Chapter One

“We’re gonna be so good, like we knew we would, like only we could, come on and hear me now…

“Hey? I thought said that they were never going to sing this live again….
“Ever!” I said to .

We were at Wembley watching Boyzone perform on the Better tour 2009 and the opening song of the night,
appeared to be ‘So Good’. Which had categorically
stated on live TV they would never perform live again.

looked at me confused. “Yeah I’m sure…”

“!!”

“!!”

“!!!!!!!!!!! ”

Why was she shouting at me?

Knock knock Knock knock

“!!!!”

I woke up with a start.

was hammering my door down.
“ we’re gonna be late!!”

“Late?”
“Late for what?” I muttered as I stumbled out of bed and went to unlock the bedroom door bleary eyed.
knowing would just keep on knocking if I didn’t.

“Meeting the lads” she said as she barged her way into the room.

“What the f…”and then I realised she meant the gig tonight. I looked at my watch. “But the gigs not for another twelve hours or more”

I looked at my watch again. “Jesus Christ , it’s only 7 o’clock!!”

“Sorry !!”
“But we need to get ready, we really are meeting the lads”.

“What?”
“What are you taking about ?”

“ …spoke to , who spoke to Louis, and managed to get us a day with the lads, on account of it being your birthday”

“Oh Happy Birthday by the way” she said as an afterthought.

“Thanks” I mumbled. Still trying to figure out exactly what she’d just said to me.

topping and Patterson were Boyzone’s make up artist and Louis Walsh’s (The lads manager) PA respectively.
had known since school and knew through . We had all been friends for years. But had somehow not yet managed to meet the lads.

But that was all about to change….

Chapter Two

And I suddenly felt sick!

I sat down on the edge of the bed in my hotel room and looked up slowly at who was grinning at me like a Cheshire cat.

OH

MY

GOD!

We both just looked at each and suddenly started screaming. Which bought , , and all running into the room.

“What on earth’s the matter with you two?” asked . Looking from me to and then back again.

“Have you not told them yet?” I asked incredulously. shook her head. “No. I wanted to tell you first because it’s your birthday!”

“Oh” I grinned at her again suddenly. Still not believing that this could be real.

“Tell us what?” asked and , impatient as always.

“ , you better sit down love” said . “I don’t want you fainting on us!!”

“In fact. Why don’t you all sit down? Its big news!!”

The others did as they were told and pretty soon there was no room on the bed.

“We…are…meeting the lads approximately three hours!!” she said.

The room was suddenly filled with the sound of lots of shrieking and screaming.
“Ssssh girls!” I laughed, “They’ll think we’re being murdered!!”

We are looked at each other seriously and then burst out laughing.

“Did you say three hours ?” asked .
“Yep, we’re meeting them at ten”
“But it’s nearly eight already!”

“Shit!!! Time flies when you’re having fun!”

“Oh my god! What the hell am I going to wear?!” screeched suddenly.

“Chirst knows” said , “I haven’t got a clue what I’m wearing, and I’ve known about this since yesterday…” she shrugged.
“What?!” looked at her incredulously.

“Sorry” looked sheepish. “I couldn’t tell you. I needed to tell first and finalise the details with the girls”

“So…we’ve got two hours to get ready. We better get a bloody move on!!” said . She looked at me suddenly as if trying to remember something.

“Oh Happy Birthday ”

“Thanks ”

“Um, . We’ve got you a present. But I think we need to give it to you later on” said . “Not sure it’s appropriate today…” she winked at the others.

“Ok….”

Chapter Three

Two hours and ten minutes later. We were waiting for Louis, , and in the hotel foyer. We knew we were a little bit late. But as had pointed out. “We’d waited years to meet the lads. They could surely wait five minutes for us!!”

came into the hotel foyer first and wolf whistled at us girls. We all laughed. We’d decided to go for the smart but causal look, mostly jeans and nice tops, some of us in heels, and some in flat shoes. Even I had to admit that we looked pretty good.

Louis came into the foyer next, presumably to find and hurry us girls up.

