One person. There was only one person who that ringtone could possibly belong to. And it was the same person who'd made her spend three minutes with him dancing to that damn song in his car in the middle of Los Angeles rush hour.

"Go to sleep, Josh," she grumbled, rolling over on her side and pulling the comforter over her head.

The music stopped after a few seconds, but moments later, the song started over.

Dale a tu cuerpo alegria Macarena
Que tu cuerpo es pa' darle alegria why cosa buena
Dale a tu cuerpo alegria, Macarena
Heyyyy, Macarena!

"Seriously?" she groaned, throwing the covers off her face. She reached for the phone on her nightstand, blindly in the darkness of her bedroom.

With the bright green light of the cell phone shining in her hands and JC's goofy grin on the Caller ID staring back at her through the ruffled, brown hair that covered her face, Katrina scowled and brought the phone up to her ear to take the call.

"Unless there's a stab wound in your neck or your house burned down, there's no reason to call me at four o' clock in the morning when I have work, Jace."

"Katttt," JC groaned.

"Whattttt?" she mimicked back. "What'd you want?"

"Can you come get me?"

"What?"

"Come get me," JC said again. "I'm at Cohiba."

"The nightclub?" Katrina asked, still struggling to keep her eyes open.

"Yea, that. I got no ride."

"How come?" she yawned.

"Chelsea and I got into a fight and she took the car," JC explained in a mumble as he recalled the name of his girlfriend. "Come pick me up."

"It's four in the morning, Joshua."

"Katrina, just get outta bed and come get me," JC sighed. "I feel like I'm gonna pass the fuck out in a minute."

"That's why you're not supposed to go out and get drunk at nightclubs and then call your best friend to come pick you up hours before she has to go to work because your stupid girlfriend left you there."

"So is that fifteen or twenty minutes I have to wait out here?" JC asked, and Katrina could hear the noise of the club somewhere in the distance from wherever he was.

"Twenty minutes," she mumbled, reluctantly using her feet to kick off the rest of the covers from her body. "Just stay out near the entrance so I don't have to come looking for you."

She heard a faint ‘mkay' before the call was ended.

Hanging up in a sigh, Katrina practically dragged her legs off the bed and onto the floor in the same averse manner she did every year around the holiday season, where she knew she was in for dealing with last minute, crazed shoppers at the store and she was the only one who knew how to cope with them.

Not bothering to even check herself in the mirror, she slipped on the pair of black, fuzzy, rabbit bedroom slippers she kept next to her door before grabbing her car keys off the dresser. Giving her hair a simple flip and glancing over at her kitten, Pixel, she had named it, sleeping soundly on the mat on the tiled floor, Katrina made her way out of the dark, three bedroom apartment and into the corridor without falling despite her sleep deprivation.

Ensuring the door was locked behind her, she stepped into the elevator, folding her arms and tapping her foot impatiently while she waited for the automatic doors to close.

JC owed her for this. And it wasn't the first time.

- - - - -

"I thought I told you to wait out front," Katrina grumbled as JC plopped into the passenger seat. His hair was slightly dishevelled, but other than that, the average woman could really care less as to how his hair looked once they noticed the button down, long sleeved white shirt with the black jeans and sports watch on his wrist.

Katrina, however, was not known to be the ‘average woman' and JC knew that for a fact.

"You reek of alcohol," she commented, screwing up her face a bit. "And Chelsea."

JC chuckled as he buckled his seat belt. "Nice shoes," he nodded toward the bedroom slippers.

He almost forgot that he was the one who bought them for her two years ago when she had first gotten Pixel. He had chosen rabbits rather than cats because he didn't want Pixel to get confused thinking that there were other cats in the house.

"Yea, yea, yea," she murmured as she waited a moment for the engine to turn on before turning back onto the road.

"Thanks for picking me up," JC said, leaning his head back against the leather seat of the Prius and closing his eyes.

"So you just let Chelsea leave with your damn car?"

"I don't even know when she left," JC said. "I was talking to a hot bartender one minute and the next minute, I realize my car keys aren't in my pocket, my car's gone and Chelsea sent me some text I didn't even bother to read. Let's not get into all that."

"You need to go home and get some sleep," Katrina told him.

"Yea, at your place."

She took a second to look from the clear road, to him, then back to the road. "Not my place. I'm taking you home."

"Noo, not tonight, Kat. Chels is probably there waiting for me to come home and I'm gonna have too much of a hangover in the morning to endure her yapping. Can't I just crash at your place?"

"I have to get up for work. In three hours."

"C'mon SmartieKat," JC pleaded, using his nickname for her. He came up with it by combining her last name, Smart, with her first name and wittiness.

"Fine," Katrina gave in. "I don't have the energy to drive all the way to your place, help you up to your room and then drive all the way back to my place anyways."

"How's KittyKat doin'?" JC asked, speaking of Pixel.

"The more you keep calling her that is the less she's gonna respond to me when I call her by her actual name, you know."

"She likes it."

"She likes you, not the name. And she's asleep, so don't make the mistake of stepping on her tail when you're wandering around the apartment tonight."

"That happened one time," JC rolled his eyes.

"Twice," Katrina reminded him with a glare that made JC laugh.

"You're not a morning person these days, are you?"

"I'm not a four o'clock in the morning, ‘gotta get outta bed and pick Josh up from the club' kind person."

"But I'm your best friend so you shouldn't mind. And I said thank you," he pointed out.

Katrina sighed and managed a very small smile when she saw him looking at her. "Yea, well, you're welcome."

"Wake me when we're at the apartment," JC told her, closing his eyes once more and relaxing against the seat. "I'm tired."

"Aren't you always..."

"Well, then, put on Macarena and it'll keep me awake."

"That stupid song woke me up."

"Awesome ringtone right?" JC grinned.

"The best," she said sarcastically.

- - - - -

"Josh," Katrina groaned as she watched JC practically stumble into her bedroom and collapsed onto her bed. "I told you that you could have one of the guest rooms tonight."

JC ignored her, fixing the pillow behind his neck. "Too bad."

"I'm tired, c'mon."

"You come on," JC told her. "You always let me sleep next to you when I stay over here."

Katrina sighed, deciding she was too tired to even bother to argue with him. Closing the bedroom door and ignoring the time that the digital clock next to her bed read, she sunk into the mattress slowly. She could do nothing but smile when the feeling of pure relaxation swept over her body like a wave, immediately removing every particle of stress that was washed on her.

"G'nite," she mumbled to JC, who was still trying to get comfortable under the comforter.

"Wait, hold on."

"Mm?"

He moved closer to her and wrapped one arm around her waist so that the front of their bodies faced each other.

"We're just gonna sleep now?"

"Yes, now stop talking."

"Kaattt," JC whined softly, nuzzling the top of her head with his forehead.

"Josh, stop," she mumbled back quietly.

"Please?"

Katrina pulled away from him and turned to face the other way, away from him. "Not a chance."

"Why not?"

"I have work in a couple hours and you and Chelsea just had a fight and I hate it when you're drunk."

"C'mon, baby."

"I thought you were tired too," Katrina turned her head to look at him.

"I'm never too tired for... You know."

"Get it from Chelsea."

"We've been having a dry spell for two weeks now!"

"Stop making small talk with sexy female bartenders when you guys go out and then maybe you'll get lucky."

"But you alwa-"

"Not under these conditions. Now, I'm tired, you're tired, you're gonna have a heavy hangover in the morning and I want to get outta here before you throw up all over my bathroom."

"So you're not even gonna let me-"

"NO."

"Fine," JC muttered.

"I'm letting you sleep over here, so don't snap at me like that."

"I didn't snap at you, Kat."

"If it helps, you can jerk off here as long as I'm really, really in deep sleep."

"It doesn't help."

"Goodnight Josh."

"Nite," JC yawned, and she felt him move closer to her. "I'm still gonna fall asleep close to you."

"Does Chelsea show you any kind of affection at night?" Katrina giggled.

JC chuckled. "Yea, but she always smells of this expensive ass perfume from God alone knows where. I like it, but you smell more like..."

"Normal body soap?"

"No, more like, comfort, if you know what I mean."

"I'm too tired to try to figure out what you mean so stop talking and let's just go to sleep, kay?"

Katrina didn't even have to wait a full sixty seconds before she felt JC's arm go limp around her and his breathing was soft and regulated. It didn't take long for him to sink back into slumber, but for her, it took a while. Too long if you asked her.

She sighed and opened her eyes, full awake.

She hated nights like these, and you'd think she'd be used to it after all the years she had been putting up with it.

She didn't not want the sex. She was tired. She didn't not want his arm around her. It was just distracting.

She didn't not want him around. She did. She always had him around. At any time of the day, everyday.  He always popped up somehow, at the most random times but she liked it. It made sense, somehow, the way they carried about their friendship.

What didn't make sense, however, was the fact that a night like this could happen, on average, once or twice every couple months. They had a routine.

She complained about picking him up, she picked him up anyways, he insists on staying in her bed, more often than not she'd give into the sex plead, and then they'd both wake up and carry on as though it was the usual thing.

It wasn't a planned thing, it just sort of... Continued to fall into place in that sequence- that irrational, carefree sequence.

 Neither of them thought much of it. It wasn't as though they did anything wrong.

Did they use protection? Katrina wouldn't let him stick it in half the time without some form of it.

Did they classify themselves as the ‘friends with benefits' type? They both knew how those stories ended up, so that was a no.

They never did anything specific to wind up in the situations they ended up in. They just fell into it somehow. It was something the two of them got used to when they were around each other- a cycle.

Katrina sighed and closed her eyes, resting an arm over JC's across her midsection.

She knew it'd only be a couple more hours before they'd both wake up and carry about with their day.

She'd go to work. He'd go back to... being JC Chasez and doing whatever JC Chasez did, until they decided to do something together and he'd simply be Josh.

It wouldn't be long before she'd leave and Chelsea would probably be blowing up his phone. Would JC care? Probably not. He always knew where to find a source of comfort.

And so the cycle would start up again... 

"Dang it, Josh," Katrina muttered, taking in the sight before her. She flung her leather handbag onto the unmade bed and put her hands on her hips, looking around the floor of her room.

If it wasn't for the fact that she didn't own any valuable jewellery or had old keepsakes hidden anywhere, she would have sworn some thief had had ransacked her room.

There was a grey towel thrown over the chair in front of her vanity table that had soaked the cushion with its wetness, and everything from the t shirts she slept in to her training bras to her ‘going out' jeans down to the shirts she had to wear to work every day were thrown all over the place.

Katrina scowled as she walked over to her dresser where the very last drawer was open. It was the same drawer where she kept clothes people had forgotten over whenever they spent a night at her apartment. And by ‘people', she meant JC.

Using her leg, Katrina kicked in the drawer. She bent down to start gathering up her scattered garments that were obviously thrown straight out from her closet where she was sure JC was looking for something to wear after he had taken his shower sometime that day.

Getting up with an armful of clothes, she dropped them all onto the foot of her bed. Coming home to a bedroom that had looked like a fashion tornado had hit it wasn't ideally what she anticipated. After she clocked out at the end of her ten-hour shift at a store full of people whose biggest worries resembled ‘Does the red one make my boobs look rounder?', all Katrina wanted to do was make up for the sleep JC had deprived her of the night before.

She rummaged through the small pile of clothes, surprisingly finding and setting aside the two grey and white t shirts and black jacket that she knew belonged to JC.

You would think that after he went through her stuff, trying to find something that may have belonged to him he'd have taken the extra clothes when he left.

"Pixel?" Katrina called out loudly, looking around for the cat. She picked up his clothes and went into the living room, leaving the mess to stay as it was.

"Pixel, where are you?" she called out again. She went to open her mouth again but closed it when she noticed a pair of tiny eyes staring at her from under the couch. A soft purring called to her.

Katrina smiled, stooping down to pet the small animal. "What're you doing under there? Did JC step on your tail again? Or are you just hungry?"

Obviously not expecting an answer, Katrina waited a few seconds before Pixel crawled out of her hiding place and into her free hand. As she stood up, the cat started leaning over to where her other arm was, and curiously started scraping its claws onto the leather of JC's black jacket.

"Dammit, Pix," Katrina muttered, pulling the cat away and dropping the clothes. "That isn't ours!"

Taking the animal into the kitchen, Katrina quickly made her way from the fridge and went to pour some milk into the small bowl she kept next to the table. Setting Pixel down next to it, Katrina stroked its head. "I'll be back in a while, okay? Don't claw nothing else."

She walked back into the living room and picked up the clothes she had dropped, along with her car keys she had rested on the coffee table.

Making her toward the door, she looked down at the jacket. The claw marks weren't long, but clearly evident on the sleeve. She shook her head, hoping to rid herself of the headache that was starting to come on and sighed. "Better his jacket than mine," she said to herself.

-----

"Is he ever home?" Katrina muttered, looking around JC's living room. Having the code to his gate and the key to his three million dollar mansion was one of the few perks in their oddly close friendship.

He wasn't in the kitchen, the water in the pool she could see through the window was calm, the red light to his basement studio was off and the living room was still. She looked at the long flight of stairs a few feet away from her and decided against walking up. Too much energy for her liking this time of day, and it didn't look like he was home.

She turned her back and went over his cream sofa, folding his t shirts over the arm rest. She'd hang the jacket next to the front door on his coat rack. Leaving the living room, Katrina started on her way toward the foyer. A few feet away from the door, she heard her name.

"Hey, Kat."

Katrina jumped, slightly, and spun around. JC stood under the arced frame wearing a pair of boxers and a plain white t shirt. He was holding two wine glasses, both halfway filled with God alone knew what.

"Hey," Katrina replied, looking at him.

JC smiled. "What're you doing here?"

"I found some clothes you left over in my apartment and came to drop it off."

"Oh, sorry about the small mess I made in your room. I was in a hurry and didn't get time to fix everything."

"One, it wasn't a small mess and two... You should know where everything is by now."

JC chuckled. "Fine."

"I'll just hang this over-" Katrina was cut off when a petite blonde popped up from behind JC. She seemed to be wearing nothing besides one of JC's oversized t shirts.

"What's taking so long?" she asked, touching his arm. She looked over at Katrina. "Who's that?"

Ignoring Katrina's stare, JC shook his head. "Just a friend who came to drop off some stuff."

"Are you gonna be any longer?" the blonde purred, tiptoeing to meet his lips.

JC kissed her for half a second before quickly pulling away. "Take these," he handed her the wine glasses. "I'll be up in a minute so we can finish up."

Katrina rolled her eyes but the girl giggled, accepting the drinks and then left the room. Her head was obviously on cloud nine or whatever JC had been giving her to drink seemed to be working to his advantage.

"What?" JC asked, finally meeting her accusing glare.

"Who's the chick?"

"Angie or Andy," JC shrugged. "Hot though, right?"

Katrina threw the jacket toward him. "What happened to Chelsea?"

"We talked this morning and made up and she said she wanted to spend the day with some of her friends. I ain't got nothing better to do so... I went out and met someone."

"You're away from your girlfriend for a day and you cheat on her?"

"It's not cheating if there's no feelings attached, Kat," JC reminded her, quoting what they both had been living by for years. "It's not like I got feelings for this girl or anything."

"Just a casual thing?"

"Just a casual thing," JC nodded.

Katrina sighed. "Just wear your protection," she warned him. "And get her outta your house before your girlfriend starts blowing up your doorbell tonight."

"I know how to hide the clues, Kat," JC chuckled. "I'm seeing Chels tonight anyways. More sex for me."

"Man whore."

"You have no proof of that."

"I'm not her biggest fan, but you guys have been going around for a long time now. Don't cheat so often."

"She won't find out, Katrina, stop worrying. And blondie won't care as long as I fondle with her a bit and then she'll be on her way."

"When I came here, I didn't even think anyone was home," Katrina said.

"My bathroom's soundproof, remember? You of all people should know that, given the amount of times you and I have-"

Katrina held up her hand to stop him. "I came to drop off your clothes as quickly as possible so I can get home, and get some sleep. No need for you to say anything in response."

"Thanks," JC smiled. He looked down at the jacket she had thrown at him and held it up. "Hey, what happened to the sleeve on this thing?"

Katrina shrugged her shoulders and walked backwards to the door. "Pixel liked the fabric."

-----

The next day- 7PM

"Are you sure you don't mind closing up for me tonight?" the red head asked, pulling on her jacket. "I know I do this a lot and it's Friday night..."

Katrina shook her head, placing her hand over her mouth to cover her yawn. "It's fine. I get paid for the extra hour so it's no big deal." She leaned over the counter she stood behind and placed her forearms on the surface, the cash register next to her. "What plans you got tonight?"

The freckled faced beauty grinned. "Two year anniversary with the boyfriend."

"Congrats," Katrina smiled at her co-worker. "Have fun."

"I'm not delaying any of your plans by keeping you here tonight, am I?"

"Nah, not really. I'm tired as hell but that's only because I haven't slept really well in a while."

"I'd ask you why," the girl said. "But my guy's out front already."

"Go ahead," Katrina encouraged. "I got it covered here."

"I owe you one, Kat."

"Doesn't everyone," Katrina murmured to herself, waving goodbye to her friend.

Seeing that there were only two other customers in the store who didn't seem to need any help over in the bras and panties section, she decided to pull up a game of Solitaire on the computer next to her.

She had only moved one card when a guy in a white turtleneck and black pants walked up to the counter. He was wearing a pair of dark shades, hiding the features of his eyes and Katrina jumped when she realized he was staring at her, awaiting her recognition.

"Oh," she straightened. "Can I help y- Speaking of hell..."

JC grinned, lifting his shades to reveal himself to her and then lowering them back over his eyes. "Hey. I didn't know you worked the night shift here. I thought you'd be home by now."

"Hey, Josh," Katrina sighed, turning back to her game. "I took an extra shift for the night."

"Needed the cash?"

"I did someone a favour. What're you doing in an all women's store? And why are you wearing dark shades to the mall? At night."

JC rested the red box he had been holding onto the counter in front of her. "I didn't feel like getting mobbed by anyone here. And I came to get these."

Katrina lifted the lid off the box, only to reveal the pair of black, four inch stilettos.

She lifted her eyebrows, telepathically asking JC to explain.

"I thought about what you said yesterday about me and Chels being together for a while now and I admit, for once, you made me feel guilty about sleeping with that other girl."

"So you bought her six hundred and eighty dollar heels to show your love instead of coming clean?"

JC frowned, pointing to the price on the side of the box. "I thought they were nine hundred."

"These are still on sale," Katrina explained. "Thirty percent off. You only have to pay six hundred and eighty instead of the nine hundred."

JC smiled, impressed. "Thanks SmartieKat."

Katrina nodded, accepting the credit card JC was handing her with one hand and using the other to cover another yawn.

JC saw the way she had to blink a couple times to keep herself completely awake as she continued to ring him up.

"Why are you so tired?" he asked.

"Didn't get a lot of sleep these past couple days."

"I thought you slept last night after you left my house yesterday."

"An hour after I got home, the couple in the apartment directly above me decided they wanted to have a natural, home birth. The woman has no tolerance for pain, might I add."

"Ouch."

"She was in labor for eleven hours."

"So, no sleep?"

"I stayed up, listening to screaming for the entire night."

"So why'd you take this extra shift?"

"A co worker had special plans with her boyfriend tonight so I told her to go ahead."

"That was nice," JC smiled. "So you're here until when?"

"Until eight o' clock or so. But then I have to close up the store and buy dinner and drive home and feed Pix and I wanted to catch up on my reading and return some e mails and all that but I don't think I'm gonna get much done at the rate I'm going."

"Want me to buy you dinner?" JC offered.

Katrina shook her head. "I didn't mean to say all that just so you'd offer to do something. I'm fine, don't worry. The food court doesn't close till nine anyways."

"I can get you something if you want me too. I don't have anything to do tonight, really."

"When're you giving your girl her expensive new shoes?" Katrina asked, putting the box in a bag and handing it over to JC.

"I was gonna go over to her place now, but I'll only be there for like, an hour. Her friends are over there and..." his voice trailed off.

Katrina laughed. "You don't like them very much, do you?"

JC chuckled, shaking his head. "Not really. So if you want, I can meet you back here when your shift is finished and then you and I can do something. You look like you haven't gotten laid in a while."

She smiled. "I haven't, but that's because I'm always tired and I'm single. I got better things to do than worry about sex."

"What's better than sex?" JC snorted.

"Working and paying your rent," Katrina replied. "And sleep."

"Look, I'll buy you dinner, meet you back here in an hour, and we can go over to your place and chill. We both got nothing better to do."

"As bad as this is gonna sound, I'd honestly prefer getting some stuff done tonight than have to worry about entertaining you."

"C'mon," JC urged. "You, me, KittyKat, boxes of Chinese food. Sounds like a good time to me. I'll let you read or whatever it is you wanna do and I'll leave."

"As long as you're paying for the food, then fine."

"Cool," JC nodded. "I'll meet you back here and I'll follow you back to your place. I'm not leaving my car in the mall parking lot."

Katrina smiled. "Alright, fine. Go spoil your girlfriend with her new shoes."

"Think she'll like it?"

"Yea, but it's usually a bad idea to give a girl shoes."

"Why?"

"Because, if you guys break up, she can throw it at you or she can walk out on you wearing them, leaving you with nothing."

 JC shrugged. "As long as she likes it, then that's good enough for me. And I like spoiling my girls."

Katrina folded her arms. "You don't spoil me."

"That's ‘cause you're my SmartieKat," he smiled.

"Get a couple beers to go with that Chinese food, okay?"

"Sure thing, honey."

-------

9:45PM

"Did you like the sweet and sour shrimp this time?"

Katrina shrugged, resting her empty container on her bedside table. "It was alright," she said, leaning back against her headboard.

JC stuffed another shrimp in his mouth and screwed up his face. "A little spicy."

She smiled. "Thanks for dinner."

JC nodded, setting his container on the floor. "You're welcome." He sat up, cross legged on the bed. "Are you tired?"

"A little," Katrina admitted. "The beer woke me up."

"Do you have work tomorrow?"

"Yea, but only from ten to three. I'm off the rest of the day."

"What're you doing then?"

"I've got some reading I need to catch up on."

JC laughed. "You're just gonna read all day? Nerdy much?"

Katrina kicked him. "Don't hate. What're you doing?"

"I don't know what Chels wants to do. If she's not with her friends, we might probably go out and something. Unless, of course, she finds something to pick a fight about again."

"That's why I love being single. The only person who can backchat me is Pixel, and the only time she wants to fight is when I don't give her anything to eat. Other than that we're the happiest couple around."

JC grinned. "But she can't satisfy you like a guy can."

"That's what vibrators and adult fiction is for."

"Don't you want a boyfriend?"

"Guys suck. You're living proof of that. I'd rather focus of reading or writing or my cat."

"C'mon, I'm not that bad."

"You're worse."

"I'm pretty sure Chelsea cheats on me too, you know."

"So if you cheat on each other, then break up and save yourself the tension."

"A new girlfriend takes too long to break in. Chels and I have an understanding, like you and I. Except, she and I don't admit that we actually cheat and the other always gets mad."

"There're no feelings here, so it's technically not cheating."

"Exactly. But there's feelings between Chels and I so it's different."

"You're too complicated," Katrina sighed, sinking deeper into her mattress so that now she was laying flat on her back. "And you always bring me into your mess at the most random times."

JC chuckled, crawling over her so his face was hovering above hers and his forearms held him steady. "We can have fun tonight if you want. Maybe if you exert some energy or release some of that stress you'd sleep easier."

"In other words, you're implying that we have some sex tonight?"

"You said it, not me."

"Are you ever flaccid down there?"

"Not really."

"Not surprising coming from the guy who sang that he dreamt about sex all day long."

"So is that a yes or a no?"

"No, horn dog."

JC stuck out his tongue before rolling over to the next side of the bed. "You're so hard sometimes."

"So are you," Katrina mused, and JC laughed.

"I should get going and let you sleep tonight," he said, looking at her. "I don't think anyone's giving birth tonight and I won't call you at four in the morning so you should be fine."

"You don't have to leave. I'm gonna make you take all these containers and cans into the kitchen anyways but you don't have to leave."

"You sure?"

"What're you gonna do? Go home and get off to lesbian porn?"

"Probably."

"You can stay the night if you want. Get some breakfast in the morning or something."

"Sounds like a plan. Lay off the bacon though. Your thighs look bigger in those shorts than they do in your jeans."

Katrina scowled and punched him on the arm, and JC returned it.

"Jerk."

Soft, high pitched chuckling seemed to be her morning alarm, because the signature laugh she had heard one too many times was the only thing pulling her further and further out of her slumber.

She opened one of her eyes and peered through the scattered strands of brown hair that covered her eyelids.

She heard more chuckling, along with the sound of a crisp page turning.

 Katrina lifted her head and opened both eyes, only to see JC's back turned to her as he stood at the foot of the bed. A book was in his hand.

Another page turned, and JC let out another laugh.

"Oh my God, Kat," she heard him say aloud to himself.

Katrina sat up quietly, confused... And then it hit her.

"No fucking way," she muttered, furiously and scandalously throwing the comforter off her body. Rising up so that she could stand on the bed, she took a step forward and jumped on to JC's back, her legs closing in on his sides and her arms wrapped around his neck.

"What the fu- Kat!" JC yelled, surpised, almost losing his balance from the sudden force. "What the fuck are you doing?!"

"Give me my book!" Katrina yelled back, using one of her arms to retrieve her blue notebook that JC still had.

"I'm just reading!" JC insisted, trying to shake her off, but Katrina didn't budge.

"Give it!"

"Katrina, get off me!" JC demanded, stumbling backwards. A few more moments of the two of them fighting off each other went by before JC fell back on top of her on the bed.

Katrina yelped, feeling JC's body weight smother her. She started kicking around, trying to roll him over to the other side.

"Stop that!" he yelled, lying on his back as he used the hardcover notebook to block his face.

Katrina rolled on top of him and straddled him, trying to use her strength to pin down JC's big arms.

"Give me my book," she commanded, trying to grab the book out of JC's grasp. She had to pull on it for a few seconds before JC surprisingly let go and almost made her fall back from the force.

Before she could get off of him, JC rolled them back over so that he was on top of her, using his arms to hold himself steady while Katrina held her book to her chest.

JC stared down at her, panting. "Well," he started. "Good morning to you too."

"Now it is," she told him, breathing hard. "What were you doing reading this?"

"I found it."

"How?"

"I was looking for my shoes and I found it under the bed. I figured I may as well look into it. It's not like you exactly keep it under lock and key, you know."

"It's private!"

JC couldn't help but laugh. "It's explicit, is what it is."

"You know I write."

"I didn't know you write like that."

"It's fiction," Katrina defended herself.

"Kat, it's porn."

"It's a story I was working on," she muttered.

"I just didn't know you wrote like that, SmartieKat. So..."

"So?"

"Hot and graphic."

"When you can't get a physical release, you may as well write up one of your own."

"Sarah should stay with John, though," JC said, stating his opinion from her story. "But the writing's great."

"John's a dick, much like the guy I have on top of me right now."

"I didn't know I wasn't supposed to read that stuff," JC said truthfully. "I thought it was a really good plot you had going there. I didn't know it was personal."

"If I told you it was personal, would you have still read it?"

