Summary: They were soulmates but history had proven that they just were NOT meant to be. Despite the facts they've chosen to take a gamble on their lives yet another time by reconnecting but this time their decisions have a rippling effect far greater than just themselves.
Categories: In Progress Het Stories Characters: Justin Timberlake
Awards: None
Genres: Celebrity/Celebrity, Drama, Romance
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 1 Completed: No
Word count: 5439 Read: 192
Published: Sep 26, 2018 Updated: Sep 26, 2018
1. Chapter 1: It Was Random by Nik
Chapter 1: It Was Random by Nik
Author's Notes:
One of my friends "reminded" me of this piece and that I needed to finish it. I've decided to repost for those of you that "remember" it :)
Prologue:
“You know what I’ve always asked myself?” he seemed to disappear into himself as he put his feelings out into the open, eyes transfixed to the ground, as they stood together against the brick wall of the recording studio with their very breath catching frost in the cold winter’s night. “Why is it that you and I never worked out? We tried so many fucking times, Dani, but it just never came to be.” He swallowed and she closed her eyes, turning away slightly as she could hear the pain in his voice. “The love was there. I know it was. I loved you…more than anyone else in this whole goddamn world, Danielle, I love you ““
“You still love me?” she interjected quickly and turned to him at the accidental admission.
Justin shook his head forlornly, “Danielle, I’m married.”
“I’m married too, Justin, the fuck you mean?”
He shuffled his feet uncomfortably, shoving his hands deep into his pant pockets.
“It won’t leave this moment. If you love me I need you to tell me that. One-hundred percent. To my face. Now.” She sniffed back tears, “If you can’t do that then never say it again.”
“Are we giving ultimatums now?” he met eyes with her and his words were intentionally sharp, “you of all fucking people want to deliver a fucking ultimatum?”
“Fuck you, Justin,” she pushed off of the wall with her foot and began to walk away.
“No. Fuck you, Danielle!” he called after her and immediately found his self in hot pursuit. “You don’t get to walk away now! That was always the fucking problem! You always fucking walk away!”
“I did what I had to do for you!” she whipped back around to stand face to face with him. “I did that! You’re damn fucking right that I left you!”
“How did you leave me for me? Make it make sense?”
“Did you or did you not want to be a star?” Danielle stared at him incredulously through hazel eyes. “Did you want to be Justin Timberlake or did you want to be JT?”
“I’m the same person, Danielle, don’t do that…”
“But you wouldn’t have been,” she countered. “Did you want to be famous or did you want to be a family man?”
“I wanted both,” he stood firmly.
“You couldn’t have both.”
“You shouldn’t have made that decision for me! For us!”
“I know that…that’s why I didn’t…”
“What?” he could feel the very blood in his veins begin to run cold and his heart slow in his chest.
Danielle’s face was wet with tears. “I could never do that to you or to myself. I could have never done that, Justin!”
“Dani,”
“Please, go back to your life?” she put a hand up and began to back away. “I don’t want this…I don’t want to relive this…”
“Stop running from me!” his voice cracked with emotion and he fell to his knees in the middle of the parking lot.
“Don’t do this!”
“Danielle, I love you,” his chest heaved. “I am only a man. Celebrity does not make me infallible and it does not take away my humanity or my margin of error but you know that I love you, that I have always loved you, and that I have been in love with you since the very moment that I met you.”
She dropped her head back, face to the sky, in desperation praying to God to make the tears stop sliding down her cheeks. “I love you too, okay?” she admitted, “with every fiber or my being, Justin, I love you…but I left you, over and over again, because I knew what I had to do for you. I am staying away from you out of respect for the life that you’ve created without me…”
“Please, stop?” he begged, “please stop? Please stop?”
“…and for the life that I created with you that we have no business sharing…”
“Please, stop?”
“You cannot have us all,” she nearly choked on her own tears. “She doesn’t even know who you are…”
Chapter One: It Was Random
“I need you to tell me…everything…from the beginning. I think I deserve to know the truth,” her face was blotchy from the tears that she had been crying, nose raw from the Kleenex she had used and was now balled up in her fists, as she sat in complete disarray in a home that she suddenly felt completely foreign in. “You’re my husband,” her statement sounded more like a question as he sat before her on the adjacent couch, “I’m your wife.”
