Chapter 48

After school Friday Kara let herself into her apartment and sighed. It was so quiet. She hadn't ever noticed before how quiet it was, until after she had had company for a week. She hung up her coat and went and sat in their chair. It wasn't just hers anymore. She and Richie had spent a lot of quality time in that chair; it was theirs now. Leaning back she turned her head and caught a whisper of his scent that still lingered. She let herself sit there and wallow for a few minutes then forced herself to get up. Picking up the phone she dialed her best friend.

"Hello?"

Kara tried to smile, "hi Jen, it's me."

Jen sat down in the kitchen chair, "hi hon. How're you doing?" She knew Richie had left and had been wondering how she was handling it.

Kara twisted the phone cord around her fingers, "I'm okay. I was just wondering if you were busy tonight."

Jen looked up at her calendar, "you caught me on a good day, we have nothing going on tonight. What did you want to do?"

Kara smiled, "do you think you could come over and bring some of your Bon Jovi collection with you? I need to be educated."

Jen laughed, "it's about damn time girl! I'll be over shortly. Did you eat yet?"

"No" Kara shook her head, "I've only been home a short while. You wanna get Chinese or something? I'll crack open some wine and we can figure that out when you get here."

"Okay, see you soon." Jen hung up and turned to her husband, "I'm going to Kara's tonight; you and the girls are going to have to fend for yourselves."

Jen arrived at Kara's half an hour later with a bag full of DVDs and CDs. Kara's eyes widened when she saw it all. "How much stuff do you have there and how much more wine are we going to need?"

Jen laughed, "this is just a portion of it and we can always use more wine. What shall we start with?" She rummaged and pulled out a bootleg with all their early videos on it. "Pour the wine and we'll start here." She put the disc in and pressed play.

Several hours and two bottles of wine later, amongst half empty cartons of now cold Chinese, Kara had learned enough to know that Jen was right. She had missed out on so much good music. She couldn't wait to go to Philadelphia and seem them play live. She nudged Jen, "I should have listened to you all those times you told me to listen to them."

Jen glanced at Kara, "I only told you that about a million times."

Kara smiled and wrapped her arm around Jen, resting her head on her shoulder, "how would you feel about a trip to Las Vegas in April?"

Jen's eyes widened and she turned and nudged Kara to sit up. "What did you just ask me?"

Kara looked over at the TV, Richie was singing I'll be There for You. "I asked if you might want to take a trip to Vegas in April."

"Why would I want to go to Vegas in April?" Jen was starting to get excited, she knew the tour schedule and wondered if that was what Kara was getting at.

Kara took Jen's hand, "Richie wants me to come to a show and he said I should bring you too. I'm going to Philadelphia in a couple of weeks and then to Vegas in April. Do you want to come with me to Vegas?"

Jen's grip in Kara's hand tightened, "of course I want to! I'll have to check with Dave of course, but yes, yes I want to!" Her voice had gone up an octave or two with the excitement and Kara had to shush her.

"Jen, calm down. It's two months away yet. I'm sure you'll get all the details worked out." Kara glanced back over at the TV, Jon and Richie were singing Wanted. "He loves me you know."

Jen tugged on Kara's hand, forcing her to turn to face her, "What?! Really?! Oh my God Kara, that's wonderful." She took a breath "any more surprises? You're not pregnant or anything are you?"

Kara laughed, "no Jen, I'm not pregnant or anything. I told him yesterday morning that I loved him and the feeling is mutual."

Jen hugged Kara, "oh honey, I'm so happy for you. Jealous too mind you, but happy that you've found yourself such a good guy."

They sat back on the couch to finish watching the DVD, falling asleep next to each other, Kara's head on Jen's shoulder, a blanket pulled haphazardly across them