The next morning, I woke up earlier than usual. Probably because it was my first morning at Nick's house. I got up, took a shower and got dressed. I picked out my favorite outfit: a ruffled, white midriff shirt I found in a store called "Hot Topics" my first week in Texas. They had all these clothes designed after mideval times and I loved going there for clothes. I wore a pair of black shorts with my shirt and white socks with black suede shoes. I left my hair down to let it air dry. I went downstairs to start breakfast.

I found Nick already down there, drinking orange juice and reading a magazine. He looked up when I walked in. His eyes widen a little. Nobody would've noticed unless they were looking straight at him, which I was. He smiled.

"What are you doing up so early?" he asked.

"I always wake up this early," I said. "Well, not this early, but considering it was my first night at your house, I'm not used to being here."

"Now it's your home, too. Shall we start breakfast?"

"Of course, right away."

I started gathering up all the things I would need to make breakfast. I noticed Nick looking at me strangely. I stopped what I was doing.

"What is it?" I asked him.

"I thought maybe I could help," Nick smiled again. "In fact, please, let me help. I'm not used to having my breakfast made for me anymore."

"Oh, sure." I once again felt my cheeks flush.

"Rosary," Nick said. "I asked you to be my house sitter, not my maid, my cook, or anything else."

"Sorry. It's just I always had the job of cooking breakfast back home."

Nick looked interested. "Where is home?"

"Mexico City."

"You're from south of the border?"

"Yes. I was born in the States, but when I was still a baby, my parents decided to move back to Mexico. That's was where I was raised." I got back to making breakfast. Nick got up and started helping me.

"Tell me about yourself."

"Well, my family lives in Mexico City. I have five brothers, Miguel, Jaime, Juan, Felipe, and Jose; and one sister, Constanza. I'm the second youngest in the family. I went to Texas to go to college, but I didn't like it as much as I thought I would, so I came here. I don't know what I was expecting. I just did what I wanted to. That's about it. What about you? What do you do that you can afford a house this grand at your young age?"

Nick laughed a little. "I don't know about grand, but I like it. I'm in the entertainment business. I make pretty good money at what I do. My family moved to LA, but my job is based here, so I stayed."

"You said you don't expect to be around much. Why?"

"With my job, I travel quite a lot. That's why I was looking for someone to watch the house while I'm gone. And someone to let in the cleaning crew once a week."

"Oh." I got the feeling he didn't really want to talk about his job, so I didn't push. "What about your family? Any brothers or sisters?"

"I have one older sister, Ginger; three younger sisters, BJ, Leslie, and Angel; and one little brother, Aaron."

"Wow, that's the opposite of my family."

We laughed. We didn't say much the rest of the time we made breakfast, but when we were done, we knew we made a lot more than we could eat. We looked at each other.

"Don't worry," Nick said. "I'll call some reinforcements." He went into the living room, then came back a few minutes later. "I called over some friends. Do you mind?"

"No." I shook my head. "It's good to have more people so all this food won't go to waste."

"Cool."

We kept the food warm while waiting for Nick's friends to arrive. Brian was the first to arrive. I opened the door and saw him with a pretty blond girl. She saw me and started scrutinizing me.

"Rosary," said Brian, giving me a hug. "How's it goin'? This is my girlfriend, Leighanne."

"Nice to meet you, Leighanne," I said.

"Yeah, sure." Leighanne brushed past me and walked in.

I wonder what crawled up her ass? Then I shook my head. Don't judge. It's not your place to judge. I closed the door and walked back into the kitchen. One after another, Nick's friends came over. Nick introduced me to them all.

"Everyone, this is Rosary Novales," Nick said. "Rosary, this is AJ McLean, his girlfriend Delia, Howie Dorough, his girlfriend Mary, Kevin Richardson, and my girlfriend, Samantha."

"Nice to meet you all," I said. "How about we eat?"

Everyone gathered around the table as me and Nick served everyone. We encountered a few problems though. Leighanne took one look at her plate and pushed it away.

"I can't eat this," she said.

"Neither can I," said Samantha.

"What would you like?" I asked them.

"You don't have to make them anything else," Brian said. "Right, honey?"

"Brian, I can't eat this...."

"No, it's okay," I said. "What would you like?"

"I'll have a lightly toasted bagel with cream cheese."

"I'll have the same," Samantha said. Nick looked at her. "What?"

"Nothing," he said and continued eating.

I made them their bagels thinking I wanted to slap them, but I didn't. After I was done, I saw Kevin had a plate for me and placed it between him and Nick. I sat down and smiled my thanks. All the guys asked me questions about myself. Only two girls who said anything to me Delia and Mary. I got up to go straighten up the living room before I watched a movie. I heard someone walk up behind me and turned around.

"Don't worry about Leighanne and Samantha," Delia said to me. "I don't like them much either. I always thought Brian and Nick could do better. But Mary's nice." She let out a big sigh. "Finally, there's someone else here that I can actually talk to."

"Do you want to watch a movie with me?" I asked her.

"Sure. What are you watching?"

"'Ever After: A Cinderella Story'."

"I love that movie."

"So do I." Delia sat down on the couch, while I got the tape from my room.

When I got back, AJ was sitting next to Delia and Kevin was sitting by himself. He stood up as I walked over to him. I sat down and he sat down next to me. I started up the movie and paid apt attention. I saw Kevin look at me every now and then from the corner of my eye. He's really good-looking, I thought. Extremely handsome actually. I looked over at him and smiled. He smiled back. As the movie ended, Kevin had put his arm around my shoulders. I didn't know what to do. As nice as he seemed, I wasn't really interested in him that way. I looked through the doorway to the backyard and saw Nick playing with his puppies, while Samantha sat back in a lounge chair, trying to tan her pale skin. Brian and Leighanne were sharing a lounge chair doing something I'd rather not mention. I guessed Howie and Mary were around somewhere.

Before long, Nick's friends had to leave. Leighanne walked out the door without saying anything to me. Brian shrugged, said goodbye and left. Samantha gave Nick a long kiss goodbye. I couldn't watch them so I looked the other way. She didn't say anything to me either before she walked out the door. Both Howie and Mary gave me hugs goodbye. AJ and Delia did the same as they left. Kevin asked to talk to me in the living room so I went there with him.

"I was wondering if you'd have dinner with me tonight?" he asked.

I smiled. "Sure. I'd love to."

"Alright, great." Kevin smiled back at me. "I'll pick you up at 7:30pm?"

"Perfect."

I walked him to the door. He gave me a hug before he walked to his truck. He was strong, I could feel it in his arms. Maybe this could work out after all, I thought smiling and closed the door. I went into my room to pick out something to wear to dinner.