Chapter 19
By 8.50am Kim was on her way to Manchester, she hated that she’d had to leave Nick behind in London but the sooner that meeting was over the better, then she could get back to enjoying her time with him.
It took a good few hours to get to Manchester but her memories of the previous day kept her well entertained, she could not have asked for a better day with Nick they had spent the whole day locked away in their room hardly watching the films Nick had picked but just talking about their lives.
Nick was fascinated by the difference between his and Kim’s way of life, although Nick’s life had been pretty well documented Kim loved hearing all the unknown things about him like how he spent his days off and all his childhood memories and the hot make out sessions in between made it all even sweeter.
As the train finally pulled into the station, Kim could see Ash waiting for her on the platform she quickly gathered up all her belongings and headed for him.
“Hello stranger.” Ash greeted her with a huge happy smile.
Kim gave Ash a hug. “So anymore ideas on what this is all about?” she immediately asked.
Ash shrugged his shoulders as he took her bag off her to carry and turned towards the exit.
“I dunno Kim but like I said it can’t be bad else they would have insisted on seeing us sooner.”
“Yeah I guess you’re right, what time we gotta be there?” she continued to be uneasy about the situation.
“2pm” Ash sighed.
“I was gunna head straight there and maybe grab a coffee while we wait?”
“Oh yeah coffee sounds good.” Kim smirked.
“So how was London?” Ash tried to change the subject although he didn’t particularly want to talk about Nick.
“Amazing.” Kim beamed
“Although I didn’t really do much just hung out really.” She shrugged knowing full well Ash wouldn’t want ALL the details.
After a short ride they reached the arena, Kim was surprised by how happy she was to see the row of black buses again. She was really going to miss life on the road and even though Nick had made it even more interesting for her she loved the job and the travel and the people, she knew she was defiantly doing the right thing with her life now.
As Kim reached her bus she was greeted by an array of happy faces and welcomes by the guys. Leaning up the bus she lit a cigarette and caught up with everyone although it had only been two days since she saw them all she realised she’d missed them deeply and easily got back into to being around them.
Ash interrupted a few minutes later looking rather dapper in his light coloured jeans and red checked shirt,
Kim let out a whistle causing him to blush.
“I didn’t realise I had to dress up.” Kim teased him.
“You look good in whatever you wear.” He winked back.
“Come on then we better head on over to the meeting room.”
Kim sighed as she pushed herself off the bus and followed Ash over to the arena.
The pair walked in silence to the meeting room as they got closer Kim could see three men dressed in snappy suits sitting behind a long desk.
Ash lead the way to the open door and lightly knocked on the wooden doorframe. All three men stood up and a short man with light coloured hair beckoned for them both to enter.
Ash and Kim entered and sat in the two chairs positioned the other side of the desk.
“Hello and welcome to you both.” The man said.
“I’m Matt, this is James and on the end is Josh.” The man signalled down the line.
Kim felt her mouth dry up as she fidgeted in her seat.
“Now I can see you both look a little uneasy so let me just say there is no need to be your not in trouble.”
Everyone in the room let out a fake laugh. The man sitting in the middle shuffled forward in his chair and adjusted his glasses as his peered over the rim.
“Basically we just want some feedback on how you think the technical side of the tour has gone, you know, if there was anything you needed that you couldn’t get, what worked well or not so well. OK?”
His gaze then turned to Kim.
“Miss we’d like to know how you got on as well, just what you liked and how you found working with the others, if you were accommodated well.”
All three men then smiled at Kim making her feel extremely uncomfortable.
Ash’s face screwed up as he repositioned himself in his seat.
“Excuse me, can I just ask what this is really all about? In all the shows I’ve worked on so far I’ve never had to go through one of these so called meetings.” His voice shook slightly as he spoke.
“There’s nothing to worry about Mr Smith this is purely market research for ourselves so we know where we can improve for the future.” Josh grinned from the end of the table, but Ash wasn’t buying it he knew there was something else underneath but he politely nodded back.
