Chapter 10

               

                Meghan blinked her eyes open.  She could see the moonlight come in through the large window she was facing.  That was odd.  She always closed her curtains especially to get in those few minutes more of sleep.  But now that she thought about it, she didn’t even remember getting in bed last night.  In fact, as she glimpsed down at her body under the covers, she apparently hadn’t thought of getting changed either; she still wore the same thing she’d worn when she’d met with Chris.  Another thing she realized she couldn’t explain, was the arm surrounding her body.

                Wait.  An arm surrounding her body?  That was definitely not usually there when she woke up.  To tell the truth, Meghan could barely remember the last time she’d woken up with an arm around her and that relationship had ended so badly, that she wasn’t sure she wanted a new arm around her.

                She tried to slowly bring back some recollection of what had happened the night before, but all she could remember was helping Chris with something, and then, an odd dream where she and her current employer were working for Captain Kangaroo.  Though she couldn’t piece together the previous night, she was starting to notice things about the moment.

                Meghan could feel a warm body pressed against her, almost every inch of his front touching every inch of her back . . .  and she could definitely tell that it was a male.  She could also feel his warm breath beating against the skin of her neck, just as she felt his heart beating against her almost in the same rhythm as her own.  It probably would have been in unison with the beat of hers, if her pulse hadn’t accelerated at the discovery that she was not sleeping in her own bed and that someone was sleeping with her.

                Her first instinct should probably have been to leap out of the bed, find out who she was sleeping with and where they were sleeping, and how she had gotten there, but for some reason, her morning groggy mind did not think that was the best course of actions.  Instead, she began to gently turn under the arm of her bedmate so she would be able to see them clearly.

                Once she was on her back, the arm still securely around her and the man next to her a heavy enough sleeper that he hadn’t noticed any movement from her, she dared to slowly open her eyes and find out if she was in serious trouble, or only in an awkward situation.  Her top teeth worried her bottom lip as she opened first the right eye, and then the left.  She let out an unexpected sigh of relief when she realised she was sleeping next to Chris.  That wasn’t so bad, in fact, it was quite comfortable.

                Before she could realise what she was doing, Meghan turned again, this time facing her body toward Chris.  She had forgotten how nice it was to wake up next to a warm body either keeping her warm or simply making her feel safe or grounded with an arm around her waist.  She peered over his shoulder to see what time it was on the clock resting on the night table.  Three-twenty-six a.m. They didn’t have to be anywhere for quite a while.

                She plopped her head down on the pillow when she realized they weren’t going to be late for anything.  Meghan knew she should get out of the bed, make her way to her own room and then sleep in her own bed, but when she’d let her head fall, she’d gotten a smell of Chris’ scent as he slept. He smelled of aftershave and sweat and sleep.  He smelled like a man in bed and Meghan loved it.  Before she could realize what she was doing, she snuggled closer to him and buried her face in his neck.

                It would be hours before either of them would wake.  Chris would wake first and look down at Meghan snuggled against him.  He would watch her as she quietly slept until either his gaze or the sunlight coming through the window would wake her.  They would stare silently at each other for a few minutes, then Meghan would hug him, give him a peck on the cheek and leave the room quietly.  Chris would lay in bed for fifteen minutes wondering what had just happened, before the wake-up call he’d asked for would remind him that he had to get ready for another very busy day.

 

                “Yeah, well I think that if we do the last twist a little faster-” Justin’s thought was interrupted by a fist whizzing past his face and crashing against the wall inches in front of him.  He didn’t flinch, though the man he was talking to jumped back drastically.  “Hi Brady.”

                “Justin,” Brady offered in a tone of voice that suggested the younger man should watch what he had to say.  Justin, was well aware that Brady would do absolutely nothing to him.

                “Sleep well?” he asked, giving his previous interlocutor a cursory nod of farewell.

                “Sure, how about you?  How did you sleep,” Justin opened his mouth to answer, but Brady decided to add a little jab to the question, “without my sister in the bed?”

                “Man, you’re her brother, you shouldn’t be thinking about that kind of stuff.”  He moved so his back was against the wall, leaning comfortably.  He had a feeling he wasn’t going to get to leave the room quietly until Brady had made whatever point he thought was so immensely important.

                “Cute, so seriously, what’s going on?”  If Justin hadn’t known Brady so well, he might have been intimidated by the man who had just finished his training as a police officer and most likely knew at least a dozen ways to take Justin down.  Brady, however, had always liked Justin and the two had become quite close on Justin’s first visit to the house when Sam’s parents had pretty much ignored Justin and Sam hadn’t noticed.

                “It’s nothing to worry about man,” Justin offered, though he didn’t move to keep Brady from having to throw him back against the wall if he decided he wasn’t done.

                “It is something to worry about,” Brady insisted, “she’s not happy.”

                “We’re just having issues with this whole your parents not liking me thing. I’m trying though, Brady.  I mean, I did fly you guys out here didn’t I?”

                “And I’m sure that was a horrible trial for you.  Now, try spending time with us,” Brady interrupted Justin before any words could escape his opening mouth, “with all of us, including my parents, and maybe it’ll actually look like you’re making a real effort.”

                Justin didn’t have anything to answer the comment, but it didn’t matter much, because Brady was already leaving the room.

 

                “Whatcha doing?”  Joey asked as he plopped himself down next to JC on the couch.

                “Reading,” JC answered with a sceptical look.  It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy seeing Joey in a good mood, but the Joey that he was being confronted with at the moment was more than happy, he was giddy.  A giddy Joey often meant trouble.  “What are you doing?”

