“Roller coaster!” Jade yells pulling Brian over to the queue.
“It’s…uh…HIGH,” Brian comments with a gulp and she giggles.
“Honey, if you can fly above your audience every night on tour you can deal with a TINY roller coaster ride,” she teases wrapping her arms around him.
“Tiny wouldn’t be my word of choice for THAT Jady,” he says.
“Don’t look then,” she tells him, pulling down his cap.
The couple had sneaked past Brian’s security team to go to Astrodome and their only concession to his fame has been a dark blue baseball cap. So far it has worked pretty well. Nobody really expects to see a Backstreet Boy wandering around a theme park with his wife so they never look twice at him.
“Holy shit,” Brian mutters as they reach the front of the queue and are strapped into their seats. The track in front of them twists and suddenly drops away. Brian reaches for Jade’s hand. “Is it too late to get off?”
“Yup,” she giggles.
“Great.”
“Just relax and enjoy the ride,” she says and then yelps as the ride starts and Brian squeezes her hand hard. “OW!”
“SorrEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEErgh!!!”
“I really had a great time,” Brian tells his wife as they munch on a couple of hot dogs outside a restaurant. They have been at the park for a couple of hours and are getting ready to head back to the hotel.
“Me too,” she smiles. “Whose great idea was it anyway?”
“Uh, that would be this beautiful, incredibly sexy woman,” Brian tells her with a grin.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. I can’t THINK of her name…” he leans forward and kisses her.
“Is it really you?” a girl’s voice breaks into the kiss and they pull apart to see a young girl and her mom standing by them.
“Depends who you think I am,” Brian grins.
“You are!” she says with a big smile before tugging on her mom’s shirt. “See? I TOLD you it was him.”
“You did,” her mom agrees. “But let’s not hassle the poor guy Katie.”
“Can I just get his autograph?” begs Katie and her mom looks at Brian.
“Sure you can,” Brian says. “You got any paper?”
“Uh…” Katie looks at her mom who fishes out some paper from her bag. “Thanks mom!”
“Ok, your name’s Katie right?” Brian asks and she nods. “Okies.” He signs the paper for her.
“Why didn’t we bring our camera?” whines Katie. “I coulda got a picture!”
“We didn’t know a Backstreet Boy was gonna be here,” says her mom with a laugh.
“Uh, you could ask the official snapper guy to take a picture,” suggests Jade, spotting a photographer walking around.
“Oh can we mom?!”
“If Brian doesn’t mind.”
“It’s cool,” Brian smiles and the group walk over to the photographer.
“Could you take a picture of these two for me?” asks Katie’s mom.
“Sure!” the photographer grins. “Just stand there.”
“Come here honey,” Brian says and Katie runs over to stand by him. He puts an arm around her and they both smile for the camera. “There you go.”
“Thank you Brian,” she giggles. “Nick WAS my favourite Boy but now it’s you.”
“Wow, you got taste,” Brian chuckles. “I’ll tell Nick that.”
Katie giggles. “And I’m so happy you got better again. I was so scared when the others went on MTV without you.”
“Thank you,” Brian smiles. “I’m 100% again.”
“Great!” she giggles. “And you’re so much prettier in person,” she tells Jade. “And I don’t agree with that stuff people say about you on the Internet. I think you’re real nice and smart.”
“Thank you,” Jade smiles.
“C’mon Katie, we gotta go. Nice to meet you two.”
“You too,” Brian smiles. “Bye Katie.”
“Bye Brian,” she hugs him again and follows her mom.
“We should go too,” Jade suggests and they head towards the car park.
“What did she mean? About the Internet thing,” Brian asks.
“Oh, it wasn’t important,” Jade says.
“No, I wanna know,” Brian insists. “Are people sayin’ things about you?”
“Uh, kinda,” she says.
“Like what?”
Jade sighs. “Like I’m only with you for the money, I’m real horrible to the fans and I’m responsible for you gettin’ ill… Stuff like that.”
“Where do they say this crap?” Brian asks angrily.
“Just on various websites and message boards. There are THOUSANDS of Backstreet Girlfriends And Wives clubs on the Internet,” she glances at him and sees that he’s frowning. She stops walking and reaches for his hands. “It’s no big deal honey. I don’t exactly read the stuff.”
“But I can’t believe they have those things!” he says. “I thought they’d be happy for us instead of dissin’ the people we love.”
“They’re just jealous,” Jade tells him. “I mean, I’d be jealous of me too. I have YOU.” She kisses him deeply and he smiles.
“I love you baby.”
“And I get to hear you say those words,” she giggles and they start to walk again. “I mean, every other girl just hears you sing them.”
“I’m always singing them to you though,” he tells her and wraps his arm around her.
“Anyways there are LOTS of support sites for us. Me and Ali found an entire website devoted to US!” Jade tells her husband with wide eyes and he laughs. “I mean, they know our entire life stories and have pictures an’ all. AND they beat up on anybody who disses us! It’s so cool.”
“Fame at last huh?” Brian chuckles and kisses her head softly. “Let’s go back to our room.”
“Gee, I should let them know you only want me for one thing,” Jade pretends to sulk.
“Yeah – your money,” he jokes.
“No honey, didn’t you hear? That’s why I’M with YOU.”
“Oh of course, sorry,” he laughs. “Then you’re right, I’m only with ya for ya body.”
The phone wakes me up and I stretch slowly before reaching for it. Brian’s side of the bed is empty. He had had to go to a radio interview at 9am. We had a wonderful day yesterday. After Astrodome, we returned to the hotel for a long jacuzzi and then spent the night making love and talking and making love again. It had been just perfect. I’m really looking forward to when the tour ends in two weeks and we can do that all the time. Brian has two months free before the guys go into the studio to record their next album. Sure he has a few group commitments dotted around but most of the time is going to be just for us. I smile at the thought and greet the person calling. It’s Ali.
“Hey Ali!” I smile. “How are you? Mornin’ sickness yet? What’d Nick say? I bet he was ridiculously excited about it all,” I ask everything at once and she sighs.
“I didn’t tell him Jade.”
“Why not?” I sit up. “You said you were gonna…”
“I know. I tried to but then he told me he didn’t want a baby.”
“He did?”
“Yeah. I figured I’d ease into it by asking him how he felt about babies and it was a definite no.”
“But he’d see it differently if he knew you’re pregnant,” I tell her.
“I don’t know Jade. I just know that I can’t tell him,” she says sadly. “I know he’d stay with me cos that’s how he is. But I can’t spend the rest of my life wondering if Nick only stayed with me cos of our baby.”
“Ali, he loves you,” I say. “He really does.”
“Maybe. I just don’t know.”
“You gotta tell him soon anyway Ali,” I reason with her. “It’s not exactly something you can hide.”
“I know,” she mutters. “I’ll tell him today.”
“Ok. You want me to be with you?”
“Thanks but I’ll be ok,” she sighs. “I’ll catch ya later,” she hangs up and I lie back down in the bed.
I really hope Ali can find the courage to tell Nick about the baby. I just know he will be so happy about it.