The next three days passed rather uneventfully. Amanda and Lindsey were invited to a Friday night dinner at the Carter house and Brian was there. Erika and Howie went out to the movies and AJ and Liv went back to The Random House.
George had an appearance at an Orlando talk show late Friday afternoon and a mall appearance on Saturday, so she spent the night at Kevin's house and he went with her to all her appearances. Luckily, Kevin was not noticed too much. It was an interesting experience for him to not be the one that people were there to see.
Sunday rolled around and all of the girls were back at their house getting ready for the party that night. The guys were sending a limo for them because they had things to do before the party.
Excited to see the guys again and for the party, the five girls played their BSB CDs all day as they were getting dressed.
Liv wore her senior prom dress, as it was the only formal dress that she had, and she loved it. It was a short gold dress with thin straps and cut-away panels in the shape of diamonds around her middle.
Erika had a long plum-colored gown that she wore in her sister's wedding last month. It fell to her ankles and had an empire waist with no sleeves.
George, as always, looked stunning in her elegant black dress that accented her model-like figure and made her long blonde hair shine.
Lindsey decided to go for something simple and wore an Oriental print dress that ended at her knees and was a mix of dark blues and black. It had a high neck and no sleeves, but the back plunged all the way to her waist.
Amanda had the hardest time deciding what to wear. She had the simple little black dress that was a staple item in her wardrobe. She usually would wear that one or the maroon tailored dress that was sleeveless, but came with a little jacket.
After consulting the other girls, she decided to be daring and wear the dress that she had in the back of her closet. Amanda bought it about two months ago on a whim and never had the chance to wear it until now. The dress was a soft peach color that when the light would shine on it, would appear pearl-like. It came to right above her knees and had a high front and spaghetti straps that came over her shoulders like a halter top but crossed over her bare back to end at her waist.
Before they left, the girls got the limo driver to take pictures of them. The ride to Orlando from their house took almost an hour, but the time flew by as the girls talked and laughed together. They arrived in front of the Orlando Hilton to see hundreds of girls waiting outside.
"Are they here to see us?" Liv asked as she looked out the window.
"Nah, think about it Liv. The Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync and Britany Spears are all here tonight. If this party wasn't for Amanda and her team, then we would be one of those screaming fans waiting out there." Erika explained with a smile. The limo stopped and the driver came around to the door.
As the girls climbed out, the fans started screaming, but once they realized that these girls were no one they knew, the crowd settled down a little. The Hilton was beautiful and once inside, the girls paused to look around.
"There you all are." They turned to see Donna walking down the hallway.
"Hello, Donna. These are my housemates." Amanda made the introductions and since Donna knew that they were here with the Backstreet Boys, she led them to an extravagantly decorated lounge where the guys were waiting.
"Wow! You girls look great!" The rest of the guys echoed Nick's comment as they walked over to their dates.
All five guys were wearing classic black tuxedos with black bow ties. Brian opened his jacket to show Lindsey the leopard print vest he was wearing underneath. AJ's hair was dark with red tips and Howie's hair was slicked back into a neat ponytail.
Nick left his hair parted in the middle because he knew that Amanda didn't like it when he slicked it back. Although Kevin usually wore his hair a little spiky, George noticed that he had gotten it cut, so it wasn't as long as when she saw him yesterday. The group chatted for a few minutes before they were called into the ballroom where everyone else was.
Amanda left the group to meet up with her writing partners, Phillip and Max and their dates.
After a short speech by one of the head honchos for Jive Records, Donna got up and introduced the writing team to 'N Sync, Britany Spears and the rest of the people there.
Dinner was served and when dessert was over, the BSB excused themselves and left the room. A few minutes later they reappeared on stage.
"Excuse me everyone, but the guys and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Amanda, Phillip and Max for the wonderful songs that they have brought to us. Luckily, we were able to take the songs as they were and very few alterations were needed before we recorded them." Brian smiled out at the crowd before handing the microphone to Kevin.
"You three are incredibly gifted song writers and Jive has echoed our opinions. We would like to extend this invitation to you." He turned to Howie.
"Jive would like to ask you that whenever you create new material, you come to Jive first. The execs here have realized how talented you are and want to strengthen their working relationship with you." AJ grabbed the microphone.
"So in honor of you we would like to allow you three front row seats at the first ever live performance of our first single from our new album." Nick stepped forward and looked right into Amanda's eyes.
"Here is the first song recorded by the Backstreet Boys that was written by the amazing songwriting team of Phillip Weston, Max Simpson Amanda Forrestter. It's called 'If I Could Only See'."
Amanda looked on in amazement as the quintet sang the ballad a cappella. The beauty of the song without the instrumentals that they originally wrote blew her away. By the chorus she realized that background vocals of "oohs" and "aahs" added so much to the song that instruments were not even needed.
In the back of the room, Erika grabbed Lindsey's arm as they heard the familiar melody float across the ballroom.
"It's really Amanda's song!"
Lindsey smiled back at her best friend as the song ended and the room filled with applause. The Boys came down from the stage and talked to Amanda and her partners, then separated to find their dates.
Nick stayed at Amanda's side as she talked to the other groups and many of the Jive executives. The orchestra played a few numbers as couples danced.
But as the girls had classes the next day, the party ended around ten and since the guys were taking their dates home, they left the hotel and split up.
Nick, Amanda, Brian and Lindsey climbed in the first limo and AJ, Liv, Howie and Erika climbed in the second one. George was going on the Rosie O'Donnell show the next day and her flight was leaving from Orlando early the next morning, so she was staying at Kevin's house again, and he was flying up to New York with her.
The limos pulled up in front of the girls' house and the guys walked their dates up to the door. Since the girls did have early classes the next day, the guys didn't stay for long.
Back in Orlando, Kevin parked his car in the driveway outside of the house that he shared with Brian and AJ. He got out of the car and walked around to open the door for George. Hand in hand, they walked up to the house and went inside.
Once inside, George took off her heels and sat down in the living room while Kevin locked up the house. She leaned back into the soft pillows on the couch and smiled when Kevin came into the room with two glasses of wine.
Still not talking, he handed her a glass and sat down next to her. They stared out of the picture window on the opposite wall, each lost in thought.
Not really thirsty, George set her glass down on the table and snuggled up to Kevin. Smiling, he set his glass down next to hers and placed his arm around her shoulders. The two sat there, content to just be near each other.
After some time, Kevin noticed that George's breathing had deepened and when he looked down, he realized that she was asleep.
He carefully stood up and gathered her in his arms. Without turning off the lights, he carried her upstairs and placed her on his bed.
When he left to go turn off the lights downstairs and clean up, George woke up and still half-asleep, climbed out of her dress and put on one of Kevin's t-shirts before getting back into bed.
Kevin came back upstairs to find George's dress on the chair and George asleep in his clothes. As he undressed and got ready for bed, he looked down at the beautiful blonde.
Without disturbing her, he climbed into bed next to her and set the alarm.
"Kevin?" George mumbled.
"Yes, it's me, George." She smiled and curled up next to him.
"Good. I love you."
Kevin's eyes grew wide as he heard her sleepy words. Then he smiled and looked down to find George fast asleep. He wrapped his arms around her and gently kissed the top of her head.
"I love you too."
[ chapter 17 ]
