

Stephanie raised her eyebrows. "You're spending almost an entire week out in LA with him at his house and he's not going to be seeing you in your underwear?"

"Nope," she replied, as she turned her attention towards a rack of nighties.

"Okay if things are so platonic between the two of you, why would you need a silk nightgown again for LA? And don't tell me because it’s going to be hot there in December."

"Am I not allowed to look at things? Jesus Christ, Steph! I didn't know everything I looked at I was buying," Alyssa snapped, as she attempted to walk away from her sister.

Stephanie reached out and grabbed Alyssa's arm. "Cut the bullshit Alyssa! I know what's going on with you and Nick. You've been lying to me this whole time!"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Fine. I'll be blunt then. I heard the two of you last night," she confessed. "I guess you were both trying to be quiet, but my room is right next to yours and those walls aren't as thick as you think..."

Alyssa felt her face pale. She heard us having sex? If she heard, I wonder if anyone else did?

"Don't worry. I don't think that you guys were that loud," Stephanie assured her, seeming to read her mind. "I just couldn't sleep and I was laying in bed and yea... I knew the two of you were fucking! How long has this been going on?"

"Since September," she mumbled. "Right before he left for Europe."

"I can't believe you didn't tell me! I bet Meg knew right?"

Alyssa sighed. "Yea, I told Meg Christmas Eve," she admitted.

A hurt expression crossed her younger sister’s face. "But you didn't tell me. What? You don't trust me or something?"

How am I supposed to talk my way out of this one? she asked herself. Truthfully, she had no idea why she hadn't told Stephanie the truth. She'd always just been a lot closer to Meg because of their age. Sometimes she found herself forgetting that Stephanie was 19 now and definitely, not a child. Still, she wasn't sure if she was comfortable with Stephanie knowing so many details about her sex life. "It's not that I don't trust you Steph. I guess I only told Meg because I thought that maybe since she was older that she could give me some advice or something."

"If it was advice that you were looking for, I probably have more experience than the both of you put together," she argued.

Alyssa just looked at her sister sadly. In a way she actually pitied Stephanie. What she had just said was the truth. She probably did have more experience than both her and Meg. Just like how in the past Stephanie had alluded to the fact that she'd actually lost her virginity before Alyssa had. What could've possibly driven her to be so stupid at such an early age? she wondered. Her younger sister had done things that Alyssa couldn’t even imagine. In some way, she felt like she was responsible. Like maybe if she had been a bigger part of her sister’s life, things would've turned out differently.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Stephanie interrupted her.

"Looking at you like what?" she asked, playing dumb.

"Like you feel bad for me or something."

"I'm not. Come on lets finish this shopping, so that you can help me pack." She took her sisters hand and smiled at her as they went back to their browsing. "So, were we really that loud?"

Stephanie just shot Alyssa one of those "you've got to be kidding me" glances and within moments both of them burst into laughter, their argument completely forgotten about.

The rest of their shopping trip went off without any more arguments and when Alyssa staggered into her apartment door a few hours later; her arms were loaded with various different shopping bags. Since doing laundry was out of the question she’d bought pretty much all new stuff for LA.

“What’d you do? Buy the whole mall?” Nick teased as soon as he saw all the bags.

“Very funny,” Alyssa replied, rolling her eyes. “It’s okay. Don’t help me put anything away.

Nick took the hint and grabbed a few of the bags from her arms and helped her bring them into her bedroom for the time being. “You better start getting dressed. We have dinner reservations in an hour.”

“Nick, you didn’t have to do that. I have all this packing to do still and we could’ve just ordered pizza or something,” she insisted.

“I wanted to take you out because you deserve it. I’ll help you pack when we get back from the show,” he promised, dropping a kiss on the top of her head. “Now start getting dressed because I know how long it takes you to get ready.” Before she could further protest, he had left the room, allowing her to get ready.

Knowing that she wasn’t winning this argument, she sighed and headed towards her closet. Since she had no idea where they were going or how fancy of a place this restaurant would be, she decided to go a little more on the dressy side, just in case. She finally decided on a black pencil skirt, a mint green turtleneck sweater and her black boots. Heading over to her mirror, she quickly ran a brush through her hair and put on some fresh makeup. Satisfied with how she looked, she spritzed on a little perfume before heading out into the hallway.