                “Nothing,” Joey answered with a grin that suggested his nothing was definitely something.

                “Really?  Then why are you so happy?”  JC questioned as he bookmarked the page he had reached in his book.  Something told him he wouldn’t be reading much more of it that night.

                “I’m just happy man.  What, is that against the law?”  Joey asked, though his tone wasn’t even mildly irritated, which only made JC wonder why exactly Joey was being so sweet to him.

                “You want something don’t you?”  JC asked, moving the book out of his lap now so he could give his full attention to Joey.

                “What?  Me?”  Joey had stopped being able to pull off the innocent look a long time ago.

                “What do you want Joey?”  JC insisted.

                “You know what?  You are right.  I am happy.”  Joey decided he’d rather change topics than plunge headfirst in the direction JC was headed.  “Don’t you want to know why?”

                “Delaying your demand or suckering me slowly into it?”  JC asked.  He shook his head before Joey could answer.  “Fine man, what are you so happy about?”

                “Kelly’s coming to the awards next week,” Joey answered, throwing out his arms as though he was announcing some great prize JC had just won.

                “If,” JC prodded.

                “There is no if, she is definitely coming to this thing,” Joey reported with a grin that told JC that was most certainly not the end of the story.

                “That’s great Joe,” he said cautiously, waiting for the attack he knew was coming.

                “Yep, so Kelly and I can have some nice quiet, romantic time together where I can find out why she was a little weird the last time I went out.”

                “That sounds great Joe,” JC said, starting to reach out for his book, “you and Kelly should really get the night off and-”

                “If,” Joey interrupted, and JC groaned in response, leaving the book where it was.  He’d almost been convinced that Joey really did just want to share some good news with him.  Apparently, that wasn’t true.  “If, we can find someone to watch Brianna while we’re, um, being romantic.”

                JC scrunched his nose at the not-so-subtle metaphor.  “I’m sure one of the hair or make-up girls will watch her, don’t they all go insane when they see her?”

                “They sure do,” Joey admitted, “and they’re completely cool to watch her for the duration of the show.  But for an overnight?  Kelly does not leave her child in the hands of anyone for the night.  Mind you I don’t either, but it would really be convincing Kelly about this one that would be hard.”

                “And?”  JC asked, knowing Joey wasn’t just sharing his problems to get them off his chest.

                “Well, she trusts you and Christalee.  I mean, you guys have baby-sat Bri overnight before, haven’t you?”

                “Yeah,” JC said sceptically.

                “And you wouldn’t mind baby-sitting Bri again, would you?” Joey asked with what could almost be seen as a pout on his lips.

                “Well, no but,” JC started.

                “But what?”

                “Well, you know how Tee and I are after big shows,” JC said quietly.

                “I know, but you guys can get freaky anytime.  I barely ever see Kelly . . .  my wife . . .  the mother of my child,” Joey said, lowering his voice in pity with every word.

                “All right, stop.  I’ll ask Tee and we both know she’ll say yes and then we’ll watch Bri after the show.”

                “Yeah,” Joey said, waving his fists in the air in cheer.

                “Sure, sure,” JC answered, though he couldn’t fight the smile that was tugging at his lips.

                “Thanks man, don’t worry, I’ll buy you and Lee something to make up for it.”

                “Yeah, whatever, just enjoy the time man.  I’m making a big sacrifice for you,” JC said, already returning his attention to his book.

 

                “Hmm,” Leslie said as she sat down next to Chris at the table.

                “Hmm what?”  Chris asked, noticing the look, that though not quite hostile, suggested Leslie had reason to attack at any moment.

                “Oh, I was just thinking...” she trailed off, playing with the cutlery in front of her.

                “Thinking of what?”  Chris prodded, fully aware that he was walking straight into some kind of trap.

                “Well, I woke up last night-”

                “Aren’t you sleeping all right?”  Chris asked immediately, cutting Leslie off.  “Are you okay?  Do you need a different bed?  A different room?”

                “No, I’m fine really, that’s not the problem,” Leslie answered.

                “There’s a problem?” Chris automatically questioned.

                “Well,” Leslie said slowly, loving the anxious look on Chris’ face that she knew would fade as soon as he heard what she had to say, “when I woke up last night - for no other reason than because I happened to wake up - I didn’t happen to see my cousin in the bed next to mine.  Odd, don’t you think?”

                “Yeah, um, odd,” Chris stuttered as he blushed to the tip of his ears.  Leslie watched him as he ducked his head and became immensely concentrated on the bowl of cereal in front of him.

                “So, do you happen to know where your employee was last night Christopher?” she asked.

                “Okay, that just sounds dirty,” Chris whined.

                “I know,” Leslie smiled as she speared her fork through a piece of honeydew melon.

                “You’re mean,” Chris answered.

                “Whatever, anyway, did you have fun?” she asked.

                “We fell asleep while working Leslie, that’s all.  There was nothing to enjoy,” he said before stuffing his mouth with a spoonful of what turned out to be mostly milk.

                “Nothing?  Not even a little bit of enjoyment?  Come on, who else are you going to gush to?” Leslie queried.

                “Fine, but don’t think you just get to receive answers, I’ll be asking questions after, got it?”  Leslie nodded though she wasn’t sure what exactly he would question her about. “It was nice, she fell asleep on my arm and we ended up kind of cuddling during the night and it was... it was just nice, all right?”