JC thought for a moment. "Probably, but I wouldn't have let you caught me."

Katrina rolled her eyes. "From now on, you're not allowed to read any of my material without asking first."

"But I wanna know what happens to Sarah and John," JC pouted. "I didn't even get to the part to see if he made her come or not."

"You're sick."

"I'm curious. And another thing, that other guy is bad at pick up lines."

"Dylan is fine. He's supposed to be a quirky guy."

"You think the ‘angel' line is quirky? It's stale. No girl is so fascinating that a guy has to ask her if she's fallen from heaven."

"You were shot up from hell," Katrina punched him, and JC finally got off her.

"You know you love me."

"Like I said, from now on, leave my writing alone."

"Okay, okay," JC sighed. "I won't read anything else."

"Good," Katrina said, setting the book down on her dresser. "What time is it?"

"Eight thirty."

"Work starts at ten," Katrina said, almost to herself.

"You promised me breakfast last night," JC reminded her, sitting on the edge of the bed.

She smiled, nodding. "I know. I'm thinking."

"About what?"

"About what I can make for us for breakfast."

"What'd you got?"

"Cereal. Bagels. Eggs. I ran out of pancake batter the other day and haven't gone to the grocery store in a while. I'm probably gonna have to do that when I get off work today."

"What kind of cereal do you have?"

"Lucky Charms or Frosted Flakes."

"You should really try the Kellogs Frosted Mini Wheats, you know. It isn't that bad. Chelsea buys it all the time."

"That shit is like, seven bucks for a box."

JC shrugged. "It's healthy."

"You two can eat your expensive cereal. I'm fine with my regular cereal."

"Want me to take us to breakfast then?" JC offered.

"Am I going to be late for work if I do?"

"We won't eat much. You need groceries and I don't mind going out."

"Fine."

"I found some more of my clothes over here. I'll just take a shower when you're done."

"Do you have plans today?"

"I'll probably take Chels out to lunch or she'll probably want to go shopping later. I want to spend some time in the studio. Probably check out if there are any parties going on tonight too."

"We better start the day then."

"Brushing your teeth might help."

"Shut up," Katrina told him, throwing a hair band at him. "Watch some TV while I'm in there or something. Or find Pix and play with her."

"Fine," JC sighed. "Hurry up then."

---

 "Kat!" JC shouted her name, banging on the bathroom door. "Open up!"

"What?" she shouted back.

"Your phone's ringing!"

"Answer it then!"

JC looked down at the vibrating phone and started knocking on the door once more. "I don't want to. It's Sean!"

JC heard the water from the shower immediately turn off and the door opened a second later. Katrina stood in front of him in the door frame, her hair wet and her right hand held up the white towel that only covered the frontal area of her body since she hadn't wrapped it around herself.

"Are you done?" JC asked.

"Yea, gimme," she said, taking the phone. She balanced the phone between her shoulder and ear while she tried to hold together the towel behind her.

"Hello?" she answered, moving past JC. She turned around to look at him for a moment and nodded toward the bathroom before saying, "Go ahead."

Shrugging, JC went ahead with his own shower, ever so often hearing Katrina burst out laughing every few minutes. As soon as he had dried himself and wrapped the towel she lent him around his waist, JC opened the door to leave the bathroom, almost bumping into Katrina on his way back to her room.

"Guess what," she said happily, stopping JC in his tracks. A grin was spread across her face.

JC raised his eyebrows. "You still have no clothes on," he told her, eyeing the matching pair of white bra and panties she wore.

"I'm taking this week off, starting Monday."

"Why?" JC asked. "Wait, is Sean coming to see you?"

Katrina shook her head. "Close. Him and Lindsay are leaving for a business trip to the Bahamas on Monday morning so I told them Cody and Cindy can stay with me while they're gone."

JC looked at her, an unfazed expression on his face. "Cody and Cindy...?"

"My niece and nephew? You've met ‘em, remember? When they were younger? Cindy was still a baby."

"Oh, yea. When we were all together for your twenty fifth birthday party... They were cute, but I don't like him."

"Josh," Katrina sighed. "You don't like Sean because you think Sean doesn't like you."

"He doesn't."

"He doesn't quite ‘fancy' you only because he walked in on us that one night when your head was between my thighs."

"My point exactly."

"He's gotten over that by now, I'm sure. And I haven't seen Cody and Cindy in almost three months."

"When are they coming over?" JC asked, following her back into the bedroom.

"Tomorrow afternoon," Katrina replied with a smile. "So that means I'm gonna have to buy extra groceries today, clean the guest bedrooms and explain to my boss why I won't be at the store for the rest of the week."

"Have fun with all that," JC told her, slipping on his boxers under his towel. "At least you're gonna have some company around here besides me and KittyKat."

"Speaking of Pix, I gotta go feed her," she said, buttoning the jeans she had pulled on. "Do we still have time to do breakfast?"

"It's nine o'clock now so..."

"Just coffee or something before work?"

"I'm cool with that."

"Am I gonna be seeing you later today?"

"Probably not," JC said, pulling on a blue t shirt. "It depends on what comes up in my schedule."

"In other words, if Chels wants to do something, I'm definitely not seeing you."

"Yea. And don't count on me being here when Sean gets here tomorrow either."

"Fine," Katrina sighed. "You know, if you weren't such a wuss and would talk to my brother normal, you'd be at some ease."

"I'll pass. And with two little kids here, I doubt that you're even gonna be thinking about me."

----

The next night

Apartment cleaned? - check. Groceries made? - check. A relaxing week's worth of pay? - check. Pizza for dinner in the oven? - check. Kitten fed? - check. G rated movies rented? - check. Extra snacks bought? - check.

Katrina sat down on the couch, happy to have finally checked off everything on her mental list of things to do before Sean dropped off his kids. She was ready for the break away from work and was anxious for the company. She didn't see her niece and nephew for more than six times a year unless it was over the computer or the rare occasion of a family event, and Katrina hadn't realized how she had missed being around people she didn't see often until she started counting down the minutes to their arrival.

She hadn't heard from JC since the night before, when he had texted her just to say that he was taking Chelsea out for dinner and hoped he was ‘getting lucky'. She wasn't sure what he had done that day, or what he was planning to do later that night, but she decided against giving him a call in case he was busy at the time.

Even if she was going to give him a call, it would have had to wait because the series of consistent knocks on the door to her apartment quickly drowned out the thoughts in her head.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Katrina chuckled, half walking-half running to the entrance. "I wonder who it is," she teased playfully before swinging open the door.

Before she could even make eye contact with the man holding the two carryon bags, Katrina was practically tackled by what felt like two baby bulls ramming into her legs and wrapping their arms around them.

"Woah," she laughed, putting out her arms to keep her balance. She stooped down and opened her arms to the two children in front of her. "Hey, you two!"

"Aunt Kat," the boy grinned, wrapping his arms tightly around Katrina's neck, while his sister simply held onto her arm.

"I missed you guys," Katrina said, kissing them both on their brown haired heads.

"Miss you too," the girl smiled up at her.

"Don't I get to say hi to your aunt?" the man chuckled, resting the bags carefully on the floor.

Katrina stood up, letting the two children step aside before going to hug her brother. "Hey, Sean."

"How are ya?" he asked, kissing her cheek.

"I'm really good," she nodded. "Where's Lindsay?"

"Home, finishing up the packing. Thank you so much for doing this for us by the way. We couldn't find anyone else this last minute."

"Hey, I'm happy to do it. It's about time I got to spend some quality time with these kids."

"You took care of things at work?"

"Everything's taken care of. I got the week off, so it's all good."

"That's great to know."

"Have the kids eaten?" Katrina asked, turning her head in time to see the younger boy stroking Pixel's head on the couch. His sister stood next to him quietly.

"Not since this afternoon. I was hoping you already had dinner set up."

"I do," Katrina nodded. "Pizza's in the oven ready for ‘em tonight and I'm loaded up on groceries. My week with them is set."

"You're awesome," Sean smiled at her. "And you look great too. How come I never hear about any boyfriends of yours from mom?"

"Because there aren't any," Katrina reminded him. "And don't you and mom have more important things to talk about than my relationships?"

"After she's through asking how the kids are and how I'm doing, you're the next hot topic."

"I'm single and working, thank you very much."

"Hey, I like where you're at, it's her you need to talk to."

"The same woman who's still under the impression I'm going to meet Prince Charming and become an international bestselling author? I don't think so."

The grey eyed man in front of her chuckled. "If you're happy, then just leave it at that. Oh, and not to mention she still thinks you're a virgin."

"The woman's nuts I tell you."

"Because she didn't walk in on you and that JC guy doing it in reverse cowgirl at-"

"Sean!" Katrina stopped him. "That was three years ago on New Years and I knew it was you who came in the room! All this time JC's been trying to convince me I was imagining it."

"You still see that guy?"

"JC? Yea, of course. He's a friend."

"Just a friend?"

"A best friend."

"As long as that's as far as it goes, then we're good."

"Believe me, I agree."

He chuckled, pulling out a piece of paper from the back pocket of his capris. "Here is a list of numbers you can try if you need to get through to either me or Lindsay during the week. It has her cell, my cell, but you already have those, and I added on the numbers to the hotel where the convention is taking place and all that."

"I probably won't need it but thanks. What time's your flight tomorrow?"

"Five in the morning, so I should better leave if I want to help Lindsay finish pack our dental stuff and still get a couple hours sleep."

Katrina nodded, turning around. "Guys, your dad's leaving. Wanna come say goodbye?"

Looking up, the both kids ran past Katrina and to their father.

"You guys are gonna be good for Aunt Kat?" he asked, to which both children nodded.

"We will," the boy promised.

"And you're gonna do what she says and not give her any trouble?"

Again, unison nodding.

"Okay," Sean smiled, high fiving his son and giving his daughter a kiss on the forehead.

"I love you guys, okay?"

"I love you too, daddy," the shy little girl with the two pigtails said softly.

"You too, sweetheart. Cody, look out your sister, okay?"

"I will."

"Okay, I'll see you two in a week. Kat, again, thank you."

"No problem," Katrina smiled, picking up her niece and balancing her on the hip. "We're gonna have fun here, ain't that right guys?"

"Yea!" Cody grinned, pumping a fist in the air, causing his sister to chuckle.

"Alright, good," his father nodded. "I'll call when I can."

A few final kisses and goodbyes were exchanged before Katrina finally closed the door and walked back to the living room.

"Kitty is cute," the green eyed girl said quietly, stroking the fur on Pixel's head slowly and carefully.

Katrina smiled. "Are you hungry, Cin?"

The little girl looked at her brother and nodded.

"You too, Cody?" Katrina asked.

"Yea. What're we having?"

"Pizza," Katrina announced happily. "So let's wash up those hands of yours and let's eat."

"Kitty too?" Cindy asked, hopefully, and Katrina laughed.

"Yea, Pixel can eat with us too."

----

2:46 AM

It wasn't too long after eating dinner and an hour of ‘why mushrooms are better than pineapples on pizza' between Cody and Cindy did Katrina realize that it was bordering eleven o' clock and the two kids were beginning to fall asleep on themselves at the kitchen table.

After cleaning up, washing up, and helping give two tired kids a bath each plus tucking them in and making sure they were comfortable in the guestroom, Katrina herself was ready to just sink under the covers and savour the sweet slumber she was looking forward to.

She had been asleep for only two hours after she had taken her own shower before she heard a loud knocking that startled her from her dreaming.

She sat up immediately upon hearing the noise and waited a moment or two for it to stop but it didn't.

"Damn it," she muttered, flinging off the covers and speed walking toward the door. She didn't want either Cody or Cindy to wake up on their first night alone at her place and have it be a frightful one.

"Who is it?" Katrina asked, her lips almost pressed against the wood of the door. On the small table next to her, she was tiredly eyeing the pepper spray she kept.

"It's Josh," she heard, and Katrina couldn't help but let her forehead fall onto the door. She let out a loud groan.

"Please let me sleep tonight," she practically begged him before she reluctantly opened the door. She was barely even able to identify JC in the darkness of the apartment in addition to her not even being one hundred percent awake yet.

"What do you want?" she asked, smothering a yawn and tiredly leaning her head against the frame of the door.

"I know it's late, and you're tired, but it's important."

"What's important?"

"Can I come in?"

Katrina sighed, moving aside so she could let the body walk past her.

Closing the door, Katrina stood in the darkness, almost mistaking the events for a dream but JC turned on the lights.

"Damn," she muttered, wincing. "What're you doing here?"

"I have to show you."

"What?"

JC stepped closer toward her and removed his hand that was covering his mouth. The side of his lips veiled a dark purple bruise and there was a little blood- some that had dried and some that was still threatening to trickle.

"Do you have some ice or some band aids I can use?" he asked, watching as Katrina became more and more awake.

"What the hell happened to you?!" she cried out, one hand cupping a side of his jaw while the other lightly touched at the bruise.

JC flinched when her fingers grazed past the centre of the bruise.

"Don't touch it so much," he mumbled, pulling away a little.

"Does it hurt?"

"A little," he admitted. "Do you have something I can use to clean it up a bit? I don't-"

"Aunt Kat?" a small voice sounded. Katrina looked over JC's shoulder and saw Cindy's face peeking out from inside the guest room. "What's going on?"

"It's just a friend that came to visit, sweetie, it's okay," Katrina assured the child with a smile. "It's okay, don't worry. You can go back to sleep."

"Y'sure?"

"Positive."

The youngster nodded slowly, before moving back into the room.

"Was that your niece?" JC asked. "Dammit, I forgot they were gonna be over here."

"You, stay right here," Katrina ordered.

JC watched as she sped past him to go into the kitchen and returned just a few seconds later with a frozen bag of green peas and a washcloth in her hand.

"Come with me," she told him, and JC followed her into her bedroom.

Waiting for him to be seated on the bed, Katrina closed the door and turned on her light.

"I'm sorry I showed up like this. I forgot your niece and nephew were gonna be here."

Katrina shook her head, completely ignoring what he had said.

"What the hell happened to you?" she demanded, taking a seat next to him on the bed and turned his face to meet her own.

"Chelsea broke up with me," JC mumbled.

"Explain the bruise, Josh."

"She... You remember why you told me to never buy a girl shoes? That she could throw it at you or then leave you wearing them?"

Katrina nodded.

"Well," JC sighed. "She did both."

"God, damn, Jace," she murmured, using the cloth to wipe around the sides of his mouth.  "What happened?"

"She found some text messages on my phone from a couple other girls and they weren't exactly PG, if you know what I mean. She assumed I had cheated on her."

"But you did."

"But I didn't expect her to find out so easily," JC insisted.

"You're such a jackass sometimes," Katrina muttered, leaning in closer to observe the bruise. "The heel from the stiletto hit you hard, didn't it?"

"I guess. I'm just glad my teeth are okay."

"Are you done with her now?"

"I don't want to be," JC admitted, lifting his head a little higher so that Katrina could continue to dab at his skin. "I love her. I know she loves me too."

"It can't be love if you two keep hurting each other like this."

"I know, it's just... I don't know. I know I'm a lot to put up with but she isn't that easy either, you know. We put up with each other. At the end of the day, we're together, but I think she's too tired at this point."

"Can I just ask how you ended up here?"

"Oh, she kicked me out of the car, and this was the first place I thought of. I knew you'd care for what I had to say."

"You and Chelsea are seriously starting to piss off everyone around you, including each other."

"Yea, but it takes so long to break in someone new that's gonna have the same understanding that we did."

"You keep hurting her, Josh. Stop."

"Do you think it's easy for me? It isn't. She hurts me too."

"In a couple more months, this is gonna happen again and you're gonna keep going around in circles. Please, for the sake of everyone around you, break up and move on, dammit. I hate seeing you like this. This bruise is just the icing on the cake."

"How bad is it?" JC asked, turning his head from side to side to give her a better angle.

"The swelling might go down in a couple days if you take care of it right," Katrina muttered. "It's not too bad. And like you said, your teeth are fine."

JC nodded. A few more silent moments had passed before JC spoke up.

"Sorry I have such bad timing in coming over here."

Katrina rubbed her eyes and laughed lightly through her nose. She leaned a head on his shoulder jadedly while he applied the frozen peas to the bruise. "I'm sorry your girlfriend is such a bitch."

JC laughed, shrugging. "Me too."

"Are you okay?"

"I've been better, I suppose. Emotionally, anyways. Physically, I'm just ready to be over with this night. I'm waiting for it to end."

"Hey, come ‘ere," Katrina told him, and JC looked at her.

She held his prickled chin between his thumb and forefinger before gently pressing her lips to his. She pulled away after a few seconds and JC groaned, leaning his forehead against hers.

"Did that make you feel better?"

"Not really," JC murmured.

"Hey, I'm trying here. What's wrong?"

"She kicked me out of the car while I had a hard on, and it never went down. That kiss didn't help things either."

"I see."

"Can we, Kat? Please?"

Katrina was silent for a moment before speaking up. "My niece and nephew are in the room next to this one. It's my first night with them alone here."

"We'll be quiet," JC promised. "And I have protection."

"Are you up for it? Doesn't your face hurt?"

JC chuckled. "The only thing that hurts is your hand pressing down on my crotch," he said, and Katrin immediately pulled her hand back. She hadn't even realized that that was where her hand rested.

"Sorry," she apologized.

"Please," JC whispered into her ear. Katrina knew at that point, and from the shiver that went down her spine, she wasn't going to be able to resist any longer.

Not even attempting a verbal answer, Katrina pressed her lips to his, JC not even caring about the painful pressure she was exerting onto him. He slipped his tongue into her mouth and a slick hand in between her legs.

"Yea," she murmured, pulling away.

"Really?" JC asked, and Katrina used the opportunity to lift off his shirt.

"You want it or not?" she asked, breathlessly.

JC stared into the lustful look she had in her eyes that he hadn't seen for weeks. "Fuck yes."

Katrina smiled, taking a seat on the edge of the bed next to JC's almost lifeless body. She looked at him silently. His brown hair dishevelled and scattered across his forehead like that of a five year old kid during nap time. She watched as bare chest rose slowly and then deflated as he breathed. His lips were looked almost glued together in a slight frown and Katrina couldn't help but cringe a little when she noticed the bruise was still visible at the side of his mouth.

"Jace," she called out to him, shaking his shoulder. His skin was still warm. "Jace, wake up."

JC grunted, not opening his eyes and Katrina sighed.

She held up the cup of coffee that was in her hand and it hovered over his nose. "Wake up."

A few moments went by before she saw JC inhale deeply and he finally opened his eyes. She pulled back the cup and he stared up at her, his eyelids heavy.

"Morning," she greeted him, taking a sip of the hot beverage.

"Mornin'," JC murmured, rubbing his eyes.

"You okay?" Katrina asked, noticing he looked a little unsettled.

JC nodded, turning on his side so the front of his body faced her. He closed his eyes. "What time is it?"

"A little after nine."

"That's not too early."

"I wanted to be awake before the kids got up."

He opened his eyes. "Kids?" JC asked, confused, and then he remembered. "Oh, your niece and nephew. Right."

"How's the mouth feeling?" Katrina asked, holding his chin in one place so she could get a better look at the side of his face. The prickle from the overnight scruff that had grown grazed against the palm of her hand. "The swelling went down a bit."

"It feels like a throbbing, now," JC told her. "Does it look bad?"

"Just a little black and blue. It's bad, but not as bad as it was last night."

JC smiled, closing his eyes for a moment and then reopening them to look at her. "Last night wasn't bad at all."

"It was good."

JC raised his eyebrows. "Just good?"

"It was one of our better nights," Katrina admitted with a smile. "Considering I was half asleep and you were half miserable when you came over last night, it was a pretty good."

"Yea," JC nodded. "It took me away from reality for a couple hours."

"Glad I could help you out."

"Did you take a shower or are you still naked under there?"

Katrina looked down at the light pink bathrobe she wore that was tied around her waist. "I just put my underwear and bra back on. I've only been up for a little while."

"Do I have to get up too?"

"If you do, I'll make you an omelette."

"I'd prefer you come back into bed with me and let me have a different kind of breakfast."

"One, I haven't showered, so no. Two, I wanted to get breakfast ready before Cody and Cindy get up."

"Fine, I'll get up. Where are my clothes?"

"Right over there," she said, pointing to a corner of the room. "And there, and there, and I believe that's your shirt on top of my dresser."

JC chuckled, realizing that the floor was covered with articles of clothing that belonged to both of them, with the exception of his shirt and her shorts that were flung onto different items in the room.

"Wild."

"Put your jeans and t shirt back on before you come outside. I don't want Cindy to wake up and see some strange man walking around in boxers the first morning she wakes up here."

"Alright, alright. Go make something. I'll meet you in the kitchen in a while."

"How long's a while?"

"Can't you gimme five more minutes to sleep in peace? I'm not ready to start the day yet. You know my situation."

"Oh please," Katrina snorted, getting up. "The same situation you have every couple months? Either way, you got some last night, and today, you're probably going to get back together with the person who made you come over here in the first place. You're fine. So get up, and let's start the day."

"You're mean," JC grumbled.

----

"Is the ice making it feel any better?" Katrina asked, turning around from the stove to look at him. JC sat wretchedly at her kitchen table, a fork in one hand and an ice pack that was held up to the side of his mouth in the other.

"Not much better," he replied. "The ice is cold and the omelette is hot and only half of my face is numb. This ain't the way to start off your first breakfast of the week."

"I told you not to buy her shoes," Katrina chuckled, turning around to tend to the eggs she had on the frying pan. "It'll go down, don't worry. It's not like your vocal chords are damaged."

"Whatever," JC mumbled, stuffing a slice of tomato in his mouth.

Katrina was about to offer him another round of breakfast before she heard a door open. Taking a step to the left so that she could look down the small corridor, she smiled when she saw her nephew emerge from the room, holding Cindy's hand.

"Good morning you two," Katrina smiled as they entered the kitchen area. "Did you sleep well?"

"I did," Cody announced happily, his blue baseball pajamas wrinkled. The small girl with the bouncy brown hair and yellow pajamas, similar to her brother's, looked up at Katrina and frowned.

"What's wrong, Cin? Was the room too cold? Were the pillows too high?"

"She missed mom and dad," Cody explained.

"Aw," Katrina smiled, taking a second to squat in front of the stove so that she faced her niece. "We can give mommy and daddy a call a little later when their plane lands later today. Are you okay otherwise?"

Cindy giggled when her aunt tickled her stomach through the cotton fabric and nodded. "Ya."

"She wanted to go sleep with you last night," Cody went on. "But we heard noises."

Katrina saw JC's head shoot up from the corner of her eye but she ignored his stare. "What kind of noises?" she asked after clearing her throat.

Cody shrugged. "I don't know. It kind of sounded like someone was in pain or something. It was a little weird."

"Were you in pain, Aunt Kat?" Cindy asked, and all three faces looked at JC when a half laugh - half cough sounded.

Katrina glared at him, and JC looked at them, embarrassed.

"Sorry," he apologized, before turning back to his plate with a smile.

"Who's that?" Cindy whispered.

"He's a close friend of mine," Katrina said, standing up straight and turning off the stove. She looked at JC and nodded toward him. "He's harmless, guys, don't worry."

"Hi," JC spoke up, sharing a friendly wave. "I'm JC."

"Go take a seat at the table," Katrina instructed. "I'll get you both some juice in a minute."

Cody dashed over to the table and practically hopped up on the chair just opposite to where JC sat. His sister followed a little slower, taking her time to climb up onto the seat. Both kids simply stared at JC for a moment.

"Hi," JC repeated with a smile. "How are you guys?"

"Good," Cody nodded. His sister simply stared. "Did you sleep over too?" he asked.

"Um," JC rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Yea. Yea, I did."

"How come?"

He had barely opened his mouth to start his sentence before Katrina set two glasses of orange juice on the table and cut him off.

"I asked JC to come over last night," she lied. "Because I had a stomach ache and JC said he'd help take care of me, so he stayed over."

"Are you a doctor?" Cindy asked, and JC shook his head.

"More like a musician."

Cody's face lit up. "You like music?"

"Cody loves music, just so you know," Katrina said, taking a seat at the table to join in on the conversation. "Science too."

"Do you play any instruments?" JC asked.

The child nodded, suddenly ignoring the plate of food in front of him. "The piano. I like the drums too. Do you play?"

"Piano, yea. I'm not too good at the drums though."

"What'd you do?"

"I like to sing," JC responded.

"Do you know a lot about music?"

Both JC and Katrina had to hide a smile. "I know a thing or two."

"You want to hear something cool, Cody?" Katrina asked.

"What?"

"Do you know who Michael Jackson is?"

"Yea. Dad plays him all the time at home."

"JC got to sing and perform with Michael Jackson. He knew Michael Jackson personally."

Cody beamed, and JC chuckled at the sudden look of fascination in the boy's eyes.

"Really?"

JC nodded. "Yea. But that was a long time ago."

"You're famous, then.  Like, a celebrity?"

"Not really," JC shook his head. "I just play music, dude. No ifs ands or buts about it. I just know a lot of people."

Cody nodded, picking up the fork in his plate and he began to take apart his omelette. "You're cool," he said to JC.

JC turned his attention to the quiet, green eyed youngster across from him. "What about you, honey? Do you like music too?"

The girl smiled shyly, but she shook her head. "Cody likes music."

"What'd you like?"

"Animals. And stories. And poems. And dress up."

"Like your aunt, huh? Besides the dress up part."

"Yea."

"How old are you guys?"JC asked.

"Seven," Cody replied. "Cindy's four."

"Is JC your boyfriend, Aunt Kat?" Cindy asked.

"No, JC's not my boyfriend," Katrina shook her head. "He's just a friend."

Cody nodded and looked at JC. "I like him."

----

Katrina jumped slightly, frowning a bit when she saw JC lying on her bed, texting on his phone.

"I thought you left after I went to give Cindy a shower," she told him.

JC looked up at her, tossing the phone away and crossing his arms behind his head. "How'd you expect me to get home? Walk?"

"You walked over here last night."

"My house is over a mile away. And would you believe that Chelsea isn't taking my calls?"

"Did you try apologizing over a voicemail?"

JC nodded. "I just want her to pick up the damn phone already. I mean, how long could she possibly give me the silent treatment?"

"You know us girls. We could keep that game up for a long time."

"Did you want me to leave for a reason or can I hang around?"

Katrina shrugged. "I figured you had stuff to do today."

"Not really," JC told her. "No girl, no plans. The most I'll probably get done is some song writing."

"Do you want me to drop you off to the studio today then?"

"Nah. I need to get home first and get out of these clothes and freshen up."

"You want me to give you a ride home, don't you?"

"Please?"

"Okay," Katrina sighed. "But you're gonna have to wait for a little while. I still need to take a shower and then I need to get some of the kids' stuff organized for today."

"Where're you taking them?"

"I was thinking of the Aquarium of the Pacific and then The Grove for lunch."

"Can I come with you?"

Katrina raised her eyebrows in surprise and took seat next to JC on the bed. "Why?"

"I ain't got nothing to do. I may as well offer to help you out with two little kids for the day."

"You don't have to do that. And you just said that you wanted to go to the studio today."

"So is that a ‘No, JC, you can't come' or a ‘No, JC, I don't want you to come'?"

"What're you doing tonight?"

