(Four Days Later – November 19, 2001 - Orlando)
Justin kicked the table in the boardroom before he
rested his feet on it. “I don’t know
why Johnny had to call a group meeting today.” He pouted. “I have too many other things I could be
doing.”
“Such as?” Lance raised an eyebrow.
“Packing for the flight to Tennessee!”
Joey, Chris and Lance burst into laughter.
“C’mon J… we all know that you don’t pack until the
very last possible minute.” Joey reminded him.
“Still…” The pout became more prominent and Justin
slouched down in his chair. “I thought
C was supposed to get back today?
Shouldn’t he be here?”
“Yeah,” Lance looked at his watch. “Neither Laurie nor I have heard from him
yet though, which is odd because I would have figured that he’d want to see
Laurie the minute he returned.”
“It doesn’t surprise me that you know JC’s
schedule,” Joey snickered. “Since you
two seem to share everything.”
Lance glared at Joey. “You know damn well it’s not like that.”
“Chill man, I was just joking… jeez… some people
are so touchy.” Joey responded and Lance’s next response was cut when Johnny
entered the room.
Johnny didn’t say anything as he sat down at the
table and ran a hand over his face. He
was not looking forward to telling the guys what he had to tell them.
“Good, Johnny’s here… we can leave now.” Justin pushed his chair back and began to
stand up.
“Park it, Timberlake.” Johnny ordered and while he
waited for Justin to sit back down, he rubbed his temples. “Does someone want to tell me what’s going
on? I thought JC and Laurie worked
things out and were back together?”
Chris, Joey, Lance and Justin exchanged confused
glances. “Umm… they are back
together. They have been since Chris’
surprise party.”
“Then can someone please explain to me why I received a call from the National
Enquirer telling me that they are going to be running an article in this week’s
edition with pictures from JC and Alexandria’s
vacation?”
“What?” Chris exclaimed.
Justin’s mouth dropped open. “JC and… Alexandria? Dude, are you sure it was JC?”
“How many JC Chasez’s do you think I know?” Johnny
snapped.
“I just thought…” Justin’s voice trailed off.
“Well that explains why JC didn’t want Laurie to
go,” Joey mumbled under his breath.
“Come on guys,” Lance interjected. “There has to be a reasonable explanation
for this.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know, but there has to be one… JC wouldn’t
do that to Laurie.”
“It must be the reason why JC isn’t here for the
meeting, anyway.” Joey laughed.
“Actually his flight was cancelled, so he’s taking
the first flight back tomorrow.” Johnny informed them. “I just wanted to let you all know that
everything has been confirmed for the filming of ‘Girlfriend’ in LA at the
beginning of next month.”
“And you couldn’t have told us that over the
phone?” Justin yelled.
“Justin!” Chris hollered. “Will you just chill about having to come in today. None of us are complaining about it.”
Joey
immediately knew what Chris was referring to.
“Is Michelle still having problems with morning sickness?”
“Morning sickness, afternoon sickness and evening
sickness,” Chris groaned. “I can’t wait
until it’s over.”
“Sounds brutal.”
Chris groaned again and buried his face in his
arms. Justin laughed at him.
“You just wait Timbers,” Chris growled. “You’ll get yours.”
“Not anytime soon,” Justin continued to laugh. “You’re the ones who wanted to have a kid.”
“Are you two finished?” Lance asked. Chris and Justin nodded. “I think we need to tell Laurie about this
before the Enquirer is published.”
“Why don’t we just get JC to tell her when he gets
back?” Joey suggested. “That way she
hears it from him.”
“If he tells her.” Justin said.
“I imagine he would,” Lance replied. “There’s got to be a reasonable explanation
for this.” He looked at Johnny. “Did
the reporter who called you say where JC and Alexandria are?”
**********
(Same Day – Dominican Republic)
“So do you and your boyfriend have a date set yet?”
JC asked. He was lying on the beach,
feeling more relaxed than he had felt in a long time.
