Me?

Gesturing towards the booth across from him, Melissa watched as Lance's facial expression changed from amused to slightly business like. "Please."

After furrowing her eyebrows once more, before realizing he was asking her to sit with him, Melissa looked over her shoulder-towards the kitchen entrance; making sure her boss or Sam wasn't watching before she sat down.

"All right, but just for a second, I have to get back to work." She lied, knowing as soon as him and his bodyguard left, she could go as well. "So, what did you mean by you. Why'd you come here because of me?"

Leaning in, Lance briefly nodded-mentally telling her he wouldn't hold her too long, before inwardly smiling; enjoying the fact that Melissa had taken his hint and was acting in a business like persona; as he was.

"As you know, I'm a professional singer in the group Nsync." He began, waiting for her to nod before continuing on, "But as we speak, I'm also the owner of a small known company called Freelance Entertainment-which I'm sure you've never heard of."

Briefly smiling before nodding, Melissa silently told him that he was indeed correct with his assumption; causing Lance to slightly chuckle, "Well, to summarize things for you, Freelance is a company that promotes up and coming musicians."

"Like Jive, which you work for?" Melissa inquired, causing Lance to briefly nod before smiling; all the while slightly wondering what Melissa's coworker had told her before.

"Something like that. Except for the fact that whereas Jive promotes all types of genres of music, Freelance mostly promotes only country singers....that is until now. That is until I heard you."

Noticing the way Lance was giving her a pointed stare as he spoke the last part, Melissa furrowed her eyebrows in confusion; wondering what in the world he was talking about. "Not to sound rude, but what do you mean that is until I heard you?"

"Just what I said: That is until I heard you." Lance said, vaguely once again, before giving her a look that made her think he was choosing his next words carefully. But not carefully enough as he quickly shocked the hell out of her with his next statement. "I saw you last night at the blues club--and believe me when I tell you that ever since then I can't get your voice out of my head--which leads me to question if you'd ever consider letting me manage you...as a professional singer?"

As a professional singer.

It felt like an eternity before Melissa could barely move or speak, but after she got over the shock that had engulfed her, she quickly did an action which she could tell surprised the man in front of her. She stood up and cast an icy glare down at him.

"Sam put you up to this, didn't she?"

Furrowing his eyebrows in confusion at her, Lance quickly wondered to himself what had just happened there.

"What?"

"Don't what me!" Melissa said, raising her voice a little; an action which he thought would've been uncharacteristic for the small petite woman in front of him..given usual circumstances, "She somehow found out about my performance last night, and hired you to pretend to be some big shot celebrity, who just HAPPENED to own his own record company, and who also just HAPPENED to be looking for someone with my type of skills to help his company out. Didn't she?"

Shaking his head, Lance stood up from the table, with his hands in front of his face as if to say I surrender, "Whoa, wait a minute. Calm down, there. I'm not really sure what you're talking about, but I can promise you that no one hired me, and that I AM actually a big shot celebrity as you called me, and DO own my own record company. Just not one as big as I'd like it to be."

Waiting for some sort of sign that the woman in front of him believed him, Lance was quickly disappointed as Melissa's glare turned into a pointed stare and her scowl changed into a slightly evil looking smirk.

"Then PROVE it."

"Prove it?"

Melissa nodded at the words, before taking a step closer to Lance; an action which caused him to question whether he was dealing with a stable woman here, or if he needed Mike's help more than ever now. "Yeah, PROVE it. I mean, don't you celebrities carry gold member cards. Y'know the ones you can flash where ever you go so you'll be escorted into V.I.P areas-rather than having to socialize with good ole normal people."

Even though Lance noted the sarcasm in her words, he couldn't help but feel slightly offended by them as well. "Fine, if you want proof.." He began-angrily searching through his Jean pants pockets for his wallet, "Here! Take it."

Pulling out his wallet, he took out the single item that he knew was in one of the secret sections, and presented it to Melissa; waiting for her to respond to the action.

