At one o’clock sharp Lexi pulled into the parking lot of The Ocean Grill on International Drive. When she walked in she saw Richard already sat at a table by the window. As she approached the table Richard stood up to greet her.
“Hey, Rich. How’s it goin’?”
“Good,” he said as he sat down. So how excited are you about all this?!”
“Omigawd! I still can’t believe it!”
“Well, it’s definitely a reality. Now this is obviously a very good thing, but on the other hand, we have a little over a month to get your act together.”
“Ok, so what steps do we take to accomplish this in time?”
“Well, we have to pick four songs for you to do. Tina Landon already agreed to come out here in mid-March to choreograph your songs. Have you thought about how many dancers you’d like to have?”
“I was thinking about two girls and three guys. I definitely liked those two girls that danced with me in the video.”
“Ok, I’ll tell Tina about that. What we’re going to be doing a lot of stage work as far as working the microphone and the body mic during the first week of March. The second week Tina will be here with your dancers teaching you the choreography for the songs we choose. From there on you’ll just be practicing everyday. Then the week before the tour kicks off you’ll be working with the actual stage setup of the tour.”
“This is so exciting! So what are we gonna do? Two slow songs and two fast songs?”
“We can decide all that stuff later. It might be a good idea for you and JC to do your duet. It’ll get the fans really excited if he comes out.”
“That’s definitely a good idea.”
“Speaking of JC…”
“I knew this was coming.”
“I want to let you know that I’m not mad or I don’t object to you two being together,” he said lowering his voice. “I just want to know that you have to be prepared to lie about this.”
“Yeah, I know. I just feel so bad when I do it. I mean, I’ve already done it once at the radio station in LA.”
“I know it’s going to be hard, but this really needs to be kept under raps for the time being…especially since you’re going to be on tour with him. I talked to Jonny Wright on the phone the other day, and JC has already told him about your relationship. He feels the same way I do.”
“And how would that be?”
“That is needs to be kept a secret until we feel it’s the right time to tell the truth.”
“Ok, I guess that makes sense.”
“Please, Lex, be very careful about where you guys go together. Particularly when you go on tour.”
“Don’t worry. You forget that I was in drama. I know how to act when I need to.”
“Ok, let’s practice,” he said.
“Practice? You want me to practice lying?”
“No, I want you to practice acting. Just pretend that you’re running lines for a play.”
“Ok,” Lexi responded.
Richard pretended to be an interviewer. “So, Lexi, there’s been rumors going around that you and JC Chasez from *NSYNC are an item. Is this true?”
“Oh, no. We’re friends so we hang out, but it’s nothing more than that.”
“Very good!”
“Yeah,” Lexi said playing with the straw in her iced tea, “I feel a lot better.”
Chapter Twelve
Ya know where this takes you