JC shrugged. "I'm probably gonna call up the guys and go to the club or a get a few drinks or something."

"Then do you really wanna come to the Aquarium with us today?" Katrina asked uncertainly. "I'm just really looking for kid friendly places to take them so if we're there, I don't want to be a part of some scheme you're probably gonna pull to pick up new girls."

"C'mon, I wouldn't do that with a bunch of kids around. I don't date girls with kids anyways so my options are limited."

 "I don't necessarily have an issue if you come with us. As long as Cody and Cindy don't mind having you around, that is. I mean, they just met you. I don't want it to be uncomfortable for them."

"So ask them," JC told her, sitting up and cross legged. "They're right there." He nodded toward the door to Katrina's bedroom where both kids had just walked in- Cody with his Gameboy in his hands while his sister held Pixel in her small hands affectionately to her chest. Both children wore new, clean clothes and their hair was partially wet from their morning showers.

Katrina turned her head to look at them and smiled. "Hey, you two. What're you doing?"

"We're waiting on you, Aunt Kat," Cody informed her with a smile, hopping up onto the foot of the bed. Cindy walked over to her aunt and Katrina lifted her onto her lap.

"What about you, hm?" Katrina asked, kissing the back of the girl's head. "What're you and Pix doing?"

"Kitty was hungry so I fed her. She's okay now."

JC smiled. "You look nice, sweetie. KittyKat seems to like you a lot."

Cindy blushed, smiling shyly at JC. "Thanks."

"What're you guys doing today?" JC asked, giving Katrina a look that said, ‘Let them answer.'

Cody turned off the Gameboy and turned his body around to look at JC. "We're going to the Aquarium today. Right, Aunt Kat?"

"Mhm."

"Cindy wants to see the penguins but I want to see the snakes," Cody continued to inform JC, who simply sat there and nodded.

"Snakes are mean, Cody," Cindy tod her brother as she continued to stroke the kitten in her hand. "Mommy says they have poison."

"Well, dad says not all of them do."

"Well, not all of the snakes there are poisonous, Cin,"JC said. "Some of them might even be more scared of you than you are of them. And Cody, the turtles and some of the frogs at the Aquarium are pretty neat too."

 Cody grinned. "I like frogs too."

"Basically, all the animals that Cindy are afraid of, Cody likes," Katrina chuckled.

"I got a younger sister too, man," JC told him. "Just look out for her when she gets scared."

Cody nodded. "I do. Hey, you wanna come with us to the Aquarium today, JC? You and I can look at all the reptiles and amphibians and Aunt Kat and Cindy can look at the birds and stuff."

JC smiled at Katrina, who rolled her eyes.

"Yea," she said. "JC's coming with us. You okay with that, Cin?"

"Mhm," the girl nodded. "He can protect us from the snakes."

Katrina laughed. "JC can barely protect himself from a high heeled shoe. And don't you see how skinny he is?"

JC raised his eyebrows. "That's not what you said last night when I-"

"So I'm just gonna take a shower and we'll get going, okay?" Katrina said loudly, cutting him off. She lifted Cindy off her lap. "You two can go watch TV or eat an ice pop in the meantime."

"Cool," Cody nodded, hopping off the bed and leaving the room. Cindy ran behind him.

Katrina glared at JC who had a relaxed and knowing grin on his face.

"You're the devil, aren't you?"

"You wanna smack talk? I'll smack talk you right back. Or I can just smack you the way you like it and do us both a favour."

"Cody's seven, not stupid," Katrina hissed. "No sex talk unless you're saying it vaguely and to me."

"No more insults and you'll have nothing to worry about."

"And I'm the mean one," Katrina murmured to herself.

-----

"How long are you gonna take?" she asked, closing JC's front door behind her. The two kids beside her silently gaped, looking around the mansion in awe.

"I'll shower in a little while," JC replied, leading them into the living room. "I got something I wanna show Cody first."

Cody snapped back to attention when he heard JC say his name. "Sorry, what?"

JC chuckled. "I said I got something to show you. C'mere."

Cody followed JC further in the living room and JC grinned when he saw the boy's eyes light up. A sleek, all black grand piano sat peacefully near the almost floor to ceiling glass windows. The light pouring through lit up the room, specks sparkling in Cody's excited orbs.

"She's awesome, ain't she?" JC asked.

Cody nodded enthusiastically, stepping closer to the instrument but not touching. "It's awesome. I always see kinds like these in the movies but I never knew anyone who owned one."

"Well, now you do."

"Do you play on it?"

JC nodded. "Yea, usually when I'm chillin' by myself here I like to sit down and just come up with songs on it. You wanna play?"

"Can I?" Cody grinned.

"Uh, JC," Katrina spoke up. She was now holding Cindy on her hip with one arm. "Are you sure you want to let him play on that?"

JC shrugged. "He'll be careful. You can't exactly break this thing, as you should rightfully know. Once h doesn't bang on the keys like a monkey, he'll be fine."

"I'll be careful," Cody promised.

JC gestured for him to take a seat on the wide, leather, cushioned black stool. "Play something for me. You do music at school right? Play a piece you learnt."

"I only know short pieces. They're only a minute long."

"That's cool. Play."

Cody took a few moments to absorb the sight of the instrument in front of him before he let his fingers say what JC wanted to hear. It was only a minute and a half later when the music stopped playing and Cody looked up at JC.

"That's about it."

JC nodded, smiling down at the child and giving him a pat on the back. "You're a talented little dud, man. I couldn't even play a piano till I was like, ten or twelve. For you to be seven years old and playing like that, that takes skill. I enjoyed it, so keep at the music thing if you love it that much. With a few more years of practice, your fingers are gonna be flying over those keys like it's nothing."

"Thanks, JC," Cody smiled. "I know some other songs too."

"Pool," Cindy said loudly, wiggling her way down Katrina's body and practically squabbling over to peer out at the crystal blue body of water through the glass. "Aunt Kat, a pool."

"It's pretty, huh? But we can't swim in the pool today."

"The three year old pouted. "How come?"

"Yea, how come, Kat?"JC asked, walking over to where Cindy stood. "Why can't we swim in the pool today?"

Katrina put her hands on her hips. "JC, you never use that pool."

"Because I never have anyone to swim with."

"I'll swim too if JC and Cindy are," Cody agreed, and Katrina looked at the three of them, exasperated.

"I thought we were going to the Aquarium today, remember? We gotta get going."

"But I wanna play some more songs for JC," the seven year old said, before his sister joined in.

"And I wanna swim in the pool."

Katrina shook her head. "We can't invade JC's house like that, guys."

"They're not invading," JC shook his head. "I don't have plans till nine o'clock tonight. We can chill here for the day if the kids want to."

"What about the Aquarium?" Katrina groaned.

"We can go to the Aquarium tomorrow," Cody suggested. "I like it here."

Katrina frowned, letting a sigh slip out. "Jace..."

"I don't mind, really," JC told her. "Seriously, the four of us can have more fun here than at some Aquarium. We got a pool, video games, lotsa ice cream and microwaveable food, TVs, everything."

"The kids have clothes in the car but I don't."

"So, if you wanna take a dip, I'll just lend you a shirt or something. C'mon."

"Can we, Aunt Kat? Pleaasseee?" Cindy pleaded.

JC chuckled. "How can you say no to that?"

-----

7:30PM

"Why is it always so effin' cold in your house when we get out of the pool?" Katrina hissed in a whisper.

The day, in the least, had been interesting. And it became the kind of interesting Katrina had ended up thoroughly enjoying. She hadn't expected neither Cody nor Cindy to even meet JC that week, far less end up spending the day at his house. JC didn't seem to mind the company either because he was the one in the pool with them for the first two hours straight while Katrina focused to making a lunch that consisted of home baked fries and burgers.

JC and Cody had spent some time with the piano for the next hour and a half while Katrina watched some TV with her niece before the rest of the evening was spent back in the pool.

Both kids had dozed off by the time the sun had started to go down and they fell asleep, the both of them on one large pool side chair.

"Do you want me to turn off the A/C in this room then?" JC offered, reaching for the air conditioning control on the dresser of the guest room they had rested Cody and Cindy in.

"Yea, let them defrost a bit in their sleep."

JC nodded, turning off the unit and turning toward Katrina who was making sure her niece and nephew were at least looking comfortable on the bed.

"Are you hungry?" JC asked. "We haven't eaten since lunch."

Katrina nodded. "Swimming works up an appetite."

"C'mon," JC led her out of the room and closed the door quietly behind them. Making their way downstairs, they entered the kitchen.

"I'm tired," Katrina whined, lazily pulling open the door to JC's fridge. "All I see is a bowl of Trail Mix in here. You wanna share it?"

"There're a couple chocolate bars in the drawer," JC said. "Take those out too."

Katrina placed the snacks on the island and started picking and choosing what she wanted and didn't want from the bowl of Trail Mix whereas JC immediately started un-wrapping the sugar.

"Today was fun," JC said, biting into the chocolate.

Katrina nodded, popping a mini pretzel into her mouth. "Yea, the kids liked it. Thanks for giving up your house today."

JC shrugged. "Don't sweat it."

"So after I leave, I'm guessing you're gonna get ready to go out and come back here drunk and ready to screw some new girl you're gonna meet tonight?"

"If Chelsea doesn't call me back before a hot chick with a nice ass agrees to come home with me tonight, that's the plan."

"She still hasn't called you back yet?"

"Nope."

"Looks like you fucked this one up."

JC shrugged. "She still has two hours."

"And if she doesn't call in two hours, and you see a new girl, you're gonna bring her back here and have sex with her?"

"Yes."

Katrina took a couple of dried raisins and an almond and threw them at JC.

JC frowned, picking up one of the raisins that had landed back in the island and popping it into his mouth. "Bitch."

"Ass."

"Clever, SmartieKat."

Katrina shrugged. "You fuck whatever girl you can get your hands on, and she fucks whatever guy she can expose her boobs to. Jace, doesn't that relationship make you sick?"

"No," JC told her with a slight glare. "I love her, and sometimes we like to have fun with other people. At the end of the day, we have our understanding. And her clothes aren't even that provocative."

"Her clothes are as conservative as All Day Long I Dream about Sex is kid friendly."

"Why am I arguing with the sexually deprived?"

"I am not sexually deprived. Not after last night, anyways."

"Well, I'm glad you know who you were with last night."

"You and I are different. You and Chelsea are... beyond different."

JC walked over to where she stood behind the island and Katrina hadn't even finished swallowed the dried cranberry she was chewing before JC had walked so closely to her that she was pushed up against the marble.

"What?" Katrina asked.

"Alright, let's say, worst case scenario-"

"Here we go..."

"Hey, listen. Worst case scenario, you leave, my girl doesn't call, and I end up not going out tonight."

"What's the problem?"

"I end up heartbroken and I don't get laid."

"And I'm sexually deprived?"

JC crashed his lips down on hers, the chocolate he was eating before long ago swallowed and the handful of Trail Mix in her hand dropped onto the tiled floor.

JC bit down on her bottom lip for a moment before he pulled away long enough to peel off the wet t shirt he had lent her to swim in off of her body.

 "Worst case scenario," Katrina began. "Cody or Cindy walking down here and seeing us doing it on the kitchen counters."

"We'd hear the door open if they wake up."

Katrina pulled his body against her own, bringing his head down so that she could lick at that spot that drove him crazy.

"Fuck, Kat," JC groaned. "Wha- I don't even have to beg you this time?"

"No shit Sherlock," Katrina replied, lifting off his white t shirt. "If you're gonna keep complaining about your worst case scenario, I'm just gonna give you what you want and get something outta it myself."

"You're doing this out of pity?"

"Yes."

JC nodded. "I can live with that."

Katrina couldn't help but chuckle when she saw the bliss in JC's eyes when he looked down at her chest. He wrapped his arms around her, occupying his lips with her own while he tried to unhook her bra.

A few moments of fumbling went by before JC pulled away from the kiss, breathing hard. "Fuck," he muttered against her lips. "Do you have a damn lock on this bra or something bec-"

"You mean the same way you have a lock on your house but obviously forget I have the key to it?"

JC jumped back, and looked over to the arched entrance. A fierce scowl from the brunette with the Louboutin heels made his jaw fall open. "Shit."

"You know," the woman continued, her obvious extensions tightly held in a high ponytail. "We both knew how long this bullshit has been going on, but did you forget the number one rule of cheating, JC?"

"You haven't taken my calls all damn day!"

"I was calling you five minutes ago but I guess you couldn't hear your phone because you were too busy going to have sex with another girl in your kitchen."

"Chels, baby, she-"

"Don't bother with the explanation. I'm sure you're just gonna repeat one of the excuses you've repeatedly already told me."

JC raised his eyebrows. "And you think I don't know where all those hickeys on your breasts came from? Well, remember sweet heart, you're the one who wouldn't take my calls, you're the one who's calling the kettle black, and you're the one who knows all my excuses because you've told them to me yourself when you try to cover up your own lying!"

"And so far you're the only one who had the indecency to actually get caught!"

"Chels, I-"

"Fuck off, JC," she glared at him, before menacingly turning on her heel and click-clacking her way quickly out of the room.

"Wait, Chelsea!" JC began to call after her before he realized Katrina was still standing there. "Kat, I-"

"I'm sorry too, don't worry."

JC nodded before practically sprinting out of the kitchen. "Chels, babe, wait up!"

Katrina peered through the peek hole of JC's front door. One eye closed while the other was squinted as she tried to read the words off the lips of the two people arguing next to the white Lexus in the blackness of the night.

She frowned as she rubbed her forehead and watched as the fake eye-lashed beauty threw her hands exasperatedly in the air. JC grabbed her wrist and brought it back down to her side, saying something that Katrina couldn't hear from where she spied.

Thinking back, this was probably the first time Katrina had ever been directly caught being intimate with JC by another girlfriend, or, anyone for that matter. She usually made a strategic escape or hid in a tight spot while JC thought of distractions. From the look on both lovers' faces, Katrina couldn't help but feel a small wave of guilt ride through her veins.

When JC didn't release his visibly tight grip, Chelsea shouted profanities into his face and used her free hand to push his shoulder away, causing JC to let her go but stumble backward.

"Ouch," Katrina muttered. She watched the action for a few more moments before she saw JC finally shake his head as he opened the car door to the Lexus' driver's seat. Chelsea got in, and pulled in the door roughly with a scowl.

JC stood with his arms folded as she reversed out of the driveway. When the large, automatic gates to the property had closed, and JC turned to re-enter the house, Katrina scrambled from behind the door and took a few steps back to pretend she was pacing.

The wooden door opened and JC entered the foyer with a silent sigh. His left hand slowly grazed at the stubble on his jaw line.

Katrina stopped moving and looked at him expectantly.

"I know you saw, Kat," he said as he lifted his head to look at her.

Katrina nodded slowly but quickly responded. "I didn't hear anything though, I swear."

JC shrugged. "I'm surprised you didn't hear anything with all the yelling she did."

"What happened out there?" Katrina pushed, following him into the living room. She was hot on his heels as JC dragged his feet toward his couch. Neither of them seemed to pay attention to the fact that both their shirts were off with the exception of her bra. "Talk, c'mon."

"To be honest, there isn't much to talk about," JC told her truthfully, looking up at her as he took a seat.

Katrina folded her arms. "Did you break up with her or did she break up with you?"

"She broke up with me. I tried to tell her that it was just you and that it didn't mean anything but she just, wasn't having it, I guess."

"Did she say anything about me?" Katrina pressed.

Chelsea was familiar with who Katrina was, but they had never been on lengthy conversational terms. As far as Chelsea was concerned, Katrina was simply the fly on the wall.

 "I tried to tell her you were the one who came onto me," JC squirmed uncomfortably. He quickly added, "Which is true, by the way."

Katrina gaped at him and kicked at his feet. "You tried to blame me?"

"I was trying to get her back on my side, okay? I was doing what I could."

"So you lied to her and you blamed me for it? And you still tried to get her back?"

JC shrugged but eventually nodded a moment later.

Katrina shook her head in disbelief. She sat next to him, and turned to face him. "You, my friend, just upgraded from jackass to dumbass."

JC leaned back and closed his eyes. "Gee, thanks, Kat." He muttered a soft "Fuck" before opening his eyes.

Katrina eyed him for a moment before heaving a sigh placing a hand on his knee.

"I'm sorry you fucked up one of the few relationships you cared about," she said sincerely.

She knew JC had a tendency to fall a bit too hard, even if he couldn't stay committed all the way.

JC chuckled, swatting her hand away and Katrina smiled.

"I'll be okay," he assured her. "On the bright side, now I can get with new girls without having Chels' body in the back of my mind."

"Ew."

"She's hot," JC smiled, scratching his head. "Hey, sorry I dragged your name into this, by the way."

Katrina wasn't sure if she minded or not, but she brushed it off. "Eh, better me than someone else, right? At least she knew who I was."

"Thanks."

"You'll be okay. You're better off apart, never mind that I've been telling you that for the entire duration of your relationship."

"I'm not too down about it," JC stated. "I'm going out tonight." He lifted his feet to rest on the glass coffee table in front of him and relaxed against the cushions. "The sooner I move on, the better, right?"

"Jace..."

"What?"

"Does a breakup ever have any effect on you people? I don't even think I saw so much as a teardrop from either of you."

"I knew you were peeking," JC told her. "And of course a breakup has effects on me. I just choose to either drink them away or get rid of ‘em by having meaningless sex with women with low self esteem. So much easier."

Katrina stared at him blankly. "Can't you just be like a normal musician and write a song about your girlfriend screwing you over?"

"I'm not Justin Timberlake."

"Don't you think you'll regret this in the morning?"

"I'll sleep late."

Katrina chuckled, getting up from the couch. "Be careful tonight, then. And if you come banging on my door before the sun is up tomorrow morning, expect to be greeted by getting a pitchfork to the chest. I got to get Cody and Cindy back to my place."

"What're you guys doing tomorrow?" JC asked. "You wanna bring them back here?"

Katrina snorted. "Hell no. Not again. You messed up my plans for the day and look at how our night ended."

"So where're you taking ‘em?"

"To the Aquarium, like I intended."

JC raised his eyebrows. "Can I-"

"And no, you can't come."

****

Katrina grinned as she looked at her neutral makeup self in the bathroom mirror. Her natural, wavy hair that sometimes frizzed out of hand was smoothed back and pulled into a high ponytail. Her dark blue visor matched the navy blue polo she threw on and her knee length, black capris was the obvious choice.

To her delight, JC hadn't woken Katrina up in the middle of the night with an unexpected visit, text message, or even a voicemail. Applying a coat of neutral lipstick, she assumed that JC was knocked out cold in his own bed after stumbling home from wherever he went the night before, and that ultimately meant-

"Aquarium!" Cindy cheered, running into the bathroom and wrapping her arms around the leg of her aunt. "Are you ready yet?"

"I'm ready!" Katrina laughed, lifting the child and shaking her with excitement. She planted a kiss on Cindy's forehead before she left the bathroom.

"Cody?" Katrina called out, looking around the apartment. She took the few steps toward the guest room and opened the door halfway. Sure enough, the seven year old was sitting quietly on the bed, already dressed in his khakis and green t shirt, drawing in what Katrina assumed was a workbook.

"What'd ya doing, kiddo?" she asked. "You ready to head to the Aquarium?"

The boy looked up at his aunt and grinned. "Yea. Are we leaving now?"

"Yea, Cindy and I are ready. Did you bring homework?"

"It's a music workbook that dad bought for me to practice in," the child explained. He looked down at his page of treble clefs and closed the book. "I'm done though."

"You're such a music freak sometimes, Codes," Katrina smiled.

"Is your JC coming with us today, Aunt Kat?" Cindy asked, peering up at her aunt with big brown eyes.

Katrina shook her head, partly surprised that the child had managed to remember the name of the stranger she had spent the day with the day before. "No, I think he might be a little busy today."

"We should invite him over for dinner tonight," Cody suggested hopping off the bed. "He could help me with the rest of the workbook."

Katrina folded her arms. "Gosh, I'm starting to think you guys want to hang out with JC more than you do with me."

Cody chuckled while his aunt playfully pouted as she looked down at Cindy.

"We love you more Aunt Kat, don't worry," her nephew assured her.

"Of course you do," Katrina said happily. "But you know what I love?"

"What?"

"Not leaving the house an hour later than we were supposed to."

Cindy used the opportunity to run out the room. Her chanting could be heard from the front door. "Aquarium!"

****

 Katrina knelt down on the tile with a silent smile on her face. She angled her camera and snapped the scene in front of her.

Both children gaped at the wonders of the sea otters swimming in the large aquarium before them in glee. Their small hands pressed against the glass and they giggled whenever one of the animals swam close to them.

"Don't they get cold swimming in water all day, Aunt Kat?" Cody questioned.

"Their fur keeps them warm," Katrina responded, standing up to join them. "It's like a blanket for ‘em so they don't get too cold in there."

"Their moustaches are long," Cindy giggled. "I like the baby otters."

"You know, Cin," Katrina smiled. They had been there forty five and all they had seen so far were some fish and sea otters. "The penguin habitat is the next closest exhibit."

The little girl's face lit up. "Let's go!" she urged, tearing herself away from the large aquarium to latch on to her aunt's hand.

"Where's the penguin exhibit?" Cody asked.

"Down this corridor and turn left- Hey!"

Both children had taken off running down the dark, blue glassed corridor, leaving Katrina behind. "Guys, stop-"

Before she could even call after them to stop, both kids had already rounded to corner. Katrina took off on a short sprint, almost falling forward when she turned the corner and realized Cody was standing right at the entrance, high fiving a man in a white t shirt, grey jeans and black sunglasses.

"Cody!" Katrina half scowled-half exclaimed. "You guys aren't supposed to- You've got to be joking."

"You're doing a great job keeping these kids close, SmartieKat."

Katrina glared at the man through his Aviators. "They ran off on me!" she defended. "Don't ever do that again, by the way," she pointed her fixed stare at her niece and nephew before lifting her head again.

"JC, what the hell are you doing here?"

JC chuckled, taking off the Aviators and shrugging. "I thought I would have found something to do today but I got bored and remembered Cindy talking about wanting to see penguins at the Aquarium yesterday. I've been here for almost an hour waiting for you guys to show up."

"You're kidding, right?" Katrina shook her head. "You could have called, you know."

"My phone died on my way here."

"I feel like you're stalking me," Katrina stated, partly joking. "There was nothing to do in the studio today?"

"Writer's block," JC shrugged. "And I woke up with a hangover," he mouthed.

Katrina shook her head, adjusting the visor she wore.

"That means JC can stay with us while we're here, right Aunt Kat?" Cody beamed.

JC smiled when Cindy walked over to him and held on to his hand. "No more running away from your aunt, sweetie. I know she's a bit looney sometimes but we got to stick with her, okay?"

Cody chuckled, taking his aunt's hand. "Sorry, Aunt Kat. We won't run off again. We promise."

"Yea, yea, okay," Katrina sighed. "Since we're stuck with JC now, can we see go see the penguins?"

"Yea!" Cindy cheered.

"C'mon," JC grinned, lifting the child and balancing her on his side. "Penguin time."

They walked over to where at least a dozen penguins both swam while a few played on the icy rock set up in the habitat.

"It's so cool the way that they glide through the water like that," Cody murmured.                  

"Awesome, right?" JC agreed. "Too bad they can't fly though."

"They waddle funny," Cindy grinned.

Katrina looked on for a few moments while the trio continued sharing their thoughts on the exhibit. She caught herself smiling at times when she looked at what she had always considered ‘a fat, fluffy bowling pin wearing a tuxedo.' She also found herself drifting toward the small area a few feet away where presentations and information about penguins were set up.

A certain image of one penguin caught her eye, and Katrina immediately started laughing. She was about to take out her camera to snap another photo when someone came up next to her.

"Amusing, isn't it?"

A man a couple inches taller with broad shoulders and hazel eyes smiled at her.

Katrina grinned, looking back at the photo. "It's hilarious. He looks like he tried getting a penguin Mohawk and died it yellow."

The man chuckled, nodding in agreement. "You gotta love those Macaroni penguins."

"They're adorable. That's what they're called?"

"Mhm. They're pretty noisy, aggressive birds though, and they're pretty raucous when they're out at sea, as well. I guess you can expect that when you're out at sea and you got predators like leopard seals and killer whales."

"Woah, you know really your Macaroni penguin, don't you?"

The man laughed, as he used a hand to brush back some of the brown hair that covered his head.

"It's written right there, actually," he grinned, pointing at the flash cards lay out next to the picture.

"Oh," Katrina blushed. "That makes sense."

"I'm Ethan," the man introduced, a friendly smile- dimples intact. "And I do know my Macaroni penguins, just for the record. I tend to them a lot."

"You work with them?"

"Something like that," he replied. "I work with all the animals in the Aquarium. I'm one of the main vets here at the Animal Care Centre, so I gotta know my stuff. Today's actually one of my days off."

"You came to work on your day off?" Katrina questioned. "You must love it here."

"Yea, I'm always around, just, you know, in case something happens. And besides, it's a pretty sweet place to stick around."

She smiled. "Yea, it is great. And, I'm Kat, just so you know. Katrina, but, Kat's good."

"Nice to meet you, Kat," he said, extending an arm.

Katrina smiled as she returned the handshake. "So you're Dr...?"

"Dr. Phillips," Ethan replied.

"Do you only specialize with sea animals or all animals in general?"

"Typically only sea animals, but, you know, my practice requires me to know about the general being about animals in general. I figured they were a lot easier to deal with than us humans."

 Katrina laughed. "I know what you mean. I'm telling you, being in the company of my cat gives me the sanity I could never get from being with any friend."

"I saw your husband in here for a while before you came over here. You have quite a cute family, over there," Ethan complimented, nodding to where JC, Cody and Cindy were still enjoying the penguins.

Katrina turned around and chuckled. "Oh, Jesus, no, that's not my husband. I'm watching my niece and nephew for a while. He's just a friend of mine who wanted to help me out today."

"Well, I'd be happy to show you all through the rest of the Aquarium. Working here, I can arrange a tour if you wanted."

"Really?" Katrina raised her eyebrows. "Well, I-"

"Everything okay, Kat?" JC asked, coming up behind her. Cindy was still in his arm while Cody stuck to his side.

Katrina smiled. "Yea, yea, everything's great. I was just speaking to Ethan who offered to give us a tour around the Aquarium today."

Then man smiled. "Hi," he said politely.

"Hey, man," JC nodded toward him. "But we're alright for now, thanks."

"Yea? You sure?" Ethan asked, looking at Katrina.

She looked at JC who had a blank expression upon his face, and she thought for a moment before responding. "Yea, we're good. Thank you, for the offer though."

"Well, if you ever want a tour arranged one day," he pulled out a leather wallet and opened it, removing a business card from one of the card slots. "Call me. Or, you know, if your cat gets sick or if you ever have any questions about Macaroni penguins or something."

Katrina laughed as she accepted the card. "Thank you. I'll definitely do that."

"You're welcome, Katrina."

"Katrina Smart," she smiled.

"Uh, Kat, we should go now, you know," JC said, walking a couple steps ahead. "We need to get to the shark lagoon."

"C'mon, Aunt Kat!" Cody excitedly tugged at the hem on her shirt. "We gotta go."

