"Alyson, get up out of bed, or were both gonna be
late!" I was rushing around trying to make my coffee,
make Alyson's lunch, feed the cat, and find my car keys all at the same time.
"Mom, I've been up for about an hour now. What
in the world are you doing?" She walked into the
kitchen with her bookbag already on. "And what do you
mean about going to be late? Im already fifteen
minutes late to school." I spun around to look at the
clock. Sure enough, she was right. Which means I am
fifteen minutes of being late.
"Oh no, my meeting!" Forget about the coffee,
and Alyson's lunch. I gave her five dollars, threw
down some cat food, and bolted for the door. I got
into the car, and realized something.
"My keys!" I began to get out of the car.
"Mom?"
"What? And it better be important!"
"They're in the ignition."
"Oh. Alrighty then." I backed out of the
driveway, and sped through the traffic.
"Mom, slow down! Why are you in such a hurry?" I glanced over at her, and realized she was holding on
for dear life. I slowed down quite a bit... I was
going to be late anyways, why rush?
"I have a really important business meeting, and
I can't be late for it." We drove the rest of the way
in silence. I let her out, and managed to get to work
with one more minute before my meeting was due to start.
"Sorry I'm late, so sorry, it won't happen again" I
said breathlessly as I ran into the meeting room. My
client was already in there, along with a few other
people, but I didn't pay attention to detail.
"I think we should go ahead and begin then" said
my partner, James Ferguson, who has been a friend of
mine since I was fifteen years old.
"Shay, I want to introduce you to your newest
perspective client. Shay Harris, this is Kevin
Richardson" Kevin Richardson? Was he serious?
"Hi Shay!" came the voice I heard on tv last
night. The chair circled around until the face came
into view. It was the same Kevin Richardson from tv
last night. The same Kevin Richardson from the
Backstreet Boys. The same Kevin Richardson whom I
wanted to meet since I was thirteen.
"Oh my gosh! I can't believe this! Kevin!" I
had slipped into my teens again. I couldn't control
myself, I finally was meeting him.
"Oh lord, you're that Kevin? Someone go get her
some water, I think she's getting ready to pass out!"
said James. Someone (I think) left the office, I
guess to get water. I was by this time, freaking out.
"Oh gosh, I can't believe I am finally meeting
you! I saw you in concert, gosh, I don't know how
many times! You were my favorite Backstreet Boy, I
can't believe this, I had the biggest crush on you!" I
was just running off, saying all of these things I
swore I would never ever say if I ever got the chance
to meet him. "Oh my, I am so sorry. I didn't mean to
sound psychotic! Gosh, I am really, very, truly
sorry, it's just... oh God, I am so embarrassed!" Kevin just smiled at me.
"No, that's alright, I miss having people freak
out like that when they meet me. It's alright,
really, I promise." He smiled at me again, and his
deep, green eyes penetrated into mine. I thought I
would fall over dead right then. My brain had turned
to mush, I didn't even remember anything I was there for.
"Well, now that that is over, what do you say we
discuss why we're here. Kevin, you have requested
that we provide you with a new manager, and public
relations director. As you know, we provide this
service to musicians worldwide..." James continued to
tell him about what exactly we did, and who would be
doing what, if Kevin agreed to hire us. I tuned out
though, the only thing I noticed was Kevin. Every now
and then, he would look away from James and smile at
me. I know my face had to be bright red throughout the meeting.
"Great, I agree. This sounds like a very sound
corporation you are running. But, I have a question,
who exactly would be my public relations director?"
This part I actually heard... not only because it was
coming out of Kevin's mouth, but because I was head public relations director.
"Me!" I accidently blurted that out. James
looked at me, and I could tell he was trying very hard not to laugh.
"Yes, it would be Ms. Harris. She is the head of
the public relations department, and the very big
clients we get go to her. She will do an excellent
job." James smiled, and gave me a wink.
"Good. I leave everything in your hands." Kevin
smiled, and stood up. We all did the same. He walked
over to me, and took my hand in his. To shake it, of course.
"Well Mr. Richardson, before I become your
official P.R. director, I need you to fill out some
forms, and sign a contract." I was surprised I was
able to compile that sentence, considering it was more
than three words long. "Just come with me to my
office." He agreed, and I led the way down a long
hall to my office, which was at the very end. I
opened the door, and we stepped inside. Just the two of us. I was in heaven.
"So, what do you need to know?" He sat at the
chair in front of my desk, as I took my seat behind it.
I got the paperwork out of the drawer, and began to ask questions.
We spent an hour filling out the forms. I found
out that he lived only 20 minutes away from where I
live now, that he used to be married, but had a
divorce (no kids), and all the things I had been
wondering for years about him. We finished all the
paper work, and he sat back in his chair.
"I bet there are some questions you want to ask
me that are not on those forms, arent there?" He
crossed his arms across his built chest. Even though
he was in his very early 50s, he still had the body he
had when he was in his late 20s. I couldn't get over that.
"Actually, I do. What happened with the
Backstreet Boys? Why did you guys break up?" They
had broken up when I was a senior in college. By this
time, I was involved in so much, it didn't really bother me that they broke up.
"We are still really good friends to this day,
but we all had creative diffrences. AJ wanted to more
rappish music, Brian wanted to move into more gospel,
Nick wanted to stay the exact same, and Howie just
didn't want to be in a group anymore. It was a mutual
decision, we didn't do it because we were fighting, we
did it so we wouldn't. Does that make sense?" He
leaned forward and gazed into my eyes.
"Perfect sense. What exactly kind of music are
you going to sing now?" I was beginning to ease up, but just a little.
"Well, it's a little of the music the BSB sang,
and it's a little of the music that is popular now.
I'm not trying to make a major comeback. I don't
expect to have the success that, lets just say Jordan
Knight and Joey McIntyre had in the 90s. I just want
to make the music that makes me happy, and make at
least one other person happy at the same time."
"You have an amazing voice, and your song writing
skills are incredible. I remember the song you wrote
on the Backstreet Boys 'Millennium' cd, 'Back to Your
Heart'. It was absolutely beautiful." I told him. I
was getting ready to do the gushing thing again, I could tell.
"Thank you. I'm surprised you remember after all this time"
"Oh, my daughter and I were going through all my
old cd's last night, and she picked that cd to listen to." I said blushing.
"Daugther? Oh, are you married? I should have
known, as beautiful as you are." There went that smile again.
"Married? Gosh no, not for years. I'm divorced.
I have been for I guess eleven years now."
"Oh, Im sorry to hear that." he said with a
quite, almost whisper-like tone to his voice.
"Don't be, really. I've learned to deal with it. It's not that bad."
"Well, I hope you don't mind my asking, but if I
don't do it now, I will never get around to it. Would
you mind going out to dinner with me sometime? I
mean, to discuss business of course."
"Dinner? Um, yeah, sure, we could do that" I
said trying not to yell this time.
"Great, I'll call you later on to discuss when
and where. I have to go now, but it was great meeting
you Shay." He got up and shook my hand again.
"Good meeting you too Mr. Richardson." He didn't know just how good.
"Please, call me Kevin." He smiled again, and walked out of the door.
