Chapter Nine

I crossed one leg over the other and smoothed my skirt over my thighs before brushing an invisible piece of lint off my suit jacket, and tucking my hair behind my ears. I continued to fidget impatiently as Tom, Danny, Dougie, Harry and their management crowded around the conference table reading the first review of their CD.

Tom was the first to finish so I watched as he sat back in his chair looking thoughtful.

"Well?" I finally asked as my impatience reached its threshold, "what do you think?"

He nodded still looking thoughtful, "its good."

"Good?" I repeated in disbelief. I reached into my bag and slammed several dozen teen magazines onto the table. "May I remind you what kind of publicity and reviews you guys got for your last CD?" I flicked to a marked page and opened my mouth to begin reading when Tom interrupted me.

"Ok, ok," he laughed, "its great. Really Amber. This is an amazing music magazine to be featured in."

"The only downside is that Dougie is wearing his penis t-shirt," Danny observed pointing at the large picture that accompanied the review.

Harry glanced over his shoulder, "why did they use this picture anyway? It's candid. There must have been hundreds of professional photos taken at the conference."

He was of course talking about the infamous press conference where I had forced Dougie to change his shirt.

I shrugged, "it was a creative decision. The candid photo best reflected your CD. All the professional photos looked too…" I paused and searched for the correct term, "boy band like."

"We are a boy band," Danny told me.

I shook my head, "no you're a band with male members. Boy band sounds too Westlife or Backstreet Boys."

The guys looked lost.

I waved my hand in annoyance, "it was a public relations decision. Lets leave it at that. So do we like it? Can I get on the phone to the editor and approve the thing to go to print."

The guys murmured various states of agreement.

"Excellent. I'll send copies to you when it's released next week. Although hopefully we should get some advance copies," I trailed off thoughtfully making a mental note to check. "Well that's it. The press junket is over, your CD is being released onto the market this weekend, and the launch is Friday night. It's been a pleasure working with you all."

What followed this little pronouncement were sincere thanks from the boys, and about a half an hour of discussion with Fletch about the launch party and the entire press junket. By the time I finally got everyone out of the conference room it was five o'clock on the dot and I allowed a huge smile to cross my face inwardly congratulating myself on a job well done. As I stepped out of the conference room, loaded down with paperwork I was just deciding I would spend the evening lying in bed painting my toenails when I walked smack bang into Danny.

"Oh geez Amber I'm sorry," he apologised as he bent down and gathered my papers for me.

I rubbed my forehead absentmindedly, "that's ok. What are you still hanging around for? I thought you guys left ages ago."

"The other guys did," Danny replied as he stood up and transferred the papers into my arms, "I wanted to uh talk to you."

"Sure." I looked at him curiously.

Immediately a soft glow seemed to erupt in Danny's cheeks. I watched fascinated as he fidgeted for several moments.

"I was wondering if maybe you wanted to come to dinner with me sometime before the launch?" he finally questioned.

I blinked, "oh." This was unexpected. Although considering how successful our 'drinks' date had been I suppose I should have expected it. "Um." I shrugged, "alright then."

"Really?"

I nodded, "yeah, why not?"

Danny smiled, "alright. How about Thursday? I'll pick you up at seven?"

"Sounds good."

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"It's raining men!" I sang loudly, "hallelujah, its raining men, every special men."

It was late in the afternoon two days later and I was bustling around my apartment doing laundry and cleaning in the only way I knew how… by blaring some old fashioned music, putting on a baseball cap, and singing very loudly and off key into the feather duster.

"Tall blond dark and lean, rough and tough and strong and meeeeeeaaan!" I sang as I chucked a pile of laundry like a basketball into the hamper and danced around in a circle.

"God bless mother nature," I shouted, "she's a single woman too, she took over heaven, and she did what she had to do yeah!"

I was just opening my mouth to continue when I spotted Lana standing in my doorway grinning in amusement. I stopped singing immediately and paused the CD player. I lifted my chin and crossed my arms across my chest. "Can I help you Lana?"

Lana grinned at me from where she was standing in my doorway, "don't stop on my account, that was seriously the best entertainment I've had all day."

I rolled my eyes, "shut up."

She laughed, "its raining men!" she imitated with over exaggerated hand movements of rain falling from the ceiling.