Jessica Biel had always been understated. She was a beauty but in a quiet sense. With a body to die for she had graced the covers of magazines worldwide and had seamlessly transitioned from television star to movie actress. At no point had she been what one would call an A-list act but she was sought after while remaining under the radar. Her humble demeanor was what had attracted America’s golden boy to her.
She had never loved anyone the way that she had loved this man. He was subtle yet he was deeply intellectual. He had a sex appeal that was blaring yet not overbearing. A humor that was off yet engaging kept her and the rest of the world glued to their seats waiting for the next word to escape his perfect lips.
Perfect. There was that word. A word that implied that there could be no flaws when in fact flaws were what made the man. Jessica prodded her brunette tresses behind her ears as she stared at his figure. How could something so beautiful operate without a heart? What happened to the sensitivity that she had fallen so in love with?
“Jess,” Justin took a deep breath, cupping his right hand over the back of his neck uncomfortably. “I honestly don’t know what to say or how to say any of this to you. I love you so much…”
“But you love another woman!”
“Sweetheart,”
“No,” she was drowning in tears again and it broke his heart to know that he was breaking hers. “Are you sleeping with her?”
“Baby, no, I’m not sleeping with her!” his voice was strained with shock at the implication.
“Have you been? I mean…since we’ve been together?”
“Jessica, no, I have never cheated on you.”
“Then what is going on? I thought we were happy and now this?”
“Jessica, I am happy with you! I just told you that I love you, sweetheart. I’m not going anywhere…”
“No,” she shook her head once again and added pointedly, “No, you’re definitely not going anywhere. That’s for fucking sure. We took vows.”
“I have not broken those vows. You’re still my wife.”
“I’m still your wife,” she repeated if only to reassure herself. “Who is she?”
“A friend,”
“She’s a friend that you just so happen to be in love with? Jesus Christ!”
“Jess, I’ve known her since I was seventeen years old. This is not…”
“Why didn’t you fucking marry her then?” she arose from the couch and charged over toward the sliding glass doors. She did not make a move to exit them. She just did not want to be staring at the face of a man that she loved so much that was hurting her so deeply.
“It was always complicated with us,” he admitted though he instantly regretted doing so at the sound of her sucking the air in between her teeth. “She’s not the one for me. You are.”
“You know, Justin,” she took a deep breath, “I always thought all of those songs that you wrote were about me. I thought they were about our love.”
“They are…”
“I absolutely hate it when you lie to me,” she cut him off curtly. “I think that some of them are. I even believe that parts of the major ones are but what I’ve come to realize is that for a very long time you’ve been writing about a ghost.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The end of Mirrors,” she nodded solemnly as the realization took over her. “You knew that would make her come back. It’s like the two of you are in sync. You have this connection and you communicate with her through the lyrics, through the melodies, through these songs!”
“Where are you coming up with this? This is crazy!” his brows furrowed quizzically though it was not at the accusation itself but at the accuracy of what she was pointing out. The music was about her. Ever since he had found his voice it had been geared toward her whether good or bad.
“I know all about it, okay? I know about her, I know about the back and forth cat and mouse game you’ve been playing for twenty fucking years. I know that in between all of the tabloid romances and sometimes during them that it’s always been the two of you…shit, I know that at some point during or after me it will be the same song and dance…I just hate it when you lie to me. I hate it that you couldn’t trust me enough to tell me the truth.”
“I’ve never lied to you.”
“Lying and not telling the complete truth? It’s one in the same especially when everyone around me knows what the meat of it is except for me. You gave me the broth. It tastes savory but it’s not the center of the meal.”
Justin leaned forward on his hams and dropped his head. What was there left to say?
“So you met her where? You met her when you were seventeen?”
“Yes,” he nodded though he knew she was not focusing on him as her attention was out of those glass doors and into his past…into the possible future… “I met Danielle when I was seventeen years old…”
“And all of this time you’ve never been able to let her go?”
“It’s over. I promise you that…”
“Fix it,” she stopped him, holding a hand up, before he could even begin. “I’m going to my mother’s…”
“You do not have to do this.”