                “You’re so cute,” Leslie said with a small smirk.

                “Yeah, you know what else is cute?”  Chris asked with the starting of a smile that Leslie absolutely did not have confidence in.

                “What?” she asked wearily.

                “Seeing you walk out of Lance’s room really early in the morning and still in your pyjamas, now that, is really cute.  Priceless even.”

                It was Leslie’s turn to blush as the comment sunk in.  She’d left while Lance was still asleep that morning, not because she didn’t want to see him, but mostly because she thought that after waking him up in the middle of the night and crying on his shoulder, the least she could do was let him sleep a little later than her internal clock allowed her to sleep.  She quickly realized that the effort had been useless however, when she’d come out of her room after a shower and a change of clothes, and seen Lance heading what would most easily be dubbed as the “playroom” of the floor.

                “Are you sure it was me?” she asked tentatively.

                “Yes I am,” Chris told her, “and if I hadn’t been, that cute little blush that just invaded your cheeks would have been proof enough for me.  So what’s up with those musical beds?  Did you sleep in Lance’s room last night?”

                Leslie looked at him sceptically, as though she was trying to determine how much she could really trust him with.

                “You won’t tell Meghan will you?”

                “Not if I can help it,” he answered truthfully, omitting the fact that he could rarely stop himself from telling Meghan everything if only to make conversation when she was around him.

                “Well, lately, I’ve been having these, like, well, nightmares,” Leslie began, only to quickly be interrupted by Chris.

                “Nightmares?  Bad ones?  Do they keep you up?  Are you getting enough sleep?”  She wondered how many more questions he would be able to fire off, but covered his mouth with her hand, not really wanting to hear all the queries he would be able to come up with.

                “That didn’t happen to be the end of my story.  Are you done?” she asked.  He nodded, fully aware that she wouldn’t continue the story until he did.  “They’re not all that bad but they freak me out personally and after I wake from one of them, I end up tossing and turning for the rest of the night.  Usually, the fact that I can hear Meg’s breathing from the next bed somewhat calms down my nerves and I can at least relax a little, but yesterday when I woke up, well, I couldn’t hear her breathing, so my nerves were on edge forever.”

                “Sorry,” Chris mumbled, knowing that it was his fault Meghan hadn’t made it back to her room that night.  He may not have forced her to fall asleep, but she would probably have expected him to wake her up if she ever did fall asleep next to him.  Of course, she hadn’t seemed all that angry when she woke to find herself in his arms.

                “It’s not your fault,” Leslie quickly reassured, barely even grazing the subject.  “Anyway, I just couldn’t lay there, scared of the dark or whatever, so I decided that maybe a walk would help me clear my mind.  I don’t know how, but somehow, I ended up in Lance’s room and I just burst in tears on the poor guy again and then I guess I fell asleep.”

                “You like him,” Chris teased, his fingers prodding at her side that was closest to him.

                “He’s a nice guy,” Leslie answered, her cheeks burning even more than at her original embarrassment.

                “Yeah but you like him like him,” Chris continued, almost chanting the words, “you want Lance.  You’re hot for his body. You-”

                “All right,” Leslie interrupted as one of her hands firmly clasped itself atop his mouth again, “that’s enough, I get the picture thank you very much.”

                “But you do, don’t you?  You like Lance.  I mean, you barely let other guys touch you, let alone hold you when you’re sobbing and stuff.”

                “I don’t know what I feel,” she answered soberly.

                “I think he’d be good for you,” Chris offered.

                “Yeah, well, that doesn’t mean he thinks I’d be good for him,” Leslie answered morosely, and if Chris had had any doubts that she might have the semblance of a crush on Lance, it all disappeared with that short, desperate sentence.

                “Sure he does Les, I mean, he let you in last night didn’t he?” Chris asked, first nudging Leslie’s side, and then when he noticed that that did nothing to encourage her, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder in some kind of gesture of support. “He let you cry on his shoulder all night, right?”

                “That’s just cause he felt sorry for me Chris,” Leslie answered, and Chris could hear the tears in her voice just as he could feel her tensing slightly at the contact he’d established, “what was he supposed to do, kick the sobbing girl out of his room?”

                “Well what happened this morning?” Chris asked, hoping he could find something in the morning’s events to convince her that Lance truly did like her as much as he suspected the green-eyed singer did.

                “I don’t know.  I mean, I left before he woke up.  I figured he’d want his sleep since he never gets it and he looked so peaceful that I couldn’t bare to wake him,” Leslie mumbled, her voice low as though the fact that she hadn’t woken Lance was something shameful.

                “That’s fine Les, listen, let’s not worry about anything yet okay? Just at least wait to see what it’s like when you two see each other this morning.  All right?” Chris asked.  He would have searched his mind for something more encouraging, but he’d seen over Leslie’s right shoulder that Lance had just entered the room, and by the way the man’s eyes flowed with concern at the sight of Leslie needing some kind of support, a fact he noticed from across the room, reassured him that Lance had not kept the girl in his room simply because he didn’t want to turn away a crying girl.

                “Listen,” Chris told Leslie, “you stay here.  I just want to get some more orange juice, and I’ll be right back.”

                Leslie nodded, only half listening to what Chris was telling her.  He slid out of the booth they had been sharing leaving his empty glass behind. Slowly, he approached Lance who gave him a confused look that was clearly asking if everything was alright with Leslie. Before any words could come out of his mouth, however, Chris gave him a wink and slapped his palm against Lance’s back, gently pushing him in Leslie’s direction.

