"What the hell do you think you're doing, Kirkpatrick?" Lonnie panted angrily. "Are you trying to give me a god damned heart attack?" The bigger man slumped against the nearest wall, glaring at his charge.
"No, Lonnie, and I'm sorry. I just have to get out of here." Chris finished entering the numbers and held the phone up to his ear as it started to ring.
"Hello?"
"Colin, my man - is your sister around?" Chris prayed that she was.
"No, I think she's still out with Marki." Colin answered. "I could tell her you called ..."
"No, that's okay. I'll try Marki's cell, thanks Colin." Chris looked at his watch expectantly. "Yo, Lon - you know Marki's cell number?"
Rolling his eyes, Lonnie pulled a list from his back pocket. "I'm the security chief - I have everyone's cell number."
********
Shannon heard the shrill ring before Marki did. "Hey ... I think your purse is ringing."
Marki rifled through her purse and extracted the phone. "It's probably Joey wondering where the hell I am ... Hello lover ..." Marki's eyes grew wide and she blushed. "Oh, hey Chris."
Shannon giggled at the expression on Marki's face. "What does he want?"
Marki shrugged and kept listening to the phone. "Yeah, she's here ... no, I haven't corrupted her ... no, we're not going back to the hotel right now ... and what if I don't, Kirkprissy, you gonna cry? Fine ... I'll have her there in like, half an hour. You're welcome! Bye." Marki ended the call and looked at Shannon, rolling her eyes. "Honestly, men!"
"What's wrong?" Shannon asked, concerned.
"Nothing, Chris just has a bug up his ass about something - he's being all melodramatic and shit." Marki looked at her watch. "And I'm supposed to bring you back to the hotel with me cause Chris wants to 'talk' to you about 'something serious'."
"Something serious? Oh, that doesn't sound good ..." Shannon's mind raced, wondering what Chris could possibly want to discuss with her so badly.
"I'm telling you - he loves you. That's all it is, trust me."
********
Chris paced the floor of his suite, anxiously checking his watch. And we're back to the pacing ... His thoughts scrambled all over themselves in an attempt to sort themselves out, and it was giving him a headache. He jumped when a knock sounded on the door and he raced to open it, where he found Shannon standing in the hall, looking somewhat scared.
"Oh, thank god, you're here!" Chris embraced her tightly.
"Whoa, down boy," Shannon giggled as she tried to extricate herself. She pulled back and looked deeply into his eyes. "Now, what's the matter?"
Chris pulled her over to the couch and motioned for her to sit down. "As you know, Johnny called me, Justin and Lance in for a meeting this morning ... and ... um ..." Now that he actually had to tell her, the words just wouldn't come.
"Chris ... is there something you're not telling me? What's going on?" Shannon grew worried as she watched him pace around the room.
Chris ran his hands through his hair with frustration and sat down on the couch beside her. "This is totally going to come out wrong but ... will you come on tour with me?"
Shannon's eyes widened and she shook her head. "What?" She looked over at Chris, who was hitting his forehead with the heel of his hand. "Why don't you start from the beginning - what happened at the meeting?"
"Well ... Johnny told us that he had a meeting with your manager -"
"Mr. McDonald?" Shannon's heart leapt into her throat. "Oh god ..."
"No! It's nothing that bad ... he doesn't know about Colin being your brother or about you and me - he just mentioned to Johnny that he's seen us down in the lobby too much and that he feels we've been 'distracting' his employees. So then Johnny asked us how we felt about you three and what was going to happen when we leave New York and ... Oh my god!" Chris jumped up. "What the hell am I doing? Oh shit!"
"What? What's wrong?" Shannon's heart pounded furiously.
"Look where we are ... I asked Marki to bring you back to the hotel with her ... and you're not working. If you're caught here ..." Chris groaned. "I've as good as gotten you fired."
"Oh no ..." Shannon groaned, cause in her anxiety to see Chris, she had completely let that rule slip her mind. "What are we going to do?"
"You're not caught yet ... don't worry, I'll see what we can do. We've got some wigs and stuff in wardrobe, I'll ask Lonnie to grab one later." Chris watched as Shannon breathed a sigh of relief, his heart pounding. "But as I was saying ... uh ... once we leave New York, I'm not going to forget about you ... I can't forget about you ... I ... this is going to sound nuts ..."
Shannon placed her hand in his gently. "You can tell me, it's okay."
Chris looked at her seriously, his hands shaking. "I love you."
"You love me ... wow ..." Shannon's eyes grew moist and she grinned. "Good, cause I'm crazy about you, and I thought I was going to die if I didn't tell you."
Chris pulled her into a crushing embrace, and he didn't pull back until they were both panting for breath, their lips pink and swollen from kissing. "This is crazy, you know."
"Yeah," Shannon agreed, flopping back on the couch.
"Justin told me we should weigh the pros and cons ... maybe he was right." Chris looked over at her seriously, but with a twinkle in his eye.
"You're famous ... I'm not."
"You live in New York City ... I live in Orlando."
"You have dogs ... I have cats."
"You have a brother ... I have sisters."
Shannon giggled. "You're thirty ... I'm not." She squealed as Chris tickled her.
"Hey! That wasn't nice!" Chris laughed. "Oh yeah ... well ... you drool in your sleep!"
"Yeah, well you snore!" They collapsed on each other in a fit of laughter. "And you have a job tomorrow ... I may not."
"Shan ... sweetie ... don't worry, I'm not going to stop loving you if you don't have a job." Chris got an evil grin on his face. "You can just work for me."
Shannon looked at him slyly. "As what?"
"My personal slave ..." Chris yelped when she hit him over the head with a cushion. "Okay, okay ... I mean at FuMan or something."
"That I'll do," Shannon smiled, then sighed. "Now ... how am I going to sneak out of here?"
********
Michelle looked suspiciously across the lobby, and nudged Destiny. "Um, Des - who is Chris with?"
Destiny squinted in the direction Michelle pointed in. "I don't know ..." Her eyes widened in surprise. "Oh my god, Shelle ... I think that's Shannon!"
"What?" Michelle yelled. "Is she insane?"
Across the lobby, Shannon breathed a sigh of relief as they reached the hotel entrance. "I think we made it."
Chris pulled at her frantically. "Oh shit, baby, get out!"
"What?" Shannon panicked as she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around and came face to face with Mr. McDonald.
"Miss McCormick ... so nice to see you here. And on your day off, no less." He narrowed his eyes at her and motioned towards his office door. "A word with you, if you please."
Chapter Index
Back to Hosted Fiction
Back to the Den