Chapter 46
Kevin asked, "Is Nick there?"
There was a moment of silence before Nick said groggily, "What?"
"Where the hell are you?"
"Kevin?"
"No, Santa Claus!" said Kevin sarcastically. "Yes, it’s me! Now where are you?"
There was a hesitation in Nick’s voice as he said, "I’m not sure."
"We’ve got the show to do in about two hours."
"Damn! I didn’t realize what time it was. Let me get a shower and some lunch and I’ll meet you there at the studio."
"Now for the million dollar question. What about Fiona?"
"Ahhh, man! Why did you mention her? Is she there with you?"
"Uhhh, yeah. We’re at lunch. Do you still want us to bring her with us?"
"No! I can’t face her right now. Get Tyler to make up some reason like
there’s a rehearsal or something."
"I’m not putting Tyler in the middle of this."
"You can be such a pain in the ass, Kevin!" whined Nick.
"You should think about the consequences before you let your dick think for you," said Kevin angrily. "Make sure you’re at the studio ON TIME."
Kevin hung up and the others looked at him. AJ asked, "He’s with that waitress, isn’t he?"
"He’s with someone but I don’t know who she is. I swear, that boy is so much damn trouble sometimes."
"What do we tell Fiona?" asked Kryss.
"Nothing," said Tyler. "It’s between Nick and Fiona."
"But we were all suppose to go to the studio with them. She’s going to need a reason," said Sonja who had just joined them.
"I’ll stay here with her," offered Lex. "You know, Nick does this every time Fiona asks for more. It’s like he wants to hurt her so she’ll back off."
"Maybe," said Kevin. "And maybe he’s just being a jerk. Let’s go get our lunch so that we aren’t late."
Linda had left and returned now with Jaime. Tyler saw them as they were getting their plates and nudged Kevin. She whispered, "Looks like Linda and Jaime are getting kind of close."
Kevin laughed, "They’ve been together for the last two shows and Linda has NOT been staying here at the hotel."
"Didn’t you two date?"
"A couple times."
"What happened?"
"Nothing. I was too interested in you and Linda knew it," said Kevin as he kissed Tyler. He put his hand on her back and led her to the table with Howie and Kryss.
Linda and Jaime got their plates too and then joined Kevin, Tyler, Howie, and Kryss. They all talked about the tour and what had been going on. Linda also asked how Tyler was feeling.
When everyone was almost finished eating, Nick stumbled into the room. He had had a shower and was wearing clean clothes but he still looked hungover. He looked around the room for Fiona who had already spotted him and left hurriedly.
Nick decided to sit with Tyler and Kevin rather than going after Fiona. Tyler said, "About time you got here."
All the other girls gave Nick dirty looks that Nick saw. He said, "Why aren’t you mad at me?"
"Who said I’m not?"
"You’re speaking to me."
"That doesn’t mean I’m not mad at you. You’re making some incredibly stupid choices, Nick. You can’t keep treating Fiona like this. The ‘Carter Charm’ is wearing REALLY thin right now especially for Fiona."
Nick hung his head then cocked it sideways to look at Tyler. He had that famous Carter grin but Tyler didn’t fall for it.
"I’m serious, Nick! Grow up!"
Kevin said, "You should go talk to her before we leave. You’ve got about thirty minutes."
Nick was irritated by the whole situation and left. He made his way up to his room where he found Fiona packing.
"What are you doing, baby?"
"Packing."
"Why?"
Fiona looked up at Nick in disbelief. "You really need to ask?"
"Come on, Fi! I love you."
Fiona went back to getting her stuff together as she said, "Funny way of showing it."
Nick went up behind her and put his arms around her. He kissed her along her neck in an effort to get her to stop packing. Fiona pulled away from Nick and turned to face him.
"I’m tired of it, Nick. You moan and groan about wanting me with you on the road and then once I’m with you, you pull a stunt like this. You’re the same at home and I’m tired of it. You can’t have it both ways, Nickolas Carter. Either we’re a couple with a future or I’m out of here."
"An ultimatum?"
"Yes! Nick, we’ve been together for two years! It’s time for more," said Fiona. "I’m not going to wait forever."
"I can’t make that kind of decision on the spur of the moment."
"Until you can decide what you want, I’m going to stay with the other dancers."
"You’re leaving me?"
"Yes, Nick!"
Nick pouted and said, "How can you leave me?"
Fiona laughed desperately, "How can I stay with you? You slept with another
woman.... AGAIN!"
"How do you know I slept with another woman?"
"Then where were you last night?"
"Brian said something, didn’t he?"
"No. For some reason, the guys are protecting you. No one will say anything about last night."