                “Hey,” Lance said softly, already aware that his voice, his presence, would scare her from her thoughts though he hadn’t tried to be particularly quiet.  She jumped when she felt his hand on the small of her back, first applying a little pressure then slowly rubbing in soothing circles.

                “Hi,” she answered.  Her voice came out small and weak.  She didn’t want her voice to be so scared, but she was absolutely terrified of the situation and how he was making her feel.

                “Are you all right? You kind of looked, um, well like you needed someone when I got here.  Well, you had someone, Chris, but, well, he left, so, um . . .  Are you okay?” It took him a while to decide what exactly he wanted to say, and when he had said it, he wasn’t nearly satisfied with what came out.

                “Yeah, I just . . .  long night, you know?” She offered him the tiniest smile, and somehow, from just that gesture, he knew that whatever was bothering her was about him.

                “Did I do something wrong?” he immediately asked.

                “Huh? No, it’s just . . .  not enough sleep I guess,” she told him, biting the inside of her cheek in some kind of punishment for not telling him the truth.

                “Well, maybe you’ll sleep better tonight.  Right?” Before Lance was done his sentence, he’d wrapped his arms around her body and pulled her toward him.

                “Yeah, maybe,” she answered as her head leaned against his shoulder and she let out a content sigh.

 

                “Honey, you aren’t going to eat that are you?”

                Sam turned her head toward her mother.  She had been starting off into space, wondering where Justin was, what he was doing, if he had slept as horribly as she had . . .  the last thing she was thinking about was what she’d decided to stack onto her breakfast plate.  Now that she looked down however, she was met with the same thing she usually ate. Scrambled eggs, bacon and toast were what she ate every morning.

                “What’s wrong with my breakfast?” she asked, all too aware that she didn’t really want to hear whatever her mother would find faulty in her dietary choice.

                “That can’t be good for you dear.  Why don’t you get some fruit in you, what you have there is full of cholesterol.  You know Alex?  The boy you used to date, well he’s a doctor now and he told your father and I that we needed to completely revamp our diets if we wanted to make it passed sixty.  That’s something to think about there, isn’t it dear?”

                Samantha let her mother babble on as her eyes travelled the room.  Her breath caught in her throat when she saw Justin come into the room with Chris.  She hadn’t even seen him since he’d sent her on the errand of picking her parents up from the airport, and she had momentarily forgotten the butterflies that always appeared in her stomach when she saw him.

                He was everything she wanted, and at the moment, because of some stupid little fight, she couldn’t have him.  She had to watch him from across the room as he laughed and joke with Chris about something that was probably ridiculous.  Samantha kept her eyes trained on him as he moved, she ignored her mother’s nagging voice, her father’s grunt of approvals every now and then and the way her brother had stiffened when Justin had entered the room.

                She froze when his eyes turned in her direction and made contact with her own gaze. He gave her a slow and somewhat uncertain smile, then headed toward the breakfast buffet.  Sam hated that they were fighting.  She hated that he’d gone in the other direction when he’d seen her, hated that he hadn’t rushed to say hello, hated that his smile had been unsure what her reaction would be, and even worse, she hated that she hadn’t slept next to him the night before.

                Her head lowered and she looked at the food in her plate, pushing it back and forth.  Her appetite was somewhat diminished from what it had originally been.

                “Honey, you shouldn’t play with your food.  Would you like me to get you an orange instead?” her mother asked.

                “She can have mine,” a voice behind Sam offered.  She turned in surprise at the sound.  Justin smiled down at her and put the orange that had been on his tray, next to Sam’s plate.  She paused for a moment, looking first intently at Justin, then at the orange he had set on her plate.

                “Thanks,” she whispered, unsure at what exactly was happening.  He had known her temper and stayed away from her for the past few days.  What had finally decided him that he could come back to her now?

                “Not a problem,” he told her as he planted a kiss on her forehead.

                “Good morning Justin,” Brady greeted from his spot next to Sam.

                “Hey man.  How’s it going?” Justin asked, placing the extra glass of juice he’d picked up next to Sam’s plate as well.

                “Not bad.  What’s up with you?  Hectic day?” Sam looked between them as though they were in some kind of tennis match.  She had the distinct feeling there was something going on that she was not aware of.

                “Nah, not really,” he said, bringing a forkful of food to his mouth as his arm automatically slid around Sam’s shoulder. “What are you all up to?”

                Sam’s mom pinched her lips as she listened to Justin talk.  She didn’t know what the boy was up to, but it was sure he had some kind of ulterior motive to the comfortable conversation he was trying to create.

                “Um, I don’t know.  I think we were just going to check out a mall or something this afternoon.  We don’t have anything big planned.”

                “Cool,” Justin said as he tossed what was left of his toast onto Sam’s plate.  In return, he took the crusts she had left from her own piece of bread.  The couple usually ate together, and their meals were almost what could be considered a tag team effort.  Sam would prepare their plates while Justin got their juice then they would sit together where Justin would eat their crusts and Sam would eat the middle part of the bread.  The routine was so inculcated in their brains, that Sam had forgotten to get herself juice that morning until Justin had brought it to her.

                Brady bit back a smile as he chewed his food.  He wasn’t sure what Justin was doing, but he could bet it was a step in the right direction.  The boy had definitely thrown his sister for a loop and if the determined look in his eyes meant anything, he wasn’t going to let her go without a fight, whether he had to fight to show her they belonged together or fight to get his family to accept him.  Brady was happy to see that.

