Chapter 18

The Next Week-Wednesday Morning

Christin couldn’t find anything to wear. She wanted to look good yet feel comfortable. She wanted something casual yet professional. Unique yet stylish. She had already prepared for the meeting, so she figured there was only one way to find something to wear. Shopping. Christin phoned into the office saying she wouldn’t be in till eleven. That gave her two and a half hours to find something at the mall, if she left right then. She pulled on a pair of Tommy shorts and a Tommy shirt. She had her Doc Martians by the door so she slipped them on as she walked out of the apartment.

Ten minutes later she was in Dillard’s looking though some spring dresses. She was looking at a white dress with small flowers, when the perfect dress caught her eye. She quickly put the other one back and grabbed up the other one. It was a solid red dress that came just above her knees. It was sleeveless. There was a solid red coat that was a little longer then the dress and had two slits on the side. There were two rows of buttons down the front. In the back was a tie that made a bow.

“This is perfect. I’ve gotta have this dress.” She took the dress with her and went find some shoes. She found a pair of red heels. They were made of straps. They matched the dress. She bought the dress and shoes. By the time she got outta there it was 9:45. She thought she would go home and get ready.

It took her about an hour to get ready.

“Dang it. I’m going to be late. Well not for the meeting but to the office.” She thought.

She grabbed her keys, her purse, cell, pager, and briefcase. She walked out to her car and got in. It took her fifteen minutes to get there.

When she arrived, Keeli told her that there was one of the Backstreet Boys in her office.

“Just one?” Christin asked.

“Just one. Real tall, blonde, blue eyes, looks great.” Keeli explained.

“Okay thanks Kee.”

“You're welcome. Oh going to give those guys a heart attack in that dress.”

“It isn’t that bad, is it?”

“No. I’m just messin. It’s perfect. Go get ‘em.”

Christin walked into her office where she saw a familiar blonde sitting in a chair playing Gameboy Pocket color.

“Nick? Is that you?” Christin asked confused.

Nick turned around upon hearing his name called. What he saw was a sign of fate. Fate saying that here was the girl he was meant to be with. “Christin. What are you doing here?”

“I was just about to ask you the same question.”

“Well, I asked first.” Nick got up and walked over to Christin.

“This is my office. I work here. No what…no wait. Tell me you’re not a Backstreet Boy.”

“I’m not a Backstreet Boy. I’m lying though.” Nick admitted.

“Shit!”

“What?”

“C. Casey, who you’re supposed to meet with, is me.”

“And what’s so bad about that?”

“I know you. I’ve danced with you. I’ve let you buy me a drink. You know the real me. Well this is the real me, just professional me.”

“So you are saying you don’t want to work with us.”

“NO. I’m saying, it’s going to be weird. Well at least for me it will be.”

“Okay, if it makes you feel better, we’ll pretend we never met. Hi, I’m Nick.” Nick held his hand out.

Christin laughed, “Okay Nick. I’m Christin.” Christin shook Nick’s hand. “I thought there was supposed to be five of you. I only see one. Oh my god. I only have 20% of the band.” Christin pretended to freak out causing Nick to laugh.

“Well actually, no the other 80% just arrived.” Nick said pointing to the office door, where Kevin was knocking.

“Oh come in, come in. Sorry about the balloons and flowers but the were a gift.” She noticed the four guys.

As soon as A.J. saw Christin he smiled. How could he not. Here she was. After not knowing where she was all week, here she was. If this wasn’t a sign from fate, he didn’t know what was.

“Alex?” Christin said recognizing A.J.

“Yeah Christin. What are you doing here?”

“Why does everybody ask me that. This is my office. See the name on the door. C. Casey, Vice President. I got transferred here.”

“Vice President? When you were in…”A.J. got cut off.

“When I was in San Francisco I was only an executive v-p. I got a promotion. Okiee dokey.” Christin was really getting irritated with answering questions. “But enough about me. You’re not a Backstreet Boy too, are you? I mean you were working in the office as a part-time worker. Why, if you’re a Backstreet Boy?”

