“Is everything ok at work?” Craig asked.
“Oh, umm… everything is fine. Chris just had an idea for some advertising
that he wanted to run by me.” She was surprised by how easily she thought up
the lie.
“Good.” He walked over to where she was sitting and
hugged her. “I have some work that I
have to do in the office tonight, but it shouldn’t take me too long. Just call me if you need me.”
He kissed her lightly on the cheek and grabbed his
briefcase. He was whistling as he
walked out the door.
“I won’t need you,” Laurie thought to herself. “I haven’t needed you in a long time. I need Josh.”
**********
There were more calls from JC over the duration of
the weekend and Laurie avoided most of them.
When she did talk to him, their conversations were short and impersonal
– either because Alexandria showed up or Craig picked up the extension in his
office to place a call.
It was already Sunday and Craig had spent the
majority of the weekend in his office.
She knew she had to talk to him soon, he had a flight to New York that
evening. She took a deep breath and
walked down the hall to his office.
Mustering up all the courage she could – she knocked on the door and
waited.
He answered the door a few seconds later with a
surprised look on his face and invited her in.
Laurie sat in the chair across from his desk and Craig took his place
behind it.
“Craig, I think we need to talk.”
“I agree.”
“I don’t think things are working out between us,”
her eyes filled with tears. That seemed
to be happening a lot lately. “You’ve
been so wonderful to me and you’re a good man with a good heart. You’re just not around very much.”
“I know.” He said.
“I’ve spent the last month thinking about how unfair I’m being to you by
being gone all the time. We’ve been
married for three months and I think this might only be the seventh time we’ve
seen each other.”
“Something like that.”
“So I guess we’re both looking for the same thing.”
“I guess.”
“Laurie,” Craig said. “I really wanted this marriage to work. My career picked a bad time to kick into high gear.”
“Craig, it’s all right. You don’t owe me an apology.
Sometimes things happen that you have no control over and you have to
say goodbye.”
“I guess we were better off as friends,” Craig said
sadly. “If you’d like, I can call my
lawyer in the morning from New York and have him draw up the papers.”
“Oh, you don’t have to do it that soon…”
“No, but I don’t like leaving things up in the
air.” He winked. “You realize that as
my wife, you’re entitled to half of everything in the divorce?”
Laurie’s eyes grew wide. “No Craig, I don’t want…”
“But half of everything here is legally yours. That includes bank accounts, property…”
“I’ll fight it.” Laurie shook her head. “I’ll take what I came into this marriage
with and a little extra to start me off with an apartment and some
furniture. I don’t need anything else.”
“Well, we can work out the details later.” He
walked around to her side of the desk and pulled her into a hug. “I just hope that no matter what, you’ll be
happy. That’s all I’ve ever wanted for
you.”
The tears Laurie had been trying to fight finally
broke through and she returned Craig’s hug as tightly as she could.
**********
JC was thankful that he had booked the hotel’s
limousine for Alexandria’s trip to the airport Sunday afternoon. They were in San Diego and though she could
have just gone home to the house she occasionally shared with JC in LA, she
wanted to return to Orlando. JC didn’t
care one way or the other, just as long as she left.
The whole weekend had been hell from the moment she
had arrived on Friday. She complained
about going to the concert and chose to stay at the hotel for the duration of
it. Then she complained about leaving
with the crew members when it came time to take the buses to the venue because
they were leaving Denver and driving to San Diego immediately after the show.
She asked why she couldn’t fly to San Diego like
Chris, Lance and Michelle were doing the following morning, instead of riding the
bus. JC had patiently explained to her
that Lance had a few meetings to attend for A Happy Place and Chris and
Michelle had work they had to do at the office before the Nordstrom signing on
Sunday.
The only thing that made her happy was Justin
asking Joey if he could ride with him.
She didn’t realize that Justin didn’t want to put up with her all the
way to California.
Once she was on the bus, she was even more
miserable. The bus smelled like old gym
socks. There was no fat-free food. The bunks were too small. The bunks were too lumpy. The bathroom was too small. There was nothing to do. The ride wasn’t smooth.
“Dria. It’s one o’clock in the morning. You’re not supposed to have anything to do,
except for sleep. I can’t control the
surroundings no matter how much you dislike them.”
“Well where am I supposed to sleep? The bunk isn’t big enough for two.” She
pouted.
“Yes it is, Chris shares his bunk with Michelle
whenever she travels with us.” To
himself he added, “And Laurie shares with
me.”
“But I’m used to a lot of room.”
“If you don’t want to sleep with me, you can sleep
in the spare bunk. Or Justin’s
bunk. Or Chris’ bunk. Or on the sofa in the lounge. But I need to get some sleep, so please make
a decision.”
“Fine, I’ll take the spare bunk,” she huffed.
JC listened to Alexandria toss and turn for five
minutes until he fell asleep. He was
thankful for small favors the following day when Alexandria didn’t wake up
until they were ten minutes from the hotel.
Now that it was Sunday afternoon, Alexandria was on
her way to the airport in the hotel’s limousine and he could relax. As soon as he heard from Laurie.
She had been standoffish every time he had spoken
to her that weekend and it only resulted in making him uneasy. What if she had changed her mind about
asking Craig for her freedom? What if
the flowers and dinner on Friday just swept her off her feet and she fell into
his arms? What if they spent the entire
weekend in bed together?
JC shuddered at that thought.
His head was full of more ‘What If’ questions but
he refused to entertain them.
He heard voices in the hall and prayed that it was
Chris and Michelle returning from the FuMan signing. If it was, he fully intended on dragging Michelle into his room
and asking her if she had spoken to Laurie at all during the weekend and
interrogating her if she had.
He opened his door and leaned against the frame,
smiling at her as she walked by. She
stopped and sighed.
“What do you want Chasez?”
“Oh I was just wondering if I could talk to you for
a minute.” He was still smiling. That
made her nervous.
“Jace, I’m tired, I’ve been up since five o’clock
this morning and I have eight phone calls to return.” She complained.
“Please? It
won’t take very long.” He promised.
She rolled her eyes and handed her bag to Chris for
him to take into their room. She then
followed JC into his room.
“Is one of those calls you have to return to
Laurie?” He asked hopefully.
Michelle sat down.
She had a feeling this was going to take longer than intended.
“No, that was one of the calls I answered.”
“She called you?”
“She always
calls me.”
JC looked down at his hands. “Did she say anything about me?”
“Maybe.” She smirked. She was enjoying this. “I
think she might have mentioned a thing or two.”
He looked at her expectantly.
Michelle sighed.
“I’m not going to tell you, she told me in confidence.” She leaned
forward a little. “Why don’t you call
her?”
“Because every time I’ve spoken to her this weekend
she seemed… I don’t know… like maybe she didn’t want to talk to me.” He
frowned.
“Look, Jace.
You know Laurie loves you. And
you know that she was probably acting that way because Craig was home… and also
because the dumbass that is JC Chasez didn’t tell her that the wicked witch of
the west was coming for a visit.”
JC glared at her.
“Don’t give me that look – I invented that look and
perfected it on Chris. I will tell you
that Craig flew out this afternoon.
So…”
A grin slowly spread across JC’s face. “So she’s home alone and I can call her
without having any worries?”
Michelle shrugged and smiled.
“Thanks… you’re an angel!” He reached for his
phone.
“Well I don’t know if I would go that far…” she
laughed and reached for the door handle.
“Good luck.”