Justin parked his car and sat in the driveway staring at Chris’s door. He knew it would be too early for Chris to be awake yet, but he could not think of any other place to go. The events of that early morning kept replaying in his head. He never thought this would happen, he never thought he would be caught, but it had and he did.

Fifteen minutes had passed and Justin could not sit in the car any longer. He knew Chris was going to yell at him for waking him up, and there was also the possibility that he would be risking life and limb. At this point Justin was willing to take that risk, he had to talk to Chris. He walked slowly to the front door and rang the doorbell. After no response, he rang the doorbell again, a moment later Justin heard Chris’ feet shuffle across the entranceway tile and the door unlocking.

Chris squinted his eyes again the morning sun. "Do you know what time it is? This better be good."

"She caught me." Justin said as if a ton of bricks hit him.

"She what?" Chris shook his head as if he was trying comprehend Justin’s words. "What do you mean she caught you?"

Chris moved out of the doorway motioning Justin to come in the house. Justin walked into the living room and flopped down on the sofa.

"Marie caught me with the girl next door this morning," Justin spoke softly.

"The girl next door?"

"Yeah, you know the one that lives in the blue house, Tina."

"Whoa." Chris sat on the couch next to Justin.

" I’m sorry for coming over so early, but I didn’t know where else to go. I have been driving around since it happened."

"Naw man, don’t worry about it." Chris put his arm around the younger man’s shoulder. "I’m here for ya."

"Thanks."

"What happened with Tina?" Chris asked as he leaned back on the couch.

"Well, I was in backyard trying to plant some flowers and things."

"You were planting flowers?" Chris tried not to laugh.

"Yeah, Marie is always telling me how much nicer the backyard would look if there was more than just a basketball court and a pool back there. I was trying to surprise her and plant a few flowers."

"Oh man."

"Hush, do you want to hear this or not?"

"Sorry, continue with your flowers."

"As I said I was trying to plant the flower, but I wasn’t doing a very good job. Tina heard me cussing from the other side of the fence. She asked me what was wrong and I told her. She offered to come over and help. It took us about an hour but we got all the flowers planted."

"It sounds innocent enough to me."

"Man, it was. I had no intention of doing anything with her."

"So what happened?"

"I asked her if she wanted to stay for dinner, as a thank you for helping me."

"You wanted to thank her by cooking for her? I have tasted your cooking, that’s no thank you."

"Shut up! I ordered pizza."

"Good thing." Chris said under his breath.

"We decided to jump in the pool and cool off while we were waiting on the pizza. We started playing around splashing water at each other, that turned in to play fighting." Justin began staring at the floor. "The next thing I knew I was kissing her."

"Whoa."

Justin looked up at Chris. "I didn’t mean for it to happen, it just did. I apologized and she said things were still cool between us. She even admitted she had a crush on me when she first moved in next door."

"You go boy, Tina’s hot." Chris raised his hand to high five Justin, but dropped it when Justin just stared at the floor again. "Just deny that it happened. Tell her she only thought she saw you kissing."

"I’m sure that would have worked if that is when she caught us."

"There was more?" Chris perked up. "I knew there was a player in you after all."

"After the kiss incident we decided to go inside and changed clothes. By the time I was done the pizza had shown up. We sat on the floor in the living room eating, watching TV, and talking. Things were cool between us, we were laughing and joking. All of the sudden she got real quiet. She told me I had sauce on the side of my face. I wiped my face with a napkin and asked if I had gotten all of it."

"Yeah…and?"

"I’m sorry my life crisis isn’t entertaining enough for you." Justin said sarcastically.

"I’m just trying to find out why you are so upset." Chris tried to sound like Justin’s words had hurt him.

Justin ignored Chris’ sarcasm. "She told me I had missed a spot then licked the side of my face. I just sat there for a moment, part of me was stocked that she had done that and the other part was curious to see what else she would do. She looked at me for a second then kissed me. It made my head all dizzy, at first I wasn’t sure what I should do. A few seconds later she was still kissing me so I kissed her back, my hands began rubbing over her body, her skin felt like silk under me."

"It didn’t take long for things between us to become hot and heavy right there on the living room floor. I couldn’t think straight, all I wanted to do was touch and taste her skin. Some how while we were taking our clothes off we knocked the pizza off the coffee table. At some point I do remember us have sauce and cheese on my side."

"You had sex with Tina on the living room floor?" Chris asked.

"Yeah, we did.

"Is that when Marie caught you?"

No, after we were finished in the living room we went to take a shower, you know. We had to get all of the pizza off us. Not much happened in the shower just some kissing, it was pretty much get clean and get out. Once we were out of the shower the kissing continued, she started licking my neck and I lost it."

"So how did Marie catch you with Tina?" Chris asked impatiently.

"She walked in on us having sex on the bathroom floor. I guess I forgot I had given her a key to the house about a month ago."

"You forgot you gave her a key?" Chris looked at his friend in shock. "If you’re going to be a player you can’t give a key to any of the women. Just tell her it wasn’t you."

"Chris have you listen to a word I said? Marie walked in on us in the bathroom. It was me; she looked right into my eyes. She knows it was me."

"It sounds like you need to just cut your losses and move on. Hey you got Tina."

"That’s just it," Justin stood and faced Chris. "I don’t want Tina. I want Marie."

"How are you going to call yourself a player if you are attached to one women?" Chris shook his head in disapproval. "Look at Joey, anytime a woman starts to get close he moves on. That’s how to be a player. You don’t give them a key to your house, you don’t plant flowers for them."

"Chris I don’t want to be a player anymore," Justin was almost yelling. I don’t want any one but Marie. I love her." He stood there in disbelief of his own words. "I love her," he repeated softly.

"Man, she has got you whipped," Chris laughed.

"I’m not whipped," the younger man sat in a chair across from his friend a grin on his face. "I’m in love."

"Whipped…love…it’s all the same thing. They get you acting silly and holding their purses at the mall."

"I feel sorry for the woman that ends up with you," Justin laughed.

Chris sat up straight tugging on the bottom of his shirt. "Any girl would be lucky to have me."

"Oh, please" Justin rolled his eyes. The grin left his face. "What am I going to do? She is never going to forgive me."

"Would that really be a bad thing?"

"Yes! Outside of Nsync, she is my whole world. I don’t know what I would do without her."

"I still say go with Tina. You know she is not mad with you."

"Chris thanks for all your help." Justin rose from his chair. "But I think I am going to have to go home and try to talk to Marie."

"Sure J, it’s your funeral." Chris stood to walk Justin to the door.

When Justin sat in his car he began to laugh he hoped that he would be the one Chris came to when he decided that the love of the right woman was better than the attention of all the wrong ones. As he started the car, he prayed Marie would take him back and he would be off the players’ list forever.