Mistake
By: Jessica
Chapter
1
Kristen sat at her desk typing on her computer. She
was a 23-year-old ad executive and loved her work. She glanced up and looked
out the wall of windows of her office. She could see people walking around and
her secretary, Ashley, answering the phone. She then heard her phone beep.
Kristen reached over to hit the intercom button.
“Ms. Davis, Mr. Bass is on line 2.”
“Thanks Ashley.” Kristen picked up the phone and
hit the flashing red button. “Hey handsome! How are you?”
There was a soft laugh on the other end of the
line. “Doing good. How about you?”
“Busy, but that’s normal.”
“Do I need to let you go?” Lance asked as he walked
in his closet, only in a towel.
“No baby, but I can’t talk for long. What are you
doing?”
Lance got a devious grin on his face. “Trying to
find something to wear. Just got out of the shower.” Kristen closed her eyes
picturing this, although, her thoughts were a little dirtier than they should
have been. “Well, I was wondering what time you would be home. I thought maybe
we could hang out with Kelly and Joey tonight.”
“Actually, I hate to do this, but I can’t. They
sprang a last minute business dinner on me. You know how we are trying to get
the Perma Lash account. Well, the CEO is sending his ‘number 2 man’ to get a
proposal on magazine ads. I have to go do that tonight, but I’ll call you when
I get in.” Kristen explained all this as she continued typing on her computer.
“Oh, okay. Well, I will probably still be over at
Joey’s then.” The line was quiet for a moment then Lance sighed. “When will you
slow down? I’m finally home for a few months and you seem to be busier than
usual.”
Kristen stopped typing. “I know baby. I’m sorry.
Hopefully, if things go well tonight, then we get the account and it goes to
the ad people. Why don’t we make plans for Saturday? We can just hang out. I’ll
even cook for you. How’s that sound?” She began typing again.
“That’s sounds good. Kris, I…”
“Lance,” Kristen interpreted, “I have to finish
this presentation. I’ll call you tonight. I love you baby! Bye, bye!”
“Bye.” Lance replied unhappily.
Kristen walked into the restaurant with her
portfolio in hand. This was where she always had her business dinners. It was a
nice enough place to impress any client, but had enough lighting to show a
presentation. The maître d' walked Kristen to her normal table. She was only
there for a moment when a voice caught her attention. She stood up to shake the
hand connected to that voice. When she looked up, Kristen was greeted with a
familiar face. “John. Wow! I didn’t know you worked for Perma Lash.”
“I’ve been there for about 8 months. It’s so good
to see you again. It’s been awhile.” John sat down across from her.
“It’s been a year.” Kristen said with a small
laugh. “Did you know you were meeting with me tonight?”
John blushed. “Yeah. They said they wanted to see
the magazine ad prospects and when they told me that you were in charge of
this, I couldn’t let a chance to see you pass me by. I mean, we said we’d try
to be friends afterwards, but instead we never saw each other again.” A moment
of silence passed. “So…did you and Lance end up together?”
“We’ve been together 6 months…You know he’s not the
reason we broke up, right?”
John nodded. “Yeah, I know. I just assumed your
friendship would evolve.” Another moment of silence passed. “So…let’s get
business out of the way so we can continue catching up.” Kristen agreed and
pulled the mockups out to show John. After an hour, Kristen and John had
finished with the discussion on the magazine ads and were laughing and talking
about old times. Then a familiar song began to play. “You know what would be a
perfect end to this great night?” John asked.
“What?”
“We should dance. This is our song, remember.” John
stood up and held out his hand to Kristen. She took it and they went out on the
dance floor. As the song came to an end, Kristen looked up into John’s eyes.
They both were feeling things that they hadn’t felt for each other in a long
time. Caught up in the moment, John began to lean down to kiss Kristen. She met
him half way. The kiss was broken when they next song started.
“Shit! Stop. We can’t do this.” Kristen pulled away
from John.
“Why? What happened?”
“The song.”
John looked confused. “What song? Our song?”
“NO! This song. It’s This I Promise You.
It’s an NSync song. Lance’s group.” Kristen shook her head. “I love Lance. This
was a mistake. I’m sorry.”
“No,” John grabbed her hands. “I’m sorry. I
shouldn’t have let this go that far…Let’s go finish our drinks and then go,
okay?”
“Okay.” Kristen said reluctantly. She and John
walked back to their table.
Steve Fatone and his girlfriend, Tara, were sitting
at a table in a very nice restaurant celebrating her birthday. They both had
very shocked looks on their faces. Steve asked, “Am I seeing what I think I’m
seeing?”
Tara nodded. “I thought Kristen was dating Lance?”
Steve looked confused. “She is, or was, I guess.”
