Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2003 14:52:04 -0500
From: music teacher <musicteacher2002@hotmail.com>
Subject: "This is the Night" chapter 19

Disclaimer:  I have an overactive imagination, the result of which is this
story.  I do not know Clay Aiken or any other celebrities mentioned in this
story, and I do not intend to imply anything about their true sexualities.
Simply file this in the "Wouldn't it be nice...?" portion of your mind.  Also,
if you are under legal age to be reading this sort of stuff (18 in most
areas), then leave now.  All the rest of you who ARE of age, please enjoy my
little mind trip away from the land of reality.

***

CHAPTER 19

***

Of course I had nothing to worry about as far as getting the next Friday off
of school.  As long as I didn't take more than my allotted number of days
off, the district didn't so much care *when* I took them.  I just hoped that
my taking so many days off at the beginning of the school year didn't come
back to haunt me later in the year.

Just because the school district wasn't asking questions, however, doesn't
mean that other teachers weren't.  On the Wednesday before my trip, Meg
approached me.

"Randy," she said, "the rumor going around is that you're quitting!  Tell me
that's not true!"

"What?!" I said incredulously.  "Meg, I think if I were quitting, you'd be
the first to know.  Besides, why would I quit when the school year has
barely begun?"

"Well, you ARE taking a lot of days off already," she said.

I sighed.  "Yeah, I know.  But the first time, I was sick.  I couldn't help
that!  And this time, I'm going out of town with my boyfriend."

"Ohhhh, a little rendezvous?" Meg teased me.

"He has...business to attend to in Atlantic City, and asked me to go with
him," I said, looking away.

"What kind of business in Atlantic City?" she asked.

I decided to level with her...sort of.  "OK, so I told you he's famous,
right?"

"Yeah..." she said.

"Well, he got an invitation to go to the Miss America pageant," I said,
leaving out the fact that Clay was performing at the pageant, something
which would have given his identity away for sure.

"Wow!  That's so cool!" said Meg excitedly.

"Yeah," I agreed.  "But I do feel bad about leaving the kids *again*.  So
can you do me a favor and make sure the kids know that I'm OK, and I'm not
quitting?"

"Sure," she said.  "IF you do me a favor..."  Of course.  With Meg, there was
always a condition.  God love her.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Well, I know that Clay Aiken is performing at the pageant," she said.  At
the mention of Clay's name, my eyes bugged out of my head for a split
second.  Fortunately, I don't think Meg noticed.  "Do you think you could
get me an autograph?"

I wanted to burst out laughing right then and there.  Fortunately, I kept
all that laughter in check and simply said, "Sure, I'll try my best."

"Thanks!  Now have a great rest of the day!"

"You too, Meg.  Bye!"

The rest of the week crawled by as I became more and more excited about my
trip.  It was only a weekend trip, so there wasn't much packing to be done.
Besides, part of my packing had already been done for me -- Clay had rented
me a gorgeous tuxedo to wear to the pageant.  It actually look a lot like
the white tuxedo he had worn on the finale of American Idol, and I told him
so when I tried it on.

"Really?" he asked.  "Well, maybe there's a reason for that..."

"Are you kidding me?  It's the same tux?!"  I was laughing by now.

"Well, you and I are about the same height and build.  I just had some minor
alterations made," he explained.

"I'm just sorry I don't look as good as you did in it," I said to him.

"Oh please.  You look mah-velous.  Simply smashing," he said, affecting a
fake British accent.

"Well, I'm glad you think so," I told him, wrapping my arms around his waist
and kissing him lightly on the lips.  "OK, it fits!  Now I just have to pack
a little bit more, and I'll be ready to go!"

"OK, I'll be waiting in the living room," said Clay.  "Ten minutes until we
have to leave!" he reminded me.

Jeez...and I thought *I* was anal retentive about punctuality.

I finished packing and Clay and I left for the airport.  It was another
private jet that Clay's management had arranged for.  We arrived in Atlantic
City later that afternoon and checked into the hotel.  Our room was
absolutely HUGE. I had never seen a hotel room that big.  It was bigger than
my apartment!

"Let's see...private jets, limos, luxury suites...a guy could get spoiled!" I
told him.

"Seriously!" he said, gawking at the room.  "I can't believe this!"  Clay
walked around the room, opening drawers and doors and jumping on the bed.  I
watched him and smiled.  Sometimes I forgot that Clay hadn't been exposed to
the perks of being a celebrity for very long himself.

"OK, little boy," I said to him, dragging him by the hand to the door.
"This hotel is ripe for exploring!  Especially that casino!"

Clay laughed.  "I'll leave that up to you," he said.  "Unfortunately, I have
to get to rehearsal."

