I walked over to her and gave her a huge hug. "I missed you, girl!" I said, trying to sound enthusiastic.
"Johnny wouldn’t let him come," she told me, without saying hi. "But," she told me, smiling, "Justin told me he’d be waiting for you at home later tonight! He’s got something special planned. So, we’re gonna drop your things off at his place, and then we’re going shopping, so you can look perfect your first time back together with him." I smiled at her gratefully and we walked out of the airport (after stopping to get my bags) and to her car.
"So, did you have fun working on a movie?" Hannah asked, once we were on the road. "I heard you got to work with Josh Hartnett. Was that the greatest experience ever?!"
"I had sooo much fun, you have no idea! I mean, I missed you guys like crazy, but I made new friends."
"Like…?"
"Like…Josh Hartnett!" I said, and she squealed with excitement. "Yeah, we’re cool, we hung out a lot. When I was talking to you the other day, he came over to watch some movies and talk and stuff."
"You are so lucky!"
"Not really," I said to myself. "So, what's going on with you and JC?"
"Well, we’ve been out a lot, and we celebrated our two-month last week!" she said, a huge smile on her face and her eyes shining.
"Are you serious?! That is so awesome, congratulations!" For the rest of the drive to Justin’s house and to the mall, we talked about everything that had happened while I was gone.
When we got to the mall, we started looking everywhere for the perfect dress for my night out with Justin. We found it at Contempo Casuals. It was an above the knee, black dress, with red roses on it. The sleeves were elbow-length, and the v-neckline was low. At the end of the sleeves, the bottom of the dress, and around the neckline, there were small ruffles.
We went back to Hannah’s apartment so I could get ready, and Justin would pick me up there. I decided I would wear my silver jewelry that night, meaning my charm bracelet, white gold-and-emerald ring, and the diamond earrings my grandmother had given me. I curled my hair into tight ringlets and pulled a few front tendrils back and held them in place with silver butterfly clips. I wore black, strappy toe-ring platform sandals, with a 3 and a half-inch heel.
The doorbell rang as I was trying to finish my makeup and do some last-minute curling on my hair. "Hannah, c’mere!" I called out. She shut the front door and walked to the master bathroom. "Is it Justin? Is he dressed up? Am I too dressed up?"
"It’s Justin; yes, he is dressed up; no, you’re not too dressy. Now, are you almost ready to go?" I sprayed some more hairspray, shook my hair out a little, and then nodded. "Ok, I’ll stay back here. I'm guessing you’re not coming back here afterwards?"
"No, I think I'm just gonna go home with Justin. Thanks Hannah! I’ll come over tomorrow, and we’ll talk." I gave her a quick hug then walked down the hall towards the living room. I could see the back of Justin’s head as he sat on the couch, staring out the window.
I realized at that moment why I knew I could never have done anything with Josh. He turned around and smiled when he saw me, and I melted right there. He stood up and walked over to me, picking me up and swinging me through the air in a circle. He brought me down and kissed me hard.
"You look amazing, Holly!" he exclaimed. "You’re so beautiful."
I blushed and took his hand. "You look great, too, Just."
He smiled that little, lop-sided smile of his and kissed me again. "Oh, I got these for you," he said, picking something up off the table. There were a dozen white roses, with a single light pink rose in the middle.
"They’re beautiful, Justin. Thank you so much! I kissed him on the cheek and went to the kitchen to get some water to put them in.
I walked back over to him and linked my arm with his. "Shall we?" he asked. We walked to the door and rode the elevator to the garage. He opened the passenger door of his Benz and helped me in, then went around and got in himself.
"So, where are you taking me, Timberlake?" I demanded.
"It’s a surprise," he replied.
I crossed my arms in front of my chest and pouted. "I wanna know!"
He reached over and took my hand. "Too bad." He laced our fingers together and rested our hands on his lap. We drove in silence, nothing but the soft sound of the radio playing.
After about an hour of driving, he announced, "We’re almost there." I smiled, leaned my head on his shoulder, and closed my eyes. He parked the car 15 minutes later. "Stay here." He got out and opened the trunk, got something out, and then ran out in front of the car.
He came back minutes later and helped me out of the car. When I got out, the smell of the ocean hit me. I looked out and saw we were at Cocoa Beach. He had left his headlights on, and a blanket was set up where you could still see, but the lights weren’t blinding.
"It’s beautiful out here! This is so great, Justin!" I gave him a hug, then ran over to the blanket.
I quickly took off my shoes and ran to the water. I splashed around for a little while before Justin came and joined me. I bent over and splashed some water at him, which, of course, started a water fight. He had rolled up his pants, so he decided to pick up and throw me over his shoulder. I laughed screamed and began hitting his back. He simply carried me further out into the water and pretended like he was going to drop me.
"You wouldn’t dare!" I challenged him. He smiled evilly and put me down (on my feet, thankfully), but the water still came up a little past the hem of my dress. "You are so dead!" I exclaimed, and ran after him. I tried to tackle him, but just jumped on his back and he carried me back to the blanket.
He put me down, then laid down on the blanket. I laid down perpendicular to him and laid my head on his chest. "I love you, Holly," he whispered.
