Elise is actually very intelligent, random and intriguing. She's been asking limitless questions about how the backstage is set up and handled, curious about the whole process for the performers and has coolly met most of the bands playing tonight. She ran directly into Megan McCauley, purely by accident and began a conversation to get to know her for who she is like she had done to me. The two of them are laughing, Megan's manager calling her and she leaves after trading off numbers by switching phones, giving the phone back to the proper owner.

Elise has my eye because of the woman she is; mysterious, intelligent and thirsting for knowledge. She might be a woman I'd be willing to chance a long distance relationship with, considering I haven't been in a relationship at all in more than a decade and according to Deven, neither has Elise since her youngest was seven.

I've been texting Deven the whole time we've been here once she had gone to talk alone with Scott Anderson. 'Is she always shy or does something like excitement force her from her shell?' I send Deven. 

'If she really likes that person enough for one reason or many, she is initially shy and then she takes a deep breath to find her way into a conversation with them. Why?' she fires back, less than two minutes later. 

'She literally walked into Megan McCauley and once she apologized, engrossed her in a conversation until her manager told her to get onstage for a run through.'

'Lol. Elise for you, she did the same thing to me when an ex mutual friend brought me to her house and introed me to her kids. The rest is history bc we've been inseparable since and we both been through hell and back together, helping each other through every moment of it. I know I wouldn't change anything.'

Elise rests her head on my leg, having placed a pillow there a second ago. I lower my cell and look at her, her expression happy as she stares off into space. "Elise?"

Elise has a deep amber almost black color hair streaked with black, blue and scarlet, her green eyes a beautiful contrast and her hair color makes them pop with a brighter shade of emerald. "Yeah?" she replies, shaking her head for a moment. 

"Comfy?"

"Yes, but that's not what you wanted an answer for." She does read people as good as Deven told me.

"Do regret anything you went through with Deven?"

"No, it made us stronger, smarter and closer; shows we were raised to be fighters and that we can ALWAYS count on each other for everything."

I raise my phone off my lap, texting her best friend. 'She doesn't regret any of it, either. Just asked her.'

"Why?"

 "Curious."

She smiles as I place my hand on the arm rest of the couch we've taken over backstage. "Is this what it was like when you were performing?"

I just look in her eyes, confusion written all over my face. I guess you could say that I'm surprised she didn't specifically ask about my solo, *NSYNC or MMC days and just generalized it into performing. "Most days, yeah, but after the interviews and meet and greets and sound check and rehearsals."

"Surprised about how I worded it?" This woman can read my mind, it's kind of creepy. 

"What gave you THAT impression?"

She gives me a face that calls my bluff. "The look on your face screamed 'wow, she generalized that and didn't ask about each one individually'," she informs me. 

"So you do know about my previous exposure to this?"

"I've had a crush on you since '92, so of course I do."

"I was a year into that show by then."

"I started watching it that year."

We have first row tickets because they bought theirs nearly five months ago and mine are through a friend, both of them enjoying themselves. They're singing along with every song they know, heads bopping in rhythm with the beat and Elise pulls me to my feet, silently asking me to hold her while Cavo plays they're old song 'My Little Secret' two bands into the show. I can hear her singing with the band; her voice is pretty, but not sickeningly perfect like most singers and that's attractive. "Can I be honest?" I quietly say in her ear, her body turning us both so we face each other and the stage is next to us. 

She smiles at me. "It's better than beginning a friendship and building it on lies," she replies in my ear, having looped her arm up to pull me down for her to do so. I turn my face to the side of her neck.

"I'd like to seriously get to know you, maybe hook up sometime or go out alone."

She pulls back, checking to see if I'm fucking with her, ensuring I'm legitimately serious. She purses her lips and pushes them to the side of her face, considering it. She nods, pulling my head to her again.

"Only if you're serious." I nod my head. "We will discuss this later on in more detail."

"You got it, Elise." I have the biggest smile and Scott gives me a thumbs up into a thumbs down signal; I fire back two thumbs up once I envelope her body with my arms. He smiles, mouthing congrats. We watch Since October and Framing Hanley play, Elise knowing every word to their songs. She laughs when they say something funny.