"Awwww," I said, pouting my lips and giving him puppy dog eyes.  "Do you
HAFTA?" I asked like a little kid.

"You know that look usually works with me," he said.  "But there is nothing
I can do about it this time.  I'm sorry.  But have a wonderful afternoon,
and I'll be back in time to take you out to a fabulous dinner."  He gave me
a kiss on the lips.

"Well, if you're going to bribe me like that..." I said.  "How can I refuse?"

So Clay told me to think about where I wanted to go for dinner, and then
left for rehearsal.  I then took my turn exploring the suite.  It really was
frickin' big.  The bathroom itself was bigger than my bedroom at home,
complete with Jacuzzi and two-person shower.  There were two bedrooms and a
living room, with a little kitchenette in the corner.  After I had fully
explored, I decided to go to the casino downstairs.  Fortunately, I had
brought some extra cash along.  In addition, Meg had given me twenty dollars
to put on "anything red" on the roulette wheel, and let it ride.

So I did.

When I walked away from the roulette wheel, I figured Meg would be happy
with the $640 I won for her.  Who'd have figured red would come up five
times in a row?!  Oh well, time to spend my own money.  I had brought fifty
dollars, and intended to put it through a rotation in the slot machines.  I
didn't feel like being *too* risky, so I made my way to the dollar slots.  I
took two cups -- one to hold the tokens I was spending, and another to hold
the tokens I won.  I went through my coins rather quickly without much luck,
and wasn't quite ready to give up yet, so I cycled through the coins one
more time.  The second time around, I ad much better luck.  By the time I
left, I was up almost $150.  I had never had such luck gambling.  Rather
than press my luck, and risk losing my shirt, I decided to cash out and head
back to the room.  It was almost time for dinner anyway.

On the way out of the casino, I came up with a plan.  Instead of waiting for
Clay to take me out to dinner, I decided to use my casino winnings to order
room service.  I stopped at the hotel gift shop, which had a huge selection
of flowers, and got a dozen red and a dozen white roses, which I took up to
the room with me.  When I got to the suite, I pulled out the room service
menu and ordered dinner for us, complete with candles.  In total, the meal
and flowers cost me more than what I had won at the casino, but I thought it
was worth it, and I was fairly certain Clay would think the same thing.  I
dug through the CDs I had brought with me on the trip and found a selection
of light jazz that would set the mood perfectly.

After the flowers were safely tucked away where Clay wouldn't see them, I
changed clothes, flipped on the television, and waited for Clay to get home.
  About twenty minutes later, the door opened, and Clay walked through it,
looking pretty exhausted.

"Hey, sweetie," he said.  "How are you?"

I chuckled. "I'm pretty good, how are you?  You look wiped out!"  I gave him
a kiss on the cheek.

"Well, it's tough work being around all those beauty queens all day!  Man,
they just would not quit grabbing me and touching me!"  He winked at me to
let me know he was joking.

"Those bitches better back off my man!" I said, grabbing Clay and drawing
him close to me, as if to show no one in particular that he was "my
property" or something.

Clay laughed.  "Yes, well...your man has to take a shower before we go out to
dinner.  Did you decide where we're going?"

"Yes," I told him.  "But it's a surprise."  I gave him a mischievous look.

"Hmmm...you worry me when you get like this..." said Clay.  "But I'll just have
to trust you, I guess.  I'm too tired to argue."

"Good," I told him, kissing him again.  "Now go shower!"

Clay grabbed a change of clothes and went into the bathroom.  No sooner had
the water started, and Clay had begun singing, than a knock came at the
door.  I opened it, and the food was wheeled in.  I tipped the waiter, and
began to set things up.  I made sure the table was set, with the food served
and candles lit.  I then retrieved the flowers from their hiding place and
began to place them all over the room.  I laid some on the bed, some on the
floor, and put some in a vase on the table.  I looked around and inspected
my work.  As soon as I was done, the bathroom door opened and Clay emerged.

"What's all this?" he asked.

"This," I said, gesturing around the room, "is where we are going for dinner
tonight."

"But how did you...when did you...?"  Clay was dumbfounded.

"I did pretty well in the casino this afternoon, so I thought I'd put the
winnings to good use," I said proudly.  "Besides, I thought it might be nice
to...stay in...tonight."

"Ohhhhh," said Clay, catching the hidden meaning in my statement.  "Well,
I'm definitely all for that."

"Well, monsieur," I said with a really bad French accent, "dinner is
served."  I offered my arm to Clay, and he took it.  I walked with him over
to the table, where I pulled his chair out for him.  I poured each of us a
glass of water (after the anniversary wine incident, we had each sworn off
alcohol for a while) and sat down.  I raised my glass, and said, "Here's to
us."

