“Hey, Joel,” she said glumly.
“Liz, sweetie, are you all right? What’s wrong?” he asked. She could hear sincere concern in his voice.
“I just wanna go home. I’m getting my normal homesickness,” she answered.
“Oh, sweetie, I miss you,” he sighed.
“Are you all right?” she asked. “It sounds like there’s something more than missing me involved.”
“It’s nothing,” he replied quickly.
“Joel, you know better than to lie to me. You know I know. If you don’t wanna talk about it, tell me that, but you know how much I hate it when you aren’t honest with me,” she stated.
“Then I don’t wanna talk about it.”
“Are you sure?”
There was a long pause. “I’m scared.”
She couldn’t picture her big, muscular, manly boyfriend scared, with his tan skin and spiky brown hair and confident green eyes, and she had to stop herself from giggling. “Scared?”
“Listen, I know you love your job, and I don’t wanna interfere with it. Please don’t let this discourage you.” He hesitated for several moments again. “I’m terrified because I’m stuck here to worry about you while you’re going on tour for three months with five American sex symbols that I could never compete with. I just…I can’t stand the thought of losing you, Liz. You mean too much to me.”
A tear escaped her eye and tickled her nose, but she didn’t bother to wipe it away. “Oh, honey, I promise you will not lose me. I love you,” she reassured him. “I think you’re one hundred percent better than any one of the Backstreet Boys.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure. I would never even dream of leaving you, Joel,” she stressed. “You’re the best boyfriend a girl could ask for.”
“I gotta go, Liz. There’s a call on the other line. Call me back when you get a chance! I love you.”
“Okay, bye, sweetie!” She hung up the phone, not the least bit of homesickness gone. Surprisingly, speaking to Joel hadn’t made her feel better like she had thought it would. Oh, well. This assignment would certainly keep her busy, and she guessed she wasn’t even gonna have time to think about missing him.
A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts, and she opened it to find Nick standing there. “Hey, we’re going out to dinner at the hotel restaurant downstairs. You wanna come along?” he offered.
She smiled and grabbed her purse. “Sure.”