                “Let me know before you go out.  There are some pretty cool malls just the next town over and it’s a really small place.  I can probably tag along depending on where you go and my afternoon is pretty light.”

                “Um, sure we can probably do that,” Sam hesitantly answered, not quite sure what was going on.  She was happy that Justin was making an effort with her family and she was ecstatic that his arm was wrapped around her after the long night she had just had to go through without him, but things just weren’t adding up.  Justin usually avoided her family like the plague, and Sam had been sure at their surprise arrival, that she would not be spending any time with Justin until they left.

                “Either way though, I made reservations for all of us for supper, so don’t worry about that,” he smiled at her parents.  It was the smile that could make countless little girls scream and older women want to remind themselves of how old the person behind the smile really was.  Sam’s parents didn’t look impress.  Sam’s right eyebrow rose at the comment.  And Brady tried hard not to laugh.

 

                “So do you often get days off like this?” Leslie asked as she let her body fall back onto the bed.

                “Not really.  Usually we have to do at least one interview or something, but today, we are off.  Yeah!” Lance added as he chuckled.  Leslie laughed with him quietly.

                “And what are you going to do with an entire day off Mr. Bass?” she asked.  Her fingers played with the papers he had strewn on the bed.  She hadn’t seen Lance since breakfast and when curiosity as to what he was doing got the best of her, she went to his room to find out.  She tried to ignore the voice in her head that told her this was something she would not regularly do, and just went with the flow.

                “Well, I was going to go through a bunch of paperwork for Happy Place and FreeLance, but then I started and I realized there isn’t all that much.  Somehow, I managed to keep myself almost completely up-to-date.  Imagine that.”

                She giggled at his wonder.  “Well, with the kind of schedule you keep yourself on, I’m not surprised.  I mean, do you ever go five minutes without your palm pilot?”

                “Hey, don’t diss the schedule, it’s what’s giving me almost the entire day off.”  He sat next to her as he pulled some socks on his feet.  He didn’t know why he had been embarrassed at her finding him in jeans and an old T-shirt, especially after they had slept together in ratty old pyjamas the night before, but the situation had made him feel underdressed and while he didn’t want to excuse himself to change entirely without a logical explanation, he did feel the need to at least pop some socks onto his feet.

                “So what are you doing today?  What’s your cousin up to?”

                “I don’t know what I’m doing today.  Meg is helping Chris out with some stuff that they’re apparently behind on, but I’m not sure I believe her,” Leslie answered casually, as if not believing her cousin wasn’t a big thing.

                “What do you mean you don’t believe her?  You think she’s lying to you?” Lance asked with raised eyebrows as he surfed through TV stations.

                “Oh no, not that she’s lying to me.  I just think that she’s exaggerating to herself,” she said casually, snatching the remote from his hand to stop the constant channel flicking.

                “Huh?” Lance asked, cringing when he saw his own face appear on the television.  He reached for the remote to change it to anything else, but Leslie having seen his reaction decided that there was absolutely no way she was letting him change so soon.

                “Look, Meghan might not want to admit it, and Chris might not want to admit it to Meghan, but those two have it bad for each other.  I don’t really understand how they’re not together yet.  I mean, you hang around them and there’s enough sexual tension to power a small country.” He laughed at her analogy, but let her continue since it didn’t look like she was quite ready to stop. “I just, you know, wish they’d get together already.  They might not know it, but they’re both lonely right now and they could really use each other.”

                “Yeah,” Lance answered, wondering if he was in the same situation or if Leslie didn’t like him as much as Meghan liked Chris.  He for one, knew that he was absolutely not going to lay it on the line and tell her how he felt.  “So, what are you going to do today?”

                “Oh, I don’t know.  I’ve never been here before, so what is there to do?” she asked, finally changing the channel and not missing the sigh of relief that came from the man sitting beside her.

                “Well, there’s,” he paused to think about it for a minute.  “You know, I’ve never actually really explored the city, so I have absolutely no idea what there is to do.”

                “Are you not allowed?” she asked, pulling her eyes away from the television to look at him.

                “Nah, it’s not that.  I guess we’re just usually busy when we’re around here,” he used the fact that she was paying so much attention to what he was saying, and little to what he was doing, to snatch the remote out of her hands.

                “Well then,” she said, taking back the remote to shut the television off and throw it to the ground, “we’re just going to have to change that.”

 

                “Why do you look so happy?” Christalee asked as she caught up to Joey in the hallway.  She’d watched him walk right past her with the biggest grin ever on his face and she couldn’t resist but find out where it originated from.

                “Because I am,” he told her with a beaming smile.  He reached out and brought her against his body for a great big hug.  He released her, gave her another smile, then brought her in for another hug.

                “What is up with you?  Come on, spill . . . ” her voice started to whine because she knew that if there was one thing that Joey always gave in to, it was the sound of someone whining.  She hoped for his sake that Brianna wouldn’t find that out too soon.

                “I’m just really happy,” he told her, loving the way the suspense was obviously nagging at her.  Finally, he couldn’t hold it in any longer.  “Kelly’s coming to the show next week.”

                “Was she not going to come?” Christalee asked.  She’d been so wrapped up in the drama swirling around herself and JC that she’d almost forgotten that there was still a world outside of them.

                “Nah, she had . . .” Joey paused as he thought about how to phrase his next sentence.  He was all too well aware that Kelly had been making excuses when she told him the reasons she couldn’t come to the show and he didn’t want to have to tell Christalee that.  “She had her reason.”

