Lou Pearlman had left a message at the front desk, asking for her to head straight up to his office as soon as she arrived. There was a strange feeling floating through her, and she knew to be prepared for the worst as she arrived closer to his office. Her eyes concentrated on the carpet in front of her, which caused her never to see the person she ran into.
She wasn't prepared for ending up on the carpet and cringed when she felt the material burn against her exposed legs. Her eyes extended up to see a body scrunched down in front of her. Her eyes traveled up and she took in his dark jeans, white tee shirt, and black baseball cap that he wore backwards. After she had reached the top of his body, her eyes traveled back down and she found herself looking into a pair of blue eyes.
"Are you ok?" he asked her, extending his hand to her.
She placed her hand in his and shook her head. "Yeah, I'm fine..but I'm extremely late and I must be going," she said,starting to walk again. She noticed that he seemed to be following her. "Where are you headed?"
"I'm suppose to be in a meeting in like three minutes...with Lou Pearlman."
"Oh...well I was suppose to have been in there with him fifteen minutes ago but oh well, who's counting?" she joked.
When he laughed, the sound floated through her head and she couldn't get the echo of it out of her head. There was something about him that was capitvating. She didn't know if it was his angelic voice or if it was the way his eyes sparkled, but it was definately something. "Well, I'll make you a deal. I'll say you were helping me and that's the reason you are late," he said, winking at her.
"Thank you sooo much. I really like this job and I don't want to lose it," she said, as they rounded the corner and came close to the huge office. When they reached the door, she took a deep breath before knocking. A few seconds later, the door opened ot reveal a smiling Lou. "Why hello, Whitney, so nice of you to come by....and hey Ashley," he said, sticking out his hand for him to shake. He pushed the door open further and allowed the two of them to enter. Once they were inside, she saw four other guys in the office.
Everyone introduced theirselves, before Lou cleared his throat and looked at her. "I don't mean to interrupt, but why were you late? I mean extremely late..."
She went to speak, but Ashley cleared his throat and spoke up. "She was helping me...we had a run in and I'm sorry for making her late."
Lou chuckled and patted him on the back. "Its fine," he said, before turning to grab a stack of papers on his desk. He held them out to Whitney and smiled. "Would you please read over these and tell me what you think? Just let me know what you say by the end of the day," he said, before turning his attention back to the guys, which meant that she was dismissed.
She walked over to the door, and noticed that she couldn't open it because she had so much stuff in her arms. Ashley chuckled at the site, and walked over to open the door. After she was out, he winked at her before shutting it gently. She couldn't stop smiling, but the smile soon faded as she remembered someone that would be home tonight. She shouldn't be feeling the way she did about Ashley when she had a boyfriend. A boyfriend that she cared for very much, but she still couldn't help but be attracted to Ashley. He certainly was attractive, and his kind personality put the toppers on the cake.
She sighed and headed towards her small office to read over the papers that she had been given. She was curious as to what they were, considering Lou asked for an answer by the end of the day. It obviously meant that they concerned her doing something, and if it helped her move up in the company, then she was certainly going to do it.
She walked as fast as she could to Lou's office, already knowing her answer. She knocked on the door, and waited for it to be answered. The door flew open, and Lou smiled when he saw her. "I'm taking it you already read the papers.."
She nodded her head as the excitement danced in her eyes. "I would love that job," she said, shaking his outstretched hand.
"Then its yours..just be here early tomorrow morning for details, and you may have the rest of the day off if you would like," he said, winking at her. He had seen people this way before, and he knew with excitement like that, there was no way she was going to be able to get anything done. "Thank you so much, Sir," she said, before turning away and heading to get her stuff.
Once she was in her car, she dialed the number to her boyfriend's cell phone and smiled when she heard his voice come over the line. "I love you so much," he said softly into the phone.
Every since he had gotten a phone with caller id, he would always find a sweet way to answer the phone. She smiled as she watched the road. "I love you too, Justin," she said, stopping at a redlight. "I got some good news today," she said excitedly.
"And what would that be?"
"I'm going to be going on tour with a band as their publicist! Justin, I've been working there like a week and I'm already moving up!"
"You're going on tour with someone?" he asked, not liking the feeling that was coming over his stomach.
She could already tell by his tone that he was going to have problems with this. "Justin, you know that this is a big step for me..."
He sighed. "I know, baby, its just that I don't like you working for Lou Pearlman. That man screwed us over so much, and I just don't want anything to happen to you."
"Justin hun, lets not worry about that right now...lets concentrate on more important things like you coming home tonight," she said, a bright smile forming on her lips.
He made a low growling noise into the phone which produced tingles all ove her arms. "I'll see you in about two hours and then you're all mine," he said, and she could tell by his voice he meant business. She was happy to oblidge to any treatment that he felt needed to give her.
"I've missed you so much while you've been gone," she said, pushing the gas pedal.
"You dont' have any idea how much I miss you. I miss your smile, your eyes, but most of all I miss having you here so I can hold you...do you know what that does to me?" he whinned into the phone.
She pulled into the driveway of the house that the two of them shared. "I know, Justin. I have feelings to you know," she joked as she walked into the house, pausing briefly to punch in the security code.
"Where are you at right now?"
"Right now, I'm in our house, headed towards the kitchen. I'm really hungry," she said, pulling the refriderator door open.
"I can't wait to get home to you," he sighed into the phone. "I really miss just laying around the house and having you there to tease."
"Yeah, I got use to that schedule and I've been late for work every day since I started. I was extremely late this morning, but that's because I had a run in with someone in the hall."
