Chapter Five
“Stay
with me tonight,” JC continued.
“Please?”
“Josh…
as much as I would love to stay… and as much as I want to be with you in every
sense of the word… I can’t be unfaithful to Craig.”
“I
respect that,” he sighed. “Because I
would hope that you would do the same for me if we were married.”
“Thank
you for understanding,” she replied and kissed his cheek.
“I’ll
call you tomorrow as soon as I wake up,” he promised and kissed her again. He opened the door for her and watched as
she climbed into her car. He folded his
arms and leaned against the door frame and watched as she drove away.
When
Laurie got home, there were four messages on her answering machine. One was from her sister and the other three
were from Craig. She erased them all
and sighed. She made the trip upstairs
and stripped off her clothes before slipping into a comfortable oversized
t-shirt and walking into the bathroom to brush her teeth. Just as she got into bed and turned off the
light, the phone rang.
“Whoever
came up with the idea that a telephone is a thing of convenience ought to be
shot,” she muttered and rolled over to pick up the receiver. “Hello?”
“Where
have you been all day?”
“I’m
fine Craig, thank you. And how are
you?” Laurie retorted sarcastically. It
was one o’clock in the morning and she wasn’t in the mood for his
attitude. “I was over at Kristina’s,
she wanted to see me. Is that all right
with you?” She made a mental note to call Kristina in the morning.
“Laur,
that’s fine. It’s just that there was
no answer for several hours and I was starting to get worried. It’s not like I could call and see if you
were working late…”
“That’s
because you won’t let me have a job!” She snapped, surprised at her own
outburst.
“I
make enough money that you don’t need to work, love.” He protested.
“I’m
bored.” She told him. “I hate staying
at home.”
Craig
sighed. “Ok… if it means that much to
you, you can start looking for something to do. But if it starts to interfere with us spending time together…”
“That’s
funny,” Laurie laughed bitterly. “This
coming from a man who will be in Canada for a month when he’s supposed to be on
his honeymoon.”
“I’m
not going to argue with you,” he conceded.
“It’s late and we both need some sleep.
I love you Laurie.”
“I
love you too,” she closed her eyes when the lie rolled off her tongue. She did love him – she just wasn’t in love with him. “Goodnight.” She said and hung up the phone.
“I’d say I was sorry that I married
Craig,” she thought to herself. “But
then I wouldn’t have gone to New York and I might never have seen Josh again.”
“But he lives around the corner,” a
little voice inside her head nagged. “You could have quite easily run into him at
anytime.”
“But he’s never home,” she argued
with the voice. “And its not like he
can just go for a stroll around the block.”
The
voice in her head continued to play Devil’s Advocate and she pressed her hands
tightly over her ears. Laurie kicked
back the covers, sat up and gave her head a shake. She hadn’t done anything wrong and already her conscience was
attacking her.
“Kissing the man you love while you’re
married to another man isn’t wrong?” Her conscience taunted her.
“I’m
never going to get any sleep at this rate,” she mumbled. “I might as well do something productive.” She paused and then yelled, “And I liked
kissing Josh!”
She
walked across the hallways into the room where the computer was situated and
waited patiently for it to boot up. She
opened the Word program and began to create her resume. If Craig was going to let her work, she was
determined to find employment before he could change his mind.
***********
It
was almost noon the following day when JC finally woke up. He stretched languidly and contemplated
getting out of bed. Deciding against it
for the moment, he rolled over and thought back to the previous night. Regret rushed through him when he remembered
Laurie’s reaction to Alexandria’s phone call and he couldn’t help but wonder
what would have happened between them if they hadn’t been interrupted. He glanced at the clock on his nightstand
table and wondered if Laurie was awake yet.
Only one way to find out. He
dialed the now familiar numbers.
“Hello?”
“Hey
baby,” JC grinned. He could hear her
typing away on the keyboard. “Did you sleep
well?”
“I
haven’t been to bed,” she replied.
“What? Why not?”
“Because
I got a phone call at one o’clock this morning from my wonderful husband.
