There was another knock at the door, and with a questioning look at the boys, I got up to answer it. There was a tall, thin woman with red hair standing in the doorway, who announced herself as Nancy. I stepped back and let her in.

"I'm Betsey's assistant—Oh! Hello boys." She looked from one to the other of them curiously as she entered and took in the scene, which did look strange. "Well, aren't we cozy."

"Long story," Gethin said from the bed. "We're all feeling a bit in need of some tender loving care, and Tink's been recruited as our sexy nurse." I was startled at his casual use of "sexy". Me? Had he seen my hips?

"Tink? I thought her name was Aileen?" Nancy was looking more and more confused.

"Another long story," drawled Theo with a lazy smile from the sofa. "Darling? Would you please peel me some more of that delicious fruit?"

"Me too, please, Tinker Bell?" asked Ronan as he stretched his long frame, drawing attention to his unclothed state, accentuating the washboard abs that I'd known were hiding under his shirt.

I looked at Matty, wondering what he was going to add to this performance, but he just sat there, looking beautiful and perfect in the morning light, the sheets pooled around his torso. He really didn't have to do much else to complete the weird tableau.

"Uh, sure, guys," I said, not knowing what else to say. I sat and quickly finished peeling the guavas I'd been working on, which were almost finished anyway. Nancy just stood and watched. I wasn't sure if she was fascinated or disgusted. Maybe a little of both. I quickly sliced the guavas into bite-sized pieces and slid them onto a napkin as I stood from the table.

"Can you eat them yourselves, or do you want me to feed them to you like last time?" I asked as I walked over to the bar for a few toothpicks.

"Oh, I'm still so weak from last night, please feed me," said Theo without missing a beat.

"Me, too, lass, I can barely lift me arms," said Ronan, sounding so Irish he could barely be understood.

I sighed. "Okay, boys, but you're not the only one who's tired, you know. There are four of you, but there's only one of me, mind. And I'm little, as you kept reminding me all night long. Though aren't you four lucky I am so small, or we wouldn't have all fit on the bed, would we? Hmm?" I chirped.

I sat on the edge of the sofa and speared pieces of guava to pop into Theo and Ronan's waiting mouths. I looked up at Nancy, who was still standing open mouthed in the middle of the room, as if I'd just remembered she was there.

"Sorry, Nancy, to leave you standing there! How can I help you?" I asked with my most winning smile.

"Betsey sent me with your, uh, bed, I mean phone. Phone! Your work phone! We finally got it! Right." She tore her eyes away from the boys in the bed, the boys on the sofa, and just focused on my face. "I assume you know how to transfer the data from your current phone to this new one? You have an iPhone?"

"I do have an iPhone, but I'm not technically savvy," I admitted. "Oops, Ronan, dropped a piece, sorry," and I picked it up with my fingers from where it lay on his chest and put it in his mouth. As he took it from me, he grabbed my hand and sucked on my fingers for good measure. I gave a little shiver that, let's be honest, was only half faked. Nancy blinked and licked her lips. She looked like she needed to sit down.

"Not a problem." Matty spoke for the first time. He blinked his amazing blue eyes, the long lashes practically creating a breeze, and said in his Scottish accent, "I can help her with all that stuff. We're not doing anything this afternoon—oh, except for that, um, thing, yeah?" He looked from one to the other of us, and the innocent way he said the word "thing" made it sound so deliciously lascivious, I was surprised he didn't melt into a little puddle of lewd nastiness. He shook his curls, as if to clear his head. "Anyway," he said, looking back at Nancy, "I'm sure I'll have plenty of time left over to help Tinker Bell with her, um, phone. So no worries."

"Okay, then, no worries," I echoed with another smile at Nancy. "I guess you can just leave it on the table. Thank you so much for delivering it in person! I could have come to get it and saved you a trip, you're so kind to bring it to me, really."

She set the phone down and turned to go, saying, "Oh, it was no trouble, my pleasure. And I wanted to meet you, anyway. So, nice to meet you, I'm sure I'll see you again soon, um, Tink?"

"Oh, no, only the boys call me that. You can call me Aileen," I said with a laugh. I lowered my voice. "I'm sure it would be awkward, make you feel weird, it's okay."

