“Well, it took you long enough, J-girl!” Nat whispered when Jamie resumed her seat. “What kept you? And what’s with the jumbo popcorn? I thought you only went for a regular.”

Unwilling to reveal the whole story, Jamie only answered, “I, uh, had a little accident and some guy was nice enough to give me his own popcorn.”

“For real?” Nat sounded surprised and greatly impressed. “Well! There’s a gentleman for you. Glad to know the breed still lives.” Grabbing a fistful of popcorn, she added, “And this ought to last us all the way to the end credits.”

Jamie nibbled a few kernels herself and took occasional sips of her soda. But even with her eyes on the screen, she kept seeing her hero, with his short but solid build, gangster-like clothes, spiked hair, rugged demeanor—and soulful brown eyes.

I’ve never seen such eyes. I’ve never seen anyone like him.

Naturally, a few boys had caught Jamie’s eye over the years. Most of them were nice enough. But this guy…something about him put him in a class entirely by himself.

She’d meant it when she told him earlier that he looked oddly familiar. Was he who she thought he was?

Could it be possible? Here, of all places?

Meanwhile, on the other side of the dim theater, JC was saying, “Chris, there you are! We were just about to send Lance after you.”

“What was all the problem?” Lance asked.

“Had to use the men’s room before I headed for the snack bar,” said Chris as he settled into his seat and doled out the junk food. 

“Must’ve been quite the bathroom break,” said Joey with a shrewd look. 

Chris would have slugged him had Lance and JC not separated them. Instead, he replied with a not-so-subtle note of disdain, “And it took them a while with the popcorn, too. You did say jumbo-sized, after all. And Justin asked specifically for the frozen M&M’s.” 

“That I did,” said Justin as he grabbed the box and dug in. “Man, I’ll tell ya, once I start eating these, it’s impossible to stop. They go great with the popcorn, too.”

“Pipe down, everybody,” JC said, motioning toward the big screen. “They’re getting to the good part!” 

No one said another word for the remainder of the movie, and it wasn’t long before Chris found himself caught up in the eye-dazzling and soul-wrenching story once more. He officially lost it when Satine took her last breath in Christian’s arms, and when Christian sang at the end, “The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return!”

By the time the lights went on, there was as much sniffling in the theater as applause, if not more. 

Wiping at her eyes, Jamie asked, “Are you crying, too, Nat?”

“N-no,” Nat insisted while she dabbed her eyes and blew her nose on a napkin. “I just got a bit of salt from the popcorn in my eyes. That’s all.” 

As Chris followed his mates into the foyer and disposed of his garbage, he said with a groan, “Geez, JC, we’ll have to watch three comedies after this.”

“That movie got you bawling like a baby, didn’t it?” Joey taunted Chris. 

“You’re one to talk, Mr. Macho,” said Justin, giving Joey a push. “I could hear you blubbering as hard as anybody in there.”

Joey narrowed his eyes and stuck out his lower lip in a childish pout. “I was not!” 

“Want to bet?” Chris countered. “You used up almost every napkin we had by yourself.”

“I just had some of the salt from the popcorn in my eyes. That stuff stings, dude.” 

“Yeah, right,” Lance smirked. “That’s what they all say.”

“And speaking of popcorn,” said JC, regarding Joey with an expression of pure disbelief, “how in the world could you eat two big buckets of popcorn and all that candy in one sitting? And after a big dinner, too?”

With a nonchalant shrug, Joey rejoined, “Guess I was still hungry.”

Lance shook his head, a lopsided smile playing on his mouth. “I seriously doubt there’s ever a time when you’re not hungry, Joe.”

Justin shook his head as well as he muttered, “Man, you must have been born with two stomachs.”

“More like three stomachs,” said Chris. “Or even four, like a cow.”

“Mmrrrroooooooo.” Joey held his forefingers over either side of his head and mimed chewing a cud, which sent all four guys into a laughing fit.

When Chris could speak again, he asked dryly, “Why did I get the feeling you were gonna do that, Joe?” At the same time, it surprised him at how good it felt to have a good laugh. It provided a nice respite not just from the movie, but from everything that had come about these last few weeks.