“Ladies” he said.

“How are you?”

“Happy Birthday ”

“Oh my god! Thank you Louis. I can’t believe it. I…” I stopped myself, I was rambling.

Louis just smiled at me. “Come on you lot. The cars are waiting…”

“Cars?”

“Well we couldn’t fit you all in one, could we?” laughed .

“Oh yeah” blushed .

“Anyway the cars are taking you to meet the lads at their hotel”

We all looked at each other and squealed.

“…and then we’re going to take you for dinner and a bit of shopping”.

“Right come on. We’ve got a tight schedule. The lads have to be back by five for the sound check” said Louis sternly. “Otherwise Mark will murder me” he muttered under his breath. Which caused us girls to giggle. Mark plunkett was the lads tour manger and hated people who were late!

“Don’t worry Louis. I’ll make sure the lads are back in time. But I can’t guarantee they’ll be back in one piece after a day with his lot” grinned .

“Oi!!” said , pretending to be offended.

“Watch it!!” While the rest of us couldn’t stop giggling from (very) nervous excitement.

“Right , and , in the first car, please”
“ , and in the second” said , suddenly taking control.

“Bossy boots!!” teased . just stuck out her tongue in response.

We did as we were told and were soon on our way to the lads hotel in central London. It took us about an hour to get to the lads hotel as the London traffic was fairly slow, though nowhere near as bad as it could have been. We all thought we were going to burst with excitement by the time we got there.

As we pulled up outside the Mayfair we all gasped, it was absolutely stunning and we suddenly felt underdressed. was sat in the front passengers of our car and could sense our discomfort.

“Don’t worry guys, the lads will all be dressed casually as well. They see enough suits on tour to last them a lifetime!!”

We laughed at this, she had a point!

“Ready girls?”

“As we’ll ever be” muttered . We were all really nervous now. We steeped out of our car and waited for the other girls to get out of the car behind us so that we could go in together. We all looked at each other, took a deep breath and followed into the hotel.

Chapter Four
The lads were all waiting for us in the hotel bar. They all stared at us as we walked in.

was the first to speak. “ ! You could have told us you were bringing us models for the day….we would have made an effort!!” he mock scolded.

“Shut up !!!” said grinning.

“No seriously . These girls are gorgeous”

I think it’s safe to say that we were all blushing by that point. especially.

“Are you going to introduce us then?” asked .

“Girls, as if you didn’t know…this is , , , and ” introduced them in the order that they were standing. squealed as said s name.

“And lads, this is , , , , and ” as said our names the lads all came forward to shake our hands individually.

“And this…” she said shoving me towards them, “Is the birthday girl”

Rather than shaking my hand, the lads all gave me a hug because it was my birthday. I just stood frozen to the spot, unable to hug them back. They must have thought I was a right idiot!!

“Right girls, it’s about eleven now. Do you want to grab some drinks and then go into town for some lunch?”

We all just nodded and smiled. Afraid to speak incase we said something stupid.

went to the bar whilst we followed the lads over to the largest table in the bar. and sat down first, closely followed my and , who each grabbed the seats next to their favourite member.
sat down next with and managing to get seats either side of him. Which left me, , and to find seats.
sat next to and quickly took the seat on the other side of him. sat next to which left me, as I deliberated about sitting next to him and trying not to make an idiot of myself, or sitting in the spare seat next to .

“Sit next to me, birthday girl” he smiled at me.
“Thanks” I said quietly.
“Are you ok?” he asked gently. “You seem a little nervous”
I smiled “I am, a little”
“You are actually the quietist fans I’ve ever met” he mused.

over heard this and laughed loudly. “Give us time!” she said. “You’ll soon be telling us to shut up!!” she winked at me.
“Especially , she can talk for Wales!!”

“Oi!!!” I glared at her and she stuck her tongue out at me.

just laughed at our banter.

“I get the feeling this is going to be a good day ladies”

Chapter Five

came back over, looked at us girls each sat next to our favourite member of the band and smiled. She set down a tray on the table laden with bottles of champagne and champagne flutes.