An action he knew could've landed himself on Ebay.

"This is..." Melissa began, angrily looking over the picture he gave her; ready to nearly explode at him once more. Or better yet, he guessed, she would've nearly exploded at him once more, had he not pointed out the bottom line of the photo to her; which had 'Jive Entertainment' written on it in small print, "not made up."

Nodding, Lance smiled smugly as he watched Melissa's hardened glare slip off her face. And as she gave him the picture-that had been taken of him and his four semi brothers after they signed with Jive Records, he opened his mouth to continue on with what he'd been saying-before she went a little psycho on him.

Unfortunately, before he could do so, he was interrupted as she turned around; running away from him. Almost knocking down the coworker-she had been speaking to beforehand.

"I've said it once and I'll say it again," Mike's familiar voice boomed from beside him, causing Lance to jump slightly, "Ya'll boyz make the worst first impressions."

"Stupid..Stupid..Stupid." Melissa mumbled to herself as she paced the restroom floor; carelessly raking her hands through her disheveled hair while doing so. "I'm SUCH an idiot."

"That you are." A voice called out, causing her to slightly jump; before she turned around-laying eyes on a not so amused Sam. "Do you know how long it's going to take me to get this coffee stain out of this shirt?"

Briefly halting her movements, Melissa cringed as she noticed the brown stain that graced the front of Sam's white work shirt. But as she opened her mouth to apologize, she realized even her guilt-over bumping into her coworker-still wasn't enough to decrease the embarrassment she felt within. "I'm sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going...I just-I just made the biggest fool out of myself."

Rolling her eyes at the younger woman's exclaim, Sam made her way towards Melissa-who was standing in front of the sink; and gracefully began cleaning the stain on the shirt, using luke warm water, "Honey, I'm sure whatever it is is not THAT big of a deal. And if it makes you feel any better, I don't have anywhere to be for a couple of minutes, so why don't you tell me what's got your panties all in a bunch."

Backing up, so that her back was flat against the wall, Melissa eyed Sam closely-remembering what had happened the last time she trusted a coworker.

'I lost my fiancee.'

Shaking her head from the thought, Melissa inwardly shrugged; knowing that she was single right now, and judging by the earlier events in the day, there was no way Sam would EVER cheat on her husband.

At that, after sighing, she decided to start from the beginning, "Well, it's always been my dream to sing...professional wise. So, last night, I went to the house of blues-where they were having open mic night, and sang a poem I wrote a couple of weeks ago."

Nodding, Sam looked up from her shirt, and blinked a couple of times; silently telling Melissa to go on.

"Well, unknown to me at the time, Lance was there as well. And...I-I'm guessing he liked what he saw cause he offered me a spot on his record label."

"At Jive?" Sam asked, her eyes lighting up at the thought.

Shaking her head, Melissa denied the words, "No. At his record label, Freelance."

At those words, Melissa watched as her coworker's facial expression went from confused-to shocked to excited-and than back to confused again, "So, why the long face? Shouldn't you be jumping for joy right now?"

Sliding down the wall, Melissa waited until her butt touched the floor before letting out the sigh she hadn't known she'd been holding. "You'd think so. But I screwed up."

Forgetting about her shirt, Sam turned her body towards the younger girl, whose hair was blocking her face at the moment as she buried it into her hands, "What'd you do?"

Sighing once again, Melissa rolled her eyes-at the situation-before looking up into Sam's questioning stare; hitting her with one of her own-hers being one of guilt though, "I thought you were playing one of your pranks, and...well, yelled at him. Called him a fake, and basically told him off in front of everyone. Probably even Mr. Murphy."

Looking down at her hands, Melissa waited for Sam to yell at her. Or call her stupid. Or better yet, tell her that she had just made the biggest mistake of her life by blowing what could've been her big shot to fame. But she was surprised when she heard the older woman's laughter-a deep cackle sort've laughter.

"You didn't!" Sam said, barely getting her words out before she was balled up into fits of laughter. "Are you serious?"

