Chapter 18

Lance quietly groaned and wearily rubbed his hands across his face as another yet thick stack of documents was pushed across the table in his direction. This meeting had started out to be one promising to last just until noon but slowly turned into one dragging on to 6:00. Lance had been enthusiastic about signing the young man on with his management company, Freelance Enterprises, but that enthusiasm was beginning to wane as the afternoon dragged on.

“I think we need to call out for supper,” suggested one of the lawyers representing the young client.

“Yes, I can see that this isn’t going to be ending any time soon.”

Lance peeked through his fingers at the lawyer across the table who had made that remark. With another groan and a shake of his head, Lance pushed his chair back and stood up.

“Going somewhere Mr. Bass?” asked one of the other lawyers at the table. Lance glanced about and quickly counted 8 lawyers sitting at the table…only 3 of them belonged to his company. ‘Who does this kid think he is?’ Lance asked himself before answering the lawyer’s question.

“If you must know, I need to go to the bathroom and make a phone call,” he quietly stated in frustration.

“Before you leave the room, do you have a preference on what to eat?” asked one of the many secretaries seated throughout the large meeting room.

“No…I’m not hungry. Order what you want.”

“But, Mr. Bass, you didn’t eat lunch.”

Lance stopped and turned to face the middle-aged secretary, Sara Tompkins and smiled at her. Sara was always trying to take care of Lance and the other young men and women in the company. Always the mother figure…always being careful to make sure everyone was taking care of themselves.

“I’m okay Sara.” Lance watched Sara lift an eyebrow as she looked over her bifocals at him. Lance closed his eyes and silently admitted defeat to “the look.” Lance could hear stifled snickers from some of those who had also faced “the look” and had lost to it. It had been said on many occasions that Sara Tompkins’s look could put fear into any man’s heart and that no man, or woman for that matter, had been able to get away with trying anything without facing “the look”.

“Okay, if you’ll get us some of those roast beef sandwiches from Pete’s down the street, I’ll eat one.” Lance said wearily as he opened his eyes and saw Sara with a satisfied smile on her face. ‘That woman is priceless,’ thought Lance as he returned her smile.

“I think that sounds like a wonderful idea Mr. Bass,” the woman said before getting up to call in the order.

Lance chuckled and made his way out of the room and into the hallway. After a short walk, he found himself at the bathroom door. As he walked in, he looked under the stalls to make sure that he was actually alone, and then he turned the door’s lock to ensure his privacy. He leaned heavily against the door with a sigh, savoring the silence and privacy for a moment before carrying out the reason why he had entered the room.

Moments later, Lance stood at the restroom’s sinks and stared at the face looking back at him from the mirror. The dark circles under his eyes were the first things that he noticed. He hated the make up that they were forced to wear during photo shoots, filming and concerts, but he was silently wishing that Robbie, his make up artist was handy right about now. Robbie definitely needed to work his magic on these tired eyes. ‘Ugh, and those worry lines,’ he added in this mind.

Lance turned the water taps on full blast and splashed his face with the cool water in the hopes that it would somehow revive him. If he could just keep focused in the meeting maybe, it would end soon. He desperately needed to sleep but more importantly, he wanted to get to Justin’s house to see Jan and the rest of the gang. It hadn’t been that long since the last time that he had seen Jan, but her visits were always special to him and the others.

Lance’s thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the bathroom door.

“Mr. Bass?”

Lance groaned before answering.

“Yeah?” He tried not to sound too irritated, but he was afraid that he had failed.

“Sorry about interrupting Lance, but you have a phone call in Sara’s office…line 2.” Lance realized that he had failed and was quick to try to make amends. It wasn’t Ray’s fault that today was turning out to be so crummy.

“Thanks Ray. I appreciate it.”

“Sure. No problem.” Lance stood near the door and listened to Rays retreating footsteps as he quickly wiped his face and hands dry with paper towels. He dared to take one more look in the mirror before leaving the room. He shook his head at the image standing before him.

“Man, I need to get some sleep.” He quickly threw the paper towels in the trashcan, walked over to the door to unlock it and left the room.

Lance trotted down the hallway to Sara’s office to answer the phone.

“Hello?”

“Lance? What are you still doing there?” Lance could hear activity going on in the background. It sounded like Joey was getting a whipping on the Nintendo. He could hear Justin’s wild laughter and Joey’s shouts of “cut it out” and “you can’t do that, that’s cheating.”

“Hey Chris. These meetings are really dragging on. So much for short, 2 hour meetings.”

Chris could hear the weariness in Lance’s voice as he spoke.

“You’d think the kid we want to represent had been in the business for 10 years instead of 10 months with all the demands that the lawyers are making.” Lance ran a hand through his hair and sat heavily in one of the chairs in front of the secretary’s desk.

“Lawyers…as in more than one?” Chris asked in almost disbelief.

“Get this…he has 5 in there. Can you believe that? He’s got more than I had way back when.” Lance stifled a yawn after his statement and rubbed his eyes with his hand.

“Wow. The reason I was calling is that Jan was wondering if you were going to be in for supper or not.”

“Not. I know I’m going to hate hearing the answer to this question, but what is she fixing for supper.”

“Do you really want to know?” Chris asked.

“No, probably not, but go ahead and humor me.” Lance rested his head against the back of the chair as he listened to Chris list the food that Jan was cranking out.