A blush crept up into her cheeks as she heard Nick whistle at her. “Who’s the sexy lady?”

Alyssa just rolled her eyes and reached for her coat. “That was really corny Nick. You ready? We should leave now since you never know how long it’ll take you to get around the corner here in New York.”

Stephanie, who had remained quiet since they had returned back from their shopping trip, popped her head out of the kitchen. “Have fun kiddies! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”

“That leaves us open for pretty much anything,” Alyssa snickered to Nick. “Bye Steph! Try not to get into trouble while we’re gone.”

“Who, me? Trouble? Never!”

Alyssa just exchanged a smirk with Nick before stepping out of her apartment door. Moments later, they were standing out in front of her building, Alyssa huddling against him for warmth. “So where are we headed? Uptown? Downtown? Midtown? Taxi? Subway? What?”

“Subway?” Nick scoffed. “Like I’d take the subway. Could you imagine me getting mobbed in a subway car?”

Alyssa almost laughed at the image. “Oh, I forgot. You’re too good for the subway,” she teased. “I’ll hail us a cab.” She just stepped onto the corner to flag on down when she felt him pull her back.

“Hold on one second. There’s something I want to do first,” he told her. Pulling her closer to him, he impulsively pressed his lips against hers. Alyssa was completely unprepared for the move, and she found herself struggling to catch her breath. She pulled away with a dazed look on her face, amazed at the way her body trembled from more than just the cold.

“What was that for?”

Nick shrugged. “I’ve been wanting to do that all day, just couldn’t get you alone long enough for it to happen.”

Alyssa grinned at his confession. If someone were to ask her two weeks ago if she could ever imagine Nick saying something like that to her and actually meaning it, she’d laugh in their face. But a lot had changed between them in the last few days, and she was looking forward to what other kind of surprises laid ahead the next few days in LA. “Well, we have this whole evening to spend together and then tomorrow we can spend as much time together as we want. We’ll be sick of each other by next week,” she joked.

As much as she wouldn’t mind standing there all night with him, the fact that they had dinner reservations in only about 15 minutes hit her. “We need to get going though if we want to eat dinner and make it to Radio City on time tonight, though.”

“You’re right,” Nick agreed. A few minutes later they were in a cab on their way to a restaurant not far from Radio City. The whole way there all Alyssa could think about was their last heated cab ride on the way back to her apartment from McFadden’s, back in September. Her eyes closed for a second as she remembered the feeling of his lips on hers and the sensation of his hands over her body. The passion between the two of them was so electrifying that even she had been shocked at the way she had reacted. ..

A few moments later, Alyssa found herself sliding into his lap, straddling him the best that she could in the confined space. He still has an amazing mouth, she thought as she gently tugged at his bottom lip. His hands snaked around her waist to stroke the sliver of bare skin that lay exposed at the small of her back sending shivers throughout her body. As her hips grinded up against his, she could already feel his hardness beneath her and bit back a moan. She hoped they weren't too much farther from her apartment.

She could tell that Nick was a little shocked with her sudden change in attitude, but definitely not complaining. Back when we used to date I'd never carry on like this with him in a taxi cab, she thought with a smirk. Might as well make it worth his while. While they continued to kiss she let her hands drift down his chest before finally settling on the hem of his shirt. Slipping them underneath the material she reached up to run her fingertips over his bare stomach, immediately feeling him squirm a little bit. That had always been an extremely sensitive area for him. She then let them float even lower until her hands were resting on the top of his jeans. With a devilish glint in her eyes she hooked her thumbs inside and let them teasingly rest there, lightly stroking his skin. This elicited a frustrated groan from him. "God... Alyssa…"

“What are you thinking about?” Nick’s voice interrupted her thoughts.

“Nothing,” she told him, fighting back a grin.

“Is that why you have such a big smile plastered across your face?” he pressed.

“Maybe,” she replied.

“This doesn’t have anything to do with the last time we shared a cab together, does it?”

Alyssa looked away, knowing that her face gave it all away. “I think I’m going to have to plead the fifth.”