I smiled and tears welled up in my eyes. I had waited so long to hear those words from him. I had said it to him many times just to have him not say anything back to me. But he had finally said it. I sat up, leaned over him and kissed him. "I love you, too!"
He sat up and pulled me into his lap. I tried to hold his hand, but he took it away from me and held it in front of my face. He slowly opened his hand to reveal a small jewelry box.
"What’s this?" I asked.
"Open it."
I took the box out of his hand and opened it. Inside was a small, white gold heart pendant on a thin white gold chain. The heart was outlined in small diamonds.
"This is beautiful, Just! You didn’t have to get this for me."
"I know, but I wanted to. You deserve it for putting up with me all this time." I turned around and gave him a long, hard kiss. He smiled. "Here, lemme help you put it on." He took it out of the box and un-did the clasp, moved my hair out and the way, and (With a quick kiss on my neck) put the necklace on me.
About that time, it started to rain. And not just a light drizzle either, it started to pour. Justin got up, helped me up and we started to run back towards his car. But I stopped halfway there.
"What are you doing?!" Justin yelled back to me.
"I don’t know, I just feel like dancing in the rain!" I looked up at the dark sky and started spinning in circles.
Justin jogged over to me and picked me up, carrying me back to his car. "C’mon, I don’t want you to get sick or anything." He put me on the ground and I gave him a quick kiss before getting in. As soon as we were on the way home, I feel asleep on Justin’s shoulder.
The next thing I knew, Justin was cradling me in his arms, walking me upstairs to our room.
"Hey sleepyhead, wanna get outta that dress and into something warmer?" I nodded, so he took me in our room and set me down on my feet. "I'm just gonna go downstairs and get some water, I’ll be back in a second."
I dug through one of my drawers and found a pair of yellow fleece pants and a white tank top. I went into the bathroom and changed clothes, throwing my dress into a basket of dirty clothes. "I guess I’ll be doing laundry tomorrow," I said to myself.
I walked back into the room and lay down on the bed just as Justin walked back in, carrying a glass of water. "I'm just gonna change, then I’ll be back." He went into the bathroom, and came out a minute later in a pair of blue-plaid pajama pants, no shirt. He came over and laid next to me, so I moved closer and put my head on his chest, falling asleep quickly.
A month or so later, I was doing laundry and cleaning up the house when my cell phone rang. I ran upstairs to find it.
"Hello?" I answered, breathless.
"Holly?"
"Josh?! Omigosh, hi! It’s so great to hear from you."
He laughed. "Yeah, I’ve been meaning to call you for a while, but I went home to visit my family and I just now got some time to myself."
"That’s cool. So, how have you been?"
"I’ve been good. Not too busy. How about you? How are you and Justin?"
"We’re great! I didn’t realize how much I missed him until I got home. He took me to the beach the night I got back, and we played in the water, watched the sunset, everything. It was so romantic!"
"That’s awesome! I'm glad you two are ok again," he said.
"Hey Holly! I'm home; the guys are here, too," I heard Justin call up the stairs.
"Josh, I gotta go, Justin just got home with some friends. It was great of you to call."
"Ok, well it was good talking to you again."
"Yeah. Well, don’t forget me! Call me again soon."
"Ok, bye!" We hung up and I bounded down the stairs, ecstatic that I’d gotten to talk to Josh again.
"Hey Sweetie!" Justin said, picking me up before I reached the bottom of the stairs.
"Hey Babe!" I kissed his cheek, then pushed away from him to get down. "Hey guys! Hey Hannah!" I looked around the room and my eyes landed on a new face in the usual crowd. She had dirty blond hair, kind of tall, bright green eyes…she was gorgeous in that Barbie doll kind of way. "Who’s this?" I asked no one in particular; I had no idea who she was with.
"Oh, Holly, this is Jordan McGuire," Lance said, taking her hand. "She’s my girlfriend."
I nodded my approval. "Nice to meet you," I said, smiling. I turned to Justin. "So, what’s everyone doing here?"
"Well, the guys wanted to go out and party," he explained. "But I suggested that we just stay here and watch movies, ‘cause, ya know, the press would have a field day if they saw us out in public together again."
"Oh, alright. Well, I guess everyone can go get settled in the living room, and I’ll order some pizza, if that’s ok with everyone?" I looked around, and everyone nodded their heads, then went to the living room.
After I ordered pizza, I went into the living room. Thirteen Ghosts was already playing, so I went to an empty space on the couch. Justin was sitting in a recliner halfway across the room. He didn’t even make a move to come sit by me; he just focused on the movie.
I sighed, and tried to concentrate on the movie, but couldn’t. I had told Josh earlier on the phone that Justin had been so romantic that night I had gotten back. But since then…nothing. I mean, yeah, he’d sweep me off my feet, literally, but I hadn’t gotten so much as a kiss before he’d left for work that morning. It was really beginning to bother me.
I glanced over and saw Jordan bury her head in Lance's chest when the movie got scary. And Hannah was sitting on JC's lap, her head leaned back onto his shoulder. Then I saw Justin, sitting all the way across the room, staring intently at the TV, not even glancing over at me.
Josh wouldn't have treated me like this, he would've saved me a seat, and - I refused to let myself finish that thought. JOSH?! Of all people, why did I think of Josh? C'mon, Hol, he's just a friend…right?
