Chapter Eighteen

I'm warning you right now, you might want to pull out the classic NKOTB music for the second part of the chapter. Their Greatest Hits CD inspired me, more than anyone could ever imagine. Enjoy.

With a laugh, she shook her head. "There's nothing wrong with a gingerbread latte. Besides, it's almost Christmas, I'm just celebrating early."

"I could tell by the over-abundance of plastic snowmen and Santa's in the store windows, you know. It's taking every bit of strength I have to not sing 'Silver Bells' while we're walking down here," Chris said with a grin, moving his free hand up to tug on the zipper of his jacket. "But really, gingerbread flavored coffee?"

Alex took a sip of the coffee that she was holding and nodded. "Around New Years, they come out with champagne lattés, too. Don't forget, I'm from the Starbucks capital of the world. I think I've tried every flavor and blend of coffee known. Sad, isn't it?"

"Seattle has the highest amount of caffeine freaks. It's a proven fact," he said, before sidestepping by a woman walking quickly. "Yeah, thanks," he said dryly, rolling his eyes. "You know, that's the reason for the last earthquake out there. Too many people that had too much caffeine, that results in the shakes. Believe me, I know the wonders of a coffee high."

Shaking her head, she looked beside her at a dress in a store window before making a face. She was sure that it had to be a negative size, and it was made for women that had the same build as some models. A non-existent body. "I don't think anyone out in Seattle can actually have a coffee high anymore. We keep Columbia busy, though. Hell, the last time I had a coffee high was...nine years ago, I think."

His eyes widened as he looked over at her. "Okay, that's scary. I know people that get a coffee high off of three cups."

"Rookies," she said with a laugh, before stopping beside a bookstore window, looking at the display. "Oh, look. It's you," she said with a smirk, pointing to the cover of a teen magazine before looking at a display of novels. Her editor had been right in saying that because they had announced her writing the Tim Croft book, all of her other novels were going to be taken out of the bargain bins and put back in the windows. And there they were, lined up neatly, the dark covers staring back at her. Both hard-cover and paperback versions.

"So tell me, Alex, are you anywhere in this store window, Miss Author?" he asked teasingly, not catching how her face paled slightly.

"Yeah, right," she said with a chuckle, hoping that it sounded genuine. "I can almost guarantee that none of my stuff is in there." Yeah, she thought, because you won't find one book with the name Alexandra Simon on it. She had told him that it was her last name, and that was what he believed...she hoped.

A grin covered his face as he looked from the window to her a few times. "Are you sure? Maybe you're Alex M. Colwell," he told her with a laugh. "You do share the same first name. Are you? I mean really, are you the writer of all those Cort Demers books?"

Rolling her eyes, she looked away. "I wish, but I take offense to the fact that you think I'm a man. Whoever he is, he's a genius. I'm still banking on the rumor that it's either Stephen King or John Grisham with a new pseudonym. And if you think I'm Colwell, you're suffering from pseudopsia."

"Ouch, that hurt," he said, sipping his coffee. "I don't know what it means, but it hurt. Wait, I stand corrected. Something to do with being fake, right?"

Laughing, she turned from the window. "False vision, or delusion of sight, actually. Believe me, Chris, you wouldn't see my books if they came up and bit you on the ass." Okay, it was a stretch. He had just seen the damned books, and even though it had been a passing comment, a joke, really...he was the first person to actually associate her with Alex M. Colwell. This day wasn't supposed to be about her, she was supposed to be getting information from him that she could use in her book.

"If you say so, but one of these days, I'm going to be able to say, 'Oh, Alex Simon. I knew her before she was famous. Took her out for coffee, actually. I know all of her deep, dark secrets.' It's not very often that I get to do that." He flashed her another smile. "Don't worry, though, I won't tell them very much."

A blush stained her cheeks as she started to walk away. "And they'll laugh you out of the room. Stop trying to feed my ego. I really don't care that I'm not on the New York Times Best Sellers list. It's not that much of an honor." But the truth was, she wanted to shout to him that, yes, she is on the list, and she's been there many times. She was sure to be put on there again. It didn't matter how good the book was. As long as it had her name on it, it would be up there, close to Number One, if not in the coveted spot. Not all of Stephen King's books were the best, but they still made it up there, every time. "What's with the look?"

"Well...I thought that the list was what writing was all about. I mean, if you're good, you go to the top. I'm not saying that you're not good, but-"

Raising a hand, she cut him off with a tiny smile. "I know what you mean. The list is just one of many ways to feed your ego. Not all of your CDs have to be at the top of a list, do they? Or your singles?"