“Then why is she kissing that guy?” Tara glanced
over her shoulder, watching Kristen talk to this guy as, ironically, an NSync
song played.
“I don’t know. What should I do?” Steve asked
trying not to stare at Kristen and this mystery guy as they walked back to
their table.
“Call Joey. He’ll know what to do.” Steve reached
for his cell phone and dialed his brother’s number.
At the Fatone house, Joey, Kelly, and Lance were
watching TV while Brianna slept upstairs. The phone rang and Kelly turned down
the TV’s volume as Joey answered the phone.
“Hello?…Hey Stevo! What’s up? How’s the birthday
dinner going?…Tell Tara ‘Hi!’ and ‘Happy birthday!’ for me…I’m just chillin’
with Kel and Lance…Yeah, he’s here. You want to talk to him?…Oh, okay…Kristen’s
at a business dinner. Why?…Yeah, I think that’s where she always has her
business dinners. Is that where you are?…What?…She what?! Are you
sure?…Wow!…No, you did the right thing…Yeah. I’ll handle things. Thanks man.
Enjoy the rest of your night…Bye!”
Lance looked at Joey confused as he hung up the
phone. “What was that all about? What did Steve say about Kristen?”
Joey sighed. He didn’t like to tell his friend bad
news. Defiantly not about his girl. “Man, we’ve gotta talk.”
Kristen put her key in the front door of her
apartment. As she walked in, she tossed her keys on the table and set her purse
next to them. She thought about the piece of paper John had handed her with his
new number on it that was in her purse. She took it out and threw it away. She
had no use for it. Kristen walked into her bedroom to change clothes. She saw
the light flashing on her answering machine and hit the button to see who was
special enough to call her that night. The machine’s unfeeling voice began to
speak as she changed into her pajamas.
“You have 3 messages. Message 1.”
“Hey Kristy. It’s Mom. I was just wondering if you
still were thinking about coming home for a few days? We’d love to see you. You
should bring Lance. Your dad would like to meet him. Well, call me honey. Love
you!”
“Message 2.”
“Ms. Davis. This is Ashley with your reminder call
that you have an 8 o’clock meeting tomorrow. Also, I have to take my son to the
doctor, so I won’t be in until 10. See you tomorrow and have a good night.”
“Message 3.”
“Hey babe! I know you’re out doing work stuff, but
I just wanted to call and say that I love you. I was thinking about maybe
having a picnic on Saturday. How’s that sound to you? Call me and we’ll make
plans, okay? I love you!”
Kristen just smiled as she grabbed for her phone.
She loved Lance and was glad to be with him. Nights like tonight proved that to
her. Granted, she slipped up with John, but she knew she felt nothing for him
now. What she felt on that dance floor for a split second was nothing compared
to how just thinking of Lance, hearing one of his songs, or smelling someone
with his cologne on made her feel. As she began to dial the all too familiar
number to Joey’s house, she heard a knock at her front door. She thought to
herself, “Who would come over this late?” as she hung up the phone to answer
the door. She looked out the peephole and was relieved to see Lance. She opened
the door and said, “I was just about to call you.” Kristen pulled Lance in the
door then wrapped her arms around his neck. “I missed you tonight!” Kristen
then kissed Lance, but he didn’t kiss back. “Lance, what’s wrong?”
“Where were you tonight?” Lance asked almost
emotionless.
“I told you. I had a business dinner. Why?”
“With who?” Lance stepped away from Kristen.
She closed her eyes. Kristen knew Lance wouldn’t be
happy when he found out who. He had hated John when Kristen and John were
together. He treated her bad and she was always running to Lance to have a
shoulder to cry on. “Well, with John actually. He’s the guy from Perma Lash
that I had to show the ads to.” Kristen sat down on her couch, hoping that
Lance would follow suit.
“You had dinner with your ex! You can’t just cheat
on me with a normal guy. You choose to do it with your ex.” Lance yelled.
“Cheat on you? What are you talking about?”
“Steve was there. He saw you kiss some guy on the
dance floor.”
Kristen took a deep breath and though “Oh crap!”
She grabbed Lance’s hands and said, “It’s not what you think. I…”
Lance interrupted her as he ripped his hands out of
Kristen’s. “Did you have dinner with John?”
“Lance, it was…”
“Yes or no!” Anger flared in his eyes.
Kristen looked down at the floor. “Yes.”
“Did you kiss him?”
“Yes, but…”
“But nothing. I thought you two were through. It’s
been like a year. But I guess not…You know what? You can have him. I’m
leaving.” A single tear slid down his hot cheek as he opened the door and
walked out.
