CHAPTER 13
The month did pass quickly, just as Anya had said. They were both very busy and had little time to do much of anything, let alone, miss each other. Anya would hurry home after work to see if Justin had emailed her that day. Justin would try to email her once a week to tell her about Europe and the guys. Anya would return his messages by telling him how work was going. She also kept him up to date on the latest chapter of her roommate and boyfriend. Those two were like a soap opera. Anya would sit back and watch the drama unfold. Lisa's boyfriend was never mean to her, it was all in fun, but they would turn everything they did into a three-ringed circus. The only time she would start to miss Justin was when she would see Lisa and her boyfriend cuddling on the couch when they watched movies, or when they would attempt to cook dinner for the three of them. She missed the closeness she felt with Justin and longed to have him near again.
Soon, the month was over and Justin and the guys were coming home. She was very excited to have him back but wondered what would happen when they saw each other again. Sure, they had "talked" through email and occasionally she would have a message on her answering machine from him, but that was different from looking the person in the eye and saying, "I love you."
She had convinced her boss that she had a terrible headache and needed to go home early that Friday night. She only wanted to get home to await Justin's call. He had told her that the guys were getting into town around dinnertime and he would call as soon as he was settled. She didn't expect to see him until the next day but when she pulled into her parking lot, she saw his all too familiar car parked outside. She parked her car and ran inside and up the stairs of her apartment building. As she rounded the corner to her apartment, she noticed a slumped object sitting in front of her door. "JUSTIN! What are you doing here?" She was so excited to see him.
Her excitement quickly faded when he brought his head up to reveal the dark circles under his eyes on his pale face. She thought he was sick or hurt. She knelt beside him and brought him into her arms. "Are you okay? You look like hell."
"Good to see you, too, Anya." She thought she had offended him but he cracked a smile. "Yes, I am okay, just a little tired, that's all."
"Come inside, I'll fix you something to eat." With that, they stood and went inside her apartment. Anya put her bag down and went to the kitchen. "What would you like to eat? We don't have much but I can order something if you like." She turned around to find him lying on the couch with his hands over his head.
"No thanks, I ate already" was all she could make out from his mumbling.
She walked over to where he was and sat on the edge of the couch. "I'm not complaining or anything, but why are you here and not at home sleeping?" She was very happy to see him, but he needed to be home, sleeping in his own bed, not at her place.
"Home is just so lonely with no one around. I didn't want to be alone so I came here. I hope you don't mind?"
"No not at all. Are you going to be okay to drive home tonight?" She was getting worried about him. He looked very tired and was not sure how he made it to her apartment in the first place.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. Just need a little rest that's all." He was dozing off and would be asleep any minute.
"Come on, you can rest on my bed. Lisa won't be home for another hour or so. I'll wake you up in a little while, okay?" She wanted to be with him but knew how tired he was, so she didn't push it. She led him to her room and helped him get into bed. She felt like a mother tucking her son in for a good night's sleep, when all of a sudden, he grabbed her. She didn't think he had that much strength in him but he was always surprising her.
"Hey, will you lay down with me for a while?" His eyes were heavy and she could tell he would be asleep soon.
"Sure. I'll stay as long as you want me to." How could she say no to him? She climbed in beside him. He put an arm around her and held her close.
"I've missed you" was all he said before he drifted off to sleep.
Anya lay with him until she heard the front door open and knew Lisa was home. She slowly crept out of the room and turned the light off. Shutting the door behind her, she saw Lisa.
"Hey, what's going on? How was your day." Her friend shouted down the hall
"Shhhh, keep your voice down. Justin is sleeping in there." She pointed to her room.
"What is he doing here? Not to sound mean or anything, but shouldn't he be with his family, or something, right now?" She wasn't trying to make it sound like Anya wasn't important to him, just that he usually went straight home when he would get back from trips.
"His family is still in Memphis. His mom won't be back until tomorrow. She must be working with the girls or something. He didn't want to be alone so he came here. I'll just let him sleep for awhile before I decide what I want to do with him." Anya said as she went into the kitchen to get something to eat.
"I know what YOU want to do with him." Lisa said as she was flipping through the mail.
"LISA! He just got back a couple of hours ago and is tired. I think I can control myself for a while, don't you?" Anya had to laugh at Lisa. She was making the "whatever you say" face. "Seriously, I didn't want to do anything with him tonight anyway."
"Yeah right. The only reason I don't hear a noise coming from your room right now is that he passed out. Wait a minute, you didn't already do something and just wore him out, did you?" She couldn't resist asking.
"I'm not even going to respond to that question. Changing the subject, how was your day?"
The two girls continued to talk about their days over supper. When they finished with the dishes, Anya decided she would go check on Justin. He was sleeping so sound that she chose to NOT wake him up. He needed the rest so she decided to watch a movie on TV and sleep on the couch for the night.
Another reason she chose to sleep on the couch was that if she was in the same room with Justin, she didn't know if she could control herself. Yes, the couch will be just fine.
The next morning, Justin woke to the sound of laughter. He couldn't hear what was going on but could tell it was a couple of girls. He got out of bed…wait a minute, where am I, he thought. Oh yeah, I came to see Anya last night. How did I get here?
Justin walked into the room to find Lisa and Anya at the kitchen table laughing over something Lisa was reading in the paper. Justin cleared his throat to get their attention. "Excuse me, ladies, good morning."
