"Hey sweetie, I've gone to rehearsal and I have some press thingie after not sure when I'll be back. Look after your eye, okay?

Mandy

"Look after my eye?"

Nick raised his head to meet his image in the mirror. His left eye was black and blue and very swollen.

"Jesus!" he swore. "When did she do that?"

He gingerly touched it and swore again. The group had a concert tonight, she knew that, how was he supposed to go on stage looking like this?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Elisha was the first one in the gym so she started her warmup exercises. She had put one on of her favourite Backstreet Boys songs "It's Gotta Be You". She moved right from her exercises into dancing to the next song, "I Need You Tonight". She never noticed the door open or the young man slide in and sit down to watch her. Nick couldn't take his eyes off of her. She was expressing the emotions of the song so beautifully and her moves were striking and original. He loved how she moved and responded to the sound of his own voice. Elisha struck an ending pose to the song and held it for a few beats. "God, that was a good one!" she gasped, and started to walk over to where she left her gym bag. She was doing dancey steps over to the bag and almost tripped on a pair of out-stretched legs.

"Hey, what the....Oh hi, it's Nick, right?" Elisha asked casually.

"Yeah, I was here yesterday and had to leave kinda suddenly."

"I noticed that." she smirked. She and everyone else had noticed how he had been dragged out by that girl.

Nick blushed and dropped his head. "I was hoping I would be able to see you today." he mumbled.

Elisha pointed to the sunglasses he was wearing. "Wouldn't you be able to see better without those on?" she asked. She reached up and playfully tugged them off. "Oh my God, whose fist did you run into last night?"

Nick mumbled again, something about a doorknob and no lights.

"Well, if you were walking on your knees, I can see it...." she started to say.

"Look, can we drop it? I was wondering if you'd like to go out for a drink, or something, with me?" Nick had grabbed the glasses back from her, but left them to dangle from his fingers.

Elisha smiled and picked up his free hand. "But, I barely know you and you barely know me."

Nick gave her a crooked smile. "I know your name is Elisha, you're a dancer and you like the Backstreet Boys!"

"Oh very good, Nick, you're obviously a few points ahead of me and you're right, I do like the BSB."

Nick was thrilled, she either didn't know or didn't care that he was who he was. She was talking to him like a normal human and he was loving it. He couldn't resist asking her. "So...which one's your favourite?"

Elisha raised her eyebrows. "My favourite what - BSB?"

"Yeah." He looked so serious she laughed.

"Oh definitely the blond one, he's sexy as hell!" she deadpanned.

Nick burst out laughing. "Okay, so you know about me too, are we even now?"

Elisha sat back and regarded him, he was really good looking, almost too good looking. This was something she had never dreamed would happen to her. "Alright, I'm game, but what would Little Miss Temper have to say about you having a date with another woman?"

"Aw, she's out for most of the day, I think. When are you free?"

Elisha put her hands on his shoulders. "Wait a minute here. Is she your girlfriend?"

Nick nodded. "But we're kinda on again, off again, you know?"

"Yeah, I know." Elisha sighed, the good ones were always taken. "I'm not going to move in on her territory."

Nick removed her hands from his shoulders and held them in his own. "Can't we just go for a coffee, like friends? We were having fun here talking weren't we, friendly like?" Nick pleaded with her.

Elisha couldn't resist. "Okay, can the Bambi eyes, buddy!" She wrote down her number and asked him to call her around 2pm. "I should be done practice by then."

Nick smiled and turned before he went out the door. "Make sure you're there, I'll be calling right at two!"