sure with a little time, my old Arianna will be back completely.

The nights continued to pass and we continue to with our business. It is usually just Arianna and me, but on the bigger jobs we will take a few men but not many. We rarely need help when the two of us are working together.

The best part of all of this is the fact that at the end of the night, she lets me share her bed with her. We may not be having sex but give it time. For some reason when she gets home she is exhausted and just wants to go to sleep. Again, it is all a matter of time.

ARIANNA

Months pass since that night Rich was able to hurt me more than he will know. Justin packed up and left. He went back to his Hollywood lifestyle. The media had a field day with his injuries, but he had a great story, and the hype went away with time. The media eventually left our neck of the woods, after they realized he was not coming back.

I stay at the mansion mostly now. I hate going home because Chase and Tabbetha insist on needing to know my feelings and when I tell them to fuck off, they then tell me I need to talk instead of “go back to my old uncaring ways. I just roll my eyes, get the shit I came for, and leave.

James is the only one I seem to be okay with right now. Even my men are giving me the damn pity look, not James though. He seems to accept me and my behavior. He goes along with it, and I go along with not caring about his reasons behind his support.

Here I am at the mansion, dressed for a mission, ready to go when my phone rings. I answer and hear Tabbetha on the other end.

“Will you please come home?” she asks but I refuse. “Just for a quick minute. I want you to see something.”

I roll my eyes. “You can show me later.”

“No, please. It won’t take long.” She pleads.

“You’re desperation is quite annoying.” I tell her. “Fine, I’ll come but it’ll better be a very quick minute. James and I have plans. I’ll be there in 30 minutes.” I hang up and go get James. “You ready? I need to swing by the house on the way.” I tell him.

“Brats again?” He questions knowing the answer.

I just ignore his comment and walk out to our car with him following behind me. I was going to drive, but I change my mind and let him this time so I can just run in and out when we get to the house.

Within the promised 30 minutes, I am at my house, and on my couch with Chase and Tabbetha on either side of me. “You have a very short time to tell me what is so damn important.” I tell them, “Angel is out in the car waiting for me.”

“Angel?” Tabbetha questions.

“Yeah and that I am sure is not the point of you calling me over here. What do you want?” I demand, annoyed with them.

“We thought you should see this.” Chase answers as he uses the TV remote to start something on the TIVO.

This just makes me mad because the wonderful thing about TIVO is that it can be watched whenever you want. It’s a great power. I tell them this as I go to stand up to leave.

“Wait, please just watch this.” Tabbetha says. She is pulling on my arm to get me to sit back down.

I do so in a loud huff. The show starts and it is some stupid talk show. It’s actually Ellen, if I am not mistaken. Chase fast forwards through her introduction and her dance routine. Her first interview flies through and then the show returns to normal speed. Ellen stands up and introduces Justin Timberlake. This is the point at which I start to get really irritated. Another stupid attempt to get me to talk to Justin, I am sure of it.

Ellen: So, Justin, back from your so-called vacation. How was that for you? Did you get the needed rest you wanted and needed?

Justin: I did get some rest between the exciting events.

Ellen: Yeah, that high speed car chase and shootout at your girlfriend’s house made hufe news in the media. Must have been tough. How is your girlfriend? She ended up getting shot in that incident didn’t she?

Justin: Yeah she was – six times actually. The girl could probably give 50 cent a run for his money with that. (Justin jokes in order not to think about the situation).

Ellen: Sounds like it. How is she doing?

Justin: She’s doing great as far as I know. We are not together anymore. It wasn’t the happiest of breakups.

Ellen: Uh oh. Was it that psycho fan shooting incident?

Justin: No, she was okay through that. We made it through that just fine.

Ellen: Do mind me asking what happened?

Justin: (quiet for a minute) In a short amount of time, I fell in love with her, and I thought she was falling for me, too. Turns out, she didn’t care for me as much as I did for her. She loves someone else. She chose him. (Justin answers as if he didn’t want the world to know but more so that he just needed to say it out loud as if to accept it)

Ellen: Well, it is obviously her extreme loss and a huge gain to all the other ladies out there (huge applause from the audience). We have to take a break but we’ll be back to talk to Justin about his new album he is working on and maybe even a small sample.

(Commercial break)

Chase stops the TIVO. I turn and look at him. “Is there a point to wasting my time with this?” I ask as I stand up to leave again.

“Don’t you see? He left because he thought you chose the ass over him. Why won’t you call him and tell him you’re a stubborn ass and you love him?” Tabbetha yells at me as she follows me to the door.

“He left, not me. I saved his ass, so he could make a choice, and he made his.” I simply say. “I have to go. Angel is waiting on me.” I leave and get in the car, and James speeds off.

“Everything okay? What did they want?” James asks.

“To waste my time,” is my short answer.

“You’re extra annoyed. They must have wasted it pretty good this time.” He says as he puts the car in park and gets out.

I take a deep breath and get out myself. “Let’s get this over with.”

I start walking, and James grabs my arm to pull me to a stop. “Alright, something’s up. What is it?”

“Nothing. The shits made me watch some dumb ass talk show they TIVO-ed.” I tell him, making the effort to move again, but he does not let me go.

“Was it about him?”

I roll my eyes uncontrollably. I give him a short version of the show and Tabbetha’s reasoning behind making me watch it. He stands there quiet for a second and I just roll my eyes again. “Let me go.” I tell him, slinging his hold off of my arm and walk away.

“Do you?” He yells at me from where he is still standing.

“Do I what?” I ask without stopping or turning around.

“Love him. Is that why you are so dedicated to work now?” He asks me.

“Don’t be a pest. I have Tabbetha and Chase for that. Now let’s go. I really need to hit someone and hard.” I say as I continue to walk.

James does not respond. He follows and we go finish the business we had come here for. It does not take us long to finish it though and before we are back in the car. The trip back to the mansion is in complete silence, which is perfectly fine with me. I’m tired of hearing people’s stupid opinions and advice like I’m ten years old.

We get back to the mansion and I go straight in and to my room and to bed, where I fall into another restless sleep.