- Text Size +

* Chapter 8 *

"Howie and I are going to go over there to the salon," Court said pointing to a hair salon that was just inside the doors of the huge store. "I don’t know how long we’ll be, so we’ll call you from Howie’s cell."

"Yeah," said Howie. "Don’t forget to turn your cell on AJ."

"I’m about five steps ahead of ya," AJ replied as he took his cell out of his pocket and showed them that it was already on.

"See ya later alligator," Court said as she and Howie started to walk away.

"Alrighty Aphrodite!" I replied as we headed towards the rows of merchandise.

I saw a sign that pointed to where the shoes were, so I headed in that direction, not noticing that I had left AJ standing there.

"Where ya going?" he asked as he pulled his black baseball hat further over his eyes.

"Sorry. I thought you were following...I was headed over to the shoes," I replied.

"Sounds like a plan," AJ said as we both started walking in the general direction of where the shoes were located.

"Oooo! Look at these," I said to AJ pointing to a pair of bright neon green Skecher-like shoes with a smile. "They’re totally you!"

"Oh darn," he said in a disappointed sarcastic voice. "They don’t have them in my size."

"Yeah...well...they would match your dark green sweater...sort of..." I said as I headed over to the women’s casual shoes.

I walked down an aisle, but noticed that it was the wrong size, so I walked to the end of the aisle and turned down the next. After I found the section with the right size, I carefully looked for the type of shoes that I wanted. I searched for a few minutes until I finally found them! They were sparkly metallic gray Doc Martin army style boots with black soles and silver stitching. I untied my right shoe and took it off so I could try on the boot. As I hunched over and slipped the boot on, AJ tiptoed up behind me so that I wouldn’t hear him.

"Nice shoes," he said in a low voice as he looked over my shoulder.

I jumped about a mile! I fell over on the ground in front of me because I wasn’t exactly expecting him to be there. I lay there on my back laughing. I laughed so hard that my eyes started to tear up.

"I didn’t think it was that funny," AJ said in a surprised voice.

He stretched out his hand and offered to help me up. I took his hand, but instead of getting up, I grabbed them both with the other hand and intentionally pulled him down with me. It only made me laugh even more as he landed with an ‘Umph!’ sprawled out on his stomach on the floor. He landed with his arm over my stomach, which jumped up and down as I laughed.

"Face plant!" I exclaimed. "That was a perfect ten," I said as I sat up and watched him roll over onto his back.

"Thank you very much," he said proudly with a smile as I stood up.

I waited for him to stand as I admired the boot that was on my right foot. ‘These boots look awesome with these pants’ I thought. I took the boot off, stuck it back with the other one, and grabbed the box. I also had my eye on some little black chunk heel strap sandals, so I found them and tried them on.

"Those are kind of cute," AJ said as I slipped them off and grabbed the box that they were in.

"Now I need to go find some new clothes...to go with my new shoes," I explained to him.

"Cool," was all he said as we both headed to the back of the store where the women’s clothes were.

"You know what? I’m going to go and see how much longer Howie and Court are going to be," he said. "Is that ok?"

"Yeah. That’s fine with me," I replied as he turned and walked to the front where the salon was.

I looked at jeans, blouses, khakis, sweaters, and a bunch of theme socks for all types of occasions. Finally I came to the dresses and noticed a long black one that I eyed right away. It was long enough to go to my ankles and made out of see through lacey material that flared out from the knee and flowed when you moved with a black silky slip dress underneath. It had long skintight sleeves that flared out when they reached the wrists. I instantly fell in love with it. I found one in my size and quickly went to the fitting rooms to try it on. It fit perfectly as I twirled around a few times to get the full effect. ‘This will do just fine for tonight’ I thought to myself as I grabbed the dress and the shoes that I picked out and made my way towards the checkout stands. After paying, I said thank you to the clerk who handed me the bags with the boxes in them...one bag for the shoes, one bag for the dress in a box.

"All done shopping?" AJ asked as I walked over to where he was talking to Court who was sitting in some chairs at the salon.

"Yeah. Where’s Howie?" I asked Court.

"I convinced him to get his hair cut," she replied. "I’ll be going back to get mine done in a few."

"Sounds like fun," I said as I set the bags down at my sides while AJ and Court talked.

While they were talking, I started thinking about how fun that night was going to be. I wonder what club or whatever we are going to...Is it going to be fun? I hoped that we were going to be going somewhere a little dressier rather than a more casual club. I hope we do lots of dancing...AJ is in awesome dancer...I bet he would treat a girl right...He is so good looking...

"Earth to Liz," AJ said waving a hand in front of my face after a few minutes of trying to get my attention.

"Huh? What?" I said as I snapped out of my gaze into outer space and looked at him. "Sorry. I must have been in la-la land again."

"Are there any other places that you want to go shopping?" AJ asked.

"Actually, yeah," I replied, still not totally focused on what was going on. "I wanted to get some new sunglasses."

