He knew he had to move on, and he was desperately trying, but no one around him seemed like the type of person that could help him move on. Denise was a girl that could possibly be a friend to him, but he had no interest in persuing a relationship with her. His thoughts began to wonder, but her voice brought him back into the present. "Ashley?"
He jerked slightly as he became aware that she was talking to him. "Hmm," he said briefly taking his eyes off the road so that he could look at her. "What?"
She began to pout, and Ashley had to resist the urge to roll his eyes at the motion. "You're not listening to me.."
He sighed and turned back to the road. "Its not that I'm not wanting to listen to you, but my thoughts are a million miles away...very scattered."
"You like her, don't you?" Denise questioned.
His head shot over to look at her. "Why do you say that?"
"When she hugged you tonight..you seemed to really enjoy it..its cool..its just that you need to move on."
"You know what, you're not the only person to tell me that, and I'm trying really hard to, but nothing seems to work."
"Maybe you need to do some things that aren't normal for you," she said, letting her hand trail over his inner thigh as they approached her house.
He swallowed and tried to block out what she was doing. "Denise, I really don't think that's going to help me.."
She leaned over and kissed his cheek before trailing kisses to his earlob. "Maybe it won't, but it will take your mind off of her for a few hours..come on, Ash..come up stairs with me," she said to him as they sat in the driveway.
Ashley's eyes went from her to the house infront of him, until he finally sighed and nodded his head. "I'll come in for a few minutes, but I'm not sure that anything is going to happen, Denise. I'll warn you right now, I'm not the type to do stuff like this," he said as he unbuckled his seatbelt.
She smiled as she flung her door open. "That's what they all say, baby..but you haven't had to resist the temptations of a REAL woman," she whispered to where he couldn't hear her. She grabbed his hand and opened the door with one task on her mind.
She giggled before looking up at him. "You know..I don't admire you're lying.."
He chuckled slightly before shaking his head against the pillow. "I have no reason to lie..you are beautiful to me no matter what you look like."
She exhaled slightly as his words warmed her all over. "You are perfect, you know that?"
"I am perfect in not being perfect. I have so many flaws that its not even funny," she said trailing her finger across his chest.
It was his turn to sigh. "Your flaws make you perfect."
She cocked her eyebrow at him. "How is that so?"
He just shook his head. "Forget that I even said anything. I try and give you a compliment and you have to question it..why can't you for once accept that I find you very attractive and that you are perfect in my eyes?"
"Maybe because no one has ever told me that I'm perfect to them...that's why I find it hard to believe."
"Listen to me," he said bringing her eye level with him. "You are beautiful, talented, sweet, caring, but most of all you're mine and I think you are so perfect."
She smiled up at him before kissing his lips softly. "You treat me like I'm the most important girl on the world..I don't know what I've done to deserve you,baby."
"Believe me, Cait..you are the most important girl in the world to me..ok well you and my mom.." he said causing her to laugh. He tickled her sides slightly before growing serious again. "Cait..you know that if you ever need to talk that I'm here for you, right?"
She nodded her head before kissing the tip of his nose. "That goes for me too..I may not know everything, but you know I'll try and act like I do.."
"That turns me on," he whispered in her ear, sending shivers down her spine.
"What does?" she said playing along with his game.
"I love it when you act like you know everything and I especially love it when you take charge."
She straddled his hips before pinning his arms above his head. "Then hang on baby cause you're about to be taken over by hurricane Cait," she said giggling before capturing his lips with hers as he pulled the cover over their head.
"What are you thinking of?" he whispered to her, startling her out of her thoughts of the night she had spent with Ashley.
"Nothing, baby..go back to sleep. I'm going to go take a shower and then I'll fix something for breakfast," she said as she got out of bed and headed for the bathroom. As Justin watched her walk away, he could tell that she was hiding something from him. He KNEW her on a deep enough level to know when she was keeping something from him, and he wanted desperately to know what it was so that he could help her deal with it.
As he turned over on his side, he sighed into the pillow. "What are you hiding, babydoll?" he whispered into the empty room, his eyes starting to close as sleep came back to visit him.
He grabbed his clothes before slipping into the bathroom to get ready. He emerged fifteen minutes later, to see Denise sitting up in the bed looking at him hungrily. "I told you so last night," she began before he cut her off.
