Chapter 7
    Sarah, Rachel and Miriam walked down a long hallway in the Jive Recording
Company building, following Lynn.  The girls were barely paying attention to
what was in front of them; they had their eyes glued to the walls on either
side of them.  Both walls were covered with posters, gold albums, and other
such material from all their clients.  The girls paused to look at an *N Sync
poster.
    "Wow." Miriam gasped, "To think, one of these days, we could be up on
this wall too..." She let her words drift off, as the girls stared in awe at
all that surrounded them.
    "Girls." Lynn spoke softly but firmly, "You will be late for your
meeting, unless we hurry."  The girls turned and followed Lynn, keeping their
eyes on the walls.

    "Well, they must be the new group we were hearing about.." Justin said,
watching them from a room off the hallway.
    "Yea, and what a group they are!!" Joey whistled as he watched the girls'
backs walk down the hall.  Sarah, Rachel & Miriam paused to look at some
posters on the wall.  "Hey!" he cried, "The tall, dark haired one looks
really familiar!!  She looks like the girl I danced with at the club a few
nights ago!!"
    "Riiight!" Chris said sarcastically, "Joey, every girl looks like someone
you dance with at a club.  Now come on, we have work to do."
     Joey followed his groupmates obediently, but couldn't get the image of
the girl out of his mind.  He was sure the girl was the same one he had
danced with, even if the others didn't believe him.

        *****       *****       *****       *****       *****

    Joey sighed and pulled a hat over his red - tipped hair, to keep it away
from his face.  It had been a long day, and the work had been hard.  Joey
opened the door and began to walk down the hallway.  He didn't even bother to
glance at the decorations hanging on the walls.  He had seen them all
millions of times.  He rounded a curve in the hallway, and almost ran right
into someone.  "Oh my gosh!  I'm sorry!  Are you ok?  I didn't mean to scare
you or anything!"  Joey babbled.  The girl he was talking to lifted her head
to look at him, and Joey gasped.  "It's you!"  He said, amazed.
    She smiled gently.  "It's ok, really.  No harm done.  I'm tough; it would
take more than someone walking into me to hurt me." She laughed, and Joey
laughed with her.  The girl paused after she had stopped laughing, and
studied his face.  "You said something like 'it's you' before, didn't you?"
    "Yea." Joey nodded, licking his lips nervously.  The girl seemed to hold
a power over him; he had never met anyone as compelling as her.  Now more
than ever, he was sure she was the one he had danced with last night. 
"Excuse me if I'm wrong," he said, with a burst of courage, "But you owe me a
slow dance."  The girl's jaw
dropped.  "If I do say so myself, you messed up a couple of the steps.  You
do remember our bet, don't you?" Joey smiled again, laying on the charm.
    Realization dawned on the girl's face.  The man from the club two nights
ago, and their bet, came rushing back to her.  "No way, buddy.  You messed up
the steps!" Sarah grinned.  She couldn't help smiling.  She loved to flirt,
and the guy seemed to enjoy it just as much as she did.
    "Fine, you got me.  You did it better." Joey smiled, agreeing with his
mystery girl, "So that means you get the slow dance, right?"
    Sarah drew in a quick breath.  "It all depends..." She paused, "Would you
be willing to dance with me?"
    Before the man could respond, Miriam came walking down the hallway, from
the direction of the exit.  "Sarah," She called happily, "Lynn says to get
your butt out there.  We have an interview to get to.." Miriam paused when
she saw that Sarah was talking to somebody.  She walked up to the two people,
smiled sweetly at
the man, and turned to Sarah.  "Sorry to interrupt your conversation, but you
know how Lynn gets." 
    Sarah smiled in agreement, then turned to the man.  "Sorry, but I have to
go.  Duty calls!  Listen, I'll give you my cell number; call me sometime." 
Sarah pulled a receipt from a previous purchase out of her pocket.  She
scrawled her name and number on the back of it
    Joey took the number and ripped a blank portion off the bottom of the
receipt.  He motioned for the pen.  "As long as you take my number."  He
smiled as he scribbled his name and number on the paper.
    A door opened down the hallway, and a dark haired man with chiseled
features stuck his head out.  "Come on Joe!  We have a lot of work to do. 
Quit flirting and get down here!"  The man spoke forcefully, yet gently. 
Miriam turned to look at him, and stopped dead.  It was all she could do to
keep her mouth from dropping.  She was too far away to see details.  Miriam
could tell that he was gorgeous though; the physical embodiment of her idea
of an Adonis. 
    Joey glanced over at the blonde girl to his right, and grinned.  He was
used to girls falling head over heels for his friend.  Joey whispered, "And
he's nice too."  The girl smiled shyly, embarassed at being caught staring. 
Joey thrust his number at Sarah.  He smiled, and turned to run down the
hallway.  "Sorry Josh..." the
girls heard him say, just before the door closed.
    "So Sarah," Mir said as the girls headed for the exit, "Picking up guys
again, huh?" A sly smile lit up her face.
    "You know it's what I do best!" Her friend grinned back.  The girls
laughed, picking up their pace down the hallway.
    "Lynn isn't going to be pleased that it took me so long to get you."
Miriam frowned. "Come on, we gotta hurry." 
    As they reached the door, Sarah realized that she was still holding the
guy's phone number.  She unfolded it to read the number, before putting it in
her pocket.  She skimmed over the paper quickly. 
                      Tony
                       ### - ### - ####
                    My cell phone, call me whenever!!
'That's strange...' Sarah thought, 'I thought the guy in the building called
him Joe..' Sarah let her thoughts trail off as she walked outside, into the
beautiful sunshine that the weatherman had promised.

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