He shook his head. "No, but it's a nice bonus. I'd be lying if I said that every time we recorded something, we didn't care, because we do. Music is different from writing. See, you can write as many books as you want, and even if you don't make the list, it's an accomplishment to even be published, and you always have a core group of fans, right?" She nodded slowly, trying to see where he was going with this. "Music is more of a popularity contest than anything. If you're not at the top, fans can forget you."

"You're established, though. And your fan base jumps higher with every new CD." She paused for a moment, before looking over at him quickly. "I was curious and surfed around on the 'net a little. You're all like Gods on there."

"And it's definitely a nice feeling," he told her with a laugh. "You must have conveniently missed the anti-NSYNC sites. There's plenty of them out there. Same as for Brooke. She had...something like four to begin with, and then when the rumors started about her and Jace, the number jumped, and it's still growing. The funny thing is, the anti-fans know more about all of us than the actual fans do. I don't understand it myself."

Her head shook as they rounded the corner, walking past another group of people. "I never even knew that people did stuff like that."

A grin covered his face as he stopped to look in the window of a music store. "Oh, yeah. Since we were talking about him before, did you know that there's even an anti-Colwell site? I'm serious. There wasn't anything special, and it was more against the whole secrecy thing that the author has going on, instead of the actual writing. Kind of interesting, though. It really makes you think if it's worth it."

She froze and gave him a funny look, although he couldn't see it. He was too engrossed in the list of new CDs that was pasted to the window. "What do you mean, it makes you think? Why wouldn't it be worth it? I'm sure that the author makes a lot of money over it."

"And a lot of publicity. It's true what they say about there being no such thing as bad publicity, but it'll come back to hurt him in awhile. Trust me, I know. Unless he comes out with an announcement soon, no one will really care. And even if he does, he'll get a bit of media coverage, and again, it just goes away. You learn a little when you've been in any form of the entertainment business after awhile. It's like...okay, bear with me, because this is the only way I can do this." He stopped for a moment to think. "Take Brooke and Jace for example. They had a lot of media coverage ever since they met. And they weren't secretive about anything, until they started dating awhile back. But when we first went away on vacation, everyone was talking about the two of them. Where are they going, do they share the same room...it didn't matter what it was about. But after the first few weeks, when no one heard anything from them, they dropped off of the radar screen, and now, no one cares where they are."

Alex nodded, but a smile was on her face at the same time. "But the media coverage will begin again, and there'll always be rumors about them."

"Not so much about the two of them as there will be about Brooke and someone else, or Jace and someone else. Depending on what tabloid you read, Brooke's left him for every one of us. And we read them all. You have to keep yourself entertained somehow."

The wheels were turning in her head as she thought about the way this conversation was going. She had been warned not to ask any questions, but this wasn't running into information that she could use. At least, not yet. "What about JC, though. Doesn't he have any rumors about him?"

Chris nodded slowly. "A lot. At the last country music awards, JC was seen at an after-party, dancing with Faith Hill. Now, she's left her husband, JC has left Brooke, and the rumor is that he's the father of Faith's latest child. But the truth is, Brooke and Faith are good friends, and they traded off their dates for a dance, that's all."

"The rumors must get out of control for them," she said slowly. It was hard to be careful about what to say, but she was doing the best she could. After all, it wasn't a question.

"They were around since the day that they met, and Brooke was still dating...well, anyway, they'll never escape them. Even if they both decided to quit the business on this very day, ten years down the road, you'll still hear about them. Maybe not as much as before, but you will hear about them."

Damn it, just say something that I can use, she thought, rolling her eyes. He didn't catch that either. "I can't imagine what that's like. I mean, to be dating someone, and then read rumors in the newspaper about you and another person. That has to be hard."

A faint smirk appeared on his face as he turned to look at her. "It doesn't bother you as much as it bothers the person that you're involved with, especially if they're not in the music industry. Brooke and Jace take the rumors, because they know what it's like. But when she was with Tim...he was the one that took the rumors a little too seriously. There wasn't a lot of trust there, at least, not on his side. She was more of a victim than the papers say," he added softly, before shaking his head and looking down at his watch. "We better head back before the sun goes down. That road to our places is hell at night. You ready?"

She nodded, filing away the little bit of information, wondering already where she could put it in the book. It was small, but it was a start. "Sure, let's go."

"Okay, now he's scary," Brooklyn whispered, covering her mouth with her hand as she stifled a giggle. Shaking her head, she motioned behind her for Joey. When he didn't notice her beckoning for him, she reached behind her and wrapped her hand around his wrist, pulling him forward. He started to protest, ad she hurriedly pushed him against the wall, covering his mouth with her hand. "If you say one word, I'll kill you," she hissed, even though there was a smile on her face.