My eyes were wide at the sight. “Is it not a bit early?”

“Nonsense” grinned . “Its your birthday!!!”

“Exactly” said .

“Hence the champagne” said as she started handed the glasses ‘round the table.

“Thanks” I said as she poured champagne into mine first. Then went ‘round the table filling everyone else’s champagne flutes.

“Hiya guys!!!!” just then came bouncing into the room, grinning like a cheshire cat.

“ !” we all squealed. The lads looked at us, slightly bemused, obviously wondering how we knew their make-up artist. Our relationship had obviously not been previously explained.

“Bugger!” she exclaimed suddenly. “There’s nowhere to sit!!”
Then..
“Oooh champagne!” she exclaimed and we all laughed.

“ , you could sit on ’s lap” suggested
mischievously.

“But then you’d have four women fighting over you!!” laughed

“Four?” raised his eyebrows at .

“Erm, yeah” said quietly, knowing that the others would kill her. But it was too late now!!

“ , , and …” “They all love you!”

grinned. “Wow, four beautiful admirers”

“How do you know two know and ?” he asked and .

“Um, well I’ve known since school” said . And we met through ”

“We’ve known each other for years now!”

“So, how come we’ve never met you?”

Good question , I thought to myself.

“You’ve not been lucky enough” said cheekily.

“This is true” said . “Well this must be our lucky day!!”

“I’ll say” I said, and we all laughed.

“Anyway” said . “I want to propose a toast”

He picked up his champagne flute.

“Happy Birthday ”

“ , it’s ” said .

“Happy Birthday ” said .

“Happy Birthday!!!!” everyone chorused and we all clinked glasses.

“So you’re fans then?” asked . We all nodded. “Yep” “So…. and , we’ve established who you fancy” he winked at them. “But what about the rest of your girls?”

Me, , and all looked at each other and giggled nervously.

mischievously spoke on our behalf. “Well you’re all sitting next to them” she said.

looked at me and I blushed. “ , your ’s favourite and your ’s, and Ste, worships the ground you walk on!!”

“Thanks a lot ” she muttered.

We all laughed. changed the subject quickly and we continued chatting before Louis barge in and yelled that the cars were ready to take us to lunch.

Chapter Six

Twenty minutes later due to the London traffic we pulled up outside the hard rock café. Us girls had all been piled into one limo, and the lads in another. was sat up front with the driver., as we pulled up outside the restaurant she turned to us in the back and said, “Right girls, get ready to run, because the press are waiting outside for the lads..”

“Wow, that’s exciting” I said.

“No! No posing , I want you all inside!!”
“Hey, I was joking!” I said. “I would hate to be in the paper!!”

Through the tinted windows of the limo we could see Barrie get out of the lads car and open the door for them.

“Right…NOW!” yelled , as Barrie opened our door and ushered us around the back of the paparazzi and into the back entrance of the restaurant. We met the lads inside, they’d already been allocated a table and had left a space for each of us to sit next to our favourite member.

“Wow, fancy meeting you girls here!” joked .

“Indeed” said , much more confident than she had been earlier. The champagne had obviously worked wonders.

“Don’t be shy girls” said as we all hovered around the large table, unsure whether to sit down or not. “If you say so” said , and plonked herself down next to much to our amusement.

“You’re drunk Charles!” giggled .
“So?” said raising his eyebrows at us, we all laughed.

took her seat next to , next to , on the other side of to , and next to , next to and me next to
.

I felt suddenly nervous as I sat down next to him again. “Hi” he said softly.
“Hi” I managed to whisper back, my mouth suddenly dry. “Would you like a drink?”
“Hmm. Oh, yes please”

Stop being a bloody idiot! I said to myself.

“I’ll go to the bar” he said and stood up.
“Wait, …” but he’d already gone.

He came about five minutes later with more champagne. “Christ lads” said . “You do remember we have a gig tonight, don’t you?!”