“Don’t look at me. Look at them.” A.J. pointed to the rest of the guys.

Christin turned around to see three very good looking guys.

“Oh hi. I’m Christin Casey. Call me Christin and you are…” Christin held her hand out to Kevin, Howie, and Brian.

“Kevin Richardson.” He shook her hand then let go.

“Brian Littrel.” He also shook Christin’s hand.

“Howie Dorough, but call me D.” Howie took Christin’s hand and shook it.

“Okay, it’s 11:35 and we have reservations for twelve. We can talk on the way.” Christin walked out of the office followed by the rest of the guys. “Keeli, take my messages and if John calls um…tell him tonight’s cancelled.” She had a date but it was strictly professional.

“Okay Christin.” Keeli said as she typed away at her computer.

Kevin, realizing they weren’t even being very professional, spoke up when they were in the limo and on the way. “So Christin, if we sign with your company, what do you have to offer.”

“Well we have a variety of contracts. I have a few sample contracts.” She reached into her briefcase and pulled them out and handed them to Kevin. “If you decide to sign we will have a legal contract written up to suit your needs. We will handle all bad press unless, of course, you wish to do something about it, than, we let you handle it. We provide security whenever it is needed. Make appointments for photo shoots and press conferences after we clear it with you first. We make all arrangements for things like reserving arenas or venues or booking airline tickets. We keep all information strictly in The Firm. We wont give info to ANYONE over the phone.”

“Yeah, I noticed that. I called last week to confirm our appointment but couldn’t because for all she knew I could’ve been a fan.” Kevin explained.

“Oh sorry about that. Did you call Tuesday around five?” Christin asked realizing where she knew his voice from.

“Yeah. How’d you know?” Kevin asked surprised.

“It was me who you were talking to.” Christin confessed.

“Vice Presidents answer the phone?” Nick asked. “Is so I’ll be calling all the time.”

Christin laughed. “No, Kevin was just lucky. That was my first day there and I had let everyone go home fifteen minutes early. I felt it my job to answer the phone. If you call before five, you’ll most likely get and operator or Keeli.”

“What about after five?” Nick tried to get all the information he could get.

“Maybe, now this is a big maybe, you’ll get me, if I decide to work late.” Christin worked late a lot but didn’t want to tell Nick that.

A.J. couldn’t help but smile. Here Nick was feeding all kinds of information to A.J. without even knowing it. He was also so happy. He found Christin.

The limo stopped and A.J. got out first because he was closest to the door. Christin got out next with the help of A.J. Seeing her get out of the limo he couldn’t help but comment.

“You look beautiful.” He whispered in her ear.

“Thank-you.” She whispered back.

Nick got out of the limo to see Christin and A.J., while both of them smiled.

“A.J.” Nick said.

A.J. looked to see Nick getting out of the limo.

“A.J.? Why does he call you A.J.? I thought your name was Alex.” Christin remarked getting confused.

“Oh well. Alex is my name. But A.J. is what everyone calls me.”

“What does A.J. stand for?” Christin asked.

“Alexander James.”

“If your name is A.J., why’d you tell me your name was Alex.”

“Um…I think I can explain that.” Howie volunteered, hearing their conversation.

“Ok. Explain.”

“Well see, we wanted to check out, you know get the basic idea, of what The Firm was like. When we found out there was one in San Francisco, we, as a group, decided that one of us should pose as a part time worker and get the inside scoop. A.J. couldn’t use his real name, well his known name, so he used Alex.”

“Oh, I see. So you sent a spy into The Firm to find out if it was a good office.” Christin questioned.

“Correct.” All five guys said.

“O-K.” Christin and the guys started to go inside the restaurant.

When they were being seated Nick beat A.J. to pulling Christin’s chair out for her, but first Nick helped Christin take of her coat. “Thank-You.” All the guys sat down with Nick on her right, Brian next to him, Kevin, Howie then A.J. on her left.

The waiter came and asked them what they wanted to drink. He gave them each a menu after he took their drink orders.

