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Jo was walking down the hall in their hotel in Stuttgart. As she turned a corner she bumped into Ryan, one of the members of the Backstreet band. He smiled at her. “Hey Jo! How are you today?”

“Oh, hey Ryan. I’m feeling ok, actually. You?”

“Well, much better now that I’ve met you.”

She blushed. “You’re too sweet.”

“Are you in a rush to something, or do you have time to grab a coffee with me?”

“I was going down to the gym, and after that I have to work, I’m sorry. Maybe some other day?”

“Yeah, I’ll take you out to dinner.”

She laughed. “Coffee’s fine.”

“See you around then?”

“Yeah. See ya!” She ran down the stairs to the gym in the basement of the hotel.


As she stood on the Stairmaster she thought about Ryan. He was cute. In a non-dangerous kind of way. Totally the opposite to Alex. She liked his messy blonde hair and his blue eyes. And the man had a sense of humour. He’d made her laugh more times than she could count during the sometimes seemingly endless hours when Alex and the rest of the boys were giving interviews and no one else was around. He knew most of her stories, and still liked her.

“My god...” she muttered to herself. “I haven’t thought about Alex all day.” She was happy about that. She still loved him, but if he couldn’t handle what had happened to her, she couldn’t make him. And then she had to move on. 'Maybe a dinner with him would be nice...' she thought, jumping off the Stairmaster and heading for the punching bag. She found a pair of gloves, put them on and threw a couple of punches towards the bag. But she couldn’t work herself into her usual frantic beating. She just wasn’t angry enough. “Geeez, I’m going soft.” She laughed to herself as she headed for another machine.


An hour later Jo came back up to the hotel room, and found Lina comfortably snuggled up in her bed.

“Hey. What are you doing here? In my bed?”

“Wanted to see you, but you weren’t here and I got tired of sitting up. So I borrowed your bed.”

“I can see that. Didn’t Leigh tell you I was at the gym?”

“Yup, but I didn’t think you’d be gone for such a long time.”

“I’ve been gone for an hour and a half.”

“Yeah, I know. Trust me, your hotel room gets boring after fifteen minutes. And I’ve been here for far more than that.”

“You have to be bored for another fifteen. I’m gonna take a shower, then I’m gonna watch Bay for Brian and Leigh.”

“You never have any time for me...” Lina pouted.

“You’re one to talk. Get your pregnant ass out of my bed,” she laughed.

“Nope. I’ll get out when you’ve showered.” She fluffed up the pillows behind her.

“You’re crazy.” Jo headed for the shower.

“I wanna watch Baylee with you. I have to get used to that kind of stuff, you know.”


Alex was walking around nervously in the lobby. Ashley had agreed to meet him there, and he’d sent a cab to pick her up from her home that was 30 minutes away. He fidgeted with the keys in his pocket, and when he turned around she was standing in front of him, smiling. She was beautiful with her short brown hair, her body enhanced by the tight jeans and teal tank top she was wearing. She had a black leather jacket over her arm, and was quite a bit shorter than him, even though she was wearing black stiletto heeled boots, similar to the ones he’d given Jo for her birthday. He quickly pushed the thoughts of her away and smiled at Ashley.

“Hey there! You look gorgeous!”

“Thanks! So do you.”

He looked down at his own worn jeans and the white shirt he had on. “Guess I’ll have to do.” He took her by the arm. “Should we?”

“I think we should.”


They had a nice evening together in a small restaurant, where they ate pasta and talked about nothing important at all. She was bubbly and nice, and he really enjoyed her company. But he couldn’t shed his feelings of guilt towards Jo. He had to ask Ashley to repeat what she’d said numerous times, because he was wondering what Jo was doing at that very moment, if she was missing him or even thinking about him.


Jo wasn’t thinking about Alex. Most of the time. He sneaked his way into her head when she didn’t have anything to do, so she kept busy, first tidying up after Baylee, then watching Lina putting him to bed, and after that a girls-night with a movie on the TV and tons of popcorn. She’d seen that one of the few un-dubbed channels was showing The Green Mile, one of her favourite sad movies, so she made Lina stay with her to watch it.

“It’s... Just so... SAAAD...” she sobbed, reaching for a box of tissues as the credits started to roll.

“Yes it is.” Lina wiped away some tears from her own face, then patted Jo on the knee. “How does it feel to have something else to cry about?”

“Fabulous. I wish I’d done this days ago.” Jo blew her nose.

“I don’t think it would have worked then. Today was the perfect day.”

“I guess it was. God, I feel so much better!”

Lina gave her friend a hug. “I’m glad.”