“Of course” said . “But you do need to celebrate a birthday, right?!”
“Hmmm. Perhaps after the gig…” mumbled .

“Right ok…so we’ll have one glass each, and the girls can have the rest” said .

“Christ, then we really will be pissed!” said .
“Oh well…nothing new there then!” examined .

“ ! You make us sound like a bunch of alcoholics!!” mock scolded .
“We are…aren’t we?” laughed Lou.

“Speak for yourself” retorted . Then she caught my eye and we both burst out laughing.

We all ordered our food, and were told we could have whatever we wanted, so even with all the lads, we still ended up ordering far too much. I was just about to go and get myself a glass of water when put his hand on my arm gently. A jolt of electricity shot through me.

“Sit down , I’ll get it” he said. I stared at him in silence and just nodded, wondering if he had felt it too. I swallowed, hard. “I’ll be back in a sec”, he said.

“Ooh , likes you!” teased .

“Don’t be stupid” I muttered. “He’s just being nice because it’s my birthday”

“No , I think she’s right” said . “I’ve not seen look at anyone like that since Amelia left him”

Silence descended on the table as the impact of ’s words hit us all, and then was back with my water, so nothing more was said on the subject.

As placed the water on the table and sat back down, suddenly all the lights went out.

“What the…”

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear …
Happy Birthday to you

The waiter had placed a massive cake with candles on in the middle of the table. I was lost for words…literally!

I bent to blow the candles out. “Make a wish ”,
whispered in my ear, sending a shiver down my spine.
I closed my eyes and blew out the candles.
I wish this day would never end..

Everyone clapped as I blew out the candles in one go and then the lights came back on.

“Thanks guys” I said.

“Right, who wants to go shopping?” asked .

Silly question….

Chapter Seven

And so our first stop was Selfridges on Oxford Street. “Right girls” said , trying to take control. “You can each choose one thing, that we will be paying for…” “on one condition, which is that you must wear it to the show tonight”

“Ooh exciting!” said . And then her face fell suddenly and she whispered something to . whispered something back hurriedly and I wondered what was going on?

“Sooo, I’m thinking jeans, a skirt or shoes” said . “’cause I’ve got like, millions of tops..”

“Ooh, good call ” said . “Yeah good idea” said Mei, and I wondered if they were up to something. But it didn’t cross my mind again as I saw the most amazing dress in front of me.

I picked it up and held it in front of me. “God , that is stunning, but do you not think it’s a bit dressy for tonight?” said .
I nodded reluctantly and put the dress back.

“Hey , look at these!” said , holding up a pair of purple skinny jeans. “Wow” I said, “They are pretty amazing”

We spent about an hour looking through stuff, painfully aware that our time with the lads would be coming to an end soon. We had banished the lads to the men’s department, not wanting them to see what we had bought until tonight. We had front row tickets after all.

I ended up buying the jeans, bought an amazing pair of green shoes, bought a pink mini skirt, both and bought a pair of dark skinny jeans each and bought a pair of sparkly silver heels.

We met the lads trying on hats and laughed at them posing at each other. “So ladies, you’ve enjoyed yourselves shopping?” laughed eyeing up our bags. We all just grinned at him. He looked at his watch. “Right, so it’s four o’clock now, so we’ve got an hour with you lovely ladies…what would you like to do?”

“You lads have got to be at the racecourse by five” reminded them gently. Tonight’s gig was at Sandown racecourse and the lads had to finish their sound check before the racing started at Six o’clock.

“Oh yeah, damn” muttered to himself. To us he said reluctantly, “I guess we’d better go”
“We’ll get the car to take you back to your hotel”

We must have all looked miserable as we said ‘goodbye’ to the lads, even though we were excited about seeing them all again live later.

“What are you ladies doing tonight after the show?” asked suddenly.

“Erm, nothing” said . “Except maybe a few drinks for ’s birthday”

“Right. We’ll speak to Louis. We’re going to take you out tonight” he looked at others for approval and they were all grinning at him. “We’ll get or to call you with the arrangements”

We girls all looked at us and resisted the urge to squeal. Could this day get any more surreal?!
Chapter Eight
An hour later we were all back at the hotel in mine and ’s room.

