Kara thought her mind was playing tricks on her when she woke up to the smell of bacon and French toast. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and glanced at the digital clock on her nightstand. It was 1:33 in the afternoon. She couldn't believe that she'd slept that late; Justin must have really worn her out…but then again he always does. An easy smile spread across her face before reality set in. If she was in bed who was cooking?

"Kara? Are you awake?" Marz' voice floated upstairs, "I made breakfast---well brunch."

Kara heard her sister's tinkling laugh and couldn't help but chuckle. She cleared her throat and peeked her head out her door to let her sister know that she'd be down in a bit before completing her morning hygiene routine. Ten minutes later she was padding down the stairs with a clean face and teeth.

"It smells delicious in here," she said, grabbing a piece of bacon off a plate and popping it in her mouth.

"Thanks, and I hope you gonna eat more than that one piece of bacon. I finished my interview early and decided to cook for us. I know it's not necessarily 'lunch' food…"

"…but it's perfect. Thanks," Kara said, cutting her sister off mid-sentence, "I thought you had a photoshoot after your interview today."

"It was early this morning. I asked the photographer to move it up a couple of hours. I didn't want to be in a warehouse all afternoon," Marz replied, scooping the last piece of French toast out of the skillet.

"Oh ok," mumbled as she watched her sister divide the food onto two plates and take the syrup out the pantry. She followed her sister over to the bar where she had orange juice and silverware laid out for the two of them.

"I want whatever you're taking," Kara joked and Marz laughed.

"I don't know what's going on today, but I'm really perky."

"Yeah you are, you hardly ever cook. And this French toast is delicious. What recipe did you use?"

"Lauren told me to add sugar and a bit of vanilla in the batter."

"It makes a world of difference," Kara replied with a full mouth.

"Yeah it does. I'd been craving them since my middle-of-the-night bathroom run. Speaking of which; what were you doing sneaking in around 5?" Marz asked as she cut her toast. Kara's whole body froze and she had to force herself not to choke on the food that was already in her mouth. She chewed slowly, racking her brain for the perfect excuse and after what seemed like a millennia she swallowed.

"I decided to go for a swim."

It was the truth, part of it anyway.

"In the middle of the night? And who were you with? That car you got out of looked so familiar."

"Just another producer friend, Adriana, she sometimes helps Justin and I," Kara quickly lied.

"She goes once a week and I told her I'd go with her once to see what it was like."

The lies just flowed off her tongue like water.

"Oh ok, so what was it like?"

Erotic. Pleasurable. Pure Ecstasy.

"That bad?" Marz asked after a few moments of silence on her sister's end.

"Huh?"

"You got quiet, like it was horrible."

"No, actually it was fun. I might be going again soon," Kara smiled.

She may have almost died from hypothermia last night, but she would've gone happily in Justin's arms. Nothing else in the world matter when she was in his arms, not the subzero water, paparazzi, or relationships.

"No Rachael, 140 characters or less," Justin laughed.

He was explaining the Twitter phenomenon to his cousin, informing her that the whole world didn't want a paragraph length explanation of what she was doing at that particular moment. She simply rolled her eyes and he chuckled once more as he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.

I would do anything to be in your arms right now.

It was from Marz. His smile faltered a bit and he felt bad. His girlfriend was texting him sweet nothings and here he was wishing it was someone else.

Where are you?

Wow, she didn't even wait for him to respond before she sent that. He sighed inwardly before replying.

At my house with Rachael. Trying and failing on explaining twitter to her. Where are you?

On my way, we need to talk.

He almost dropped his phone when he read the last four words of her text. She knew. She knew it all…and now she was coming to kill him.

We're busted.

He sent the quick 2-word text to Kara and prayed that she got it in time. He got his answer when she responded 30 seconds later.

WHAT!?! What happened?

Marz is coming to 'talk' to me.

About what? What did you tell her?

Justin grimaced, why was she placing the blame on him? For all they knew, she could've been the one who accidentally spilled the beans about their affair.

I didn't tell her anything, what did you say?

"Are you even listening to me, boy? I swear since you learned how to text you barely listen to a word anyone says to you anymore."

Justin's head popped up at his cousin's words.

"Huh?"

"I said your girlfriend is here."

"Ok, thanks," he mumbled, locking the keypad on his phone and placing it in his back pocket. Here goes nothing.

Kara paced back and forth across the living room. She was dead. Marz knew everything and was plotting her murder. How did she find out though? Were she and Justin being that translucent that Marz picked up on it, or maybe she came across their text messages? Either way, they were screwed.

"You have some explaining to do Timberlake," Marz exclaimed, as she entered her boyfriend's home. She removed her sunglasses from her face and placed them atop her head.

"That's my cue to leave, see you later cuz," Rachael said, waving as she exited the house. Justin waved back and approached his girlfriend and kissed her cheek.

