He soon found them both, "Hey guys, fancy meeting you here."
They both just looked at him a little confused and then just nodded.
Nick tapped his foot for a minute and then asked, "Miss, can I talk to you for a minute?"
She put down the book she was looking at, "sure."
She followed him around several isles of books out of hearing distance of A.J.
"So, what happened?" Nick asked flat out.
"Well, we had lunch and we talked...and.."
Nick looked at her with a surprised look on his face "And what?!?"
" And we are just going to be friends. He asked me out just to get to know me a little. We just had a nice time talking."
Nick then looked almost relieved, "Okay."
Stephanie looked at him almost irritated, "Thanks Nick for being concerned, but I'm a big girl and I can take care of myself."
With that she walked off and left him there in the children's book section. A.J. had found something to his interest and Stephanie continued to look around the rest of the store. She was looking at a very nice and expensive Atlas when she saw Brian.
"Hey." he said and walked over to where she was standing, "What's that?"
"An Atlas, it's really nice, but I don't think it's worth 50 bucks."
"Are you interested in countries?"
"A little, I’d like to travel someday. There are several places that I would like to see."
Brian looked at her with interest, "Like where?"
She gave him a shy smile, "Well, Australia, Europe, I wanna go to Hawaii someday. You know places like that."
He grinned at her, "Yes places like that are beautiful." They stood for a minute in an awkward silence
"Did you talk to your girlfriend again last night?" Brian looked at her for a minute and she watched the different emotions pass across his face,
"Yeah, I talked to her for a long time and we decided that a little time off might help things. We both have a lot to think about."
Stephanie didn't say anything for a minute, "I’m sorry Brian, I know how hard it is. I wish I could tell you it gets better, but you just have to stick it out."
His only reply was a half smile and a nod. Just then Nick and Megan walked around the corner,
"Are you guys ready to leave?" Megan asked
"Yeah, I guess." Stephanie said returning the Atlas to the shelf and following everyone else out the door. They shopped for the rest of the day and then went back to the hotel after dinner. They had an uneventful evening and then everyone went their separate ways. The next morning the tour bus should up at 8:00 Megan and Stephanie said their good-byes to everyone. Stephanie said goodbye to Nick, and promised to e-mail him as soon as she got home, she thanked A.J. for the "date" and wished Brian luck, and told the other guys it was nice meeting them. Megan thanked Kevin for antique, which got everyone's attention, thanked Nick for really being Nick Carter and told the other guys it was nice meeting them. The guys left and Megan and Stephanie watched the tour bus leave before heading to the car and heading back to school.
While in the car Stephanie asked Megan about the "antique" she had thanked Kevin for.
"Oh that, we were in this little antique store and I found this old old stationary, with the ink and everything, and Kevin got it for me."
Stephanie looked at Megan "What?!?"
"What was I suppose to do while you had Nick all mad at you, Brian trying to talk to you, and A.J. asking you out!!?"
"we weren't that tied up were we?" Stephanie asked trying to watch what she was suppose to be doing.
"Yes, you were, and you left us out."
"I'm sorry, we didn't mean to."
"I know you didn't"
"..but we still had fun, right?"
"Yep, we sure did." Megan answered.....