That’s what you gotta love about Joey. Seldom a dull moment with him around.

A familiar voice caught Chris’s ear right then, and he noticed a familiar face amid the crowd. As if his legs had a mind of their own, he found himself moving forward to catch up with that face. Behind him, he heard JC say bewilderedly, “Chris?”

“Hey, Chris, where are you going?” Lance called.

“I’ll be right back.”

“Feel like grabbing a coffee before we head for home, J?” Nat asked while she and Jamie walked side by side.

Jamie screwed up her face and pushed her tongue through her teeth. “How about hot chocolate instead? That’s a little more to my liking.”

“That’s right,” Nat said, eyeing her meaningfully, “I keep forgetting that you have uncultured taste buds.”

“I just don’t like the taste of overcooked dirt, that’s all.”

Nat sighed. “Sheez, girl. One cup of bad coffee and you’re sworn to lifelong abstinence.”

“Anyway, if we’re going anywhere else tonight, Nat, you’ll have to fund it—” Jamie stopped dead in her tracks, and Nat stopped when she saw her.

“What’s the matter?”

“Where’s my purse?” Jamie asked.

“Didn’t you bring it out of the theater with you?”

“I know I did! I would have sworn I did.” Jamie turned in a full circle, her eyes skimming the floor, which was almost completely buried under the mass of human feet.

Before she had a chance to panic, someone tapped her shoulder and a familiar voice said, “Excuse me; is this yours?”

Jamie turned—and her eyes just about popped out of her head at the sight of her handsome hero. He held up her purse, where she could see the broken stitching on one strap.

“Good thing I was following you,” he told her with his winsome smile.

Jamie hesitated only a second before taking her purse back and gushing, “Oh, thank you! Thank you, a million times!”

He laughed. “You’re welcome, a million times.”

“I definitely need to get a new purse. You are such a lifesaver.”

“That’s okay. I was hoping to catch you again tonight anyway, and what better opportunity than this?”

“None that I can think of.” Jamie’s heart fairly leaped into her throat at the understanding that someone like him actually wanted to see someone like her again.

“I wanted to make sure you were all right after…you know…what happened earlier. Are you?”

Jamie swallowed hard. “Y-yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. Peachy-keen.”

“What’d you think of the movie?”

At first, Jamie’s brain was a total blank. Then she managed to get out, “Awesome. Incredible. Beyond incredible. Just…wowsers. It made me cry my eyes out.”

“Oh, you think?” Nat broke in. “I’m surprised you didn’t drown the whole theater!”

This incursion enabled Jamie to turn her head, change her expression, and talk more normally. “Oh, come on, Nat, I didn’t cry that hard.”

“Oh, yeah? I swear to heaven above, Jamie Corrine Miller, just hearing about a stray kitten turns you into a busted faucet.”

It was all Jamie could do to resist thumping her girlfriend in this man’s presence. While she managed to keep her hands to herself, she coolly retorted, “Okay, so I’ve got a sensitive side. Sue me, why don’t you?”

“So, your name’s Jamie,” the young man remarked, sounding intrigued. “Well, that saves me the trouble of asking, which I was just about to do.”

Unable to help smiling again, Jamie told him, “Yeah, I’m Jamie. And this is Nat, my roommate and best-friend-slash-worst-enemy.”

“Pleasure,” Nat said, holding out her hand, which the man shook heartily.

“Pleasure’s all mine, Nat and Jamie. I’m Chris.”

“Chris,” Nat repeated, looking and sounding most thoughtful. “That’s a nice name.”

“For such a nice man,” Jamie would have said if she’d had the nerve.

Chris now offered his hand to Jamie, and a little electric tremor passed between them when she touched him, making them both jump off the floor.

“A-ha,” Nat crowed, “there’s a dead giveaway right there! Goes to show Cupid’s arrows aren’t always required for the job.”

Jamie felt her infamous blush sweep over her entire face and neck, and again she knew that Chris was all that kept her from pouncing on Nat.

Chris said, with another chuckle, “Talk about a shocking experience!”

In spite of herself, Jamie had to laugh, too.