“This should give you plenty of time to fix it. You tell Danielle goodbye. You tell her you have a wife that loves you and would kill for you.” She finally turned to face him. “You tell that bitch she had her fucking chance but that I am the only woman that will ever carry your last name.”
Justin pursed his lips.
“Fix it.”
As his wife walked away he cast his gaze up toward the ceiling. He had made a mess of things, which he was fully aware of. He didn’t know how he had gotten into this place or how it was that he was going to be able to make it right. He wasn’t a fool. He had been in this predicament before and perhaps Jessica was not so far off base that it truly would not be the last time.
Lethargically he pulled his cell phone from his pant pocket. Once entering his passcode, a lock something he had not had to utilize in years, his fingers quickly went through the motions. Within seconds the device was ringing in his hand and was brought to his ear.
“I thought we discussed everything and said what we had to say?” were her weakened words instead of a salutation.
“Well, I want to discuss it some more.” Justin closed his eyes, leaning back into the cushions of his couch. “Tell him you’re leaving.”
“You tell her you’re leaving.”
“You know I will do that.”
Danielle sighed heavily into the phone, “Do I need to remind you that you are happy and that you love this woman and that you married her after you specifically told me you would never marry anyone that wasn’t me?”
“You kind of forced that when you went behind my back…”
“I’m not going to apologize.”
“And I’m not asking you to. Just tell him that you’re leaving.”
“I have to go,” she started to hang up.
“She’s leaving me,” he hurried, “right now if only for a little while so she can get her head together and so that I can fix things.”
“Justin, I am married too and I’m sorry but when I said ‘I Do’ it’s something that I absolutely meant…it’s absolute…it’s final. That’s a commitment that you don’t break.”
“You broke it before.”
“Fuck you,”
“I’m going to be at Trace’s in one hour. Please fucking be there? I’m so tired of begging you.”
“No.”
“Seriously,”
“No.”
The call ended.
It was random.
But every moment worth remembering is.
She had a head full of messy chocolate-colored curls thrown up into a messy bun with a few loose tendrils framing her face. Chestnut colored eyes examined the dusty bookshelves from behind long eyelashes and lids painted with black liner that served as the only hint of makeup on her dark-brown skin. She was a petite little thing in black denim, high-tops, and a white tank with a scarf draped haphazardly around her neck. Although her appearance screamed rebel something about her aura was docile.
Justin Timberlake watched silently as the girl in the mothball-scented bookstore roamed the isle in her own world. As she moved quietly through the rows he moved parallel to her almost forgetting who he was and that he should monitor his surroundings. Outside of the glass doors of the small shop his entourage laid low in a black SUV watching and waiting to ensure that the prized possession of the show went unharmed. He told them he had just needed some space, a quiet moment in time, because, for heaven’s sake, he was only seventeen years old and no seventeen year old could live every day of his or her life under lock and key.
When the SUV had paused at the intersection he requested that it stay there. He wanted to pick up a snack and a book to read while he stayed pinned up in his hotel suite like a prisoner. The other members of his group were off doing their own thing and in that moment he was glad, not necessarily for the separation, but for the opportunity for a glimpse of solitude. That, in fact, was all he had been seeking when he had strolled into the shop that looked nearly abandoned from the outside. What he stumbled upon, however, was something more.
“Creeper,” she stated under her breath in a singsong tone just loud enough for him to realize that his stalking had not gone unnoticed. “I don’t work here so if you need help finding a book you should go ask somebody else.”
“My bad,” he held up a hand in apology.
“Yet, you’re still staring at me,” she pulled a book down from the shelf for further examination.
“Sorry,” he apologized again quickly but couldn’t will his legs to move. “I’ve never been here before.”
“Right on,” she acknowledged his words but did not look up to notice his face. “Well you wandered into a nicely kept secret. They’ve got some treasures in this store.”
“I was noticing that.”
“Look,” the young woman turned her head to him, fingertips splayed out across the open pages of the book in her hands, “I really don’t work here but if you need help finding something I can help you out. The whole standing there and gawking at me thing has to stop though. I know I look like Naomi Campbell but unfortunately I’m not the real McCoy. She’s like an Amazon and I’m a pigmy.”
He couldn’t help but to chuckle at her words and was completely grateful that her joke brought him out of the temporary shell that she had put him in by her presence alone. “What books do you suggest? I wasn’t looking for anything in particular.”
