“Hi Ma. It’s me. How are you?” “Oh, Kelly. Hi honey. Let me get your father on the other line. He was just about to head off to work but he can talk for a couple of minutes. Dan, pick up the phone.” Kelly heard her father’s voice come on another line. “Hey baby. How have you been doing? It’s been a week since we’ve heard from you.” Kelly smiled and answered, “Oh, man. Lots of stuff. Tuesday night when you guys left a message, there was also a message from Madison. Well, it ended up that she was in town for a show, so I invited her to stay with me. She’ll be here two weeks or so. It’s great having another person in the house. It gets kind of lonely with Riley and me.” Her mom spoke up, “Honey, I thought you were going to try to get out more. You should you know. It’s not good for you, the way you live. I know you’re still not eating right and you run every morning still don’t you? You don’t go to those classes that we paid for do you?” Kelly was quiet, “No, I don’t go Ma. I’m trying to get past it though. Anyways, last night Madison got us passes for a big fancy dance club. We got all dressed up and went out. It was lots of fun, but I ran into some guy and got knocked out. I don’t remember much after that. I have a big bump on my head to show for it though. I’ll ask Madison about it when she gets up, and that won’t be for a while. It’s been snowing here non-stop. Like a blizzard. Oh, yesterday, at the hospital I worked on a famous celebrity…” Her father interrupted her. “I’m sorry kid. I got to head off to work. I’m flying to Japan, but I’ll be back in a week. You call back then, you hear. I have to give you all the ticket information for your flight here. I’ll send your tickets. We didn’t decorate the house with the Christmas decorations. We wanted you here. Love you.” “Bye Dad. Have fun. Talk to you next week.” Kelly heard the phone click. Her mom spoke up, “Keep going hon. About the hospital. Bye dear, you call when you get there. Sorry. Keep going.” “Oh yeah. Have you ever heard of the Backstreet Boys? Probably not, but I guess they were at rehearsals here and one of them fell off a stage. Well, he was all banged up and it took a lot of stitches to put him back together. They’re performing here next Monday and Tuesday. But that’s not all of it. Ma, this guy was so beautiful. He was tall and handsome. I couldn’t stop looking at him. We got to talking and I asked him where is accent was from and guess what he said?” Kelly couldn’t believe when her mother started laughing. “What? Why are you laughing?” Her mother had controlled her laugh down to sniffels. “Honey. I know where he’s from and who he is. Does Kevin Richardson ring a bell?” “How did you know Ma? I didn’t know that you listened to that kind of music.” “I don’t honey, but they’re celebrities here. Everyone knows them. Kevin and Brian were raised right here in town. Your father and I know Ann Richardson quite well. We knew both of his parent’s, but his father died a few years ago. We’ve been good friends ever since. His mother Ann and I have gotten very close over the last year. She goes to our church. I see her and some of his family every Sunday. In fact this summer your father and I met Kevin. He wouldn’t remember us though.” Kelly’s mouth dropped. “You’re lying. That’s not possible.” “Sure it is. You don’t think I’m lying do you?” “Oh no no. I just never thought that I would see him again, and let alone my mother knowing this beautiful guy before I did. Ma, I really am attracted to him, but I’ll never see him again. He didn’t even act interested when I was stitching him up. In fact he ran away from me before he left.” Kelly got quiet. “Honey, are you still there? What’s wrong?” Kelly started crying a little. “Ma, I’m so lonely. I felt so comfortable around Kevin. He gave me the hope that there were still good guys out there. He was so polite and gorgeous. I felt beautiful around him, like I finally wasn’t just some play toy.” Kelly’s mom calmed her daughter down. “It’s okay baby. Life’s given you some hard shots, but you’re strong. Maybe Kevin is life’s present back to you. How do you know that you’ll never see him again? Fate has things in store for you. Enough chit chat. How are things, you know, otherwise?” “To tell you the truth. Pretty rotten. I was running yesterday morning and some jerk followed me and tried to scare the crap out of me. Sorry about the language. But he did scare me. I went a different way this morning and everything wentfine. But that’s not the funny thing. Everything that has gone wrong somehow seems to have something to do with Austin. Yesterday at work I guess I was spaced out and Austin asked what was wrong. I didn’t answer and then he asked if my run went bad. He never asks how my run is. I asked why he asked and he got all defensive. And then later yesterday, I had discharged Kevin from the hospital but I saw him standing in the middle of the hall and I asked what was wrong and he said that some guy had gotten in his faced and yelled that if he ever touched me the guy would beat the crap out of him. Kevin said that he had ran off into the trauma room. Kevin was all nervous to talk to me and then he ran out the doors. Right after he left, Austin came out of the trauma room that Kevin had just told me the guy who had yelled at him had walked into. Austin was the one who had yelled at Kevin Ma. I know it was him. I don’t know what’s up with him lately. The last couple of months since I got promoted he’s been all strange.” Kelly’s mom listened to her daughter speak. She had never liked Austin and this information had confirmed it even more. Austin was not good for Kelly. “Dear,” her mother said carefully, “You know I’ve had my reservations about Austin. I think that maybe you should distance yourself away from him for a while. Obviously something is up with him. Okay? Well, it’s getting late and I know you have to head off to work. You and Madison and Riley stay safe, but let her take you out. Party, and have fun. Live a little. She’ll be good for you. Call next week. I can’t wait to see you for Christmas.” “Me too Ma. Love you lots. Here’s a big kiss.” Kelly kissed the phone and she heard her mom kiss back. “Bye dear.” They hung up. Mrs. Riley decided then and there that she was going to call up Ann Richardson later in the day and play a little Cupid.
