Chapter 33

**TWO WEEKS LATER**

Nick and Gwen had gotten pretty much settled into their new house.  They had filled it with furniture and Gwen had been making personal touches everywhere.  Nick was once again amazed to find out that she had wonderful taste and he loved what she had done with the place.  It had become home to them in a short time and he knew that the main reason for him feeling that way was because he finally was able to go to sleep every night and wake up every morning with his soul mate.  This is the first time that the couple had spent two full weeks in the same bed with no interuptions in time with all of the touring and promotional crap that went along with being a Backstreet Boy.  They were so happy.  Nick got a call to days ago saying that there was a meeting with their management team.  He was nervous about it because he had a feeling that the fairy tale life he had been living with Gwen was about to end.  Still, the optimist in him hoped that the purpose of the meeting was to tie up loose ends.

**

"I thought that you guys had this all worked out so we could stop now, we had a deal," Nick said, anger apparent in his voice.

"The problem is that when your contract with Jive was renegotiated, they added a clause in that they could exercise  two album option at the end of the term depending on the status of your album sales.  The condition was that 75% or 5 of your albums were still in the Billboard Charts.  Not that we didn't have faith in you uys but albums that are 5 years old and made by boybands usually don't stick around in the charts," Mike, one of their managers, plainly stated.

"So what does this mean?" AJ asked?

"As you know, your albums are still in the charts.  Jive has exercised the 2 album option - so you have three years to record and promote two albums for Jive or they will litigate."

"So we aren't done?" Kevin asked, the disappointment obvious in his tone.

"No," Mike flatly replied.

The disappoint was obvious for all of the guys, they had all planned their futures based on the end of the group.  None looked more upset than Nick, he sat there, staring into space.  This fit nowhere in the plans he and Nick had made for their future.  They were still getting settled into their new house and adjusting to living together, thought neither one was difficult, they were happy.  This threw a wrench into their plans and broke Nick and Gwen's promise to eachother that they would be able to start a normal life together.

Chapter 34
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