"All right, then, um, Aileen. See you all around." And she let herself out to a chorus of 'Good bye, Nancy'.

We all looked at each other, but Gethin held his finger to his lips in a "be quiet" gesture for a good thirty seconds after she left. When he put his finger down the room erupted in laughter, clapping, and general hilarity.

"You were fantastic!" Ronan clapped me on the back so hard he knocked me off the sofa. I fell to the floor and this made everyone laugh even harder. Theo got up off the sofa, picked me up and deposited me on the edge of the bed, still laughing.

Matty, with tears streaming down his face, pointed at the guavas in my hand, and said, "Bloody brilliant, with the toothpicks," before collapsing, holding his sides.

Gethin rumpled Matty's hair, asking, "Matthew? What's the, 'um, thing' we're doing this afternoon? God, could you have made it sound any filthier? Whatever it is, count me in."

Theo, who had gone to clean up the table a little, remarked, "You guys realize that Nan's going to spread what she thinks she saw to the entire crew before the end of the day." He looked at me. "You're going to have a reputation with these people before you've even met them. And some of them are going to be stupid enough to believe it, even after they've met you. Do you want to deal with that, or do you want us to go out there and shut it down?"

I considered. I had never done anything like that before in my life, and I honestly couldn't see the harm. Even if what we'd played at had been true, there was nothing wrong with it, and if people actually believed that I was involved in some kind of four way sexual relationship with the band, wouldn't that just make them leave me alone? And wouldn't that make my life easier? And it had been fun. I honestly couldn't remember when I'd had so much fun.

"No, I don't care. It was harmless." I looked around at the boys, and saw approval in their eyes.

"Yesss!" Ronan ran at me and lifted me off the ground, which was a lot of skin on skin contact, considering he was in his underwear. "Lads," he called. "Time for another patented and much coveted UK Crush! This girl has earned it. She's one of us!" And they came tearing at me again from all sides, enveloping me in them, lifting me from the ground, twirling me around, making me high on them.

They set me down, released me, and as they did so, Gethin said, "Hey! My hangover's completely gone! You really are magic!" And he gave me a hearty smack on the cheek. The other boys echoed his words, remarking on the complete lack of headache and nausea.

"I just have one question, guys," I threw out to the room as I cleaned off the table and they remade the bed. "Why do you dislike Nancy so much?"

Ronan, who was pulling up the bedcover, stopped what he was doing to consider. "It's not that we dislike her. I mean, she's good at her job, we'd never do anything to get her fired or anything. But she treats us like we're still fifteen sometimes, like we still need handlers. She runs off to tell Betsey on us if she thinks we're doing something wrong instead of letting us deal with it on our own, like we're still in nappies. Like what just happened in here. She'll go straight to Betsey and tell her that we need a new translator, that you're keeping us from focusing on our work." His words struck him and he looked at the other boys.

"Guys, you don't think Betsey'll think Tink needs to go, do you? Because of what we did?" He looked worried. "What if we just cost Tink her job?" Now he looked concerned, and I could see what he must have looked like as a toddler.

Theo put a calming hand on his shoulder. "No, mate, no, it won't happen. First of all, Betsey knows what Nancy's like, she knows she's half bullshit. Second, she knows we know how take care of our own shit, that we'd never do anything to jeopardize the shoot or tour. Third, think how hard it was to get a translator in the first place. The first one fell through at the last second, and it's only through sheer dumb luck and the label owner's contact from when he was in college that we got this one. We'd never get another one in time. Betsey would never let her go. No, she's safe." He looked over at me. "Are you worried? You want us to go talk to her?"

Again I considered, very briefly. "No, not at all." In the short time I'd been with Nancy, I'd gotten a sense of her, and I could tell Theo was right, and I knew Betsey would never let me go based on her word.

Theo nodded again. "Good girl." Again the wink, which was getting to be a thing with us.

The boys invited me to go and get breakfast with them, but I didn't want them to feel they were stuck with me 24/7, so I said no, I'd just eat in my room and get some stuff done. Matty said he'd be by later to help me transfer my phone data, and they left. The room seemed smaller, somehow, without them in it. I flopped down on my freshly made bed and considered, again, my incredible good fortune. I had really stepped in a pile of good luck. While I was considering what a lucky girl I was, I fell fast asleep.