                “I can understand that,” Christalee said with a nod as she walked through the door Joey was holding open for her.

                “You can?” Joey asked confused, since he himself didn’t understand the reasoning behind Kelly’s actions.

                “Of course.  I don’t even know if I would have come if I were her.  I mean, just look at how I reacted to me and JC.”  She shrugged her shoulders, completely oblivious to the fact that Joey was hanging on her every word.

                “Yeah but, you guys are completely different.  The media knows about Kelly and me and they have for a while.  She hasn’t had to worry about them finding out for a while now.”  He stuffed his hands in his pockets figuring Lee wouldn’t apparently have anything to reveal to him.

                “Sure, but still it’s kind of the same thing,” she told him. “I know how much Kelly hated the media to start with because she knew she wasn’t the typical pop star’s girlfriend.  And now after Brianna . . . ”

                “Kelly is the perfect pop star’s girlfriend.  Anyway, she’s perfect for me and that’s all that matters,” Joey said, getting defensive for his girlfriend even though he knew that Christalee would never talk badly about Kelly.  The two were practically best friends from hanging in the background of the guys’ lives together.

                “I know that and you know that, but try telling the media to ignore the fact that she isn’t a size two or whatever.  Kelly knows what they say about her and if she was insecure about it before, I’m sure having a kid didn’t help.”

                “You really think she feels that way?” Joey asked her.

                Christalee looked up, finally realizing that Joey wasn’t aware of anything she was telling him.  Kelly had told her about her fears in secret and she felt slightly bad for having carelessly revealed them.  On the other hand, if there was someone who could make Kelly feel better about the situation, it was Joey.  Maybe him finally knowing what was going on wouldn’t be all that bad of a thing.

                “I know she feels this way Joe.  We’ve talked about it before.”  She rubbed her hand up and down his back in what she hoped would feel like a soothing gesture.

                “She thinks she’s not good enough for me?” he asked, his voice low as it caught in his throat.

                “Not exactly, she just, she knows that the people who don’t know her think she’s not good enough for you and that can freak her out.  Plus she’s a little worried that-” Christalee bit her lip as she decided whether or not she should continue.  She knew Kelly had told her these things in confidentiality and she knew that she wouldn’t appreciate the message being passed on to Joey.  But on the other hand, he had a right to know, and if anyone could make Kelly feel better about the situation, it was Joey.

                “Huh,” was all Joey could think to answer, realizing how blind he had been not to notice it. The situation must have been worse than Christalee thought, but some of the things that had happened during his time at home started to make sense.  The fact that she would close the light before coming to bed, the fact that she was always covered up even when they were alone, and the fact that she had jumped every time he tried to touch her or move away some of the fabric that covered her skin . . .  it all started to make sense.

                “But it’s great that you convinced her to come,” Christalee encouraged.

                “Yeah,” Joey answered absent-mindedly as his mind drifted out, searching for a way to make Kelly see how silly her fears were.

 

                Justin’s eyes loomed around as they walked past more shops than they explored.  He wasn’t quite sure how he’d done it, but somehow he’d convinced everyone that he would be fine going out with Sam and her family for the day.  Sure, this meant they had two huge men following them, but still, he was there and it showed a great effort on his part.

                What was bothering him the most however, was the fact that he wasn’t sure his efforts had been worth it.  Sure, he understood Brady when he said that Justin had to show some kind of effort to get along with Sam’s parents, but so far on the trip Sam’s parents hadn’t spoken a word to him, and Sam wasn’t much more chatty.  In fact, she was being dragged from one store to the other by her mother without much hope of her having time for a quick chat with Justin.

                Brady had been somewhat encouraging.  He’d at least spoken to Justin and every now and then when he knew his parents were being particularly annoying, he would nudge his sister’s boyfriend in the side or roll his eyes.  The gestures may have been slight and seen only by Justin, but the fact that Brady wasn’t ignoring his existence did him a world of good.

                For her part, Sam wasn’t sure what to think.  She had never expected Justin to invite her parents on tour with them, and much less to sacrifice one of his days off to walk around a mall with them.  The only thing that was holding her back from being completely happy with the situation, was the fact that what he was trying to do didn’t seem to be working.  Her parents weren’t even slightly warming up to Justin despite his efforts to build some kind of friendship between them.

                Of course, now that she thought about it, Sam couldn’t really blame Justin for that.  He was trying after all.  He’d taken time out to think about her, then to spend time with them, and now he was trying so hard to be encouraging, start a conversation and just let her parents get to know him.  It wasn’t his fault that they were responding horribly.  In fact, if it was anyone’s fault that there was any tension at all at this point, it was her parents’.

                She sighed as she looked over to her mother who was rambling on about something.  All morning, the woman had been dropping Alex’s name into the conversation, trying to get some kind of reaction either out of Sam or out of Justin.  Now she was talking about some kind of supper she wanted to host to invite a variety of people that Sam was sure she hadn’t seen or thought of in years, and to be perfectly honest with herself, Sam couldn’t care less.

                Her steps became slower and slower until, eventually, she could feel Justin having caught up to her and only a few inches next to her.  After walking next to him for a few seconds without any kind of reaction from his direction, she reached out and grabbed his hand in hers.  She could feel his whole body tense at the contact, not quite sure what he’d done to deserve the gesture.

