Disclaimer: The following story is fiction and is not intended to imply anything about the true sexuality of the celebrities mentioned or any personal knowledge about their private lives. I am just a fan with what I hope is a good imagination.
I always thought that I would never be one of those whiny authors who beg for e-mails, but here I am. Other than the real Drew, I haven't heard from anyone in a long time. Please write!! hr_lind@yahoo.com
If you are interested in knowing when new chapters will be available, I have created a yahoo group. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/meetinglove/ Please join.
Chapter 20
We were seated for lunch. The rest of 'NSYNC had not yet made it to the restaurant, so Scott and Kyle were a little surprised when we were brought to a table that had thirteen chairs.
"I think there's been a mistake. We are only five, not thirteen," Scott told the waiter.
"Oh, no sir, there's no mistake. The rest of your party has not yet arrived." The waiter replied.
Scott looked at me inquisitively.
"So what, we have a little surprise for Ally," Lance replied defensively.
"Hey Lance, HR!" Joey called out as he made his way across the room. "We finally got here. Justin thought he knew how to get here by taking the T. But we got off at the wrong stop."
Lance and I both got up and received hugs from Chris, JC, Justin, Drew and Joey. Brianna and Leyton were each holding one of Kelly's hands and were acting shy. Ally, Kyle and Scott were sitting on one side of the table, I sat at the head and Lance was next to me. Leyton sat next to her uncle with Brianna next to her. Kelly sat between her daughter and her husband and Drew sat on the other side of Joey. Justin sat at the other head of the table. Chris and JC sat on the same side as Scott, Kyle and Ally, with JC sitting next to Scott.
"Ally, Scott and Kyle, I'd like you to meet some friends of ours," I said.
"I know who most of them are Mr. Bass-Lindsay," Ally piped in.
"Allyson don't be rude," Kyle admonished.
"Its okay and Ally, call me HR. And as you apparently know, this is Justin, JC Chris and Joey. The guy that you don't know is Joey's best friend Drew. Then we have Joey's wife Kelly his daughter Brianna and Lance's niece Leyton."
"I'm your niece too Uncle Heath," Leyton said with a pout.
"I'm sorry sweetie, you are completely correct." I turned to the members of 'NSYNC. "Guys, these are our new friends Scott, Kyle and their daughter Ally. We asked you to join us because Ally is a huge fan of 'NSYNC, and she is the same age as the girls."
"This is so cool," Ally said. "I really like your music."
"We're glad to be of service," Justin said. "We always like to meet our fans and our fans' parents too."
"Hey who said that we weren't fans too? We're both in our early twenties, we were there when you guys were all the rage way back when," Scott said.
"Way back when? That's not very nice. It's only been a few years," Lance protested.
"Which in the music world is decades," I said. "But you did just have a very successful reunion tour, so stop worrying sweetheart. The world will never forget 'NSYNC." I leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Ok enough with the mushy stuff. Oh and Lance I wanted to thank you for letting me come with Joey today," Drew said.
Lance walked over to Drew gave him a hug and whispered in his ear, "there will be no cumming at this table, but whatever you do with Joey later is your prerogative."
"I can't believe you just said that. And I used to think that you were the innocent one," Drew replied.
"Not anymore. You wouldn't believe the things that Ry and I do."
"Lance this is totally not a conversation we should be having here. Although I must say I'm really happy that you aren't pissed at me and Kelly."
"Drew I couldn't be pissed at you. I know how much you mean to Joey. Am I upset that this is going to affect Bri? Hell yeah, but what can I do?"
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be." Lance walked back to his seat and leaned over to give me a kiss on the cheek.
I directed my attention to the whole group. "This is what life should be about. Spending time with friends, old and new. Enjoying everyday."
"Hear, hear," said the rest of the gang.
We had a wonderful lunch and the girls became fast friends. The rest of the day went by pretty quickly. We had gone back to the house and there was an endless stream of friends and family that came over to visit. My nephew Ben had spent the entire morning consolidating the digital pictures from all the different cameras that were at the wedding. He made an amazing slideshow with hundreds of different special effects. I think between all the cameras that we had photographs of almost every minute during the ceremony. Craig was going to bring Ben's masterpiece into his office to make professional copies to give to the attendees of the wedding.
