Chapter 2

Bernard’s Bakery was recently featured on one of the many Internet celebrity blog sites as one of New York’s “hot new celebrity hangouts”, though in all of Alexa’s years as a patron of Bernard’s, she’d never seen a celebrity there. Either way, it worked out well for the small bakery. Even without celebrities flocking for one of Bernie’s delicious morning bagels, lunch or dinner sandwiches, or to-die-for deserts, if you weren’t on line before the doors opened, you weren’t getting in—even if you did know the owner personally. That’s why on this particularly cold, wet New York morning, Alexa was standing miserably on the sidewalk, waiting as patiently as possible for the hostess to unlock the doors.

The line behind her grew steadily longer as the minutes ticked by. It was almost 7 a.m. when the doors were finally opened. From behind, the line started to push forward in a mad rush. Everyone wanted to be served before having to be at their swanky corporate offices. Bernie spotted Alexa in the crowd and called out to her.

“Alexa! Pretty girl! If I had known you were out there!” A silver-haired, Italian man came from behind the counter and quickly pulled Alexa out of line. The other patrons groaned and protested, but he waved them off. “Ah, hush, this is my girl and if you don’t like it, you can go without your Bernard’s this morning!” Bernie turned back to Alexa. “Aly, what are you doing here this morning? I haven’t seen you in ages!”

“I know, I’ve been really busy and this is a hard place to get into these days.” She laughed and kissed Bernie on his cheek softly. “Ben sent me in. Apparently, we have a big meeting and he’s jumped on your bandwagon. You know, I’ve been telling him for years-“

Bernie waved it off. “Ah, forget it. He doesn’t know a good idea when it bites him. He never has given you enough credit.”

Alexa shrugged and sighed to herself. “It pays the bills.” She paused thoughtfully. “Well, kind of.”

“Are you having some problems? Is that Silverman not paying you enough?”

Alexa waved him off, not wanting to bother him with her financial woes. “No, it’s fine. I’m not doing any worse than anyone else right now, I guess.”

“Are you sure you don’t need some help, doll? I’ve been doing pretty well over here lately.” Bernie’s eyebrows knitted with concern. Alexa had been coming to Bernard’s since she was a child. She had come with her dad and sister every Sunday for brunch and while in school, she and her friends would regularly have lunch in the comfort of the warm bakery. Besides Brooke, Bernard and his wife, Stella, were the closest thing to family that Alexa had. Still, she was never able to take a dime from him, even in her time of need when, quite honestly, she could be homeless in less than 30 days.

“Well, you could get me this order before I get fired and have to move upstairs with you and Stella.” She smiled brightly at the kind older man and handed him the large breakfast order.

“We’d loved to have you.” Bernie chuckled and kissed the top of Alexa’s head. “This one’s going to take a while, beautiful. Take a seat and I’ll get it together for you personally.”

Alexa smiled at him again and watched him walk away before turning on her heels to take a seat in the back of the small dining area. As a child, one of her favorite things to do on those Sunday mornings was to sit by the window and watch the people in the streets. Always the imaginative kid, she would create stories for each of the people that passed. It was the same each week. There was a middle-aged man in jeans and a t-shirt carrying a box of donuts home to surprise his waiting wife and kids. There was a grandfather and a little girl, holding hands as they strolled to park. The little girl would listen intently as her grandfather described the “good-old-days.” And then there was the family. There was a little boy sitting on his father’s shoulders and a little girl sitting in a stroller pushed by a smiling mother. It was everything that Alexa didn’t have growing up. It was everything that Alexa so desperately wanted to have now. Family. Someone that loved her completely for all that she was and for all that she wasn’t.

Her sister, Brooke, had found exactly that. After high school, she had gone to college at the University of Maryland. There, she had met the love of her life. Brooke had been a journalism student and worked on the school newspaper. One day, she lucked into having to interview the student body president, Lance Taylor. As Brooke tells it, it was love at first sight, at least for her. Lance had sandy-blonde hair and bright blue eyes and was strongly ambitious. The day that the interview was printed, Lance called Brooke thanking her for her story and, in a bold move, asked her out to dinner that night. The couple became engaged a little over a year after they had started dating. A little over a year after that, they had a little boy that they named Wesley Owen Taylor, after Alexa and Brooke’s father. Now living in Washington, D.C. where Lance was pursuing all of his political dreams, they seemed to have it all. Brooke had begged Alexa to leave New York behind and start over—to either go back to school or do something worthwhile in Washington where she would be close to Brooke and Lance, but Alexa could never break the ties with the city that she loved so much. It was almost as if New York was the last piece of her father that she had left.

Alexa was broken from her daydreams by Bernie bringing over a large basket of bagels and breakfast pastries. A young boy in an apron trailed slowly behind.

Alexa stood from where she was seated and smirked as they approached. “Are you sure that’s my order?”

