“Do you realize that you totally skipped your own Back Rub Party?”
“It wasn’t actually a Back Rub party. All the other guys were going…both groups. It’ll be fine.”
“Maybe you should at least text them and let them know where you are?”
“Good idea…” he pulled out his phone and started laughing. At her questioning look, he explained. “There’s all kinds of speculation on twitter about where I am tonight. Everything from me having had a falling out with the group to having been rushed to the hospital.”
“I’ve gotta see this.” She got up and brought her phone over to the bed. They sat there reading tweets back and forth for over an hour. Donnie sharing speculation on why he missed the party; and Marina sharing responses about Donnie tweeting that he blew her a kiss.
“I really need to tweet something so they will chill out a bit.”
“Yeah, because every time you tweet anything my twitter feed explodes with activity. But sure…” she laughed.
“Okay. ‘Hey BH’s, sorry I didn’t make it to the party tonight. Everything’s good. Got distracted talking to a pretty girl. If I’m a good boy, maybe she’ll let me talk to her again”

“I can’t resist.” She pulled up her twitter and found the tweet to her from Donnie claiming that he really did blow her a kiss at the concert. “Reply to @DonnieWahlberg: U say U blew me a kiss, but now you say that you’re off ‘talking to a pretty girl’ #twotimer lol”
“You are just asking for trouble.” He started typing. “Well @marinagirlie, you didn’t kiss me back, so I figured you weren’t interested 😉 #ilovekisses”
She just started laughing. Soon he was laughing too. He loved the way she laughed. He didn’t ever want to leave her. But he knew that he needed to get out of her room before he lost his battle with himself to not try to seduce her again. “Marina, I need to get out of here and leave you alone. I know you’re exhausted.” She couldn’t deny it, but she still hated for him to leave.
“What if we went someplace else? Someplace without a bed? And maybe I could get dressed?”
“That’s a great idea. Where would we go at this hour?”
“Do you trust me to not get you mobbed?”
“Based on what I’ve seen of how much you avoid crowds as much as possible, I think I’m pretty safe.”
“Ok, let me get dressed and we can get a cab.”
A little while later, they were pulling up to Royce Hall at UCLA.
He had been there before, but not late at night. Security stopped them, but Marina showed him some sort of pass and he waved them on. Even said to let him know if they needed any help.
“I got my Master’s degree here and this was always my favorite place. But only when it was empty. I used to come sit and play for hours just to forget the rest of the world.”
“You play? What do you play?” he asked. He never would have seen her doing music.
“Everything.”
“What does that mean?”
She walked him down to the stage and then back through to the room they stored instruments in for between performances. “Pick something, anything. Then ask me to play it.”
He must have handed her 15 different instruments and she played them all easily. “That’s amazing. How did you learn?”
“My father’s side of the family is pretty much musically inclined I guess. Music just always made sense to me. Most of it, I figured out on my own. I think Mom did insist on me taking piano lessons though. That lasted for 2 lessons.” She laughed. “I was 6 and Mom said she walked in and I was explaining how something should be played to the teacher…”

“What’s your favorite instrument?” He was totally fascinated. This was a whole other side to Marina and it only made him like her more.
She looked around the room. “I love to play guitar. But they don‘t have the one I like in here. Let‘s go see if it‘s upstairs.” They found the room she wanted and there were a group of guitars sitting in a circle. She held up her hands. “My hands are really small. Piano’s are hard for me to cover all the keys with these little fingers. I only play Taylor guitars and pretty much just their Baby Taylor because it’s smaller and it fits me better.” She picked up the guitar and started to play something. He didn’t recognize it, but it was beautiful.
“What song was that? It was great.”
“It’s mine. I don’t have a title for it. But it’s Dad’s favorite, so he calls it ‘Dad’s Song’ when he wants to hear it. And this,” she said while holding up the guitar “was always my favorite guitar. They even left my initials on it.” She smiled and put it back on the stand.
“You’re an amazing nurse. You play every instrument on the planet. You’re smart. You’re totally hot. Is there anything you can’t do?” he asked seriously.
She laughed. “Yes,. I don’t sing. Not even in the shower.”
“Everyone sings in the shower,” he argued.
“Not me. Not if there’s a remote chance of anyone ever hearing me.”
He started walking around the room some more. One picture caught his eye. It was Marina in the picture. “Is this you?”

She stood up and came over to look. “I can’t believe they still have that up. We had just finished with remodeling the 3rd floor and they had us pose for a picture. After a while, they decided to call it a night and they got a cab back to the hotel. He walked her back to her room again.
“You know, you’re really not who I thought you were when I first met you,” he started saying. “I met you, I imagined how you would be and wanted to get to know you a little better. But the reality of who you are…you’re kind of an enigma or something. The more I find out, the more I like. The more I find out, the more I want to find out.”
“I kept expecting you to be an asshole.” He laughed. “What? You’re always so friendly and you have such a good outlook on things. I don’t know anyone like that, so I figured that it’s must be an act. Do you ever have bad days, Donnie?”
He was holding her hands and looking at her with that classic Donnie Wahlberg smile. “Of course I do. But our fans have enough trouble in their lives. I’m not gonna throw mine out there for them to obsess over. And I have the guys to help me. And I have a really big family. They are always there for me.” He pulled her to him for a quick kiss. “I’d like to count on having you in my life too.” He could see she was getting a little nervous. “I’m not talking about anything crazy here. But we’re more than friends Marina. You know we are.” She looked down. “If we weren’t, you wouldn’t have kissed me.” He had her there and he knew it. “I know it’s gonna sound silly when I say it, but I’m gonna say it anyway. Be my girlfriend. Just for a while. Let’s find out more about each other and see what happens. Okay?”

She looked at him for a minute. She really looked at him, from his eyes down to his feet. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She smiled when she realized how much she really liked the cologne he was wearing. “Okay. I’ll try this with you.” She opened her eyes when he grabbed her in a huge hug and picked her up. He put her down and started kissing her again. She responded to him completely. She needed him and hadn’t realized just how much she had missed being wanted like this. And he just kept kissing her. After a while, he slowed down. Part of him knew she had to be exhausted. It was nearly 6am. “You are really good at this whole kissing thing,” she said finally. She still had her eyes closed and was leaning here forehead against his forehead. Their lips were barely apart.
“I’m really good at a lot of things Marina. One day you’re gonna find out about all of them.” He kissed her again. “But not today.”
“No, not today.” She smiled and opened her eyes to find him staring at her. “Goodnight Donnie.”
“Goodnight Marina.” One more kiss. “Dream of me and all the things I want to do to you.”
She laughed. “I’ll see what I can do.” He opened the door to her room and she went inside. He was definitely making progress.