“What kind of reading are you into? Some old Huckleberry Finn? Some twisted Anne Rice?”
Justin smiled warmly, “Something adventurous.”
“Oh, wow,” she snapped her fingers in recognition, “has anyone ever told you that you’re a dead ringer for that guy in…shit,” she snapped her fingers again in attempt to jog her memory, “that group *NSYNC? You look just like that dude.”
“Which dude?” he mused, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans and taking slow deliberate steps closer to her.
“The cute one. I mean they’re all cute in that poster boy kind of a way but…” her words trailed off as he came to stand before her, “and you actually are that guy I surmise as I can see a few of those bleached-blond locks sticking out from under your hat…poor disguise.”
“Guilty,”
“And what, may I ask, are you doing in Bum’s Fuck Egypt?”
Justin laughed lightly while adjusting the baseball cap on his head, “My group has a show to do in a few days. So I’m out perusing.”
“Unattended? With prepubescent little girls running all about?”
“I’m not unattended. There’s always someone lurking,” he gestured behind him causing her gaze to shift to the side of him where she took in the sight of a burly gentleman stepping out of a black SUV.
“You must have been perusing for too long because it looks like your babysitter is on his way in to get you?”
“And welcome to my life,” he exhaled with an eye roll.
“Sucks,” she shrugged with a wink and returned her focus to her book. “I think I’m going to get this one so you, sir, better find something quickly before the brute squad throws you over their shoulders and off to the next destination.”
“Hold on, what is there to do around here? Like for fun?” Justin stopped her quickly.
“Ha! Not shit,” she reported. “There are some clubs if you’re into that kind of thing?”
“Not twenty-one yet.”
“If you can stick your dick in a girl out here then you can get into a club.”
His jaw dropped at her words. “Aren’t you a fucking lawsuit waiting to happen? Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?”
“Don’t you go worrying about who I kiss with this mouth,” she chortled.
“You’re a piece of work.”
“Likewise, Creeper.”
Justin clicked his tongue in response, “A woman worthy of creeping…can I ask for your name?”
“Ooh, formal introductions?” she closed her book and turned to him, extending her hand, “Danielle Reese and you?”
“The one and only Justin Timberlake,” he took her hand and shook it firmly. “This moment is incredibly gay, you realize?”
“The realization is there.”
“Great,”
“Indeed,” she nodded and withdrew her hand with a quizzical stare.
“You’re not going to buy that book.”
“I’m not,” she replaced it blindly back on the shelf.
“Did you drive here?”
“I walked, little underage boy.”
Justin laughed to himself, “I’m almost legal and you’re like what? All of fifteen?”
“And suddenly we’re on the playground picking on the kid we have a crush on?”
“It worked for our parents, did it not?”
“Not for mine,” Danielle gave him the once over with her eyes. “I’m nineteen, by the way.”
“That’s perfect because I’m knocking on eighteen and seventeen is legal consent.”
“Wow, that’s forward…especially for a creeper.”
“This creeper is getting his weight up,” he challenged with a smirk. “You should show me around if you’re not swamped with all of this bookstore rummaging.”
“This is serious work that I am engaged in, sir.”
“Is it?”
“Not really.”
“I’m going to my hotel.”
“Splendid.”
“Do you want to come?”
“Figuratively speaking or…?” her words trailed off when she saw the glimmer in his eyes.
“That’s a little gross.”
“You’re a little gross.”
“Then you’re coming?”
“Purely because this little sparring match is amusing to me right about now.”
Justin crossed his arm over his middle and propped the other on his forearm to bring a hand to his chin just as his bodyguard approached, “I’m ready, Lonnie. I’m bringing a guest.”
***
In love you unify me to my soul
This world I live in displaces you from home
And I just can’t explain
The sacrifices of fame
Not a thing I would change
Because if it weren’t for this I wouldn’t have you…
“So let me get this straight. You’re a journalist that knows how to keep secrets? Doesn’t that kind of go against everything that a journalist is?” Justin mused while stationed in the middle of the sofa with his hand gingerly caressing the thigh of the young woman seated Indian-styled at his side. Mere hours earlier he had awkwardly introduced himself to her in a hole in the wall book shop and then convinced her, without much effort, to join him at his hotel with playful banter. For most of those hours in-between they had been absorbed in conversation, breaking only to eat, before diving back into getting to know the other as quickly as possible in the time allotted.
