The first time I met him, I didn’t know who he was.

It was at Wal-Mart in L.A.  of all places.  3:00 a.m.  Not a lot of people are shopping at that hour.  I wouldn’t if I didn’t have to, but I’d run out of feminine hygiene supplies and I didn’t want to wait until morning to get some.  I wasn’t regular, so I never remembered to stock up on those things before I needed them.

I wouldn’t have noticed that he was there since he was one aisle over in the baby supplies, but he had a screaming child with him.  Who the hell brings a screaming child into Wal-Mart at 3:00 am?  Shouldn’t the child be in bed?

I probably wouldn’t have said anything except for the fact that my head was pounding and the screaming child was making it worse. So, with a box of tampons in one hand and a box of pads in the other, I marched on over to the aisle beside me to see what the hell was going on.

He had a baseball cap pulled down low and had sunglasses on.  At 3:00 am indoors.  This should have been my first clue that this might be someone famous, but  this was Wal-Mart.  I’d seen stupider shit around here than that.  Like the lady in a purple zebra print leotard that was hanging out by the registers when I walked in earlier.  At least this man appeared to be wearing appropriate clothing as was his child.

“Shhh…James…we’re almost done here,”  he was cooing to the child, apparently named James.

“Shouldn’t he be in bed?”  I cried, probably a little louder than I needed to.  James started crying even louder.

He turned and looked at me.  From what I could see of his face, he blushed.  “Uh…as soon as we get diapers, we’ll be headed there,” he said.  “Please don’t say the “b” word, it just makes him more upset.”

“Did you drag him out of b…sleep to get diapers or something?  Why don’t you have diapers at home at 3:00 in the morning?  Why is he crying?”  Why the hell did I care anyway?  I waited for an answer, even though I should have walked away.  I really didn’t need to know.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but we’ve been on a plane all night and I ran out of diapers at the airport,” he said curtly, grabbed a package of diapers and walked right by me.  James screamed in my ear as they walked by.

I closed my eyes, trying to settle my headache down, not caring that I’d just been a bitch to a guy who seemed to be having a bad night.  Hell, I was having one too.  That kid really needed to shut up.

There was only one register open at this hour.  I had the pleasure of standing in line behind him and James, who never once stopped crying, but who did manage to pull the guy’s sunglasses off and throw them at the lady at the register.

I rolled my eyes when the lady thought James was the cutest thing and just laughed at the sunglasses being hurled at her.  She just handed them back to the guy.  While he had frowned at me, he smiled at her.  It was a nice smile, but all I wanted was for him get his kid to stop crying.

The two of them chatted about music and some sort of record while she rang up his purchase.  I wasn’t really paying attention to the conversation.  I was alternating between closing my eyes and rubbing my temples with my free hand.

The man and James finally left the store and she rang up my purchases.  “Weren’t they just the cutest?”  The lady asked.

“Uh huh.”  I agreed, hoping the conversation wouldn’t go anywhere.  No they weren’t the cutest. 

“He was just as sweet as they always say he is,”  I didn’t think he was sweet as all, but I wanted to pay and just get out of there.

“Uh huh,” I agreed again and handed over money for my purchase.

The lady looked at me funny, “Don’t you know who that was?”

I shook my head, realizing she was going to tell me anyway.  “That was Howie D.”

“Howie D?” I had no idea who that was.

“From the Backstreet Boys.”

“Oh,”  I said.  I wasn’t really a fan of them.  Sure I’d heard of them, who hadn’t, but I was more into country.  I hadn’t realized they were still around.

“So who’s your favorite Backstreet Boy?” she asked and handed me my bag.

I shook my head. “Don’t have one.  Not a fan.”

“Please don’t tell me you were more into N’SYNC?” 

I shook my head again.  “Not into boy bands.  Country fan.”

“Oh.  I love me some Luke Bryan,” she said as I started to walk away.  Yeah, I couldn’t agree more.  I loved me some Luke Bryan as well.

Once outside, I realized that Howie D hadn’t gotten very far.  He was standing out front with his bag and crying James.  He was trying to balance his phone in all that mess, talking to someone about McDonalds.  Was McDonalds even open right now?  And why couldn’t he just leave so his kid could sleep.

“Sorry James, Uncle Nick is on his way,” I heard Howie D say to James. 

I looked him over as he was on his phone.  No I didn’t recognize him.  But he was cute.  By the time I was done looking at him, he was done with his phone.  I quickly looked away.

“Quit glaring at my kid like that,” he said.  “You’re scaring him.”

“Looking at you, not him,”  I admitted.  “The woman at the register says you’re a famous singer.  I hope you don’t sing anything like your kid screams.”

“Yeah, well, I hope your kid, if you have any, isn’t as bitchy as you.”

“She’s not.  She’s worse,”   I said and stalked away as he glared at me.  I didn’t have any kids, but he didn’t need to know that.

Yeah, my first meeting with Sweet D, wasn’t very sweet at all.