“Ok let’s get on with it.” Matt spoke up.
“Firstly we’ll just have a general chat together whilst we get you to fill in these questionnaires then if we could speak to Kim for a few moments then you after Ash, is everyone OK with that?”
Kim looked to Ash for reassurance that it would be Ok but he was too busy eye balling the three men in front of him. Kim could see he was trying to work them out and suss their hidden agenda.
After what felt like a lifetime Ash was then asked to wait outside whilst they spoke to Kim. She nervously fidgeted around as she watched Ash leave.
The three men fired several questions at her but just like they said it was all work related asking how she found working in a male dominated environment, was she ever uneasy, did she think any improvements could be made to make her feel more comfortable.
Although she held back everything that has happened with Andy she answered truthfully and explained that she’d never felt more at home. It wasn’t long before she was asked to wait outside whilst they talked to Ash, it felt like he had been in there forever as she nervously sat opposite the room every now and then she could see them all laughing inside the room through a gap in the blind.
This made her feel a little more at ease,
if their laughing then Ash can’t be getting into trouble. She thought to herself.
The time seemed to move so slowly as she sat their waiting for it all to be over, suddenly she jumped as the door opened pulling her out of her daydream.
“Kim”
She looked up to see Ash in front of her, she tried to read his face but it was expressionless.
“Yeah” she answered jumping to her feet dreading what bad news was about to arrive.
“What is it Ash? What’s the matter?” Her voice croaked
Ash took a deep breath as he stepped closer to Kim, he now towered over her.
“Take a seat we need to talk.”
“Just bloody tell me Ash, I don’t wanna friggin sit down.” Her voice was shaky with emotion even though she didn’t know what he was about to say she had convinced herself it would be bad and her eyes began to water.
Ash took her hand,
“Well they only bloody want us to come back and work on the rest of the bloody tour.” He screeched.
Kim’s eyes grew wide as she began to take in what Ash had just said.
“OH MY GOD, What?” She stuttered
“I know it’s freakin crazy right? They want me to carry on and manage the Asia leg and the US leg of the tour with you as my assistant.”
“SHUT UP!” was all Kim could sentence together.
Ash burst out laughing.
“How cool is this, apparently we’d done such a good job on this it had been noticed and we’d been recommended to stay on. We’ll have to work with whole new teams but a jobs a job right.”
As the realisation that she would get to spend even more time with Nick dawned on her Kim let out a loud scream as she jumped up to Ash wrapping herself around him.
Although a little taken back he held onto her as tight as he could and smiled to himself.
Matt soon appeared at the door.
“I take it she has accepted the job then.” He chuckled.
Kim quickly let go of Ash and smoothed down her T-shirt as she smiled to Matt.
“Oh thank you so, so, so much. I can’t tell you how happy I am right now.” She beamed.
“Don’t worry about it, you were both highly recommended and that’s just what we need to keep things running smoothly.”
“Thanks again.” Ash grinned as he shook Matt’s hand again.
“Your very welcome, now get outta here and go celebrate you two.” He ordered.
Kim and Ash thanked them all again as they headed off towards the exit. As they reached the door they both jumped up and down with excitement like little kids.
“Can you believe that?” Ash puffed.
Kim shook her head then screamed again before throwing her arms around Ash.
“We so deserve a celebratory beer me thinks.” Ash chuckled.
“Oh yeah defo.” Kim smiled back as Ash carried her out of the building on his back doing a little conga dance.
Unbeknownst to Kim the Backstreet Boys had left London not long after her and had arrived at the arena, they had headed straight to their buses to keep out of sight from any fans.
Nick had stood at the end of the corridor and watched as Kim laughed and hugged Ash, he could feel a fire burn in the pit of his stomach as he watched Ash’s every response to Kim’s excitement and touch. All he wanted to do was go to Kim and share in her happiness, to be the one that she threw her arms around and to tell her that he made this happen, but his stubbornness kicked in and he allowed the image of Ash holding her to consume him as he took a deep breath and headed in the other direction.
Chapter End Notes:
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