Apparently he tried to call me several times yesterday and couldn’t get
a hold of me, so he was pissed off. But
on the bright side, he said I could try to find myself a job, so I’ve been up
all night working on my resume.” Laurie told him. To herself she thought, “And
fighting with my conscience about my feelings for you.”
“Josh,
don’t. Please.” She requested.
“I
was only teasing.” He paused. “Kind of…
not really.”
Laurie
sighed audibly.
“Look,
it’s just… I want to be with you in every sense of the word. I honestly think that we were meant to be
together Laurie… it’s practically fate that we live around the corner from each
other.”
“I’ve been telling myself that all night,” she
thought and didn’t reply.
“Sweetheart? Are you there?”
“Yeah,
I’m here.” Her heart melted when she heard the endearment. “This is just really hard for me…”
“I
know,” JC sympathized quietly. “It’s
really hard for me too…” then he laughed.
“We sound like a broken record.
We know we’re both in situations that we have no control over, yet we
don’t want anyone except each other.”
“Did his voice just get husky?” Laurie
thought. “At least we’re not hiding it
from each other. That’s the important
thing.”
“So
did you want to get together today?”
“Of
course,” she cradled the phone between her head and her shoulder and
smiled. “I think I’ll need to get a
little bit of sleep first though.”
“That’s
cool… do you want to give me a call whenever you’re ready to go?”
“I
can do that,” she smiled. “Do you have
anything particular in mind?”
“No,
I just thought we’d wing it. The guys
fly in tomorrow along with the rest of our entourage, so it will be the last
chance we have to spend alone for a while.”
“All
right, I’ll let you get some sleep and you can call me when you’re ready to
go. Dream of me.” He told her.
“I
always do,” she replied almost shyly.
“I’ll see you later, Josh. Bye.”
“Bye
Laur.”
Laurie
hung up the phone and stretched contentedly.
She saved her resume, turned off the computer, crossed the hall to her
bedroom and quickly fell asleep. When
she woke several hours later, it was almost eight o’clock. She cursed and dived for the phone, dialing
JC’s number. As soon as he answered the
phone, she began to apologize.
“I
am so sorry, Josh, I just woke up.”
“It’s
all right,” he laughed. “I’ve actually
been working in the studio the whole time… up until fifteen minutes ago,
anyway. Your timing is perfect. Are you ready to go?”
“Well…”
she began. “I literally just woke
up. I looked at the clock and called
you right away, so I haven’t had a shower or gotten dressed yet.”
“Oh,
so you’re not wearing anything right now.” He said. Laurie could practically hear the smile in his voice.
“I
am so,” she swallowed back her giggles.
“I have a t-shirt and a pair of drawstring pants on.”
“Damn,”
JC feigned disappointment. “And I was
just on my way over. Oh well, I guess
I’ll have to be content with staying home now.”
“Josh,
behave yourself!” She exclaimed, silently hoping that he wouldn’t.
He
laughed. “I’m going to be at your door
in exactly an hour… you’re going to be ready to go, right?”
“Maybe,”
Laurie smiled and decided to do a little teasing herself. “Then again, I might just be fresh from the
shower and wearing nothing except my robe…”
“Laur…”
he groaned. “You’re killing me over
here.”
She smiled on her end of the phone;
pleased that she was able to affect him the same way he affected her.
“Just…”
he began, his voice slightly strangled.
“Just be ready to go out in an hour.”
“It’s
too bad you didn’t say be ready to go,” she teased. “Because that could be taken a few different ways.”
“I
know, that’s precisely why I didn’t say it.”
Laurie
laughed and decided to give him a break.
“All right, I will be ready to leave when you get here.”
They
said their good-byes and ended the conversation. Laurie practically flew off of her bed and into the bathroom to
take a quick shower. When she emerged,
she dried her hair, making sure it was slightly wavy. She walked into her bedroom and glanced at the clock and realized
that she still had forty-five minutes to get ready.
Exactly
an hour later, Laurie had just finished putting the finishing touches on her
make-up and the doorbell rang. Her
stomach tightened with apprehension and she took a deep breath. She walked downstairs and smiled when she opened
the door.
JC
was standing there holding a single red rose.
“Damn, you’re dressed.”
Laurie
burst into laughter and invited him in.
“Sorry to disappoint you,” she said.
