“Tell me.”
“Your real birthday isn’t until Wednesday.”
“But everyone else is giving me presents now.”
“You can wait until your real birthday or you won’t
get your present at all.” Michelle
laughed to herself. She couldn’t even
begin to imagine how she would keep this from him.
Chris placed his hands on her hips and pulled her
closer to him. “At least give me a
hint.”
“Well… it’s something that you’ve wanted for a
while…” She let her voice trail off.
“Tell me!” Chris whined.
“Will you just give him his present already?”
Laurie was getting exasperated, but she was smiling.
“Part of the present is at home and I have to give
him that before I give him the other half of it.”
“Come on… tell me…” Chris pouted.
Michelle laughed and shook her head. As she did so, she caught some movement out
of the corner of her eye and instinctively turned her head in that
direction. JC was heading their way and
he didn’t look happy. “Laurie… JC is
coming this way and he looks mad.”
JC reached them before Laurie had a chance to turn
around. He took a firm hold of her arm,
but not firm enough that it hurt her.
“We need to talk.” He hissed into her ear.
“Come on Chris,” Michelle tugged at his
sleeve. “I need a soda.”
Laurie looked at them with pleading eyes. “Please don’t leave me!” She mouthed to them
even as JC started pulling her away.
JC did not let go
of Laurie’s arm as he led her back to the same conference room where he had
left Lance. When JC returned to it, it
was empty and he made Laurie enter in front of him, then he closed the door
behind him and locked it.
“Sit.” JC
ordered and began to pace. He knew what
he wanted to say - he was just trying to think of a way to say it.
Laurie sat down in one of the chairs, folded her
hands in her lap and stared down at them.
She had a feeling that JC knew everything, she just wasn’t sure if his
current reaction was a good thing or a bad thing. When JC finally stopped pacing, Laurie made the mistake of
looking up at him. The hurt and betrayal
that he felt was evident in his eyes.
“When were you going to tell me?” He asked softly.
“I wanted to…” Laurie began. “But Lance… being the voice of reason that
he is – he didn’t think it was a good idea for you to leave your pregnant wife
to be with your pregnant mistress.”
“Alexandria isn’t my wife anymore.” JC told her
through gritted teeth.
“She isn’t?” Laurie asked almost hopefully.
“No, she isn’t.
I caught her with someone else the night I came home from Lance and
Joey’s premiere.” He took the seat next
to her. “But we aren’t talking about
her. We’re talking about you and
why you didn’t tell me that it’s my baby you’re carrying and not Lance’s.”
“I just told you why.” Laurie looked away.
“So you and Lance didn’t think that I had a right
to know?” JC inquired.
“We did,” she said. “That isn’t the point. We
just thought it would be best to wait.
In fact…” she hesitated. “I
wanted to tell you last night when you showed up at his house.”
“I wish you would have.” He paused. “I wouldn’t have left.”
“I just didn’t want to cause anymore problems.”
JC took her hands into his own. “I understand the reasons behind it. But because of that, I would have missed out
on the experience of you carrying my child.
I would have missed a lot.”
Laurie lowered her eyes again. “You would have experienced it with
Alexandria.” She mumbled.
“Maybe,” JC shrugged. “But Alexandria isn’t carrying my child. You are.”
Laurie looked at him again. “What do you mean?”
“It’s her lovers child. Not mine.”
“I’m sorry, Josh.” Laurie apologized and her eyes
filled with tears. “I’m sorry about
Alexandria, I’m sorry about Lance and I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you.”
“You had a good reason. Kind of.” He smiled. “The
only question is… what do we do now?”
“What do you mean?”
“Before Alexandria and I got married, Johnny and I
had her sign a prenup that specified if she was unfaithful to me that she would
leave the marriage with whatever she came into it with and that she couldn’t
contest it. The only issue now, and I’m
sure Johnny would say the same thing, is my being seen with you.”
Realization dawned on Laurie. “She would try to use it against you.”
“Exactly.
So what do we do?”
“I have no idea.
What do you want to do?” Laurie asked.
“I want you back in my life.”
“I want you too.”
“So tell me something…” JC placed his hand on her
arm. “Are you going to come home with
me tonight?”
“Would that mean I would have to break up with
Lance?” She teased.
JC laughed.
“Come here.” He said and pulled her into his arms. His heart felt full and his life felt
complete now that he was holding her again.
“I love you,” he murmured into her ear.
“I love you, too.”
**********
“Stay here.”
“But Chris…”
“It’s their battle, let them fight it.”
“But I want to know what’s going on!” She pouted
and flopped into a chair.
“And I want to know what you got me for my
birthday.” He grinned. Turnabout was
fair play.
“I’m not giving it to you until Wednesday, so you
can just forget it.” She stuck her
tongue out at him.
“You two are so much like each other that it scares
the hell out of me.” Joey joked as he approached them. “And to think that you were both like this before you met each other scares me
even more.”
Michelle laughed.
