I got used to living with Nick after about a month. I meant it when I told Nick I didn't watch TV much. He was amazed that he never saw me in front of the TV unless I was watching a movie, on TV or by VCR. Nick was right about not being home much. He spent a lot of time in New York City, Los Angeles, and other places. I guessed Samantha sometimes went with him, but I never asked. When I did see Nick, we got along like the best of friends. He'd watch movies with me, I'd play basketball with him. He told me I was pretty good for someone as short as myself. I guess I did okay. I never really considered myself the athletic type.

Another thing was, a good portion of the time Nick was home, he and his friends locked themselves in his basement, doing things I could only wonder about. But that also meant I saw Kevin a lot. We continued to date for a while, but eventually the novelty wore off and we ended up just being friends. We still had fun hanging out together and we still went out occasionally, but we kept it casual.

Towards the end of March, Nick told me he was going to be in Los Angeles for a while and asked me if I wanted to come. I said I'd go and packed my bags. It was my first time there and being with the guys it was a blast. I had so much fun and they refused to let me miss anything. All of them brought their girlfriends, including Kevin, who was now hooked up with a girl named Tara. Me and her became friends. I became friends with Delia and Mary, too. We did things together. They were nice people and I liked them a lot.

Well, it ended up me, Delia, and Mary spent most of the time in LA together 'cause the guys were "conducting business", as Nick put it. Tara spent time with us, but she mostly went with Kevin when he was "conducting business." Leighanne and Samantha glued themselves to Brian's and Nick's sides, never letting either go anywhere without them. Nick took me to meet his family on Easter. They were all really nice people and I liked them, but they kind of kept a distance from me.

We all ended up staying there for about three weeks. When we went back, Nick and the others got right back to work, locking themselves in the basement. I couldn't hear anything going on down there 'cause the room was soundproof. But they always came up for a bite to eat, which I was happy to make for them. I enjoyed cooking for them. It was fun when they were around to see me make something out of scratch. They'd ask me, "What's this for?" and "What's that for?" It kind of turned into a cooking session when the guys started helping me make the food. But we had fun.

When it reached mid-May, Nick told me he and the fellas were going to New York for about a week, then to LA for about five or six days, then to Europe for about three months. I was sad at the thought of him not being around, but I had learned by then his job required a huge amount of traveling. And everywhere he went, Brian, Kevin, Howie, and AJ went with him. Sometimes Leighanne, Samantha, Tara, Delia, or Mary went with them, but I never did. So to occupy myself, I got a job waitressing at a Mexican restaurant. It was fun for me, even though I didn't really need the money. I'd saved up almost $2500 dollars since early February. I never bought a car 'cause Nick let me use one of his and we never brought up the subject of me finding another place since I moved in.

Nick went to New York City with the guys, Leighanne, and Samantha. Tara went up there for a couple days. Nick called me twice a day, in the morning and the evening, to make sure I was okay. I told him he didn't have to check on me so often, but he said it made him feel better. One of those calls brought me even more bad news. Nick said the day he was supposed to go to Europe was pushed up, all the LA business was canceled, and he wouldn't be home as long as he thought. So as soon as he came home, he packed all his stuff, and got ready to leave. All of us went out to dinner together, which was kind of weird for me because I wasn't in a relationship like everyone else. When we got home, Nick and I had a talk.

I was sitting in my room, listening to my Enrique Iglesias CD, when Nick came in.

"You really love this singer, don't you?" he asked me.

"Yes, a lot. He was always so nice and sweet to me...."

"You know him?"

"Our families are very close friends. He lives in Miami. I wanted to be close by so we could spend more time together, but he's been working a lot lately, promoting his new album, so I haven't been able to see him."

"That's cool. I've heard of him, but I never heard any of his songs."

"I think you'll like it. It's not your typical Spanish music with the accordian or violins. It sounds really good. Here, listen to this song." I put the CD on the first track.

We listened in silence. Nick slowly smiled as the song went on. I closed my eyes to fully take in the song. I was my favorite song on the whole CD. When the song was over, I opened my eyes and caught Nick staring at me.

He quickly looked away. "That sounded really cool. I liked the guitars in it."

"I love it," I said. "It's my favorite song off the whole album."

"What's it called?"

"'Enamorado Por Primera Vez'." I was told I always got this dreamy look in my eyes whenever I said that and Nick noticed.

"You got this light in your eyes when you said that. Why?"

"Enrique wrote that song for me two years ago when we were together."

"So you dated him, too?"

"Yes. But when his career took off, we stopped. It got too hard. I didn't like having him gone all the time. The first album he recorded, he went all the way to Canada to do it. Why, I don't know, but he was gone for about three months. I hated it."

"Oh," was all he said. Nick looked kind of down.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Can I hear it again?"

"Sure." I put it back on track one again, pushed the repeat button, and we listened to it again.

Nick got up off my bed and extended a hand toward me. I looked at him, surprised, but took his hand. We danced in my room, slowly going around in circles. I was afraid to look him in the eye, but when I finally did, I realized his face was closer to mine than I thought. Slowly, our faces came closer together. Right when our lips were about to touch, the phone rang. We jumped apart, the spell broken. I went to turn down my CD player while Nick answered the phone.

"That was Samantha," he said when he hung up. "She wants to see me before I take off tomorrow."

"Okay." I clasped my hands together, unable to look at him. "Well, I'm going to go to sleep. It's late, I'm tired, and we have an early day tomorrow."

"Alright. Goodnight, Rosary."

That made me look at him. He was smiling. I smiled back. "Goodnight, Nick."

He left my room and I fell on my bed, thinking about what had almost happened. I'm going to have to be careful from now on, I thought. That should be easy. He's going to be gone for the next three months. I changed into my nightshirt and went to sleep. When Nick came home, I automatically woke up. It was like I could sense when he got home, sort of like a radar telling me he arrived home okay. When I heard him go back into his room, I went back to sleep.