"Here's to an incredibly romantic dinner...and to us," Clay concurred.  We ate
our meal in relative silence -- not a forced silence, but a comfortable one.
Clay and I were simply enjoying each other's company.

"That was absolutely wonderful," Clay said after we had finished.  I agreed
and began to clean up, but was soon stopped by Clay.  "Let me get those," he
said.  "You went through all the trouble of setting this up, this is the
least I can do."  So I lay down on the bed and watched as my man cleaned up
dinner.  When he was done, he laid down with me on the bed, draping his arm
across my waist and laying his head on my chest.  I lightly stroked the top
of his head as he lay there.

"Mmmm," Clay purred.  "That feels nice.  I love you so much"

"You know," I told him, "Sometimes at school, I have the absolute worst day
I can imagine.  But when I think about you, I calm down.  I know that I have
you to come home to.  On those bad days, you are what has calmed me down.
And on good days, I can't wait to get home so I can call you and tell you
all about it.  I never thought I'd be this lucky.  I love you, Clay."

No response.

"Clay?" I asked.  Still no response. One more try.  "Clay?"

"Zzzzzzz," came the light snore from Clay, who had fallen asleep on my
chest.  I chuckled to myself, and then slowly managed to wriggle out from
underneath my sleeping angel.  I went into the other bedroom, got a blanket,
and gently put it over Clay.  I then changed my clothes and crawled into bed
with him.  I wasn't quite as tired as Clay, so I turned on the television at
a low volume and watched for a while until I got sleepy.  Eventually, in his
drowsed state, Clay snuggled up to me once again, so I flipped off the TV
and got underneath the covers.

The next morning, we were woken up by a phone call from Clay's management
telling him what time he needed to be at the venue.  Looking at the clock,
we saw that we still had a few hours.  Rather than waste the day (not that
staying in bed would have been a particularly repulsive option) we decided
to get up, shower, and head out.  The hotel was actually within walking
distance of the theater, so we decided to take a walk on the boardwalk for a
while.  All afternoon, we strolled, shopped, and ate.  Since we were in
public for so long, we were followed by a bodyguard, but luckily he stayed
out of our way for the most part.  After a while, I had almost forgotten he
was there.

Soon enough, we had reached the theater.  We were still pretty early, so we
decided to explore backstage.  We eventually found a room with Clay's name
on it.

"My own dressing room?" Clay asked.  "They shouldn't have!"

We opened the door to find...well...it was a room...sort of.  There wasn't much to
it, except four concrete walls, a concrete floor, and a plaster ceiling.
The room couldn't have measured more than 8x10.  As for furniture, there was
a really uncomfortable-looking couch along one wall, and a hanging bar with
Clay's tux on the other wall.

"They *really* shouldn't have..." I said dryly.

"Well, it's better than nothing," said Clay, trying to make the best of
things.  "I might have had to change out in the open, backstage..."

I laughed.  "Yeah, that's true.  I remember how freaked out you got at your
mom's when *I* walked in on you changing!"

"I just thought you were my mother!" he said defensively.  "If I'd have
known it was you..."

"...you still would have freaked out," I finished for him.  "You're one of
the most modest people I know."  Clay blushed a deep crimson color.  I
walked up behind him and wrapped my arms around him.  "And I think that is
so...  incredibly...cute."  I punctuated those last three words with kisses
to the back of his neck, his ear, and his cheek as I turned him around.

"Yeah," said Clay.  "I *am* pretty cute, aren't I?"  He smiled as he leaned
in to kiss me.  What started as innocent kissing soon led to full-fledged
making out.  Our tongues were entwined in each other's mouths and our hands
were roaming all over each other's bodies.  We slowly made out way to the
couch, and Clay laid me down so that he was on top of me.  His hand began to
roam up my shirt, and he began to play with my nipple.  I began to moan
loudly as he rubbed and pinched my nipples, and that made Clay start moaning
as well.  We were really starting to get into it, when all of a sudden....

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry...I didn't mean to...oh, shit..."

***

That's it for Chapter 19!  Looks like Clay and Randy have really done it
this time.  What do you think will happen?  I could tell you right now (the
next chapter is written already) but that would ruin the point of a
cliffhanger, now, wouldn't it?

So Clay and Randy getting caught has brought up an interesting question.  Do
you guys want to see Clay come out publicly?  This obviously only pertains
to the story...while I wish I could control real life like that, even I am not
that good.  At any rate, I'm still undecided, but I am leaning toward one
way versus the other.  I want to hear what you guys think.  Send your
comments and suggestions to musicteacher2002@hotmail.com  Thanks!

All the usual thanks apply.