Claudia was anxious all day. She hated having to come back to work the day after Christmas, but she was too responsible to call in sick. It had been difficult waking up in the morning. She and Josh stayed up talking past two a.m. until she had taken him home.

        She kept thinking about Josh and the guys…wondering what they were doing and how much fun they were probably having. She was thankful that she didn’t have to be in the studio today…there was no way she’d be able to concentrate on recording. Being stuck in her office doing paperwork was almost worse, but she managed.

        Getting the day off for Josh had been a piece of cake. She told Jack about the previous night, about how Josh was positively glowing in a way that she had never seen out of him. That was enough to convince Jack that he deserved the day off.

        “I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist helping him,” Jack had said. But Jack also knew that spending time with his best friends might boost Josh’s confidence in a way that could help his music. Giving Josh a personal day was logical and for the best.

        “Nicole, are you home?” Claudia called as she stepped into her apartment that evening and closed the door.

        “Ow my head! Stop slamming doors would you?” Nicole said from where she was laying on the couch.

        “Still hung over, huh?”

        “A little bit. They’re the worst when you drink wine.”

        Claudia hung her coat and began putting her plan into action. “So did you have fun last night?” she asked, her tone becoming firm.

        “Yeah, the party was fun except that I drank way too much but---”

        “I wasn’t talking about the party, I was talking about you and Josh,” she said, sitting on the loveseat, picking up the newspaper.

        “Josh? What about him?”

        Claudia lowered the paper and stared at her friend. “Don’t even tell me you don’t remember.”

        “Remember? Remember what? What are you talking about?”

        “I can’t believe this. You don’t remember anything between you and Josh last night?” Claudia exclaimed, pretending to become angry.

        “Oh God this doesn’t sound good. What happened?” Nicole demanded.

        “Jeez, I would think you’d remember considering all the noise you guys were making,” Claudia said bitterly, returning her focus to the paper in front of her.

        “Noise?” she repeated. “You’re not saying what I think you’re saying are you?” Nicole asked, her eyes widening by the second.

        “Oh yeah. You know exactly what I’m saying.”

        “Josh? I slept with Josh? I didn’t do that…did I?”

        “Yes you did.”

        “Oh my god, I can’t believe I slept with him!” she cried standing from the couch. “And I don’t even remember it! Not a thing!”

        “Oh but that’s not even the best part,” Claudia continued, folding the paper in her lap.

        “How could it get any worse?”
 
        “I don’t know, why don’t you ask your fiancé? I think he would be able to explain it.”

        “Fiancé?” she shrieked. “He proposed?”

        “Yep.”

        “AND I SAID YES?! I can’t believe I was that drunk!”

        “Nicole, I cannot believe you would do something this stupid,” Claudia scolded, while secretly giggling on the inside. “Do you realize how irrational and completely stupid this is? Imagine how hurt Josh is going to be when you tell him that you don’t remember any of this.”

        “Oh god, what am I going to do? I’m engaged to a man that I don’t even remember having a one-night stand with! What am I going to tell my mother?”

        “I don’t know Nicole. Maybe you should’ve thought about that before you slept with my friend,” Claudia said angrily, holding the newspaper in front of her face again.

        Nicole put a hand her mouth that was now hanging open. “Oh my gosh, Claude, I didn’t even think of that! I am so sorry!”

        Claudia was biting her lip behind the newspaper, trying to hide her smile.

        “I never should have slept with him. That was stupid and…completely…stupid of me. I was way over the line. Claude, I swear I will never get that drunk ever again.”

        At this point, Claudia couldn’t hold back her laughter any longer. The complete fear and shock in Nicole’s face was simply hilarious. In only a moment she was doubled over on the couch, holding her stomach.

        “Claudia? Claudia! Why are you laughing?” Nicole demanded. “This isn’t funny! Claudia? Was this a joke? CLAUDIA!”
 
        When Claudia didn’t answer and continued laughing, Nicole grew red in the face.

        “I can’t believe you did that to me!” she yelled, hitting her with a pillow. “That was the meanest trick ever!”

        Claudia tried to calm down and wiped her eyes. “You should’ve seen your face! It was hilarious!”

        Nicole slumped down into the couch. “You’ve never been able to fool me like that before.”

        “I know it was great wasn’t it? You didn’t sleep with him, but you sure wanted to.”

        “What are you talking about?”

        “You stumbled in here at one thirty and started hitting on him.”

        “Wait a second, how do I know you’re not tricking me again?”

        “I’ll call him right now and you can ask him yourself,” Claudia insisted, reaching for the phone.

        Nicole grabbed her hand. “Tell me everything I said,” she demanded.

        “Well first, you got about two inches from his face and told him how cute he was. Then I started to take you upstairs to your room and you asked him if he would, ahem, tuck you in…”

        Nicole groaned.

        “Then basically, you invited both Josh and I into your bedroom if he was ‘into that sort of thing’.”

        She groaned again. “I really said that? I offered to have a threesome with him?” she shrieked with disbelief.

        “That you did.”

        Nicole buried her face in a pillow. “How embarrassing! Never let me come home drunk again!” she pleaded, her voice muffled by the pillow.

        “We learned a very important lesson today, kids. Never come home drunk because your roommate may trick you into believing you slept with a former pop star.”

        “I hate you.”

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