AJ woke up with a smile on his face. "Why the hell am I smiling? Its 7 freaking 30 in the morning.." then he remembered Gwen and smiled even bigger, "Oh...Gwen.." even saying the name made him smile. He dragged himself out of his bed in the hotel suite he had to himself and walked over to the kitchen and turned on the Mr. Coffee machine. Then he walked into the bathroom to shower, shave and get ready. He had to be downstairs in an hour to go to a radio station. He got ready and found Gwen's number on his dresser by his bed. He really, really liked her. He just met her but she had this spark that he has never seen before. He walked happily out his suite and locked it. He bumped into Nick in the hall.
"Yo man, what's up?" AJ said. Nick gasped.
"Did you just talk to me at 8:30 in the morning? WHOA!" Nick teased. AJ didn't hear him, he couldn't stop thinking about where he was gonna take Gwen on their first date. He was so off in his own little world he didn't see Nick waving his hand franticly in front of him.
"AJ!" Nick finally got AJ to snap out of his dream.
"WHAT?!" AJ said, now annoyed.
"What happened to you man?" he asked, they were now in the elevator.
"I met someone last night," AJ smiled. Nick sighed.
"I knew it, when don't you meet anyone?" Nick said, with a tint of sarcasim. AJ would normally get pissed off but this time he didn't care. He was too involved thinking about her. This went on all day: in the limo to the radio station, at the station, during the interview and now they were in a lobby at Teen People Magazine waiting for their photo shoot. Nick was the only Backstreet Boy that heard about this mysterious girl AJ was nuts about but the others had a clue. He sat in the lobby on the 15th floor of a huge business building and looked out the window. He decided to go for a walk and took the elevator down to the first floor. There was a GAP store on the bottom level facing Times Square. He decided to go shopping. He walked in and saw the back of a familiar person. The girl turned around and he saw Gwen. She was wearing loose fit khakis, a red turtle neck (with a GAP name tag on it), thin black rimmed glasses and her hair was swept up in a bun where the blue tips were hidden. AJ was taken back. "Look at this luck!" he thought. She looked up and saw him and her jaw dropped.
"How did you..?" she started to ask. He started to smile.
"Well, you sure go from night to day, don't you?" he asked, meaning her two different jobs.
"Okay, now you are just plain stalking me," she said.
"Actually Missy, we are doing a photo shoot upstairs on the 15th floor and I can't sit still for more than 5 minutes so I strolled down here," he said, smiling slyly. God, she loved that smile. "So, when am I taking you out?"
"Well, you are straight forward aren't ya," she said. He jumped back in his mind "Smooth move McLean."
"Sorry, I didn't mean it to sound so pressuring," he said.
"Its cool. I actually didn't think you were gonna call," she admitted.
"Why's that?" he asked.
"Well...why would you wanna hang out with me? I'm nothing special. I thought guys like you dated famous models or something," she said. He was taken at back. A girl never said this to him before...and he liked it!
"Guys like me? You don't even know me," he challenged.
"You don't know me either!" she said. "How old am I, AJ?" she asked. AJ thought for a second.
"21."
"What the...?" she said, giving him a 'how the hell did you know that' look. "Lucky guess," she mumbled under her breath.
"Okay..what's my last name?" he asked.
"McLean," she answered. He gave her the same look and she responded with "I have little sisters." He nodded.
"Alright, what's MY last name?" she asked. He was stuck.
"No clue," he said. She smiled.
"Ah-ha! I told you," she said. "It's Matthews."
"Gwen!" they were interrupted by a lady in her mid-forties.
"Shit," she said under her breath and scrambled to look busy. The lady marched up to Gwen and walked right past AJ.
"Miss Matthews, I want you to WORK. Not socialize!" she disciplined. AJ overheard and grabbed the closest thing he could find.
"Excuse me, I was just asking her how much this..eh shirt was," AJ said, butting into their conversation. The lady turned to Gwen and Gwen nodded in agreement.
"So sorry about that sir, if you need anything, make sure to ask for help," she smiled as she turned to Gwen and said "Nice luck." And with that she walked away. Gwen breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thank you. I have a boss from hell and I'm already on thin ice with her," Gwen explained.
"No problem," he said. His pager went off and he quickly turned it off. "They need me upstairs. What time do you get off?" he asked. She looked at her watch.
"At 2:30," she said.
"Perfect. I'm done at 2. How about I meet ya here?" he asked. She didn't see a reason to say no.
"Okay," she said. And with that, he went upstairs.
~~~~~
2:15 rolled around and Gwen was now working the register. She saw AJ walk in and wink at her. He pretended to look at stuff and walked around until it was 2:30. She quickly ran into the back room and took off her name tag and headset and grabbed her purse and met him up front.
"Hey, how was work?" he greeted.
"Fine. How was your..um..."
"Photo shoot?" he finished for her. "Same ole."
"I didn't have lunch," she said.
"I didn't either. McDonalds?" he asked, when they stepped outside in the cold New York air. She looked him over. He had on a long sleeved shirt that covered the tattoos and looked barely reconigizable. She agreed.
"So, how many jobs do you have?" he asked, as they walked down the street.
