JC frowned when there was no answer at Laurie’s
house, so he hung up and dialed her cell phone number. She answered on the second ring.
“Hi Josh,” she said quietly.
“Hi… you’re not at home.”
“No, I’m out picking up a few groceries for
dinner. There isn’t much at the house.”
“Well you’re not that far from where we are… maybe
three hours. Why don’t you come back
and eat dinner with me? I miss you.”
“Umm, about me coming back… I don’t know that I
am.”
JC felt his chest constrict. “What do you mean?”
“It would just be too uncomfortable with… her there.”
“Huh? Her
who? Oh, you mean Alexandria?” He clued in.
“Well who else would I mean?”
“Laur… she left a few hours ago. Much to my great relief, I might add.” He paused.
“Did you talk to Craig?”
“I really don’t want to get into that over the
phone, Josh.”
His face fell.
“It didn’t go well?”
“I said I don’t want to get into it.” She
repeated. “I’m at the store so I’m
going to let you go.”
“Laurie, wait.”
“What?” She sighed in frustration. She was getting close to tears and wanted to
get off the phone.
“Please come to San Diego… I need to see you.”
“I-I’ll think about it. If I do, it won’t be until tomorrow.”
“Ok,” JC relented.
“I guess I can live with that. I
love you Laurie.”
A single tear slid down her cheek and she reached
up to wipe it away.
“I love you too.”
**********
“So what did JC want?” Chris asked as he watched
Michelle strip down and pull on a pair of sweats and one of his FuMan Skeeto
shirts. “Why do you wear that?”
“It’s comfortable and it smells like you.” She
replied and pulled back the covers on the bed.
“And JC just wanted to know if I had heard from Laurie.”
“And?”
“I told him she called me while we were at
Nordstrom, but I didn’t relay any of the conversation.”
“Why not?”
“Because it wasn’t up to me to tell him.”
Chris laid down on the bed beside her and poked her
shoulder. “Did she do it?”
“Did she do what?” Michelle yawned, but she knew
exactly what Chris was talking about.
“Did she tell Craig that she wanted him out of her
life so she could live happily ever after with the spazz?”
“You’re terrible.” She snuggled deeper into the
pillow.
“And you’re avoiding my question.” He poked her
shoulder in between each word he spoke.
She turned to face him.
“Chris, if you don’t stop poking me, I’m going to
break your fingers.” She threatened.
He laughed and rubbed his nose against hers. “I love it when you’re violent.”
Michelle rolled her eyes. “If I tell you, will you go away so that I can have a nap? I’m exhausted.”
“Maybe.”
“Chris.”
“Fine.” He pouted.
“She told him.”
“Yeah?”
“Did I stutter?”
“Ok fine, I know when to leave you alone…
yeesh. I want details later.” He kissed her and got off the bed.
“Ok,” she yawned and got comfortable again. “Later.”
Chris quietly left the room and went in search of
Justin or Joey to see if either of them wanted to go out and grab a bite to
eat. He ended up running into Lance in
the hallway.
“I was just coming to find you.” Lance said. “We’re all going to go out and grab some
dinner and were wondering if you and Michelle wanted to come along.”
Chris laughed.
“I was just going to ask Justin and Joey the same thing, so I’m in. Shelle is sleeping though, she’s in a bit of
a mood.”
Lance laughed.
“I’d be in a mood too if I was dating you.”
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.” Chris
huffed. “Is C coming?”
“Yeah, I just came from his room. He’s going to change and meet us
downstairs.”
“Cool.”
**********
Joey decided that he was the hungriest, so
therefore he told the others that he got to choose the restaurant. Justin opened his mouth to argue and JC just
looked at him and shook his head. When Joey
chose a quiet Italian restaurant that held no more than twelve tables though,
Justin couldn’t help but nod his approval.
Their entire entourage took up four tables and the
restaurants staff scrambled to set the tables up with silverware, glasses,
napkins and baskets of warm bread. When
they took their seats, Lance made sure that he grabbed one of the chairs next
to JC.
“Have you heard from Laurie yet?” Lance asked as he
buttered a piece of bread and then bit the end off of it.
“I called her a while ago,” JC replied
quietly. He wasn’t in the mood to talk
at the moment.
“And?” Lance wasn’t going to let it go.
“She didn’t want to talk about it… and she doesn’t
know if she’s coming back.”
“Oh.” Lance
thought for a minute. “Could it have
anything to do with the fact that you haven’t mentioned anything about asking
Alexandria for a divorce?”
JC looked at him.
“I told you a month ago that I wanted to do that. And you told me to wait.”
“You told me
that you wanted to ask Alexandria for a divorce, but did you tell Laurie?”
“No…” JC replied slowly. “But I’ve already decided that I’m going to tell Dria next week
that I want a divorce. She’s flying to
LA for the release party.”
“Then why don’t you tell Laurie that?”
“Because I want to see her when I tell her.” He
replied miserably. “And if she doesn’t
come back out on tour…”
“C, we’re only a few hours from your place and she
lives around the corner. What’s
stopping you from driving there to see her?”
JC shrugged.
“Listen… we’re going to be in Oakland this
weekend. Why don’t we all go up early,
like on Friday and spend the day in Santa Cruz? I realize it’s a bit of a drive, but it’s something that I think
we all need to relieve some stress.
I’ll call Hannah and invite her, and I’m sure Joey and Justin will want
to call Denise and Stacy out to play.”
“That could be fun,” JC admitted. “But what if…”
Lance smiled.
“You know Laurie can’t stay away from you… she’ll be here. She loves you.”
**********
It was early the next morning and Laurie checked
her appearance in the mirror one final time.
She had her misgivings about driving to San Diego, but she fully planned
on attending the FuMan signing at Bloomingdales in LA tomorrow and she would
just drive back when it was over.
This would be her first time seeing JC as a single
woman since the time they had spent together in Europe. She had no consequences to worry about now –
except what would happen to her heart.
Because even though she had broken it off with Craig, she realized that
JC had yet to mention asking Alexandria for a divorce.
But she also knew that whatever happened with the
relationship she had with JC, she couldn’t have stayed married to Craig.