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* Chapter 15 *

"That was really good," I said while pushing the restaurant door open and holding it while Meg went out.

"Yeah, it was," she agreed as we headed to her new style bug.

We got in the car and started back to the hotel.

"Hey Meg?" I started. "Would you mind if I stayed at your apartment? It would be a lot less trouble than picking me up and dropping me off everyday," I said as we pulled into the hotel parking lot.

"That’s actually a pretty good idea," she said as I admired a hat that she had sitting in the rear window.

"Cool! Mind if I try it on?" I asked pointing to the hat.

"Go ahead," she exclaimed as I reached for it and put it on.

It was an oversized purple fisherman’s hat that was made out of some velour type material. I took it off momentarily as I stuffed my hair up into the hat and put it back on.

"How do I look?" I asked with a little laugh.

"Gorgeous darling," Meg replied with a fake English accent as she opened the hotel door for me.

"Beat ya," I said to her, running through the lobby and towards the stairs, hoping that Kev and AJ wouldn’t see me again.

I knew that Court’s flight was leaving sometime soon, so she was probably at the airport. Meg decided to take the elevator and I continued running up the stairs. I reached my room first so I opened the door and waited for her to get there. When we were both in my room, I began to throw my stuff back in my bags while she plopped on the bed and turned the TV on. After I was done packing my bags again, we took off towards the front desk. Meg grabbed my bags and took them out to put them in her car while I stopped at the desk to turn in my key. As I finished checking out, I turned around and saw that AJ and Kev were still sitting on the sofa facing the other wall.

"Bye guys," I said loudly as I waved at them and made a mad dash for the door.

I could tell that they saw me leaving after I waved to them, but they were too slow again. When they got out of the hotel and headed for AJ’s Expedition, we were already out of sight.

I took off the hat and set it back in the rear window, letting my long blond hair sit heavily on my shoulders. Remembering that I stuffed my cell into my jeans pocket, I reached down and retrieved it. I pushed the power button and waited for it to warm up before I could see that I had 10 new voice mail messages.

"Do you mind if I listen to my voice mail?" I asked while holding up my cell phone.

"You don’t even need to ask," she replied with a laugh. "I know how the whole cell phone thing is so I totally understand when you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do."

I smiled thankfully and dialed the number to my voice mail extension. The first four messages were nothing but static so I quickly deleted those. ‘Probably a wrong number’ I thought as I held the phone up to my ear to listen to the next message.

‘Hi Liz. This is Court. I’m sorry that I missed you, but I’m leaving the hotel for the airport now. I just wanted to tell you good luck on the whole CD thing. I’ll call you when I get home. Bye’

I pushed the button to save that message and waited for the next.

‘Hi Liz. I was hoping to talk to you, but I’ll call you back later. Your father and I are in Seattle and we will be making our way to Alaska soon. Hope everything is going well. Love you.’

I totally forgot that my parents were on vacation too. They were in Seattle visiting my mom’s relatives and then they were driving up to Alaska to see my mom’s parents. I guess they have to use the new motor home sometime! I again pushed the button to save the message and waited for the next.

‘Yo Els. What’s up? Hope everything is going great for you. I heard about the whole CD thing...cool, cool, cool! Well, I’ve got to get back to the booth...commercial’s almost over. Talk to you when you get back.’

That was a message from a friend of mine at work. He was one of the afternoon radio personalities and I was one of the little ‘gophers’. He was always nice to me. He let me on his shows sometimes and even told me that I could have his job someday. I quickly went to the next message.

‘Hi Liz. I know that you don’t really want to hear from me, but I really need to talk to you.’ I was so tempted to delete that message before I heard any further, but I didn’t. ‘I’m so sorry for what I did last night and I want us to be friends. If you feel like talking, call me. My mom’s yelling for me so I have to go. Bye.’

I was surprised at my reaction. I really did want to talk about it because I felt so bad about how I treated him. I wanted to apologize but how was I supposed to get a hold of him? And how did Nick get my cell number?

‘Hey Liz. I’ve been trying to call you for like the last day! Where ya been?’ I heard Mel’s voice say. ‘I called the hotel and they said you checked out. I’m totally confused. Anyway, call me!!! I’m outtie! Bye.’

