Chapter 8
"Hmm, its only 11:30, it can't be A.J yet"
Rachel opened the door to find two
familiar
faces with huge grins on their lips.
"OH MY GOD!!!" she yelled. Her sister
and
cousin were both standing in the hall way with big suitcases."What are you guys
doing
here?" she asked, ecstatically.
"Well since you never called me back I
figured I better
just hop on a plane and get over here in person" Lauren said with a laugh. "And
I also
decided to bring Katie along since I didn't want to come alone"
Rachel's
cousin
smiled, dropped her suitcase and put her arms out for a hug. Although they had
talked on
the phone almost every week, Katie hadn't seen Rachel in months, since she lived
in
North-western Canada.
"Ohhhh, its so good to see you Kates. Its been so
long"
"
I know, I know. But I'm here now, in Orlando!!!!"
"Well come on in" Rachel
cried,
opening the door a little wider so they could fit through the door while still
carrying their
stuff.
After they had set their things down, and had hugged once more, she
brought
them into the kitchen.
"Do you want something to eat?"
"Ummm I'm fine. You
Lauren?"
"No thanks we had something on the plane"
"Well I'm going to, I'm
starving" Rachel said, while popping two pieces of bread into the
toaster.
"So when
did you guys get in"
"Well we got in at about 10, but weren't out of the
airport until
11. We've been traveling since midnight though. I told Katie I would meet her at
Niagara
Falls, so she didn't have to drive all the way down to Cleveland. And then we
got on the
plane earlier this morning."
"I didn't get off work until 6, so I couldn't
meet her until
12."
"And that's why I needed you to call me back before 9 so I could tell ya
we were
coming, but ya didn't"
"Yeah, I'm really sorry, but I was going to call
today, I
swear."
"So who are the roses from?" Katie asked, noticing the flowers on the
counter.
"Noone special"
Lauren's face lit up as if she had remembered
something.
"Didn't you say you had a guy over yesterday night when I
called"
Rachel shoved a piece of toast in her mouth to avoid the question.
She wasn't
prepared to tell them about AJ yet, not that she thought for one second they
would
believe her.
"You did say that. So what's his name. God you've only been here
three
days and your already getting roses sent to you"
"Well he's coming back over
at 2, so
you'll have the chance to ask him that yourself."
Rachel wasn't going to give
too
much away yet.
"So tell me, R, what's the new job like?"
"I think you'd
better sit
down when I tell you" she said, with a serious look on her face.
Rachel
repeated
basically everything Nina had said back in the office, but with much more
enthusiasm.
Katie and Lauren sat in their chairs with dumbfounded looks on
their
faces.They began laughing really hard, before noticing that Rachel wasn't
laughing with
them.
"Oh my god, your serious" Katie said, wiping the tears that had formed
from
her eyes.
They went crazy asking all these questions about what the guys were
like
and how she felt about working with them, so they talked about work for another
half
hour or so.
"So how long are you guys planning on staying for?"
"Well
Katie,
you have to go back sometime next week for work, and I can stay as long as I'm
welcome."
Lauren owned a very successful interior decorating business and
mainly
worked at home, only going into the office when it was an emergency. So she
could
basically bring work with her anywhere.
"You know I should decorate your
apartment for you while I'm here" she said, in a half asking half telling sort
of
tone.
"No thanks, I like my apartment just the way it is"
"So can we see
the rest
of it?" Katie asked inquisitively.
"Sure!"
Rachel showed them the
apartment top
to bottom, which took about two hours since Lauren took 20 minutes in each room
explaining what colors would really go with the lighting.
"You know, this
place will
be great for your birthday party on Friday"
"Katie!!" Lauren shouted
"Oh
whoops"
"What party?" Rachel asked with a grin on her face.
"Well the one
that
was the reason we came up here to have as a surprise, but your cousin just
slipped the
surprise."
"You guys already threw me a party though, back in
Cleveland"
"Yeah,
but Katie couldn't be there, and that was a just a small close friends kind of
thing, so we
wanted to throw you one with lots of people, a d.j, a free bar, you know the
whole
thing."
"And you expect everything to fit in here?"
"This place is huge
honey, I
don't think you can even call it an apartment, its more like a town house. So
what do you
think?"
"Well I don't know anyone here, so how can there be lots of people
coming?"
"Excuse me? Did I hear you say you didn't know anyone here? Your
working for one of the biggest musical groups in the world, and you said you
didn't know
anyone" Lauren cried, tossing her chestnut hair behind her shoulders
dramatically.
"If
your actually thinking that I'm going to invite the Backstreet Boys over to my
house for a
birthday party, when I'm they're cosmetologist, no way!"
"Well if you don't
we will.
They're going to come whether you like it or not"
Just then the doorbell
rang. Rachel
knew who it would be but she dreaded the reaction when introducing him to her
sister
and cousin.
When she opened the door, A.J was standing with his hands in his
big
baggy khakis looking at the ground. He immediately looked up and smiled.
"Hello beautiful" he said and kissed her on the cheek. He had worried all
morning that
she had thought him insensetive since he had left first thing that
day.
Rachel got all
flustered again, like she had when she first shook his hand in the office, and
pulled
away.
"Don't get all shy on me now" he said.
"Sorry." She stood there for
a
minute, until she heard him start to laugh.