He nodded fearfully, letting her remove her hand before lowering his voice to match her whisper. "Why are you threatening murder this early in the day?" he asked. Her smile only got bigger as she pulled him from the wall and pointed into the room, shaking with suppressed laughter. His mouth dropped open before he had to turn away. "Oh, that is so wrong."

"Don't you think I know that?" she asked, shaking her head again, curls bouncing against her face. "I've never seen anything this frightening before in my entire life. I can't believe no one else is here to witness this...this...THING."

"There aren't even words to describe how scared I am. I've never...damn, do you think he knows this by heart or something?"

She shrugged and peered into the room again. "I'm starting to think so." Her mouth dropped open and her face started to turn red when she saw what happened next. "I'm surprised he didn't pull something with THAT."

Joey moved away from the door and leaned against the wall, trying to stop himself from laughing. "Do you know if we have a video camera anywhere in here? I'd love to have this for years upon years of blackmail. That tape would be worth millions."

Raising her hands, she backed away as well. "Don't ask me, but if you sold that thing on eBay, you'd be rich. Hell, make a couple of copies and sell them." Watching him carefully, she moved across the small hallway until she was standing beside Joey, who had a better vantage point than she did. "No one is going to believe us. I can guarantee that."

"Ouch, that had to hurt," he whispered lowly before letting out a light chuckle. "We really need witnesses, because he's going to deny this for the rest of his life, you realize that. He would never admit to this. I just want to know where he got the...Brooke, cover your eyes."

"Why?" she asked, bringing a hand up immediately. "Is he stripping or something?"

He was silent for a moment before laughing to himself and grabbing her by the hand, pulling her away from the wall and up the stairs. "Believe me, that's one thing that shouldn't be brought back." He brought her into the living room before they both collapsed on the couch, laughing. "I can't believe I just saw that."

Her head fell back against the couch as she laughed harder, tears rolling down her face. "I'm going to have nightmares tonight, I know I am. I wonder how long he's been doing this?" she added with another chuckle, rubbing her eyes. "I was scared that he was going to start using the pool cue, I really was."

They laughed harder, falling against each other just as the door opened. The sound of the lock turning was completely missed by them as they began to imitate what they had seen down in the basement. A shadow loomed over them, and Brooklyn finally looked up, grinning at Chris. Her smile dimmed slightly when she saw Alex standing there as well, but she simply turned away from him. "Hi," she said with a wave, as she continued to chuckle to herself, fresh tears rolling down her face.

"You two weren't watching The Shopping Channel again, were you?" he asked with a smile, slightly confused with why they were laughing so hard to the point that she had the beginning of the hiccups.

"We saw the one thing that no one was ever supposed to see," Joey answered for her, making her break down again, laughing into his arm. "Hey, we have witnesses."

Her head came back up as she brushed her hair from her face, a grin breaking out across it. "Should we? I mean, this really should come with a warning label. Side effects include uncontrollable laughter, fright, and nightmares for the rest of your life. But the good part is that it's blackmail material now that someone else can see the atrocity downstairs."

"I see someone has put their thesaurus to work," Chris said with a nod of his head.

Brooklyn returned the gesture. "Yeah, it stops the couch from wobbling. Are you sure that you want to see this? I'm warning you, this is bad. We're talking a horrific sight, like seeing your favorite shirt turn pink and shrink when you wash it. Splitting your pants in front of thousands of people. Seeing Bill Clinton come at you with a cigar. That kind of scary."

"Done the shirt thing," Chris said, raising his hand. "That's why I let you do my laundry now."

"The pants thing is all mine. Only it was a hundred people," Joey added.

"And I am very glad to say that I HAVEN'T done the Clinton thing, and I thank God every night for that," Brooklyn said, before wiping away the new tears and standing up. "All right, let's see if he's still at it. He better be, or else Chris is going to shoot us."

He shrugged and motioned for Alex to follow as they started towards the basement. "Well, you've got me curious now. I..." He paused and tilted his head to the side as he listened to something. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Even I know what that is, and that thought is scary enough, but you're about to see it, live," the country singer said with a chuckle, starting down the stairs. "Be very quiet. We don't want to bother him. If he is still doing it, we should really hunt around for that video camera. We're going to be millionaires with this."

They all crowded around the doorway that led to the basement that had been transformed into a billiards room, and four jaws dropped immediately at what they saw. Just the sight of Justin's curly hair bouncing was bad enough, but what he was doing was even worse. Brooklyn turned away and hid her face against Chris, who was trying desperately not to burst out with laughter as he watched his friend start to dance around the room. "Oh, God," he said quietly, holding her against him. "Where the hell did he find that?"