"Enjoy the Aquarium," Ethan wished with a smile.

"We will," JC said loudly with a grin.

Katrina shot him a glare before nodding at Ethan. "Thanks."

Cody held on to her hand and dragged her over to where JC was standing and waiting.

"Lead the way, Codes," Katrina smiled. "Cin, go ahead, but not too fast again."

JC set down the four year old as the siblings led the way out of the exhibit.

"That was kind of rude what you did there, Jace," Katrina mumbled. "Interrupting like that."

JC shook his head. "The dude was hitting on you. I had to do something either embarrassing or protective. You don't know who that guy is."

"He's a veterinarian here at the Aquarium, smart ass. He was talking to me about penguins."

"And he gave you his number," JC pointed out.

Katrina felt her back pocket to ensure that the card was still there. "C'mon, I like being hit on sometimes, and its innocent. After you showed up, Cody and Cindy were entertained, anyways."

"Are you gonna call that guy?"

Katrina blushed slightly, and laughed through her nose. "I don't know. He was cute, wasn't he?"

"Gorgeous," JC responded.

Katrina nudged him.

"You're with me and your niece and nephew today," JC told her. "Stick with us, okay?"

"Okay, Captain Stalker," Katrina smile.

JC laughed. "You love that I'm here."

"You weren't even supposed to be here today. You'd think I'd be used to you showing up at the most unexpected times by now."

"Being unpredictable is a skill."

"I just wish you would call first."

"And I wish you liked anal."

 

 

 

 

Katrina stood under the arched entrance to her living room while she held a plastic tray containing three bowls of vanilla ice cream- Rainbow coloured sprinkles and all.

She stood unnoticed while JC and Cody sat on the couch, happily flipping through the pages of the child's music workbook as JC patiently explained the basics of the subject. Cindy sat contentedly on the carpeted floor by herself while she stroked the fur of the purring kitten in her small hands.

"Ahem," Katrina cleared her throat, entering the room and setting the tray down on the coffee table. "Ice cream for dessert," she announced.

"Awesome!" Cody cheered as his aunt handed him a bowl. "Hey, Aunt Kat, guess what?"

"What?" she asked, handing his sister a smaller bowl.

"JC helped me finish the rest of the pages."

Katrina raised her eyebrows at JC who closed the workbook and set it on the coffee table next to the tray. He picked up the bowl and shrugged.

"It was basic stuff and Cody already had most of it done," JC said. "He knew what he was doing."

"That's great, Codes," Katrina smiled. "Maybe we can get you a new one if we go to the mall tomorrow."

The child beamed as lowered his head to focus on his dessert.

"You alright, honey?" JC asked the four year old who sat a few feet away from him on the carpeted floor.

Cindy smiled up at him and nodded. She continued to silently swirl her plastic spoon around in the ice cream before feeding herself.

"She gets quieter than usual when she's worn out," Katrina explained, taking a seat in between JC's legs to join her niece on the floor. She smiled when Pixel crawled over to her and curled up in her lap.

"Where's your ice cream, Kat?" JC asked, nudging her shoulder gently with his knee.

Katrina shook her head. "I ate too much at dinner. I don't have much more room for anything else."

"But you love vanilla ice cream."

She chuckled. "I thought my thighs were beginning to look too big?"

JC shook his head at her. "Open your mouth."

Katrina leaned her head back and did as was asked. JC grinned as he placed the large spoonful of his ice cream in her mouth. He chuckled when Katrina groaned and tried to swallow.

It took a few seconds before she could think straight. "Brain freeze," she murmured, rubbing her forehead.

Cody and Cindy giggled.

Just then, the ringing of Katrina's house phone interrupted.

"Jace, phone, please," Katrina said, turning around her head.

JC reached up at the wall behind him to grab the cordless phone and handed it to her.

"Hello?" Katrina answered, relaxing against the front of the couch.

"Hey, Kat," the familiar voice greeted her.

"Sean," she proclaimed with a smile. "How are you? How's the trip?"

"That's my dad," Cody whispered to JC.

JC nodded.

"Great, the trip's been great so far," Sean told his sister. "Busy with work and what not but still pretty great. How're things with you and the kids? Are they behaving?"

"Oh, things are fun over here," Katrina replied. "They've been wonderful, really. The four of us are having some ice cream right now."

"The four of you?" her brother questioned.

"JC's here," she answered, looking up at him. JC made a face and Katrina elbowed the side of his leg. She could hear her brother groan on the other line. "The kids like him a lot, Sean."

"He's not doing anything inappropriate in front of them, is he?"

"No, he's smarter than that."

"You sure?"

"Sean," Katrina said with a warning tone.

"Are Cody and Cindy okay around him?"

"I told you, they're having fun here with the both of us."

"Alright, if you say so. Can I talk to them now, please?"

Katrina raised the phone in the air and smiled at Cindy. "Daddy's on the phone."

The little girl lit up, scrambling to her feet. "Daddy!" she squealed into the phone.

Cody hopped off the couch happily and eagerly went to stand next to his sister.

"You two can go into the kitchen if you want to talk to him alone," Katrina told them.

The two children jostled out of the living room, leaving Katrina and JC chuckling.

"Those kids are adorable," JC smiled.

"I know," Katrina agreed, standing up and collecting the two almost empty bowls of ice cream Cody and Cindy had left behind. "Having them for this week feels like a vacation for me. They're an excuse to have excessive fun and eat junk food all day."

"You're not fat, you know," JC told her. "You still got a nice ass."

She laughed whole heartedly, placing the bowls on the tray and taking a seat next to him on the couch. "Yea, well, that's what probably helped me get Ethan's attention today."

"The vet guy from the Aquarium? Please," JC practically scoffed.

"Hey, he was nice," Katrina defended.

"He was trying to pick you up."

"He was very respectful, thank you very much."

JC shrugged his shoulders and leaned back against the cushions. "Whatever you say. Are you going to give him a call?"

Katrina smiled, shaking her head. "I doubt it. I'd like to, but I doubt it."

"How come?"

"If he wanted a date, I wouldn't be able to go or even see him soon because I'm watching Cody and Cindy for the rest of the week. By the time they leave, he probably would have already forgotten about meeting me."

"I like the way you think, SmartieKat."

"Hey, I don't tell you anything when you pick up random girls and hook up with them. And that happens on a weekly basis."

JC grinned. "Totally worth it though."

"He seemed like a pretty nice guy though," Katrina said, almost blushing. "Maybe I'll see him around if I go back to the Aquarium one of these days."

"Alright, enough talk about the animal doctor," JC said, getting up and placing his empty bowl on the tray. "I'm not going to sit here and have girl talks with you over some other guy. That's like the time you tricked me into watching A Walk to Remember with you."

"You cried when we saw that movie," Katrina pointed out.

JC stared down at her on the couch and pointed his index finger. "We were eating really spicy Thai food and I was coughing."

 "Yea, you keep telling yourself that."

JC rolled his eyes at her and looked at the digital watch on his left wrist.

 "I should probably call it a night and head on out of here," he said. "Probably go home and spend a couple hours in the studio. I have a couple songs I need to be working on."

 "Projects?"

"Nah, just some beats I came up with and I wanted to finish ‘em. That's it."

Katrina never asked further questions whenever JC brought up recording. He rarely ever let her hear any of the material he worked on privately and she always got ignored whenever she suggested that he try releasing a song.

The conversation usually ended with JC having the last word because she would change the topic. It was always easier to play it safe than risk pissing him off.

"What're you gonna do?" he asked, taking his car keys out of the pocket of his jeans.

"Give the kids a bath, put them to bed, feed Pixel and then probably get ahead on some reading. And I still have to finish decide what we're doing tomorrow."

 "I actually have a few meetings tomorrow so you won't be seeing me," JC told her. He walked over to the television set and picked up his Aviators, hooking them onto the neckline of his t shirt. He checked his phone before turning around.

Katrina looked at him, unsure.

"What?" he asked.

"Is that a, ‘I'll show up unexpectedly anyways' kind of ‘you won't be seeing me' or is it a, ‘I really have shit to do' kind of ‘you won't be seeing me?'"

 "Nah, I'll call first if I'm free," JC promised with a smile.

"I know your antics, Chasez."

****

Rain.

What Katrina would have used an excuse to go to curl up in bed with a hot cup of tea and a good novel had turned into a day of sleeping till noon, wolfing on grilled cheese sandwiches and potato chips as they played board games and watching animated movies in wrinkled pajamas till five.

JC hadn't called for the day, and Katrina presumed he was actually caught up with work.

The dark and cold weather had eliminated all chances of doing any outdoor activities for the day and the lazy atmosphere called for some mellow family time among the trio.

"Can I pleeeaaassseee lick the spoon?" Cindy pleaded, standing on the tips of her toes as she held on to the top of the counter. "Please, please, please, please-"

"Okay!" Katrina laughed, pulling the long, wooden spoon out of the chocolate cake batter. She handed it to the delighted child before she turned to her nephew who sat at the kitchen table.

"Do not tell your parents about this," she warned, speaking of her dental oriented brother and her sister in law. "Not a word."

The boy grinned cheekily. "Can I eat the icing?" He held up a silver spoon in one hand and an unopened jar of vanilla icing in the other."

"Cody, you're supposed to be deciding on colours so we can dye the icing."

"I did- blue, green and red."

"You guys don't get sick from eating too much sugar, do you?" Katrina asked uneasily.

"Nope."

"Fine," she permitted, turning back to the large bowl of batter. "But only one spoon or we won't have any icing for the cupcakes. And you guys have to brush your teeth again when you're done."

The two children sat together in glee, the rims of their lips as well as the palms of their hands quickly dirtying and become sticky with the chocolate and vanilla pastes. The glee in their eyes would have fooled anyone to think that it was Christmas morning.

"Aunt Kat?" Cindy spoke up.

"Yea, hun?"

"Is JC coming over today?"

"Not today, Cin," Katrina shook her head. "He's working today."

"How come you don't have a boyfriend?"

Katrina laughed at the question she had gotten from a four year old. "Boys have cooties."

"Girls too," Cody defended. "But the girls at school don't listen!"

The conversation caused Katrina to laugh harder, spilling some of the cake batter out of the paper holders.

"You guys are too funny," she grinned. Swiping some of the remnants off the sides of the pan with her finger, Katrina slid the tray into the oven and turned around.

"Cupcakes should be out in twenty minutes or so, okay?"

Both children nodded, licking the sweet remains off of their spoons.

"What now?" Cindy asked. The four year olds face from the tip of the nose, down, was covered in chocolate. Her brother was a bit neater with the sugary task.

 "Can we make cocoa too?" The older sibling asked, hopeful.

His aunt chewed it over for a moment before she heard another rumble of thunder from the outside. "That seems like a loottt of chocolate for one day."

Two pouts were darted her way complimented with sad puppy eyes.

"Fine," Katrina gave in. "Two conditions."

An echo of groans sounded.

"No cupcakes until after dinner and you guys gotta help me clean up. Deal?"

"Okay," the two said in unison.

Katrina chuckled. "What'd you say we turn on some music, huh?"

"The Wiggles!" Cindy chanted.

"I was thinking of something a little different, Cin," her aunt told her. Katrina reached into a drawer from a table that was pressed against the wall. She pulled out a C.D. case and held it in front of the kids.

"Do you know who this guy is?" she asked them, pointing to the most familiar face of the five on the cover.

"Hey, that's JC, isn't it?" Cody grinned.

"Indeed," Katrina smiled as she opened the case.

"I wish he could have hanged out with us today," Cindy said, continuing to look at the cover. "He could make cupcakes with us."

Katrina laughed, taking out the disk and spinning it around her finger. "Believe me. JC's a much better singer than he is a chef."

****

"McDonalds!"

"In N Out Burger!"

"McDonalds!"

"In N Out Burger!"

"McDonalds!"

It was an argument neither child seemed to be giving up on, no matter how insane it was beginning to drive their aunt.

The Los Angeles weather had calmed down from the day before, and Katrina was determined not to spend another day cooped up in the apartment. The grass at the park was far too damp and the sky was too overcast to risk having a family afternoon there, and what was supposed to be a stroll through the mall had turned into a day of newly bought games, clothes, books and sweets for both her niece and nephew as well as herself.

She would have considered the day an otherwise success if she hadn't made the mistake of asking two young children to decide on what food they should end their day with.

"In N Out Burger!"

"McDonalds!"

"Guys!" Katrina slammed the door, startling the two arguing children in front of her. She heaved a sigh and dropped the seven shopping bags she was holding onto the floor of her apartment. "You've been arguing about dinner since the moment we left the mall, to the moment we just walked in here. STOP."

"It's Cindy's fault," Cody mumbled.

"I want McDonalds!" his younger sister argued.

"Enough," Katrina said sternly. "If you two don't decide on something, we're staying in for dinner."

Cindy folded her arms while Cody frowned, looking away from his sister.

"I'm giving you two ten minutes," Katrina told them, picking up the bags. "If you two don't decide on where you wanna go, we're staying home and I'll make mac and cheese."

The two children sighed, turning around and speed walking toward the room they stayed in together. Katrina could hear soft bickering fade away until she heard the bedroom door close.

She walked into the living room and rested all the bags she held onto one area of the couch before falling back onto the other half.

She was about to put her feet up on the coffee coloured table when her front pocket started to vibrate.  It was only a second later before her signature contact Macarena ringtone began to play.

"Yo," she answered, holding the phone to her ear. "What's up?"

"Hey, SmartieKat," JC greeted her. "What've you guys been up to today?"

"Just got home from the mall," Katrina yawned.

"How was it?"

"I'm a couple hundred bucks poorer than I was this morning," she chucked, and JC laughed. "But it was pretty good. We got some lunch there and I took Cody and Cindy to meet a few friends from back at the store."

"You mean your co-workers?"JC asked.

"They're my friends too, you know."

"No, they're your co workers," JC told her, laughing quietly. "People like me are your friend because we hang out, and, really, I'm the only one you hang out with. Like, ever."

"That's because I'm reluctantly around you seventy nine percent of the time."

"Just the way it should be."

"Shut up, JC," Katrina groaned. "What'd you want, anyways? How are you?"

"I'm great. I wanted to know what you guys were doing tonight."

"Cody and Cindy are too young to get into a club, Jace."

"I wanted to take you guys out for dinner tonight, smartass."

"In N Out Burger or McDonalds?" Katrina asked.

"Huh?"

She laughed quietly, before saying, "Never mind."

"You guys up for it?" JC asked. "I figured they leave Sunday night and it's already Friday. And I don't think you've taken them around at night time since they've been staying with you, have you?"

"No, but that's why people like you exist. Where are we going?"

"Anywhere you guys want. I was thinking somewhere besides fast food since that's all you've been feeding the poor kids. And we can always take ‘em somewhere for a drive or something afterward."

"Yea, that sounds pretty good, actually," Katrina agreed. "Do you want us to meet you there or are you coming over here?"

"I'll pick you up," JC said, and Katrina could hear a car door slam in the background. "I'll be there in twenty."

"Okay, I'll see ya."

Hanging up the phone and tossing it next to her, Katrina relaxed against the couch and sighed. "Cody, Cindy!" she yelled out. "Come into the living room please!"

A few seconds later, the pitter patter of two pairs of feet could be heard running the short distance from their room until they were standing in front of Katrina.

"What's going on?" Cody asked.

"Change of plans," she told them. "Go get ready. JC's taking us for dinner."

"JC?" Cindy smiled.

"Awesome!" her brother added.

"Exactly," Katrina smiled. "And he'll be here soon so go change."

* *

"Yo," JC called out, entering the apartment. "Anybody re- Woah."

Cindy grinned, running up to him and hugging his leg. She looked up at his pleasantly surprised face. "Hi, JC."

 "Hey, sweetie. Are you ready to go?"

The child nodded, letting go of his leg and allowing him to lift her up and walk closer to the kitchen area.

"Hey, JC's here," Cody smiled, appearing out of the room.

"What's up, man?" JC said as he high fived the boy. "Where's your aunt?"

"In her room," he responded. "I don't think she's ready yet."

"Typical Kat," JC thought.

"Hey, you're here," Katrina said, almost surprised. She stood behind Cody in her pink robe that was tied tightly around the waist. "Did twenty minutes go by that fast?"

"The kids are dressed and you're not?" JC raised his eyebrows.

"I was putting away the stuff we bought today, okay?"

"JC, I got a new music book today," Cody told him, excitedly.

"Then let's check it out, dude," JC said, patting him on the back. "We've got a while to wait anyways."

Cody scampered off, his sister squirming out of JC's arms and following closely behind just for the hell of it, leaving JC and Katrina to stand together.

"Friday night dates with a pain in the neck and a seven and four year old," she joked. "Isn't my life reality television worthy?"

"Totally," JC nodded. "Are you going to take a shower or just change?"

"Shower, so gimme ten minutes and I'll be ready to go."

"Twenty minutes? Okay, I hear ya."

Katrina chuckled, shaking her head at him. "I know that Cody and Cindy really like that you came over, so thanks for giving up your usual Friday night bar and club session this once."

"I don't mind," he assured her. "However, I do mind that you're still standing here talking when you could be getting ready to leave."

Katrina swatted his arm before turning away to walk over to the bathroom.

JC walked over to the fridge when he had started hearing the house phone ring from the living room.

"Let it go to voicemail!" Katrina shouted before closing the bathroom door.

JC ignored the ringing as he pulled out a soda from the fridge and a handful of grapes. He walked into the living room and took a seat on one of the single seating couches before popping another grape into his mouth.

He sat patiently while the ringing continued, until the voicemail that was coming through sounded on automatic speaker.

"Hey, Katrina, it's Ethan. You know, that guy from the Aquarium a couple days ago and talked to you about Macaroni penguins? Yea, um. I hope this doesn't sound weird but you never gave me a call so I got your number out of the phonebook. You're the only Katrina Smart listed from this town, so. Yea, uh, I was wondering how you were doing and if you wanted to come back to the Aquarium for a one on one tour sometime. Or, you know, it doesn't have to be the Aquarium. I know this might be a little short noticed but what're you doing tomorrow night? Call me back if you wanna meet up, alright? My number's on the card or you can find me on the Aquarium's website. Alright, I guess I'll talk to you soon. Have a good night."

JC frowned upon hearing the voicemail.

Was this guy serious? He was actually interested enough that he had to look up her name in the phone book? Katrina had never called him back, so he had taken it upon himself to be the first one to make a move.

As far as JC knew, Katrina wasn't intending to call the guy in the first place, and she had two children who were going to be in her care for the next couple of days before she went back out to work.

Generally, JC didn't believe she had the time to be bothered on whether or not she should go out with someone she had only met for five minutes. She would be busy, either way.

He set the soda can down onto the arm of the couch and swallowed the last grape before getting up. He moved toward where the phone was installed onto the wall and clicked the red button that indicated she had a message.

JC stared down at the glowing switch. He didn't need to replay the voicemail and quite frankly, Katrina didn't need to hear it.

 Delete.

The speaker sounded once more as he pressed down on the push button.

"You have no new messages."

"No, no, no, no," JC kept mumbling to himself as he sifted through the clothes on the hangers. "No, no, no, the fuck?"

Katrina lifted her head momentarily from her laptop and looked over to him. "What now?" she asked.

She instantly began to regret answering her door an hour ago and JC didn't seem to care in the least that she was beginning to get bothered. For the first time in a good few days, Katrina was granted with some peace and quiet that replaced the laughs and giggles and innocent voices that had filled her apartment lately.

The time to herself that she so often savoured but so rarely got was being invaded that day with JC rummaging around her room. His latest spot? Her closet.

 "I'm not sure what I should be more afraid of," he said uncertainly, holding up the pair of neon pink spandex with white zebra prints. "The fact that you might have worn this in public or just the fact that you own it."

"Those things were the shit in the 80s," Katrina said as she typed. She lifted her head once more and gave him a sly smile. "And let's not forget that you're the one who liked to wear coloured leather pants."

"Whatever," JC shook his head, stuffing the tights to the far back of the closet. He fumbled around for a few more seconds before something else caught his eye. "Hey," he grinned, delicately grasping the small pair of red, lacy lingerie in the palm of his hand. "What's this doing all the way in the back there?"

Katrina looked up at him and chuckled. She recognized the "I haven't worn those yet."

"I bought them for you in Paris almost a year ago and you still haven't worn them?"

"I wore the black ones," she reminded him knowingly.

JC looked at the racy set and then back at her. "Come try ‘em on."

Katrina rolled her eyes as she continued to type away, her attention leaving him. "No, Jace."

"Why not?" he whined.

"Because you already know what I look like with them and what I look like without them," she pointed out. "Now put back my clothes and get out of my closet."

JC pouted as he turned back to close the cupboard door. It was the first Saturday in a few weeks that he hadn't spent either in a recording studio or at The Grove or on a brunch date with whatever girl he had picked up the night before.

Of course, it was his own choosing to be there whether or not Katrina liked having him at her house, but he was enjoying the slight change from his promiscuous routine.

"You know," JC started, plopping down stomach first to join her on her bed. "I'm thinking of going back to Europe in the summer. You should so come with me this time."

"I don't fly, Chasez," Katrina responded simply.

"I know," JC remarked. "You've never even been out of California. Planes are nothing to be scared of, you know. You're more likely to die on your way to the airport."

"Come back and talk to me when you can go get a shot without me or anyone else having to chase your adult ass around the medical centre."

Ignoring her comment, JC nodded toward the laptop that faced them both. "What're you even doing anyways?" he asked. He popped a couple peanuts from the bowl she had on the bed into his mouth and raised his eyebrows expectantly at her.

Katrina had been doing the same thing since he had come over and she failed to meet his gaze when he asked the question.

"Writing," she murmured as she opened a new document. JC peered at the screen and read on as she typed. She didn't seem too bothered that he continued to eye what she was doing.

"How come you don't try selling this stuff, SmartieKat?" he asked.

Katrina shrugged. "Lots of people write stuff. It's about who knows who and who's willing to read a million shitty drafts. Plus, I already have a job."

He snorted. "You're just gonna work at the mall for the rest of your life?"

"Some of us weren't as lucky to be international superstars and make millions of dollars in our early twenties and then go through life without problems," she shot back.

"Hey, I got problems," JC told her, eating a handful more of peanuts. "Money just ain't one of ‘em."

Katrina ignored him for a few silent moments  as she tended to her work. She had only managed a few sentences before she felt heavy eyes and a smile intently staring at what she was doing.

"Would you quit that?" Katrina said loudly, closing the laptop with an exasperated sigh. "I can't write if you're gawking like that!"

"You were doing just fine," JC grinned. "I was getting into it."

"You know I hate it when people read my stuff," she mumbled, setting the laptop on the floor right next to the bed. She watched as JC stuffed another handful of peanuts into his mouth.

"I don't get the point of working on something if you're not gonna share it with other people," he said while chewing. "You're just like... wasting away."

"Gosh, thanks for the support, best friend."

"You know I love you," JC grinned. 

"The feeling is not mutual at the moment," Katrina murmured as she got off the bed and smoothed down her clothes. "I can't believe Cody and Cindy have been napping this long. They leave tomorrow night. I thought they'd at least want to do something fun today."

"Oh, let the kids sleep," JC encouraged. He sat up straight on the bed and wiggled his eyebrows. "Maybe you and I can kind of get some sleeping in too."

Katrina looked at him blankly, knowing full well that with her luck, the second he tried to get something going, one of the two kids would probably run into the room. She bent down to retrieve her laptop and shook her head. "No chance."

"Ugh," JC groaned, falling back onto the mattress. "Fine."

"You can come help me sort out laundry until they get up if you like," she offered, and JC looked at her with that, ‘You've got to be joking' look that he gave only to her.

"Don't say I didn't try to entertain ya," Katrina shrugged.

"Would it make me a bad person if I called up someone and hooked up with them for a couple hours and then come back here?"

"Yes."

"I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't feel too badly about it, though."

Katrina looked at him disapprovingly. "And I'm pretty sure that I'm gonna catch something from you one of these good days too."

***

Two hours of napping could only have led to one thing where a seven year old and a four year old were concerned- Limitless energy.

They almost reminded Katrina of the way JC would act when he got hyped up on too much sugar, even at his age, or whenever he was having an exceptionally good day and channelled his energy through being silly.

The two children were safely strapped into the backseat of JC's convertible, their faces brighter than Christmas lights as they cruised through the Los Angeles streets with the rooftop down. Katrina simply smiled and leaned back against the leather seat, her sunglasses protecting her from the sun's rays.

From the grin on JC's face as the wind blew through his hair, Katrina knew he surely didn't mind the company.

"Where are we taking them for lunch?" Katrina practically shouted, the sound of the wind from the speed of the car almost drowning her out.

"Is The Grove alright?" JC asked, just as loudly. He never took his eyes off the road.

Katrina didn't respond, which JC always knew was her silent way of agreeing. She turned around to face her niece and nephew as JC finally slowed to a red light.

Wide grins and bright eyes greeted her.

"I like this car," Cindy squealed. Some strands of her brown hair had escaped her pigtails on the ride.

"Fast, ain't it?" JC smiled proudly, looking at Cody. The younger boy agreed.

"Dad never drives that fast with the roof down!"

"That's gonna have to be another thing we're gonna have to keep between the four of us, okay?" Katrina laughed, nervously.  She looked to her right where JC was behind the wheel.  "Sean and Lindsay would kill me if they knew we were doing something like this."

"Relax, Kat, goodness," JC assured her. "It's a joyride. We're not even over the speed limit."

"Can we play basketball later?" Cody asked. The eagerness in his voice was evident.

"I'm sure I've seen some public courts around somewhere," Katrina said, almost to herself. "We can play two on two after we get something to eat, alright?"

"JC's on my team!" the seven year old immediately claimed, and JC chuckled.

"Awesome."

The light changed, and once again, the two children were mesmerized by the parts of West Hollywood they had only seen a handful of times before, if they even remembered. Captivated by their surroundings, Cody and Cindy paid no attention to the conversation JC and their aunt continued.

"Cindy and I are going to kick your ass, just so you know," Katrina whispered to JC playfully as he continued to drive.

He laughed whole heartedly as he turned a corner. "That's the hunger talking, honey."

"I was thinking of making them a big dinner tonight, since it's their last night with me," she told him. "Maybe watch another movie, build a ford in the living room, make s'mores over the stove... I bet they'd like it if you stayed over later."

"I wasn't intending to leave when I drop you guys off anyways, but thanks for the formal invitation."

Katrina nudged his leg and chuckled. "I never imagined you'd be this good around kids. Too bad you don't want any."

"Yea, well. Committing to something for a week is so much easier than committing yourself to something for the rest of your life."

"If you ever want a steady girlfriend, Jace, you're gonna have to change your attitude on commitment."

"Hey, I commit-"

"Music doesn't count," Katrina interrupted.

"Are you gonna help me do some stuff in my music book when we get back to Aunt Kat's, JC?" Cody butt in.

"'Course I am, man," JC agreed. "We're gonna do a ton of fun, music stuff tonight."

"We get to stay up late, Aunt Kat?" Cindy asked, her voice almost quiet and hopeful.

She knew that of all of them, her niece would probably be the first to hit the hay but Katrina smiled and nodded. Her loose, brown hair flew into her face as she turned around. "Yea, you can."

