As soon as Fifth Avenue Square and Cassie were done with their appearance on the Early Morning Show, Nathan and his band mates decided to head on back to the hotel to rest from their early morning appearance. However, as for Cassie and Annie; they wanted to do some shopping so the girls could look ravishing at Roxie's evening dinner party at Angelo's. So despite a slight change in plans; Lexie had Nathan, his band mates, Garrett, Tom and Lexie herself go back to the hotel in Fifth Avenue Square and Cassie's van while Cassie and Annie rode in the other van that would have been transporting Lexie, Annie, Tom and Garrett to the stores the girls would be shopping at throughout the rest of the afternoon.
As soon as both parties went their separate ways; the overall atmosphere started to change.
"Cassie; can I get your opinion on something?" Annie asked her.
"Sure; what's up?"
"Do you think there has been a bit of a change with Roxie? I know this sounds completely ridiculous, but I can't get rid of this feeling that there's something about her that doesn't feel right. Does that make any sense?" Annie explained.
"No; it makes sense. People change all the time if you don't hear or talk to them for a certain amount of time. Why; did Roxie seem a bit different towards us when we were talking to her earlier?"
"Maybe-I don't know. It's just when Tom and I ran into Roxie in her dressing room, it looked like Roxie had something on her mind that she wanted to say, but she didn't want to tell anyone because it might cause some unnecessary drama between her reconnection with everyone; especially Nathan." Annie mentioned.
"If it is that; I think the two of us should ask and talk to Roxie about it when we see her later." Cassie suggested. Annie agreed and accepted Cassie's suggestion and the two girls continued on their day in silence.
As the afternoon dragged on; both Annie and Cassie had become very successful while out shopping in New York City's fashion district. Both girls found some outfits that were both semi-formal and acceptable to wear to any special event or dinner party. After a while, both girls started to get a bit hungry. Also at the same time; Roxie texted Cassie the new address to her brown house. Luckily for Annie and Cassie there was a cafe across the street from where both girls were shopping. So both girls came to the decision to buy their lunch from the cafe and take it with them to Roxie's house. Cassie also thought it'd be nice to also get Roxie something from the cafe since there was a possible chance Roxie could be hungry after all of her errands from earlier. Cassie also called their driver to let them know where to pick the girls up once they have gotten their food. As soon as Annie and Cassie had not only gotten their food, Roxie's meal and have gotten into the van; the van was on its way to take the girls to their next destination. Once the van was parked outside of Roxie's brown house, both Annie and Cassie were in awe of how luxurious the neighborhood was.
"Well this is definitely an upgrade from my old apartment." Cassie chuckled.
"Tell me about it. I feel like a fish out of water just by not only standing here but also looking at Roxie's house," Annie gulped. "I can only imagine what Angelo's will look like at dinner tonight." she added.
"From what I've seen in movies and what I have heard from some locals, Angelo's does have its sophisticated charm like a 5 star restaurant, but it also has a bit of a family friendly atmosphere like your average Italian restaurant." Cassie explained.
"Well I just hope the food is amazing because I hear that some of these 5 star restaurants either have lousy customer service or the food is horrible." Annie stated. Cassie just simply laughed at Annie's remark, knocked on Roxie's front door and both girls waited patiently outside for Roxie.
Once Roxie had opened the front door, all 3 girls went to the kitchen to sit and chit chat while eating their food. As the girls were eating and talking amongst each other, both Annie and Cassie would admire how put together everything was inside Roxie's new house. As for Roxie, however; she was just happy about what kind of food she was eating at the moment.
"I had a feeling you'd be starving by the time we got here." Cassie chuckled as Roxie was wiping her mouth with a napkin.
"I apologize if I looked like a starving kid from Ethiopia right now, but all I had to eat was a little bit of cereal, some cookies and fruit. Andrew wants me to start this 'no carbs or fatty food' diet so I can have this nice figure for some up and coming author's gala in Denver, Colorado in a couple of months." Roxie admitted.
"Hold on; if you're on this special diet then why are you having an evening dinner party at a restaurant that serves pasta, pizza and garlic bread?" Annie asked.
"About that; Andrew and my publisher, Dominic; were the one's who decided on where I was going to have this dinner party. If it were up to me; I would be here at home, in my pj's, eating some pizza or Chinese food, drinking glass of wine or some hard cider while watching TV." Roxie explained.
"I had a feeling you would say that. Here's a fun fact about Roxie: she loves putting on a party for her friends, but when it comes to herself; Roxie would rather stay in than go out and celebrate." Cassie told Annie.
"Huh; I'd never figured you to be the stay at home type. After all you were the one that came up and threw a fantastic little get together at my parent's pub for Cassie not too long ago." Annie recalled.
"Speaking of food and The Smouldering Hog; if there is one thing I miss more than anything it is having Auntie Lizzie's homemade Irish beef stew, her world famous full English breakfast and homemade fish and chips. I can't count how many places I have been since I've gotten back to New York to see if any restaurant has the same quality as Auntie Lizzie's cooking; turns out nobody here knows the difference between fresh and homemade to food coming straight from a can." Roxie remarked.
"I guess it's true when people say if you want to try a certain culture's cusine; you've got to go to where that culture originates," Cassie giggled. "What I want to know is how in the world are you able to live in a brown house? You know these homes cost a fortune! Not to mention YOU are just starting out with your career as an author." she added.
"I know and I'm fortunate to have Kyle at least somewhat help me with some of the utilities. Other than that, Andrew is supposedly taking care of the mortgage and insurance." Roxie replied.
"Wait a minute; isn't Kyle the friend of yours that was looking for a place to live?" Annie asked.
"Yeah and you can kind of say that Kyle and I are currently more than friends." Roxie admitted.
"Meaning?"
"Well, you see Kyle and I are...dating." Roxie stated.
"Wait so-how in-when did this happen?!" Cassie shrieked.
"Honestly I have no freaking clue! All I remember is being completely upset and agitated with Nathan after our last video chat that I went to bed practically crying myself to sleep. I was so depressed the next day that Kyle had to literally pull me out of bed and drag me outside to forget about the night before! The next thing you know; Kyle is making me breakfast in bed." Roxie explained.
"Does anyone else know about this?" Annie asked.
"Besides you guys; Andrew is the only person that knows about me and Kyle." Roxie said.
"Ok, please tell me you plan on telling Nathan, Garrett and the other boys about all of this?"
"I was hoping to keep it a secret for a long time, but after with what happened at the TV studio this morning; I'm going to have to say something!" Roxie groaned.
"Damn right! Do you have any idea what this kind of news will do to your relationship with Nathan?! Roxie; the guy practically serenaded to you during a commercial break." Cassie remarked.
"I know! And I know that I'm going to have to tell the others the truth about all of this sooner or later. I'm just afraid that if I say anything; it might jeopardize everything Nathan and I have worked for since our relationship had started." Roxie sighed.
"Roxie; if there is one thing that I have learned since meeting you it's that its better to be honest to the people you care about than lying or hiding the truth from them. I can't promise let alone guarantee things will go back to normal once Nathan and the boys find out about your relationship with Kyle, but the lads deserve to at least some solid reason of why you haven't talked to any of them in the past several months. You owe that to them." Annie stated.
"Then I guess there's just one thing I've got to do tonight," Roxie said. "I've got to tell the boys about me and Kyle at Angelo's." she added as she looked at Annie and Cassie.