“I added all of your favorites, doll face.” He handed the basket to the young boy. “Carlos here will be following you to that fancy office where you work. Just send him back in one piece, okay?”

Alexa smiled at the shy boy. Carlos was Bernie’s oldest grandson. He’d always had a crush on Alexa and both Alexa and Bernie knew it. “Sounds like a plan. Here, let me just pay you and I’ll get out of your hair and let you get back to work.”

“No, no. It’s on the house today.”

“I can’t let you do that. Jive has plenty of money to cover breakfast, I promise.” She smiled at Bernie and he wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

“No. I figure that if breakfast is on me today, maybe I’ll see you more often and with the savings, I don’t know, maybe they’ll give you a raise or something.” Alexa laughed and gave Bernie a tight hug.

“I need to get out of here or I’m going to be late.” She kissed her old friend on the cheek softly and motioned to Carlos. “Let’s get out of here, Kiddo.” With a final wave back, Alexa and Carlos left the bakery and made the trek to the Jive Records corporate offices.

It was after 9 o’clock before Alexa and Carlos made it to the board room where Alexa knew that the meeting was being held.

Outside the door, Alexa took the basket from Carlos. “I think it’s better that I take this from you now. It’s going to be a war zone in there in a minute, C.” She handed him a ten dollar bill as a tip and he shook his head.

“No, Poppa said that I shouldn’t take any money from you.”

“Ah, your poppa is just being stubborn. Take it, it’ll be our little secret.” The young teenager’s eyes twinkled as he took the money and thanked her. Before he left, Alexa pulled him in and hugged him tightly. "It was good to see you again, Carlos.”

Carlos’ face lit up as he turned to leave the building. He walked tall with a huge smile plastered onto his face. Alexa laughed softly to herself, happy to have made his day. Her smile faded, however, when she walked into the boardroom and was met by the glares of five men.

At the head of the table, Ben Silverman stood. “It’s about time, Alexa. You were supposed to be here 20 minutes ago!”

“I’m sorry, Ben. I got here as quickly as I could.” She set the basket down onto the table that was set-up for breakfast and walked back into the hallway where she had set down the stacks of coffee.

“This doesn’t even look like our order! I just told you to get bagels and coffee.”

Alexa sighed to herself and rolled her eyes before walking back into the boardroom. “Take a breath, Ben, it was on the house. Bernard is an old friend of mine.”

She looked back over at Ben whose jaw was clenched. He was practically shooting fire out of his eyes. Boy was she going to be in trouble later.

“Give her a break, Ben. It’s a zoo out there right now.” A dark-haired, tattooed man winked at her and she smiled politely back. She knew who he was, of course; she knew who they all were. He was A.J. McLean. Together, they were the Backstreet Boys. Alexa was confused, however. Not only was one of them missing, but their departure five years ago had shaken the industry. They did have great comeback timing though. Knowing the current consumer climate, Alexa knew that if done properly, a Backstreet Boys album could be huge.

Ben sighed and sat back down. “You’re dismissed, Alexa. We’re still waiting for one more. When he gets here, please send him in immediately.” Alexa nodded and left the room quickly.

“Wait, who are we waiting for?” Kevin, the oldest of the group, spoke. With intense green eyes and jet-black hair he was stunningly handsome.

Ben turned his attention to Kevin curiously. “Brian, of course.”

Kevin shook his head and Nick spoke up. “It looks like we’re going to have to do this without Brian. He’s not going to make it.”

“What do you mean he’s not going to make it? He has to make it.”

Howie shook his head. The others looked away partly offended by the fact that Ben was insinuating that they couldn’t record a good album without Brian. “We told you when we set this thing up that it would most likely only be the four of us. We all tried, but Brian just hasn’t been able to get his stuff together since he lost Hayden and the baby.”

“Come on, guys. It’s been five years. Brian could take all of that and make it into something amazing couldn’t he?” Ben continued to try to push the issue. The other men in the room agreed that Brian should be there, but for completely different reasons. Not to help sell records or to profit from his pain, but to help him heal and finally let go.

“I really don’t think that’s fair to ask of him. He doesn’t want to sing anymore. We shouldn’t be trying to monopolize on his pain-“ A.J. started, but couldn’t finish before Kevin cut him off.

“Look, this isn’t about Brian. We promised you another album and you have four of us here that are willing to do it. Brian has an amazing voice and, yes, he sings the lead a lot. But this is a different time, it’s a different Backstreet and I believe that we can make an amazing album. So, here we are. This is it. This is the Backstreet Boys; take it or leave it.” Kevin sat back in his chair, waiting for Ben’s response.

Ben leaned up and folded his hands on top of the large glossy table. “I’ll take it,” he finally replied. At least for now, he continued silently. He lost his wife and he doesn’t want to sing anymore, fine. We’ll just have to find him someone new to want to sing for. Ben smiled to himself as he looked out of the large glass windows and into Alexa’s office where she was laughing with the secretary. And I’ve got the perfect person.