"Fun with JC tonight!" she said happily.

"And don't forget the music," JC reminded her, importantly.

***

"Does this happen a lot?" Cody whispered to his aunt. His fascinated green eyes remained fixated on JC who stood a few feet away.

Katrina smiled as she held on to the hands of her niece and nephew, both children unintentionally staring at the small scene before them where four women could be seen laughing and chatting and asking to snap pictures with JC who remained polite and agreed.

"He's sort of a celebrity to a lot of people," Katrina answered. "People like to get his autograph and take pictures with him when they recognize him."

"Does he like being famous?" Cody questioned. His sister simply continued to nibble on a large pretzel and stared at what JC was doing.

"I think he likes it a lot of the time," Katrina answered her nephew. She looked over to where she could obviously tell that JC was being as friendly as he could possibly be with the strangers who had done almost everything to be close to him besides actually grope him. "Other times, I think he likes it when people don't know who he is."

The younger boy looked on as JC was hailed out a few more times while signing on a notepad by people who passed near the scene. The Grove was a typical hangout spot for him, and a large majority of people who stuck around had already either met him or seen him before. There were always the tourists though...

"It's so cool how so much people know him," Cody murmured.

JC looked over to Katrina with an apologetic smile while attempting to carry on the conversation he was having with the red head and the two brunettes in front of him. He nodded casually over to her way and Katrina got the signal.

It was his signal of telling her that he was probably going to be stuck there for longer than usual.

"C'mon, guys," Katrina said, gently tugging on the small hands that held on to hers. "Let's take a walk until JC's done, huh?"

Cody was reluctant at first, but Katrina got them to turn around. Only a few seconds of completely aimless walking went by before Cindy looked up at her aunt.

Specks of sunlight practically danced in her eyes while glittering with excitement. She took one more glance at the crystal blue water fountain a few feet away from meeting her aunt's gaze.

"If you make a wish in the fountain, your wish comes true," she beamed.

"You want to make a wish, Cin?" Katrina smiled, opening her clutch to get a hold of a quarter. The pink and denim dressed girl nodded eagerly. "What about you, Codes?"

"Nah," he shook his head. "I don't believe that magic fountain stuff."

Katrina handed her niece the coin and stepped back as she scampered closer to the fountain.

She and Cody watched in almost silence as Cindy made her wish, but the moment was interrupted.

"You're Katrina, aren't you?"

She turned around, only to be surprisingly greeted by a familiar pair of eyes.

She grinned, her eyes instantly brightening. She lifted her sunglasses further up her face until they rested on the top of her head.

"Do you remember me?" he asked again, unsure of what to think of her reaction.

"I remember you," she blurted out quickly, and the man smiled. "Ethan," she smiled. "Animal doctor from the Aquarium."

"I'm glad you remember that much," he chuckled. "How are you?"

"Great," Katrina replied honestly. "I'm great."

Ethan nodded, his lime green t shirt tight gently making his hazel eyes pop. "It's so funny seeing you here, actually."

"Is today another one of your days off?"

"I have until Thursday off," he replied. "Vets do get vacation days too, just to be clear."

She giggled, finding it hard to break the eye contact. "I'm watching my niece and nephew today," she explained, putting an arm around the quiet seven year old's shoulder.  Cindy still stood a couple feet away in full view. "It's one of their last days here, so..."

"Nice to meet you," Ethan said, smiling at Cody. The child politely nodded.

Clearing his throat, the man stuffed both hands in the front pocket of his dark blue jeans. "I hope you don't find this question odd, but, do you still have that card I gave to you? Because I never got a call back after the voicemail I left for you the other day."

Katrina crinkled her eyebrows. "I have the card but I didn't get a voicemail."

"You sure?"

"Did you hear a voicemail on the phone, Codes?" Katrina asked, and he shook his head. "I'm sorry, Ethan, but there was probably something wrong with the connection that night. I have your card though. I've just been so busy with these kids since the Aquarium date that-"

"Well," he started, cutting her off. "Speaking of dates, I'd like to take you on one."

Katrina raised her eyebrows, pleasantly taken aback. "You would?"

"That's sort of why I tried to call," he admitted sheepishly.

"I'd love to," she grinned.

"Yea?"

"Definitely."

"Great," Ethan grinned, obviously a bit relieved. "I'm so glad I ran into you today. When you didn't call back, I just took it as a hint that you weren't interested or anything."

Cindy retreated over to her aunt's side but exchanged silent looks with her brother. Katrina, however, remained oblivious to the overly quiet children at her side as well as the shoppers walking past her. Her eyes were fixated on the ones that matched hers.

"It's sort of weird that I didn't get it," she said. "I feel a little surprised because you don't even really know me."

"We can change that Monday night at dinner," he flirted. "At seven thirty, maybe?"

Katrina nodded, excitement causing the hairs on the back of her neck to rise. "I like the sound of that."

Ethan smiled, their eye contact not breaking for a moment until he looked down to check his watch. "I'm supposed to go meet up with some friends of mine but I'll give you a call tonight, if you're home, alright?"

Katrina nodded. "And if it doesn't come through, I'll call you."

A hug goodbye was exchanged before Katrina finally seemed to float back down to her reality.

"I got a date, guys," she grinned, looking down at both kids. They wore uniform, blank expressions. "Not excited, huh?"

"I'm excited about basketball," Cody piped up. "But with JC."

"Speaking of JC," Katrina mumbled, scanning the sea of people around them. She saw a black hat she herself had bought for him and year ago and she nodded in his direction. "He's coming."

A few moments later, JC appeared in front of them, quick to apologize.

"Some fans are nice, some are excited, and then some are just so bat-shit crazy," he hissed. "Sorry I made you guys wait so long."

"Signed enough autographs?" Katrina teased.

"At least the ones who recognized me waited around and didn't bother us at lunch. You know how I hate it when people come up to me when I'm trying to eat."

"JC, I made a wish in tha fountain!" Cindy informed him happily.

"I'm sure your wish will come true, sweetie," he smiled.

"Are you ready to go, JC?" Cody asked. "You and Aunt Kat said we could find somewhere to play basketball."

"Yea, we're done here anyways," he nodded, and Katrina agreed. "Let's get out of here."

While they let the two youngsters lead the way in front of them, JC and Katrina lingered just a foot behind and JC caught his friend smiling from the corner of his eye.

"What's your problem?" he asked. "Did you see the world's fattest cat or something?"

Katrina laughed lightly, shaking her head. "Remember Ethan from the Aquarium?" she asked, and JC nodded his head. "I saw him here a minute ago."

"Di you say hi?"

"He came up to me," she replied. "And he asked me out."

"Really?" JC murmured. "Nice. Did you say yes?"

"'Course I did," Katrina smiled, her cheeks involuntarily turning a light shade of pink. "He said he'd call tonight. I might have to call him first though."

"Why's that?"

"The first time he called, he left a voicemail and it didn't go through. It was probably the connec-"

"Katrina," JC stopped her. "The night I took you guys out for dinner... I deleted the voicemail."

 

Cody and Cindy sat quietly next to each other on the lime green cushioned seats at a small table for two inside of the Frozen Yogurt store. The sibling pair watched in innocent confusion as the two adults in charge of them argued out of ear shot outside of the glass doors.

They sat with their small hands in their laps, not even paying the slightest attention to the cup of coconut yogurt behind them. "I need to talk to JC. Stay here, don't move, order whatever you want," were the exact instructions Katrina had given them just a couple minutes earlier.

Though, the kids seemed more intent on finding out what was causing the veins in their aunt's neck to look more prominent that usual as shoppers passed by, giving JC a strange look.

"Aunt Kat looks mad, Cindy," the ever so observant seven year old told his sister. Katrina, however, didn't seem intent on making eye contact or acknowledging anyone else around her besides the almost red faced man in front of her.

"Kat, calm down, would you?" JC hissed at her, covering his eyes with his sunglasses. "People are beginning to stare!"

"How could you do that to me?" Katrina drilled, her voice almost high. "Why would you do that to me?"

"I thought I was doing you a favour," JC tried to explain, and Katrina scoffed.

"JC," she began, her anger abruptly turning into a short, red, frustrated laugh. She shook her head at him in disbelief, her frown quickly reappearing. "I can't believe you didn't tell me about this. You invaded my privacy!"

JC folded his arms. "Look, I only deleted it because I thought I'd be helping you out with all the shit you had on your plate this week. You told me you didn't even plan on seeing the guy anyways."

"You made me think he wasn't interested when in fact, he really did call me," Katrina frowned. "You were in my house and tampered with a voicemail that had absolutely nothing to do with you, Jace. Even with your busy schedule, the dumb blondes you've fucked and the flat chest brunettes you've dated, I've never even done anything close to this to you."

"Can we please, please, please talk about this in the car, Katrina?" JC asked lowly, taking her by the arm as casually as possible. The very last thing he needed right now is for some journalist to walk by and sell a story to a magazine with the headline, ‘JC Chasez Gets Called out by Mystery Woman While on a Date at The Grove.'

Katrina, on the other hand, whose green eyes blared into JC's black, Aviator sunglasses, pulled away from him. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't think it mattered!" He cried out, exasperated. "But you found out, you saw the guy, and you got your date. We don't have to talk about it anymore."

"Why are you avoiding the fact that you did something wrong here?"

JC opened his mouth to say something but she continued.

"We're like best friends. I can't believe you lied to me like this."

"I didn't lie to you," he muttered. "I don't lie to you."

"You hid this from me. You almost jeopardized my chance for a date with someone new and you thought you were doing me a favour?" She gave him a face of disbelief. "Are you fucking me right now?"

"Can we seriously get out of here and talk about this at home like adults?" JC asked her firmly. "You're blowing this out of proportion, Kat, Jesus. You got the guy either way."

"I'm leaving, Jace," Katrina told him, turning away. She peered through the glass to see Cody and Cindy still staring at them, unaware of what was going on. She signalled to them and the curious youngsters immediately hopped off their seats.

"Finally," JC sighed. "We can talk in car."

"No," Katrina said, looking directly at him. "I'm not getting in that car with you."

JC opened his mouth, a bit taken aback, but he had to bite his tongue.

"Are we leaving now, Aunt Kat?" Cindy asked.

"Yea, hun, we're leaving in a bit," Katrina told her, lifting her and balancing her on her hip. Cody stayed close to her side, not saying anything, but simply absorbing the tenseness of the atmosphere around him.

"I kinda have to take you home, Katrina," JC said, forcing a smile that Katrina's half stolid- half scowl expression toward him contrasted.

How could he smile when, for the first time, he'd made her this upset?

"I'm calling a cab," she murmured, pulling her cell phone out of her back pocket with her free hand. "Go ahead. I'll get home eventually."

"Think about Cody and Cindy, Kat," JC urged her. "Let me take you home."

If looks could kill, JC would have probably buried in the Earth, but he stood his ground. Unsurprisingly, so did Katrina.

"Go, JC," she told him, seriously. "Go."

"Don't do this."

"I'm not doing anything," she told him, casually. She began to dial a number. "I didn't do anything. And I don't want to talk about anything either."

"Please just let me take you guys home," JC asked quietly, almost in a way to silently tell her that he wanted some more time to explain, but she wasn't having it.

"Why can't we go home with JC?" Cindy asked, innocently.

Everyone looked at Katrina who was about to click the green button on her phone to begin the call.

"JC didn't realize he had a lot of work to do this afternoon, so he needs to get to his studio,"- was her excuse.

There were a few moments of silence before JC gave into Katrina's ‘Leave. Now' stares.

"Well, um, since you're calling a cab, I guess I'll just, uh... Go," he nodded.

"Are you gonna come see us before we leave tomorrow, JC?" Cody asked, staring up at the older man.

"I'll try, man. Okay?" He leaned in to give Cindy a kiss on her cheek.

JC looked at Katrina, whose eyes were everywhere besides him.

"I'll see you soon, sweetie."

***

For the past four hours, Katrina found herself staring at a mix of multicoloured clothes unfolded in a hamper, the bald newscaster on her television, and the small screen of her Blackberry. She sat cross legged on her dark blue carpeted living room floor, her eyes fixated but her thoughts drifting.

She fumbled with the white sock in her hand as she heard for the nineteenth time the crashing of Jenga blocks followed by an eruption of giggles come from her guest room. At least childhood innocence was good for something.

Glancing over to her suddenly lit up phone, she rolled her eyes as yet another text message came through. All fifteen of them varied among ‘Can we talk now?', ‘KAT', ‘Did you get home okay?', ‘Call me back', and her personal favourite, ‘KATRINA PICK UP YOUR DAMN PHONE.'

Of course, she replied to none of the above, no matter how tempted she was to call him back and ‘cuss his ass out. She'd secured her date for Monday night, but that didn't relieve her anger over what he had done in the first place without telling her.

A ringtone besides Macarena burst through her phone, and Katrina was happy to answer.

"Hey, Sean," she smiled, throwing the sock into the overflowing hamper and muting the bald guy reporting the effects of climate change.

"Hey, Kat," a high, eager voice came over the other line. "It's both of us. How are you guys?" she asked anxiously.

Katrina chuckled at the tone of her sister in law. "Everything's fine with Cody and Cindy, Lindsay, don't worry. Everything's great. I miss you guys."

"We miss you too, sis," her brother told her. "Are the kids around?"

"They're playing with blocks in their room while I get their clothes sorted out to pack for tomorrow."

"Is JC there?" Lindsay asked her with a tease in her voice, and Katrina could her Sean groan in the background. Lindsay quickly shushed him with a, ‘Sh, I wanna hear this.'

"He's not here," Katrina sighed.

"Thank God," Sean said. "He's probably off gallivanting around town with an entourage of slutty women anyways."

"When you get a voice like his then you can start bashing him, kay?" his wife remarked, and Katrina couldn't help but smile at the short banter.

"Look, guys, I'm tired," she said truthfully. "Do you want me to get Cody and Cindy or not?"

"We'll be at your place to pick them up around five thirty tomorrow," Sean informed his sister. "Our plane gets in at four."

"Let's get back to hot stuff," Lindsay began. "Where is he tonight?"

"I don't know, Linds," Katrina murmured. "Home, I guess."

Just then, a beep came through her phone. A text message- ‘SmartieKat' was all it said from him.

Lindsay spoke again. "Will he be there when we come over tomorrow?"

"Nope."

"Why notttt?"

"Why do you wanna see JC so much?" Sean asked, slightly annoyed, partially curious.

"He's hot," his wife whispered back. "And Kat gets to have sex with him."

"Can I go now, guys?"

"Yes," Sean answered, but Lindsay quickly added in a, "No!"

"Aren't you concerned about the men in your sister's life?" she asked.

Katrina rolled her eyes, once and for all ready to get back to the boring four hours she had spent without any mentioning of JC that didn't include the voices in her head.

"I'll tell the kids you called, I need to go make dinner, I'll see you two tomorrow, go have your own sex."

Leaving her brother and sister in law in the middle of their own chat, Katrina hung up just in time to see another text come through.

There was only so much JC conversation she could take while she was in the state that she was in. She didn't need to be reminded of him any more than he already was in her life and in her head, and apparently, in her phone.

Can I come over?

She thought for a minute before sighing and texting back for the first and final time.

I seriously don't want to see you.

***

"JC?" the blonde haired man in the khakis stood over his brother lying on the black leather couch. "Dude!" he kicked the side of the couch.

JC's eyes popped open, startled and a tad frightened from the sudden face staring down at him.

"Tyler, fuck," he groaned, closing his eyes and attempting to roll over on his side, but he almost rolled over the edge. "Where am I?" JC asked, becoming more awake.

"Your couch."

"Shit," JC murmured, sitting up.

"What'd you do last night?"

"Nothing."

Tyler laughed. "Yea, right."

"Seriously, Ty."

"So how'd you end up on the couch?" his brother questioned.

"I think I was waiting for Kat to call me back."

Tyler took a seat on the edge of JC's coffee table, taking a sip of the Starbucks coffee in hand. "What for?"

"No reason," JC replied, shaking his head. He checked the screen of his phone only to be greeted by the one line she had messaged back. He threw the phone to the side and leaned back, rubbing his forehead.

"What's up with you?"

"Nothing, Tyler."

"So why do you look like Kat ran you over with a bus or something?"

"She's mad at me," JC explained. "I was hoping she'd talk to me last night but no luck."

"What'd you do? Did you get back together with Chelsea or something?"

"'Course not," JC snorted. "We're broken up for good."

"So what's the deal with you and Kat?" Tyler asked. "I'm just gonna assume that you did something wrong."

"Why me?" JC frowned, obviously offended. "I'm your brother."

"Exactly, so I've known you long enough to know you get yourself into stupid shit with girls. And, well, Kat's awesome."

"A new guy she met left a voicemail for her at her apartment and I deleted it when I heard it," JC mumbled as he got up. "She found out yesterday when she saw the guy again."

Tyler couldn't help but chuckle as he took another swallow of his drink. "You're so stupid, JC."

"Well, fuck you too, bro."

"You know you're in the wrong here, doing something like that to her, so I don't feel the need to point out how much of a jackass you already know you are."

JC eyed him. "Why are you even in my house this early?"

Tyler gave him his You-Have-Got-To-Be-Kidding look. "It's two thirty in the afternoon. Plus, I figured I may as well come see what you were doing for the day but it doesn't look like anything eventful."

"I think I'll just go over to her apartment and see if she'll let me see Cody and Cindy before they leave."

"Friends of you guys?"

JC chuckled, unbuttoning his shirt and pulling it off. "Nah, her niece and nephew that I hung out with all week. They're sweet little kids."

"That's what you've been doing?"

"Pretty much," JC nodded. "They're leaving tonight, I think. I should probably stop by and get Katrina to hear me out."

"That doesn't sound like a good idea, man," Tyler told his brother. "I know you probably wanna say goodbye to those kids or whatever, but face it, Kat's gonna not going to let you stick around. Have you apologized to her?"

"Not exactly," JC muttered. "Look, I deleted the message with her interest at heart, okay? Honestly, I thought she had too much stuff to do than focus on dating."

"Or maybe you just started to enjoy the company of people besides your submissive ex girlfriend that you got defensive when it seemed like someone was about to take away some more of her time that would have been spent with you."

JC stared at his brother who had a slight smirk on his rosy face. "Don't go all ‘psychologist' on me, Ty. Keep that for your clients."

"I'm just saying that, one, you were stupid for doing what you did; Two, that you need to apologize to her before saying anything else to her, and three..." Tyler thought for a second as his older brother stared at him expectantly. "Well, I don't know what number three could be besides the fact that you're a jack."

"Do I go over to her place or not?"

"Message her and see if she wants you over there."

"I asked her last night," JC sighed. "She said she doesn't want to see me. She said she seriously doesn't want to see me."

"Then leave her alone, JC. You messed up. Now it's her turn to block you out."

****

"Are you okay, Aunt Kat?" Cody asked his aunt with a smile. He took a seat next to her on the couch were she was stuffing the final pieces of fresh laundry into each of the two knapsacks in front of her feet.  "You look like Cindy when mom doesn't let her play with her make up."

Katrina laughed whole heartedly as she zipped the blue knapsack and leaned back to sink into the cushions behind her. "I had a great time with you guys this week, you know that?"

"I did too."

Katrina smiled, softly sighing afterward. "I guess I'm just really going to miss you guys."

The seven year old leaned over and pecked a kiss on his aunt's cheek. "We'll miss you too. You let us have chocolate chip cookies at midnight."

Katrina gave her nephew a playful warning look. "Those are our little secrets from this trip, got it?"

The young boy nodded with a grin, high fiving his aunt.

"Good," she said.

Katrina's focus shifted over to the door way where her niece walked into the living room. Her small hands cradled the relaxed kitten and her ponytails that were tied on each side of her head and complimented with pink ribbon hung glumly over her shoulders when her head bowed.

"What's wrong, Cin?"Katrina asked, concerned.

"I don't wanna leave Kitty," the young girl sniffled, moving to stand in front of her brother who was trying to hide his laughter.

"Aw, Pixel's gonna be okay," Katrina comforted her. "I'll bet he's gonna miss you but I'll take care of him."

"At least you still have JC here, Aunt Kat," Cody pointed out optimistically. He grinned brightly. "And JC's a lot of fun, so you won't miss us too much."

"Where's JC?" Cindy asked.

"He's working, still," Katrina lied. "He got really busy."

Cody frowned. "Well, can you tell him that he should visit us? And that if we come back to visit soon, that I wanna play new piano songs for him?"

Katrina nodded with a smile, running her hand over the top of the child's brown haired head down to the back of his neck. "I'll tell him if I can."

There were a few more minutes of light conversation and giggles before a buzzer sounded through the apartment. The digital clock on her wrist read 5:44PM. She almost got a little sadder than she already was when the four eyes in front of her suddenly lit up.

"Mom and dad are here!" Cody cheered, scrambling off the couch, and his sister immediately followed as they both ran off to answer the door.

Following the energy bunnies to the entrance, the two adults in under the frame were immediately tackled when Katrina unlocked the door.

Excited and much anticipated kisses and hugs were exchanged before Cindy was scooped up by the slender, toned woman in the navy blue blazer and skinny jeans and Cody was lifted into the air by the dark, brown haired man in the white shirt and dress shoes.

Katrina simply leaned against the wall and grinned at the reunion before her. There was that childhood innocence thing again. She couldn't remember the last time she'd ever gotten that excited over seeing someone, ever.

"Kat!" the woman cried out, happily, entering the apartment and enveloping her sister in law in a one armed hug with her daughter still on her hip. "Are you okay?"

"Great," Katrina smiled, inhaling the combination of TRESemmé shampoo and Chanel perfume. "How was the rest of the convention?"

"Memorable," her brother answered, kissing her cheek after he set Cody back down. "It finished earlier than we expected so we got a little extra time in the hotel room before leaving to catch our flight."

The sparkle of shame in his eye was R rated, and Katrina simply chuckled.

"Did you guys have a good time?" Lindsay asked, looking down at her son as her daughter rested her head on her mother's shoulder. "Was it fun staying with Aunt Kat for a week?"

"It was awesome!" Cody beamed, and the adults smiled.

"We should bring you guys back here whenever we leave for business, then," Sean suggested, and Katrina nodded.

"We really did have a wonderful time, the three of us."

"And JC," Cindy reminded her aunt.

"And, well, yea, and JC."

"Is he here?" Lindsay mouthed.

And Katrina shook her head. Almost as if he had read his mother's lips, Cody spoke up.

"Too bad he had to work," he pouted.

"Do you guys have your stuff ready?" Sean asked, checking his own watch. "Grandma wants us to stop by her place on the ride home so we got to get going."

"I'll be back," Cody nodded, scampering off to collect his belongings. Cindy wasn't far behind, this giving the older ones a brief chance at conversation.

"I'm really gonna miss those kids, guys," Katrina sighed. "I didn't realize how much closer I'd get to ‘em over a span of just a week."

"Thank you for being so great with them while we were gone," her brother told her. "At least we know we can count on you. Mom's getting older, you see..."

"I know."

"Thank JC for entertaining them for us too, alright?" Lindsay told her. "And if you want to give him the number to the house to call the kids, then please do."

Her husband rolled his green eyes. "I hate how much of fan she is of his sometimes."

"I doubt I'll even get around to giving him the number in the first place so you don't have to worry about that, Sean," Katrina assured him with a smile. "I'm kinda, just... Avoiding dealing with him right now."

"Why?" her sister in law frowned, and Katrina shrugged it off.

"He just does things that get to me sometimes and this one thing he did I just... I don't know. Didn't want to deal with."

"You're always with him, though.  Everyone knows that. You won't stay away from him for long."

"For as long as possible, is what I'm hoping. I've got other things on my mind, anyways."

"The less you see that guy, the better," Sean agreed. "I support this."

"You don't count, babe," Lindsay said. "Non JC fans don't count."

"I met someone new, though," Katrina informed them with a smile. "Worthy enough to go on a date with, even."

"Really?" Lindsay asked, her brown eyes brightening. "That's great! Who is he?"

"He's a vet," Katrina said proudly, and Sean smiled. "He's the head doctor over at the Aquarium."

"Good for you, sis," he nodded, approvingly. "That's great. Now, he sounds stable."

"JC's stable too, remember that," his wife reminded him. "But about your date, that's great! When is it?"

"Tomorrow night."

"Does JC know about it?"

"Yea," she mumbled. "But I'm not thinking about him this week."

*****

Her first night in over a week had been a success. No late night calls, no sudden text messages, no banging on her door, and no one to tend to besides herself when she woke up. She had spoken to her niece and nephew the night before a while before heading to bed and laying out her outfit for the occasion that would supposedly lift her spirits from everything at 7:30PM sharp.

 Ironically enough, a day that had started off in the brightest light spiralled downhill from the minute she stepped into her store to the minute she got in her car and left the restaurant that Monday evening.

 It was only the beginning of the week, but if there was ever a time in history where she felt like she'd just been hit by a bus transporting five hundred tonnes of cement, it would be now. If there was ever a time where she felt like twenty little kids with baseball bats had each taken a swing at her like she was a birthday piñata, it would be now.

And despite the fifteen hour shifts she occasionally took up, and the fact that she preferably would have loved coming home to an empty, cold, and dark apartment where she could lounge around as she pleased, Katrina couldn't help the sigh that escaped her lips when she opened the door to her apartment that night.

Securing the latch behind her, she dropped her leather clutch onto the built in corridor table and hung her keys onto the wall. Pulling her hair out from the high, slicked back pony tail it had been in for the past two hours, a small percent of her headache of the night eased.

Of course she wouldn't blame the short and tight, dark, green, low cut dress she had on that made her body ache, or the five inch, open toe heels that she just wanted to fling out the window and replace with her soft, rabbit bedroom slippers.

She also had a feeling the pint of chocolate chip ice cream that was stocked in her fridge would come out to play as soon as she peeled the clothes off her body.

"Pix?" she called out weakly, flipping on the light to her living room, but there was no sign of the small animal. Entering her kitchen, her gaze dropped down to the side of the fridge where the kitten took her time, slurping the milk from her bowl.

Stooping down as best as she could in the clothes she wore, Katrina let her hair fall past her face as she stroked the kitten's back. "Hey, girl. Who left this for you?"

Her attention then slowly shifted over to the person sitting at the kitchen table that she hadn't even noticed up until just now.

JC sat, leaning forward with his elbows rested on his knees.

He'd been sitting there for a cool twenty five minutes, his eyes examining every inch of the room and every speck of the tile as though he's never seen any of it before, simply trying to prepare sentences that would make sense when she eventually confronted him.

"Hey," was all he said.

Katrina stroked Pixel's fur one final time before attempting to stand and either not rip the back of her dress or lose the balance in her shoes.

"Hi."

JC quickly got up, suddenly losing his train of thought but quickly finding his words. "You look... great. You look really, really great."

Katrina simply continued to stare at him tiredly.

JC stuffed his hands into the front pockets of his black jeans. "How are you?"

"What'd you want, JC?" she asked him softly, shaking her head. "I told you I didn't want to see you."

"I know, but I hadn't seen you since Saturday. I know it's a bad idea coming over here but-"

"What'd you want, JC?" Katrina asked, yet again.

