"Nick Carter? From the Backstreet Boys?" Laura tried to contain herself, but she barely could. She had to act professional, otherwise, Mr. Delaney might change his mind.
"Yes, Laura, Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys. We've taken special care in hiring the right personal assistant for each one of them, and you are definitely the one for Nick," Mr. Delaney replied.
In more ways than one, Laura thought, smiling. "Great, Frank. Well, where do I go tonight?"
"Oh, I'll give them your address, and they'll stop by to pick up all of their assistants. Each guy has his own tour bus, so Nick will be picking you up at around ten tonight. There will be a lot of buses behind him; those are just the other guys and the band. Any questions?" Frank asked.
"No. Thanks, Mr. De- I mean, Frank. It was such a great pleasure to meet you," Laura said, standing up and stretching out her hand which Frank took firmly.
"The pleasure is mine, Laura. Here." Frank picked up a folder labeled 'Carter, N.' and handed it to Laura. "These are some things you need to know about Nick. Oh, and you will be reporting to me once a week about anything that comes up, you got it?" Laura took the folder.
"Yes, sir, I got it." Laura turned around and walked towards the door. When she reached it, she turned around and smiled.
"Thanks again, Frank. This means a lot to me."
"Don't mention it, Laura. I hope we can become friends."
"Yes, of course. Well, I better run. I don't have much time to pack. Goodbye."
"Goodbye," Frank replied.
As soon as Laura entered her apartment, she dropped everything and ran to the phone and pressed speed dial for Jessica's number. It rang four times.
"Hello, Jess? Guess what?? Remember that personal assistant job?? I got it!! And the best part of it all is...."
"Is what, Laura, you got me in suspense?" Jess urged.
"Is that I'm gonna be the personal assistant to Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys!" Laura gushed, unable to contain her excitement.
"Oh, whatever, Laura, you're so pulling my leg!" Jess replied, laughing.
"No, seriously, Jess! If you want you can come over and see the Nick Carter file they gave me. Oh...I'm packing up and they're gonna come pick me up tonight...I'm going on tour with them," Laura said.
"Oh, my God, you're serious!" Jessica exclaimed. "You're going to leave me here alone? For how long?"
"I'm not sure, Jess," Laura said, regretfully. She'd be so excited, she had forgotten that she was going to leave her best friend behind.
"I'll miss you. But hey, I'll be over in a little bit, I wanna help you. Hey, are you gonna tell your parents?"
"No. They don't need to know every little detail about my life. Maybe later on, I'll send a postcard or something," Laura replied.
"Okay, Laur, I'll be there in a few."
"Oh, my God, Jess, they'll be here any minute. I'm so excited and nervous about how it'll turn out," Laura complained. They were sitting outside, her suitcases next to her.
"Don't worry about it, Laura. Think about how lucky you are," Jess reasoned.
"You're right." Just then, a huge tour bus turned into her street. "Oh, my God! They're here!" Her heart started beating a mile a minute. When the bus pulled up in front of her house, the doors swung open, and out stepped Nick, as gorgeous as ever in a pair of khakis and a blue polo shirt. He sauntered over and stopped a few feet away from them.
"Hey...which one of you is Laura?" Nick asked, smiling. Laura's heart did a flip flop.
God, he is so much hotter in person, she thought, dreamily.
"That's me," Laura replied, stretching out her hand.
"It's nice to meet you, Laura," Nick greeted, shaking her hand. "And who's this pretty lady over here?" Jessica blushed.
"Oh, this is my best friend, Jessica," Laura introduced.
"Hey, Jessica." Nick shook her hand, too. Jessica almost fainted. Her heart was beating a mile a minute and her hands were clammy.
"Hi," she croaked.
"So, this is your stuff, right? Let me help you." Nick picked up her two largest suitcases and started walking back towards the tour bus. Laura picked up her carry on bag and her purse, then she turned to Jessica.
"I'm gonna miss you, Jess. I'll call you as soon as I can, okay?" The two girls hugged fiercely, tears coming to their eyes.
"You better. Now, go, before they start getting impatient." Jessica wiped the tears off Laura's face.
"Okay. I'll call you!" They quickly hugged one last time before Laura turned and walked towards the tour bus.
Once she was settled in the bus, she looked out the window and waved at Jessica until they had turned the corner.
"Hey, Laura. I'm not really used to all of this, because I've never had a personal assistant, and I'm not exactly clear on what you're supposed to do. I didn't want to ask the guys, because I know they'd probably think I'm dumb, but I trust you," Nick said, plopping down in the sofa next to her.
"Well, basically, I do everything for you. Anything you want, you tell me, and I'll do my best to do it," Laura replied, feeling self-conscious having Nick so close to her. His delicious smell was intoxicating her senses.
"Oh, really? That's awesome. I've always wanted something like that. I'm glad management finally decided to make our lives a little easier," he replied.
"Yeah...so whatever you want or need, just tell me, okay?" Laura asked.
"Yeah, definitely. So now, let's talk about you. Frank didn't give me much information about you, just your name and address. He said I can learn everything else after we met. So how old are you?" Nick inquired.
"I'm 21," Laura responded.
"Really? Cool, I'm 21 too...But you probably already knew that, right?"
"Well...yeah." Laura had already read the file on Nick before he had come to pick her up.
"Do you have any siblings?" he asked.
"Yeah, two sisters, Mary and Jane, and one brother, Matt. Mary's 18, Jane's 19, and Matt's 20," she responded.
"So you live in Beverly Hills, huh? Are your parents rich or something?"
"Yeah..." She hated talking about this topic. "My dad is rich."
"That's cool. Frank Delaney picked all of our assistants from California since we came here for a press conference earlier this week. He had already chosen all of the personal assistants except mine. It's pretty impressive that you could pack up and leave everything in one day. But I'm glad I got you because some of the other guys have snobby assistants that get all dreamy-eyed when they look at them. Brian and Kevin's assistants are so upset that they're married and can't get them," Nick stated, stretching. "Man, I'm tired. I've been up since five this morning, going around picking up all of the assistants. I'm gonna get to sleep, okay? It was nice meeting you, again, Laura." Nick stood up.
"It was nice meeting you too, Nick," Laura said, softly.
"Well, I'll see you tomorrow. We're headed to Florida, where our tour starts in a week. It's gonna be a long ride, but you'll get used to being on a bus all the time. Well, goodnight, Laura."
"Goodnight, Nick." Nick walked towards the back of the bus where the bunks were. Laura turned back to the window and stared out. She sighed.
I don't think what I feel for Nick is a crush anymore. He's one of the sweetest, nicest, most sincere guy I've ever met. But he'd never go for someone like me. Laura sighed again, and closed her eyes.
Chapter 3
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