She walked to the door and let out a deep breath before opening the door slowly. JC was on the other side, smiling shyly at her. He was wearing dark blue jeans, a tight maroon tank top and a black leather jacket. He took one of her hands in his and kissed the back of it lightly, “You look very nice, Julia,” he said in a soft tone. She blushed and smiled, “Thanks, so do you,” she replied. She grabbed her purse off her bed and walked out into the hallway with JC.
“Where’s Lance?” she asked nervously as they walked downstairs holding hands. JC squeezed her hand slightly, “He’s at his office, he said he’d be there all night doing paperwork,” he replied and Julia relaxed.
*************
“I hope you like this place,” JC said as he concentrated on the road on the way to the jazz club. Julia shrugged, “I don’t know very much about jazz, but I’ll probably like it,” she replied. Soon they were at the small club on the outskirts of town. They walked in and an older waitress greeted JC immediately, “Hey honey, you finally made it!” she said in a loud voice, giving him a hug. Julia looked over at the two confused. “Well I couldn’t take not seeing you anymore!” he said with a genuine smile as the lady showed the two to a table near the small stage.
“Julia, this is Tess; Tess, this is Julia. Tess used to work at this blues club I always went to when I was on the Mickey Mouse Club. Me and Tony would sneak in and she finally got sick of kicking us out,” JC explained, throwing an arm around Tess’ shoulder. “Hi sweetie, any friend of Josh’s is a friend of mine,” she said with a big smile as she shook Julia’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you,” Julia said politely. “What can I get for you two?” Tess asked. “I’ll just have water,” Julia replied sitting down as JC pulled a chair out for her. “Yeah, me too,” JC replied and Tess went to get their drinks.
JC and Julia were sitting at their table waiting for the show to start when a big, older man approached their table. “Josh, is that you?!” he asked in a loud, boisterous voice. “Hey Charlie!” JC said standing up quickly and hugging the older man. Julia once again looked at the pair in confusion. “Jules, this is Charlie, he used to perform at the club I used to go to,” JC explained, “And Charlie, this is Julia, my date for the night.” Charlie whistled softly and kissed the back of Julia’s hand, “Wow, Josh, you have mighty fine taste,” he commented, making Julia blush. Just then another band member came over to get Charlie. “I’ll see you after the show,” Charlie said before leaving.
***********************
The show started and even though Julia didn’t know much about jazz or blues, she still loved it. It was so mellow and relaxing and she could tell that JC was loving it. He had been really stressed out about the album and Rey lately and she knew he really needed to get away and relax. About halfway through the show Charlie got up from where he’d been sitting at the piano and stood at the edge of the stage, looking out into the crowd of the small club. “Hey Josh, come on up here and sing a song with us,” he yelled out to JC when he saw him. JC instantly blushed and Julia giggled softly at him, “Go on, Josh,” she said pushing his shoulder playfully and he looked up to Charlie and shook his head slowly.
“Come on Josh, I know you’re not that shy about your voice, just get up here and sing one song and I’ll leave you alone,” Charlie said. The whole club had figured out who Josh was so they were all clapping to encourage him. JC let out a deep breath, “Fine,” he mumbled, standing up while everyone cheered for him. Julia sat at the table and laughed at his embarrassment and clapped for him as he walked to the stage.
******
A few minutes later, JC was standing at the front of the stage in front of a microphone as Charlie instructed the rest of the band on which song to play. Julia heard a guitar start to play softly and she kind of recognized the tune. A huge grin spread across her face when she heard JC sing the first words of the song, “It had to be you,” he sang in a deep, bluesy voice. The whole club clapped at the song and JC lost some of his nervousness. Julia sat up and leaned her chin in her hands and watched JC as he sang. She’d heard him sing lots of different songs, but never a blues or jazz song, and his voice seemed to be made for it.
JC glanced around the club as he sang but stopped when his eyes landed on Julia’s. She sat at the table with a huge, dreamy grin on her face as she watched him. Her eyes were glowing and she gave him a small wink when she noticed he was looking at her. He smiled at her and continued to sing to her.
***********************
“You should do a cover of “It Had to Be You” on the next album,” Julia teased JC as he walked her to her bedroom door later that night. JC sighed loudly, “It wasn’t that great, Jules, I barely knew half the words,” he said in embarrassment. “It was great,” Julia insisted, standing up on her tiptoes and kissing his nose softly. He let a small smile form on his face slowly before reaching up and brushing a few hairs off her face gently. She closed her eyes slowly and sighed at his soft touch. He finally closed the small space between their lips and kissed her softly. She had her back to her bedroom door so she reached behind her and turned the doorknob, leading JC in as they kissed. Their lips didn’t break contact as they stumbled to the bed.