Kelly smiled as she thought of how the kissing thing started. It was a tradition that her mom had started when Kelly went to summer camp every year. Her family had tons of traditions, and Kelly loved it. Kelly unwrapped herself from her blanket and looked at her watch. She had been on the phone for 45 minutes. It was 8:00 already. She ran into her bathroom and took her shower. She didn’t blow dry her hair. She just let it dry naturally. When she does, her hair has natural wave. She put on some quick makeup, found her glasses, and pulled on her doctor scrubs. She walked out into the kitchen. On the table she left a note for Madison. Kelly kissed Riley and left without breakfast.
Madi,
I’ll be home around 7:00. Have a good rehearsal. We have to have a talk about what happened last night. I can’t remember a thing after I ran into that person. Could you take Riley on a quick walk? He didn’t go this morning on our run Thanks.
Love always, Ri.
Madison woke up around twelve. “Dang, I almost missed practice.” She ran around her room pulling on some training clothes. She ran into the bathroom and brushed some quick makeup on. Riley had come up to visit her and he was now oddly cocking his head watching her run around the room. He followed her as she flew down the stairs. It was 12:15 and the drive was half an hour long on a good day. She looked out the window. Today was not a good day. As she ran across the kitchen floor, her eye caught on the note on the table. She read it quickly. “Riley, do you really have to go now? Can’t it wait. Oh, what the hell! I’m a model, and they expect us to be late.” She went into the entryway and clicked on his leash. 5 minutes later, Riley and Madison walked back in, covered with snow. Riley had done his business, but now Madison was soaked to the bone. She ran back upstairs and changed. Finally at 12:40 she was ready. She said bye to Riley, grabbed her keys and jacket and headed out the door. Riley ran across to the window in the living room and watched as Madison pulled out of the driveway. He settled down on Kelly’s bed and prepared for a quiet afternoon of sleeping.
At the BSB hotel…
“God, what a practice. Fatima must have been pissed at us. She worked our asses off. She didn’t even let Kevin off any either,” Nick complained. All the guys had come back from practice and had showered and changed. Brian spoke next, “It’s 11:30 now. I want to go with Kevin to his modeling rehearsals. What are you guys going to do?” AJ and Nick and Howie looked at each other and answered at the same time, “Shopping!!!” Brian and Kevin laughed. “Okay. We’ll all meet back here around 7:00. Good enough?” AJ and Nick raced to the doors and Howie fol lowed closely behind. Brian heard Nick down the hall, “Bye Briiiaaann. Owwwww AJ, quit pinching me.” Howie smiled at the two guys and shut the door. Kevin spoke up, “I’m glad that Donna let the tour guys bring me and AJ’s car to New York. What we would have done without them, I don’t know. We don’t have to leave for another hour, so I think that I am going to call my mom. You can crash and take a nap on my bed.” Brian walked into Kevin’s bedroom and shut the door. Kevin sat in the couch and put his feet on the coffee table. He picked up the phone and dialed his mom’s number. It rang a couple of times before she picked up the phone. “Hi Mom. It’s Boo. How are you?” “Hey honey. I’m good. You’re in New York now right? I know you’ve only got two more cities left and then you’ll be home right?” “I’m looking forward to it. I miss home. Although, I’m not excited about Kristin being home the same time. She still coming home isn’t she?” “Unfortunately, yes. But don’t worry about her. You come home to your house and have fun. Tim is coming home too, with the new baby. I know you heard he was born, but you still haven’t seen him. He’s darling.” Kevin smiled at his mom’s rambling, “That’s great Mom. Well, I have some bad news. Yesterday at rehearsals, I fell off one of the tiers and hit the stage pretty hard. I had to go to the hospital. It took plenty of stitches to stitch me back up.” “Oh, dear. Are you all right otherwise?” “Oh, just fine. In fact I came out better that I had hoped. I met a girl. She’s beautiful. And athletic…” “Kevin, where’d you meet her?” “She was my doctor, but let me finish. It gets stranger. As she was stitching me up I got to talking and I found out that she’s from Lexington Mom. Fate, huh? Well, she discharged me and I was walking out of the hospital and another doctor came up to me and said if I mess with her, I’ll get my head kicked in, or something like that. More strange things happened.” Kevin’s mom smiled at her son’s excitement. He hadn’t been this excited about a girl since Kristin and him first met. Kevin continued on, “Well, after that I figured that she had a boyfriend, and tried to forget her, but I couldn’t. Me and the guys went out last night to Studio 54 to go dancing, I really couldn’t dance well because of the stitches, but that’s not important. Nick came running up to the table that I was sitting at and he said that he had seen my doctor. I jumped up and ran around the club trying to find her...” Kevin stopped. His mom said, “Kev, are you still there? Did you find her?” Kevin gave an embarrassed giggle. “Oh yeah Ma. I found her all right. Ran right smack into her and knocked her out cold. The guys helped me find her friend that she was with and we all went back to her place. The whole time the poor girl was knocked out, and mumbling. Her friend had had a little to drink so I drove the two girls home in their car and the other guys followed us. In the car I was talking to her friend. She’s the promotion model for Versace. “ Kevin’s mom interrupted, “As in the Versace you ‘re modeling for next Wednesday?” “Yep, same exact one. Well, we got the poor girl in her bed.” Kevin’s mom stopped him again.