"OK, Miss Maddie, I don't think I need to tell you how important this is,"
Romero said in his heavy Portuguese accent.
"Romero," Maddie turned to
give her manager a brilliant smile. "I got this. This is a piece of cake
compared to everything else I've gone through. How hard is it going to be to sit
through dinner?"
"For you?" Romero shot her a skeptical look. "For you,
it'll be very hard; that's why you have to watch your mouth tonight. You know
how you get."
"I just calls em as I sees em," Maddie gave Romero a saucy
wink.
He had to laugh. "You're so silly."
The lights dimmed and
then came back to full brightness to indicate to everyone that it was time for
them to take their seats. Romero led Maddie over to Table 170 and found the
gold-embossed placards with their names on it. He took a circuit around the
table to see whom they would be sitting with. He swore under his breath.
"OK, sweetie, it's gonna be OK, all right? It's just one dinner. Two
hours tops and we're out of here."
"Oh shit. Who else is at this table?"
"Don't get all crazy on me, OK? They put as at the same table as
Britney."
"As is Spears? As in 'Fuck Me Baby One More Time?' What the
hell?"
"Madison, please, OK. Come on, think about it. You, her and
Christina are the hottest females in pop music today. If Christina was here,
she'd be at this table too."
"But I'm not a 'pop' singer and I wish it
was Christina who was here instead of 'Miss I'm a very religious girl but I see
nothing wrong with flashing my 17 year old tits and ass for the whole world to
see.' Man, she is gonna make this night hell."
"OK, listen, remember all
those times I talked to you about controlling your tongue? I know you ignored me
before, but you gotta listen to me now. There are a lot of very important people
here and you have to make a good impression. No dumping your soup in her lap,
OK?"
Maddie glared at him. "Don't ask me to make promises I can't keep."
"Maddie..."
"Madison, hi!" a high-pitched squeal interrupted
Romero's harangue. "Oh my goodness, it's so good to see you here." Jessica
wrapped her arms around Maddie.
"Jess! I didn't know you were gonna be
here!"
"Yeah, well, Nick decided we needed a night out on the town and
since Motown is footing the bill, we decided to go all out."
"Where is
he? Are the rest of the guys here?" Romero asked the Sweet Kisses singer as they
exchanged pecks on the cheek.
"He's here somewhere. Drew and Jeff came
but Justin had to be somewhere else tonight."
"Where are you sitting?"
Maddie asked her long-time friend.
"Table 262."
"Guess who I get
to sit with?" Maddie asked in a voice dripping with sarcasm.
Jessica
looked at the anger and frustration in her friend's eyes and immediately
guessed. "No way!"
"Yes way and she's gonna be a good girl, right?"
Romero wrapped his arm around her waist and looked down at his one and only
client.
"No comment. Do you think anyone would mind if I rearranged some
of the seating?"
Jessica laughed. Romero opened his mouth to scold
Maddie when someone caught his eye. "Oh, mami, I want that for dinner tonight."
Jessica and Madison turned to see who Romero was ogling. They saw the
guys of *NSYNC and some other people being led to the table next to them. "Which
one?" Jessica asked.
"Shit, all of them, take your pick."
Madison laughed. "Sorry, sweetie, I think they're all straight."
"That's never stopped me before," Romero deadpanned.
"Hey you,"
Jessica said as her boyfriend wrapped his arms around her waist.
Nick
Lachey nuzzled Jessica's neck with his nose before picking up his head and
greeting Maddie and Romero.
"Hey Madison," he smiled widely at her.
"Romero," he nodded to him.
Romero made it widely known that he thought
Nick was the best thing since sliced bread. Nick didn't mind but made a game of
it in public. He acted very wary around Romero anytime that people outside their
circle were around. The reality was that Nick was very comfortable with his
sexuality and his girlfriend and he thought it was funny the way Romero flirted
with and baited him. He enjoyed bandying wits with the Portuguese man. But the
media would take any sort of conviviality between the two men and turn it into
some sinister twisted love triangle and the speculation could seriously hurt the
careers of everyone involved. So they kept up a front for the roving eyes of the
reporters.
"Nicholas, darling, you look fantastic tonight," Romero
exclaimed loudly then smiled as Nick tightened his hold on his girlfriend.
"Thanks. Babe, you ready?"
"Are you going to the party?" Jessica
asked Madison.
"Are you?"
"Yes."
"I hadn't planned on
it, but I might. How long are you in town for?"
"Two more days, I
think."
"OK. Gimme a call, all right?"
"Yeah, it's been way to
long. See you at the party!" This last bit was said over her shoulder as her
boyfriend dragged her away to their table.
Maddie turned to Romero and
sighed. "Let's get this over with."
"OK, Maddie, seriously, now is the
time you are going to HAVE to make nice. We don't need a Monica-Brandy situation
between you and Britney."
"Romero," the singer placed a hand on her
manager's shoulder as he was pulling her chair out for her, "be cool. I got
this."