“Stop dreaming about fucking AJ and wake the fuck up!” Amelia jumped and opened her eyes to see Lucy standing at the foot of the bed. She had been dreaming.

            Amelia sat up groggily and heard the click of a glass being set on the nightstand beside her. She glanced to see that it was a screwdriver and nodded gratefully as she grabbed the ice cold glass and took a sip.

            “Don’t you know that it’s considered rude to fantasize about screwing a guy that is staying in the same hotel without offering to screw him for real?” Lucy asked as she plopped on the bed next to Amelia who was too busy shaking her head and sipping at the vodka and orange to say anything. When she came up for air she replied,

            “You do realize that there are certain things that you should keep to yourself and not say out loud, right?”

            “Oh please, yes I’m going to be so worried about Howie’s virgin ears. Meanwhile which of the Backstreeters was caught out back of a club getting head from a fan?” Amelia jerked her head up and wrinkled her eyebrows.

            “You never told me that!”

            “Didn’t I? I was the one that found him. Had to make him give me a courteous blow job in return, just so I wouldn’t tell, ti he,” Lucy bounced off the bed and took a slurp of her own screwdriver. Amelia scratched her head and shook it once more.

            “Really Luce, there are just some things I don’t need to know about you and Howie.”

            “Oh please, just because he and I are fuck buddies and you can’t admit that you’d like to jump his best friend’s bones, is no reason to be jealous,” Lucy replied as she refilled her glass and trotted over to the closet.

            “I’m not jealous, I’m just a bit over informed of you two’s so called relationship.” Amelia sipped some more of her drink and felt the pain in her head ebb away.

            “He and I have no problem with our relationship; it’s you and AJ, and Kevin, obviously,  that seem to be so perturbed by it. Haven’t you ever heard of friends with benefits? It’s been quite satisfying for me,” Lucy waggled her eyebrows. Amelia just shook her head and resumed drinking her screwdriver.

            “Yeah, and meanwhile you only see each other on tours, never mind a relationship that satisfies more than what’s between your legs.”

            “That requires an entirely different type of guy. A sweet, polite, even tempered, handsome and most importantly, okay with me sleeping around. Because you don’t get good sex and a life partner in the same package.” Amelia rolled her eyes. If only her parents knew what her best friend was really like, they’d pack her up, take her back to Russia and find her a nice quiet husband with which to have a nice round dozen of kids.

            “You do realize that there are some people that disagree with you?” Amelia replied with a raised eyebrow.

            “What, like you?”

            “Yes like me.”

            “What do you know about it? The only experience you’ve got is with that asshole you finally had the sense to dump after, what eight years? And I certainly wouldn’t call him relationship material.”

            “Lets not talk about Jordan, please. I left him behind a long time ago.” Amelia shivered slightly, not wanting to remember the man that had eaten up her entire high school and college years. Lucy turned around and opened her eyes wide.

            “Oh yes, lets talk about Jordan. The evil maniacal, twisted sick fuck, for which it took you getting hit several times, to realize what an asshole he was, even though your best friends had been telling you for years he was that said, evil, maniacal, twisted sick fuck,” Lucy gestured with the hand that held her drink and Amelia cringed as a little vodka and orange spilled on the rug.

            “How about how he made you so scared to even consider going out on a date with anyone else that you refused at least a dozen blind dates that Leigh and I set you up with, or how you won’t trust any man at all because you think he’ll be like Jordan!” Lucy often got loud and self righteous when she talked about Jordan. Amelia couldn’t blame her, she was right. Jordan had taken her and twisted her inside out before leaving her with two black eyes when she told him she was breaking up with him.

            It was not a good relationship. Amelia was so desperate to be in a relationship with someone because Leigh and Lucy always had boyfriends that she agreed to go out with the first boy that had asked her. She was sure at some point that she had loved him. In the beginning things were okay. They went out, they had fun, she liked being with him. Then he became controlling. He expected Amelia to spend her time with him and only him. He didn’t want her to spend time with Leigh and Lucy. He thought she was cheating on him. Another time she was wearing too much makeup. The clothes she wore were too revealing. Everything upset him.

            After high school, when she went to college, they remained a couple, long distance. But Amelia was away from him and that meant Lucy and Leighanne had a chance to make her see what he really was. Unfortunately for him, that’s exactly what happened.

            When Amelia went home after graduation, she decided that it was time to talk to Jordan and break it off. Aside from the obvious, that she was moving to Los Angeles to work for a record company, she no longer wanted to be with him. She tried to explain, he got mad, began hitting her and didn’t stop until Lucy and Leighanne had chased him off with a baseball bat. She hadn’t seen him since.

            Lucy closed her eyes, shook her head, took a sip of her drink and sighed. Then she opened her eyes.

            “That of course was until you met AJ. For the first time in ten years you opened up and accepted him into your life. You were friends with him right from the get go. Leigh and I were wondering how long it was going to be before you two started going out, but it never materialized. Neither one of us thought you’d be dumb enough to allow Jordan to fuck you over for the rest of your life.” This time Amelia sighed. Lucy was right. Lucy had always been right, she’d been the more confidant one, the one who could be dumped by a guy, go right back out and find another one and then be the dumper. She was never easily broken up by a relationship. Maybe that because she had been raised differently, without the traditional European outlook on life, that things even if things are bad, you stay with them because it is all you’re ever going to get.

            “You’re right Lucy, you are very right.” Amelia replied and took another deep breath. But it still didn’t change things.