"I know what you said, and I'm sorry about this..but Denise this can't happen again. This isn't meant to be..I just want friendship with you and my head just wasn't on my shoulders straight last night."
"Trust me, Ashley. There's no need to explain. I knew last night what I was getting into, you have nothing to worry about, so stop trying to explain," she said, stretching her arms above her head.
He sighed and looked at his watch. "I have to get going because I have to meet up with the guys. I'll be in touch with you, Denise. Thank you for being my date last night..and yeah.." he said slowly.
She nodded her head and watched as he left her room, before letting an evil smile break across her face. "You'll be back, Ashley..trust me," she said before beginning to laugh.
He shrugged before looking at her intently. "What are you going to do today?"
"Damnit Justin...I asked you first and you dont' even answer me, and then in a smart attitude you talk to me. What's your problem?" she asked, throwing her fork down on her plate and glaring at him.
"I don't have a problem..its you with the problem. You never open up to me anymore, Whit..you just play everything off as nothing being wrong, and damnit I'm tired of you not coming to me. I know there is something wrong and I wish that you'd talk to me!"
Her mouth dropped and she was speechless for a moment. "You have no room to talk, Justin! You never open up to me..I have to fight to have you actually carry on a conversation when somethings wrong, so before you go and accuse me, look at yourself and how you do it. NOTHING is wrong I've just been tired recently."
"I open up to you..or atleast I try but you push me away!" he defended, pushing his chair away from the table to stand up so he could walk over to her. He stood directly infront of her, his eyes blazing with anger. "You're the only one in this relationship that is pulling away and becoming silent."
She stood up so that they were facing each other, but he had a good height advantage on her. That didn't stop her from holding her ground though. "Listen here, Justin. You have NO reason to talk to me that way and I will not stand here and let you," she said before turning and running out of the room.
As he watched her retreating form, he couldn't help but sigh. That hadn't turned out how he had planned, and now he had just made the situation worse from his mouth taking control and saying things that he didn't mean. "Smooth," he whispered angerly before walking out of the room and heading upstairs, where he could hear her crying softly from the other side of the door to their bedroom. He turned the handle and slowly walked in to see her sprawled across the bed, crying softly into the pillow that he slept on.
"Baby," he called out softly as he walked towards her. "I didn't mean that stuff back there..."
She raised up at him and he cringed when he saw her bloodshot eyes from crying."Yes you did, Justin. You know you did so don't stand there and lie to me and try to make it better because you know that you can't lie worth shit."
He chuckled softly before pulling her closer to him. "Listen to me, babydoll. I'm just worried that something is terribly wrong and you won't talk to me. I want you to open up to me when somethings wrong because I want to help you, baby..that's all."
She pulled back to look into his eyes. "I hate fighting with you," she said before sniffling and lowering her eyes. "Just trust me, Justin. Nothing is wrong..everything is perfect," she lied.
He sighed before pulling her back to him. "You can't lie worth shit either, girl..but I'll accept that for now, but you know I'm here for you to talk to," he said pausing when he felt her head move against his shoulder. "Lets get out of this house."
She pulled back to look at him and smiled slightly at the evil gleam in his eyes. "Where do you want to go?"
"That's for me to figure out. Now go freshen up and wash your face while I make some reservations....and girl..you're adorable when your nose is red," he said standing up and winking at her before leaving the room.
She chuckled before getting up and fixing her make up. Five minutes later, she walked down the stairs to be greeted by a sly smiling Justin. "What have you done?" she asked, cocking her hip to the side and placing her hand upon it.
He shook his head before grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the door. "You'll find out, now lets go," he said grabbing his keys. As he drove down the road, she found that she couldn't take her eyes off of him. The window was down, slightly blowing his curls, his sunglasses were on his face and his smile was bright, and at that moment, she couldn't think of another place she'd rather be. She leaned over and kissed his cheek causing his attention to advert from the road to her. "What was that for?"
She shrugged before sticking her tongue out at him. "I felt like kissing you."
He grabbed her hand and brought it up to his lips. "You crack me up," he said as he stopped at a redlight.
"Where are we going?" she asked him as she pulled her hand back so she could pull her hair up in a ponytail.