He shrugged, bringing one hand up to rub the back of his neck. "I guess I just wanted to talk to you tonight."

"You know I had my date tonight."

He nodded, looking down at his white sneakers. "I know." He lifted his head shortly after and nodded toward her. "You do look great, though. I'll bet Ethan was happy with that. How'd it go?"

"He stood me up."

 

Katrina remained silent as she kicked off each of her heels and picked them up with a single hand. She left the kitchen wordlessly, leaving JC in a state of inertia.

 It was almost as though he had just become invisible and she could no longer feel his presence throughout the small apartment. It was either that or she did was doing a pretty good job at pretending he wasn't even there.

A few silent moments had passed by before JC could hear her softly rummaging around from the living room. Silently swearing at himself for even showing up, he quickly but carefully gathered his scattered thoughts before going to find her.

He couldn't leave now. He couldn't suddenly change his mind midflight. The most he could do was pull on his parachute strings and merely hope that Katrina would be patient enough to wait until he landed- In this case, all he could do was move ahead and pray that she was willing to cooperate with him.

As he leaned on the frame under the doorway, he stuffed his hands into the front pockets of his jeans and watched as Katrina moved from one place to another, adjusting whatever she felt was out of place.

She went from fluffing the pillows on her couches to the separating the piles magazines on her coffee table to rearranging the picture frames she had on her television stand; Anything to occupy her thoughts and body.

"Do you want to talk about it?" JC asked her gently. The unusual tenderness in his voice startled her a bit.

Slowly setting down the two remotes in her hands on top of her DVD player, Katrina shook her head, her back facing him.

"No."

"I'm... sorry," JC offered, his eyes floating to carpet below him. "I'm sorry you had to go through that tonight."

"I really need to tell Lenny to stop automatically letting you up here," Katrina muttered under her breath, speaking of her doorman.

"Kat..."

She finally turned around. "Why are you here anyways?"

"I told you I wanted to talk to you," he replied.

"And I told you that I had a date tonight. Why would you come over here when you know I'd be busy? I could have brought the guy back here for all you know."

"But you got stood up," JC reminded her coldly.

Katrina glared at him, the red rushing to her face. JC had the upper hand, and all she had was vulnerability. Despite her embarrassment, her feet remained planted firmly on the ground, and JC hadn't moved an inch either.

A steak knife couldn't have cut the tension between the two.

"This is exactly why I told you I didn't want to see you, JC," Katrina told him.

"I just want a chance to talk to you about us," he insisted. "About me, about what I did. I want you to understand-"

"That you invaded my privacy? That you intruded on something that absolutely did not concern you?"

JC frowned. "You're not going to make this easy, are you?"

"My day, JC," Katrina began. "Has been anything but easy, okay? My night on a whole makes me fight the urge to swallow every piece of chocolate and open every jar of ice cream in my fridge. I feel like my week started on a complete shit streak. And to top things off, you show up here for no reason."

JC remained quiet as he continued to stare at her. He always found it a bit funny how his words seemed to leave him in the most crucial of situations.

His songwriter of a mind would have fooled millions to believe that he could think up the perfect thing to say a woman at the exact time whatever it was needed to be said.

Katrina stared back at him, she herself never being one to go home and cry over a man. She hadn't done it since she was twelve. Tonight, one man had already wasted her evening, and JC wasn't far behind from pushing her over the edge.

"I guess I'll just, uh, go," JC mumbled, his eyes never leaving the floor. "I'm sorry I came over."

He had only turned around and taken two steps toward the door before Katrina's voice stopped him.

"Do you know what the worst part of my night was?" she called out to him. "Do you want to know what was the worst thing about realizing that he was never gonna show up?"

JC froze, yet again, fearful of saying the wrong thing that would only make things worse for him. "What?" he asked simply.

Katrina folded her arms. "It was realizing that whatever you thought about him was potentially right. Whatever instinct you probably had about him was probably true. And the fact that I actually thought I probably had a chance with him tonight, and then him not showing up, just made me want to strangle myself." Her voice rose out of frustration toward the end of her rant.

"Don't be mad at yourself for something that I did, Kat," JC told her, keeping his tone contrastingly calm. "And the only reason you didn't have a chance with him is because the dick didn't have a chance with you."

"Why did you delete that stupid voicemail, Jace?" she asked him, almost exasperated from wonder.

"I don't know," he told her softly. "I don't... I don't know."

"Do you know how mad at I am at you that you did that?" Katrina shook her head, laughing lightly to herself. "Do you know how mad I am at you that you came over here? Do you even know seeing that you just makes everything worse?"

Her last words hit him like a brick.

"What do you want me to say to you, Katrina?" JC demanded, shrugging. "Is there anything that I can do to make all this easier on you because do tell."

She moved over to her couch and took a seat. She quickly let her forehead fall into both her hands, and she began to rub at her hairline and over her temples. "Just leave me alone tonight, Jace."

"Fine," JC murmured, almost to himself. 

"Fine."

He shook his head with a silent sigh as he turned around to make his way out of her apartment. He had made an effort to not slam the door behind him but to instead leave gently.

However, not even fifteen seconds had gone by before JC barged right back in. He hadn't even made it into the elevators.

He rushed back into her living room only to see her in the same distressed position she was in before.

"Let me take you to dinner tonight," JC blurted out.

Katrina's head snapped up, one of her hands still lingering in her loose hair. She looked at JC with a tired and partly pained expression on her face.

"Excuse me?"

"Please," he begged. "Let me take you somewhere- Anywhere."

"Why?"

"Because... You haven't eaten tonight and I need to make it up to you somehow."

"Do you really think that asking to take me out to dinner is going to make up for what's going on?"

"No," he answered honestly. "But I need to start somewhere. The last thing you probably want to do is go out with me tonight-"

"You think?" she muttered, cutting him off.

"But..." he continued. "The least we could do for each other is hear the other out. I won't stay over. I won't call you tomorrow. I won't do anything to bother you. Just come to dinner with me tonight."

She pursed her lips. "And what if I say no?" she challenged.

"I'm already here," JC reminded her. "And I'm not leaving this time."

*****

Katrina sat in silent provocation as she remained restricted by the Mercedes Benz's leather seat belt. Her elbow rested on the inner side of the car door and her head pressed against her curled fist. She simply continued to look out of the dark, tainted windows of the car as JC continued to drive.

Her maintained stolid expression for the past seven minutes was finally beginning to get to him.

"Do you want to put on the radio?" JC asked her, taking his eyes off the road for a split second.

Katrina didn't reply.

"O-kay," JC muttered lowly under his breath. "Is the air conditioning too cold for you?"

There was once again no reply.

JC sighed. "How about we open the sun roof?" he offered. "It's a great night out."

JC could see Katrina roll her eyes from the corner of his eyes.

Annoyed by her lack of conversation, JC turned on his indicator and abruptly pulled over to the side of the road. The force shook Katrina into an upright position.

She looked at him in disbelief, and JC glared at her right back.

"Dammit, Kat!"

"What?"

"You need to talk to me, you know," he told her. "You are going to work with me tonight."

"I hope you know that I don't even want to be here with you right now."

"You're in the damn car, aren't ya? So get used to it and start acting your age. Fuck. The silent treatment doesn't go a long way when you should be acting like a grown woman and I'm sitting right next to you."

Katrina stared at him, doing her best cover up the shame his words had suddenly brought onto her. Her mouth was slightly agape. She wanted to say something, but her mind couldn't find a way to construct a good defence, far less a sentence.

"Quit acting like a brat," JC muttered finally, placing both hands on the wheel and looking forward. "I'm trying. Is that ever going to be enough for you?"

Katrina swallowed the lump in her throat as she turned her head back to the tainted window she had been looking out of just a few seconds before.

"Where are we going?" she asked quietly.

JC leaned back against his seat. "Just pick wherever you want."

Katrina shrugged, still refusing to make eye contact with him.

"Where was Ethan supposed to take you tonight?" JC asked her.

"Nishimura."

He crinkled his eyebrows and thought for a moment. "You hate sushi."

"It's not like that matters now, Jace," Katrina said to him. She took a deep breath and faced forward. "Can we go now?"

JC nodded. "Pick a place."

"Anyplace besides Nishimura."

****

Twenty more minutes of driving had included light conversation, reduced tension and to JC's relief, slight smiles from Katrina. Sure it was possibly because JC got cut off by someone in a Lamborghini on the freeway but it was something to run with.

Her posture hadn't eased, but her expression had gone from ‘tired but fierce' to ‘tired and I-want-this-night-be-over-so-I-can-go-home.'

JC had held the door to the restaurant for her and had even pulled out her chair, though she had warned him not to.

Katrina silently wondered why his womanizing habits and sex crazed personality seemed to always overshadow his gentlemanly behaviour in his relationships.

"Is this place okay?" JC asked, looking down at the gold coloured menu in his hands. "I've been here a couple times. The food's pretty good."

"La Botte Ristorante," she murmured, reading off the name of the restaurant from her own menu. "Fancy."

"It's good food, c'mon," JC smiled. "And we love Italian."

"How did you even manage to get us in here without reservation?"

"The owner's wife is a fan of mine," JC explained. "I met them a couple times when I was here before with Tyler and ended up exchanging digits. Having people know your name has its own perks, you see."

"I can see that," Katrina nodded. "Well, it's nice, I guess."

"So," JC began, closing his menu. He hesitated for a moment before he leaned forward. "Are you ready to talk?"

"No," she murmured as her eyes pretended to scan over the options on the menu. She was sure that she couldn't even pronounce the names of at least ninety percent of the food.

She kept her eyes busy so that she wouldn't have to bother with JC's own eyes on her. Finally, she saw that he had picked up his menu once again.

"Fine," she heard him say. "Your choice. We'll talk after dinner."

Both had remained fairly quiet over the next few minutes until a waiter had come to take their orders. JC had rambled off their choosing with an Italian accent Katrina hadn't even known he had perfected while she sat back and nodded. With their menus no longer in front of them, they patiently leaned against their seats and stared at the untouched bread basket between them.

"Can I be honest with you tonight?" JC asked her, breaking the thick silence.

"That would be refreshing."

JC frowned. "I feel like I'm brushing my teeth with a hammer while I'm sitting here just waiting for one of us to speak up."

Katrina shrugged her shoulders. "That's because neither of us has anything to say that the other already doesn't know."

"I think-"

"I know you're sorry about deleting the voicemail, Jace," Katrina interrupted. "But I can't get over it just like that just because you want me to."

"I understand that."

Katrina sighed. "Can we talk about something else, please? We're already here. I can't ignore you for long."

"Of course," JC piped up. "Uh," he cleared his throat. "How was your day today?"

"Bad. Next question."

JC fought a smile. "Do you want to tell me why it was bad?"

"If this is your way of trying to loosen me up, you're doing horribly."

"Answer me. Can't be that bad."

"Well, I almost got fired today."

JC's eyes bulged. "What?"

Katrina sighed, almost as though she had explained the story fifty times already for the day and didn't want to repeat it again.

"There was a shipment mix up with some cosmetic products at the store," she told him. "Apparently, I was supposed to be the one to order the products on Tuesday, which is impossible because I was supposed to be written down for the week off, and another worker wasn't familiar with what we had to order so she ended up ordering the wrong shit. Everything else just went downhill from there."

"What'd your boss say?" he asked.

"She was mad, obviously, because we just spent a whole lot of money on products that we weren't supposed to stock up on until a couple more months. It wasn't my fault because it's not like I was even there that week, but everyone was pretty sour."

"That sucks," JC said, sympathetically.

"You're telling me. I'm not kidding when I say that my entire day has been bad."

JC was quiet for a few seconds. "I'm just making everything worse for you, aren't I?"

Katrina shifted uncomfortably in her seat. With her eyes focusing on her hands rather than on him, she didn't answer.

JC looked around the room, slowly beginning to feel uneasy by the room of adults with their Colgate white smiles, who continued to enjoy their own knife and fork dinners. Everyone there seemed to have their mood perfectly agree with the elegance of the setting.

Together, Katrina and JC felt like a pair of dying orchids in a garden of roses.

"You wanna get out of here?" JC asked abruptly, and for the first time for that night, saw Katrina's eyes light up.

"But we already ordered," Katrina reminded him.

She watched as JC pulled out his iPhone, ran his thumbs over a few keys, hit ‘Send.' He stuffed the mobile back into his pocket. Advantages of celebrity status, she presumed.

He looked up and smiled at her as he pushed back his chair.

 "Let's get out of here."

******

Katrina looked at JC blankly as he turned off the ignition and unbuckled his seat belt effortlessly. Through the windows, she had seen the familiar setting she knew all too well just across the street.

Over twenty more minutes of driving, and she was still starving. She was still starving and she was suddenly annoyed five times more than she was before. JC could not be serious.

He went to open the door of the driver's seat but Katrina stopped him by pulling on his arm.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Getting out of the car?"

"I have driven around with you in a car for almost an hour, you know I'm tired, you said we were going to go out to dinner, and you bring me back to..." She nodded toward the building to the right of the car. "My apartment?"

"I realized it's better than dining out when you feel the way that you do."

"Joshua," Katrina gritted out. "Are you this fucking inconsiderate?"

JC leaned forward to open the door and let himself out, leaving her still strapped in her seat.

"Find out for yourself," JC told her before slamming the door shut.

Katrina grumbled as she freed herself and made her way out of the car, the cold Los Angeles breeze hitting her cheeks immediately, slightly blowing up the hem of her dress. JC motioned for them to cross the street.

Katrina only hoped he knew how lucky he was that a dump truck wasn't speeding up the road.

JC grinned as he was welcomed by the dark skinned, bald headed man in a green security uniform at the door.

"Hey, man, how are ya?"A high five was exchanged.

Katrina strolled over, crossing the street slowly in her heels with her arms folded.

"Hey, Lenny," she greeted tiredly.

"There're two pizza boxes by my desk inside, Ms. Smart," the fifty something year old man told her with a friendly smile. "They arrived for you a few minutes ago."

Before Katrina could eve open her mouth to inquire, JC had whipped out a crisp, folded in half twenty dollar bill and slapped it into the doorman's palm. "Thanks again, man."

"No problem, JC," he replied, accepting the money.

Katrina had barely gotten out a croak before JC had taken her by the hand and led them through glass doors.

"You ordered pizza over here?" she finally spoke up as JC walked over to a marble desk inside of the quiet lobby of the apartment, disappeared behind it for a moment and came back around holding two cardboard boxes.

She looked at him in confusion as he headed for the elevators.

"I said I would give you dinner, didn't I?"

"You tried to, at least," Katrina snorted. She pressed the number four button inside the lift and watched as the doors slowly closed.

"So, maybe that wasn't the best idea, considering your mood tonight," he admitted. "Nothing some good junk food can't fix."

Katrina rolled her eyes and leaned her head back against the metal before the doors finally reopened onto her floor. No one was in the halls, and for that she was thankful. JC waited quietly and patiently, though she was sure the heat radiating under the box was probably stinging his hands, while Katrina unlocked her door.

Reluctantly letting JC in first, she followed him straight into her kitchen. He set the pizzas down on the kitchen table as she plopped down on a chair and dropped her keys onto the surface. She hadn't bothered to kick off her shoes or wait for JC to hand her a napkin before she opened one of the boxes and indulged.

JC smiled. "Better now?" he asked.

Katrina shrugged, chewing. "Why aren't you eating?" she asked through a mouthful of pineapple and mushrooms.

"I ordered it for you."

"I can't eat two boxes of pizza by myself, smartass." She frowned at her words before glancing up at him. "Sorry," she mumbled.

 "S'okay."

"You ordered the damn thing," she said, picking off a sweet pepper. "And you're still here. Just have some."

"If you insist," JC surrendered. He pulled out the chair next to her and took a large slice of the pizza out of the open box.

"You're the reason I'm gonna get fat," Katrina mumbled. JC chuckled to himself when he saw some ketchup smear at the side of her lips.

"You're absolutely fine and you know that," he assured her.

"You're also the reason I've had a headache for the past hour."

"I'd rather cause you a headache than a heartache," JC said, simply looking down at the food in his hand. "I'm sorry you had to settle for Pizza Hut instead of Nishimura."

"I hate sushi, remember?"

"So why'd you agree to going there?" he asked.

"I was just willing to go wherever he wanted, to be honest," Katrina said truthfully. "Make a good impression, you know?"

"He should have asked where you wanted to go, that's the problem. Or at least asked what you liked. Better yet, he should have-"

"Not stood me up?"

"We're back to square one, huh?"

"We never really left."

JC nodded, setting the uneaten pizza back down into the box. "Yea, I suppose so."

"I don't find it necessary to bring him up again, alright?"

"Okay," JC agreed. "Whatever you want."

"You haven't eaten anything."

JC got up, slowly rubbing his hands together and patting the front of his jean pockets to ensure he had his belongings. "Keep it, or give it to your neighbours around the building if you want. Eat it for breakfast or something."

"You're leaving now?" she looked up at him, a bit taken aback.

"I kind of should, shouldn't I?"

"I sort of expected you to stick around," Katrina said quietly.

"In all truth, Kat, I only came here to apologize to you, and to check up on you. When I realized your night went sour, I just wanted to make sure you ate and was home okay. You don't need me here anymore, as far as I can tell. You didn't exactly want me around in the first place."

"Stop caring so much."

"You had a rough few days. And I was kind of the shitty friend that started it." JC stuffed his hands into his pocket and rocked back on his heels. "I don't choose to be like this with you, you know."

Katrina swallowed the remainder of her first slice before shrugging her shoulders.

"Thanks for having the heart to care, at least."

"I'll let myself out," he stated, but Katrina's words stopped him again.

"I don't want you to leave, JC," she groaned. "And stop making me feel bad about being mad at you."

"I'm not. And you don't have to be. And I don't want to stay if all we're going to do is bicker or exchange two words to each other when I'm sitting right next to you."

"We're talking now, aren't we?"

JC folded his arms and Katrina folded over the cover of the pizza box.

"You really should eat some more," JC advised her.

"I'm fine."

"You wouldn't be acting this way if you were fine, Katrina!" JC yelled. "Why won't you just admit that you need someone besides your damn cat to help you out sometimes?"

"Because..." she mumbled as she arose from the chair. She began to make her way toward her bedroom with her eyes to the floor. "She's much easier to open up to compared to you or anyone else."

"I'm gonna change," she said solemnly before closing the door to her room.

JC was left out in the kitchen, one arm folded over his chest that supported the other hand that held his thoughts. The appetite that he wasn't even sure he had had was gone and the sick feeling that signalled the start to a migraine began to creep in.

He contemplated for a minute whether or not to really leave or stay. Both seemed to have severe consequences and in his case, he couldn't really win.

"Kat?" he called out, knocking on her door. "Can I come in for a minute?"

When he heard no response, JC took it upon himself to open to unlocked door. His only view was of her in front of her dresser's mirror, wearing black panties and a white vest, tying her hair into a high, messy ponytail.

JC leaned against the doorway. "You could have answered, ya know."

"I was undressing," she said to him obviously. She turned around and settled her hands on her hips. "I expected you to leave."

"Believe me, it was a strong thought," JC responded, closing the door and inching closer into the room. "But I figured you'd just get mad again and we'd have to relive tonight all over again tomorrow."

"I'm more tired than anything else, Joshua," Katrina told him as she pulled down the purple comforter on her bed and fluffed the pillows. She plopped down on the mattress before look up at JC. "And don't even forget that I have to go to work tomorrow. If tomorrow's anything like today, I'm going to shoot myself in the foot by Wednesday."

JC frowned, taking a seat on the edge of the bed. "What'd you mean you can't open up to me? I always open up to you."

"I never jeopardize your possible dates but you did that with me."

"Shut up about that, will you?"

She lay flat on her back and folded her arms over her chest.

A few seconds passed by silently before Katrina opened her mouth. "I meant that I'd rather keep certain thoughts to myself rather than tell anyone else."

"But this is me we're talking about," JC reminded her. "You need me sometimes."

Katrina raised her eyebrows in his direction. "You were the one who came to see me after we hadn't spoken for forty eight hours. What does that tell you? You couldn't even stay away from here knowing that I was mad at you."

"So doesn't that tell you something? That I care and that I'm willing to fess up?"

"It tells me that I need you a lot less than you need me. You couldn't keep away for more than a coupla days. You know that, right?"

JC looked down at his hands. "I could have... I just didn't want to. I missed you. And I had to apologize to you."

"I know you're sorry," she said quietly. "But after what happened with him and I tonight, it just makes me that much more mad at you for some reason."

JC rubbed the back of his neck for a moment before letting out a sigh.

"I'll see you soon, SmartieKat," he told her, leaning over to kiss her lightly on the forehead. He remained over her and Katrina finally looked up at him when she realized he wasn't moving.

"What?"

"You really did look great tonight. It was a shame the guy who you wanted to show it off to missed out on it."

"Thanks, Jace," Katrina said sincerely. JC stared down at her for what seemed like an eternity before he finally decided to pull away. He would have been off the bed by then if Katrina hadn't decided to pull him back over her.

"Are you okay?" JC asked her, puzzled.

"No," she shook her head, staring up into his eyes in the same way she had done so many days and nights before. "And I hate it."

JC nodded, leaning down slowly to press his lips to hers. No tongue, no biting, no tangling, just his lips to hers for a mere few seconds before he pulled away. His face was just an inch away from hers.

"I'm sorry everything sucks for you right now," JC whispered to her.

Katrina's only response was to move her hands to the side of his face, just above the neck, to bring their lips to touch once more. The kiss was deeper than the one before and JC had to force himself to pull away when his lungs began to burn.

"I thought you wanted me to leave," JC said, though it did sound more like a question than a statement.

"I do, but, I don't," she admitted indecisively. Her thumbs grazed over his jaw where morning stubble would come to be the next morning.

"Then I really should leave if this isn't right for you. Or me, as a matter of fact."

"Nothing about this night has been right, Jace," Katrina mumbled.

JC used one arm to hold himself over her while the other occupied itself by cupping the side of her face. They were suddenly crossing over from a region where uncomfortable tension and frequent bicker reigned supreme into dangerous territory that had never been threatening to them before.

JC had started asking for tongue which Katrina was happier than expected to give. JC's supporting arm was beginning to sting from the pressure being exerted upon it as Katrina had begun fisting the sides of his shirt to bring him closer to her.

"Kat, you know what we're doing right?" he asked, slightly breathless.

She nodded her head, rolling him onto his back abruptly. JC stared up at her wide eyed.

He smoothed his arms up her bare legs, over her thighs and finally onto her hips that straddled him.

"I know what we're doing," she assured him. "We've done it before."

"Yea but not when we've been like how we are now."

Katrina leaned over him and her hands rested on either side of his face as they pressed into the warm mattress. "I know. But don't we both want this?"

JC wished she hadn't asked him that question. The look in his eyes said that he wanted it. The front area of his jeans said that he wanted it. She knew that of the both of them, he would be the one that wanted it more.

"My only thing is..." his voice trailed off, and Katrina used the pause to rock against him gently.

"What?" she asked as she saw his Adam's apple bob.

"I want to make sure that you don't think I'm taking advantage of you if we do this."

"I know you're not like that with me," she promised. "That's not us. That's not how we work when we're like this."

She tilted downward to capture his bottom lip between her own as JC's arms moved from the hips that he loved were so generous and nearer to the hem of her vest. In one easy pull over the arms, it was flung to the ground.

Katrina leaned back and he rose up into a sitting position. With her legs around him, JC spared no time before he treated his lips to the pair of hardened buds on each of her B-cups.

The slow teasing of his tongue before he took breast into his mouth caused Katrina's hips to twitch against his own and her hands found their way into his short hair to scrape at the back of his neck. Soft, low moans sounded in her throat and JC felt her trying to grind into the bulge in his pants.

With one hand holding her around the waist, he flipped her over onto her back so that he was kneeling between her legs. He unbuttoned the shirt he wore before throwing it to the side. He smiled at her.

"You okay?" he asked.

She nodded with a small smile of her own. "I'm good."

He maintained eye contact with her as he unbuckled the belt of his dark jeans. Katrina rose up and loosened her hair so that the tresses fell past her shoulders. She held JC at the sides as she planted slow kisses just under his chest, over his abdominals and down his happy trail. JC's breathing had become hitched by the time she pulled jeans down over his thighs to reveal the large bulge straining under his boxer briefs.

She looked up at him with a twinkle in her eye before carefully peeling the fabric down only to be greeted by his manhood that stood at attention before her. The thick shaft pressed against his lower stomach and the head was a shade of dark purple that seemed aggravated by want.

"Kat," JC whispered but he had no choice but to just let his head fall back. She began leaving kisses over his pelvic bone before she finally took him into her mouth entirely. One of JC's hands automatically flew into her hair when a suction began.

"Shit," he muttered. She swirled her tongue over the tip before closing over him once more. "You do that so good, Kat, fuck."

She knew just what he liked and JC knew that if she kept it up, he wasn't going to even get his turn. He couldn't handle much longer before he cupped her face so that she released him.

"On your back," was all he told her before he kicked off his final pieces of clothes and crawled over her.

Their tongues danced passionately once more before he moved down to her neck and over that spot that sent chills up her spine and down to her-

"Jace," she sighed. He slowly made his way down her plush body before retreating to that one place he knew like the back of his hand. He kissed at the spots where her legs met her body before finally pulling her final, thin garment down her legs, over her ankles and throwing them behind him. He separated her legs for more granted access before Katrina saw his head disappear between her thighs.

Her eyes fluttered closed in anticipation before she finally felt his mouth on her. One hand gripped at the sheets beside her while one dove into his hair.

As his tongue enclosed over her clit, a gasp of pleasure slipped from Katrina. Her legs begged to be squeezed shut for a release but JC held her strongly from behind the thighs.

Her moans had turned into pants and he knew that he was getting her close. By the way her body was tightening, the way her hands held on to the waves in his hair, one last swirl of the tongue would have been all it took to finish her off but JC pulled back and teased his way back up her body until they were chest to chest again.

Katrina attempted to flip them over once more as she usually did but JC's body weighed down on her heavily. He engaged her mouth with his own while he teased her slit with his shaft. Her short nails scratched at his smooth back and they dug into his skin when JC slid in the tip and rubbed against her once more.

He pulled back to look down at her blissfully flushed, keen expression that wordlessly encouraged him to satisfy them both. Their lips exchanged the taste of each other onto the other's tongue as JC pierced her so slowly it had almost become painful. His width stretched her open with each inch and her heated walls contracted around him.

"Oh my God," Katrina whimpered as JC buried his face into the crook of her neck. He gritted his teeth as he remained in a state of inertia inside of her. He savoured in the feeling of her wet, heat hugging him.

A few seconds had gone by and JC still hadn't moved. Katrina tried to regulate her breathing but to no avail when she felt him hard and pulsing inside of her, setting her body on fire.

"Jace," she whimpered, pressing her forehead to his shoulder. She attempted to buck up her hips but JC kept them pinned.

"Just feel me Kat," he whispered into her ear. Katrina almost immediately arched her back off the bed and she drew back her legs. When it had boiled down to the point where he thought Katrina's nails were going to rip the skin off his shoulders, he pulled out and thrust into her to set a slow rhythm.

He was being gentler than usual but she couldn't even function to form a sentence of protest when on his fifth thrust, he managed to roughly hit the spot only a select few men had ever been able to reach.