After dinner things finally started to calm down. Lance and I were laying on the couch, with him in my arms listening to some jazz.
"I can't wait for tomorrow afternoon. I'm so excited, I've never been to the Mediterranean," Lance said.
"But you've been to Europe, you guys toured there."
"That was a thousand years ago, and didn't count, we were on tour. I've never been there to vacation."
"Can you imagine, two weeks, just the two of us."
"I'm sorry that we haven't had more alone time."
"It's okay Jamie. I know and understand what your life is like. I am really nervous about tomorrow morning though. Do you really think things will be okay?"
"We can only hope. We both saw today's papers. The press knows about me applying for a marriage license on Friday, they just don't have all the info. We will have our press conference, make our statement, and then go on our honeymoon. My PR people will take it from there. They know to call and leave messages about what is going on while we are away."
"I'm just afraid; I've never been in the spotlight like this. I don't want to be an embarrassment for you."
Lance sat up and looked me in the eyes. "Do not ever think that you are or could ever be an embarrassment to me. Ry, I love you with all of my heart and soul. I only wish that I didn't have to make you go through this."
"Jamie, you aren't making me do anything. If I wanted to keep this a secret, I would have made you keep it a secret. We didn't have to have a legal wedding; we could have just had a ceremony. I love you and I love the fact that you are going to put yourself through hell for me."
"I am not going to go through hell. Yes, it is going to be hard, but I will get through it because of you. Now let's stop fretting about tomorrow and go to bed. We need to be well rested," Lance said with a raised eyebrow.
"Well rested my foot. You just want some lovin'."
Lance got all shy, and started twisting his hands together. "I just want to be with you."
"I know, love, I know. Let's go to bed."
He got up first, and I followed. We walked through the apartment making sure that the lights were off and the doors locked.
Lance and I washed up and got ready for bed. He put on sleep pants and I looked at him questioningly. "I thought you'd want to make love tonight."
"I was really hoping that you would just hold me while we slept. I don't think that I would be able to put my all into it, I'm sorry."
I went over to him and enveloped him in a hug. "Jamie, never be sorry for not wanting to make love. I understand where you are coming from, and you're right. We probably wouldn't be doing our best. Both of us have tons of stuff on our minds. I would love to just hold you while we slept."
"Thanks Ry," he said leaning up to kiss me.
I put on sleep pants and a wife beater and climbed into bed. We slept fitfully, clinging to each other. Nightmares of what might happen plaguing our sleep.
Early the next morning we woke exhausted. Lance showered while I made coffee and ate a small breakfast. My stomach was in knots. When he was done getting ready we switched places and I showered. Even though we were flying out right after the press conference, we had decided to wear suits to the press conference. We wanted to not only look our best, but professional as well.
Once we were physically ready, let's just forget even attempting to be mentally ready, we took our suitcases out to my old Durango. I had finally decided to give the car to Aimee, and she was keeping her car for when the triplets got their licenses. Aimee, Craig and my mother were coming to the press conference for support, and then they were going to drive us to the airport for our flight to Greece. Lance's family and the rest of `NSYNC were meeting us at Lance's office building, where we were holding the conference. As much as she wanted to be there, Kelly had decided to watch Leyton and Bri at the hotel, so that they were not exposed to the press. Drew also wanted to be there, but decided it wasn't fair for him to go and not Kelly.
We were in the car, Aimee in the driver's seat turned back to me and asked "Are we ready?"
"As ready as we will ever be," I answered.
"Baby, it will be okay. No matter what happens we are behind you 100%."
I turned and hugged my mother who was sitting to my right, "Thanks ma."
It didn't take long to get to Lance's office building. The great thing about owning your own business and being a multi-millionaire is that you can buy a building convenient for you. I saw all the local affiliate's trucks parked along the street, as well as CNN, MTV and NECN, plus a few radio stations. I had hoped that we would beat them there, so we could get inside with out a huge fuss.
"Aimee, pull down that side street, we can go through the back entrance," Lance said, pointing to the right.