"Hey babe," he said sweetly.

"Don't 'hey babe' me," she began, "Kara told me everything; you have some explaining to do," she said, placing a hand on her hip and tapping her foot impatiently.

His heart was racing. This was it. He could either play dumb or admit everything. Which one was the better option?

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Well, that was an easy decision.

"Don't give me that; you know exactly what I'm talking about. Why didn't you tell me that the label decided not to keep our duet on your album?"

Justin exhaled a breath of relief.

"That's what this is about?"

"Yeah, what did you think it was about? Got a guilty conscience, hun?" Justin chuckled nervously.

"What, never," he said with an easy grin.

"Now, why didn't you tell me that the label chose not to keep our duet on your album? Didn't you fight for it?"

"I did," he told her honestly.

That was probably the only honest thing he'd said in the past 10 minutes.

"They just thought that it didn't mesh well with the sound for this album."

"Oh," she said disappointedly, "Sometimes I wish our labels didn't have so much power."

"Me too," Justin replied softly, "me too."

"So, I'm finished with everything I had to do today. How about we spend the rest of the day together," she said, stepping forward into his arms.

"Sounds good to me. I have some errands to run; gotta drop some things off at William Rast, but I'd enjoy the company," he replied, kissing her forehead sweetly.

Marz smiled against his chest at the gesture.

"I love this," she whispered. "I love you."

"I love you too," he whispered, hoping she didn't hear the guilt in his voice.

"Come on, let's get out of here," he said, taking a hold of her hand and leading her out to the driveway.

"When did you get a white 760?" Marz asked when she saw his parked car.

"Huh?"

He didn't even realize that that car was still out. He smirked, remembering what happened in that car the previous night.

"Have you always had this car? I've never seen you in it," she said, opening the passenger's door.

"I've had it for a while; I just don't drive it often."

"Oh ok," she smiled. "I didn't think this was a popular car, but it must be; this is the second one of these I've seen since yesterday. Did it come stock with those bubble headlights you have?"

"No, I got that custom when I bought the car," he replied.

"Oh ok," she responded, her voice laced with suspicion, "Funny, Adriana has the same lights on her car."

"Who's Adriana?"

"One of your producers, Kara told me that you two work with her sometimes."

"Oh," Justin sounded nervously. "Right, Adriana. I didn't know you knew who she was."

"Yeah, Kara mentioned her for the first time this morning. I didn't even know you guys were working with anyone else."

Marz glanced back to drop her purse on the floorboards of the backseat.

"Yeah, we like to keep her a secret. Otherwise other artists might want to try to steal her."

Justin was thankful he could focus on the road during this conversation. It was getting harder and harder to look Marz in the eye during all of this.

"So, um, when did you see Adriana's car then, if you've never met her?"

"Last night when she dropped Kara off. They went swimming in the middle of the night, can you believe that? It must have been freezing."

"Yeah, in the middle of the night it must be below zero out there."

"She said she had fun though, and she'd go again. She seemed happy this morning. Maybe there's something good in freezing water that lifts your spirits or something."

Speaking of Kara, she was probably hyperventilating right now. Justin pulled his phone out to send her a message.

False alarm. She's mad about the duet. And who is Adriana?

Whew! Thanks goodness. Next time don't freak me out like that Timberlake. Adriana was my imaginary ride home last night. Just go with it.

"Who is that?" Marz inquired, her hand rubbing his thigh as he drove.

"Just Trace," he lied. "He's making sure I don't forget to drop that stuff off."

Next time can you give me a heads up when you invent people? Our stories need to coincide.

"Well, tell him to leave you alone. You'll be there a little bit. It's my day with my Justy."

Justin grimaced at her nickname. He'd never been fond of it. It reminded him of bad baby talk people did with their dogs.

I didn't know you knew what coincide meant.

Har har har! You're so damn funny!

I know. That's why I moonlight at the Laugh Factory on Thursdays. What are you doing?

"Justin," Marz whined.

I'll be sure to check out that show. Spending the day with Marz. You?

Catching up on house work. Dinner with Trace.

Dessert with me?

"Justin."

"Okay," he told her. "I'm almost done. I promise."

I was out with you all night last night. At some point I have to sleep.

You can sleep when we're done.

I'll sleep tonight. I'll see you tomorrow at the studio anyway.

*sigh* Fine.

Have fun today ;)

Justin slipped his phone back into his pocket. Even though his feelings for Marz were changing, she was still a fun girl to be around. He probably would have a nice day with her, but he couldn't help but wish it was Kara he was spending time with instead.

He pulled the car into the parking lot at the William Rast warehouse and parked in his official spot, complete with a plastic J. Timberlake nameplate.

"Okay, I'm gonna run this stuff inside, and when I come back I'll be all yours."

