"I'm telling you, Cait...if you and Dan are having problems, the best thing to do is talk about them so they don't get out of hand," Whitney said into the phone as she hung up a dress that she had worn last night.
"Whitney..I want to talk to him but I don't know how to bring it up. I don't honestly know what to tell him...I don't know what's wrong! That's the problem...I dunno maybe I'm taking this a little to far," Cait told her before sighing. "All I know is its something that I don't understand."
Whitney chuckled softly before sitting down on the bed. "Listen to me..make a nice quiet dinner for the two of you, relax the mood and then bring it up. That's how I do with Justin when somethings wrong..its just easier that way."
"I envy your relationship," Cait said softly. "The two of you can work through things and talk about them. Dan and I..I really dont' know if we can do that."
"Don't envy our relationship..trust me. You don't have cheating on him hanging over you, reminding you that you screwed up and that is something that could rip Justin away from me in an instant."
She laughed for a few seconds. "Ok..I dont' envy that. By the way, where is Justin?"
"They left for a short promotion tour this morning and will be back in a week...why?"
"I just found it odd that you were talking about the Ashley incident when there was a chance he could hear you."
"You honestly think I'm that stupid?"
Cait laughed. "Hmm..no comment. But listen, I'm late for work so I'll catch you later..call me if you want to do something," she said before the phone went dead.
"Bye Cait," she giggled into the dead line. "That girl has issues..and listen at me, I'm talking to myself..maybe I'm the one with issues," she said as she laid back on the bed. 'I need something to do,' she thought to herself. She thought of calling someone to see if they wanted to go do something, but most of the people she knew were related to the music business and were busy.
"I wonder if Ashley is busy?" she asked outloud before grabbing the phone and dialing his number. She smiled when his groggy voice floated across the line. "Hello?"
"Ash..its Whitney. I was wondering if you were busy today?"
He cleared his throat before hurring to answer her. "No..I have nothing to do. I was going to sleep the whole day away but if you want to go do something, then I'd be more than happy to tag along."
"Great..how about in an hour I come pick you up?"
"That sounds fine..I'll see you later," he said before hanging up the phone. Whitney placed her legs on the floor before getting up to get ready for a day that she was sure would be interesting.
"Can I talk to you?" he asked softly, hoping that JC would take the time to help him work through this problem he was starting to experience.
JC nodded his head before moving out of the doorway so he could enter. Justin plopped down on the bed before sighing. "JC...I have a major problem."
"Don't you always have a major problem?"
"Please just listen to me..this is really bothering me."
JC shut his mouth and waited for Justin to continue. After a few minutes of silence, he heard his friend draw in a shaky breath before continuing on with what he had started to say earlier. "Man..you remember at Whit's party, I asked her to wait on me until the time was right for us to get married?" he stopped pausing to get JC's answer, which was a nod of the head.
He sighed. "I want to get married..I want her on the deepest level that I can have her, but how do I know if she's ready, JC? I don't want to pressure her..God knows I would never do that..but I need her."
JC sighed. "I don't know how to tell you if she's ready. Do you honestly think she's ready?"
"I don't know!" he exclaimed before running his hand through his curls. "I hope she is...this Friday when we get back, I'm going to ask her..."
JC's head shot up and he narrowed his eyes. "Are you sure? Here you are saying that you don't know if she's ready and as soon as you get back you're going to ask her?"
Justin nodded his head. "I have to know...if she's not..I can wait, but I hope she is."
"I know you love her, Justin..but you're 20 years old..are you sure that you're ready for marriage?"
"I have found the woman that I'm bound to love..of course I'm ready for it. She's the one for me, no one else can ever amount to what she does, and I don't even want to try and find someone to prove that wrong."
"Then I wish you the best of luck..just don't pressure her, Justin. That girl is my best friend and I'll kick your ass if you hurt her, and you know that."
"I know, but why would I ever want to hurt her?"
"I don't think you would,..let me play my role as protector here!" JC exclaimed causing them both to laugh. "I dont' mean to kick you out, but Bobbie should be back soon and yeah..now get out," he said pushing him towards the door.