“I didn’t know it was that much of a fantasy of yours,” he teased in a husky voice. “Maybe on the ride back we could complete it?” He wiggled his eyebrows to let her know that he was kidding.

She laughed at how serious he had sounded for a moment there. Rolling her eyes in response she pretended to look at him like he was crazy. “In your dreams, Carter.”

“Get over here.” He playfully grabbed her and pulled her closer towards him and before Alyssa could object his lips were on hers again.

Dinner turned out to be a lot more impressive than Alyssa had originally anticipated. Nick had managed to nab reservations at one of the city’s newest and trendiest four star restaurants. The place had been packed and even those with reservations were stuck waiting for tables. As they walked inside she heard more than a few people grumbling about the wait. Yet, she and Nick walked right in and were seated immediately. There were indeed some perks to his fame.

After they finished their meal, they walked hand in hand the few short blocks to Radio City Music Hall, stopping for a kiss every few moments. Normally, Alyssa had no patience for doting couples such as this, particularly when she was in a hurry to get someplace. But now, that she was on the other side of the fence, she found herself pretending not to notice anyone else, but him. Although it did seem like a scene out of a cheesy romantic movie, she had to admit that it felt nice. It was a relief for her to finally be able to freely express her affection towards with him in public and not have to worry about what others thought.

As they neared the famous neon sign and the lettered marquee of the well known theater, Nick led her around to the side of the building. “Before we go in I just want to have a cigarette.”

Alyssa rolled her eyes in impatience. “You and your cigarettes. It’s such a nasty habit.”

Nick paused mid light. “I didn’t know it bothered you so much?”

She shrugged. “I don’t like it, but it’s your choice. I can’t exactly force you to quit or anything.”

He grinned to himself. This is what he liked about Alyssa. Unlike a lot of girls who would get on his case about his smoking, Alyssa had the confidence to tell him that she disliked it, but was also smart enough to know that nagging him wouldn’t make him quit any faster. If anything it would probably make him smoke even more out of spite. He’d like to quit one day, but he wasn’t quite ready to just yet.

A grin spread out over Alyssa’s lips. “Hey, do you know what I just noticed?”

“What’s that?” he asked.

“Just one day shy of five months ago in this very same spot you walked out that stage door over there and asked me if I had a lighter. It was the first time we’d seen each other since we had broken up. Now look at us.”

She’s right, Nick realized. It was pretty freaky how it had worked out. He’d performed right here at Radio City with the rest of the guys on July 27th. Today was December 26th. She was right. It was practically five months to the exact date. He certainly hadn’t planned it this way. It was a complete coincidence that he had decided to get her tickets to see the Christmas Spectacular. He hadn’t even batted an eyelash at the fact that it was being held at Radio City. Usually minor details such as that escaped him. And he’d only pulled her towards the side of the building because it was on a side street and a better place to grab a quick smoke. Or at least that’s what he had told himself. The feeling of déjà vu that swept over him made him actually wonder if there was some deeper cosmic reason for bringing the two of them together in this spot tonight, as his mind lingered back to the moment they’d first laid eyes on each other again…

Alyssa was so deep in her self depreciating thoughts that she didn't even notice the stage door open and another figure join her outside. She almost jumped a mile when she heard a voice call out, "Hey you!"

Great, just what I need. I just want to be left along she thought angrily to herself. Go away.

"Do you have a lighter?"

Alyssa's heart caught in her throat. She had been so wrapped up in her thoughts that she hadn't recognized the voice at first, but now it was clear as day to her. That voice was so familiar for her yet painful to hear. Swallowing hard to make sure there were no more tears in her eyes, she slowly turned herself towards it.

Standing right in front of her, only feet away was Nick with a cigarette dangling from the corner of his lip. The moment she turned around his face immediately paled and it was evident that he immediately recognized her. "Alyssa?" he asked, removing the cigarette from his mouth after a few moments of stunned silence.

"Nick," she answered, realizing how dumb it must've sounded as soon as the word left her mouth…

“Wow, I didn’t even realize that until just now either,” he found himself remarking. “That’s definitely amazing.”

Alyssa just nodded. “If I knew then that in just five months we’d be giving things another shot between the two of us, I don’t think I’d have believed it.”