"Baby, please, don’t go," begged Nick grabbing her arm as she headed out the door.
Fiona pulled away. "Make up your mind, Nick. You’ll know where to find me when you’ve decided."
Nick watched Fiona leave and then headed back downstairs. It was time for them to go do the ‘Jay Leno’ show and he knew the guys were already mad at him. No sense being late and making them angrier.
In the lobby, Kryss and Lex were saying good-bye to Howie and AJ when Nick joined them. They gave Nick a nasty look and headed for the elevators.
Nick asked, "What’s with them?"
Sonja shook her head, "Unbelievable."
Tyler said, "Nick, Fiona is our best friend and..."
Kevin said, "Let it drop, baby."
"Kevin, why are you acting so pompous! You were the one hanging all over Kristen last night with Tyler here sick."
That infuriated Kevin and he started for Nick but Tyler stepped between them and put her hands on Kevin’s sides. "Kevin, don’t cause a scene."
Kevin looked down at Tyler and knew she was right. He looked at Nick and said, "I will deal with you later, Nickolas."
Nick sulked away and the rest of the group followed him to the waiting limo. The ride was quiet since Nick was pouting, AJ was hungover, and Tyler was still weak from being sick. She had her head on Kevin’s shoulder and he held onto her hand.
At the studio, Sonja went to find out where makeup was while the guys went to the green room to wait. Kevin sat down and pulled Tyler into his lap hugging her close.
"Are you going to sit in the audience, baby?"
"Yeah. I want to see the other guests."
"Make sure you sit where I can see you."
"Front row, ‘Boo’. What song are you doing?"
"More Than That," said AJ. "We’re getting ready to release it as a single."
Howie spoke up, "We’re suppose to do the video for it at the end of April."
Tyler looked at Kevin. "Will we still be able to go on the
honeymoon?"
"Don’t you worry about that, baby," said Kevin.
"Where are we going?" asked Tyler hoping to catch Kevin off-guard.
It almost worked too because Kevin started, "I thought we’d.... Nice try, baby."
Sonja returned and told the guys where they needed to go. She and Tyler gave Brian and Kevin a kiss goodbye before going out into the audience to take their seats.
The two talked about Nick and Fiona while they waited for the show to begin. They both felt bad for Fiona and really irritated with Nick. Tyler also told Sonja about Kristen and the problems she and Kevin had had that morning.
When the show started, Sonja and Tyler settled into their seats to watch. The guys were last on the lineup so it would be a while.
When the guys were introduced, the audience went nuts. As the guys took their spots on the stage, Kevin found Tyler in the audience and blew her a kiss. As the guys sang, Nick moved over to Tyler and Sonja and sang to them.
When they were done, Kevin led them over to where the interview was to be done.
After sitting down, the interview started and they talked about the latest Rolling Stone article that they had done. Kevin gave his take on why he had wanted to do the picture while Brian gave his side of it. Then they talked about their special talents. Tyler hated this part because she knew what Kevin was going to do. It always grossed her out when he turned his eyelids inside out.
Jay said, "Now, you guys have a surprise for someone in the audience."
Howie said, "Yeah. It’s my cousin’s birthday and we wanted to surprise her."
As Howie was saying this, a cake was wheeled out from backstage and Kevin had gotten up to go get Tyler. He took her hand and led her back up to where the guys were.
Jay said, "This must be Tyler."
Tyler was handed a mic and she said, "Hi!"
"How long have you known these guys?"
"Well, Howie all my life and the other four ever since they started as a group."
"You must know them fairly well then."
"Sorta. Kevin and I are engaged."
"How did you feel about Kevin posing with all those women?"
"It was pretty cool. We weren’t officially a couple at the time but it still wouldn’t have bothered me."
"When’s the big day? You said you and Kevin were engaged."
Kevin answered, "Soon. We want to keep it private for various reasons, mainly Tyler’s ex-boyfriend."
"Today’s your birthday?"
"Yeah."
"Mind saying how old you are?"
"No, I’m twenty-five."
AJ said, "We wanted to get the audience to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Tyler with us."
Nick and AJ led the audience singing after they moved to the cake. Then they got a knife and cut the cake. As Tyler cut it, the guys took pieces into the audience for the fans and Jay ended the show. When they were done serving the cake, each of them got a piece of cake and Kevin fed Tyler hers.
Tyler looked at the guys as they were talking with the audience, the other guests, and the crew. Then she looked up at Kevin, "Thank you."
"It was Nick’s and AJ’s idea."
"I’ll thank them later."
Kevin kissed her tenderly, "What about me?"
"I have a special thank you planned for you later, after the walk on the beach."