She shook her head. "Mia's contribution to the juke box that she put down there. I'm sorry, but that is just...now do you see why we were laughing so hard?"

"Brooke," Joey said, tapping her on the shoulder. "You'd better look right now." She shook her head and laughed to herself, just imagining what was happening. "Brooklyn, I'm not kidding. You HAVE to see this."

Turning around, they all witnessed the return of Justin's parody of break dancing, making her wince in pain. "Hello, Elvis Stojko. There's another groin injury for the six o'clock news," she said softly, her eyes widening. "I didn't think anyone even remembered the...I think that...yup," she whispered with a nod, as they continued to watch. The song changed, and it took all of their strength not to start howling with laughter and fall to the floor. Both women braced themselves against the wall as Justin's voice sounded clear as day with the song.

"I get up in the morning
And I see your face girl
You're looking so good
Everything's in place"

Alex shook her head with a smile. "Isn't that..."

Turning around, Joey grinned. "Oh, yeah. Even Brooke recognized it, and she's country, through and through. Didn't we say that it was scary?"

"Uh huh," she answered, watching Justin continue his little dance.

"Don't you know I
Could never leave your side girl
Won't you stay here with me
And be my bride
Don't you know you're my kind
You're just what I like
Girl you're everything
Don't you know you're all right
The only girl
I've always needed for so long"

Brooklyn reached out and grabbed onto Joey as he started to walk in the room with a grin firmly planted on his face. "Don't you dare. I want to see the end of this. Please don't disturb him." He turned to look at her with a wink before motioning for Chris to join him. She stood in front of both of them, begging them not to go in. The men looked at each other before lifting her out of the way and putting her to the side as they practically ran into the room behind the gyrating Justin and crossed their arms, before joining in for the chorus. "Dear Lord, save us all," Brooklyn whispered.

"Oh oh oh
She's my cover girl
Oh oh oh, oh oh oh
Oh oh oh
She's my cover girl
Oh oh oh, oh oh oh"

 Justin turned around, startled. His face started to turn red as Joey and Chris started to imitate his little dance, laughing the entire time. Looking past them, he saw Brooklyn and Alex standing there, the country singer waving saucily to him with a smirk on her face. She started to laugh again as Joey grabbed a chair from against the wall and pulled it into the center of the room, standing on it as he motioned for the women to come into the room and join them.

As soon as Brooklyn got close enough, he grabbed her hand and brought her to the very edge of the chair, singing the next verse along with the CD.

"When I look through the pages
Of a magazine
Still your pretty face
Is the prettiest I've seen
Don't you know
I only wanna be with you
No other girl
Can make me feel the way you do
You're my everything"

 Jumping down from the chair, he started to waltz Brooklyn around the room to the music, as Justin shook his head and took a deep breath, trying to make the colour drain from his face. They spun by him, laughing so hard that no one could finish singing the chorus as the song ended and another CD clicked into place. Mariah Carey started to sing as the dancing couple collapsed to the ground, laughing again. "Justin...what the HELL was that?" Chris asked from a corner of the room, laughing so hard that his face had turned a deep red.

He blushed again and put down the pool cue he was holding. "Not one word. I swear, I'll..."

When he broke off, Joey leaned over and whispered something in Brooklyn's ear, getting a nod from her. As soon as she did that, he sat up and looked at his friend. "I know that boy bands are sort of our thing, but New Kids on the Block? Cover Girl, no less?"

"Yeah, seeing you do Step By Step was so much better. I just want to know how you knew the actual dance to it, because I haven't seen that in years. I swore that Jordan Knight was here for a second, but then I saw the fro the size of Texas. God, I'm going to have nightmares tonight."

Chris grinned from across the room, calling out to her over the music. "Jace might not believe this when he hears it, but I'm sure that he'll enjoy the aftermath of the nightmares."

Her eyes narrowed as she reached up and plucked the eight ball from the table, showing it to him. "See this? This could be part of your anatomy so quickly, it's not even funny. Of course, they'd have a good laugh in the emergency room when they have to pull this out of your ass."

"But Brooke, do you really want to go there?" Joey asked her as she put the eight ball back on the table.

Alex could only watch and shake her head at the sight of them. She had to admit that seeing Justin dance around and sing to a New Kids on the Block song was funny, but she had never seen three people act so childish over it in her life, Chris included. It had been funny, but she didn't see the big deal. It was over and done with, and they were still making fun of him. At first, Justin had been embarrassed, but now he was joining in with them and making fun of himself.