“Sooooo Vic about your birthday present…”

I looked at expectantly. “You like, HAVE to wear it tonight”

“Ok…” I said as I unwrapped it excitedly. I was always like a kid when it came to birthdays. Inside was a black t-shirt with the words ‘Mrs ’ printed in purple italic writing.

“Oh my god. I love it!!!” I cried. “Thanks so much girls!!” I gave them all a hug.

All the other girls had had ‘Mrs’ t-shirts for ages. But I hadn’t been able to get one printed in time for the tour. had one which had ‘ ’s Younger Woman’ printed on it, which never failed to make me smile.

Now I understood as I held the t-shirt up against me why had been prompting me to buy the purple jeans, they matched the writing on the t-shirt perfectly!

Beep Beep, Beep Beep.

My phone vibrated in my jeans pocket suddenly, making me jump a mile. I glanced at the message quickly before I opened it, it was from a number that I didn’t recognise.

Hey birthday girl. Hope you’re having fun getting ready with the girls? It will be lovely to see you again tonight. Love xxx

Oh my…

I sat down on the bed suddenly.

“ are you alright?” I handed my phone wordlessly.

“See I told you he liked you. Oh my god!!”

“How….”
“How did he get my number?” I stuttered.

looked at me sheepishly. “Um, he asked me for it when you went to the loo in the Hard Rock…”

I blushed suddenly. “Erm, ….I hope you don’t mind, but cornered me for yours earlier, in Selfridges”

“Well asked me for yours ” said . laughed, “Well him and must have been in cahoots, ‘cause asked me for yours… and asked me for yours ” said .

Poor looked crestfallen.

“Oh and ” said . “That really hot guy in Selfridges asked me for yours…I didn ‘t have it, so I gave him your email address…hope you don’t mind?”

“Of course not!!” she laughed.

We continued getting ready, in an even worse state of excitement now than we had been earlier. Especially now that the lads had taken their numbers. I mean, who cared if they called…it was the thought that counted…

Chapter Nine

“Right girls, this way” said as we pulled up outside the venue about twenty minutes later.

We followed through various trailers and equipment and realised that we were actually in the backstage area.

“Goodness ” said looking at our t-shirts. “We were going to get changed before going out with the lads tonight…” referring to the clothes we’d left in the limo to change in to later.

“It’ll be fine ” laughed . “The lads will love it!!”

“Anyway…you know they are all single now, don’t you?” she whispered wickedly.

We all stopped and stared at her. “What?!” said in disbelief.

nodded. “Well you know about and ”

We nodded, both and had had very well published marriage breakdowns.

“Well….Sheana cheated on , has suddenly decided he’s not gay…” rolled her eyes at this as if she’d heard it a million times before. “And ”, she paused for effect. “Is getting a divorce…”

“Hello ladies!” exclaimed Barrie as he came towards us closely followed by Mark Plunkett the lads tour manager.
We were all still in shock at what had just announced. Poor and worse than any of us.

“So is…” said , unable to finish the sentence.

“Single!!!” squealed , unable to contain her excitement.

“I certainly am..” he said as him and the rest of the lads came strolling towards us. In our excitement we’d not seen them in the distance.

The rest of us burst out laughing whilst poor and looked mortified and both went bright red.

“Nice t-shirts ladies” winked .

I think we all must have turned bright red at that point.

“Right you lot” yelled Mark suddenly. “I need the lads ready for the meet and greet in five”

“Hi ladies” he winked at us, turning on the charm. “My, aren’t you a sexy bunch!”
“I think I’ve changed my mind..” he looked at Louis. “You lot will put the lads off..”
“Come on lads, we’ll do the meet and greet over the other….”

“Oh Maaaaaaaaarrrk” said .

He grinned at us all. “I’m joking girls, don’t panic!!” he said.

“Yeah ‘cause that was like, really funny..” said sarcastically.

