"Are you going to stay?" Brandi asked as her and Rich got back to the house.
"No, I've got a really early meeting tomorrow and I'm kind of tired," Rich said. "I'm just going to head home."
"Okay," Brandi said. "Well, thanks for dinner."
They both sat in the car, not saying a word. They looked everywhere but at each other. Brandi was afraid Rich was going to ask her what her decision was. Rich was afraid to ask her what her decision was in case she told him goodbye.
"I'll see you later," Brandi said as she started to get out of the car.
"Brandi, wait.......um, I'll call you tomorrow afternoon."
Brandi nodded and started to walk towards the house. A voice behind her called her name and she turned and saw Brian and Leighanne. "Oh, hey," she said. "Sorry, I was talking to Rich."
"That's okay," Brian said. "Isn't he coming in?"
"No, he has to get up early tomorrow morning for a meeting," Brandi said.
They waved to Rich and started to walk towards the house. At first, nobody noticed the Ford Expedition sitting in the driveway. Then, Brandi stopped and turned around.
"Whose is that?" she wondered out loud.
"It looks like AJ's," Brian said,"but how - why would he be here?"
"Let's go find out," Brandi said.
Alicia and Matt were turning down the street she lived on when they passed Rich. They waved, but he looked pretty pissed off.
"What's with him?" Matt said.
"Maybe Brandi wouldn't put out," Alicia laughed.
"Looks like there's a party going on here," Matt said as they pulled into Alicia's driveway.
"Holy shit," Alicia said as she pointed. "That's Brian. That's Brian Littrell. And that's Leighanne. What the hell are they doing here?"
They got out of Matt's car and walked over to Brandi, Brian and Laeighanne. Everyone exchanged hellos and Alicia introduced herself and Matt to Brian and Leighanne.
"What's going on here?" Alicia asked.
"Me and Rich saw these two in the Hard Rock," Brandi said. "Chloe and Dave were there, too. They should be back soon."
"Whose is that?" Matt asked, pointing to the Expedition.
"We think it's AJ's," Brandi said. "We were just going to see."
Brandi, Alicia, Matt, Brian and Leighanne went into the house and found Dawn, Moesha, AJ, Nick, Kevin and Howie sitting in the kitchen, drinking beers, playing cards. Music was blasting from the living room.
"Well, hello," Alicia said. "I see we've found the party."
"Weird, isn't it," Moesha said," we found these guys in the club, so we invited them back here."
"Let me guess," Brandi said," Dee is passed out upstairs in bed because she drank too much?"
Dawn laughed. "What else is new? We were out of the club and back here by 10:00."
Brandi laughed. "That early? She's getting pretty bad."
Everybody introduced themseleves, and Alicia, Brandi, Brian and Leighanne sat down to join the game.
"Well, I better be heading out now," Matt said. "Gotta go to work tomorrow."
"I'll walk you out," Alicia said, and her and Matt left the room.
"So, what are we playing here?" Brian asked.
"Good ole poker," AJ said. "We're playing for sips."
"Sips?" Leighanne said, confused.
"Sips of beer," Moesha said. "Well, shots of beer, actually. The winner has to take a shot of beer."
Alicia came back in the room. "Shots of beer? Sounds alright."
They played for a while, and everyone got a nice glow going on.
"Whaddya say we change the odds a little?" AJ slurred after a while. "After all, we don't want to drink all your beer. Let's change it to Strip Poker."
"Let's not and say we did," Dawn said. "Or how about, let's not and say we didn't. You guys better get going. We have to go rehearse tomorrow."
"Good idea," Kevin said. "We're with Fatima tomorrow."
Everyone said their goodbyes, and the guys and Leighanne left, and Moesha, Dawn, Brandi and Alicia stumbled off to bed.
Chloe woke up with the sun shining in her face. She looked over and saw Dave still sleeping. She smiled at how content he looked. She felt so comfortable in his arms. Dave stirred, and she looked at him again. His eyes fluttered open. When he saw her, he smiled and kissed her on the forehead.
"Morning, beautiful," he said.
Chloe kissed Dave on the shoulder and smiled. "Thank you," she said.
"For what?"
"Last night. I missed you, you know. I never realized how much I missed you until last night."
"I'm just glad to have you back," Dave said.
Chloe sat upand looked out the window as she stretched. "Oh, what a gorgeous day. The sun is shinig, the birds are singing, we're back together - oh, shit! Shit, no! It's 11:30!"
"Yeah, so?"
"Rehearsal's today. It starts at 12:00!" Chloe jumped out of bed. "I need to shower, and get dressed. Fuck me!"
"Well," Dave laughed, "I think I already - "
"Shut up! Where's my clothes?" Chloe ran into the bathroom and jumped in the shower. She had a quick shower and then ran back into the bedroom. "Get dressed! I need you to drive me there."
Chloe threw on the clothes she was wearing the day before and put her hair in a ponytail.
"What? No makeup?" Dave joked.
"Fuck it. No time. C'mon. We gotta jet."
Her and Dave drove to the rehearsal studio in what seemed about a minute. Dave weaved his way in and out of traffic. When they got there, Chloe gave Dave a quick kiss.
"I'll give you a call later this afternoon," she said.
"Okay," Dave said. "Love you."
"Love you, too."