"There's a back entrance? You never showed that to me."
"I usually park in the back, the spaces there are canopied. I didn't think it was important."
"You are important, so your business is important to me."
"You guys are disgustingly sweet. You're making me look bad in front of Aimee," Craig said.
"Craig, I will always look better than you," I replied. "No matter who's looking."
Craig being the older and obviously more mature one turned around and stuck his tongue out at me.
"Boys, stop it. Let's get our heads on straight, so that we can get through this morning. And then Lance and HeathRiley can go on their honeymoon," Fran said.
"Thanks ma."
Aimee parked the car in Lance's spot and we went into the building. We met up with Jack, Lance's top PR person.
"Hi Lance, HR, and everyone else that I don't know," Jack said
"Hey buddy, this is my mother-in-law Fran, my sister-in-law Aimee and my brother-in-law Craig. Are my parents here?" Lance replied and asked.
"Everyone else is here. Didn't you see the cars parked out back?"
"No I guess I wasn't paying attention."
"Are you ready?" Jack asked. "You have about five minutes, and by the way MTV is doing a live feed, as are the radio stations."
I felt like I was going to throw up. Lance looked at me "Ry, are you sure about this? I can do it alone."
"No, you can't. I have to do this with you. I love you with all my heart and will not allow you to do it by yourself."
We walked over to a corner and made out for the last few minutes we had. One to calm our nerves, but more importantly, it had been too long since I had kissed my husband. Our families and the guys followed Jack out to the conference room where all the media were set up. Lance and I would make our entrance after Jack introduced us.
Jack walked up to the podium and started his introduction. "Good morning everyone, I am Jack Mathieu J-A-C-K M-A-T-H-I-E-U, senior PR representative for JLB Productions, thank you for coming. In a few moments Lance Bass will be with us to make a statement regarding his marriage license application and will take a few questions. Mr. Bass has a flight this afternoon, so I ask that you all respect our time limit. I and my staff will be available after the conference to answer additional questions."
Oh god, this is really happening. Lance took my hand and together we walked into the conference room. Immediately the cameras started flashing. Lance and I walked up to the podium, and he started speaking.
"Good morning, and thank you all for being here. Yesterday morning, when I read the paper the front page of the entertainment section had a collage of pictures of me in Boston. Many of them were pretty decent looking, so I thank the photographer for that." There was a chuckle in the crowd. "The headline said `Bass Getting Married and Moving to Boston?' I must say that the headline was wrong." There was a gasp and then a hush. "I have already moved to Boston, and I got married on Saturday. I would like to correct Mr. Mathieu from before, my name is no longer James Lance Bass, but James Lance Bass-Lindsay. Please let me introduce to you my husband HeathRiley Bass-Lindsay. The correct spelling of our names are in the press packet you will receive upon leaving today, as well as pictures that we are allowing you to use from the wedding. Now we will take questions."
All the reporters jumped up to get their question out there. Jack called on the reporter from FOX25, John Monahan.
"Lance are you gay?"
"I would think that is fairly obvious, but yes I am gay."
Next was Sean Hennessey from 7News, the NBC affiliate.
"How did you meet?"
Lance looked to me and urged me to answer. "Um, actually we met on the internet in a chat room about astronomy over a year ago." Lance gently shoved my shoulder urging me to continue. "We met in person in December when `NSYNC was in town for their concerts."
The questions continued along those same lines. Never accusatory or anti-gay. It seemed that the reporters were interested in the relationship the same way as if we were a straight couple. When they asked how our families took the news, my mother and Lance's parents were right up there with us, telling it from their own mouths. Lance did make one more statement right before we left to go to the airport.
"I understand that HR and I are considered news because I am a celebrity, but I ask that you all respect our privacy. We are leaving on our honeymoon today, and I ask that you do not follow us."
We left, and the reporters continued to get information from the PR staff.
"That went a hell of a lot better than I expected," I said.
"Ry, that was what we could control. Now we just have to sit back and hope that it stays this way."
"I love you Jamie, no matter what happens."
"I love you too."
The End of Meeting Love. Look for Continuing Love, the sequel coming soon.