Justin laughed as he watched the door close. He walked across the hall and opened the door to his room. Once he was inside, he grabbed his cell phone and dialed her number, knowing that hearing her sweet voice would push away any thoughts of her not being ready out of his mind. After three rings, the ringing stop and her voice came through. "Hello, this is Whitney."
"Hey baby," he said huskily into the phone.
"Hey...is something wrong?"
"Why would something be wrong? I'm talking to you, everything is perfect..can you hang on for just a second?" he asked her before moving the phone away from his ear so he could remove the shirt that he was wearing. After the shirt was thrown in the chair beside the bed, he scratched his stomach before putting the phone back to his ear. "I'm sorry about that."
"Its ok..so what are you up to?"
He laid down on the bed, propping his head up against a pillow. "I'm just laying here talking to you..we don't have anything scheduled until later on tonight, so we're getting a free day, I guess that's what you would call it," he told her, smiling brightly when he heard her laugh softly.
"I can't wait until you come home..this house isn't any fun when you're by yourself."
"I know, I experienced that, remember?"
"Yeah..when do you guys come home?"
"We should be home Friday morning...you are going to be there aren't you?" he asked her, feeling his palms starting to sweat.
"Yeah..wait..not in the morning but that afternoon I should be here. I'm going to go see my mom and dad Thursday, and hopefully my plane will go smooth and no delays, but I will be there Friday night," she said.
"Ok then..as long as I get you sometime Friday."
"Justin..I have to go, Ashley and I are going to go shopping or something because we're both bored..so I'll talk to you later. I love you baby," she told him before waiting on his response, hoping he didn't give her a lecture for going somewhere with Ashley.
"Ok baby..I love you, Babydoll," he said before hitting the end button and sighing. He shouldn't be jealous of Ashley, but he was. He hated the fact that another guy was spending time with his girl, but he knew he couldn't expect her to not have guy friends because the would be crazy. He smiled knowing that Friday could be the night that she became fully his.
It wasn't that she was pulling away from Dan, but it was the opposite. He was pulling away from her, and to make up for it, he was doing little things for her, which was nice, but she needed something new and exciting. She didn't want to loose him, and that's why she thought their relationship needed something to spice it up. Now the only problem was explaining it to Dan in words that he would understand.
"What the hell have I gotten myself into?" she whispered outloud as she looked around the dinning room, which was glowing with candle light. She glanced at the clock and swallowed nervously as she heard the door shut and his voice call out to her. "Cait..I'm home."
She took a deep breath before calling back to him . "I'm in the dinning room..come in here for a second," she said waiting for him to appear around the corner. She couldn't hide her smile as she watched his face light up in a smile.
He walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her waist, nuzzling her neck with his head. "You did all of this for me?"
"No..I did it for Jacob..duh I did this all for you..now lets eat," she said, wanting to get away from him before she lost the emotional battle that she was fighting inside of her. She could feel his eyes on her as she pushed around the food on plate, occasionally bringing a bite of it up to her mouth.
"I'm starting to get the feeling that you did this to tell me something," he said quietly. "What are you hiding, Cait?"
She coughed slightly and brought her water glass up to her mouth. "Its..we have to talk about us.." she said slowly.
He nodded encouraging her to continue. "What about us?"
"Dan..you're pulling away from me..you may not think you are, but you are. To keep it hidden, you're doing all these little things to prove to me and yourself that you aren't..but you are and I can tell," she said, lowering her head so she wouldn't have to look at him. "I don't know if you understood that but if you didn't I can try and explain it again."
He dropped his fork on his plate before running his fingers through his hair. "I know what you're saying..."
Her eyes looked up slowly and connected with his. "You do?"
He nodded his head and was silent before speaking. "I have been pulling away from you, Cait, but I have a reason...I've been scared...I've never felt this way about anyone and those little things have just been to cover it up."
"Dan," she started but he cut her off. "Listen, Cait..I need to tell you this. I've never completely given my heart to someone like I have you and it has me running scared. I just don't know how to express to you how much I love you..and believe me, I love you with everything that I am inside."
Cait reached up and wiped away the tears that were falling from her eyes. "I love you too, Dan..I just think we need to get away and do something big...something new," she explained to him.
