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ANYONE FOR DINNER Chapter 1
I am about to walk down the aisle, to marry the man I love and I have my friends to thank for it. If they hadn't been around that night, I never would have done what I did and I would still be alone. I guess I should tell you how this all started. My best friend in the whole world was having a party. This is not earth shattering as she had them almost on a weekly basis. I would to if I was her. Carie led the life that I wanted. She had the money, the clothes, the car, the men. We had been best friends since junior high school. We looked after one another. This party was not unlike the other ones. The usual gang was there, plus a sprinkling of new people. She always was making new friends. But she never forgot about me. That was why I loved her. Anyway, I am getting off the topic here. This was just another party for us. I was flirting with one of the new guys that had come. I'd had too much to drink. I was trying to have as intelligent of a conversation as I could muster when I heard Mike calling me from across the room. "Hey, Aurora!" Mike called. "Hey, Mike!" I said back. "This guy over here says that the Backstreet Boys are all gay. I thought that you might want to dispute that." He yelled over the music. All my friends knew that I loved the Backstreet Boys. I had never made it a secret. Only the new people ever tried to pick a fight with me over them. I would defend them to the ends of the earth. "Oh he does, does he?" I got off Jason's knee and walked over to Mike and his new friend. Amazingly I was doing so in a straight line. I plopped myself down on Mike's knee and turned to this stranger, "So tell me what you are basing your information on." "Well, for starters, you never hear about their girlfriends." He started. I sighed and shook my head, "Okay,
you never hear about them because they are not the ones that are out
there. They are not the ones that have to please the fans. They are not
the ones singing. What else you got?" "Todd." He replied "Todd, do you have any idea what it costs for five guys to go on tour for six months, with a stage crew, a band and roadies?" He shook his head no so I continued. "Millions. For each guy to have their own bus, that's insane, any accountant, tour manager or record company will tell you that. They have their own beds. I have seen their bus. They have their own beds. You are wasting my time. What else do you have?' "I guess that is it." He finished with a shake of his shoulders. I raised my hands, "Once again I have defended my boys! Thank you very much, Aurora has left the building." I got up and started to walk away. "You were right Mike, she is
good." Todd said. He looked over at me and smiled, "So are you
a daring kind of person?" Todd brushed him off, "It's okay, nothing dangerous. Aurora I dare you to write a letter to the Backstreet Boys and invite them to dinner." I couldn't help myself, I started to laugh hysterically. Was this guy for real? "A letter? Surely you can't be that juvenile?" I asked. "You don't need to insult me. Just write a letter inviting them to dinner. Like they would ever accept. They have more important things to do." Todd said trying to convince me. I sat there looking at this guy. Where did he come from? Why was he doing this? I was drunk, that was the only reason why I agreed to do it. "Okay give me a piece of paper." I replied. Ten minutes later I had the letter written. I had addressed it to Howie, he was at this time my favorite. It was always changing, so I hoped that by the time they got it, he still was. I was thinking that I could just right the letter and then tell him that I would mail it the next day. But Todd had thought this through. He got a stamp from Carie and walked me down to the postal box and waited until I put the letter in. I completely forgot about it after that. The next time that we had a party Todd was out of town, so he wasn't there to remind me about it. Four months had passed after I sent that letter, in that time, the guys had announced a tour that would bring them to my hometown of Edmonton, Alberta. I was thrilled. The day that the tickets went on sale I managed, by some minor miracle, to get the very first pair of tickets. Front row centre. What more could I ask for? An up close and personal shot of Howie, AJ, Brian, Nick and Kevin. A month before they were scheduled to come to town, I had just gotten home from work and was flipping through the mail. Bills mostly, then I saw an envelope that had an American stamp. I looked at the return address. Backstreet Boys, Orlando, Florida. "No way." I said aloud. I quickly tore open the seal and pulled out a letter. I glanced at the signature on the bottom. It was signed "Howie D." It was an actual signature, not a stamp. "No way." I repeated. Dear Aurora. Thank you for your letter. It was a real treat to get an invitation for dinner. As you can imagine, we don t get a lot of home cooked meals when we are touring. On behalf of the Backstreet Boys, we accept your invitation and look forward to meeting you. We have rearranged our schedule and will be able to have dinner with you the day before we come for our concert in Edmonton. Give me a call and we will set up the particulars. Love. Howie D I couldn't believe it. My hands were
shaking. I glanced at the number at the bottom of the paper. It was his
cell number so I would be able to reach him at any time. I had no idea
where they were that day, but I picked up the phone anyway. There was a
nagging little voice in the back of my head that was telling me that it
was just my friends playing a trick on me. But then there was the hope
that it was for real. I grabbed my phone and quickly dialed the number. "This is Aurora Tingle. I uh ... I
was the one that wrote you that letter about dinner. I just got your
