A.J. and Justin follow Omar and head over to Omar’s house.
“Let me put Daisy out in the back yard before you bring everything in!”
Omar goes inside and gets his Pitbull and puts her in the back yard and then goes and lets A.J. and Justin in.
“Where do you want to work from?” Omar asks.
“The living room is fine,” Justin says.
Justin, A.J. and Omar set up everything and split the list up and call everyone and tell them how to get to Omar’s house. Meanwhile, Kaci is over Nick’s house.
“Can’t I just go home?” Kaci asks.
“Are you that mad at Aje?”
“I don’t get why he hung up on me like that Nick!”
“Well, I’m sure he has a good explanation. After all Jess, he WAS in the studio working on his solo project!”
“Yeah, I know, but he is up to something, I know him too well! Last time he was like this, he bought Hayley!”
Kaci’s cell phone rings and it’s Jose.
“Hey baby,” Kaci says answering her phone.
“Hey yourself! What are you up to?”
“I’m at Nick’s house and he won’t take me home!”
“Oh. Well, I was just letting you know I’m hanging out with Tyler tonight and I’ll probably spend the night at his house.”
“So you aren’t going to come with me to the Ritz tonight?”
“No baby, I’m sorry! It’s Juan’s birthday and we planned this last month! I’ll call you later though and you can tell me all about it!”
“Alright, fine,” Kaci says disappointed.
“I’m really sorry baby but like I said, this was planned before we got back together!”
“Alright well tell Juan I said happy birthday and you guys please be careful!”
“I will. I love you baby.”
“I love you more,” Kaci says then hangs up.
Kaci and Nick go back to their conversation about A.J.
“So where were we?” Kaci asks after hanging up with Jose.
“We were talking about you and Aje.”
“Oh yeah. Do you know something and you’re not telling me?”
“No! Why would you say that?” Nick says all innocently.
“You do know something and you’re keeping it from me! Nickolas Gene Carter! Tell me!”
Nick gets up to go to the kitchen, which is where Kaley is.
“Shit,” Nick says walking into the kitchen.
“What?” Kaley asks confused.
“Go up to my room and call Aje because Jess is on my case! She figured out I know something!”
“That’s just great Nick! Just keep your mouth shut for once! Don’t ruin this!” Kaley says then goes upstairs to call A.J.
Nick goes back out to the living room where Kaci is while Kaley calls A.J. from Nick’s room.
“Yes Kaley,” A.J. says answering his phone.
“We have a problem!”
“Nick didn’t tell Jess, did he?” A.J. questions Kaley, worried that his surprise is ruined.
“No, but she knows something is up and she figured out that Nick knows what’s going on. I told him to keep quiet but I don’t know how long he can pull this off Alex!”
“Well, please try your hardest to keep him from ruining this! She can’t know anything except what is already made known to her which is that she needs to go to the Ritz tonight and she has a room booked.”
“Alright, I’ll try my hardest and hopefully we can keep it a secret until, when is it you’re going to surprise her?”
“She needs to be there by eight and people are being told not to be anywhere near the Ritz until eight-thirty at the earliest.”
“Oh alright. Do you need any help setting up or anything?”
“Have you and Jess become close?”
“I think so, why?”
“Justin is still trying to get people their invitations and so maybe instead of him taking her, I’m thinking you could take her and stay there with her until my surprise. I’ll meet you at the Ritz around eight and tell you how we’re going to do this, okay?”
“I guess so, but how would I change?”
“I’ll get you a room on a different floor, don’t worry. You’ll have like a half hour to get ready.”
“Can’t you just tell me now? I’m up in Nick’s room by myself.”
“Alright, I’ll explain now,” A.J. says. “Just give me a second to go in a different room.”
“Alright,” Kaley says laughing.
A.J. excuses himself and goes outside to talk to Kaley, and smoke a cigarette.
“Okay, you ready for the plan?” A.J. asks.
“Sure am.”
“The deal is Jess knows to be at the Ritz at eight and she’s got a room. I think it’s 421 but I could be wrong. There is an invitation for her that is similar to the ones being passed out and it’s in her bedroom with another dozen roses.”
“You know she’s going to kill you, right!”
“Yeah,” A.J. says laughing. “So once you get her to the Ritz, text me and I’ll have Nick call you, that way Jess won’t think anything if you’re meeting Nick. Tell her that Nick’s here and you’re leaving and just play it off like that but you can’t mention anything about the party!”
“So it’s like Nick’s picking me up and then how are you going to surprise her?”
“I haven’t gotten there yet! So I have a room on the second floor, so I’ll let you know which room it is when Nick calls you after you text me. Be sure to have him bring everything you need!”
“Alright, alright.”
“And so around eight-fifteen, I need you to call her and act like you forgot something in her room and that you’ll be there to get it, that you and Nick didn’t get very far because there’s some fans staying at the hotel and they recognized him. Then, I’ll go up to her room and knock on the door and she’ll open it and be totally surprised!”
“God Alex, you’re so romantic! But what is Jess going to wear to the party?”
“I have access to her room before she does and I went and bought her a dress this afternoon with Angela right after I got here.”
“Oh, okay. So that’s going to be in her room?”
