"Hello?" she answered.
"I miss you already." Nick's voice said.
Claire laughed, "The plane hasn't even left."
"Yeah I know, but I do ... hold on." he said.
Angie eyed Claire and asked who was she talking to. When Claire said Nick, Angie laughed and rolled her eyes.
"Claire?" Nick said.
"Yeah?"
"The flight attendant said I 'can't use cellular phones until we get level in the sky'." he said laughing shortly, "I will talk to you later."
"Okay, bye Nick."
"Bye."
Claire shut the phone off and turned to Angie who was trying to hide a smile. Claire looked at her and laughed.
"Hey, what can I say? The man loves me!" Claire said then paused.
"Has he said it to you yet?" Angie asked.
"He hasn't said it, but I feel like he does." Claire said.
She knew the next question out of Angie would be, do you love him too. Claire did love Nick, but saying it out loud was a hard thing for her to do. In her past relationships, right after she said 'I love you', was when the hurt began. She knew she wouldn't be able to say it, so she changed the topic before Angie could ask.
"Want to go out for lunch?" she asked.
Angie looked up from her purse, "Yeah sure. Why don't we meet at JT's Pub."
Claire nodded and got into her car, "See you there."
She drove over to JT's Pub as Nick and the rest of the guys took off. Nick leaned back in his and looked at Brian who was sitting next to him. Kevin was sitting alone, and Aj and Howie were sitting together.
"I hate flying." Brian said as he bounced his knee up and down.
"B-Rok, try not to think of the height, just pretend you are in a hotel room." Nick said.
"Thousands of miles up in the air?!" Brian scoffed.
Nick laughed as he reclined his chair and out his headphones on. He tried to relax and go to sleep, which was a task that should have been easy if Brian was bouncing and moving so much.
Meanwhile, Angie and Claire were being seated at JT's Pub and looking over their menus.
"What are you getting?" Claire asked through a yawn.
"Hamburger and fries, what are you getting?"
"Um, I think I am getting the same." Claire said through another yawn.
Angie laughed, "What were you doing last night that made you so tired?"
Claire cracked up and shook her head, "Not that. I woke him up around 3, then the dog woke us up and we agreed we were not going to get any sleep. So, we went to the beach and a cafe."
"Aww, that's so romantic." Angie cooed.
Claire nodded in agreement as they ordered their food and started talking again.
Three hours later, the plane landed and the Backstreet Boys met a van outside the airport, which took them to their hotel. They got their five hotel room keys and headed upstairs. Howie was in room 235, Kevin in 236, Aj in 237, Brian in 238 and Nick in 239.
Nick poured his bags on the floor and went over to his bed. He sat down on the edge and picked up the phone. He read over the directions on how to make a long distance call, then he dialed Claire's number.
"Hello?" she answered.
"Hey it's me. I was just calling to say we just got to New York." he informed her.
"How was the flight?" she asked as she cleaned her house.
"I had to sit next to Brian. Brian is deathly afraid of heights so he bounced, twisted and turned the whole time." Nick complained.
Claire laughed as she scrubbed her kitchen counter, "Well at least you got there afely. Listen, I won't keep you. Have a fun time, I'll talk to you later, okay?"
Nick smiled, "Okay, bye."
Claire hung up and finished cleaning the kitchen, then she moved onto the living room. After she was done cleaning, she took a shower and snuggled up with her cat, on her couch, with Casablanca. Thinking of Nick.
