Chapter Sixteen

There was a slight knock at the door when Nicole stirred in the bed as Kevin got up to answer it. He opened the door wearily and looked up at the light to see Maggie. "Good Morning Sunshine!"

He wrinkled up his face; "You're too peppy."

"Yeah, well. Where is she? You guys got places to be. I just saw Jessica and she wants you guys up within an hour."

With his eyes still squinting, "Yeah, yeah. Ok. What time is it?"

She looked down to her watch, "It's 9:15am. Everyone's moving slow this morning, but she wants you guys there by 10:30." Maggie saw AJ coming down the hallway, "Well the snoop is coming, you guys better get up soon." She pushed at Kevin back into the room.

AJ walked up to her, "Hey, what's going on?"

Smiling, "Nothing."

"Ooo. That's a nothing is something smile."

She playfully hit his arm, then slung it through his, "Come on, let's get some food."

Kevin walked back into the room, gently nudging at Nicole. Her eyes remained closed as she mumbled, "Hmm?"

"Get up sleepy head. We have an hour to get moving."

Sleepily she spoke, "Ok. I'm moving." She stayed in her rested position. Kevin could tell she had no plans of getting up. He sat up in the bed facing her and grabbed her arms. He began to lift her upper body to a sitting position to face him. She opened her eyes to see his deep green eyes and a playful smile. She returned the face. "Hello, hello," she said in her best English accent to impersonate Austin Powers.

He chuckled at her. "You feeling better today?"

"Mmm hmm." Her smile was as usual, not like the night before. This time it was bright and friendly.

"You certainly look better. Besides the new light in the room from daytime." He looked into her eyes as they shared a moment of frozen time. He squinted his eyes in wonder. She asked what he was looking at. "Your eyes."

"What about 'em?"

"Well, funny thing." He paused, seeing her reaction of wonder. "I swear they were blue."

"They are."

He shook his head. "No, they're green." She was ready to argue; after all they were her own eyes, when she realized something. First of all, he's looking into her eyes and they were sharing quite a moment. Then she realized another fact; he had noticed her eyes before, claiming they were once blue, now green. She smiled with a slight smirk creeping out from the corner of her mouth. "What?"

She was now awake and her orderly instincts kicked in. "Get in the shower. We've only got an hour."

He chuckled, "How much time do you need?" Stressing the last word to harass her for being a woman who takes too long.

She began pushing at him, remaining playful; "Just get outta here so I can get ready."

He threw his hands in the air, in a defensive mode and got up off the bed. "Alright, alright. I'm gone." Once he left, Nicole collapsed onto the bed. She sighed deeply wishing he could have stayed the day in her room.

AJ and Maggie sat at the restaurant just around the corner from the lobby and were talking about Nicole and Kevin. "He was still there?" AJ was in disbelief.

"Yep. I do believe that is a good sign. Am I correct?"

Brian came up behind her pulling up a chair to join them; "Yes, yes it is a good sign."

Maggie chuckled, "You don't even know what we are talking about."

"Oh, of course I do."

AJ laughed, "Then what is it Sherlock?"

"Well, Einstein. It's not hard to know how it's a good sign that Kevin spent the night with Nicole, again."

Maggie's mouth dropped. "How'd you know? And what do you mean again?"

"Oh, come on. We know he's spent the last three nights with her. We see it. We see the way Nicole looks at him. The way she looks at Kristin. Hell, we can see the way he looks at Nicole. This is a serious love triangle."

Maggie nudged at AJ, "How come you never said this?"

Defensively he threw his arms up, "Hey, they don't tell me what they see. I just see what I can." He turned to Brian, "So, you think he likes?"

Opening up a bottle of orange juice he got from a vending machine, he answered, "Oh yeah." He took a swig from the glass bottle and continued, "He likes. A lot."

"Excellent. I told you Mags. It wouldn't be so hard."

"Great we got half the battle." The two guys looked at her. "He likes her. She likes him. Now what about Kristin?" They all sat back in their chairs in thought.

Nick came along and joined in on the group. "What's up fellas." Maggie looked at him, "And lady." Both chuckled. "What's with the Jack Handy's Deep Thoughts going on here?"

AJ responded, "Thinking."

"Yeah obviously. Hence, the Deep Thoughts' reference. Whatcha all thinking about?"

Maggie answered, "Nicole."

"And Kevin," he half-asked, half-stated. Nick knew once Nicole's name was mentioned they were discussing Kevin's new sleeping habit. Maggie looked at him with a wide-eyed stare. "It's cool. I think it's great. She's only 110% better than Kristin." The group began to laugh.

"Do you guys really hate her all that much? I mean, I understand why Nicole doesn't like her. And out of loyalty to her, I have to hate Kristin too. But, seriously, is she that bad." The three men nodded in unison. She laughed, "Ok. Ok. She's that bad. I believe it."

Brian spoke, "Just wait 'til you see her in action. Especially around Kevin. Whew, it's a ride alright."

The guys made it to the stage by 10:30am and started rehearsals and sound checks. They hadn't performed a full show in almost a week and decided to spend most of the day working on it until 5pm when they could break for dinner, then get ready for wardrobe. Jessica and Nicole were busy working on the sounds, costume changes and lights; making sure everything was set, and would work out fine for the show. Maggie came along, just sitting in the audience watching. She wished Nicole could join her, but realized if Nicole didn't do this job, neither of them would be sharing this kind of trip. 5pm rolled around and all stopped, except for final details, for the day, until the performance.

Nicole and Maggie returned to the hotel to get ready for dinner with her parents. "What time are they coming?"

"Around 8."

"Why so late?"

"They both have to work, and they don't wanna rush over here just for me. How thoughtful they are."

Maggie chuckled, "It'll be nice to see them again. I haven't seen them since," she thought about how long it had been. "Since before you left for this."

"Yeah, I've seen them once or twice since I've left. Not a whole lot."

The girls lounged around for a little over an hour as Nicole told Maggie about the events with Kevin surrounding the previous evening. "This is excellent!" Maggie replied with excitement.

Nicole could tell Maggie had a little bit more energy in her comment than normal. "What's with you?"

"What?"

"'This is excellent?' First of all, what is 'this?' And second, I can't remember the last time I heard you say excellent." Maggie began to worry that Nicole would beg for information. She didn't want to tell Nicole what Brian told her about Kevin having feelings for her. She could tell Maggie wasn't going to budge on this discussion, and she didn't really know what 'this' discussion was. "Nevermind. I'm getting ready."

She went to the bathroom to take a shower when the phone rang. Maggie answered it hearing a familiar voice respond to her hello. "Hey Scott... No, she's in the shower... What about last night?... No she didn't tell me anything. What happened? She wasn't too chipper when she was here last night.... She won't tell me Scott. If she would, I wouldn't be asking you.... Yeah, I'll tell her you called.... Um, she should be out soon, but we're heading out to dinner with her parents. So, she probably won't call you back until later.... Yeah, I'll tell her. Hey, Scott. Just be good and patient with her.... Alright, bye."

Maggie was really wondering what had happened the night before. She knew she couldn't ask before they went to dinner because Nicole would be in a sour mood for her parents. She also couldn't mention Scott's phone call, because that too would be a mood spoiler. Maggie now had this secret and the secret of Kevin's feelings to hide from Nicole. She didn't like hiding anything from Nicole, but saw it in her best interests.