“Well, I don’t want to sound like I’m rubbing it in…but, I’m gonna.” Lance could almost picture the wicked look on Chris’ face.

“Rub away,” was Lance’s quiet response.

“Get this…she has fixed this huge, I mean really huge roast beef man, with gravy.”

“Mmm, sounds good.”

“Yeah, and mashed potatoes, those little baby carrots with butter and brown sugar.”

“Sugar? Like you need any more?” Lance said with a chuckle.

“Hey, stop interrupting me,” Chris said in mock frustration.

“Sorry. Go ahead.”

“Alright. There’s green bean casserole, salad, home made rolls, creamed corn, and for dessert, cheese cake.” Chris droned on and on about the smells coming from the kitchen and how he, Joey and Justin had been helping Jan. Finally, several minutes later, Chris was finished with his bragging.

“Now don’t you wish you were here?” he asked, hoping for a groan and maybe a “Don’t I wish” from Lance, but Chris didn’t get a ready reply.

“Lance? Lance?” There was nothing but silence coming from the other end of the line.

“Lance. Hey Lance.” Chris was beginning to get a little worried that they had been cut off, when a different male’s voice came on the line.

“Hello?” the voice whispered.

“Who is this?” Chris asked. “I was talking to Lance Bass when we were cut off. Did something happen? Is he okay?” Chris asked with a hint of fear in his voice.

“Hey, Chris. This is Ray…Ray Drummond. Lance is okay. He just fell asleep.” Ray looked down in amusement at the young man sleeping before him. Lance was leaned back in the chair with his head resting on one of his hands while the other hand lay slack in his lap where Ray had lay it after removing the phone from his grasp.

“Are you sure he’s okay?” Chris wasn’t thoroughly convinced. He had never known Lance tired enough to fall asleep in mid conversation. That sort of thing usually happened with JC.

“Yeah. He’s just worn out. Listen, could one of you come pick him up? I don’t think he should try to drive home.”

“The meeting’s over?”

“No, but I don’t think we’re going to get much more out of him tonight. The lawyers will handle everything okay and we’ll get with him tomorrow or the next day.”

“Okay. Joey and me will be up there in about 15 minutes. Where is he?”

“Do you know where Sara’s office is?” 

”Yes…pretty sure I do.”

“Okay, see you in a few.”

“Thanks Ray.” Chris hung up the phone and ran through the house looking for Joey.

“Lance? Lance? Wake up man. It’s time to go home.” Chris had knelt down in front of his sleeping friend and was not having much luck in waking him up.

“Mmm,’ was the tired reply that he got and that was it.

“Man, I think he’s got JC beat,” said Joey with amusement, as he began to run his hand over Lance’s head in an effort to wake him.

“Hey, poofu, wake up.”

“Jan would be freaking out right about now if she was here.” Joey looked at Chris and had to stifle a laugh at his remark.

“I don’t want to be Lance when he gets home,” he answered.

“We just need to get him home. Any suggestions?” Chris continued to gently shake Lance, but wasn’t getting any where real fast.

“No, not off the top of my head.”

“Well, do you think we just need to carry him out of here?” Chris stood up and cocked his head to the side as he weighed the options that they had in getting Lance outside to the car.

“Looks like we don’t have much of a choice,” Joey stated as he looked from Chris back down to Lance.

“Do you want the honors?” asked Chris, knowing that he didn’t want to have to carry Lance out of the building.

“I think I can manage,” Joey added. Chris stepped back out of the way, as Joey stood in front of Lance. He grasped Lance under the arms and pulled the sleeping man into a standing position with Chris pushing from the back. Then, he carefully stepped under Lance’s body and shifted his sleeping form over his right shoulder in firefighters’ hold.

“Good grief, he needs to lose a little of that baby fat,” Joey groaned as he followed Chris out the door and into the hallway carrying a very limp Lance. After a few moments, they were able to find the doors leading to the back exit.

“How are you doing Joe?” asked Chris who was following behind, trying to see if Lance was showing any signs of waking, which he wasn’t.

“Pretty good. It’s not so bad once you get going.” Joey’s voice carried a hint of strain, but for the most part, he seemed to be handling the job well.

“The albino owes me big time,” he added as they walked out into the cool night air. Chris chuckled at the remark. He was sure that Joey would not let Lance live this one down…ever.

Luckily, no one saw them leave the building or head across the parking lot for the cars. Neither wanted to explain why they were carrying someone out to a car. Once they had reached Lance and Joey’s vehicles, Chris opened the door of Joey’s 4 Runner and Joey managed to lower Lance into the front seat without him waking. He quickly belted Lance into the seat and closed the door.

“You got his extra set of keys?” Joey asked Chris, referring to Lance’s spare car keys. They all carried a spare to each other’s homes and cars in case of emergencies.

“Yeah, got it right here,” Chris said, holding up the keys. “Meet you at the house.”

“Okay. I’ll follow you.”

Joey ran to the other side of his vehicle and quickly got inside. He looked over at Lance, who was still deeply asleep, his head lolled to the side. Joey and the others knew that Lance had been tired, but they just had not realized how tired he actually was. Joey felt a pang of guilt as he shook his head, then started his truck. He followed Chris out of the parking lot and the two vehicles headed for home.

Nineteen