JC laid Julia down gently and laid on top of her carefully. He finally broke away from the kiss to catch his breath and soon started kissing down her neck. Julia buried her hands in his hair and let her legs get tangled up with his. She reached down and pushed his jacket off his shoulders and pushed it down his arms, then off of him, and threw it on the floor next to the bed. She started kissing his shoulders as she felt his hands start to wander up her shirt and rest on her stomach.
Julia suddenly began to get really nervous but tried to push it aside as she reached down and pulled his tank top off of him quickly. JC looked up from where he’d been kissing her neck and looked at her questioningly. She just gave him a small smile and pulled his head up to hers and kissed him forcefully. JC wondered where all of this was coming from, but he decided not to worry about it. He reached down and tugged on the bottom of her shirt before pulling away from their kiss and pulling her shirt over her head.
Julia leaned up and started kissing up and down JC’s chest slowly, letting her tongue peek out every few seconds, teasing him torturously. She looked up to JC’s face and saw that she was killing him, and she giggled softly. “Hey now, two can play at this game,” he said in a deep, raspy voice, pushing on her shoulders slightly and making her lay down. She bit on her bottom lip as JC kissed her neck once then licked down her chest slowly. He began to kiss back up her chest when there was a soft knock on the door, “Jules? Are you asleep?” they heard Lance ask. JC’s lips froze on her chest and he heard Julia’s heart start beating faster.
“Oh my gosh, it’s Lance!” Julia whispered, sitting up quickly. “He’s gonna kill me!” JC whispered nervously. “Umm...get in the bathroom, quick!” she whispered, grabbing his tank top and jacket and handing them to him before pushing him into the bathroom and closing the door. She got under the covers of her bed quickly, “Come on in,” she said quietly, trying to sound like she’d been asleep. Right before the door opened she noticed her shirt at the foot of the bed. She sat up quickly and grabbed it, threw it under the covers, and pulled the covers up to her neck.
Lance came in the room and sat on the edge of the bed, “Sorry to wake you up,” he said quietly. “It’s okay, I wasn’t really asleep yet,” Julia replied, rubbing her eyes, “Did you get all your work done?” “Most of it, I’ll still have to go in and do a little bit after we’re done recording tomorrow, but I’m pretty caught up,” he replied. “That’s good,” Julia said. “Well I’m sorry I woke you up, I just wanted to say goodnight because I haven’t seen you much lately,” he said leaning down and kissing her forehead. “Goodnight, James,” she said. Lance got up and walked to the door and turned around, “Night, Jules,” he whispered before leaving.
***************
After he heard Lance leave, JC peeked his head out of the bathroom door, “Is the coast clear?” he whispered. Julia nodded in reply and sat up, pulling the covers up around her. JC stepped out of the bathroom and he had his shirt and jacket back on. He sat on the bed, “That was a close one,” he said quietly, reaching up to push some of Julia’s hair behind her ear. All she did was nod in reply. “Are you okay?” he asked, trying to figure out her expression in the dark. “Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied. JC sighed, “No you’re not, tell me what’s wrong,” he said scooting up to sit next to her and putting an arm around her, pulling her close to him. Julia rested her head on his shoulder and rested her arm across his stomach, “Maybe we should tell him,” she whispered. She heard JC inhale sharply, “I don’t know, Jules. Maybe that’s not such a good idea,” he said. “Why not? Are you embarrassed of me or something?” she asked raising her head and looking at him.
JC’s heart broke when he saw the look on her face and the tears forming in her eyes, “No Jules, that’s not it at all. It’s just..this is a very sticky situation, you know that, right? I mean, Lance is one of my best friends, and I don’t know how well he would take this,” he said. “But he’s going to have to find out sometime, and he’ll just get more mad if he found out we were lying to him,” Julia argued. JC sighed again and kissed her forehead, “I’ll think about it, okay?” She still wasn’t satisfied, but thinking about it at least was a start, “All right,” she replied, looking down to her hands.
JC grabbed her chin gently and made her look at him, “Don’t think just because I don’t want to tell Lance and the guys about us that it means I don’t care about you. I just don’t want to hurt them or betray them, but I don’t want to hurt you either,” he said before closing his eyes slowly, “I care about you so much, Jules, but I’m stuck between my best friends and this great girl I want to be with, and I don’t know what to do. I hope you understand that and can just give me some time to think all of this over,” he said opening his eyes again, and now they were full of tears. A tear fell down Julia’s cheek slowly and JC reached up to brush it away, “Okay,” she whispered. JC smiled and leaned closer to her face, “Thank you,” he said before kissing her quickly and standing up. “Goodnight,” he said walking to the door. “Goodnight, Josh,” Julia whispered, watching him leave.
*Chapter 14*
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