A New Day
Chapter 4
8:40 the next day, AJ drove up to the offices of The Firm ready to go to the meeting. He climbed out of his truck and turned to go into the building, when the sound of a car horn startled him. He turned around and spotted Brian driving into the parking lot. He smiled and waved at his friend before leaning back against his truck to wait for him.
"Hey Boner." Brian called as he got out of his car.
AJ grinned and shook his head. Brian was way too chipper at this time of the morning.
"Hey Rok." He called back, walking over and giving him a hug.
"So what's up?" Brian asked as the two made their way inside.
"Not much." AJ replied. "How 'bout you? How's Leigh?" He asked.
"She's great. She's in the running for a new film. Looks really promising."
"Oh man that's great! Tell her good luck from me. Tho it's not like she'll need it. Any casting director who turns her down is a fool." AJ grinned as he slapped Brian on the back.
"Thanks Bone. I'll tell her." Brian said as he looked sideways at his friend. He wondered what was going on, he hadn't seen AJ this animated and happy in a long time. Since he had returned from rehab he had been much more introspective, seemingly at peace with himself, but they had all noticed this lingering feeling of sadness swirling around him. But suddenly the fog seemed to have lifted, returning the happy, playful AJ that Brian had known and loved when he had first met him.
Brian wondered at the transformation, and what had caused it. He was about to ask, when he suddenly realised that they were at the conference room. Unwilling to question him now, Brian instead made a mental note to talk to him later and filed it at the back of his mind.
The two entered the room, they were not surprised to find Kevin already inside, but the sight of Nick there, ready and waiting was enough to stop them dead.
"Oh. My. God." Brian said, completely in shock.
"That's what I said." Kevin drawled, highly amused.
"Who are you and what have you done with our Kaos?" AJ demanded.
Nick glared at them "Ha ha ha. Very funny guys."
"I thought it was." AJ grinned.
"Thought what was?" Howie asked as he walked in behind AJ and Brian. He stopped dead as he saw Nick. "Somebody buy the devil a parka, cos I think hell just froze over."
Nick remained indignant as the others all laughed. "Jeez. Anyone would think I'm never on time."
The others just laughed at him. Nick swore under his breath to himself. The only reason he had deliberately gotten here early was so he would get a chance to talk to Howie before AJ arrived. After almost 10 years together, the guys were all pretty predictable. Whenever they had a meeting to attend, Kevin and Howie were first to arrive, followed by Brian, AJ would turn up a few minutes before the meeting was due to start, and Nick would always be last, usually cutting things very fine. Therefore, Nick had thought that he would have a few minutes to talk to Howie before AJ arrived. It was just typical that the one time he needed to speak to Howie, was the one time that he was the last to arrive.
With that the rest of their management team entered the room, and the meeting got underway. Nick tried to pay attention, but he found his attention drifting more than once as he watched covertly watched AJ. This morning he looked normal, or as normal as AJ ever was, and he was paying close attention to the suits who were talking about some possible collaborations for the new album.
Nick glanced at Howie, who was sat beside him. He looked tired, as if he hadn't gotten much sleep. Nick wondered if he had been out, and that's why he hadn't answered his phone. He really needed to talk to him. He saw Howie glance up at AJ, who immediately turned his gaze to Howie, as if he had sensed Howie's eyes on him. The two shared a quick smile, before turning their attention back to what Kevin was saying. Nick blinked. What the fuck? Something about that little exchange struck Nick as strange, but he wasn't sure what. After all, Howie and AJ were best friends, so of course they would smile at each other. But there was something about that smile, something that made it stand out.
Nick shook his head to clear it. He was delusional. It was way too early in the morning to be trying to think about this shit. Next thing he would be considering that Howie and AJ were lovers. Yeah right. Like that could happen without the rest of them knowing. Not likely. He was just letting his imagination run riot again. He reached over to the coffeepot that was sitting on the table. He needed caffeine. There was no way in hell he was gonna figure any of this shit out until he'd at least drunk a lot more coffee.