Just as you and Nick start to prowl through his kitchen to get ideas for dinner, the doorbell rang. Nick went to answer it while you continued to stare hopelessly into the refrigerator. Your mind goes back and forth between two lines of thought. The first being how wonderful Nick is. The second was a bit conflicting with the first. How could someone so wonderful only have half a gallon of milk and some butter in the refrigerator? Did he ever eat at home besides cereal? You didn’t notice the small crowd that has gathered behind you.
“Hey Kate,” you heard Nick say.
“Yeah?” you say while shaking your head about the contents of the refrigerator. Maybe there’s something in the freezer?
“Turn ‘round,” he told you.
You turn around and screamed as you get a huge group hug from all five Backstreet Boys while Leighanne takes pictures and laughs. It was just like old times. Well, sort of. Nick was now the biggest Backstreet Boy, instead of the littlest. There were individual hugs and a few kisses on the cheek and then a good bit of conversation. You and Kevin disappear to the grocery store after discussing the lack of food in Nick’s house. You and Kevin hadn’t cooked together in years, but it was as easy now as it had been years ago. Kevin had a flair for the extravagant and you liked simpler foods. You compromised. Kevin made the main dish and you prepared all the other parts of the meal. AJ and Howie were appointed to dish duty after dinner.
Dinner was wonderful. You and Leighanne teamed up and ragged on the boys so much. You had really missed just teasing them and picking on them. Being away from work was so good. Being with your friends was even better.
Leighanne did find the time to ask you what was going on between you and Nick. When you gave her a blank look, she just laughed. Nick looked over at the two of you then and smiled at you. “No, nothing’s going on with you two. Nick just can’t let you away from him for more than two seconds.” You laughed then.
“I think it’s sweet how he acts like he really missed me,” you said defending his actions. You look back over at him as he’s still watching you.
“Yeah. Sweet. He’s been crazy for you since before I met Brian. I can’t believe you don’t see it.”
“Nick and I are just friends. Good friends.” Leighanne laughed. “Okay, really good, close friends?”
“Friends with privileges?” she teased.
You couldn’t help but look back at Nick again. He was smiling at Brian and tugging at his T-shirt. He noticed you looking at him again and grinned. He started heading your way. “Well, right now my best privilege is that he’s going to go with me tomorrow to get a tattoo. He designed one for me after he found out I wanted one.” She smiled at you as Nick walked up and crouched down in front of your chair.
“So. I noticed you looking at me a couple of times. Did you miss me?” he asked and then tortured you with the smirk.
“I just can’t get over how different you are. You’re just too good to be true,” you played along.
“And I’m all yours, Baby. You know you want me.” He leaned closer to you and you worked hard to not kiss him just on impulse. Instead you laugh his comment off and push his shoulder so that he loses his balance and ends up sitting on the floor. This was gonna be a great vacation.