“Lance,
I was sitting there!” Michelle exclaimed when she came back from the bathroom.
“Too
bad, you moved.” He grinned.
“Fine.”
She said with a mischievous look on her face.
Lance watched her carefully as she approached him. “I’ll just sit here.”
Lance
exhaled in surprise when she sat on his lap.
“Comfortable?”
Chris asked Michelle with raised eyebrows.
“Quite.”
She grinned and looked at JC and Laurie who had just emerged from the
kitchen. The first thing she noticed
was their linked hands and she felt Lance poke her. “Cut it out,” she hissed.
“There’s nothing wrong with my eyesight.”
“Laurie
looks like she’s going to be sick.” He whispered.
Michelle
silently agreed and watched as the couple cautiously approached the group. Laurie’s eyes were darting around the room
as if she was looking for a place to hide or a hole to crawl into. Michelle felt a warm tug at her heart as JC
gave Laurie’s hand a reassuring squeeze.
“That
was sweet,” Lance murmured. Apparently
she wasn’t the only one who noticed.
“She
never sits on my lap anymore,” Chris
grumbled.
“Fine.”
Michelle rolled her eyes and moved from Lance’s lap to Chris’. His arms immediately snaked around her
waist. “You are such a baby.”
Justin threw something
across the room. “Can we please get
this meeting started so that we can get it over with? I want to go back to sleep.”
“Yeah
Lance, what’s the deal? I could be
spending quality time with Denise instead of sitting around with you guys.”
“I
called this meeting because there’s something really important that JC and
Laurie need to share with everyone.” Lance said calmly.
JC
tightened his grip on Laurie’s hand when he felt her trying to pull away.
“Can
we just get on with it?” Joey sighed.
“All
right, umm…” JC paused and looked at Laurie.
She was still trying to pull away from JC and he ended up wrapping an
arm around her waist and pulling her closer to his body so that he had more
control over her movements. It wasn’t
long before she had her face buried in his shoulder. Justin eyed them suspiciously.
“Is
there something going on between you two?”
“Umm…
well… sort of… yeah.” JC stammered.
Lance
choked on his orange juice. “Sort of?”
“All
right.” He conceded. “There is
something going on between Laurie and myself.”
Joey’s
eyes nearly popped out of his head.
“Like what?”
JC
sighed and sat down on the nearest sofa and pulled Laurie down with him. “It’s kind of a long story…”
“We
have time,” Justin blurted out and sat on the edge of the sofa, as if it would
help him hear what JC had to say.
“Yeah,
now you have the time.” Lance said
sarcastically and stretched his legs out in front of him.
“You
know, if you guys don’t shut up, I can’t tell you what’s going on.” JC snapped.
“We’ll
be good.” Justin and Lance said in unison.
JC
shook his head and prayed for strength.
“Anyway…”
JC looked at Laurie with love in his eyes as he began his story. “Laurie and I first met in Europe when we
were there five years ago and things immediately clicked between us. We spent as much time together as we
possibly could. When she flew back to
California three weeks later, we promised each other that we would keep in
touch. But through a comedy of errors –
that never happened.”
“It
wasn’t until this past April when we were on our respective honeymoons that we
met again. I couldn’t sleep so I was
sitting on my balcony when I saw her again.
At first I thought I had fallen asleep and was just dreaming about her…
everything was so perfect, the night air was warm and the wind was gently
blowing her hair around her face… until she got mad and tied it back.” He gave
a slight chuckle.
“I
don’t think she realized that I was watching her, she looked like she was lost
in her thoughts. I wasn’t even sure it
was Laurie at first, I supposed it was just wishful thinking. But once you love someone, the heart doesn’t
forget – that person leaves their mark on you forever.”
“It
was like a wave washed over me when I realized that I was actually seeing her
for the first time since Europe… I called out her name and I fell in love with
her all over again when she turned to look at me.”
“Aww,
that’s so sweet,” Michelle sighed happily and leaned her head against Chris’
shoulder. The others glared at her
because she had interrupted JC and they wanted to hear the rest of the
story. “But continue.”
“Anyway,
we ended up going downstairs for a drink… she ordered iced tea – the same thing
she was drinking the day we met. We
started talking and she told me that she had followed our career and that she
had even been to a few concerts. We
talked until the sun came up and then we went back to our respective
rooms. I didn’t see her again until we
were checking out a few hours later.”
“I
made sure that we kept in touch this time.
I gave her all my information and she gave me hers. When we were back home in LA, Alexandria had
gone shopping so I took the opportunity to call Laurie.” He kissed Laurie’s forehead. “It turned out that she lives just around
the corner from me, yet we had never run into each other.”
“How’s
that for fate?” Joey murmured and looked down at his hands.
“Then
when she came to the video shoot for ‘Pop’, Chris and Michelle offered her the
job at FuMan… we’ve been seeing each other ever since.”
Justin
let out a loud sigh and flopped back into his chair. “Man… I knew it. I knew
you two would be perfect for each.
Didn’t I say it?”
“Yeah,
you said it J.” Joey replied. “Umm…
this is all cool and everything and I’m happy that you guys have found each
other again – and correct me if I’m wrong – but aren’t you both married? Like, to other people?”