“Maybe next time.”
“This
is for you,” he handed her the rose.
When she reached out to accept it, he grabbed her hand and pulled her
into his arms. He stared at her
intently for half a second before his lips touched hers. After a moment, Laurie spoke.
“So
what’s the plan for tonight?”
“I
thought maybe we could have a late dinner at the pier and then take a walk
along the boardwalk. All the teenies
should be in bed.”
She
turned from him and put the rose into a glass filled with water. “Are you sure that’s such a good idea?”
“What
do you mean?”
“We
would be in public Josh… what if
someone were to see us together?”
“So
we’re just old friends out for dinner and a walk,” he shrugged. “I don’t see what the big deal is.”
“All
right,” she reluctantly agreed.
“Besides,”
he paused and wrapped his arms around her waist. “I would be proud to be seen with you in public.”
“I
just don’t want to think about the damage control that you would have to do if
anything happened.”
“It
will be fine,” he reassured her. “I
doubt that anyone would be looking for us anyway.”
“They
wouldn’t be looking for me in the first place,” she allowed herself to
laugh. “I’m not anyone important…
you’re the big hot shot popstar.”
“Laur…
you are important… you’re important
to me.” JC said quietly. “But if you
don’t want to go out, I understand. We
can spend a quiet night here or back at my place. I don’t care what we do, as long as we’re together.”
“You
know… I think dinner on the pier sounds wonderful.”
JC
smiled and leaned in to kiss her again.
He waited while she made sure the front door was locked and walked out
to his car with him. Her jaw dropped
open when she saw it.
“You
want me to ride in this?” Laurie’s eyes
drifted over the car appreciatively.
“Isn’t this… a Viper?”
“Absolutely,”
he grinned and opened the passenger door for her. “Your chariot awaits, madam.”
“This
is amazing,” she closed her eyes as he turned onto the road from her driveway
and let the wind rush through her hair.
“Do
you mind that the roof is down?”
“Not
at all,” she replied and opened her eyes so she could look at him. “I’m glad I decided to go out tonight.”
“Me
too,” he winked in her direction and took his hand off the stick shift long
enough to give her thigh a light squeeze.
A
chill ran up her spine when he touched her and it was in that instant that she
realized she couldn’t wait for him to touch her again. JC pulled onto the freeway that would take
them to the pier, shifted into fifth and returned his hand to the same spot on
her thigh. As he drove, he occasionally
moved his fingers to caress her leg.
Laurie fought the urge to make him pull over and instead rested her hand
on top of his.
“It
shouldn’t be too much longer,” JC shouted so she could hear his voice above the
wind. He moved his hand from her leg
again to downshift as they approached their exit. When they stopped at the first red light, he looked over at
her. “Are you all right?”
“I’m
fine,” she replied. “I’m just enjoying
my time with you.”
“Your
eyes are watering… was the wind too much?”
“Maybe
a little, but I wouldn’t have traded it for the world.”
**********
“Dinner
was delicious… thank you.”
“You’re
welcome,” JC smiled. “I found that
little restaurant a couple of months ago and they’ve never failed to disappoint
me.”
“I
can see why.” Laurie sighed
contentedly.
They
passed JC’s car on the way to the boardwalk and he sighed inwardly. He wanted nothing more than to be able to
openly display his feelings for her, but he knew that wasn’t possible. He debated on whether or not to reach over
and take her hand into his and decided against it. If any photographer were to see them together, let alone holding
hands, there would be hell to pay on all sides.
Frustrated,
he shoved his hands into his pockets and continued walking. Laurie noticed his distress and turned to
him.
“Josh…
what’s wrong?”
“I
want to be able to hold your hand,” he closed his eyes. “And I hate that I can’t.”
“Do
you want to leave?”
“No.”
He said adamantly. “I want… I want to
walk on the beach with you… I want to sit on the sand and watch the ocean waves
lap against our toes. I want to count
the stars with you…” he paused and his voice dropped down to a whisper. “I just feel so much when I’m with you. I want to experience everything life has to
offer and I want to be able to share it with you, without worrying about what
other people will think.” He paused
again. “And I just hope… that someday
that will happen for us.”