As Cassidy got out of the shower, she noticed the light on the phone was blinking.
“I wonder who called?" She pondered aloud. "Must be Alissa.”
Alissa was her older sister. She watched Kyle when Cassidy had to go out of town. They were very close, especially since their mother had passed away a few years earlier. Their father left when they were very young and none of them has seen him since. The two girls had only each other to rely on now. Alissa had also helped Cassidy through Law school. She didn’t know what she would do without her older sister.
She picked up the phone and listened to the voicemail, expecting to hear Alissa’s voice, only it wasn’t her voice she heard.
“Hi Cassidy? This is Alex...”
“Oh my God,” she said to herself. She was so shocked, she almost dropped the phone. “The man is stalking me...” she joked.
“I’m not stalking you or anything. I’m not a whacko,I swear.”
Cassidy laughed. At least they were on the same wavelength. She finished listening to his message then replayed it again. She was still in shock, she couldn’t believe that he was going through so much trouble to get in touch with her. After his message finished she saved it, then sat back in the chair trying to get her thoughts straight.
“Should I call him back?” she asked herself. She kept going over it in her mind, she didn’t know what to do. She wanted badly to call him back. She just felt that she had revealed too much of herself to him in her letter. She thought that if they met and she got to know him, she would end up falling for him him and getting hurt.
He didn’t seem to her the type to settle down, at least not at this point in his life and career. She heard that he had a girlfriend, but they were so on again, off again no one was positive. She also heard that he was rather promiscuous, but she felt that was just his way of reaching out to people. He needed companionship; sex was the only way he knew to get it.
She didn’t know why she looked so intensely at his life and his actions, but she did know that when she looked at him, she saw someone that she wanted to get to know better. She wanted to help him, she wanted to be his friend...but could she do it without falling in love with him?
Before she knew what she was doing, she picked up the phone and dialed his cell phone. She was incredibly nervous for some reason. After two rings he picked up.
“AJ here.”
“Hi AJ, it’s Cassidy,” she was able to get out, just barely.
“Cassidy! Hi! I’m so glad you called! How are you?”
“I’m okay, I was in the shower when you called, that’s why I didn’t answer”.
She wanted to smack herself for that stupid comment, she had no idea why she just told him that. ‘Way to go, Cass’, she said to herself.
“How long are you in town?” he asked, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt. His hands were shaking, he didn’t know why he was so nervous.
“Well, as of right now, until Friday. That could change though, depending on how my meetings go”.
“What do you have to do?” he asked, “I’m sorry for being nosy, I'm just fascinated by things that I don’t normally have the chance to deal with. I’ve never really known a lawyer, at least not one that I liked.”
“Gee, thanks!” she laughed, slightly insulted.
“I didn’t mean it like that, I just mean that I’ve never got to know any lawyer personally. I never really wanted to..” his voice trailed off. He was revealing more to her than he wanted to right now. “So, are you gonna have any free time while you’re down here?”
“It’s hard to say, it depends”" “No, I meant, it depends on what kind of opportunities pop up".
She couldn’t believe that she said that. She was supposed to be trying to stay away from him, THIS was not the way to go about doing it.
“Well, what if you had the opportunity to have lunch with a nice looking, intelligent Backstreet Boy?” He held his breath as he waited for her answer. He prayed she said yes.
“You mean Kevin is taking me to lunch?” she teased.
“Ouch, that was harsh,” he joked. He loved her sarcastic sense of humor, he knew they would get along great. “Okay then, how about lunch with the tattooed, funny looking, crazy, immature, rebel Backstreet Boy.”
“Hmmm. I don’t know. Let me think about it for a minute,” she joked.
He whistled the Jeopardy song as she pretended to think. They both laughed.
"Time’s up, what’s your answer?”
“Are you sure we could actually go out in public and have a peaceful lunch?”
“No,” he laughed, “but it’s fun to try”.
“Well, why don’t you come here to the hotel and we can just go to the hotel restaurant then?”
She couldn’t believe SHE was the one initiating this.
His eyes lit up.
“That sounds good. What day is best for you?” He asked, trying not to sound overly excited.
“Um, what about tomorrow?” she suggested.
“Great, how about 1 o’clock?”
“Sounds good to me.”
“Oh yeah, how will I know who you are? I don’t know what you look like,” he remembered.
“Don’t worry, I’ll come to you. I know what you look like. Just meet be inside the restaurant doors at one o’clock tomorrow,” Cassidy smiled to herself.
“Okay, no prob. I’ll probably have Marcus, my bodyguard with me, too.”
“Alright. I’ll see you tomorrow then?”
“You sure will. I can’t wait.” It came out of his mouth before he realized what he was saying.
“Me either,” she replied before she could stop herself. “Bye Alex.”
“Bye Sweetheart.....I mean, umm, Cassidy.”
He frequently called women ‘sweetheart’, but he saw her differently than other women he met and talked to. He wanted her to know that....or did he?

Chapter 7
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