“Me neither,” he admitted. “Even now it seems kind of surreal.”

“I always kind of hoped that it would happen,” she confessed. “From the moment I first saw you again.”

“You did?” The news was a shock to Nick. He’d thought that at first she’d been too angry and hurt to even consider the idea. He was shocked enough at her decision to accept his friendship in the first place. She stepped closer to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, laying her head against his shoulder. “Uh huh. I think a part of me never really moved on after we broke up.”

Nick grinned as he stamped out his half smoke cigarette. Even though her confession had made him feel a little bit guilty for hurting her in the past, it felt good to hear that she had always held a special spot for him in her heart. “You cold?” he asked her.

Alyssa nodded, shivering a little. Without waiting another moment he wrapped his arms securely around her and brought his lips down to meet hers. Her eyes automatically closed and she responded to the kiss eagerly. Reluctantly, they both pulled apart, their breath clouding together in the cold night air.

They were both silent for a moment until Nick finally spoke. “Let’s get inside before we miss the show.”

“Okay,” she agreed, taking his hand a smile still on her face. If things were this good between them already, she couldn’t wait to see how good they’d get in LA.

The show had been just as awesome as she hoped it would be. Alyssa bet that she had the same expression of enchantment across her face as some of the little girls in the audience who were also seeing The Rockette’s for the first time. Afterwards, she and Nick had headed back to her apartment, so that she could do some serious packing. By late evening, Alyssa had mostly everything packed and ready, and finally she began to feel less apprehensive about arriving in LA without something.

Their flight wasn’t until late afternoon, but Alyssa still wanted to get to bed somewhat early. She still needed to run to the nail salon tomorrow morning before heading to the airport. Surprisingly, Stephanie hadn’t given Alyssa much of a fight when she’d told her that she had been assigned the couch for the night. She hadn’t even uttered any cute remarks about how Alyssa only wanted her on the couch, so that Nick could sleep with her in her room. She’s probably hoping she’ll overhear something, so that she can tease me about it all tomorrow morning, she decided.

Of course Nick had a similar agenda. The moment she slipped underneath the covers, his arms snaked around her waist and his mouth went to work leaving a trail of kisses along her neck. Fighting back a moan, she wriggled out of his grasp and rolled over, so that she was facing him.

“Slow down there lover boy,” she teased. “As much as I love it when you do that, we should probably save it for tomorrow night. Old bat ears out there is onto us.”

“What do you mean?” Nick asked sounding confused.

“Stephanie. She heard us last night. Apparently we weren’t as quiet as we thought,” she explained. “She was upset that I didn’t tell her sooner.”

“Meaning that you told other people?” Was it just her, or did Nick sound a little disappointed, like he hadn’t wanted anyone else to know that behind the scenes they were definitely more than just friends.

“Just Izzy. I didn’t think you’d mind because it’s not like she doesn’t already know like everything about you. Oh yea… Meg knows too,” she quickly added.

“Meg? Oh great,” he muttered.

Alyssa rolled her eyes. “Come on Nick. We’re sisters. It’s not exactly like she’s a stranger or anything. And when she was with AJ we knew way more than we wanted to about that relationship.”

Nick supposed that she was right. He decided to drop it and move on. “So, you said she was upset? Why?”

“She was pissed that I told Meg and not her. I mean okay… She asked me straight up if you and I were sleeping together the minute she heard that you were coming for Christmas, and I lied to her. She was one person I wasn’t comfortable telling just yet. I know she’s my sister and all and I love her, but there are times I just don’t trust her.”

With good reason, he mentally added. He’d learned firsthand how sneaky Stephanie could be. That combined with the obvious jealously she had towards her older sister, made him understand Alyssa’s lack of trust towards Stephanie.

“I’ve always been closer to Meg. We’ve grown up telling each other everything, so I couldn’t keep this from her,” she continued. “There’s quite an age gap between Steph and I, and yea I know she’s 19 now and certainly not a child anymore, but there are just certain areas of my life I don’t feel comfortable sharing with her. Granted, she’s very mature for her age and all, but I can’t stop thinking that when I was her age she was barely a teenager.”