He nodded his head before sighing. "I can't go anywhere for the next two weeks because we're cutting the new album, but I promise you as soon as I get the chance, we're going to be on a plane headed to where no one knows where we are."
She smiled before standing up to meet him halfway, where she fell into his open arms. "That sounds like heaven to me," she said softly as she rested her head against his chest.
"I love you, Cait," he said as he kissed the top of her head.
"I love you to, Dan," she said closing her eyes, feeling relief wash over her since she had talked things through with him. .
He took a drink of his milkshake before answering,"We're just friends..." he said, knowing that half of that was only friends. Since that one night he had spent with her, he had found that she helped him more than he had originally thought, and now he was becoming dependant on being around her.
"Do you think that you guys will ever be more than friends?"
He shrugged. "If it happens then it happens. I'm not going to push for something because I've did that in the past and I'm honestly not sure if there is anything there between us..its not obvious."
"Sometimes thats the best kind of attraction..hidden attraction makes you rack your brain and you find other things that you like about a person," Whitney tried to explain, not really sure if she was making sense or not.
"Did you and Justin just fall for each other or did it take work figuring it out?"
She sighed and sat down on a bench that they were standing in front of. "We kinda..I don't know really..when I met Justin,they were still together...Britney....I don't know really. You just don't understand how deep of a person Justin is. It is extremely hard to read someone like that, and it took me a while before I'd actually admit to myself that I had fallen for him. We were really close friends, but the problem was Britney...to make a LONG story short, I'll just say after a three hour talk, we both realized something and ever since that, we've been together...so I really couldn't tell you if we had a hidden attraction for each other."
Ashley nodded his head before laughing. "We really need to get off the subject of relationships...I'm starting to feel like a loser because I don't have a girlfriend."
"Having someone in life to love isn't the most important thing so you shouldn't stress," she said standing up. "Just be thankful that your career is taking off and that you have friends that care about you."
"But still love is very important," he stressed. "I just don't want to die alone."
"You sound like Justin when I interviewed him for this radio station..I won a contest and got the chance to do this interview. They gave me the questions and all I had to do was ask them. I remember it plain as day.. I was like 'What's the one thing you fear is going to happen in your life that you won't have control over' and he had looked right at me saying 'Living life without having love' and I swear that was a sign for us..ok anyways...lets go to the gap," she said grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the store while he groaned in protest.
He was starting to notice that it didn't hurt so much being around her now. He felt comfortable joking around with her, and he was glad. Her friendship was important to him, and he wanted it to grow. Not to say he was completely over her, because that wasn't the case. Maybe Denise had been right, all he needed was someone to show him that there were other girls in the world that can affect him like she did. Maybe Denise was the one for him...or maybe the girl of his dreams would come walking around the corner at any given time. His eyes were open because he had love in his heart that he was ready to share, any girl willing to fight for it would have the chance.
Justin opened the door, knowing that she wasn't there yet, which gave him time to plan out how he was going to go about asking her to forget waiting and becoming his wife. He wanted it to be special, but he didn't want it to be traditional. Nothing in their relationship had been normal, and he didn't want to start now with everything being that way. He collapsed on the couch as his mind began to think of a way to tell her how he felt.
He had been thinking for a while when it hit him on what he should do. He remembered a place just outside of Orlando where he could take her...that night would be perfect. He grabbed the phonebook, and once he had found the number he was looking for, he dialed it and smiled. "I need a reservation for two under Mr. and Mrs. Timberlake," he said before launching into the details of what was going to happen so they could be prepared.
After everything was set, he laid back on the couch and flipped the tv on. He had watched a movie halfway through before he heard her car pull up. He jumped up and opened the door right as she was about to insert her key. "Hello, baby," he said before pulling her in the house and covering her lips with his.
She chuckled against his lips before pulling back to look at him. "You either have something big planned or you've done something."
"No...just remember we have a date tonight," he said pulling her further into the house.
"Where are we going?" she asked as he lead her up the stairs. Once they were in their bedroom he finally answered her. "This place that you're going to love, now shut up I'm not giving anything else away," he said before pushing her back on the bed and claiming her lips again. He couldn't wait until tonight..it was only a matter of time.