letter today." I said. "Okay, I would love to have you. I just can't believe this." I said. There had to be a twist to this somewhere. "Well, believe it. The guys and I are actually looking forward to it." Howie stated. "Do you have tickets to the show?" "Absolutely. I managed to get front row centre. I can't wait for it. It is actually my first concert of yours." I admitted. "Well, I will hook you up with some All Access passes. We want you to come backstage. Hey listen, I will call you when we get closer to your city. Give me your phone number." Howie asked. After I gave it to him, I quickly asked one question, "Howie, what kind of food do you want?" "Surprise us. Listen I have to go. We will talk with you later. I'm comin' AJ, hold your horses!" He yelled into the background. "Bye!" I called back as he hung up. I stood there in my kitchen in total shock. Like I had said, I had forgotten about that letter. And even when I was writing it, I never thought that in a million years they would actually come. And they were going to be here in four weeks. Did I have room for them? What was I going to make? What was I going to wear? The first thing that I did was call Carie and tell her what happened. I swore her to secrecy, I didn't want anyone to know how excited I was just in case it was all a joke. The next day we went shopping for just the right outfit. It had to be something that I could cook in and entertain in. I though about getting something for the concert, but then realized that jeans and a T-shirt would be enough. I knew that I would have enough room. All I had to do was put the leaf in the table and that would work. I was lucky enough that I had a great job that paid a lot and managed to live in a fairly large apartment. It had a master bedroom, a guestroom, one and a half bathrooms. The living room, kitchen and dinning room were all connected so there was lots of room. I just needed to shuffle things around a little. My next problem was, what do I cook for five guys that have traveled all over the world? From the bios that I had, I knew what their likes were. But I didn't want to cook five separate meals. I had to come up with something that was unique and that they would remember. But what? I decided to pull out all my cookbooks and started to thumb through them. Do I make appetizers and main courses and the whole lot? Or do I just stick with a main dish and dessert? There were too many questions for me to answer. I finally decided that I would make a caesar salad, my infamous lasagna and my favorite dessert, cheesecake. There had to be something there that I wanted, besides the guys of course. My next thought was drinks. I knew that Howie and AJ went to a lot of clubs, but did they drink? Brian and Kevin I wasn't sure about and Nick is only 19 so he may not want to drink. Although in my province, he was old enough. I decided to wait and ask Howie. He was supposed to call me with the final details the closer they got to Edmonton. A week before the concert I was a mess. I hadn't heard from Howie yet and I was beginning to wonder if it was all a joke. I had everything all mapped out as to how I was going to seat them. At the moment, Howie and Brian were the objects of my lust, so I was going to sit myself between them. I would be at the head of my table with Howie on my right and Brian on the left. AJ would be beside Brian, then Nick and then Kevin. I was sitting at my computer doing a little surfing on the internet. That was how I got all of my information on the guys. I felt that I was a little old to be buying magazines and everything, so I relied on the internet. I had just found yet another site devoted to Howie when my phone rang. "Hello." I said into the receiver. "Aurora, this is Howie. How are things?" He asked. There goes the beat of my heart, skipping at that the sound of his voice. "Howie, I am fine. I wasn't expecting to hear from you." "Why not?" "Well honestly, I figured this was all just a joke." "Nick get lost." Howie laughed away from the phone, "Nope, no joke. I was just calling to finalize things with you. Nick, what do you want?" I smiled on my end, this was so cute, "That's great, I have a couple of questions for you." "Just a second, Aurora, Nick wants to talk with you." Howie said. There was a little bit of fumbling as Howie handed him the phone. "Aurora, howz it going?" Nick asked. "Great, yourself?" I couldn't
believe that I was talking with Nick Carter. "AJ, I'm fine. How are you?" This was getting amusing. Was I going to get to talk with all of them? "I'm fine. I'm really looking forward to this dinner. Can't wait to meet you. Oh, here B-Rok wants to talk with you." More phone passing noises.
"Aurora, this is B-Rok, I just wanted to tell you that I am looking
forward to dinner. It's not often that we get home cooked meals on the
road." "Kevin, hi there. How are you?" I asked getting a little frustrated. "Just fine. Look I know that you wanted to talk with Howie, but I wanted to speak with you first. Us guys really appreciate this little invite that you extended. Howie is tuggin' on my arm, so I will give you back to him. See you in a week." Kevin finished and then handed the phone to Howie. "Aurora?" "Howie?" "You said that you had a few questions.' Thank God I finally got Howie. "Yeah, I pretty much have everything planned out. I just need to know what time you guys are going to be here?" "Well, we are driving in from Regina. I think that we are staying at the Fantasyland hotel that night. Let's say that we will be there about four in the afternoon, that way we can visit a little, get to know each other." Howie explained. Howie couldn't see it, but I was all
smiles. Hanging out with the Backstreet Boys. A dream come true for me.
"That would be great. I can plan to have dinner ready at around
six. Now my next question is, like I said I have everything all set out
as far as food goes, but I was wondering about drinks. Would it be out
of line to have alcohol or should I think of something else?" "Actually, the age limit in Alberta is 18, so if Nick wants to he can. I just need to know so that I have what you guys want." I explained. "Oh, shit. Uhm Aurora, we've gotta go. Just have some vodka, things like that. I will call you once we get to Edmonton and get directions to your place." There was a faint muffling as Howie held the phone away. "Bye Aurora!" All the guys yelled and then it went dead. What had I gotten myself into?
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