            “Look at it this way. AJ, is well AJ, eventually he will find someone, and I’m not talking about because he’s AJ McLean, the Backstreet Boy, I’m talking about how he is tired of being alone and will settle for someone who doesn’t have a millionth of the connection you two have. No one wants to be that lonely, especially if the perfect person is right there,” Lucy was now sitting beside Amelia on the bed and she curled an arm around her best friend’s shoulder.

            “And I’m pretty sure you don’t want to see some little gold digging hussy strutting around with his credit card and the latest Dolce and Gabana fashions, am I right?” Amelia chuckled and yet she nodded.

            “And I’m not trying to mock your man, however, most of them are pretty dumb and think that they are finding a good one even if she empties his checking account. Don’t make him make a mistake. Look at it this way, you are doing a gold digging intervention. You are keeping him from making that mistake that eventually all older, celebrities do, marry a blond money grubbing ho,” Lucy grinned and Amelia chuckled.

            “Hey, he’s not much older than us. He’s thirty, I’m twenty-seven and you’re twenty-eight, no need to be ragging on how old he is.”

            “All the more reason to go after him honey. You want to nab him while he’s still got room to tattoo your name. Come on, we have a welcome back breakfast to go to, a Nick Carter to pinch and a Sweet D to really pinch.” Lucy squeezed her shoulder and jumped up to find her clothes.

            Amelia knew she had to get up, but she did not even possess enough energy to put her glass down, let alone see people, including the person she was in love with. But she had no choice. She was stage manager, and that meant she was integral to the plot. Big producers and managers had been known to postpone entire tours for Amelia to come on and work with them. She couldn’t back out now.

            She dressed in something casual, but nice and with a good sized ball of dread slowly growing in her stomach, went downstairs to the hotel dining room with Lucy on her arm. No one was there yet aside from Kestin and his fledgling tour crew. They were new people, kids right out of college that had never been on a tour before. One of them was supposed to be Amelia’s assistant, so she figured she had better go over and introduce herself.

            “Meals! Hey, glad to see you, I’m sure you want to meet your assistant, this is Kyle Lambert, just graduated UC Santa Barbara this month,” Kestin boomed as she walked up to him and the group of obviously nervous crew members. Kestin was a long time veteran of the music business with thirty years under his belt. He had been on tours with the likes of Blondie, ZZ Top, Bruce Springsteen and Madonna. His short brown hair was beginning to gray, his belly was getting a slight paunch and he’d been forced to get glasses after he’d walked into a retaining beam during a concert, other than that, he was the same man he’d been when he started working as a roadie in 1980. He worked his way up and managed his first tour when he was twenty five, married his wife when he was twenty six and had never taken a year off or quit a tour. He was happiest when he was working a tour, much like Amelia. That was probably why they got along so well.

            “H-h-hi,” Kyle replied. He was much shorter than Kestin, though most people were as he stood at six foot and nine inches, and he looked nothing like someone who would be working on a tour. He was dressed in a white button down shirt, black slacks, dress shoes, a tie and his platinum blond hair was slicked back like he was a taller version of Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter movies. He had a round face and he was chewing his lip as he stood beside Kestin with his arms crossed.

            “Nice to meet you Kyle, I’m Amelia Yurikovick, but everyone calls me Meals, and this is my best friend Lucy, she’s one of the backup singers,” Amelia held her hand out and Kyle grasped it with a nervous shake.

            “First tour?” Lucy asked as Kyle shook her hand in turn.

            “Yeah, I’m a bit nervous. If you couldn’t tell,” he laughed with a bit of jitters.

            “Don’t worry of all the people you could have as your boss, you sure as hell lucked out with Amelia. She’s especially not strict when it comes to the dress code,” Lucy poked Kyle in the stomach and he looked down at his ensemble.

            “Too formal?” He asked.

            “Have you taken a look at Kestin?” Meals replied with a gesture towards Kestin who was sporting a pair of shorts, ratty old sneakers and the Green Day T-shirt Meals had brought back for him on her tour with the band.

            “Get yourself a comfortable pair of sneakers, a few of the concert T’s and your favorite jeans, you’ll be good to go. You certainly don’t have enough time to get that stuff dry cleaned and ironed,” Lucy replied. Kyle chuckled and nodded.

            “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Just trying to make a good impression.”

            “Don’t worry, we’re all pretty laid back around here, you don’t have anything to worry about,” Meals replied and she was just turning to say something to Lucy when something hit her with the force of a ten ton truck. There was a flurry of arms and legs as she toppled to the floor, a pair of arms knotting themselves around her and cushioning her fall.

            “If you ever, ever, go away again for six months and not call me, I will track you down, stuff you in a sack and drag you back to Florida!” It was AJ who had tackled her, of course it was him. No one else was insane enough to football tackle her from across the room and think it was okay.

            “Yet another touchdown, AJ, eloquent as always, and most certainly entertaining,” Lucy chuckled as AJ was still wrapped around Amelia who was trying extricate herself.

            “I get the point, now would you please let me up?” Amelia was trying to be stern, but that was a lost cause because she always smiled when she was around AJ, awkwardness at not calling him for six months, well, that really wasn’t an issue now.

            “No way, not until you swear, on your life, or your signed Barenakedladies album, that you’ll make sure that you call me, whenever you can’t see me in person.”

            “You sure are making an awful lot of oaths on the album sweetie,” Lucy laughed as Amelia nodded and was lifted off the floor by Kestin and Kyle. AJ took no more notice of the other people in the group as he hustled Amelia off to a private table.