She looked at Nick. But he didn't look at her. "Nick..." she started.
"Look I wouldn't have been upset if you would have just told me that you were with him to begin with. You not telling me makes it seem like you've got something to hide," he said still not looking up at her.
"I know. I shouldn't have hid it from you. But we're just friends," she rubbed his hand.
He finally looked at her, "That's fine." And he didn't say anything else about it. Vanessa knew he didn't want to talk about it anymore. Their food came and they ate and talked and had a nice time.

The next morning I woke up to AJ stroking my hair. I opened my eyes and he was smiling and looking at me. I smiled. His hair was wild because it was getting so long.
"Happy Birthday!" he said.
He sat up and picked something off the floor from his side of the bed. He handed me a dozen roses. "AJ," I said sitting up. "They're beautiful."
He smiled, "That's not all." He bent over and picked up two small boxes. I opened the first one it was a beautiful ring with an emerald stone.
"Oh my gosh. It's gorgeous!" I said with my eyes popping out.
"It's your birthstone," he smiled and handed me the longer box. "Open this one." I started opening the next one. It was a beatiful necklace with an emerald in the middle.
"Oh AJ thank you so much!" I hugged him and he sighed.
"Are you happy?" he asked.
"AJ I would have been happy just spending the day with you."
"Good. Well..." there was knocking at the door. He jumped out of bed and threw on a pair of jeans. He opened the door and I could hear him talking. "Oh Thanks," he said and wheeled in a food cart. On it was a cake with a candle on it. I smiled. He started to sing 'Happy Birthday' to me. He lit the candle and said, "Okay make a wish and blow out the candle!" He clapped when I blew it out, then he gave me a big hug. "I love you so much," he said softly in his sexy voice.
Just then the phone rang. I answered it. "Happy Birthday!" Nick yelled. I laughed.
"Thank you Nick."
"No problem. You and AJ aren't ... uh ... busy are you?"
"No. We were just spending some time together."
"Good me and Vanessa are coming over," he hung up.
"Are they on their way?" AJ asked slipping on a shirt.
"Yeah I guess I better get out of these pajamas," I started to change. The phone rang again I answered it.
"Happy Birthday to you..." Brian sang me the whole Birthday song before saying, "I hope to see you today!"
"Well I'm sure we can all work something out," I said I was actuauy happy everyone cared so much about my birthday.
"I think AJ already did. He'll probably tell you about it later or something."
"Oh okay."
"Well I'll talk to you later Angela. And Happy Birthday again!"
"Thanks bye." I pulled on my shirt.
"Guess who's here!!" Nick said barging through the door. He ran over to me and threw me over his shoulder and started spinning in circles.
"Nick ... stop ... AHH ... please," I said in between laughs and screams. He threw me on the bed.
"That's just Nick's way of saying 'Happy Birthday'," AJ said smiling. "But at least he threw you on the bed. He threw me on the floor. Right on my ass." AJ shook his head and rolled his eyes.
"That was an accident I meant to throw you on that bean bag that was there, but I just missed by a couple inches," Nick said with a guilty grin.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," AJ said. "So who wants a piece of cake?" He handed everyone a piece.
"So what do we plan on doing today?" Vanessa said looking at her watch. It was 9:00 am.
"What time do we have to be at that radio interview?" Nick asked looking at AJ.
"Not until 7:30 tonight. I planned a dinner and everything at 4:30. All the guys are going to go. Is that alright with you?" AJ asked.
"Of course it is AJ. But I don't see when you found the time to plan all this stuff. This is all so great!" I said giving him a big hug.
"Aww, you guys!" Nick said joining in on the hug. AJ elbowed Nick in the stomach.
"Get off us!" he said still shoving Nick playfully. Nick stood up.
"So what are our plans for right now?" Nick asked.
"Well..." AJ said scratching his head. "I ... I guess whatever Angela wants to do. I kind of couldn't think of what to do for the afternoon. But I do got a wonderful evening planned."
"How about we pack a picnic and go down to Central Park," I suggested.
"Good idea," Vanessa said.
"Yeah, it's really nice outside," Nick said opening the curtains.
"Then it's a plan," AJ said looking around. "Now where do we get a basket and picnic food?" We laughed. "We can always get our picnic from Micky D's," AJ said.
Nick rolled his eyes, "Come on AJ. The poor girl has been eating McDonalds all week I bet."
"Not true we had Mexican yesterday and for lunch we had ... we had..."
"McDonald's," I finished for him.
"We did?"
"Yep. But I don't mind. I really like their french fries."
"See," AJ said putting his arm around me and looking at Nick.
"So it's McDonald's then?" Nick asked looking at us.
