Chapter 6

          “Can I help you with something, P is it?” Caryss curtly asked the blond standing next to her table with her hands on her hips and an annoyed look on her face.

          “You can help me by leaving,” Paris responded in a demanding tone. “I did not come here to be up-staged by some show-boating wannabe in a stupid-a*s costume!”

          Caryss exchanged glances with Liz, Stacie and Jim, and then turned back to the insecure blond standing before her. “Excuse me?” she simply asked, trying to keep her cool.

          “You heard me. LEAVE. Take your gaudy friends with you too!” Jim started to get off the bar stool and intervene in what appeared to be a brewing cat fight, but Stacie put a hand on his arm in protest.

          “Just wait a minute. Give Caryss the chance to defend herself,” Stacie whispered into Jim’s ear as Paris moved a few inches closer to the table.

          “You know something P, jealousy and insecurity is not a good look for you. Why don’t you go back to your minions over there, deal with whatever inferiority complex you need to in order to get over the fact that I sing better than you, and move on with your obviously unfulfilled and pathetic life,” Caryss shot back with a smirk, as Liz gasped, Stacie chuckled, Jim covered his mouth to hide his smile, and Paris reeled back from the table as if she had been socked in the stomach.

          “How dare you talk to me like that! You have no idea who I am or what I can do to you,” Paris snarled as she dropped her clutch onto the ground and rubbed her hands together like she was priming them for a fist fight.

Meanwhile

          He sat on the plush couch in the VIP section only partially listening to the conversation that was happening around him. I wish I could have made it to that meeting this afternoon. I can’t wait to meet her, he thought to himself as he took another drink of his beer.

          “Oh, but wasn’t that sweet of Par-Par to dedicate that song to you, and then sing it like a dying cow,” Stephanie said as she laid her head on his shoulder and batted her eyelashes at him.

          “Ha ha, very funny,” he responded flatly, getting rather irritated at Paris’s constant grabs for attention, especially the public ones. “When is she going to realize that it’s never going to happen, we are never going to be together again, and what we had wasn’t even real?”

          “I don’t know man, but hopefully sooner than later, because this is getting ridiculous and embarrassing for all of us,” his friend Chris responded dryly.

          “Come on up Caryss,” he heard the DJ announced, causing him to almost choke on his brewski.

          “Dude, did they just say the name Caryss?” he asked out loud for anyone to hear and answer.

          “Yeah, I think so, why?” one of the random people in the VIP room responded. His head was reeling with so many thoughts he didn’t even bother answering the question. He jumped off the couch and made his way down the stairs that led from the VIP section to the main floor of the karaoke bar just as the intro was finishing and Caryss began to sing the first verse of the song.

          He watched her intently. He soaked up her every wiggle, her every shake, her every note, her every move. His lips turned up into a smile as she hit every note perfectly and successfully added her own flair to the song. He noted the way her curls bounced as she did, the way her eyes twinkled in the lighting, and how absolutely adorable she looked in that toga. He looked over in the direction that Caryss’s gaze kept falling on and saw two other girls sitting at a table wearing similar outfits.

          “That is so cute, girls’ night out with costumes,” he said out loud to himself as he walked closer to the stage. He cautiously stepped away from the entrance to the VIP section, weary that he would be recognized, but as more and more people started filling the bar to watch her sing, his blended into the crowd easily.

          When the song finished he stood there and continued to watch her. He smiled as he noticed her cheeks turn bright red as people shouted and cheered for her, and he watched her smile and joke with her friends once she sat back down at the table.

          Do I just walk up to her and tell her who I am? I really don’t want Paris to see me. Why am I so nervous? You’ve done this a million time Carter, picked up chicks at a bar, what is your problem? Several times he started walking to the table, but stopped and ducked back into a corner as groups of people would reach the table before him and talk to her.