                He looked down at her with nothing but confusion in his eyes, and she gave him a small tentative smile.  He didn’t say anything, but slightly tightened the grip he had on her hand without any intention of loosening the hold anytime soon.  Brady walked slightly behind them, chuckling to himself at their awkwardness.  They would work things out.

 

                She watched him from the doorway as he talked on the phone.  He’d been talking on the phone when she left the room, and there he was, still doing it.  Christalee slowly walked into the room.  She didn’t want to be too loud and disturb his phone call if it was important, but to be perfectly honest with herself, she did want to distract him enough to get him to put down the phone and pay attention to her.

                JC chuckled at something the person on the other end of the line said, and that was sign enough for her.  If he was joking with whoever he was talking to, then the conversation couldn’t be that important, or at least the very important part must have been over now.  She would have absolutely no issues with him hanging up the phone because of her.

                She walked toward him.  She was slightly distracted when she saw the tabloid on the table displaying a headline that screamed she was actually dating more than one Nsync member, but quickly turned her head away.  She was trying to ignore all that stuff.  It truly didn’t bother her that the entire gullible population of the world might believe that she was or was not cheating on JC.  What bothered her was whether or not JC and the other people in her life believed it.  She could deal with the general public hating her, she just couldn’t handle the people close to her having the same reaction.

                She sat next to JC and he smiled over at her, acknowledging the fact that he knew she was in the room, right there beside him. Christalee smiled back to get him to concentrate on his phone call again.  The quick welcome had not been enough for her however.

                She shifted onto her side so she was looking directly at him.  He was listening intently to whomever was on the other end of the line and didn’t register the movement.  One of Christalee’s fingers reached out and trailed a line from his left ear to his navel.  JC looked over at her with raised eyebrow only to be met with a sickeningly sweet smile that suggested Christalee had absolutely no idea what she was doing to him.

                When he decided she wasn’t going to justify her actions, he returned to his phone call, though with one eye watching her carefully.  Christalee stifled her laugh as she slowly counted in her head, trying at the same time to figure out how long it would take him to relax again.  When he looked away from her and slouched forward slightly, she decided he was relaxed enough.

                Christalee raised her arms over her head as if she was stretching, then stretched out her left leg.  JC ignored the movement and kept talking.  His serenity was soon interrupted however, when instead of tucking her leg back under her body, Christalee pulled it over his lap, then pulled herself up in a sitting position so she was straddling him and able to face him.

                JC bit his lip as he looked up at her.  It was very rare that Christalee was in the kind of mood where she would interrupt his day for attention. In fact, it was very rare that Christalee ever interrupted him.  She was a very mellow girl and barely ever initiated any of their sexual escapades.  If the way her hips were moving against his at the moment was any indication though, she was definitely trying to initiate something.

                He cleared his throat loudly, trying to maintain his composure.  It really wasn’t working and the fact that Christalee was now sucking odd patterns along the skin of his neck really wasn’t helping. In fact, he thought as he shifted his hips to find some kind of comfort, he would be very surprised if she couldn’t feel at this point that she had him right where she presumably wanted him.

                Christalee heard his voice squeak as she began to unbutton his shirt and just had to smile against his skin.  She knew that this wasn’t her style, that usually she let JC lead, but lately with all the rumours and everything the tabloids had been saying about her, she felt the need for reassurance, for contact with him and for his skin to press hotly against hers as if he would never separate his body from hers.  She needed him to hold her close and tell her that nothing would take her away from him.  Sure, getting it on wasn’t exactly a promise of forever, but when it was with JC, at least it felt like a promise of together.

                JC bit his lip as he watched Christalee look oh so innocent on top of him.  She couldn’t know what she was doing to him.  Sure, she looked like she was in a teasing mood, but if she knew just how good she was at it, she wouldn’t have been perched on top of him as he talked to one of their producers. She was never like this though, and it made him feel so fulfilled to know that she wanted him like this, badly enough to initiate things herself, that there was absolutely no way he was going to stop her.

                He’d wondered if she’d dare ever be forward at all, or let him be forward after they’d gone public.  After all, it was a fear she’d shared with him many times, and for her to simply face it for him was amazing.  He knew she didn’t understand why he’d wanted them to go public, but he did have a very distinct purpose in mind.  And if she kept grinding against him she’d find out what that purpose was way before he was ready to share it with her.

                His head fell backward as she kept moving slightly on top of him. He could not maintain a conversation with her sitting right there like that.  He cleared his throat again and said something into the phone. He wasn’t sure what he said, but it did the trick and the person on the other line soon hung up and let him concentrate on the mass sitting in his lap.

                JC turned off the phone then threw it to the other end of the couch on which he was sitting.  His hands reached out for Christalee’s waist and steadied her, guiding her speed and direction to something he’d like even better, not that she wasn’t doing a fantastic job on her own.

                “Baby?  What are you doing?” he asked her, shifting his hips on the couch and consequently shifting her on top of him.

                “Getting your attention,” she answered innocently.  Her upper body moved down to lean against him and she felt his arms wrap around her in a sweet hug.  She rested her head on his shoulder and breathed in a deep sigh. The serene moment was ruined for her however, when she spotted something on the couch next to him.  Another tabloid lay there, open to an article that talked about her yet again cheating on JC.

                She picked up the offensive piece of paper and looked at the words.  Slowly, Christalee peeled her body away from JC’s to look him in the eye.  He stared at her with confusion, wondering where her happy mood from only a few minutes earlier had gone.

                “Does that bother you?” she asked him softly.