Kristen yelled after him, but could tell he wasn’t
listening. She let out a sign and shut the door to her apartment. She couldn’t
believe what had just happened. She sat down on her couch with a numb feeling
in her chest. Kristen looked over at a picture of her and Lance on the beach at
Justin’s house. She was in a bikini, the first time she had worn one in years,
and Lance was obviously sun burnt. They looked so happy and in love at that
moment. Then the numb feeling in her chest was turned into a sharp pain.
Kristen cried as she grabbed for the picture and held it close. She ended up
crying herself to sleep.
Lance was moping around Joey’s house. He basically
hadn’t left since he had confronted Kristen. It was a beautiful Saturday and
Kelly was in the backyard playing with Brianna. Joey had watched his friend be
miserable for long enough. He felt he had to talk to Lance about what happened.
“Hey, Lance, you wanna go shoot some hoops?”
“No.”
“You wanna take Brianna to the zoo with me?”
“No.”
“You wanna call Kristen and work all this out?”
Joey sat down next to his friend.
Lance sighed. “She’s the one that cheated on me.”
“I know, but have you even listened to her side of
the story? Maybe it’s all a big misunderstanding.”
“She said she kissed him. What didn’t I understand
about that? Besides, she isn’t even trying to fix things. Why should I?” Lance
crossed his arms over his chest.
“Are you full of shit?” Joey stood up in front of
Lance. “She tried to call you the next day, giving you both time to cool down.
Plus she keeps calling here trying to get me to mediate between you two. Get
your head out of your ass and call her. You love her too much to not give her a
chance to explain.” Lance just glared at Joey, then got up and walked outside
to play with Brianna.
Joey shook his head, then grabbed for the phone.
“I’m not going to let you ruin a good thing, Lance.” Joey dialed Kristen’s
number and was greeted with a tired voice. “Kristen. Hey! It’s Joey…How are you
doing?…Yeah, I know. I was wondering if you would like to come over and have
dinner with Kelly and me tonight?…No, he won’t be here…Come on. We’d love to
see you…Please…Good, come over in like an hour, okay?…Bye!”
After a little while, the doorbell rang. This came
as a surprise to Lance and Kelly. Joey jumped up to answer it. When he
reentered the living room, Kristen was right behind him.
“What is he/she doing here?” both Lance and Kristen
said in unison.
“I know that I tricked you guys, but you two need
to work this out. Let’s go into the kitchen.” Joey began to push Kristen. Lance
protested as Joey grabbed him by the shirt and drug him in the kitchen.
“I don’t want to talk to her. I have nothing to
say.”
Kristen sat down on a stool at the bar. “Well, I do
and you’re gonna listen whether you wan to or not.”
Joey shrugged. “Please, both of you talk this out.
I know you care too much about each other to just let this sit. When you are
done, we’ll have dinner.” Joey walked out of the kitchen hoping that they would
talk everything out.
Lance sat down on a stool next to Kristen, but
didn’t look at her. Neither said anything for a few minutes. Kristen broke the
silence by saying, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“What? Get caught?” Lance retorted.
“Grow up. Yes, I kissed him. I shouldn’t have, but
I did. I don’t feel anything for him. It was a mistake. We got caught up in a
moment. I’m sorry.” Kristen put her head in her hands trying her best not to
cry in front of Lance.
Lance snapped, “Did you get the account?”
“Yes, but we had it all but secured before the meeting.”
“So, the dinner was for nothing? Was it so you
could just meet up with John?”
Kristen sighed. “The dinner was the final thing. I
didn’t even know I was having dinner with John. He heard I was doing the
account and chose to meet with me.”
“Then, how’d you end up making out with him?” Lance
asked angrily.
“Shit, Lance. I didn’t make out with him. I kissed
him once and when I realized what was happening, I stopped it.” Kristen sighed
again then started from the beginning of the night telling Lance everything.
“So, I threw his number away. I don’t even know why I took it to begin with.
Then, you came over. I’m sorry this happened and I’m sorry you found out the
way you did. I didn’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt you. I love you.”
They sat in silence for a few moments. “Well, I guess that’s not enough. I’m
leaving.” Kristen said as she shrugged her shoulders. She stood up and began to
walk out of the room.
“Kris, stop.” Lance’s voice cracked. “Come here.”
He held out his hands. Kristen let out a soft sob as she fell into his embrace.
“I’m still not happy…but I forgive you.”
“Thank you!” Kristen looked up into Lance’s eyes.
She leaned in to kiss him, but he put a finger over her lips.
“I’m not kissing you until you disinfect.” Lance
said with a smile. “I don’t want to get John’s germs.” Lance softly laughed as
Kristen punched him in the arm. She then grabbed his face and kissed him.
The End
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