"Oh really? Who?" he asked, his voice full of curiosity.
"It was this guy..his name was Ashley I think."
"That's a girl's name," he snickered.
"Justin Randall, don't you dare start putting someone you don't know down."
"I don't know him personally, but he's Ashley Angel from Otown...you know that show, Making the Band?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"He's a member of that band."
"Oh...that would explain the other four guys that I met in Lou's office."
"Yeah it probably would..."he said, his voice trailing off.
"Justin, I hate to cut you off, but I'm going to go take a bubble bath and relax before you come home."
She heard him draw in a sharp breath and she had to roll her eyes. "Don't say that to me," he pleaded with her. "That just puts images in my head that drive me crazy..."
"Awww you poor baby..I'm sure you'll live!"
"You don't know that...the things you do sometimes kills me," he joked with her.
She walked up the steps to the second floor of the three story house. "Ok, I'm getting off of the phone now, Justin. I'll see you soon...by the way, how are you getting home?"
"JC said he'd drop me off."
"Ok then..I'll be here waiting for you," she said, turning the hot water on in the bathtub.
"I love you baby," he said deeply into the phone.
"I love you too," she said, before hanging up the phone. After placing it on the surrounding of the tub, she gathered everything that she would need. She hadn't been soaking too long in the tub when the phone rang. She naturally figured it was Justin and just spoke how she normally would in the phone. "Justin, I told you I'm taking a bath right now and I'm busy," she said, about to hang up the phone.
"Um..this isn't Justin," a nervous voice replied.
She felt her cheeks flush, and was glad that no one could see her. "I'm so sorry..who is this?"
"This is Ashley...we ran into each other today..and I...ummm...Lou gave me your number so I could ask you a few questions."
She chuckled softly. "Oh..I remember now. What do you need to ask me?"she asked, leaning her head back on the edge of the tub.
"I just wanted to welcome you to our tour..."
"Huh?" she asked, not comprehending what he was saying.
"The tour that you've been assigned to is ours..."
"That's cool," she said, coming to terms with everything. "I'm excited."
When he laughed softly, the same feelings that she had felt earlier floated back into her mind. "I was just wondering if you'd like to get some breakfast tomorrow before the meeting," he asked.
"Sure...that sounds great. Where do you want me to meet you?"
"How about we just get to work early and decide from there..is that ok?"
"Thats great...Ashley, I hate to do this, but I'm in the bath tub right now, and I'm tired and there is a chance that I could drop the phone in the water, and then I wouldn't be making it to our little breakfast occassion, so I'm going to let you go. I'll see you tomorrow morning."
He laughed before saying bye. After hanging up the phone, she laid her head back down and sighed. She had to stop whatever was going on before it destroyed the relationship with Justin that she had worked so hard to build. It had taken her almost a year to get Justin to see that she was better for him than Britney. He had been so blind to the personality of Britney because he was stuck on the physical aspect.
After locking herself in a room with him, she had been able to get him to talk about Britney and he came to see the only reason he was with her. That had been her only main goal because she cared about him deeply, but he had continued talking and he had confessed that he had feelings for her, which had been music to her ears. Not long after that, they had started a relationship that was still going strong.
After she had dried off and slipped on some comfortable clothes, she headed back downstairs and plopped down on the soft white couch that Justin had in the living room. The two of them had been living together for 3 months and it was working out great. The only problem was when he left to go on tour or had to go places. The house got lonely because it was so big. That was the only downfall that she disliked.
She laid her head down on one of the pillows and flipped on the big screen tv. After flipping through the channels, she let it rest on a movie that was playing. She was so relaxed, she felt her eyes closing and she finally drifted off to sleep.
He walked into the living room and smiled upon seeing her asleep on the couch. He sat the puppy down and made his way over to her. Their couch was huge, so he sat down on the edge and reached out to touch her face gently. "Wake up, sweetie," he said, brushing back a strand of hair.
Her eyes opened and she cound herself starring into his baby blues. She threw her arms around his neck and crushed him against her. "I missed you so much," she said, before covering his lips with hers.
He chuckled against her lips that were going at his. He pulled back to smile at her. "Not as much as I've missed you," he said before covering her lips with hers again. After their lips had broke apart, they laid there together, just catching up. He told her about some of the crazy stuff that they had did on tour, and talked to her about their future plans. She told him about her new job and about her new assignment. As soon as she had started talking about it, he had grown tense, and she knew that he wasn't going to be too pleased with her breakfast date in the morning. That was one of the reasons she remained silent about it.
After they had grown tired of talking, they just laid there, the silence taking over. It was soon interrupted when Justin's stomach growled. He chuckled softly as he watched her reach down and rub it. "Are you that hungry, Justin?" she asked, raising her eyesbrows.
He stood up and pulled her up along with him. "Get in that kitchen and fix me some food, woman," he joked.
She punched his shoulder playfully before walking towards the huge kitchen. "What do you want?"
"You can fix anything...I'm going to go take a shower and change."
She kissed him quickly before watching him walk out of the room. Before he was totally out of view, he turned around and winked at her. "I know you missed watching me walk out of a room..you have a thing for my bum..just admit it."
She laughed and picked up the pan that she was fixing to cook in. She held it up and shook it at him. "Don't get too cocky, Mr. Timberlake...this could be used as a deadly weapon.
She could hear his laughter as he walked up the stairs, and hearing his laugh pushed any thought of Ashley far from her mind. She loved Justin and she could never defy that.