Brian kisses his sleeping wife softly before climbing out of the bed and heading down into the kitchen. He starts to get some breakfast together. Their lovemaking the day before had tired them out so they had spent the night watching lame movies and snuggling up before falling asleep. He grins at the memory and turns the TV on as he heads to the fridge to grab some juice. His life is finally perfect. He has a wife with whom he falls more in love with each day and an awesome career doing what he always dreamed about. He laughs to himself happily.
“Would you be my girlfriend?” JC sings and Brian looks up at the TV to see the beginning of the NSync Girlfriend video.
He’s about to turn it off when he remembers that was the video Jade and Ali had filmed with them. He leans against the counter and watches the video.
Nelly starts rapping and he spots Ali sitting in a car with Lance. He wonders idly if Nick has seen the video yet and watches Nelly practically french kiss a model. Suddenly Jade comes on-screen and he grins. She looks pretty cool. His grin fades when the shot widens and he sees that she’s dancing with JC. He feels jealous but tells himself not to be so dumb. They aren’t even touching. The shot goes back to Nelly’s rap and Brian feels frustrated. He wishes he could keep the shot on Jade the whole song, just so he can see what she’s doing with JC. Justin starts to sing and there’s a quick shot of JC and Jade’s faces real close together. She’s stroking his face as he sings to her. It looks like he’s about to kiss her and the shot goes back to Justin. Brian groans in frustration and leans forward, as though he can manipulate the camera by being closer to the screen. There are a few more shots of Jade during the first verse and chorus and it looks like JC is about to kiss her in each shot. Brian runs his hands through his hair, trying to keep calm. It’s only a video. They’re only acting. But he knows they weren’t acting at all. They had been attracted to each other, found some kind of connection during that video shoot. He feels like he’s watching them fall for each other and he hates it. But he can’t turn off. He needs to see it right through to the end.
“Does he know how you feel?” JC sings in Jade’s ear as she dances close to him. He reaches up to brush back her hair, a very intimate gesture, and she smiles at him as he carries on singing his verse. She wraps herself around him and strokes his chest as he sings.
Brian shakes his head and closes his eyes, counting to three to calm himself down. But when he opens his eyes again, JC has pulled Jade around to face him and is so close to kissing her as the shot changes to Nelly. Brian can’t watch anymore, walking over to switch it off angrily. He sits down at the table and stares at the wooden top, seeing JC kiss Jade in his mind’s eye. He thumps the table with his fist and drops his head down into his hands. Seeing that video had brought everything back. How could he have ever thought he had forgiven her? Maybe if he had talked things through with her, he could’ve done but instead he had rushed into marrying her, gotten caught up in pretending JC had never happened.
“Mornin’ baby,” I greet Brian as I walk into the kitchen. He’s sat by the table and I walk over to kiss his head softly. “Mm, I had the best sleep,” I stretch slowly and realise he hasn’t even looked at me. “Honey?”
“What?” he looks up and I sit by him.
“You ok?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“That’s not exactly an answer,” I point out lightly.
“Sorry, let me be more precise,” he stands up. “I’m just great. I watched my wife making out with another guy on MTV so things are just PERFECT.”
“I did not make out with him,” I defend as he walks away. I follow him into the bedroom where he starts to get dressed. “I was going to warn you about the video but I just…”
“Warn me?!” he stares at me. “So you obviously think it was just as bad as I do!”
“Yes,” I bow my head and sit on the bed. “I really can’t believe I didn’t think a little about you before I did it. It was incredibly dumb of me.”
“You got THAT right,” he mutters. “Why the hell did you want to hurt me? What did I EVER do to you?!”
“I didn’t!” I look at him. “I never even thought of you.”
“That’s obvious,” he says angrily.
“I didn’t mean it that way! I just wanted to see what a video shoot was like…”
“So did Ali but you don’t see her dirty dancing with anybody!”
“I’m sorry,” I say quietly.
“So am I,” he mutters and finishes getting dressed.
“Where are you going?”
“I don’t know. I just need a little space right now Jade.”
“I love you. I really do. And I’m not the same Jade you saw in that video,” I tell him honestly. “I’ve changed so much since you married me.”
“I know,” he sighs and walks over to me. He eyes me seriously, “It just brought everything back so give me this time to get things straight again?”
“Of course.”
“Ok,” he says quietly and leaves.