"Only two. I had to get another one when my roommate left me and I was stuck with all the rent," she said. "So, a friend told me about the bar and I thought why not? I'm a good juggler so I do all these tricks with the bottles. Everyone loves it," she said.
"Why did your roommate leave you with the rent? That's wack," he said.
"She ran off and got married. She was a co-worker of mine from GAP and she moved to Jersey," she explained. "It sucks though cuz it's kinda lonely." AJ perked up. "I could change that," he thought.
"You should get a pet," AJ suggested.
"I want one but we can't have cats or dogs in the building. I would love a puppy but oh well," she said. They arrived at McDonalds and stood in line. It came their turn and AJ let Gwen order first.
"I'll have a number 4, super size with a sprite please," she said, stepping aside so AJ could order. His jaw dropped. That was exactly what he was going to get.
"Uh..I'll have the same except with Pepsi," he said. AJ paid for the food and Gwen took the tray and they sat down in a booth.
"Wow, that was weird," she said.
"I always order that. I love McDonald's," he said.
"Me too," she said as she took a bite out of her sandwich. "So, do you guys have anything else to do today?" she asked.
"Umm..." he swallowed his mouthful, "Nope. We are done for the day. Tomorrow is jammed packed. We have a photo shoot and interview with Rolling Stone, go back to MTV to do double takes on our interview, 3 radio interviews and we end with a performance on David Letterman," he said.
"Wow, how do you do it?" she asked.
"I dunno. But it takes TONS of coffee," he said. "Well, how do you do it? I mean you work till 3AM and have to be at GAP at 8...when do you sleep?" he asked.
"I sleep from 4 to 7 in the morning, then I sleep from 4 to 9 at night and go to work at 9:30..I have an odd sleeping schedule," she said. He nodded.
"I could never do it," he said.
"Yeah, when I started working, I'd get sick because of my weird pattern. But it's worth it because I have a really nice apartment. It's a really posh kind of building," she said, taking a sip of her sprite.
"Where is your building?" he asked.
"On 54th street," she answered.
"I know where that is, we are there all the time," he said. He looked in her eyes and felt his heart melt. She noticed him observing her and quickly looked away.
"So..which job do you like better?" he asked.
"Hmm..probably the bar because I'm a night owl and I like the crowd and noise," she said.
"I'm a night owl too!" he said. "Do you ever get scared someone will get drunk and try to hit you or something?"
"Nah, we have a policy that we can't serve more than 3 drinks to the same person and we have George at the door watching. And there are always two under-cover cops there every night. Jill hired them just incase something does happen," she told him.
"Oh I see," he said. "So, you have a little sister?"
"Yep, four actually," she said.
"Wow, 5 girls? Are you the oldest?" he asked.
"Yep. There's Ashleigh, Whittney, Olivia, Madaline and me," she said. "They are still all living back at home. Well, Ashleigh might be coming to live with me next year, she's the second oldest."
"Where is home?" he asked.
"Albany. It's only two hours from here. My mom couldn't take me leaving so I decided to stay here in NYC," she said. He smiled. He was trying his best to flirt with her and make her smile but he found out he liked talking to her than trying to flirt with her. She was very intelligent and AJ felt like a high schooler trying to get her number when he'd try to flirt. He was very attracted to her. She had a beautiful face that was very clear and her big eyes had so much mystery to them. He wanted to know her completely before anything happened but he couldn't help his feelings for her. He wanted to kiss her and hold her more than anything. He had always felt supior to his dates or girlfriends until he met Gwen.
"I must admit, you are a lot nicer than I thought you would be," she said. "When I saw you come in, I didn't exactly know what to expect but I'm really glad about the outcome," she said. He felt satisfied. He was falling in love.
"A lot of people think I'm this arrogant ass who thinks I'm better than everyone and that is not true at all," he told her. She nodded her head and listened. She really listened. Most girls AJ would talk to never really listened. They would care more about when they would get to make out then how AJ really felt. She was silent for a minute.
"Why are you here?" she asked.
"..Huh?" he was caught off guard.
"Why are you here with me? I just don't understand...you are this.."she hesitated,".. idol in music and I am sitting here at McDonald's eating lunch with you," she said. "Where is this coming from?" he thought.
"Well, I'm here with you because I was hungry and you said I didn't know you so I thought I could get to know you," he said. She yawned. "Hey, you look really tired. Why don't I walk you back to your building and maybe I'll run into you tonight?" She looked at him and sighed.
"Okay," as a little smile grew on her face.
~~~~~~~
Gwen couldn't sleep. She kept tossing and turning in her queen sized bed. "Why can't I sleep?" she asked herself but she didn't need to think about it. She knew. AJ. "Why can't I get him off my mind? He can't possibly like me," she thought. "Then why is he wanted to spend time with me? ARUGH!" she finally got out of bed and turned on her TV and grabbed the remote. She flipped through the channels and stopped on MTV. She never got a chance to watch TV because of her schedule. She finished watching a commercial and the words "The Greatest Backstreet Boy Moments!" flashed on the TV. "AH!!" she screamed, turning off the TV. He was everywhere! "I am NOT falling for him," she said aloud. "I am smarter than that." Or so she thought..
