Howie and Nick were playing one on one at a local park when Howie’s pager went off. Annoyed, he looked down to see what the person that paged him wanted. When he saw the short message, “Congrats to asshole,” and looked at the number, he knew it was Melina that beeped him.
After the game, Howie went home (they had a month off) and called her number, which he’d memorized long ago. When she answered the phone, he was speechless, unable to think of what he should say. “Hello?”
“Hey, Melina…it’s Howie.”
She froze. Damn! Why did he hafta call me back? “Why are you calling?”
“Well, I got your page, and I really missed talking to you. I haven’t heard from you since you left, and I thought I’d give you a call.”
“Oh…well, I guess I missed you too, D.”
He knew she was really uncomfortable talking to him, and he felt awkward, too. “Well, as much as I missed talking to you, there’s someone I know that misses you even more.”
She knew what he was hinting at but beat him to the punch line. “D, I can’t talk to him. God, he probably hates me for leaving without saying goodbye, but I’m sure he can deal with it, seeing as how he has Rachel.”
“Who’s Rachel?”
“His girlfriend he never told me about in O-Town.”
“What girlfriend? Hold on a sec, this doesn’t make sense; who told you he had a girlfriend here?”
“Brian the bastard.”
Just then, it hit Howie as to why she left and what Brian was up to. Out loud, he started talking to himself; “That son of a BITCH! How could he do it? How could he hurt AJ like that?”
She heard everything he said. “Whoa, D! What are you talking about?”
Her voice shook him out of his thoughts. “Did Brian tell you about this Rachel girl?”
She felt her heart break as the memory came back. “Yeah, he called her and made me talk to her. I asked her flat out about Alex, and she just said yes.”
“Do you have any clue what he’s been saying about why you left?”
“No…what has he been saying?”
“That Justin called you and asked you back out, and that you accepted and practically floated on air as you left. I wouldn’t believe him for three reasons: one, because I know how much hell that bastard put you through; two, because AJ means more to you than that; and three, because you were crying when you left.”
Suddenly, reality set in on what Brian did to her. That bastard! He knew how much I loved Alex. He had the nerve to hurt me like that, even when he knew what Justin put me through?!? Without thinking, she felt the tears run down her face. In a quiet, shaky voice, she managed to say, “Does Alex know about what you just told me?”
“No, he doesn’t know yet.”
She breathed a sigh of relief, then felt herself tense up again. She knew she had to face him one day, but she was far from ready for the inevitable confrontation. Her heart was still in too much agony. “I can’t go back now.”
“Why not?”
“I’m not ready to face him yet.” They kept talking for about another hour about how much her and AJ loved each other and how they felt after she left. Finally, she had to get off the phone because she had an early flight back to the states the next morning and Howie called her late because she was in England with the WWF for two days.
The next morning, Howie put in a phone call to Brian. He thought they needed to have a little chat, and Brian was going to have some serious explaining to do. However, Brian managed to talk Howie into promising that he wouldn’t tell AJ about Brian’s cruel lies.