Anya and Lisa turned their heads to look at a groggy Justin. "Well, good morning to you, too." Lisa said to him as she returned her attention to the newspaper in front of her.
Justin just nodded his head towards her.
"Hey, I hope you slept okay last night. I just didn't have the heart to wake you up." Anya said as she got up from the table and put her plate in the sink. She walked over to Justin and gave him a hug. She wasn't sure what was going on because he didn't hug her back. When she let go, he simply walked over to the cabinet. He pulled out a box of cereal, got some milk, a bowl and spoon and sat down to eat. Anya and Lisa exchanged confused looks then noticed Justin glance at the two of them.
"You know I don't like mornings. Give me a few minutes and I'll be alright." He said in between bites of cereal.
Both girls started laughing at the site before them. He was sitting at their kitchen table, eating Special-K cereal with skim milk. He really wasn't a morning person. After a few bites, he noticed what he was eating. He made a funny face to indicate that the cereal wasn't sugary enough and the milk was nasty, but shrugged it off and continued to eat. This made the girls laugh even harder at him. Women, he thought.
After he finished, he felt rejuvenated. He sat at the table and talked to Lisa while Anya went to clean up for the day. She was putting her clothes on when she heard a knock. "Come on in."
Justin sat on her bed and waited for her to come out of the walk-in closet. "Hey. I wanted to ask you if you would like to come home with me and help me unpack." He gave the same puppy dogged look that all the guys gave her when they wanted something.
"Oh my Lord. I can't believe I am going to Justin Timberlake's house to help him with his dirty laundry." She had that same tone she always used when she played around with people. "Can I go through your underwear drawer, too?"
He grabbed her from where he was sitting on the bed and pulled her down to him. "If you're going to be a smart-ass about it, then I'll just invite one of my other thousands of girlfriends over to help" he said smiling at her.
She was taken back by this. Sure they had talked at great length over the computer about their everyday happenings, but they hadn't talked about their relationship much. Was he calling her his girlfriend? If so, they hadn't really talked about that before. Up to this point they had told each other "I love you" and had said they wanted to be more than friends. Since then, they had acted like only friends and nothing more. Now, here he was implying that they were more again. She was confused but played it off. She knew she needed to talk to someone, and knew who that someone would be, JC. He always knew exactly what to say. to her about Justin or anyone else. She would call him later and talk to him.
As for now, she found herself lying on top of Justin, looking at his face. The face she had dreamed about for the past month. The face she longed to look at, to touch. She took every part of him in: his eyes, his nose, his cheeks, and his lips. She wanted to lean down and taste his lips again. It had been so long since she had touched him and here he was before her and she was frozen. He noticed this and took it upon himself to the remedy the situation. He put a hand around her neck and brought her down to him, capturing her lips with his. She forgot about the whole girlfriend thing, forgot about talking to JC, forgot about the world. All she could do was enjoy the fact that she was here with Justin, feeling his body below hers, feeling his hands on her, tasting his lips again. When they pulled apart, Justin was the first to speak.
"Maybe I should go away more often?"
"Don't you dare" she said wanting to kiss him again. Just then, Lisa knocked at the door.
"Hey, Anya…oh, sorry…I…um…never mind, I'll ask you later." With that, she shut the door behind her.
Anya and Justin burst out laughing. "Did you see her face?" Justin asked.
"Yeah, it's the same one I have when I walk in on her and her boyfriend." She said it. She said boyfriend. Is she calling me her boyfriend? We haven't really talked about it before…wait, I called her my girlfriend, sort of. I wonder if I should just assume we are together. Mental note: talk about this later. Right now, its time to get back to the more important things: those lips, he thought to himself.
He leaned his head forward to try to kiss her but she moved out of his grasp. "Hey, that's no way to treat someone who hasn't seen you in a month." He started to pout.
"Oh poor baby. Were you lonely on the road? Did you miss me that much?" She mocked him in that same baby voice of his.
"To tell you the truth, yes, I was lonely and I did miss you…a lot." He got off the bed and grabbed her again. This time he wasn't letting her go. She felt his hands run up and down her back and from the closeness of their bodies, she could tell he liked what he felt. She wanted to be with him right now, but knew that they needed to talk before they did this again. The first time had come out of nowhere and the next time was going to be different. She needed to find out where exactly they stood as far as their relationship before anything else would happen. Have strength, girl. Have strength.
"Justin, I would love to stay here all day and be with you, but you need to get home. Your mom will be back at 2:00 p.m. and you don't want to miss her now do you?" She knew if she threw in his family, he would have to agree with her.
"I know what you're doing and I don't like it. Using my family against me, that's low."
"I know." She told him, grinning from ear to ear. "Come on, I can't wait to go through that underwear drawer of yours." She grabbed him by the arm and led him out to the living room. Lisa sat on the couch watching TV.
"Hey, you two, sorry about earlier. I didn't know you were…you know…what you were doing." She was very nervous about walking in on them. This made both Justin and Anya crack up laughing. Lisa was not the type to get embarrassed easily and to see her face red was priceless.
"It's okay, no harm done. We weren't going to do anything anyway." Anya said smiling as she looked over at Justin.
He, on the other hand, did not find this amusing. He hadn't seen Anya in weeks and didn't like being interrupted. "Yeah, no harm done, Lisa." He said as he rolled his eyes. Lisa joined in on the laughing when she saw Justin's face. He really was too much.