“I don’t think I’d be able to put up with him otherwise. Where’s Dee?”
“Oh, she went to check on something for me, she
should be back soon. What’s going on
with JC and Laurie? I saw him drag her
out of here and they haven’t come back yet.”
“That’s what I’d like to find out.” Michelle huffed
and glared at Chris who in turn shrugged and walked away to talk to a few
friends he hadn’t seen in a while.
“What’s with him?”
“He’s mad because he wants to know what I got him
for his birthday. If I wanted to be
really mean, I could make him wait months for it instead of just making him
wait until Wednesday.”
“What did you get him?”
Michelle blushed.
“I can’t tell you until he knows.
I’m sorry Joey.”
“It’s fine with me,” Joey shrugged. “You’re the one who has to live with
him.” He laughed. “And you have my sympathy.”
“I’m not that
bad.” Chris slapped the back of
Joey’s head as he returned with a drink for Michelle.
“Thanks hun.” She smelled the drink. “Is there alcohol in this?”
“Yeah, you didn’t want any?”
“No, I’m trying to cut back… but thank you anyway.”
Michelle smiled at him and Chris leaned down to kiss her.
Joey watched as Chris went back to the bar and then
turned back to Michelle. “Are you
pregnant?”
“Joey!”
“I’m just asking… I’ve never known you to turn down
a drink… not that you drink a lot… but still.
And it would explain why you don’t want to give Chris his present yet…
you have a hard enough time holding on to Christmas presents that you purchase
a few days ahead of time.”
“Shut up Joey.” She stuck her tongue out at
him. “How did you get to know me so
well?”
“So I’m right?”
“I’m not saying anything.” Michelle told him but
smiled softly.
“Congratulations,” Joey whispered and kissed her
cheek before he went to find Denise.
**********
"Hey,"
Lance approached Hannah. "Having a good time?"
"It's
fun." Hannah nodded. "There's a lot of people here that I haven't
seen in ages. Where did you and the guys disappear to earlier?"
"Unofficial
group meeting." Lance explained to Hannah what had happened and her mouth
dropped open. "And JC also knows the truth about Laurie and myself."
"And you're
still alive?" She teased.
Lance laughed and
rubbed Hannah's back. "He wasn't impressed, but now that he's back with
Laurie - at least I'm assuming he is - I don't think much else will bother
him."
Hannah raised a
hand and placed it on his chest. "Does that mean..."
The ringing of
Lance’s cell phone interrupted Hannah. He removed his hand from her back and
reached into his pocket to answer it. The caller ID told him it was JC.
"Hey C,
where did you go?"
"I found
Laurie and we're in the conference room. I need you to come back in here for a
minute."
"Am I in
trouble?"
JC laughed.
"Just get your butt down here."
Lance ended the
call and turned to Hannah. "JC needs to see me, so I'll be back in a bit,
all right?"
He placed a light
kiss on her cheek and left the games room once again. Lance took his time
walking down the hall to the conference room and he spent most of it
contemplating the different scenario's he was about to walk into.
Lance knocked on
the door and slowly pushed it open. JC
was crouching down in front of Laurie and he had a hand on each of her
knees. Lance leaned against the frame
of the door and grinned.
“You two are so
cute together.”
“Finally.” JC
smiled up at Laurie.
“You always
were.” Lance shrugged and entered the room, letting the door close behind
him. “So what’s up?”
“Have a seat.” JC
stood up and scratched the back of his head.
“I don’t want you two to think that you’re off the hook for keeping my
baby a secret from me. I don’t care so
much that you lied about dating… but the fact remains that whether I was still
married to Alexandria or not, I deserved to know that the baby
Laurie is carrying is mine. You two
shouldn’t have made that decision for me.”
“I know Jace and
I’m sorry.” Lance apologized. “Laurie
wanted to tell you, but I was just doing what I thought was right from a PR
point of view. I was also trying to
protect you.”
“I understand
that Lance and I appreciate the effort, but it’s my child growing inside Laurie… even though half the world thinks
that it’s yours.”
“Yeah, about
that…” Lance looked from JC to Laurie and back again. “It’s not like we ever confirmed that. I mean, nothing has been published about it since, so it could
have been just a scare or we could have been buying the test for someone else.”
“Like Michelle.”
Laurie interrupted.
“Excuse me?” JC raised his eyebrows.
“Nothing. Never mind.” She said quickly.
“That wasn’t a
‘nothing’ comment.” Lance stared at her.
“Is Michelle pregnant?”
“Maybe.” Laurie mumbled and looked down at her hands.
“Jeez… it’s got
to be something in the water.” Lance laughed.
“But anyway. Your pregnancy was
never confirmed or denied by WEG or Jive, so I think as long as you stay out of
the public eye once you start to show, everything should be fine.”
“Yeah, that’s not
a bad idea.” JC agreed.
“But you two also
need to realize that it would be a bad idea to be seen together as a couple in
public before your divorce goes through.” Lance looked at JC as he said this.