Nick tried his best to sympathize with her, but he had to admit that he couldn’t exactly. The age difference between himself and Aaron was about the same as Alyssa and Stephanie, but unlike them they were the only two boys in the family which obviously automatically gave them a special bond. Then he tried to think about his sisters and compare them with Alyssa and her sisters. Again, he found just the opposite with his family. If anything, BJ and Angel were closer despite the age difference, and Leslie was considered the odd one out. “I guess I can understand that. Although, that’s not really the case in my family. Yea, Aaron can be a loud mouth at times, but we’re pretty close despite the age difference.”

“But, you weren’t always like that were you?” Alyssa pressed. “I mean while we were dating and all you two seemed as close as you possibly could be with your schedules. Forgive me if I’m mistaken, because I don’t know the full story, but from what I’ve heard the two of you weren’t getting along for a while there.”

He sighed. The rumor that he and Aaron hadn’t been getting along was nothing, but a lie that the tabloids had cooked up to make his family look even worse. Of course he couldn’t blame Alyssa, for believing the story. She hadn’t known any better. It was half true at least. He had only been able to have minimal contact with Aaron for a while there. “Oh, Aaron and I got along fine. It was my parents that were the problem. After they got divorced Aaron wasn’t allowed to acknowledge me. Once in a while I’d get the occasional phone call, but that was pretty much it.” He paused. “I wish I could’ve been there for him at the time. He took it pretty rough and I could just tell that he was getting involved with the wrong kind of shit, but I couldn’t do anything much to stop him. Now that he’s 18 though, we’re finally starting to get close again. He’s pretty damaged though. You think I’m bad; you should have a talk with him. It’s pretty sad.”

Alyssa gave him a sympathetic look. As fucked up as Stephanie was she couldn’t compete with the Carter clan. Yet, Alyssa could understand to a certain extent. “I know how you feel about knowing that your younger sibling is getting themselves in too deep, but being powerless to stop it. Steph has always been a rebel and after I moved out when we would talk, I’d see all these little signs that she was getting into trouble with the wrong crowd, but I just pretended not to notice. Why should I care? I was in Florida. She was in New York. Sometimes I really regret not being closer to her. Maybe if I had given her more guidance or spent more time with her, she wouldn’t have been so messed up. Sometimes I wonder if it’s my fault she’s the way she is. I think she blames me for a lot.”

She watched as Nick’s eyes softened in understanding. He reached out to cup her chin, so that she was looking right at him. “Alyssa, you can’t blame yourself for Stephanie’s mistakes. Believe me; I’ve been there with Aaron. I thought that if only I hadn’t been so selfish and wrapped up in my life, things would be different. If only I had been a better role model… But, wondering ‘if’ gets you nowhere. You can’t change your past mistakes. You can only learn from them and hope to become a better person because of them. If Stephanie holds any resentment towards you, it’ll disappear in time. I think she really just needs your attention. She looks up to you so much. The more you treat her like an adult the more she’ll appreciate you.”

Whoa… Alyssa laid there, stunned for a moment. Since when did Nick get so deep? And she had to admit that he was completely right. She knew that Nick wasn’t the easiest person to get to open up, but when he did he was actually so much more insightful than people ever gave him credit for.

Nick smirked at her shocked reaction. “What? You didn’t think that I was capable of such wisdom?”

“Something like that,” she admitted, cuddling up to his chest. “Seriously though, you’re absolutely right. I guess I should try to be there more for Steph. Better late than never. I’ll definitely have to work on that. In the meantime though, if I know her she’s sleeping with one ear perked up towards us, so yea… Guess we’ll have to save the ‘nighttime entertainment’ for tomorrow night.” She wiggled her eyebrows for emphasis.

“Is that a promise?” Nick asked pulling her closer to him.

“Promise,” she swore, as she leaned over to kiss him. “I’ll even pinky swear.”

“Oh no,” he joked. “Pinky swearing? This is getting serious.” But he still linked his pinky with hers.

Alyssa laid her head on his chest contentedly. After a few minutes her eyelids dropped downwards and she found herself dreaming about all adventures that lay ahead of them in LA. She had a feeling that it was going to be the best vacation of her life.