Part 371
The afternoon’s events were temporarily set aside as the crowd converged on dinner and Jesse was the main reason. She regaled anyone who would listen with her tales of swimming with Aaron and other exploits. She was every much the entertainer that her parents were.
Moving through the line for dinner was an adventure in itself too.
"Mommy, I don’t like that," stated Jesse as Sarah put some mixed vegetables on her plate.
"You don’t know what you like. You’ve never tried it."
"It looks YUCKY!"
"Too bad," said Sarah looking at her daughter. "You WILL try it."
The line was moving too slowly for Jesse and she looked at Kevin. "Uncle Kevy, make everyone go faster."
Kevin laughed, "I can’t rush people, Jess."
"Why can’t you? You’re always telling people what to do."
Sarah laughed, "She’s got a point, ‘Boo’."
Everyone that had heard Jesse was laughing as well and Kevin looked at Sarah. "She’s YOUR daughter. Do something."
"What do you want ME to do? She’s being honest."
Kevin simply rolled his eyes as he continued to pile his plate with food.
Jesse continued. "Mommy, why don’t you let me fix my own plate?"
"Because I want to make sure you don’t get too much of the sweets and plenty of the good stuff that you need."
"You treat me like a baby," pouted Jesse crossing her arms and stomping her foot.
Howie was behind Sarah fixing his own plate and said, "Throwing temper tantrums like that is exactly what a baby does."
"You don’t tell Mommy that when SHE throws a temper tantrum," pointed out Jesse.
"That’s enough, Jesse," said Howie. "Go find a seat and wait for us."
"Daddy," whined Jesse.
Hearing Jesse’s whines, Lisa came to the rescue. "Come on, Jesse. I already have my plate and you can sit with me. I want to hear more about what you did with Aaron."
That seemed to work and Jesse bounced happily to a seat with the other dancers.
Sarah looked to Lisa gratefully, "Thanks."
"No problem," she answered as she started to head to the table. Looking back at Howie and Sarah, she said, "Seeing you two happy is nice."
Howie gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks, Lis…and don’t worry. We REALLY are okay."
"What makes you think I was worrying about you two?" smirked Lisa.
With a wink, Howie said, "I’m just that good."
Sarah groaned, "Oh good gawd! Get over yourself, ‘D’."
Howie wrapped an arm around her waist kissing her on the neck. "You know you love it, woman."
Sarah laughed, "Uh huh! More than I probably should." She turned just enough to kiss him.
"Oh come on, you two," quipped AJ. "Take it somewhere else so the rest of us can eat."
The couple broke apart laughing as Howie said, "Food! Who can think of food when there’s a sexy woman to be lovin’ on?"
"Yeah! Yeah! MOVE! I ain’t got a woman to be lovin’ on so let me get some FOOD!"
"God ‘Bone’…you’re worse than Nick," teased Sarah as everyone laughed.
Sarah picked up a glass of milk that the waiters had put out for Jesse and headed to where her daughter was entertaining the dancers. She got her settled, left instructions that she was NOT to get up until her plate was clean, and headed back to fix her own plate.
Todd and Ben were there when Sarah joined them and they flanked her. As Sarah piled the food on her plate, Todd watched with amused interest.
"No wonder you’re starting to look like a beached whale….TWO plates and this one is piled."
"Oh, bite me, Todd!" shot Sarah. "The first one was for Jesse."
"Uh huh…sure! Use the kid as cover. Where is the little princess
anyway?"
"With Lisa and the dancers."
Todd looked over to see Jesse surrounded by the dancers being showered with attention. "The center of attention as usual."
"Of course. She’s MY child. What did you expect?"
"Nothing less," answered Todd as they continued through the line. Dropping his voice to a whisper, he asked, "How are you doing?"
Sarah looked over her shoulder at him. "I’m fine, Todd….really."
"Is it true you didn’t press charges?"
Sarah nodded her head as she picked up a glass of tea. "Yeah, it is. I promise. You’ll understand after the meeting."
She missed the angry look Todd had on his face as she looked around to find Howie. Spotting him in the back of the room with the others, Sarah said, "I’ll talk to you later."
Howie had purposely chosen a table in the corner out of the way of curious eyes and where it was quiet. As she joined them, Howie stood to help Sarah with her chair. Giving her a kiss as he sat back down, Howie asked, "What were you talking to Todd about?"
"He asked if it was true about us not pressing charges."
"No wonder he looked pissed," said AJ. "Not that it’s any of my business, but why aren’t you pressing charges?"
Howie took a bite of his dinner as all eyes fell on him. The guys waited for an answer while Sarah wondered how much he would tell his ‘brothers’. He thought about what had transpired in his dressing room and knew that only the ones in that room and Sarah would keep it quiet.
Sarah took his hand, "’D’, they deserve an answer."
Washing down his mouthful, Howie said quietly, "We aren’t pressing charges to keep it out of the news."
"You’re joking, right?" asked Kevin incredulously. "That guy
raped Sarah and put the babies in danger."
AJ watched the couple as Kevin ranted. He saw the look of complete trust that Sarah had as she watched Howie and he understood that Howie was doing what he thought best. God knows, they’d done the same thing for him for different reasons. He spoke calmly now, "Kevin, let it go. Howie knows what’s best for them."
Sarah reached over and took AJ’s hand squeezing it in a silent thank you.
Kevin shook his head as Howie asked, "What would you have done differently?"