"Ok. I know of this cool little shades shop that we can go to," he said with a smile. "Is it ok if we head out?" he asked Court.

"That’s fine with me. We’ll call a cab when we’re done," she responded as I picked up my bags. "I’ll call your room when I get back to the hotel, Elsa."

"Ok," I said as AJ and I made our way towards the doors of the huge store.

We hopped into the limo and AJ informed the driver as to where we wanted to go while I put some awesome music in the stereo. We were on our way in no time.

* * *

"These are so cool!" I exclaimed as I slid on my new dark purple tinted sunglasses when we got outside of the little shades shop.

"Yeah," AJ said. "That’s cause they look like mine," he said sarcastically.

"Well, they say that great minds think alike," I replied with a smirk as we slowly made our way to where the limo was parked. "So, where to now?"

"Umm, do you have any plans for the next couple of hours?" AJ asked nervously.

"No," I replied while he opened the limo door for me and watched me get in.

"Good," he said after he sat beside me and shut the door. "Would you mind if I showed you some of our lovely city?"

"Not at all," I answered with a smile. "I’d like that very much."

"Cool," was all I heard him say before he told the driver to take us back to the hotel.

"I figured that we should get changed now so we wouldn’t have to rush and do it later," he explained to me as we got closer to the hotel.

"That’s fine with me," I said as we pulled off of the main street into the hotel driveway.

"I’ll pick you back up in about an hour then," he said as we came to a halt. "I’ll be driving, so I’ll come in and meet you in the lobby."

"Alright," I responded as I opened the door to get out. "I’ll be ready then."

"Oh and Liz," he said as I was about to get out. "Thanks for a great day," he finished as he leaned over and gave me a little kiss on the cheek.

‘Oh my gosh! AJ just kissed me on the cheek!’ I thought to myself as I walked in the lobby doors, went up the stairs and headed for the elevator. I must have been in la-la land again, because when I heard the beep from the elevator, I instinctively started to walk into the elevator when I ran into someone.

"Hey there," the friendly voice said. "You might want to watch where you’re going."

I looked up and thought that the face looked somewhat familiar.

"Howie?" I asked not sure if it was him or not.

"Yeah," he replied as he walked back onto the elevator with me. "Like the new look?"

"Well, I didn’t really recognize you," I said still surprised that he cut off all of his long hair. "You look great with short hair...you should keep it that way."

"I kind of like it too," he said. He ran his fingers through his short curls after the elevator doors closed. "I’ll ride up with ya," he said with a smile.

"Thanks," was all I said as I admired D’s new hair cut.

‘Court must have done a lot of convincing’ I thought as the elevator dinged when it got to my floor. I thanked Howie for riding up with me, said good-bye, and started to make my way down the hall. I was still in a daze as I searched through my small black backpack for the key card to my room. ‘Things can only get better!’ I thought optimistically to myself as I pulled out my planner and grabbed the key card out of one of the pockets. With my planner and backpack in one hand and the key card in the other, I slid the card into the slot on the door, turned the handle, and pushed it open with my foot. I walked a few feet into the room while I put the key card back into the pocket of my planner, not knowing what was ahead. As I put my planner back into my bag, I noticed out of the corner of my eye something red and white that was sitting on the small coffee table in front of the couch. After I shifted my eyes from my planner to the red and white mass, I saw that it was a very large vase filled with dozens of huge red and white roses. My chin just about dropped to the floor. Who would do this for me? The one and only time that I have actually gotten roses was from my parents for graduation! I immediately set my bag onto the couch and reached for the card that was attached to the vase as I sat down. It read: ‘Can’t wait ‘til tonight. AJ’

"Oh my gosh! How sweet! I can’t believe that AJ McLean of the Backstreet Boys sent ME roses!" I exclaimed out loud before I leaned over to smell them.

They smelled wonderful and they looked fresh cut. As I looked in awe at how many were arranged in the vase, I noticed that each rose was perfectly cut at the stem and each had carefully had all the thorns removed.

"These must have cost a fortune," I said out loud to myself, knowing that no one else was around to call me crazy or something like that.

I soon snapped out of my gaze at the beautiful flowers, realizing that I still had to get dressed...and do my make-up...and do my hair. I slowly got off the couch and made my way over to the bed where the bellboy had put my bags from our little shopping trip. After grabbing the smaller of the two bags, I took out the box with the dress in it, put it on the bed and headed for the closet to get my slip from my bag. I got my slip and also grabbed some small silver hoop earrings and a small silver choker with black beads from a small plastic bag. After grabbing my favorite plumeria scented lotion from Bath & Body with my free hand, I went over and set all of the stuff down on the bed. After changing into the slip, I sat down and put some lotion on my legs, then my arms, and eventually my hands. My eyes glanced over at the vase of roses to make sure that they were still there as I took the new dress out of the box, stood up, and put it on. Next came the shoes, then the earrings, and last but not least, the small necklace. I sat down again on the bed as I took the sandals out of their box and slid them on my feet.