                “The stopping or what you did before you stopped?” he asked her honestly as he shifted again under her, trying to get comfortable with his newly grown member.

                “Neither,” she told him as she shifted to sit beside him instead of on him.  He groaned in protest and held onto one of her legs so that it would drape his lap even after she wasn’t.  She reached over him and picked up the tabloid once again to show him what she was talking about.  “This.”

                “The paper?  I really wasn’t thinking about it all that much right now,” he said as his hand kneaded the skin in her thigh and tugged lightly every now and then as if he were trying to get her back on top of him.  She wasn’t taking the hint.

                “I’m serious JC,” he could tell by both the tone in her voice and the nickname more than by what she said that she wasn’t kidding. Something was bothering her and when something was bothering Christalee, nothing else would penetrate her brain until this situation was solved.

                “All right, let me see,” he took the paper from her and actually looked at it.  He’d sent a quick eye in its direction when their personal relations guru had given it to him with a stern look, still mad that JC had gone public with his relationship without warning him first, then gone along his way.  He hadn’t actually taken the time to read the details, all too aware that it would just make him mad at the world and that that really wasn’t what he needed on his rare day off.

                Christalee chewed on her nails as she watched him.  She wasn’t quite sure what kind of reaction he would have.  He wasn’t the insanely jealous type and she doubted that he would take the word of the paper over hers, but there was always a possibility and she hated that she was even put in this situation to start with.  JC reached over as she worried and pried her hand away from her mouth.  He didn’t care if she chewed her nails or not, but he knew that she only did it when she was nervous and that she actually really hated the habit more than anyone else.

                “Okay, I’ve read it, now what?” he asked her, his hand automatically returned to her thigh when he could finally put the paper down.

                “What do you think?” she asked.

                “I think you shouldn’t have stopped,” he told her, swooping his head down so his lips could suck on the flesh of her neck.

                “I’m serious JC, does that bother you?”

                “You being serious?” he asked.  He wasn’t trying to be difficult or frustrate her, but his mind was definitely not on the conversation and he was having a hard time following her.

                “Does what they say bother you?  It’s like the third one this week or something.”

                “Oh, that,” he looked her in her eyes and saw just how much this really was bothering her.  He brought her close to him and dragged her back on his lap, his arms pressing her against him as he nudged her head onto his shoulder with his own.  “Baby, I really don’t believe anything they say.  I mean, you know how it is, they write this kind of stuff about me all the time.”

                She nodded against him and from the tense muscles he could feel under his fingers, he knew his comment had done absolutely nothing to reassure her.  If comparing his situation to her situation didn’t do anything for her, then that probably meant . . .

                “You do know these are all lies right?  You don’t believe stuff when they write it about me, do you?”

                “No,” she whispered against his shoulder in a voice full of tears that would have broken his heart if the insecurity in it hadn’t taken hold of his temper.

                “Tee, we’ve been going out for a while now.  Are you seriously telling me that you freak out every time you see one of these?  That you start to doubt me every time my name makes it into a paper linked to some random girl?”

                “Well, um, no I guess . . . ” she bit her lower lip as she tried to explain it to him.  Sure she knew that he would never cheat on her and that more than ninety percent of what was written in tabloids were lies, but that didn’t stop her from worrying every time she read an article about him.  It didn’t stop her from being reminded that he was miles away from her and that she couldn’t hold him close and hear him deny the rumours no matter how much she didn’t believe in them.  And those articles, they definitely didn’t help her get over the fact that she was nowhere near as glamourous or as famous as the women he was always being linked with.

                “You doubt me every time you read one of these things?” JC asked her.  He wasn’t sure if he should be angry at her, disappointed, pissed off at tabloids or simply mad at himself for not making her feel secure enough in their relationships to overlook these stupid articles like water rolling off a duck’s back.

                “No,” she said, snuggling her face in his neck to get closer to him, safer next to him, “I don’t doubt you.  They just remind me of who you are and who I’m not and they just . . .  it’s hard to take.  I know I’m not who everyone pictures for you and I know that you don’t care, but that doesn’t mean I like to be reminded of those facts.”

                “Baby, all that matters is what you and I think and I happened to believe that you are perfect for me.”  She didn’t answer him, but her arms tightened around his waist and her nose buried against him again as if she were trying to get deeper into him.

                “Do you think we’re perfect together?” he asked her, already sure that she would answer affirmatively from the affection she was showing in her body language.

                “Yes,” she mumbled against his neck with a giggle.

                “Good, then screw everything else,” he decided, throwing the tabloid away from them.

                “Okay,” Christalee agreed quietly with very little conviction in her voice.

                “Okay,” he repeated all the same and planted a quick kiss on her lips.  “I love you and nothing is going to change that.”

                “Yeah,” she told him, knowing that she wouldn’t have to say the same to him, that he would already know.

                “Okay.  Do you want to go have dinner with me?” he asked her, still holding her against him.

                “Sure,” she answered. Then looked down at her sweat pants and tank top that she had carelessly changed into after waking up. “I’m going to have to go change though.”

                “All right, I’ll just finish up a few calls and then I’ll come find you.”

                “You better,” she told him.  She gave him another quick kiss then climbed off his lap.  He slap her butt as she was walking past him and she turned around to wink at him with a giggle.  JC watched her walk out of the room before he reached into his pocket and took out what he was hoping she hadn’t felt while she was sitting on her lap.

                “Not tonight,” he told himself before putting it away again and picking up his cell phone for a few very quick calls.

 

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