Chapter 7

I walked into my apartment and threw my purse down on the couch. I picked up the phone & dialed Mackenzie's number. "Okay girlie, spilll! How was the date?" She said when she picked up the phone.

"Well hello to you to, Mac," I laughed.

"Hi...okay, now tell me! How was it? Are you going out again? Did he kiss you goodbye? Details! I need details!" She exclaimed.

"Calm down! This isn't a game of 20 questions, ya know?"

"I know, I know. I'm just so excited for you!"

I walked around and took a seat on a chair that was sitting in my living room and proceeded to tell her about the events of the afternoon. "He is seriously the most amazing man I've ever met in my entire life!" I mean, I thought he was great before all this, but after this afternoon I love this guy so much more."

"Aw, that's great."

"I'm seeing him again tonight," I gushed. I couldn't help it. I had wanted this for so long and now it seemed like it was finally happening.

"Yay for you! This is so great!"

"I know, right?" I laughed.

"So did he kiss you goodbye today?"

"No, but honestly I didn't expect him to. It was just lunch." I told her.

"Yeah, but still, I had to ask," she laughed.

"Of course you did," I said. I grabbed the television remote and flipped on the TV. "So you wanna have out for a little bit before I go meet back up with AJ tonight?"

"Sure. I'll be over in a bit." She said, hanging up the phone. It was only 3 o'clock and I wasn't supposed to meet up with AJ until later on. I was assuming that since he didn't give me a specific time that he was just going to call me; we had exchanged numbers before we left Taco Bell. I got up and sat the phone back on it's charger and walked into the kitchen to get something to drink.

-AJ-

"Welcome back from your 'date', AJ," Kevin said from behind me. I was standing outside of my hotel room just about to go in. I rolled my eyes and turned to face him. "So did you have a good time? Was she everything you'd imagined she would be?" He asked sarcastically.

No. I wasn't going to let him get to me. Not this time. For once I was happy and I'll be damned if he's going to screw that up. "Everything and more." I said to him plainly. I started to turn back around to go into my room when he reached out and grabbed my arm, forcing me to turn back to face him. "Seriously, Kev, just leave me the hell alone for once, okay?"

"J, she's going to screw you over. I know her type," Kevin lectured.

"Oh yeah, Kev, do you? Do you really?" I asked, my voice gradually getting louder with each word. I really didn't want to get into it with Kevin, confrontation and I just didn't go well together, but Kevin was crossing the line. "Because you know if I do recall you said the same damn thing to Nick when he and Allie started dating...and you know what? You were wrong! You were wrong then and you are wrong now! Now if you don't mind I'm going to go into my room and relax." I didn't give Kevin a chance to respond, I quickly turned and went into my room, slamming the door behind me. I walked through my hotel room and collapsed on my bed with a sigh. Why the hell did it seem like no one wanted me to pursue my relationship with Aubrey? They didn't even know her. I picked up the phone and dialed.

"Hello?" Allie said, picking up the phone.

"Al?"

"Uh, yeah, I'd hope I'm the only girl answering Nick's phone," she replied with a laugh. "What's up, Alex? Is something wrong?"

"Yeah...no...well, sorta..."

"Oh no, you're stammering, this must be pretty serious. You need to talk about it?" She asked. Even though she was dating Nick, she & I were very close and got along great - like brother and sister. She could always tell when something was bothering me.

"Yes, please." I said.

"Ok. Do you want me to come to you or do you want to come to my room?" Allie asked. I chuckled at the wording of her question.

"You know, if I weren't having this crisis right now a line like that could be taken a completely different way," I told her with a laugh. "Especially in my mind."

"Alex, you're too much! I'll be right over," she laughed before hanging up the phone. I did the same and waited for her to knock on my door. Allie had been through all of this when she and Nick started dating and I knew that if anyone was going to understand it, it would be her. I sighed and closed my eyes. I guess I must have dozed off because I was startled to hear Allie pounding on the door. "Hey Alex. Are ya okay?"

"Well, yes and no," I told her.

"Okay, well let's talk about it. You know I'm here for you."

She and I wakled over to the couch and took a seat. "Well, it's just all of this stuff with Aubrey. I'm so happy, and everything is going great, but Kevin is just blowing this all out of proportion. I just thought maybe you'd be able to offer some advice, since you and Nick went through the same thing."

She smiled and nodded her head. "Yeah, Kev did give me a hard time, didn't he? But I mean, now things are great & we all get along. Mayeb you just need to give all of this some time to sink in and let him see that this girl is for real, and not just using you. I met Aubrey in the lobby last night and she was such a sweetheart. I'm sure it won't take long for him to accept her."

"But what do I do until then? I mean, the way he's acting is making me afraid to bring her around," I explained.

"You have to bring her around, Alex. Otherwise Kevin will never get the chance to find out for himself how wonderful she is and that she's not going to hurt you," she started. "Look, Kristin is coming into town tomorrow to see Kevin, maybe you can set up some sort of dinner and you can take Aubrey. I mean, you know Kevin's not going to go off on you with Kristin there. Nick and I will go to if you need us to. I mean, Nick is very supportive of this whole situation too."

"You think it'll work?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Okay, well I guess I'll talk to Kevin about it then," I told her. "You and Nick will go too? Really"

"Sure, if you need us to."

"Thank you, Al. You're the best." She and I both stood up. I gave her a hug.

"I know. I try," she said. "I better get back to the room before Nick wonders where I wandered off to. Just call and let me know the plan for tomorrow, okay?" I nodded. "Okay, and don't worry. Everything is going to be alright." I walked her to the door and she left. I went back and took a seat, flipping on the television. I had some time to kill before I called Aubrey, even though I wanted to pick up the phone and call her right now. I also knew that I'd have to have another Kevin encounter before the night was over to invite him to dinner the next night. That was one phone call I was defnitely dreading, I'd had just about enough of Kevin for one day. I sat there for a minute and then thought, why not just get it over with. So I picked up the phone and dialed Kevin's room number.

"Hello?" He said.

"Kev...it's me..." I responded.

"What do you want?"

"Well, I was calling to see if you and Kristin want to go to dinner tomorrow night with me & Aubrey."

I guess he was contemplating his answer because he was silent for a moment. Finally, he spoke up. "Do you really think that's a good idea?" You know how I feel about this."

"Kevin, I want you to get to know her before you judge her. She's really a great person. Just please, come to dinner with us tomorrow," I practically pleaded with him.

"Ok, fine."

"Thank you, Kev. I promise, you'll love her," I said.

"Yeah, we'll see," he said, hanging up.

***