"Yep!"
We were all leaving when the phone started ringing. AJ looked at it then closed the door shrugging.
"You better get it," Nick said.
"I guess." He slid in the card and ran back in, "Hello?" he said. "Right now! Well actually we..." he sighed. "Fine. Nick's here with me, I'll tell him." He hung up and slowly made his way over to us.
"Nick we have to go to a photo shoot for some magazine." He looked at me and tilted his head to the side, "I'm sorry." He said sticking out his bottom lip.
"Right now? At this very moment? We have to go?" Nick asked still not believing that he had to work on a day that he thought he would be able to spend with Vanessa.
"Yes now. Right when we get there it will be around 10 something. The other guys are already on their way over there. They said it should only be about two hours. Maybe a little longer. We can have the picnic when we get back."
"Well I guess well just wait here then," I said.
"I'm really sorry babe," AJ said again. "I wanted to spend the whole day with you since it's your birthday and all..."
I put my finger on his lips and gave him a soft kiss. "You don't have to apologize. It's your job."
He smiled, "Here's the keys to my truck if you guys want to go somewhere." They said goodbye then left.
"Well what are we going to do now?" I asked looking at Vanessa.
"I don't know," she said sitting on the couch.
I started picking up AJ's clothes he had lying around. I picked up one of his jackets. It smelled like his cologne. I smelled the collar part thinking of how sweet and kind he was to me. It still seemed like a dream. Here was this guy I saw on MTV a few months ago. Whose sexy voice and beautiful eyes intrigued me enough to go to be in that video and now here I am holding his jacket and I could still feel how soft his kisses are when I closed my eyes. I smiled holding his jacket tighter.
"Uh ... are you okay?," Vanessa asked with a grin.
"Oh," I said snapping out of it. "Yeah, I was just, uh, going to hang this up." I stood up and hung his jacket.
"What's that noise?" I asked Vanessa. "I don't know ... Oh it's my phone!" she said taking it out of her purse. "Hello? Oh yeah here she is. It's for you," she said shrugging.
"Hello?" I said wondering who would call me on her phone.
"Hey girlfriend" said a familiar voice.
"Nathan!" I shrieked.
"The one and only..."
"Oh my goodness! I didn't realize how much I've missed you until ... right now!" Nathan was one of my best friends. I had met him when I started at a new high school in tenth grade. He would always listen to my problems and I would listen to his. I guess everything happened so fast with AJ that I didn't get a chance to tell him I had left.
"What happened? I haven't heard from you for almost two months!"
"Nathan I'm so sorry!" I told him everything that had happened.
"A Backstreet Boy, huh?" he said. "AJ McLean. I've seen him on MTV before. Well I hope he's treating you good or I'm going to have to go kick some Backstreet butt!"
I laughed. He didn't like the Backstreet Boys since the first day I told him I had interest in them so I wasn't surprised at what he said.
"See I knew you shouldn't have went to that stupid video shoot. Tell me, do you think a big celebrity like him is going to treat you right when he's out on the road, different cities almost everyday?"
"Nathan, I'm happy right now. I really like him. He is so sweet to me."
"Does he love you?"
"He tells me he does everyday."
"Do you love him?"
"Well, yeah I do."
"You do? Well good, I'm glad. I got to go but give me your hotel number so I can keep in touch. You have my number so don't be a stranger anymore!"
"I won't Nathan. Thank you."
"And one more thing, Happy Birthday. Be careful and ... I love you."
I started to get teary eyed, "Thank you Nathan. And I love you too, Bye." We hung up. I handed the phone back to Vanessa.
"Nathan, huh?" she asked.
"Yeah," I said taking a deep breath.
"I would have sworn you two were going to get married someday," she said fiddling with her phone.
"Yeah, right!" I said and laughed at the thought. "We're just really close good friends."
"Come on, you NEVER hang up before saying 'I love you' to each other. And if you do forget he calls back and tells you and vice versa."
"That's not true!" I protested.
"Call him back and tell him something and don't say it. See what happens."
"Fine," I said taking the phone.
"Nathan? Hi it's me again. I, uh, just wanted to tell you to come visit anytime you can okay."
"Okay. Look I got to go to work in a few minutes."
"Okay Bye!" I said and hung up. I sat there. The phone didn't ring so I started to hand it back to Vanessa when it rang.
"Hello?" I said in a small voice.
"Hey forgot to tell you that I love you when we hung up."
"Oh yeah. I love you too Nathan." We hung up.
"See!" Vanessa said. "I told you!"
"So what. That's only because if something were to happen to one of us then the other will always know that they still loved them. You know what I mean?"
"I guess," she said rolling her eyes.