JC nibbled at her neck as Katrina's moans had turned into soft cries that became higher and louder as her body continued to tremble under him.

"Right there, JC," she managed to get out, her legs suddenly becoming wrapped around him. "Fuck, Jace, yesss."

His thrusts remained slow, but they had gotten rougher and his own hands were clenching at the sheets, the pillows, her breasts, her waist, the back of her legs- anywhere to get him to hold off on his release.

He lifted himself a bit to look into her eyes, the beads of sweat on his forehead glistening over her. His jaw was a bit dropped as Katrina bit down on her bottom lip. JC had finally quickened his thrusts and she couldn't help but just surrender to the feel of his body moving in and out of her, relishing in the way every thrust made her release seem so close.

JC paid attention to every crevice of her body that his lips could get to before he took her to where she was about to be. Her neck, her breasts, her lips, everywhere before Katrina crossed her ankles at her back and let out panicked gasps.

"JC," she quivered. Just one thrust later, tiny volcanoes of white hot ecstasy had erupted under every inch in her body from the fireworks behind her eyes to the nails of her curled toes.

JC clenched his jaw as he felt her orgasm squeeze his him mercilessly but he waited until her shaking had eased before he pulled out and came just under her navel.

"Fuck," he panted, Katrina holding him close as he shot his load over her lower abdominals. His eyes were squeezed shut but he finally reopened them as he tried to catch a breath.

He looked down at her, breathing hard on unstable arms.

"Amazi-" he started but Katrina swallowed his words.

"Damn," she whispered, when they finally pulled away. JC rolled over to the side and grabbed the comforter to cover their naked bodies before collapsing back against the pillows.

"You okay?" he asked her, as she stared up at her ceiling. Both their chests continued to rise and deflate rapidly. Katrina smiled, nodding quickly.

"I'm great," she said. "You?"

"Same," he agreed.

They lay beside each other in silence for the next few minutes before JC got up and pulled his jeans on.

"Where're you going?" Katrina asked tiredly, rising on her elbows.

JC smiled. "I need some water."

"What time is it?" she yawned, running a hand through her air.

"Uh, a little before eleven," JC told her, checking the watch on his wrist.

"I have work in the morning," he heard her grumble before she fell back onto the mattress.

He made his way out of the room and into the kitchen, his body still sensitive from orgasm. He poured himself a tall glass of water from the mug in her fridge and downed it in three large gulps.

He took a seat at her kitchen table before taking a moment to silently pride himself but more so appreciate the fact that he had arguable just had some of the most passionate sex he had ever had in months. It wasn't their typical loud, flexible, hip crushing sex session they were so used to engaging in.

This time, surprisingly to JC's pleasure, was slower, hotter and far more fanatical. He took a couple minutes to treat himself to the slice of pizza he had refused earlier before returning to the room.

"Hey, Kat, do you want a slice of-" he stopped himself short when he noticed her eyes closed, and her breathing regular. JC smiled softly to himself as he strolled further into the room and brought the comforter up some more to completely cover her.

He gathered his clothes from the floor and held them in his arms before going over to the light switch and flicking it downward. He went over to Katrina's side of the bed, careful not to make any sudden noise and he looked at her once more as she remained in a completely contrasting mood than she had been in when he had first arrived.

 Lightly pressing his lips to her forehead, JC whispered a goodnight to her before he left the apartment. "See you later, SmartieKat."

Gentleman?

The questioning, single word had flashed across the screen of JC's phone an hour and a half earlier, awakening him. Now, an hour and a half later, the ten character message still taunted him as it continually brought his attention back to the otherwise white page.

"Hey, Ty," JC murmured as he interrupted the comfortable silence between the two. He waited for his brother to look up from the newspaper he was reading at the café's breakfast table before continuing. "Have you ever gotten a text like this from a woman?"

Tyler looked down at the text and chuckled before taking a sip from the coffee mug in front of him. "Who sent that to you?"

"Katrina," JC replied, exiting out of the inbox and leaning back in his chair. "She sent it to me this morning and I don't know what it means."

"I thought Katrina was mad at you after you deleted a message from her voicemail."

"She... is," JC answered slowly. "She... was."

Tyler studied his brother's face for a maximum of three seconds before he shook his head with a sigh. "You hooked up with her, didn't you, Jace?"

"Nope."

"Right," Tyler scoffed.

"I'm not messing with you, it wasn't hooking up," JC insisted. "But we did end up in bed by the end of the night."

"So you talked out the whole voicemail dispute that was going on between the two of you?"

"We argued about it. I was mad, she was furious, and I was going to leave but..." JC's voice trailed off. "I don't know."

"You know what happened, JC," Tyler reminded him. "I just don't understand why you did it. Sex complicates everything."

"No, Ty, the sex wasn't the problem. The sex was," JC had to smile at the memories of the night before rapidly replaying in his head. "Staggering? Like, you're movin' slowly but, you know, at the same time you can't really breathe because it's that good?"

"I don't need to know the details, bro."

JC frowned. "Her text makes it sound like I just got some and left her apartment. Like, she was a booty call or something."

"Maybe she thought you'd spend the night?" Tyler offered. "Maybe she didn't expect you to tiptoe out late at night right after doing what you guys did."

JC furrowed his eyebrows in thought. "I didn't think it made much a difference," he mumbled honestly, as he played with one of the salt shakers resting on the table. "She fell asleep so I left."

"Well, stop looking into it so much, man," Tyler said. He adjusted the tie he wore before patting the sides of his pants to ensure his keys were in place. "I've got a client to see in a half hour so I should get going. I think Kat's just trying to be normal with you again. Maybe the text was out of sarcasm; a way of trying to make conversation."

"So do I reply or do I leave it there or should I just go see her later or should I wait a couple days before I give her a call?"

Tyler grinned as he rose from the chair. "JC, you need to just go back to being normal around her. I'm a psychologist, listen to me. If she's still mad at you, she's a woman, you'll know it. Until then, stop analyzing. You're a musician not a scientist."

JC laughed lightly as he pulled a fifty dollar bill from his wallet and stuck it under the salt shaker he was toying with. "I suppose," he said. "I suppose we can go back to being normal."

* * *

Katrina's eyes scanned the words on the pages that were fastened to the clipboard she held in her left arm.  Her head bobbed to the rhythm of the faint music she heard coming from outside in the store. Her one woman dance party of checking off boxes and marking off labels gave her mood the boost it needed after the past three days.

The music suddenly became louder when the door swung open and Rihanna's ‘Only Girl' boomed into the storage room as though you had just entered a concert that had already started.

"Kat?" a fellow worker called out to her as she stood in the doorway. "Are you almost done with those?"

Katrina turned around and gave a confident nod. "Almost."

"Do you want me to finish them for you?"

Katrina gave a confused smile but shook her head. "I'm okay, thanks. I don't have too many more to check out. I'll be out in a while."

The woman turned her head out the door to whisper something before calling out to Kat once more.

"How long's a while?" she asked. "We need your help with a customer out here."

"Ask Sheila to help," Katrina replied, not bothering to look up. "She and Nicole are somewhere by the Plus Size clothes racks."

The music slowly faded as the door closed and Katrina continued her morning's work. She used her free hand to open the cardboard lid to one of the many boxes clustered in the corner of the large room.

She was about to reach for the one of the rolls of labels on the iron shelf behind her when the door was pulled opened once more, quicker than the last time. The abrupt occurrence forced Katrina to snap her head up in surprise.

"Are you not available to work with customers this morning or something?" JC asked, letting the door close behind him.

Katrina stood up straight, the nerves in her face momentarily paralyzed as she recognized her surprised guest. "You're the customer?" she asked, slightly stunned.

JC nodded, pulling off the grey beanie he wore on his head. "Hey."

Katrina shook her head almost in a panic as JC made his way further into the room. "No, no, Jace, you can't be in here, my manager would kill me. This is employees only, I can't-"

"Relax," he told her with a small chuckle. "I know this is employees only. I talked to your manager by the counter. She said it was cool."

"Really? What'd you say?"

"Hi, I'm JC Chasez," he grinned and Katrina felt a relieved smile quickly take the place of the frown on her face.

"That makes sense," she said with a sigh. "Hi."

JC looked around at the boxes. "Inventory mess?"

"I'm sorting it out," Katrina told him. "I think it's alright, for the most part."

"That's good," JC nodded.

There was an odd few second silence between the two before Katrina looked up at him with an expecting smile.

"Are you going to tell me what you're doing here?" she asked.

JC nodded his head and his hands nervously kept busy with the beanie. "I just, uh," he cleared his throat. "I wanted to follow up from last night."

"Go ahead," Katrina encouraged as she momentarily turned her attention back to the clipboard.

"I wanted to know how you felt about it."

"Me?" Katrina questioned. "Are you asking me to give you a review?" she asked with a smile.

"No! No no, no," JC laughed. "What I meant was, I wanted to know where we stood, you know? That text you sent didn't help with clarifying things either."

"The ‘gentleman' thing?"

"Yea."

"Just my way of teasing you after you left last night," Katrina admitted casually. She stopped herself when she realized JC didn't respond. "Did I scare you or something?" she asked, stifling a laugh.

"No, I just didn't know what to think about it. I didn't know if I offended you or if you were still mad-"

"About the voicemail? Not really, not anymore."

"Oh, good. Then I'm glad that we cleared that up."

"Well I can't hold that grudge over you forever, can I?" Katrina murmured. "I just figured it'd be better if we stop talking about it."

"I agree," JC said, going along with her. "We're adults and we're not going to let one stupid-"

"Very idiotic and unnecessary," Katrina corrected him.

"Are we okay?" he asked, sincerely.

She smiled as she set down the clipboard and label roll on the shelf and folded her arms across her chest. "Yea, we're good. Thanks for coming by."

JC raised his eyebrows, pleasantly taken aback. "Wow, that's not something I hear every day."

"Well, enjoy it, because I doubt I'll be saying it any more often."

Katrina checked the time on the silver, analog wrist watch on her left arm before turning to the boxes and placing both hands on her hips. "I really should get back to work, Jace," she said. "Are you doing any work today?"

JC quickly went through his schedule for the day.

"Yea, I'll be in meetings probably from around ten o'clock to three and then I've got to hit the studio till maybe seven or so." He lifted his arms to rest the beanie back over his thick, brown hair.

"Well, you better get going," Katrina said.

"Hey, Kat?"

"What?"

"Do you have plans later?"

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't."

JC situated a fixed stare in her direction.

Katrina giggled when she noticed the expression spread across his facial features.

"I do have some things planned for later," she stated. "I'm going for a run and then I intend to indulge in some books that have been sitting in the back of my closet that I have yet to read."

"How eventful," JC acknowledged half sarcastically. "How about you come by my place tonight and chill out with me?"

"I don't think so, bud," Katrina declined, patting him on the back as she walked around him. "I just want a couple of days of peace without having someone around to entertain, you know what I mean? It's been a hard week."

"Given the circumstances, I guess I can leave you alone this one time."

She smiled. "How about Friday?"

"I'm busy Friday. I'm working at the studio all of Saturday afternoon. Saturday night?" he suggested.

 "Me and Pixel shall be at your place at let's say, nine? I don't get off my shift until eight thirty."

"Sounds good," JC concurred.

"Okay, Jace, as much as I love having you here to distract me, and I do, I really, really, really need to get back to my shift, so please get out of here."

"Alright, I'm going," he told her before he dipped his head to the side to kiss her cheek as Katrina continued to scribble notes onto her paper. "I'll see you Saturday."

"Don't forget," she called out to him as a warning.

"I won't," JC promised as he made his way toward the door.

"Do you need me to bring anything?"

"Condoms," he replied. "I'm all out."

Katrina smiled as she let out a soft sigh. "Starbucks and popcorn it is."

* * * * * * *

"I think you're probably going to have to do this one over."

JC sat intently behind the large soundboard that Saturday night as he leaned forward in the black, leather chair. His right foot lifted halfway off the carpeted floor to beat in sync to the music coming from the speakers of the Apple laptop next to him.

His arms were folded across his chest clothed by a short sleeved, white t shirt whose simplicity showed off the definition in his shoulders and biceps.

He had been in the studio for a good six hours working with an upcoming female vocalist and good friend of Tyler. The writing process had dragged along longer than he had hoped the day before as well as earlier that morning but he was thoroughly enjoying the production process.

JC looked down at the lyric sheet on his lap to follow up with the words of the song. Man, it felt good to see his name written at the top of the page. There were few things that excited him more than doing what he was doing: Working or, more specifically, making music with anyone and everyone who was willing to take a chance with him.

It was only a bonus that the woman he was working with was as insanely beautiful as she was talented.

"How much higher do I have to go?" the twenty-six year old, Lisa, asked him.

"You need to go an octave higher on the last note of the second verse."

The woman heaved a sigh as she let her head fall back so that her high, dirty blonde bun hit the back of her own chair, identical to the one of her producer.

"You'll get it, don't worry," JC assured her. "We're just going to come back in here on Monday so that we can perfect it and record the official demo. Other than that, we're done."

"Are you sure we're going to get this done in time?"

"Do you trust me?" JC asked with an almost teasing smile. "If you do, then stop worrying. You're doing just fine. I won't let you send this demo in until the track is absolutely unblemished."

Lisa reached over to squeeze one of his hands appreciatively. "I really am grateful that you agreed to work with me, JC."

"Hey, the talent is all in you. I'm just trying to bring it out on this song," he told her, setting the papers down on the soundboard to lean back. "And any friend of Tyler is a friend of mine so it's all good."

"I know you're probably a busy guy, balancing the whole celebrity thing with your music and travelling and your girlfriend. I bet it's tough a lot of the time."

JC chuckled. "Not as tough these days. No girlfriend and less travelling but life balances out. I can't complain."

"Are you not ready to settle down or something?"

"I like to have my fun and I'll leave it at that."

"I haven't met that right person yet either."

"You're still in your twenties, you're young," JC reminded her. "You'll find a good guy."

"But I haven't found him yet, is what I'm saying," she slowly said. She ran a finger from the base of JC's fingers to over his wrist. She gave him a sly smile. "Out of curiosity, do you kiss as well as you sing?"

JC studied her with a pleasantly, questionable expression on his face. "You're pretty bold, aren't you?"

"I prefer the word ‘confident.'"

"I do a lot of things as well as I sing."

Lisa shrugged her shoulders. "Well, that's not exactly something Tyler mentioned so I can't take your word."

He rolled his chair closer to where she was and leaned over the handle so that his lips were inches away from hers. "You say you don't have a boyfriend," JC started. "Try me," he challenged.

No more than a single second had gone by before the woman's dark shade of lipstick had transferred over to JC's own light pink lips and her hand was pressed against his chest.

"You're pretty good," she noted, and the frown lines on JC's head suddenly became visible.

"Do you do stuff like this with all your producers?" he asked.

"Do you do stuff like this with all your upcoming artists?" she queried.

"I usually keep my sex life out of my studio, figuratively speaking."

"Who said anything about sex, JC?" Lisa spoke innocently cunningly.

He smiled before letting one of his arms move to grip her around the waist before planting a wet one onto her lips.

"So do you want to stay here or should move the party out front where the cars are parked?"

"Your place sound good?" he asked as he pulled her up to stand with him.

Lisa bit her bottom lip in an attempt to conceal her obvious excitement as she took his hand and let him lead her over to the exit of the studio.

She was going to have sex with JC Chasez.

* * *

A little less than fifteen minutes later had passed before the two stumbled through the front door to a modern, one story house. Her jacket was already off as was JC's brown belt.

"Second door on the left down this corridor," she advised him, slightly breathless.

JC ensured that his hands kept busy with the generous assets that her body offered as they walked unsteadily over to her bedroom. It took a moment for her to find the doorknob in the darkness and her hands fumbled when JC's mouth had already found the sweet spot on her neck.

The man stuck to his word. She concluded he did indeed do a lot of things just as well as he sang and they hadn't even done what she had in mind yet.

The two finally made it into the dark bedroom before Lisa had taken the lead. She took the opportunity to push the man in front of her directly onto his back on her quickly becoming unmade bed.

"I feel like I need to ask," she began as she straddled him. Her hands pressed down onto the mattress on either side of his face. "Are you tested positive for anything?"

"I'm clean," JC assured her. "What about you?"

"Same. So I don't have to be worried?"

"The only thing you need to worry about is if you're going to be able to get up and walk later," he muttered as she rested her weight on him and her core pressed into him.

As their tongues became reacquainted, there was an involuntary vibration coming from in between them.

"What's that?" she whined, pulling away from his lips.

"My stupid phone," he mumbled. JC sighed impatiently as he tried to fish the device from out of his pocket.

Lisa turned to the remaining sensitive areas of JC's body to keep her company while he tried to silence the phone's loud vibrations.

He was about to throw it onto the next side of the bed when Katrina's photo caught his eye. There was a text message.

I'm about three minutes away. Open the gates.

JC's eyes widened and every nerve that had been set on fire in his body had immediately just collapsed with not one flickering flame to keep any of them alive.

"Oh my God," JC groaned, and it wasn't because of where Lisa's lips had suddenly ended up.

 

9:42 PM.

Shit.

JC had been sitting in his car for a little over five minutes, parked outside of the large, automatic black gate that led into his driveway in an attempt to come up with an excuse worth believing. Still, at almost three quarters of an hour late, he had to admit that he wasn't sure if any excuse he came up with would even be one worth saying.

As far as Katrina knew via text message, he simply was ‘not home' and that she should go ahead and ‘relax without me for a bit.'

With a silent sigh, he stretched his hand out to the gate operator to punch in the six digit code that permitted him entry. As his Mercedes pulled into the space next to Katrina's Prius, JC reluctantly opened the car door to let himself out. He adjusted his appearance so that the bulge in his jeans that hadn't been taken care of wouldn't completely give him away.

He unlocked his front door and gently closed it behind him so that he wouldn't disrupt the silence that had settled throughout the house.

He walked a few steps further and poked his head into the living room and flicked on the lights. Every piece of furniture seemed to be untouched. Was Katrina even here?

JC furrowed his eyebrows, and turned around to head into the kitchen. He had only taken four steps into the room when the high pitched scream of a cat bellowed right before him and caused him to jump back in terror.

"Shit!" JC cried out, his heart rate speeding. "Jesus Christ."

The cat quickly dashed off to hide below one of the tall, wooden stools in fear of the man whose size ten shoe had just mashed down on its short tail and whose loud voice had scared them into seeking safety.

"Pix, I didn't see you there," JC groaned apologetically as he squatted nearby to where the small animal was whimpering.

"Pixel?" Katrina's voice echoed outside in the foyer. She hurriedly paced into the kitchen, only halting when she noticed JC. A broad smile came over her face.

"Hey, you're home," she greeted him. "I thought I heard someone."

"Yeah, I just got here," JC nodded. "Um, we may have a little situation down here."

Katrina's face immediately fell when she paused and heard the soft cries of her pet and spotted her curled under the stool.

"JC!" Katrina yelled at him as she got down on all fours next to him. "You scared her again, didn't you?"

JC winced. "I didn't see her tail when I walked in here."

Katrina swatted his arm and slowly lured the frightened cat out of her hiding place and into her cradling arms. She gently stroked her fur with her fingers.

"At least I've stepped on her tail enough times for you to know that she'll be fine within a few minutes," JC offered with a light chuckle.

Katrina rolled her eyes, while they both rose to their feet. "Did you apologize to her?"

JC leaned his head so that he was at eye level with the pet. "I'm sorry I stepped on your tail... Again."

"Never mind," Katrina said, turning away with a teasing smile. "She's tired of your apologies. You're already almost an hour late."

JC felt his mouth go dry. "Look, Kat, I can explain, really."

"You don't have to," she shrugged. "I can guess why you're late, anyway."

"I'm sorry, really," JC insisted. "It's just-"

 "There was a car accident on the highway," Katrina informed him.

Fortunately, Katrina interrupted his sentence just when JC himself didn't know how he was going to finish it.

She continued. "Traffic's been building up ever since. Were you at the studio?"

"Well, yeah," JC answered.

"Yeah, it's along that route. Did you see anything?"

He shook his head sincerely.

"Well, that's why there was probably so much traffic on your way home. I'm glad you're back though."

"I walked in and the place was so quiet," JC told her. "Where were you?"

"In the dining room," she replied. "On my laptop."

JC nodded as he walked past her to reenter the foyer. Katrina followed. He immediately aimed for the staircase while she went straight ahead to where the dining room was behind the corner.

"I really need to take a shower," he told her. "I really, really need to get in the shower. Are you okay down here for a little while?"

"We'll just make it a full hour."

JC smiled. "I'll be back down in a bit."

"Come find me when you're done."

*

Nothing short of twenty minutes later, JC waltzed into his dining room. His hair was soaked, his sweats were on, the area beneath his pants was far more relaxed, and his mouth was half full.

"Hey, Kat," he called out to her from the doorway as he chewed a large square of brownie. He held up a small, white box that was filled with the dessert. "Dih you bing dese o'er?"

Katrina lifted her head from the laptop. "Yeah, they're for you."

"What kind are they?" JC asked, finally swallowing. "They're really sweet."

"Cheesecake, fudge brownies from Starbucks," she told him. "I brought you over a coffee too but you took so long to get here I drank it."

"Good call."

He took a seat right beside her at the large, twelve chair dining table. He broke off half of another brownie from in the box and held it up in front of her?

"Share?" he offered.

"I'm alright," Katrina decline politely. "I bought a cheese Danish."

JC silently savored the treat while his guest continued to tend to her keyboard. With a small sigh, he shoved the box to the next side of the table and laid down his head, his cheek resting against the hard surface.

"You're not entertaining me," he grumbled, and Katrina couldn't help but laugh.

"Are you tired?" she asked. She let one hand rest on his back, soothingly rubbing up and down and ever so often threading her fingers through the hair at the top of his neck. "You're supposed to be entertaining me, if anything."

"I had a long day," JC admitted.

"Me too, bud. Mall hours are the worst on Saturdays."

"What're you doing there?" he asked with his face still flat against the wood.

Katrina's eyes twinkled, but she closed the laptop. "Nothing important."

"Lies," JC hissed, teasingly. "C'mon."

She flashed him a grin. "Do you really care though?"

"If it causes a smile like that, then it sounds like I should care."

"Well," Katrina began. "It's nothing incredible or anything."

"I'm going to smash your face with a brownie just now," JC warned her. "And then lick the chocolate off of you if you don't stop beating around the bush."

"Okay," she said. "If you must know, I finally completed my first, original, fifty two chapter work of fiction that I've been working on for the past two years. It's finally done."

JC smiled. "That's great, SmartieKat. Good job."

"Thanks," she murmured, bashfully looking down at her nails on the table.

"When I can I read the full thing?" JC asked as he sat up.

"You get to read my original work when I get to hear your original tracks," she responded confidently.

"Katrina..." His voice trailed off.

"You never let me hear anything so why should I let you read?"

"I haven't recorded anything recently," JC whined, returning his attention to his snack.

"Lies," she mocked him. She sat crossed legged on the cushioned chair and smiled. "I don't exactly want you to read it, anyway. It's just sitting there now so I have something to motivate me to write more."

"Why don't you send it in to a publisher or something like that? Or hire an editor and see what happens?"

"Heck no," Katrina said, partly horrified "I'd never do that. No one ever puts their first piece of work out there. You're just asking for more criticism."

JC wordlessly stared at the wall directly opposite to him. He waited a few moments before speaking up again. "I really haven't recorded much of anything lately, you know."

"So what the hell do you do in the studio all day when you're in there by yourself?"

"Write," he insisted. "And make phone calls to other producers and sometimes play with the equipment to the point where I start breaking things. I haven't sung anything of my own for months. There's no inspiration anymore."

"Man, your fans must hate you sometimes."

JC had to laugh. "Yea, probably. The ones that care, at least."

Katrina used to opportunity to punch his arm. JC opened to mouth to protest but she stopped him. "That one was on behalf of your fans- Me included."

JC shrugged. "Maybe some inspiration will strike with a hot Parisian or British girl in the summer."

"Bring me back a baguette and some scones. A nice, educated guy with an accent who's six feet tall with brown hair wouldn't displease me either."

JC thought for a moment before turning his head to face her. "You want to go down to the basement?"

She crinkled her eyebrows. "What for?"

"I'll sing one verse of a song for you that I had written for Kate, if you let me read your novel."

"I wrote fifty two chapters, sweetie," Katrina reminded him as she ran the back of her index finger over the side of his face. "Twenty seconds worth of music from a full album I've never heard isn't going to cut it."

"I'll play the chorus too?" JC suggested.

"And the bridge."

"God, woman," JC muttered.

"Let's go," she told him excitedly as she got off the chair but JC got a hold of her wrist.

"Not yet," he laughed. "You have to open the documents to your story first and send them to me."

"Not a chance," Katrina snorted. "You have the mind of a con artist when you and I make deals. You would play me nothing if I sent it to you now."

"Fine, we'll draw straws," he said seriously. "Or do you want to rock, paper, scissors for it?"

"No, you pick rock all the time."

"That's because you always choose the scissors on the first round!"

Just as Katrina was about to defend herself in the midst of their discussion, another one of Pixel's high pitched screams reverberated from the far outside of the room.

Katrina flinched. "JC, if you seriously injured my cat I swear I'm going to make you pay the bill for the next vet visit."

JC exhaled noisily and followed her purposeful march to the exit. He was slowly trailing behind until he spotted the animal and looked up to where she was staring on the long staircase.

"Pix!" Katrina hollered, and her pet immediately ran over to where she was standing.

JC took a few rapid steps in front of her to stand at the base of the carpeted steps. "Hey!" he roared. "Stop!"

The figure stopped and turned to look down at him, one hand on her hip and the other on the banister.

He continued to yell. "Lisa, what the hell are you doing in my house?"

Katrina walked up behind him and peered over his shoulder at the woman. "What's going on? Did she break in?"

"We work together," Lisa smiled sweetly, her eyes a dark shade of green.

"You broke into my house!" JC exclaimed.

"Yeah, well you sort of ran out of mine tonight as though the bed was on fire!"

JC stared at her in disbelief.

"You know," Katrina whispered into his ear. "For a guy with millions of dollars in the bank, you have pretty shitty alarm systems."

JC shot her a glare before stepping onto the first to look up at the woman. "I told you I would call you tomorrow," he reminded her, his voice compressed.

"So you could come home on time to the girlfriend you lied to me about tonight?"

"She's not my-" JC began to explain but Lisa had interrupted him just as she began to walk down the stairs. Her eyes were fixated on Katrina.

"Did your boyfriend tell you where he was tonight?" she questioned.

"Lisa-" JC spoke up but he was stopped when a hand was held up in front of him.

Katrina had remained quiet but intrigued.

Lisa continued. "He was halfway through foreplay with me when all of a sudden he ran out after his phone went off. I'm just going to assume that was you."

"You said you were at the studio, JC," Katrina recapped calmly.

"We were," he promised. "Things just got a little out of hand and we went back to her place."

"That's why you were late," she concluded. "No wonder."

"Kat, I know we were supposed to hang out t-"

"I think he forgot," Lisa but in.

Katrina redirected her attention back to the young woman. "You do know that you're trespassing on private property that you are not welcome on."