“Not yet.” Alexandria turned her head so that she
was looking at him. “I want to thank
you for dropping everything to fly down here and pay for everything… I honestly
didn’t think you would.”
“And I honestly didn’t think you’d ever want a
quickie divorce.” JC laughed. “I should
be thanking you for not dragging it out.”
He sighed happily. “We seem to
get along better when we aren’t married.”
“Yeah.” Alexandria was quiet for a minute. “JC… I want to apologize for being such a
bitch to you while we were married. I
think it was just because I was having an affair and I didn’t like it when you
were around.”
JC howled in laughter. “Trust me Dria, the feeling was mutual. But we can put that all behind us now and be free to date and marry
people we truly love.”
“You sound like you have someone in mind.” She paused.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“You just did, but I’ll let you ask me another
one.” He smiled easily.
Alexandria raised her sunglasses and squinted
against the bright sun. “Were you
faithful to me while we married?”
JC removed his own sunglasses and sat up, but did
not look at his ex-wife. “It’s not
something I’m proud of, but no I wasn’t.”
“Oh.”
He looked over at her. “But I really love this woman.
I met her years ago when we were in Europe and we lost touch. I met her again when we were on our
Honeymoon in New York.”
“You’ve been with her since then?” Alexandria
gasped.
“No, no, no.” JC said quickly. “She was there as well, it was her wedding
night.” He laughed. “It was kind of
ironic actually… we spent the night talking and traded information so we could
keep in touch. She lived around the
corner from us in LA with her husband.”
“I should be furious…” She said and then smiled
sadly. “But I guess that would be like
the pot calling the kettle black.”
“Dria… I just want you to know that I would have
stayed faithful to you if I had never met her again… I think she’s the one I’m
meant to be with.”
“It sounds like you really love her.”
“I do.” JC placed a hand over his heart. “I really do.”
“I wish you two the very best… hopefully you won’t
end up like we did.” She glanced at her watch.
“My flight leaves in a couple of hours, so I should pack and check
out. Give me a call when you get home
and let me know that you got home all right.”
“I will.” He stood up to help her with her
stuff. “Have a safe flight home Dria.”
He told her and kissed her cheek. He
waited until she was out of sight and out of ear shot before he jumped up in
the air and whooped in excitement. “I’m
free!” He yelled excitedly, ignoring the strange looks from people walking
by. “Time to get drunk and celebrate.”
(The Next Morning)
The first rays of sunlight streamed through the
window and JC buried his head in his pillow.
His head was throbbing and his tongue felt incredible furry. He raised his head and slowly opened his
eyes, his pupils fighting against the brightness of the sun. When he became aware of his surroundings, he
sat up in shock.
He wasn’t in his own room.
He felt movement beside him and squeezed his eyes
closed. He prayed that it was Laurie,
but he had a horrible feeling that it wasn’t.
He slowly turned his head to his right and looked down.
It wasn’t Laurie.
But it was a very attractive blonde.
She wasn’t wearing much and her hair was splayed out over her
pillow. JC looked down. He was wearing his boxer briefs, but he
didn’t find that very comforting. He
got out of the bed as quickly as his head would allow him to and frantically
started searching the room for the rest of his clothes. As soon as he found them, he dressed and
left to return to his own room.
“This
isn’t happening,” his mind raced as he opened his door. “Laurie
and I are supposed to be together, I’m not supposed to cheat on her before I
can tell her that Alexandria and I got divorced.” He sat down on his bed
and cradled his head in his hands. “I don’t even remember anything from last
night… maybe nothing happened. God, I
wish I could remember!” His chest felt tight. “There’s no way I would
have cheated on Laurie… I love her too much… I just… I couldn’t have.”
It took him a while to compose himself. He packed the few items that he brought with
him and went downstairs to check out.
He dreaded telling Laurie because he was terrified of losing her again
and something like this just might tear them apart for good. He sighed with resignation and climbed into
the cab that would take him to the airport.
This was the first time in the longest time that he dreaded going home.