Christin looked over the menu and decided salad was her only choice. She was a vegetarian, since age 14. since it didn’t take her long to figure out what she wanted, she took this time to survey each guy.

She started with Kevin. Kevin looked like he was the serious, older brother of the group. She figured he was the oldest. He had a get the job done kinda look. She could tell that it would be easy to work with him.

Next came Howie. He had the sweetest face of all of them. She thought that he must be the one the guys came to talk to when they had a problem. She also figured he knew how to sweet talk a woman.

She looked at Brian, Brian looked like a lot of fun. Like he was a natural prankster. But she also saw a sweet and innocent side to him. He looked like a country boy.

Next she saw Nick. She knew Nick was a little cocky. He also thought that the world revolved around him. She knew that he also like her and now he knew where she was working, her full name, and her phone number.

She turned her head to look at A.J. but was surprised to see him already looking at her. She couldn’t help but smile. Christin leaned into him and asked, “What?”

A.J. was glad he had finally gotten her attention, whispered his reply, “Nothing. Just getting a good look at who I could possibly working with.”

Christin found with A.J. joking was a good thing. “I hope you’re getting a real good look.” She whispered in his ear. Both Christin and A.J. had to laugh causing the others to look up.

“What’s so funny?” Brain asked.

“Nothing Frick.”

“Frick?” Christin asked.

“You really are clueless about us.” Brian said.

“Yeah. So what’s this Frick thingy.”

“Frick is Brian’s nickname and Nicky is Frack.” A.J. told her.

“Oh I get it. Frick Frack. Neat. Does anyone else have any other nicknames they would like to share?”

“B-Rok and Rok.”

“What’s the B stand for? Brian?”

“Well it could be. Or it could be basketball cause I rock at basketball.” Brian held up his hands like a champion. Nick and A.J. threw their napkins at him.

“You suck man. I could whoop your short ass anytime.” Nick proclaimed.

“Alright. When we get back to my house, I bet I can whoop you in a game.”

“Hey Christin, why don’t you come over to Rok’s house and we can play on teams.” Kevin asked seeing they were getting nothing done here.

“Great idea.” Christin rolled her eyes. “I can really play ball in this dress.”

“I’ve got some extra shorts and a shirt you can play in. Come on. You can play on my team.”

“You know what I’ll go. But on one condition.”

“What?” They all asked at once.

“We take the limo back to The Firm, then we all get in our own car. Someone follow me to my place and let me change into something I can play in real fast. Then I follow them to Brian’s. But after the game, one of you has to actually talk about whether or not you actually going to sign with The Firm or not. Deal.”

“Deal.” They all said.

“Ok. Who’s following me?”

“I will.” Howie answered quickly to avoid an argument between Nick and A.J.

“Ok Howie, that’s cool.”

The rest of the lunch went by with a lot of joking.

When they got back to The Firm, Christin got into her Honda while everyone went to their cars. Howie’s car was a BMW just like Amanda.

They got to Christin’s apartment and her and Howie got out of their cars.

“I like your car.” Christin said while unlocking her door. “I bought my friend one almost just like it.”

“You bought your friend a car. Remind to always be your friend.”

“She’s my best friend, Amanda, for her twenty-first birthday.” Christin walked in and started walking towards her bedroom. “Make yourself comfy.” She yelled as she shut her bedroom door.

It took her ten minutes to change to put on a pair of blue jean shorts and a t-shirt. Under it she put on her bikini top in case it got hot. She pulled her hair into a clippie. She walked out of her bedroom to find Howie looking at a picture of her and Amanda.

“Is this Amanda?” Howie asked when he saw her.

“Yeah. She might come down next week. I’ll introduce you if I see you.”

“That be cool. Let’s go.”

They started walking out.

“Well D, since you were so nice, I’ll let you be on Brian’s team too. If he has something to say I’ll have to kick his booty.”

“Okay. I’m glad I’m on his team cause I suck.”

“Yeah I believe you.”

“I do. I suck. Brian will be the only player on our team.”

“Yeah I guess, huh.” Christin had to laugh. She had a secret.

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Chapter 19

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