Yes, she had seen them act like kids before. The snowball fight that had occurred outside her house when Brooklyn had been coming over had been an example, but that was more...light-hearted adult humor. And this was...just plain childish. She had been sure that Brooklyn especially would never sink to the level of childishness that the men were, but she was standing right between Justin and Joey as they tried to teach her some dance moves. And to a Mariah Carey ballad, that was difficult.

Everyone froze when Justin's watch beeped a few times, and they all watched as he started to walk past them without a word. Brooklyn followed closely. "The cake is done. Let me have a piece," she said, as he hurried up the stairs.

"It's too hot, and the cake's been done for awhile now."

"Fresh bread, I'm there," she added with a grin.

His head came back down the stairs with a frown on his face. "No, Miss Turner, you're not there. You have to let it rest for a moment, and then you can fight me for the end of it."

"The heel, brainiac," she shot back before turning away from him with a scowl. Her eyes went around the room before they landed on Alex, who was staring right back at her. She tossed her hair from her face defiantly and sent a look in Joey's direction. "Come on, we haven't broken in the dart board yet."

The author's brown eyes went down to the pool table, which Chris was busy setting up, since Justin had left it in the middle of his game. She leaned against the side of the table as he finished racking the balls and handed her the pool cue that was resting against the table. "I'll even be nice and let you break," he said, as she walked over to the end and adjusted the cue ball.

"Are you sure? This is one of my hidden talents."

"Are you sure? This is one of my hidden talents," Brooklyn mocked quietly, with a dart in her hand as she stared at the board across from her. "She probably doesn't even know the difference between eight and nine ball. Ugh," she finished, rolling her eyes before throwing the dart towards the board.

Joey nodded slowly. "Nice shot. So, Brooke, tell me. Why do you suddenly have the same temperature as Antarctica? I'm shivering just standing near you." Her head turned slowly to look at him, a dead serious look in her eyes. He returned the gaze with a smile before shaking his head and tossing the dart he was holding. "Okay, I get it. Don't tell me that you're jealous."

Taking a deep breath, she reached for a chair and sat down, pulling another close so that she could stretch out her legs on it, before reaching down for another dart. "Funny. I'm trying to stop myself from...oh, you wouldn't understand anyway. An elephant could walk through this room and you wouldn't even notice. You're not the most astute person, Joseph, but I love you anyway."

A mischievous grin covered his face. "Oh, but an elephant has already come through here, and I'm looking at her," he said, while directing his eyes towards Brooklyn. Her mouth dropped open as she threw her dart as hard as she could manage, sticking it just outside the center. "Did I piss you off?"

"No, because I know where you're underwear is, and I know the address for eBay. So, HA," she gloated before laughing and shaking her head. "Now throw the pointy thing and get it over with." He turned around and started to aim for Chris, making her smack him on the arm. "Oh, no you don't. Because then Alexandra might want to play nurse. There are some things that man...uh...woman should not witness and that's one of them."

Turning around, he took aim and let out a deep breath. "You're a firm believer in the 'There's only one man left on Earth' joke, aren't you?"

"Tree falls on man, woman inherits the earth. Yes, I do believe in that. Besides, there's more women in the world than there are men. Of course, that only gives you rat bastards a chance to cheat on us, but JC is innocent until proven guilty, I suppose." She caught his look and grinned. "Just kidding. I wouldn't even give him a chance," she added slowly.

Joey laughed and finally threw the dart. "Well, I don't think you have to worry about that. And if you're thinking that Alexandra...okay, I'll stop right there and duck before you throw that at my head."

"Well, you might not be too astute, but you do have a few smart moments, and for that, I give you credit. I can't believe you'd even suggest that," she said. "I'm not worried about JC and his wandering eyes, because they don't wander. I'm more worried about Chris than anything."

"Look, I know that you don't really care for Alexandra, but come on, Brooke. They seem to enjoy being with each other, and a happy Chris is a Chris that not only sleeps at night, but stops bitching about being alone." He shrugged. "I've overheard a few things since I've been here, and," he continued, lowering his voice and moving closer to Brooklyn so that no one would hear them, "I know why you and Jace were fighting before. Just...leave Chris alone."

Her eyes widened at his comment, as she turned to look at him. "We under-estimate you all the time, Joey. We really do," she began slowly. "I'm sorry that we don't give you the credit that you deserve, but you don't have to worry. I've left him alone, and he can do what he wants." A laugh caught her attention, and she looked towards Alex with a smirk. "But I didn't say anything about her," she added in a whisper.

Oh, yeah. That was New Kids on the Block's, "Cover Girl." It's a classic, I swear.

Chapter Nineteen
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