Danielle gave a half smile, “Journalism is about getting to the meat of a story. Every detail is not necessary…and I’m a journalism student. I’m not a real journalist yet.”
“Yeah…” he nodded slowly with a smirk. “So are you going to write about me to jump-start your career?”
“Fortunately for you, sir, I am not interested in writing editorials on boy bands in Tiger Beat.”
He laughed out loud, “You want to write about world peace or some shit like that?”
“Yeah,” she removed her hair tie, releasing the curly mass that had been secured, and tilted her head of curly locks to the side, “or some shit like that.”
“Interesting,”
“No more interesting than the high potential you have of losing your hair if you allow your glamour squad to bleach it one more time?”
“It’s trendy right now,” Justin shrugged his shoulders dismissively and relaxed his head back into the cushions of the sofa. “I do my little song and dance as instructed. The little girls swoon and the money makes its way to my bank account…eventually.”
“Eventually?”
“Yeah,” he stared up at the ceiling. “The guys and I do all of this recording and touring…all of these photo spreads, interviews, you know the standard star shit,” he chuckled half-heartedly, “but it’s like when does it pay off? I’m doing what I love but I’d expect to be getting some sort of cash out of the deal.”
“You don’t have enough bling, is what you’re telling me?” Danielle asked candidly and reached over to capture the gaudy chain he wore around his neck, resting over the thin material of the wife beater molded to his torso, into her fingers. “It got you this, didn’t it?”
Justin rolled his head to the side against the couch to lock eyes with the young woman keeping him company. “Don’t think I’m ungrateful. I am incredibly blessed but for all of the work that I’m putting in, the guys too, it just seems like the vast majority of proceeds go to our manager, Lou.”
“Don’t most managers sit high on the horse and crack the whip?”
“Or so I’m told. This fat fuck is on a whole different level though.”
Danielle chuckled lightly and delicately placed his prized-possession back, “Do your fans know that you have such a fucking mouth on you?”
“Why do you ask, journalist? Do you want to write about it now?”
“Justin Timberlake, my interest in you has nothing at all to do with your song and dance nor monetary gain, I assure you.”
“What interest do you have in me then, ma’am?”
“You’re a study break for me,” she bit down on her bottom lip as she smirked at him deviously.
“A study break?”
“Basically the equivalent to this pit stop on your tour.”
He couldn’t help but to laugh at her words, “I’m not actually the pit stop kind of guy. People look at this life I’m supposed to be living and assume that I can and do pull any chick that I want. Honestly I am so fucking bad with girls.”
“Shut up!”
“No, seriously!” he sat up, inadvertently shifting his hand further up her thigh as he did so, “normally if I’m sitting down one on one with a girl that I’m really attracted to I completely lose my cool. I’ve got no game.”
“You’re not losing your cool with me though…”
“I know but…ah, that was a test!” he pointed a finger at her knowingly, “you’re sexy as shit so don’t try to flip this. For whatever reason, I have no fucking idea, like this feels natural.”
“Oh?” she raked her fingers through her curls, “is it because I’m not one of your groupies?”
“Not yet,” he winked which inspired laughter from his counterpart whom fell back into the couch holding her stomach. “What?”
“Justin, that was so smooth right there! Really,” she couldn’t contain her laughter as he gripped her waist, pulling her further down the couch onto her back with her legs over his, and maneuvered his upper half over her body.
“You seriously don’t even listen to my group’s music?” he waited patiently for her to catch her breath and stared into her eyes trying to ensure she wasn’t going to lie.
“I like your music with *NSYNC. I am a part of the free world so I know who you present yourself to be to the public, this image that you put out, but am I consumed by it? No. Your fame doesn’t affect my day to day activities.”
“It could…”
“Not interested.”
“Why not?”
Danielle shook her head, “if I wanted to be famous I sure as fuck wouldn’t be sleeping with you to get there. I’ve got plans for my life.”
“Like working for National Geographic or some shit?”
“Once again,” she smirked, “or some shit.”
Justin smiled down at her, “I don’t know why it is that I believe you but I do. Don’t think this is weird but I seriously want to know you.”