JC and Laurie
exchanged a glance.
“Honestly, that
never even crossed my mind. Dria would
try every underhanded tactic possible if she was to find out that I was dating
someone else during the separation.”
“She’s probably
going to try anyway.” Lance muttered.
“Even though she signed the prenup, she’s going to try to find a
loophole.”
“Good luck with
that.” JC scoffed.
“Look, if you
want… I can continue to pretend to date Laurie until the divorce becomes final. That way, she can still travel with us and
you two can spend as much time together as possible.”
“That’s not a bad
idea,” JC placed a hand on Laurie’s shoulder.
“What do you think?”
Laurie looked
over at Lance. “Lance… I can’t ask you
to put your life on hold anymore than you already have. It isn’t fair to you and it certainly isn’t
fair to Hannah. I feel guilty that I’m
holding you two back from developing your relationship.”
“I wouldn’t be
volunteering to do this if I thought it meant putting my life on hold. I want to see JC happy and you are what makes him happy.” He told
her. “And Hannah knows the situation
and she’s fine with continuing to stay out of the public eye for the time
being. She actually prefers it.”
Laurie looked at
Lance skeptically.
“If you don’t
believe me, I can get her and bring her back here so that she can tell you
herself.”
“How do I know
that you won’t tell her what you want her to say?” Laurie’s eyes sparkled with
laughter as she said this.
“I wasn’t going
to, but now that you mention it…” he winked and slapped her knee
playfully. “I’ll be right back.”
Lance left the
conference room for the second time that evening and went to look for
Hannah. He smiled and nodded at a few
people whom eyes he caught as his own eyes sought her out. He finally saw her talking to Stacy near the
pool table where Justin and Joey were playing.
He smiled as he saw Stacy nudge Hannah and motion in his direction.
“Hey,” Lance said
as he approached the two women. He
looked at Stacy. “Mind if I borrow
Hannah for a bit?”
“Well you get to
see her more often than I do, but hey, feel free.”
“Thanks Stace, I
knew you wouldn’t mind.” Lance winked
and waited for Hannah to join him before he started walking back towards the
conference room.
“Well?” Hannah
grabbed his arm as they walked down the hallway. “What’s going on?”
“It looks like
I’m going continue to keep ‘dating’ Laurie for a while to keep Alexandria off
JC’s back before the divorce becomes final.” He stopped walking and turned to
look at her. “Are you going to be ok
with that?”
Hannah looked him
in the eye. “Did JC and Laurie ask you
to continue covering for them?”
“No, I
offered. I want to see them happy and I
think they’re finally getting their chance.”
“That’s fine, it’s
just…” Hannah hesitated. “What does
that mean for us?”
“It doesn’t
change anything. I still want to be
with you. We’ll just have to do what JC
and Laurie are doing and keep it a secret for the majority of the time. JC and I will make sure certain people know
– like the rest of the guys – so that we don’t have to hide around them.” Lance placed his hands on her
shoulders. “All right?”
“Yeah.” She
nodded. “Now where were you dragging me
off to before we got side tracked?”
Lance laughed. “You need to tell Laurie you’re ok with this plan. She’s paranoid.”
“I can do
that. Then I want to head back to my
hotel, it’s getting late and I’m tired.”
“Hannah Rose!”
Lance exclaimed. “What the hell are you
doing staying in a hotel when I have tons of room at my place?”
“I just thought
with Laurie there…”
“It wouldn’t have
mattered. Besides, I’d bet anything
that Laurie isn’t coming home with me tonight.”
“Things went that
well, huh?”
“If not better.”
Lance grinned and held the door open for Hannah. “After you.”
“Thank you,” she
giggled and entered the room. She
immediately went over and gave Laurie a hug.
“You have my permission to continue ‘dating’ my boyfriend.”
Laurie hugged her
back tightly. “Thank you so much
Hannah, JC and I really appreciate it.”
“As long as you
guys are happy and JC is far, far away from the evil Alexandria, I’ll do
anything I can do to help.”
“Does that
include giving us a ride back to my place?” JC piped up. “Neither of us drove here.”
“I suppose.”
Hannah rolled her eyes playfully.
“Thanks… we’re
just going to say goodbye to a few people and we’ll meet you out there.” JC
told them.
“You’ll see me,
I’m not far from the door.” Lance said and led Hannah outside to where he was
parked.
Lance deactivated
the alarm on his vehicle and guided Hannah to the passenger side door. As he reached for the handle to open it, he
took a quick look around – and seeing no one – he pushed Hannah gently against
the side of the Pathfinder and covered her lips with his own. When she recovered from the initial shock of
Lance’s aggressiveness, she wrapped her arms around his waist and responded,
opening her mouth slightly to deepen the kiss.
It ended when they heard footsteps approaching.
“So,” Lance
panted. His arms were still around
her. “You’re coming home with me
tonight, right? You aren’t going back
to your hotel.”
“No.” Hannah
replied breathlessly. “I’m staying with
you.”