Laurie
flushed with embarrassment and hung her head, her hair falling to cover her
face.
“Joey,
it’s not like that at all. Well, it is
but it isn’t. Neither Laurie nor myself
are happy in our marriages. All of you
were against the idea of me marrying Alexandria in the first place. I think Laurie might have seen Craig for
five or six days total since they
said their vows. I don’t like the idea
that we’re being unfaithful – but Laurie is the only woman I’ve ever wanted and
I would marry her in a heartbeat.”
Lance
grinned.
“Are
you going to divorce the money grubbing whore?” Justin asked hopefully, making
Chris and Joey laugh.
“I’d
like to.” JC replied earnestly.
“Well
its about time!” Chris exclaimed. “You
were always too good for Alexandria and I think you’ve met your match in
Laurie…”
Chris’
eyes went wide and his voice trailed off as he realized what this meant. Michelle had won the bet. He felt a rush of panic streak through his
body and he stood up suddenly, causing Michelle to fall on the floor. She frowned up at her boyfriend.
“THAT is exactly the reason why I don’t sit in your lap anymore,
Christopher!” She hollered. Lance
helped her up and he was trying not to laugh.
Chris
dove at JC’s legs and wrapped his arms around them, holding on for dear
life. Everyone looked down at Chris in
surprise.
“You
guys can’t be involved – you’re not allowed
to be in love with each other.” Chris banged his head against JC’s bony
leg. “Ow. You can’t do this to me!” He looked at Laurie. “If this is true, you’re fired!”
“CHRIS!” Michelle smacked him.
“Wait,
I’m confused. Chris, what are they
doing to you by being involved with each other?” Lance asked.
“I
lost the bet,” Chris pretended to cry.
“I have to be HER,” he pointed to Michelle. “Slave for a day.” He looked at Laurie again. “I’ll PAY
you to stay away from him… just tell me how much you want… I’ve give you
anything!”
Michelle
started to laugh.
Justin
looked disgusted. “Chris, just suck it
up and take it like a man. You LOST.”
“Umm… what bet was this?”
Laurie finally spoke and Michelle paled.
She didn’t want Laurie to think that she and Chris had been making bets
on JC and Laurie’s love life. She thought
fast and crossed her fingers behind her back.
“When
JC and Alexandria got married, Chris and I made a bet on how long it would take
for JC to find someone better than Alexandria.”
“Oh.”
Laurie could think of nothing else to say.
“And
I lost,” Chris wailed. “C, you have to
stop seeing her… you can’t let me be Michelle’s slave.”
By
this point Joey and Justin were rolling on the floor; they were laughing so
hard. Lance covered his face and
although they were his best friends, he wished that he didn’t know them at
times. Once everyone had calmed down,
Justin spoke.
“Ok,
so you two are obviously involved in an affair and we appreciate you telling
us. But I don’t understand why you told us. And why did Lance know before we did?”
“Lance
figured it out.” JC sighed. “And he
remembered Laurie from Europe.”
Lance
continued with the explanation. “I want
JC and Laurie to tell the rest of you about their affair, simply because they
aren’t being as careful about hiding it as they should be. Most of the guards have figured it out and I
thought that if we all knew, we could all try to keep an eye on them, and make
sure they kept it on the downlow.”
“Ah,”
Joey said. “That makes sense.”
“Perfect.”
Chris frowned. “Are we excused now?”
“Yeah,
you can go.” Lance sighed. He watched
as everyone except JC and Laurie bolted for the door and fought to see who
could get through it first. “They’re
all children, I swear.”
“Yeah…
ok, now that they know and you’ve embarrassed the hell out of Laurie, I would
like to spend some time alone with her before she has to leave.” JC eyed him.
“Oh,
sure. Have fun.” He grinned and walked
out the door.
JC
gathered Laurie into his arms and held her tightly. “Aren’t you glad it’s finally over? We don’t have to hide around them anymore.” He tilted her chin up
so that she was looking at him. “Your
face is really red. Are you all right?”
“I’m
ok,” she breathed. “I’m just… so
incredibly relieved that this is all over and that you did the talking. There’s no way that I could have said
anything.”
“Well,
its still early. Are you hungry?”
“Umm,
yeah, I think I could probably eat something.”
“Do
you want to order room service or go down to the restaurant?”
“Let’s
just stay here, I feel like it’s been a really long day already and I just want
to relax.”
“Sure,”
he leaned in and kissed her. “Just
leave the ordering to me. For now
though, just lay down on the bed and relax and I’ll join you in a minute.”
JC
ordered breakfast, an assortment of fruits that they could easily feed to each
other, along with some cinnamon rolls and pancakes. Fresh orange juice and iced tea with lemon completed the
meal. He walked back to the bed and
found Laurie stretched out on top of the covers… fast asleep. He grabbed a blanket that had fallen to the
floor and covered her up.
As
he watched her sleep, the realization that he had never felt so happy before
dawned on him. The love he felt for her
was so incredibly strong and he wished their lives could be simpler. That they could be together without worrying
about broken marriages and wrecked lives.
And even as he thought that, he still wanted to end his marriage to
Alexandria as soon as possible so that he could be with Laurie forever.