“I think it’s weird. Like, you’re already too late on me thinking this is weird and that you’re weird for like singling me out and convincing me to come hang out with you in your hotel suite…like this whole moment is fucking weird,” she relayed honestly and brought her palms to her forehead to once again tame her curls. “All this celebrity shit aside, like ignoring the fact you have people bleach your hair, you’re…”
“I’m…?”
“Fucking sexy as shit! Do they bleach your teeth too? Whose fucking teeth are that white? Did you have braces as a kid?”
Justin laughed out loud as she laughed with him.
“You have to be some kind of fucked up to send your henchmen out to pick up girls?”
“I didn’t send henchmen for you…”
“I know,” she took in a deep breath and met eyes with him, “it took some balls for you to come talk to me yourself.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah,” she laughed again lightly, “like you have no idea who you’re dealing with right now. I am such a fucking bitch!”
“Well I’m a bit of a dick so that could actually balance us out.”
Danielle stared up at him for a moment as he stared down at her before exhaling through her lips, “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever worked up a crush on someone so quickly in my life. Is this accelerated because we’re on a limited time frame right now?”
“What the fuck?” he laughed, “What are you even talking about?”
“Shit, I’m just asking you, you the guy that travels from place to place, do things like heat up really quickly because you’re only in town for a millisecond or…?”
“What? No…no, no. I know where you’re going with this and seriously, Danielle, that is not the type of guy that I am. Touring, for me, for the rest of the guys, is about business. Yes, there are girls throwing themselves at us but I’m not into that.”
“Shut up, you’re into that!”
“I’m into that,” he conceded quickly which made them both chuckle at each other, “but at the end of the day I just want what every other person wants. I want to be in a committed relationship with just one girl.”
“Everyone doesn’t want that,” she countered. “I mean, me, for instance? I’m not into girls so I don’t want to be committed to one. I mean, I’m a girl so I know bitches get crazy so why would I want to be with another crazy bitch?”
“Oh, my God,” Justin shifted his left hand from her thigh and up her body to twirl the free tresses of her hair between his fingertips, “I think I want to keep you.”
“Ooh, am I a collector’s item now?”
“Not like that. I’ll be here, in town, with the guys for a few days. We don’t perform until Friday night. So, if it’s okay with you, I want to spend a little time with you and get to know you better? Not like every waking moment…”
“Damn, why not?” she joked.
“Because you’re an aspiring journalist…with a term paper that you’ve already told me you are in the midst of writing. I don’t want my fame, as you put it, to interrupt your life.”
“Oh?”
“Oh,” he nodded at her with a soft smile, “who knows? Maybe I’ll make you my girlfriend?”
“What makes you think I don’t have one already?”
“You might have one already.”
“I might.”
“I commit quick,” he leaned in close, “so if you’re okay with a temporarily long-distance relationship,” his eyes travelled down to her lips as hers travelled to his, “I’d be happy to fill the position.”
“And the panties are wet,” she snuck in one last crack before his lips cancelled out the space between them.
“Mission accomplished,” he shifted their bodies on the sofa so that he lay over her with her legs on either side of her hips, “are you okay if I take them off?”
Danielle stared up at him from beneath her eyelashes, “You’ve had me locked away up here chatting for hours. This could have happened at hello.”
“Just because I have the opportunity to get my dick wet at every stop,” he moved his hips against her suggestively ensuring that she could feel what he had to offer, “doesn’t mean I stick it in every girl I see and as previously stated, miss journalist, I want to know you.”
“Why?”
“Because your lack of interest in me coupled with your complete interest in me is fascinating. You want me in this carnal kind of a way…”
“Simplified by saying that you know I want ‘The D’?”
“Yeah, you want the ‘The D’ which I am willing to give you plenty of,” he laughed, “but you also want the meat of the story even if it’s not a subject you choose to write about.”
“Other than the obvious carnal thing,” Danielle acknowledged, “I’m intrigued by how fascinated you are with me. I must remind you of something?”
“Yeah,” he pressed his lips to hers once more, “you remind me of real life.”
“That’s deep,” she kissed his back softly which initiated a swarm of butterflies to swirl in his stomach. “Little boy? Don’t fuck around and fall in love…”
Too late…
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