"A gag order comes to mind."
"That’s violating his First Amendment rights, Kevin. You know, it’s not only Sarah’s reputation on the line but ours too. And AJ…what the hell do you think the press would do to him if they got hold of what happened? We’ve kept this all quiet for too long to let the press know now."
"But you’re gonna tell the crew? That makes a helluva lot of sense," growled Kevin.
"They ALREADY know. I’d rather explain than deal with the speculation and talking behind our backs. What happens when a new person comes on board and hears the rumors? Will we have a repeat of today? I personally don’t want that to happen and I’m doing everything I can to prevent it."
Sarah had become aware of the stares from the others eating dinner as the two men argued. She said softly, "You two, stop it. You’re drawing UNWANTED attention. Kevin, Howie is just trying to protect ALL of us."
Kevin looked at her as she begged him silently to let it go. He knew she was right and in a lot of ways, he was grateful that someone else was stepping up and shouldering the problems of the group. He smiled, "You’re right, baby. I’m sorry for the argument. Howie, you know I’ll support you."
"Yeah, I know."
Dinner continued and talk changed to other topics. Sarah ate quietly thinking about what she needed to say to the crew. She and Tyler had discussed this earlier as one of the ways she needed to resolve this situation for herself. Unfortunately, Nick dominated her thoughts. The look in his eyes as he’d done his sound check, the way he’d looked at her. She knew she had to talk to him and soon.
"Angel, what’s got you so quiet?" asked Howie whispering in her ear as he put his arm around her.
"I was just thinking about Nick. Howie, was I that blind to Nick’s feelings?"
"No, you weren’t. You’ve always treated him better than we do."
AJ put his hand on Sarah’s, "’Tigger’, you were so wrapped up in Howie, you didn’t know your own name."
"How long has he had a crush on me?"
Brian grinned, "From the first time Howie introduced you to us."
"Oh god! I HAVE been blind and all the teasing!"
All three guys laughed and Howie said, "’Angel’, don’t worry. You’ve always seen Nicky differently than we have. You realized he grew up when we still saw him as the pesky thirteen-year-old."
"In other words, I gave him more fuel for his crush. God…how stupid am I? And Becca? Oh god, what will she say when she finds out?"
"Baby, she knows," said Kevin.
"I have to talk to him," said Sarah searching the crowd in hopes that Nick and Becca had somehow slipped in without her noticing. "Where are they?"
"Becca couldn’t get Nick to come to dinner," said Brian.
"That’s ridiculous. They BOTH need to eat. I’m gonna go fix them plates."
"Angel, you don’t have much time. The meeting is gonna start soon."
"Nick needs to be here for it," countered Sarah.
"We all know, baby, but we can’t push him either," said Kevin. "Becca’s not even sure she can get him on stage tonight."
"Nick, NOT perform?! I have to talk to him! He has to know I don’t blame him."
Tears threatened to fall and Howie hugged her close. "Sarah, you were upset. Go fix their plates and if you can’t take them, we’ll get Raoul to do it."
Seeing Jesse starting to dance around the room, Sarah asked, "Who’s gonna watch Jesse? I don’t want her to hear this."
"Raoul can take her. He doesn’t need to be here."
Sarah gave Howie a kiss. "Thank you. I won’t be long."
The guys watched Sarah as she headed to the buffet table to fix the plates for Nick and Becca. They knew that if Sarah could just talk to Nick, things would be worked out. Unfortunately, time wasn’t on her side as Jeff walked in the door with several other members of management and joined the guys at their table.
Balancing two plates, Sarah started fixing each one with her friends’ favorites. Fiona spotted Sarah and joined her to give her a hand.
"Here, let me help you," offered Fiona.
Gratefully, Sarah gave Fiona one of the plates as she said, "Thank you."
"Are you getting these for Nick and Becca?"
"Yeah, and I wanted to make sure they came for the meeting. Look, I owe you a huge apology, Fi."
"For what? You haven’t done anything to me."
Laughing, Sarah said, "You mean my five-year-old telling you to ‘fuck off’ wasn’t anything? Look, she was only going on things she heard from me."
Fiona blushed, "Sarah, you and Jesse had every right to be mad at me. I was out of line. Even though this is fun, it’s still a job and I should be more professional. I’m just as guilty of sexual harassment as David and the fact that I still have a job after what I did in Minneapolis is a miracle."
"Howie told me what you did onstage."
Fiona groaned, "Kevin was furious."
"Want a tip with Kevin?"
"Sure!"
"His bark is worse than his bite. He takes his role as big brother seriously."
"I got that message. I noticed he bosses you around too."
"He bosses everyone around but I just ignore him. Most of the time, he’s right in what he’s doing and when he isn’t, well, I just tell him."
"You two have a ‘unique’ relationship."
Sarah smiled looking at Kevin as she said, "That’s a good way of putting it. I love all of the guys for their own individual quirks."
Howie had joined them and put his hands on Sarah’s shoulders. "Angel, Jeff wants to get this started."
"Let me take this to Nick and Becca."
Fiona offered, "I’ll do it. It’ll give me a chance to apologize to Becca."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I owe it to her especially since she’s been so nice to me."
"If you have any problems, let me know and I’ll talk to Becca."
"And tell them the meeting is getting started in a couple minutes," said Howie.
Taking the other plate from Sarah, Fiona headed out to Nick’s dressing room to take them dinner and hopefully apologize for her actions.