“Oh, come, now,” said Nat, wagging her finger at Chris, “that’s the oldest pun in the book! Don’t you know any ‘current’ ones?”

Jamie couldn’t resist adding, “How positively re-volt-ing!”

Now all three of them shared a peal of laughter. “Hey, that was a good one!” Chris smiled.

“Yeah,” Nat said, “but I think it’s time for a ‘switch’ on topics.”

“Keep this up and someone will soon be facing charges of assault and ‘battery,’” said Jamie, and Chris just about keeled over. Jamie had never thought of herself as funny, but seeing how she cracked Chris up heartened her to no small degree.

“I don’t know whether to laugh or to clobber you for that one, J,” said Nat. “That was terrible!”

When Chris recovered his breath and could talk, he said, “Oh, man, you girls should totally go into stand-up.”

“Maybe someday, we will,” said Jamie.

“But right now, we gotta get going,” said Nat, hooking her arm through Jamie’s. “Sorry to cut this pleasant conversation short, Chris, but we’ve got other plans for tonight and tomorrow.”

“No problem,” he said. “I need to get going, too, anyway. It was nice conversing with you, Nat, Jamie.”

Jamie didn’t know why she did it, but just as Chris was turning around, she blurted out, “Can I have your phone number?”

Chris didn’t know why he did it, but he obligingly jotted down his cell number on a tiny scrap of paper he just so happened to have handy in his pocket.

“Thank you,” said Jamie, unable to help the slight quiver in her voice as she tucked the paper in her own pocket. “Thank you so much for everything, Chris. I hope I’ll be able to see you and talk to you again soon.”

“Believe it or not, I hope so, too,” he replied. “In the meantime, take care.”

“You too.” They shook hands once more, and Jamie’s fingers tingled even after they’d let go. Strange as it was, Chris experienced the same sensation, though he merely smiled and turned away.

“Whoa,” said Nat when the man had gone. “You are bold, Jamie. I can’t believe he gave you his number just like that!”

“I can’t believe I even asked him in the first place,” Jamie said, her voice hushed, her eyes staring blankly ahead.

“Well, he seems nice enough, at any rate.” Nat had to give Jamie’s arm a little tug to get her moving. “Come on, lover girl. Ice cream sundaes at the corner store, on me.”

That got the other girl’s attention in a heartbeat. “With chocolate syrup? And nuts?”

“Enough to satisfy even the nuttiest chocoholic.”

“Who was that, Chris?” asked JC when Chris came back.

“She a friend of yours?” queried Justin.

“Sort of,” Chris murmured, lifting one foot to scratch the back of his leg. “Her name’s Jamie.”

“She looks nice,” Lance commented.

“She looks pretty average for a girl,” said Joey, adding hastily, “Don’t get me wrong.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” JC said with a smile. “I think she’s kind of cute.”

Justin asked Chris, “And did I just see you give her your number?”

Chris felt his face go red-hot, though he insisted, “It was a harmless enough request.”

“Really?” said Joey, arching his brows.

“Come on, guys, I just met her. Besides, I’m already committed to Allie. You know that.”

“Sure, we do,” said Justin.

Joey gave Chris a hard elbow to the ribs as he added roguishly, “Though your face implies otherwise.”

It was all Chris could do to avoid palming his face or taking Joey out on the spot. “Come on,” he said again as he adjusted the sleeves of his black motorcycle jacket, “let’s just get out of here before someone recognizes us and causes a riot.”

As if the words were a cue, a deafening scream rang out and some pubescent voice wailed, “Oh, my gosh! It’s ‘N Sync!”

That was all it took to light the fuse.

Now a whole slew of people, with females making up at least eighty percent, were shouting and hollering and stirring up a positively hysterical scene.

“‘N Sync!” 

“It’s ‘N Sync!”

“‘N Sync, here?”

“I don’t believe it!” 

“You’re kidding!”

“Shut up!” 

“Justin!”

“Chris!”

“Justin!” 

“JC!”

“Justin!” 

“Chris!”

“Lance!”

“JUSTIN!”

“Lance, I love you!”

“Marry me, JC!”

“Hey, Joey!”

“RUN!” Joey urged his mates, none of whom needed telling twice.