          “Here I go,” he mumbled as the group of people walked away from the table and he decided it was time to make his move and unmask himself to her. What if she doesn’t even remember there is an “NC”? What if she doesn’t care? Does she even know who the Backstreet Boys are? The thoughts continued as he approached the table, but just as he was stepping up to her, he saw Paris approach from the other direction and he abruptly turned from the table and stood with his back to them, hoping Paris wouldn’t recognize him and he would be able to hear what she was going to say to Caryss.

          He stood there listening to everything that was said, and almost shouted out loud when he heard Caryss tell Paris to go back to her minions, but once Paris started pulling rank and starting in with who she knows and what she can do, he knew it was time to intervene.

          “What’s going on Paris?” he asked her as he walked up behind her. “Upset that someone outshined you again?”

          She whirled around and came face to face with the man she had dedicated her song to. The fiery, mean expression on her face softened as she leaned up and tried to plant a kiss on his lips that he elusively ducked away from. “Aw Nicky, I knew you’d come find me. This girl is saying mean things to me,” she pouted, sticking out her lower lip and talking in a baby voice.

          Nick rolled his eyes and pushed past her, walking directly up to Caryss and grabbing her hand before she had time to react. “You were amazing,” he told her softly as he kissed her hand. “Caryss, is it?” Caryss nodded her head, a look of shock still sprawled over her face.

          Paris stood behind him, her arms crossed in front of her chest and a scowl written across her face. “Nicky, what are you doing?” she asked briskly.

          “Excuse me one moment Ms. Caryss,” he said with a sexy smirk, and then turned around to face the thorn in his paw. “Whatever I’m doing is none of your business. It hasn’t been your business since we broke up two years ago, and it won’t be your business ever again. Stop singing sappy love songs to me, stop following me every where I go, stop sending me emails and leaving me voice mails, stop all contact with me or I’ll get a restraining order, got me?”

          Paris stood there for a moment, humiliation and twinge of sadness bore deep in her eyes. She nodded to him, giving the illusion at least that she understood once and for all that things were never going to go anywhere between them again, and she bent over and picked her clutch up off the floor. “This isn’t over bitch,” she hissed in Caryss’s ear as she quickly walked back to her booth, where she dramatically and noticeably relived every detail to her minions.

          “I’m sorry about that,” Nick said sincerely as he turned back to Caryss and her friends. “Some people learn things the hard way.” He smiled, causing Caryss’s stomach to flip-flop and her heart to beat slightly faster. God, he’s so dreamy. I can’t believe I’m inches away from Nick Carter. Laney is going to die when I tell her! Caryss thought to herself as she tried to figure out what to say this beautiful creature standing before her. Suddenly, it clicked. Nick Carter, NC, Nick Carter, NC…mother of God! No way, no freakin’ way!

          “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name,” she said to the blue eyed babe in front of her coyly.

          “Nick,” he said, and then he bent over and placed his hand on her back, leaning into her so that his lips barely brushed against her ear as he whispered into them, “but my friends call me NC.”

          Caryss shivered slightly as those two letters rolled off his tongue and crept so sweetly into her ear drums. “NC huh?” she began, shaking her head slightly in hopes of breaking the fog that was settling over her senses. “Well, then it would seem that you already know quite a bit about me.” She winked mysteriously at him, which caused him to smile broadly.

          “I take it you found her suite to your liking?” he threw back at her, the flirtatious between them getting harder and harder to control. “I personally walked through it and made sure that everything was set up perfectly.”

          Oh my God, he was in my hotel room…Nick Carter, a Backstreet Boy, was in my hotel room! I am going to die! “I did in fact like my suite very much. Thank you, by the way.”

          He smiled at her, trying to figure out what she was thinking underneath her cool as a cucumber exterior, but he could not read her eyes, something he was usually so good at. She’s going to be a tough nut to crack, I think. Maybe I’ve met my match, he thought to himself as she turned toward her friends he had not yet been introduced to and began to giggle with them about something. There is definitely something about her, I am so drawn to this woman, before I even met her I gravitated towards her, I don’t know what or why, but I cannot wait to find out.