"What?"
"Well, can I come in,
or are
you coming out here?"
She took up his second suggestion, and closed the door.
He
looked a little surprised she had actually come out into the hall.
"Umm, I
didn't know
this was going to happen, but my sister and cousin flew in today to visit me.
They'll be
here for a week or so"
"So what are you waiting for, introduce me."
"Are you sure?"
"Rachel, member what I said? I'm not a Backstreet Boy right
now.
I'm A.J. So introduce me to them like you would any other guy.
ok?"
"Alright"
Rachel opened the door back up and walked into the kitchen
while AJ tagged along behind.
"Uhh guys I want you to meet A.J" she said,
tensing
up a little.
The two girls remained in there seats, taking in slowly who they
were
looking at.
Lauren being the oldest out of all of us, finally did the mature
thing and
stood up.
"Hi A.J, I'm Lauren, Rachel's older sister" she said
calmly.
Seeing her
put her hand forth to shake AJ's made Rachel realize another reason why she'd
been
hesitant of introducing them. Lauren was beautiful to say the least. She had
chestnut hair,
with red highlights, that was shoulder length. Her eyes were bright green and
she had a
natural tan, that never faded. On top of owning her own business, amazing for a
22 yr.
old, she did modeling for Versaci on the side. Europe was a common place to
visit for
her. Not that Rachel was jealous, but sometimes she thought twice about
introducing her
to guys she was interested in.
"And this is my cousin Katie"
Katie had
more
natural beauty. She was average height with blond hair and dark brown eyes, and
had the
best fashion sense out of our whole family. She was a couple of months older
than me,
and loved being 21. She hardly ever wore makeup simply because it squandered her
beauty rather than improved it. The women in the family had always been jealous
of how
Katie could get out of bed, run a comb through her golden hair, and look amazing
with
out even taking a glance in the mirror.
After they were introduced Rachel
suggested
they sat down in the living room rather than at the small kitchen table for
two.
As
everyone talked AJ seemed very comfortable, cracking jokes and being his normal
crazy
self, which she was glad about.
"So AJ, I've always wondered if you guys
like
wearing all that foundation and stuff on your faces during
appearances?"
"Well it
ain't fun, but its necessary I guess. Its only foundation and maybe powder, like
you
mentioned, but its no big deal. You're only wearing it during performances and
stuff. So
you get used to it."
Lauren smiled at his answer to her question, but raised
her
eyebrows and remembered her little plan
"Well we're going to head out to go
see
some stores around here. We have some decorations to buy for that party of
yours,
Rach"
Rachel cringed knowing Lauren had said that purposely so A.J would ask,
which he did promptly.
"Party? Did I hear someone say party?"
"Well the whole reason we came up
here, is
to throw Rachel a birthday party for her 21st. But she claims she doesn't know
anyone
here to invite yet. You wouldn't possibly have met any of her friends would you
AJ?"
"Your looking at one. Rachel, I'm insulted you didn't tell em we were
friends.
And I'll invite some people, don't worry about it," he said with a huge
smile.
"Great.
Well see ya Rach. Nice meeting you A.J" Katie called back as she closed the
door.
Rachel gave a big sigh of relief as soon as the door
shut
"Sometimes, it
would be nice to have them visit individually"
"So tell me again why you
didn't say
we were friends?"
" I'm your management's employee, A.J, the makeup person on
your tour. I've known you and the other guys for like two days. I would have
felt stupid
asking you and the others to come"
"Well don't. The guys are always up for a
party.
So is it alright if we come?"
"Yeah, sure, but I'd rather you ask them then
me"
"No problem"
They sat there for a minute not knowing what to say next.
Rachel glanced back into the kitchen, and seeing the roses, remembered they
still needed
to be put in water.
"Oh, those roses were so sweet of you to give to me.
They're
beautiful."
"Just like you."
She caught herself blushing and got up to
attend to
the flowers.
"Look" he said following her, "I just want to make sure that
last night is
cool with you. That you think you did the right thing"
"Of course if I
didn't, I
wouldn't have let what happen, happen. But I'm just a little surprised all of
this happened
so fast, you know?" AJ twisted the ring on his middle finger, something he
always did
when he was impatient or worried.
"Truthfully, I don't know what came over
me, I
mean I normally wait, until I love the person, or at least trust her, but there
something
about you, that just makes me feel safe, and all those feelings just came
naturally when
I'm with you. And your just so irresistible"
"Even after I was so rude to
you, with the
car and everything"
"Let's just put all that behind us. But yes, even after
you tore me
down in the car"
Rachel put the last rose into the vase and smiled at how he
had
chosen yellow ones, his favorite color.
He came behind her, and slid his arms
around
her stomach.
"I gotta go again. We have dance rehearsal in an hour, and I
wanna get
there early. I gotta go see my grandparents tomorrow too, so I don't think I'll
be able to
see you until your party, since we don't have anything public until
Monday."
"Ok.
Well have fun today. I guess I, or one of the other two will call you to tell
you when to
come on Friday, ok?"
"Don't forget. I wanna be at this party"
"I
won't"
"Bye."
He grabbed his hat and sunglasses off the counter and blew a kiss as he left the
kitchen.
As she heard him close the door, Rachel took another long look at the little
yellow roses
in front of her.
Chapter 9
INDEX