“Right, I’m sending to collect the meet and greet-ers” he laughed at his own bad English.

As soon as Mark, and Louis were out of earshot, all hell broke loose.

When Louis and Mark came back from checking the stage area they found us all very close and in deep conversation with our favourite members of the band, looking very cosy indeed. Especially and who were both flirting shamelessly with , who was clearly loving the attention. Louis cleared his throat and we all jumped about ten feet apart.

“If we could get ourselves ready…” he said and walked away shaking his head.

As the girls (surprisingly there were no male fans for the meet and greet) all came backstage, they looked much like we had earlier that day. A mixture of over excited and terrified! When they say us so close to the guys, they just glared at us.

“Um, girls, I don’t think they appreciate our t-shirts” grinned , and we laughed which just caused them to glare at us even more.

“Shall we just go to the bar?” asked .

“Yeah, let’s go. We’ve plenty of time to see the lads later” said , and we all grinned uncontrollably at this.

“God that sounds sooooo strange!” I said.
“I know…” said .

Chapter Ten

“So we’d like to dedicate this next song to five very special ladies in the front row…”

“Our future wives…” joked .

We all went bright red as the camera panned around onto us five and we were shown in all our t-shirt glory on the big screens either side of the stage.

“This is Better”

We all screamed and jumped up and down like idiots, whilst the lads tried not to laugh as they started the song.

Almost as soon as it had begun the show was ending, and as the lads were on the last song - the dreaded No Matter What, we saw Barrie walking towards us from the side of the stage. was nearest to him as he approached us, so he leant and whispered something in her ear.

turned towards us all and said “The lads want to meet us ‘round the back and take us out with them, in their cars”

“Oh…my…”

“So we’ve got to run” interrupted Barrie. We all picked up our bags and followed Barrie around the side of the stage.

“Oh shit!!” exclaimed suddenly, causing us all to stare at her, including Barrie.

“What?” I said worriedly as I noticed the look of pure panic on her face.

“Our clothes are still in the limo!!!”

“We’re going out with the lads dressed like this!”

“Oh Christ” said .
And suddenly the reality of the situation hit us, we looked at each other and all burst all laughing. Barrie just looked at us as if we were crazy and motioned us to follow him.

The lads met us as they stepped out from underneath the stage area dripping with sweat. But more attractive to us in that moment, than they had ever been.

Without warning the cars were bought in, seemingly from nowhere.
“Right get in NOW!” yelled Louis, who had also seemingly appeared from nowhere. We had to get in and get away from the venue before the fans started to leave. The lads grabbed our hands and literally pulled us into the cars with them.

, , and all piled into one car, Steo and in the other, and Me, , and in the last one. As Mike pulled me in behind him Barrie shut the door and I nearly ended up on ’s lap.
Not that I’d have minded of course…

Before we knew it we were back at the Mayfair where we had started this mad day, and was at the bar ordering copious amounts of champagne in spite of being glared at by Mark and Louis who had arrived with , and some of the dancers on the tour bus that had followed us out of the racecourse.

Once had ordered the champagne he turned to us all and said, “make yourselves at home ladies”, it was then that we noticed the bar was empty and there were bouncers stood at the bar entrance. It was just us, the lads and the management.

“We’re just gonna go and get changed we’ll be back soon”

It was about two o clock in the morning when Louis interrupted our random drunken conversation. “Hey girls, just so you know, the cars will take you home whenever you like”

We looked at him like he was mad. There was no way we were leaving yet...

It was about an hour and a half later when the lads all started to look tired, understandably so, as us girls started yawning, when sighed and said “Right girls we’d better go I suppose, let the lads get some sleep…”.

“We’ve all got to go home tomorrow”

So we said our goodbyes in a group and promised to keep in touch, and then each had our own little goodbye with our favourite member.

I looked up at as he turned to me to say Goodbye he went to kiss me on the cheek and then changed his mind and kissed me softly on the lips.

It was a perfect end to an already perfect day.

To be continued….