The woman looked at Katrina, stunned with her jaw dropped.

"How did you even get in here?" JC inquired.

"I scaled your wall and your front door was unlocked. Tyler gave me your address."

"Leave, now. You're insane."

Lisa gave a small smile but shook her head. "No, not really. I just wanted to let you know that lying isn't something that goes down well with me."

"Yeah, me either," Katrina muttered.

"She's not my girlfriend," JC pledged. "And you need to leave right now or find another producer to finish your song.

"You're her producer?"

JC ignored the comment. "If you don't go, I'll have to report you for intrusion."

"I'll see you Monday then, boss," Lisa smiled.

The click-clacking of heels on the tiles and a bold wave goodbye from the door were the final memories Katrina hoped she'd have of one of the few women she had ever been confronted by thanks to her abnormally close association with JC.

 She carefully set her squirming cat on the floor before crossing her arms across her chest.

"I can explain," were JC's first words but Katrina simply smiled.

"No, you can't."

"I'm sorry."

"You're always sorry."

"I didn't want you to get mad at me for thinking that you coming over tonight wasn't a priority. I was just smothered in work all day."

"And also by a beautiful woman's breasts that seemed to drain every brain cell that aids with your recollection? Telling the truth is only as hard as you make it, JC."

JC frowned and walked up to her and held her arms at the side. "You and I hanging out together is a priority to me, Kat. I just suck sometimes."

"You suck too much of the time."

JC fought a smile. "Pun intended?"

"Yes."

"Please, please don't stay mad," he pleaded. "I did leave her place to come back here."

"Am I supposed to feel some sort of honor for that?"

"No, I'm just telling you that between sleeping with her and keeping a promise with you, I chose you, okay?"

Katrina studied him for a few seconds before shaking his grip off her arms. "Your sweet talk stopped flattering me a long time ago, Chasez."

"Don't leave yet."

"Any other woman would have left this house you know, JC."

"Yeah, but you love me so you forgive me faster, right?" he hoped.

Katrina grimaced as JC gave her a light kiss on the cheek.

"From one best friend to the other," he told her. "I'm really sorry that I lied to you and that I forgot and I was late."

"That girl, as crazy as she was for breaking in here, you should send her an apology for leaving her hanging like that."

"I'll take care of her. What about you?"

Her lips were pursed as she thought before heaving a soft sigh. "Alright, alright. We'll forget about it."

"Thank you for letting me off the hook," JC beamed as he took her hand in his. "Do you still want to go down to the studio or should we go look online for better alarm systems?"

"I should be played the entire album for this."

JC smiled. "Keep dreaming."

*

"Your backyard smells like a Mexican restaurant," Katrina noted as she dipped a ranch chip into a bowl of salsa.

We need some Kahlúa to top it off."

JC bit into one of the eight tacos him and Katrina had decided to whip up at midnight before reaching for his Coke. It had been well over three hours since his uninvited guest had invaded and sparked tension between the two, but JC was thankful that Katrina had not brought up the incident since. He had even turned off his phone to avoid the messages he knew he would be receiving from Tyler.

Instead, the time went by with the help of music, a couple television shows, YouTube, twenty seven embarrassingly competitive games of Go Fish and a late night Mexican picnic eaten out by the pool in 17°C weather.

Their feet dangled in the cool water as they sat side by side. JC's pool and outdoor lights were the only luminosities among the darkness.

"I've got to take you to Mexico someday," he told her, wiping the side of his mouth with a napkin. "This is great but you've got to try the real thing."

"That sounds like a lot of driving," she replied tentatively.

He rolled his eyes. "Plane, Katrina, on a plane."

"How about you do that and ship me some guacamole instead?"

"One day," he promised. "One day I'll tie you up and put you on your first flight."

"I'll kick you in the nuts, that's what I'll do." She chuckled as some more sour cream from another bite of a taco spread across his chin and upper lip. She used her fingers to wipe some of it off and placed them in her mouth. "You don't eat like this when you're at the Grammy's, goodness."

"That's ‘cause I'm not in a public, high class place with a woman who's wearing a two thousand dollar dress so I don't have to worry about spilling anything and then getting yelled at."

"Well, I can't promise you won't get yelled at but it is your hoodie I'm wearing."

JC smiled at her. "We should make these late night picnics a regular thing."

"As long as you don't forget," she said in a sing song voice and JC nudged her. "I sort of wish you had a good girlfriend right now, you know."

He looked at her, bewildered. "Why?"

Katrina shrugged.  "I can't take you for pedicures and have girl talk about Johnny Depp or go dress shopping with. I need someone else for that sort of stuff."

JC looked at her. "I feel insulted," he proclaimed. "I am man enough to go for a pedicure, just so you know, we can talk about Johnny Depp- I've met him a few times, great guy- and why on Earth would you want to go dress shopping?"

"I have this thing to go to in a couple weeks for Memorial Day weekend," she explained with a noticeable groan. "It's formal."

JC leaned back on his hands so that they sank into the slightly damp grass behind him and he stared at her uncertainly. He slowly waited for her to continue only to find her staring back at him in the same way.

"Well, are you going to tell me what you're doing for Memorial Day weekend?" JC asked exasperatedly. "Man, you'd think stuff like this would come up when we talk for all this time."

"Sean and Lindsay are renewing their vows for their ten year wedding anniversary that Sunday. I have to go, obviously. And it's formal, and I don't own any long, beautiful gowns if you haven't noticed."

"So you're spending that weekend in San Diego?"

"I'm staying with Sean and Linds and of course I'm going to meet all their friends and see their friends' kids and then see my mom who's going to ask me why I don't have any kids or a husband or a New York Times' bestseller."

JC rested an assuring hand on her shoulder. "Don't think so negatively about it, come on. It's only for a few days."

"I get to see Cody and Cindy again so that's the upside."

"And you have an excuse to get all fancy."

"I should probably look for something to wear from next week, shouldn't I?"

JC agreed. "I'll come with you to get something. I know a lot of women around town who run fashion boutiques here in Hollywood."

Katrina lifted her eyebrows in surprise. "You want to come dress shopping with me?"

"Yeah, I don't mind."

"Are you sure that Lance is the gay member of *NSYNC?" she queried.

JC paid no attention to her teasing as he reached for his next taco. "Who's your escort?"

"Pixel," she responded, and JC immediately began to laugh, triggering a domino effect of coughs.

"Your mother is *cough* going *cough* to *cough* love that," he got out, swallowing hard.

"Thanks for the reminder."

"Why don't you let me come with you?" JC asked, his eyes settling on hers seriously. "We'll have a good time down in San Diego."

"No, JC," Katrina refused. "You probably have huge plans to go out to some club or after party. This shit is my family. And I'm staying with my brother."

"Lindsay loves me!" JC exclaimed. "She'd love it if I was a guest at her house for a few days."

"Confident man, aren't you?"

"I know my effect on women."

"Sean hates you," Katrina giggled. "You know that."

"But you love me, his wife loves me, his kids love me, hell, even your mom likes me," JC told her. "You know that. We're adults here. I'm sure they wouldn't mind if I was your date."

"I'm repeating this," Katrina recurred. "You would be staying in the home of my brother and his wife, with two children, and probably sharing the guest bedroom with me."

"Do you want me to come?"

"Maybe it would make it easier around my mother, I suppose," Katrina admitted. "It's from the Friday to Monday, Jace."

"I've got plenty of friends in San Diego. If I go with you, I get an excuse to have a hell of a time down there with my best friend and take the happy couple with us to a few parties. I'm happy to come if you want me to."

A small smile crept over her lips. "You'll stick it out with me?"

"I have lots of suits," JC said. "We need to get you a dress."

"You're really taking me dress shopping?"

"Let's consider it my apology to you for tonight."

"How's your schedule for this coming Thursday then?"

JC grinned. "How's your schedule looking for tomorrow?"

Katrina casually pursed her lips as she ran her fingers along the side of a satin, red dress  that was shown off by a mannequin from on the inside of the store. She took note of the way the gown hugged at the lifeless woman's small waist but still comfortably flowed over the hips down to the ankles.

She took a step forward to admire the open back design before curiously turning over the price tag so that she could see the number through her oversized sunglasses.

"Sixty two hundred dollars- what the," she gaped at the four figure digit staring back at her. Katrina could safely say that the number was significantly higher than over half of all the clothes in her closet's worth. She let the dangling piece of paper fall from her fingertips and turned around for the fifth time to see JC finally giving what she hoped were goodbye hugs to three women with besotted eyes and flirty grins near the entrance of the store.

Katrina lurked patiently nearby, questioning whether she should be more surprised by the costs she was seeing or by the fact that people actually purchased such clothing without even taking so much as a glance at the fee.

"Sorry ‘bout that," JC said, walking up behind her a few moments later.

"It's cool," Katrina told him. She carefully rested a hanger that supported a little black dress back on the rack and lifted her sunglasses to sit atop her head. She looked at him expectantly.

"Well," JC said before clearing his throat. "Did you see anything you like?"

"Are we really going to shop here?"

JC frowned. "Yeah, what'd you mean?" he asked as he stuffed his palms into the front pockets of the black denim jeans he wore. Katrina had personally found them to be a bit too tight but the view from the back made up for it. "You don't like it here?" he asked.

She bit down on her lip momentarily as she allowed her eyes to roam the part of the store she could see from standing in front of him. Her worried green eyes met his shiny blues. The rain of light from one of the glass chandeliers that hung from the ceiling above cast the spotlight on them.

"When you said we were going shopping, I thought you meant one of the local malls," she told him. "Not," Katrina quickly let her eyes roam the store. "...Beverly Hills."

"Kat, we're not even ten minutes away from West Hollywood. This is local."

"But it's not like I can afford anything here," she practically whined. "A single belt in this store probably costs more than this sundress, handbag and wedges combined."

JC smiled as he finally took the opportunity to appreciate her outfit. "You look cute."

"Are you even listening to what I'm saying here?" she wondered out loud to him but his response was a mere chuckle as he put an arm around her. "What am I supposed to do here, Jace? Window shop?"

"You need to relax, alright? You're not broke."

"But I will be if I walk out of here with so much as a shoelace."

JC led her over to the same mannequin she had come across just a minute or two before.

"I saw you looking at this," he said, pointing to the red material. "Did you like it?"

"I think you'd want me to tell you the price first."

"Three grand?" he guessed, scratching at the back of his neck.

"Try six thousand," she informed him with a grin as he gave a low whistle.

"Red isn't your colour anyway," he assured her and Katrina couldn't help but laugh.

"I feel like we're in the wrong store, JC," she stated.

JC turned his attention to another mannequin that modelled a turquoise gown and took a hold of Katrina's hand as he moved them along. "I know it looks like really high end stuff," he started but she cut him off.

"There's a Louis Vuitton opposite us and a Vera Wang four stores down!"

"Would it kill you to act like a normal woman and have some fun looking around?"

"It wouldn't kill me," Katrina admitted. She looked over at the gown JC had spotted and studied it. "This is nice. I like the length."

"So try it on," he encouraged. "You've got to try on something while we're here. We may as well start with this."

Before Katrina could open her mouth once more, JC was already signalling to one of the more than eager shopping assistants that were available. A short, tiny woman in a suit immediately made her way over to the pair.

"How may I help you?" she asked politely.

"Do you have any more dresses in this design?" JC asked, looking from the gown to the woman.

"We do. We only offer the dress in this colour, however."

"I don't know how I feel about plain turquoise," Katrina said out loud.

JC raised his eyebrows. "No?"

Katrina shook her head.

"Is there something in particular that you're looking for?" the woman asked. "A particular occasion or dress code so that I know what you're working with?"

"It's for a vow renewal," Katrina replied to her. "It's formal. I'm not against anything, except I'd like for it to be long."

"What dress size are you? A six?" she suggested, much to Katrina's dismay.

"No, I'm a four," Katrina corrected calmly. "Barely a four, actually."

"Wow, really?" the assistant questioned, visibly taken aback.

Katrina took the chance to squeeze JC's hand that was holding onto hers as she kept a smile.

"Oh, yeah," he began, flinching in her grip. "She's a four. Believe me. I would know."

"I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to be presumptuous," she covered up quickly. "You have a lovely figure and I'm sure that, um, you'll find something you like over on that side."

She guided them to the opposite end of the store and before JC took over. "We've got it from here, thanks."

"Let me know if you need anything."

"Will do," he nodded with a smile before the assistant quickly moved away.

"Not every woman living in Hollywood wears a size two, God," Katrina mumbled, almost to herself. She carelessly rummaged through the rack of colourful material before pulling out a hanger. "And I do not look like a size six!"

JC chuckled as he himself looked through some of what the store had to offer. "I know that, I'm glad you know that, and so anyone else here is pretty irrelevant."

"It's rude," she muttered.

"I know but we're not here to get feisty with the employees, SmartieKat," JC reminded her. "Leave that for the bedroom."

No more than two minutes had gone by before JC heard an exasperated sigh from behind him. He whipped his head around just in time to see Katrina walking away.

"Where are you going?" he exclaimed.

She paused abruptly to turn around to him and shrug her shoulders. "I'm going to look at shoes."

"In what style? Invisible? To match the invisible dress you picked out?"

"Acting like a diva is a woman's job, JC."

"Come over here," he commanded after looking down at the studded silver gown in his grip. He didn't even bother to think of whether or not she'd like it or why he even took it off the rack. Instead, he gently shoved it into her chest. "Go try this on."

"You're so bossy," she muttered. "You should leave that for the bedroom."

"Next time," he promised. Katrina had to chuckle.

"Are you going to stay out here or are you coming with me?" she asked.

"I want to find a couple more options for you to try before we go look somewhere else."

"Whatever you say, boss."

JC used the time to briefly explore the aisles of the high priced boutique, ever so often looking up to bashfully wave at the duo of women holding Victoria's Secret shopping bags near to him. They were both size two, from what his eyes could tell.

No wonder Katrina so occasionally became self conscious of what she wore and where. He was about to start looking through a different selection that rotated on a circular rack when his phone vibrated in his pocket, signalling a text message.

I don't like this one L

"Of course she doesn't like it," JC murmured to himself. He made a quick count of the gowns he had draped over his left arm and found his way over to the dressing rooms. "Kat?" he called out, eyeing the eight different rooms. Three of which, the doors were closed.

The second door to the left creaked open and her familiar face poked through. "I don't like this one, Jace," she frowned.

"What's wrong with it?" he asked sincerely. "Is it too flashy?"

"It's too revealing," she emphasized before closing the door all the way in. He moved over to stand just to the side of the knob.

"Can I see what you don't like about it?"

"No," she echoed from on the inside. "It shows too much."

JC rolled his eyes. "Katrina, there is not one part of your body that I haven't already seen or had my tongue on."

She widened the already open door space so that he could step halfway in. She turned around to bare the silver gown that covered the better half of her breasts that were unsupported by any bra but had the cleavage line cut straight down the middle. The slit from the left side of her hip down her leg was an added feature.

"The only thing about it is that the back isn't open," she told him. "It's sheer though."

A grin took over JC's face. "Baby, you look hot!"

Katrina cringed, brushing her open hair off her shoulders and smoothing and letting her hands fall to rest on her waist. "Baby," she mocked. "I can't wear something like this! I want Grammy party formal; not Hugh Hefner skimpy New Year's party' formal."

JC lifted his eyebrows as he stared down at the open gap between her breasts that finally cut just above the navel. "It's something like what J-Lo wore to the Grammy's that one year. She looked hot."

"What're all those?" Katrina asked when she finally took note of the colour of material that adorned his bare arm.

"More options," he happily replied.

"Are they a little more conservative?"

"Probably," he replied as he hung them all on a hook. "Or probably not. The only place we could find something sexier than what you're already wearing is at a lingerie store anyway."

Katrina had ultimately settled on a satin, one strap gown that JC had advised to get in blue so that it would match the colour of the tie he had already picked out at home. It was, however, the shoes she had picked out that startled JC more than the cash total had startled his credit card.

"Are you sure you can walk in these?" he asked her uncertainly as he placed the bags on the leather interior of the backseat of his car. "They're pretty high. You're almost as tall as I am when you put them on."

"I can't let my mother see Sean overshadow me in everything," Katrina explained. "If I can use something even as insignificant as height to my advantage, I'm using something even as insignificant as height to my advantage!"

JC chuckled as he and Katrina slid into the driver and passenger's seat, respectively. They marvelled in the cool air for a few moments before buckling their seatbelts.

"And then she's going to want to take photos to send out to our relatives and in the caption she always makes sure to mention, ‘The Smart Doctors,' pun intended," Katrina went on. "And then it's just ‘Katrina.' No prestigious title and no husband."

Katrina let out a huff that involuntarily sounded like that of a teenager unfairly being sent to their room for punishment.

"Kat," JC smiled. He took a hold of her hand. "I like Katrina. The unmarried Katrina who has a Masters degree in English Literature, I might add."

"Knowing what iambic pentameter is doesn't matter when Sean know how to perform a root canal, Jace," she sighed.

"Hey," he began. "Katrina is awesome, and she's the best friend I've ever had. And anyone who says otherwise is a drunk."

"My mom does drink a lot of wine before five o' clock," she murmured.

JC smiled as he leaned over into her seat and pressed his lips to her forehead. "I love Just Katrina."

"Promise you won't leave me alone for more than ten minutes when the renewal starts."

"I promise," he vowed.

"Thank you," she smiled, pecking his cheek.

"Out of curiosity, am I gonna get laid that weekend?" JC asked as he began to reverse out of their parking space.

"It depends."

"On what?"

"On how long you can go without playing this stupid mix C.D.," Katrina groaned, immediately ejecting the disk. "Seriously Jace, I thought at least one of your girlfriends would have made you throw this out by now."

"Hey, jazz music is the most hybrid form of music in the world and if you can't appreciate that, you're the one with the problem."

*

Sea breeze whisked through the salty air as JC cruised the streets of San Diego with the top down on his car and Katrina and Pixel in tow. She felt the kitten curl tightly into her palms as JC accelerated after bending a corner.

"No L.A. traffic!" he grinned, his eyes beaming like the sun through his aviators. "Don't you love it?"

Katrina squinted under her own pair of sunglasses. "Your driving is scaring my cat," she said, closing her eyes for a brief moment. "And I told you that I wanted to enjoy the quiet while I could."

She rested her head against the leather seat and felt the warm sunshine on her cheeks. She always dreaded coming home, but the carefree drive was usually a good way to calm her mood. The white sand that she didn't often see in L.A. practically felt like it was at her fingertips when she stretched her arm out.

"Thanks for reminding me to pack bathing suits," she told him a few minutes later. "A nap on the beach would really soothe me right now."

JC scoffed as he kept his eyes on the road. "You can sleep at the house. We're almost there."

"Like my mom is gonna let me sleep during the day when she's there," Katrina laughed. "When she comes over tomorrow you won't be able to get more than five minutes to yourself with the bedroom door closed before she starts knocking."

"She just wants to talk, Kat," he said. "Plus, she won't be too critical when I'm there. She loves me."

Katrina remained quiet as JC turned onto the street and found herself subconsciously holding her breath as he pulled up in front of her brother's house. JC confusedly looked into the driveway as he turned off the ignition. He removed the aviators from his face and nodded toward the white Audi that was parked.

"Did Sean and Linds get a new car?" he asked.

"Probably."

"It's nice. I bet Lindsey looks hot driving it."

She laughed as she unbuckled her seat belt. "Try to say stuff like that out of my brother's ear shot, please."

The two had begun approaching the front door when it flew open. JC and Katrina had almost fallen back from the sudden impact of one little body each grabbing them below the knees. Cody and Cindy stared up at the two adults who were caught off guard as their parents strolled outside with smiles.

"You made it safe," Lindsey waved as JC and Katrina bent down at eye level to greet the kids.

"I think they're more excited to see Pixel than they are to see us though," JC chuckled as Katrina's niece pried the kitten out of her aunt's hand. 

"JC," Sean acknowledged as he leaned over his kids to exchange a handshake. "It's good to see you again."

"You guys too."

"Come inside!" Lindsey encouraged. "We'll get the bags later."

Cody and Cindy had already dashed off by the time their aunt and JC were stable on their feet again.

"I love the new car, Linds," Katrina smiled as Lindsey linked arms with her.

"Oh, that's not ours," she responded in a whisper as they entered the house. "We kind of have company."

White tiles, high ceilings, and a spacious, airy living area greeted them as Sean closed the door behind him. Katrina smiled as she stopped to inhale the way her brother and sister in law's home always smelled of a mix of minty dental floss and fresh flowers that were on almost every table in every room.

"Are you guys dentists or florists?" JC joked as he looked around.

Katrina chuckled as she turned back to Lindsey. "You said you had company?"

Sean hesitated before answering. "Don't overreact," he said.

"What'd you mean?" she asked before a body practically came bouncing out of the kitchen area.

"She got here!" the woman practically squealed.

Melissa Shephered was a familiar face among the Smarts. Her chin length, layered brown hair had stayed the exact same way as Katrina had always remembered, and framed her excited brown eyes well. She was fit, and it showed, not only in the way there was barely any jiggle in her thirty year old arms when she pushed back her hair, but in the way her nude capris clung to the curve under her-

"Ass," JC breathed into Katrina's ear, just loud enough for only her to hear. "Holy, ass."

"Kat!" the woman grinned.

"Melissa," Katrina said, taking a moment to say each syllable. "Melissa Shepherd."

"You remember me," the brunette announced happily, quickly embracing Katrina in a hug. "It's been so long."

"Yeah," Katrina nodded slowly. "So long. Like, over a decade, actually."

"I know," Melissa replied, shaking her head in amazement. "It's so funny how we're all together again."

Katrina folded her arms and subtly glanced at her sister in law who was now on the other side of the room. Lindsey wore an almost pained look on her face and pointed to her husband standing beside her. She shrug her shoulders.

"I'm sure it is," Katrina smiled back to Melissa. "But I should introduce you to my escort for the weekend, Mr. JC Chasez."

JC put out his hand to the woman who admiringly met his grip.

"JC Chasez in the flesh," she said, shaking her head. "Wow. Katrina has certainly done well for herself."

JC chuckled. "What can I say? She's the best."

"Jace, this is Melissa," Katrina said. "Sean's ex-girlfriend."

He didn't even have a chance to respond before Sean's voice intervened. "But that was years ago. Light years, actually."

"Absolutely," Melissa agreed. "It's all history." She turned her attention back to the blue eyed singer in front of her. "I'm talking back when *NSYNC was in their prime, history. I'm Lindsey's physiotherapist now."

"Physiotherapist?" Katrina asked. "Ten years ago you were a dietician."

"I know," she nodded. "It's just that I started encountering a lot of people who depended solely on nutrition to maintain weight since injuries prevented them from exercising. So, I decided to give physiotherapy a shot."

"You could totally help me out with these old ankles then," JC stated. "I haven't seen anyone about them in years."

"Yeah, no problem," Melissa nodded.

More than three seconds of almost awkward silence hadn't passed before Sean had cleared his throat a little too loudly.

"Mel," he started. "Would you take JC in the backyard so he could make sure the cat hasn't scratched the either of the kids?"

Katrina could tell that Lindsey faked the grin she had beamed when Melissa walked by. She and JC were hardly behind the sliding glass door leading out into the open back yard when Katrina threw her hands into the air.

"I can explain," Seam said calmly.

Lindsey crossed her arms across the chest of her turquoise shirt and smiled at her sister in law. "I had a similar reaction."

"Your ex-girlfriend is in your house for the weekend of your ten year wedding anniversary with your wife?" Katrina sighed to her brother. "And she's her physiotherapist? Why didn't anyone tell me this?"

"Lindsey hurt her shoulder pretty bad playing tennis a couple months back," he explained. "A guy we know put us onto a woman, M. Shepherd, and he said she was pretty good. I hadn't heard the name in such a long time, it didn't even ring a bell until we saw her."

"Plus," Lindsey added. "By that time, I couldn't just switch therapists. I was the one who got the man, after all."

Katrina frowned, taking a seat on one of the couches. "Why is she here?" she asked.

"When Lydia found out that-"

"Of course mom invited her," Katrina groaned, briefly burying her face in her hands. "You know, she never understood how much Melissa despised me for not being able to go anywhere without Sean driving me. It's like I reminded Mel of the kids she never wanted."

"She only came by to drop off some exercise stuff, Kat," her brother assured her. "You won't see her again until the party."

"I need a drink," Katrina mumbled. "Tell JC we need to go get our stuff from the car. His whole reason for coming here is to help me keep my sanity."

"And, well," Lindsey started. "Walk around in his towel before the kids wake up on a morning, right?" She turned to her scowling husband as Katrina laughed. "I'm already taking physiotherapy from a woman you used to have sex with. You can't win this one."

*

JC laughed as he threw his white t shirt at Katrina as she lay flat on the bed in their guestroom. He sat down on the queen sized bed and nudged her before changing into a vest instead.

"You cannot still be upset that a woman who your brother hasn't even been affiliated with in years is coming to his vow renewal," he said.

Katrina glared up at him. "She hated me, and she hated Sean after they broke up."

JC smiled. "She actually cleared that up with me."

"You were with her for ten minutes!" Katrina scoffed as she sat up. "How much could she have possibly cleared up in ten minutes?" she asked. "That she had a good reason for treating her boyfriend's little sister like crap? Or for leading Sean on for their entire relationship and then ending it with him in a doctor's office when he couldn't go through with the vasectomy that she was forcing on him?"

Katrina continued to stare at JC, plastering the fakest smile she could muster across her face. "The woman sucks," she concluded.

"And she told me that," he replied. "But that stuff is such old news now. Sean doesn't seem to let that stuff bother him anymore."

Katrina heaved a heavy sigh as JC pulled the comforter down on his side of the bed and got under.

"Why does her being back in their life bother you so much, SmartieKat?" JC asked.

"I just think some people are better off in the past where we've left them," she answered. "Like there's no need to be in this house anymore. Sean's married, and he has the kids she never wanted to give him."

"She's not a bad person, Kat," JC stated, pulling Katrina's shoulder down so she could lay back down. "She's not here to make a mess. She's helping Lindsey."

"The bitch gets under my skin sometimes."

JC chuckled for a bit before a few minutes of silence had passed.

"Don't worry," he said, rolling over onto his side to kiss Katrina's cheek. "I'll let you know if she's any good at the physiotherapy thing tomorrow. That way, I can recommend to Lindsey if she needs to keep her husband's ex-girlfriend around or not."

Katrina frowned. "What'd you mean you'll let me know?"

"She told me to come by her place tomorrow so she can take a look at my ankles."

"JC," Katrina whined. "You're gonna end up showing her a lot more than your ankles and I cannot deal with you and her and that image in my head."

"Relax," he insisted. "There's no image in my head so there shouldn't be any in yours."

"You're supposed to be here with me when I mom gets here anyway, remember?"

"I remember," he nodded, closing his eyes. "I'll go see Melissa at noon."

"JC," Katrina said warningly. "Promise me that the only parts of your body this woman will be seeing tomorrow are those geriatric ankles of yours."

"I promise," he smiled.

"Fine," she murmured. "Because the day you add Melissa Shepherd to your list is the day that all sexual contact between my body and yours is done with. And that's a promise."