“Yeah, it’ll be hanging up in her closet. You need to help her get it on! It’s a wedding dress,” A.J. explains.
“You aren’t…”
“No, not yet anyway. This is just strictly a party for her twenty-first birthday!”
“Oh, because the way you’re doing this is totally what Britney Spears did!”
“I know, but my plan is ten times better than hers was and c’mon Kaley, this IS me we’re talking about! I don’t copy, I make my own style. This is a twenty-first birthday party for the love of my life!”
“Aww,” Kaley says noticing Kaci at the door. “Hey, I’ll talk to you later, I gotta go.”
“Is Jess there?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, I’ll talk to you later then.”
“Okay. That’s fine, bye,” Kaley says trying to play it off as if it was one of her friends from back in California.
“Who was that?” Kaci asks coming into Nick’s room.
“Just a friend from California.”
“Oh, okay,” Kaci says walking over to Nick’s computer.
“Are Nick and Aaron still downstairs?”
“They’re out by the pool. I just needed to come check something real quick.”
“Oh, alright. Don’t be too long!” Kaley says walking out of Nick’s room.
Kaley goes downstairs and out to the pool to join Nick and Aaron. Meanwhile, Kaci is in Nick’s room online.
“That’s weird,” Kaci says signing online and seeing A.J.’s screen name online. “I thought he was at the studio recording.”
Not even two minutes later, Kaci’s cell phone rings and it’s A.J.
“Hello?” Kaci says answering her phone knowing it’s A.J.
“That’s all I get is a hello, beautiful?”
“After what you pulled earlier, yeah, all you get is hello,” Kaci says with an attitude.
“Baby, didn’t both Nick and I tell you I was in the studio when we were on the phone?”
“Yeah, but…”
“But nothing Jess! Would you like it if I did that to you? Would you like it if I called you in the middle of an important recording session?”
“No, but I didn’t know it was an important one, you both just said it was a session!”
“I didn’t call you to argue Jess, I called to talk to you because I hung up on you earlier and I felt bad about it.”
“So you called to apologize?”
“I called to talk to you. Am I sorry for hanging up on you, of course I am, but I’m calling to talk, not to apologize for being at work when you called.”
“I guess that’s the best I’m going to get out of you McLean,” Kaci says getting tears in her eyes.
“Jess baby, don’t cry! I don’t want you to cry! If it makes you feel any better, I’ll make it up to you, I promise!”
“Really?” Kaci asks.
“Really. Now, are you still with Nick?”
“Yeah,” Kaci says disappointed.
“Why do I get the impression you don’t want to be hanging out with him?”
“Because what you did pissed me off and now I don’t want to be here.”
“I’m sorry Jess! I didn’t mean to upset you! I promise I’ll make it up to you!”
“Alright!” Kaci says noticing Aaron at the door. “Alex, I gotta go, Aaron is bugging me to join him, Nick and Kaley.”
“That’s cool. I will talk to you later sweetheart.”
Kaci and A.J. hang up with each other.
“I didn’t know you were on the phone with Alex, I didn’t mean for you to hang up with him!” Aaron says walking into Nick’s room.
“Yeah right, Aaron. You’re just like Nick so don’t give me that bullshit!”
“Are you going to join us out at the pool?”
“I told Nick I had to check something. I’ll be down when I’m done.”
“Alright,” Aaron says then leaves.
Kaci goes back to checking her MySpace and realizes it’s almost 4pm and that the Cubs game is on.
“Jess, what are you doing?” Nick says walking into his room realizing Kaci is watching the Cubs game.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” Kaci says sarcastically.
“Watching your Cubs lose,” Nick says playfully pushing Kaci.
“Shut up Carter!” Kaci says trying to defend her hometown, and favorite, team.
“Fine,” Nick says. “Are you going to join us at the pool or are you going to stay here and watch the game?”
“It depends.”
“On what?”
“On if I’m up to hanging out with your pain in the ass or if I want to watch my Cubbies!”
“Jessica Roman! That was so mean!” Nick says slapping Kaci’s arm.
“Whatever Carter! When are you going to take me home? Justin has to take me to the Ritz by eight.”
“Justin can’t take you, something came up so he called and Kaley will take you. I told her to just take one of your cars and I’ll come pick her up when you girls get there.”
“Oh, okay. What came up that J couldn’t take me?”
“I don’t know, he didn’t go into details, he just asked if Kaley could take you instead.”
“Alright,” Kaci says. “But you never answered my question! When are you going to take me home?”
“We’re going out to dinner first but you ain’t going dressed like that!”
“Then what am I supposed to wear?”
“I know you have clothes here, so find something!”
“Where are we going to eat?”
“One of your favorite places. We’re leaving around five-thirty, so be ready to go to Steak & Ale by then!”
“Alright, fine. I’ll be ready by then. Mind if I use your bathroom to take a shower and get ready?”
“Not at all, just leave it how you found it!” Nick says. “I’m going back down to the pool with the others. You know where it is incase you need me.”
Chapter 31/Story Index/Chapter 33/E-mail Brittany
Nick goes back out to the pool and Kaci gets ready to go to dinner after Nick leaves.