I was tired of listening to the messages so I hit the end button and put the phone on the belt loop of my jeans. I pulled out my planner and flipped through all the cards and things that I had until I got to my calling card. It was supposed to be for work, but I used it more frequently for personal business than anything else. I pulled it out, studied the number on the back and then shoved it into my pocket. While I was closing my planner a small paper fell out and I noticed that it had Nick’s number sprawled across it in my sloppy handwriting. I shoved my planner back in my backpack and put the number in my pocket while we continued to drive.

By the time we pulled into the parking lot of Meg’s apartment complex, it was about 9 p.m. We lugged my bags into her apartment and I put my laptop bag on the coffee table while she went and got a blanket and pillow for me to use. I pulled my little laptop out of the carrying bag and opened the top. I pushed the little button to turn it on as Meg walked into the living room with some sleeping supplies in hand.

"Do you mind if I check my e-mail?" I asked Meg while she walked over to see what I was doing.

"No, go right ahead," she replied as I hooked up my computer.

I was connected in a few minutes and started sifting through the ridiculous amounts of mail in my mailbox. I was the one in charge of e-mail from the radio station’s website, so I usually had at least 10-15 new messages a day. I quickly scanned over the ‘from’ section and noticed that most of the messages were from newsletter lists and station listeners, until I got towards the bottom of the list. I stopped scanning when I noticed a message from a user named ‘BSBphantom’. ‘I don’t know anyone with that name’ I thought as I stared at the name.

"Hey Meg," I started. "Do you know of anyone with the screen name ‘BSBphantom’?"

"Nope," she called from the kitchen. "Do you wanna watch a movie or something?"

"Sure," I answered. "But let me finish checking my mail first."

Curiosity got the best of me, so I opened the e-mail and sat back to read it.

‘Hi Liz. You probably have no idea who I am by this name, but I got this e-mail address from your sister. I just want you to know that you are a really great girl and I’d love to go out with you again sometime. Later, Phantom’

"Go out with me again?" I asked myself out loud, totally confused.

I didn’t want to let that e-mail get the best of me, so I shut down my computer and sat back on the couch as Meg came in with a heaping bowl of popcorn. She popped in ‘Austin Powers’ and crashed on the couch beside me. During the beginning credits I excused myself and went off to find the bathroom. When I found it, I went in, quietly shut the door behind me, and hopped onto the counter. I pulled the number and calling card out of my pocket and unclipped my cell phone. I hated calling Nick this late, but I felt that I was ready to talk. After dialing the calling card number, I slowly dialed Nick’s number and put the phone up to my ear.

"Hello," he picked up after like 7 rings.

"Hi Nick," I hesitated. "I got your message."

"Oh...I...uh...I didn’t think you’d want to talk to me," he said, obviously stunned that I called.

"Well, I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry about how I’ve been acting," I started. "I’m really sorry."

"It’s ok," he replied.

"No, it’s not ok," I said. "I should’ve talked to you last night at the club instead of running away from the problem."

He didn’t say anything so I continued.

"I also could’ve talked to you last night when you came to my room," I said softly. "But instead I freaked out and gave up."

There was silence again.

"I mean, I wasn’t really ready to talk about it then and you just showed up out of no where," I said getting worked up again.

"I’m sorry. I dropped your sister off and I heard the TV so I figured you were there," he replied.

I took a few deep breaths before speaking again.

"I understand. I needed to have a good cry anyway," I said sarcastically.

"So, do you wanna meet somewhere and talk about this?" he asked.

"Um, I’m...well...how about tomorrow sometime. I’m not really feeling up to going somewhere tonight," I replied.

"Ok. Tomorrow then. Where are you anyway?" he said.

"I can’t tell you that," I responded.

"Do you want me to pick you up or what?" he asked like he was confused.

"Um, I’ll meet you there," I said.

"Ok," he said.

He told me where to meet him and what time before we hung up. After putting my phone back on my belt loop and shoving the paper and card in my pocket I went out to the couch to find the movie almost half over.

"Whatcha been up to?" Meg asked.

"I had to make a phone call," I answered.

"Oh," Meg replied before turning her attention back to the movie.

I really wasn’t in the mood to watch a movie like Austin Powers, so I just sat there on the couch and thought about what tomorrow would be like.