He watched her a second before shaking his head and keeping silent. She poked his side and watched as he squirmed. "Come on, Justin.. tell me where we are going.."
He laughed at her before sighing. "I wish I could tell you baby, but you're going to have to wait and find out. Remember good things come to those who wait."
"I really hate when you say that...you sound dorky," she said smiling innocently at him. The two of them continued to playfully argue until Justin pulled the car to a stop infront of a big new toy store that had just opened in Orlando. "Why the hell are we at a toystore? Are you crazy, Justin? Think about this..toys...equal..kids...which leads to trouble and I really don't feel like dealing with screaming kids."
"Do you honestly think that I'm that dense? I made some arrangements...we have the place to ourselves," he said climbing out and waiting on her.
She laughed at the giddy expression on his face. "You are still a BIG kid at heart, Justin," she said as she followed him into the store, where they were greeted by a few employees.
"Welcome, Mr. Timberlake..like you requested the store is yours for two hours. If you need any assistance, we'll be in the back and just come find us," the manager told him, before turning to walk away. Justin nodded his head before grabbing her hand and pulling her towards a built in playground that was in the store. He pushed her down in a swing and started pushing. "Isn't this phat?"
She couldn't help but laugh at him, and she felt her heart sore for him. "This is really unique, Justin...what all is in here?"
"They have all kinds of toys, games, ohhh...and there is a water gun part in here somewhere," he said, bringing her swing to a stop and pulling her towards the far end of the store. Once they reached it, they both saw water guns set up on the sides of a square, and there were shields. As Justin tried to pull her towards them, she put her foot down and stood her ground. "I'm not getting wet," she said simply.
"Oh I think you are," he said reaching down a scooping her up in his arms. He couldn't help but chuckle at her as she squirmed in his arms. "Justin..." she whinned.
He sat her down close to where he'd be able to grab a gun, and watched as she tried to run out of it. She shrieked when a stream of water hit her back, before turning around to glare at him. "Its on now, Justin," she said dodging behind a shield and grabbing a gun. "The war is on baby," she mumbled before turning to fire on him.
She shrugged at him. "I thought about calling Whitney and seeing if she wanted to come shopping with me, since you have to go to a meeting and I don't want to spend the day by myself."
"You know you could always come to the studio with me..no one would mind and I know I'd be able to concentrate better," he said, as he wrapped his arms around her waist.
She laughed before pulling away from him. "That's ok, babe..I'd rather actually do something fun instead of sitting around listening to the five of you try and sing a new song."
He started to pout and placed a hand over his heart. "Are you trying to say that we can't sing or something?"
"I would never be so blunt! The rest of the guys can sing, but you my dear...you just plain out suck," she teased.
He growled at her before crossing his arms over his chest. "I do not suck at singing. If I did, I wouldn't be in this group and one of the most wanted men in America!"
"Where did you get that you're one of the most wanted men in America? I thought those were Justin Timberlake, Brad Pitt and people that are actually hot?"
His mouth dropped as he looked at her. "You don't think I'm hot enough to be one of the most wanted men?"
"You're cute," she said reaching up to pinch his cheek. "But you're not hot."
He grabbed his jacket and stuck his tongue out at her. "You just wait, I'm going to make you pay for that comment, my dear..just you wait."
She laughed as she watched him leave before picking up the phone and dialing the number to Whitney's. After four rings, the answering machine picked up and she sighed. "If you're busy right now, call me when you get unbusy. I wanted to know if you wanted to go shopping or something..catch ya later," she said before hanging up the phone and laying back on the bed. "Now what am I going to do?" she asked herself outloud.
"My offer still stands for you to come to the studio," Dan said to her as he stood in the doorway.
"I thought you had left already?" she asked him as she sat up on the bed.
"I forgot my keys. Now come on, atleast being there you're not by yourself."
"You're right..hang on I'm coming," she said as she grabbed her coat and followed him out the door, knowing that she wouldn't receive a phone call back from Whitney until later that night. Justin and her usually did things together that were simple, yet so sweet. She loved Dan, but sometimes he wished that their relationship was more like her friends. Dan did things for her, but sometimes she'd like something different than a flower or poem. She loved him though, so she could put aside her jealousy and be thankful for just having him in her life. That was enough for her..at the moment.