I chucked a pillow at her, "you better be careful. If you keep going I'm going to embarrass you at your wedding by re-enacting the time you got drunk and did the chicken dance on the bar at Illusion."

Lana's mouth dropped open, "you wouldn't."

I immediately began a slow and dramatic re-enactment of Lana being pulled kicking and screaming off the bar by security.

"Alright, alright, alright," Lana laughed chucking the pillow back at me. "I'll keep your embarrassing secrets safe if you keep mine."

"You got yourself a deal," I agreed as I gathered a stack of paperwork off the floor and distributed it onto my desk, "so what brings you to Muscrove Apartments?"

"Oh you know," Lana replied lightly, "this, that."

I raised an eyebrow and looked at her.

Lana grinned and plopped down onto my bed, "c'mon Amber, why do you think I'm here. I want to hear all about your date with Danny!"

"What date?" I asked curiously, even though I knew exactly what she was talking about.

Lana pointed at me, "don't play dumb with me Miss Blair. Danny mentioned it to me days ago."

"And you waited this long to come and see me?" I asked in surprise. I nodded, "I'm impressed."

Lana shrieked, "So it is true? You and Danny are dating again?"

I shook my head, "we're not dating. We're going on a date. Just one."

Lana waved her hand impatiently, "oh please, you two belong together. Everyone knows that."

"Yeah well I'm not so sure," I replied as I continued to tidy up my apartment, "I mean, I don't even think that…"

"Don't think," Lana interrupted, "you've done enough thinking about this whole situation." She watched my progress around the room, "I know you're a logical person and you like everything set out in stone, but maybe this is just one of those situations that's never going to make sense, no matter how much you think about it."

I pulled a stray hair from my pillow and frowned, "I just want to know where in the hell he was for six months."

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I was pretty sure my appearance resembled a mad woman. My eyes were glazed, my hair was a mess, and I couldn't find anything to wear.

I stormed across my apartment and banged on the wall over my bed that separated my room from Jay's. "Jay!" I yelled.

Silence.

"C'mon Jay I know you're in there. I'm about to have a heart attack here!"

"You are not," he called back.

"I don't have anything to wear," I whined, "can you come and pick something out for me?"

There was a clatter from next-door, footsteps down the hall, and the next thing I knew Jay had opened the door to my apartment and stepped inside as though he owned the place. I watched as he walked purposely across the room to my wardrobe, took one look at its bursting contents and looked at me in disbelief, "you're kidding right?"

I pouted, "don't let the amount of clothes fool you. I'm a quantity over quality girl."

Jay reached randomly into my wardrobe and pulled out a black dress, "how about this?"

I wrinkled my nose; "I bought that in the tenth grade."

"Then why do you still own it?"

"Sentimental reasons."

Jay raised an eyebrow and turned his attention back to my wardrobe, "what's the occasion?"

"A date?"

"Anyone I know?"

I sighed heavily, "yeah Danny Jones."

Jay looked at me in amusement, "the ex?"

"That's the one."

"Then what in the world are you so worried about?" Jay asked as he removed his attention from my wardrobe and plopped down onto my bed instead. "It isn't as though you've never dated the guy before.

I crossed my arms across my chest. "This is different."

"Why?"

I paced up and down my apartment before attempting to flatten my hair and sighing heavily. "Its kind of like…" I plopped down onto the edge of my bed and crossed my legs, "on the one hand it feels like Danny never left, and everything is just the same. But on the other, there's this six-month black hole between us that just won't go away." I bit at my fingernail, "its like those six months erased everything I thought I knew. So now we kind of just have to start all over again."

"And you want to right?" Jay questioned, "Start all over again?"

I frowned and shook my head, "no. I just want to know where in the hell he was for six months. I don't want to start anything until that question is answered." I bounced back to my feet and resumed pacing, "maybe once I understand what happened we'll be able to pick up where we left off."

Jay shrugged, "or maybe you'll just want to slap him and never lay eyes on him again."

I paused thoughtfully and nodded, "maybe." I resumed pacing, "but none of those really matters right now. I just need something to wear. Something nice. That way if all the shit hits the fan…" I grinned, "at least I looked damn good while it happened."

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To be continued...

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Authors Note: I think at some stage I said that this story would have 10 chapters... but now that I've reached 9, I think that there will probably be 12 or 13.