Confused, Melissa shot a glare at the woman, "It's not funny. Not only did I embarrass myself in front of a restaurant full of people, but I also embarrassed myself in front of someone who was actually willing to take a chance on me. I feel stupid."

"That's because you are." Sam said; causing Melissa to, not only roll her eyes and sigh, but also to agree. Realizing it was stupid of her to just jump to conclusions without knowing all the facts. And also stupid of her to blow up at the UN-expecting singer when all he really was trying to do was help.

"I know."

Sensing the sudden mood change, Sam quickly halted her giggling, before tying her-now dripping wet-shirt into a knot at the bottom, and making her way over to the wall facing the sinks. Sliding herself down as well, she waited until she was seated right next to Melissa before hitting the brunette with an open smile. One that was not of humor-but of apology. "Melissa, I know you and I don't know each other that well, and you probably wont get me as soon as you do. But believe me when I say this: I wasn't laughing at you."

Waiting until Melissa turned to her-with a questioning stare-Sam continued. "When I said you were stupid, I meant that you were stupid for running away after you got embarrassed. I mean, from what I briefly saw-before you basically clotheslined me-it seemed to me that even though you gave him a good chewing out, Lance still was considering you as one of his upcoming singers. Not one of his stable ones, but as one nonetheless."

Smiling softly at the words, Melissa mentally agreed with Sam. But as the realization that she had still blown her chance at her dream-fully hit her-the smile soon was replaced by a frown; causing Sam to instantly know what she was thinking.

"And you know...we haven't been in this hellhole that long. He still could be out there as we speak; waiting for his future client to get back."

While raising a hopeful eyebrow--that caused Sam to, once again, know what she was thinking--Melissa asked, "You think so?"

After shrugging slightly, the older woman gave her the only answer she could:

"You never know unless you get your ass out there."

As Sam and Melissa stepped out of the Ladies room, almost simultaneously their hopeful smiles seemed to drop; causing each one of them to end up with a dejected look on their face-ones slightly grimmer than the other.

"Maybe he went to the bathroom, or....maybe he stepped outside. You know, I heard somewhere that too much intake of one smell clogs up a singer's vocal cords."

Looking around the small restaurant once again, Melissa shook her head, smiling slightly at Sam's attempt, "I don't think so, Sam. But thanks anyway."

Smiling softly, Sam opened her mouth to say something else, but at the last minute she closed it. Realizing she didn't know exactly what to say.

It wasn't two seconds later though that she opened it once again. This time, fortunately for Melissa, switching subjects.

"Well, it looks like you've made it through your first day at the dump, kid. I have to say I'm proud of ya."

"Thanks," Melissa said, smiling slightly as she untied her apron; placing it in Sam's waiting hands after doing so, "Now I can go home and thank God I don't have to ever see another cup of coffee again...that is, until tomorrow anyway."

Laughing, Sam nodded, before turning away; placing the apron on the counter behind her, "Well, if that doesn't hold you, and you find yourself getting a little bored tonight..you have my number. Use it. Tony and I are always willing to kidnap youthful people. Especially good looking ones who manage to put up with us, or better yet me, for more than five minutes at a time."

After blushing slightly, Melissa couldn't help but find it quite odd that she was actually considering doing just that; calling Sam to hang out. She knew her rule of jumping into things before thinking, and she also knew her rule of trusting people too quickly...especially people who just happened to be coworkers.

"Well, I got to go. See ya later, Lyss." Sam said, interrupting Melissa's thoughts.

"Yeah, bye Sam." Melissa said, silently watching as the older woman walked back towards the kitchen; before turning towards the table-where her last two customers had sit-picking up the tip that they had left her before they'd left.

'Ten dollars over the asking charge. Pop star tips pretty good.'

Silently slipping the money into her Jean pocket, Melissa turned around; preparing to go, but quickly stopped as something on the table caught her eye...something that Lance, or Mike even, had left for her.

A business card.

***