“Can I get you anything else, Mr. Carter?”

Those were the first words that she ever spoke to him and he never forgot them. Looking back he considered that moment to be the start of their relationship, even if she didn’t. While she was waiting expectantly for an answer he was thinking that this was probably going to be the girl he spent the rest of his life with, or at least the rest of the night with.

“I’m good for drinks,” he finally answered just as he passed the point of being able to stare at someone before they started to think you were either deaf or a weirdo, “but there is something I would really like.”

She straightened out the blue blazer that made up her uniform and gave him a smile worthy of a toothpaste commercial, “Anything.”

“Your number.”

“Anything but that.”

In those days he rarely encountered a girl that would play hard to get and none had played harder than Peggy Renshaw. He was positive that had made her more attractive than she already was. He found her physically irresistible. She was tall and slender (but not skinny) and looked as though she had spent plenty of time in a yoga studio given the strong lines in her shoulders, arms and calves. Her dark brown hair was thick and long, hitting midway down her back and he imagined for a moment (a lengthy moment) what it would be like to hang on to it while doing her from behind. The colour of green in her eyes was unlike anything he had ever seen before. He didn’t think that hunter green eyes existed but she had them and he loved them.

Although he was one quarter of one of the biggest selling boy bands of all time it was pretty normal for him to fly on commercial airlines (first class of course) but as luck would have it he and the rest of the Backstreet Boys had missed their flight that day en route from New York City to a charity golf tournament in Los Angeles. As a result their record company was footing the bill for a private jet to take them from one side of the country to the other. There were only the four of them on board along with two flight attendants; Peggy and a flamboyantly gay man named Eric.

He hadn’t seen her until a few minutes into the flight but once he did he was hooked. She wouldn’t tell him her name, so kept asking until she did. She wouldn’t give him her number, so he asked again. He continued the playful back and forth until the wheels of the jet touched the tarmac at LAX. By the time he stepped off the plane he had a name, he had a phone number, and he knew that she was based out of New York but rarely home given her occupation.

His occupation is what kept him from calling her for nearly six months and when he did he had to go through the same playful banter to get her to go out with him. He managed to catch her on an layover in Los Angeles and they spent their first date enjoying dinner and getting to know one another while commuters rushed off to catch planes all around them.

One date turned into two, which turned into ten and soon Nick found himself travelling all over the country, not just for the current leg of the Backstreet Boy’s current tour, but to meet up with Peggy. They rarely had enough time together to venture any further than either the airport or the closest hotel but he was happy to simply be with her.

His tour finished, but he continued to keep packing overnight bags and booking hotel rooms. Their time off never seemed to coordinate - she was busy working when he was off and he always seemed to be in the studio or in the middle of a run of shows when she had vacation booked. He wondered at times if this was what his previous girlfriends had felt like every time he had to tour and they had to chase him around the world.

Time continued to fly and it eventually got to a point where Peggy was the only woman he was seeing and the only one he wanted yet he had never been able to introduce her to his friends or show her his home. It was the one thing that frustrated him most about their relationship. For the first time in his life he wanted to be as close to someone as possible but she was always far away.

“Happy anniversary,” he muttered against her skin as his lips marked a trail between her breasts. Sweat was glistening on her skin from the last hour of lovemaking and the salt tasted sweet on his tongue.

As soon as his feet touched the ground in Miami he had rushed off to meet Peggy at the swanky hotel he’d booked for them. She had taken the weekend off so they could spend their first anniversary together on the beach. Nick was fairly certain they wouldn’t actually make it to the beach but they always had the best of intentions. He didn’t even get a chance to say hello to her when he walked through the door of the hotel room because her lips were on his immediately. They had fallen into bed and used their bodies instead of their words to express how much they’d missed one another.

“Happy anniversary,” she replied, her slender fingers pulling at the small hairs at the nape of his neck, something he had always loved.

He kissed his way back up her body, stopping at her lips as his hips settled against hers. She always expressed to him how much she loved the feeling of his body weight against hers and he believed they fit together that way better than any woman he’d ever laid with. He smiled, feeling her foot run gently up the length of his calf as they just breathed together.

“I love you,” he whispered. “There’s something I need to ask you.”

He knew from the sudden look of excitement in her eyes that she thought the next question was going to have something to do with marriage but he still felt that it was too soon for that. He was still at the point where he couldn’t understand why anyone would need a piece of paper to validate their relationship and he did his best to not bring it up. He was positive that, just like all the girls before her, it would lead to a disagreement with Peggy and become something they couldn’t see eye to eye on. He hated to disappoint her, especially considering the day but he was hoping by the end of his question she would be happy with him.

“I was thinking about what you said last time we got together, about how much you missed your family and didn’t get to see your nieces enough. With your sister being sick and everything I know how hard it must be for you to spend the weekend here in Miami with me when you could be in New York with them. You can take some time to consider this and you don’t have to answer right away but...I want you to quit your job.”

“What?” she asked, her voice flat. Her body immediately tensed up and he held her a little closer so she wouldn’t move away.

“Just hear me out, okay? You want to be closer to your family but you’re always travelling. I want to be with you but we can barely ever find time to be in the same place at the same time. We’ve been together for a year but I’ve never been to your apartment, and you’ve never seen my condo or met my dogs. I’ve never met your family or friends. We spend all of our time together holed up in hotel rooms desperately trying to cling to what little time we have.
I love you and that won’t change but I want to be with you. I want to show you off to my friends and go to dinner with you outside of an airport or a hotel room. I want to wake up next to you every morning in my own bed. I want you to choose me and leave your job. There are other jobs. Hell, you don’t even really need to work for a while if you want to just chill before I go back into the studio. I’ll pack up my place in LA and we’ll find somewhere close to your family in New York and live together.”

She wasn’t even looking at him and he sighed, having guessed that this was the way the conversation would go. He didn’t want to upset her on their anniversary but given the circumstances the only other option was to do it over the phone. If that conversation went like their other arguments it would have ended with him being hung up on.

“Baby,” he sighed, burying his face in the crook of her neck. “I just want to be with you.”

It was a long silence before he felt her start to stroke the back of his hair gently. He dropped a kiss against her neck and pulled back to look into her eyes.

“Okay,” she nodded. “You’ve given up so much by spending what little free time you have chasing me all over the country for a year. You’ve always been the one being flexible and accommodating for me so it’s only fair that I give a little for you. This was never meant to be my career and maybe I was only supposed to do it long enough to find you. I’m tired of this schedule anyway, I just needed a reason to go and I’m happy for it to be you. Are you sure you want to move in together though?”

“I’m sure,” he smiled. “There’s nowhere I’d rather be.”

She smiled brightly and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, hugging him tightly, “Okay,” she repeated, this time with excitement in her voice. “Let’s move in together!”