Marz smiled brightly as Justin picked up a manila envelope and headed inside. It had been a long time since she's spent time with Justin. Between her own schedule, and him spending so much time in the studio, it was hard for them to find more than five minutes together. She noticed that he was beginning to become more and more distant. When they spoke on the phone, he wasn't as excited as he used to be about her calls. Maybe some good old fashioned quality time would help that.

She reached into the back, looking for her purse so she could freshen up her makeup. Justin was attracted to attractive women, and she wanted to look her best for him. She found her pink leather bag on the floor and lifted it up, when something underneath caught her eye. Marz set her purse in her lap before reached back to grab the colorful fabric that had been underneath it. It was stiff with dried salt water, and still smelled of salt and sand. Holding it up in front of her, she saw that it was the bottom half to a woman's bathing suit; pink, with swirls, and an attached skirt.

What would a woman's bathing suit be doing in the backseat of her boyfriend's car? Justin said he rarely drove this car, how long had it been back there? Maybe it was something from before her? It looked very familiar, but she couldn't place it. She just knew without a doubt that it wasn't hers. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes at the thought of another girl being close to him.

Marz glanced up towards the door, and saw it swing open as Justin came strutting out. Quickly she tossed the material back into the backseat where she'd found it. Even though she had a dozen questions she wanted to ask Justin, she didn't want him to think she'd been waiting in the car riffling through his things.

"Alright," he said, climbing into the car with a smile. "I'm all yours. What do you want to do?"

"I can't believe you like this movie."

"Tears of the Sun is awesome!"

Trace's eyes shifted from the dark screen to his girlfriends face.

"Twenty thousand people are slaughtered in this movie, and you think it's awesome."

"It's moving."

"It's grotesque. When you asked me if I wanted to watch a movie I thought you'd pick The Notebook or Pearl Harbor or something."

"Pearl Harbor is good, but that December 7th scene makes me cry every time."

"Oh that makes you cry but this doesn't?" He asked in disbelief.

Kara shrugged.

"I don't know. There's something about Bruce Willis's performance that's just not taking it all the way home for me."

"Speaking of home, I heard you were out late last night."

Kara, thrown off guard at his sudden change of topic, took a moment to reply. She took a sip of her soda as her mind worked on what to say next.

"Um, yeah, who told you that?"

"I called the house this morning looking for you, and Marz told me you were sleeping in because you didn't home until five in the morning. What were you doing?"

Before she could answer that, Kara needed another sip of her drink. She could tell Trace that it had been her new invisible BFF Adriana, because he'd been in the studio with them dozens of times and knew no such girl existed. She'd have to come up with something else.

"That was my friend Charita. We went out for a couple of drinks and got carried away."

"And ended up in the ocean?"

Kara shrugged.

"Girls just wanna have fun, what's wrong with that?"

Trace smirked at her, patting her leg with his hand.

"There's nothing wrong with that. Let me know the next time you want to go for a freezing dip, maybe I'll join you."

"Skinny dipping?" She wiggled her brows and smiled devilishly.

"It's possible. So, what are we doing tonight? Dinner. Another glorified massacre on film?"

"Maybe we should skip the movie. You don't like my selection of educational action movies."

"Just because it's based on a historical event doesn't make it historically accurate."

"Yes it does," she argued. "So, dinner?"

Trace wrinkled his nose.

"I'm not really hungry."

Now it was Kara's turn to wrinkle her nose.

"So, what are we gonna do all night then?"

Trace wiggled his eyebrows devilishly.

"I want an idea besides that," she said already reading his mind.

He pouted for a moment before his eyes brightened again.

"Wanna sit outside with me?"

"Outside? Like in the backyard?"

"Yeah," he smiled. "It's a nice night tonight. You have a nice view of the city, and we're actually alone, which rarely happens."

That was true. Normally when they spent time together they were in the studio with Justin, listening to his antics and sweating under his watchful gaze. Then at home they had to deal with Marz who would make her presence known in the background and try to muscle in on their alone time.

"Okay," she agreed.

Getting up from the sofa Trace turned off the TV while Kara grabbed a throw blanket from a nearby chair. She followed him through the kitchen and out to the backyard. The air was crisp and cool, but not so cold that you needed to be inside all night. It was a nice night by LA standards.

Trace sat in one of the large lounge chairs and Kara settled between his knees, leaning back against his chest, covering them both with the blanket. His arms encircled her waist as he let out a sigh.

"See, it's nice out here."

"Yeah, especially with you."

Taking a deep breath she settled back against her boyfriend. Here in the quiet her mind could wander, and she had a chance to try to clear some of the thoughts running through her head. She was happy being here with Trace, he was easy and familiar, and she felt content with him. With Justin it was different. He was new, dangerous, and she felt alive. But that feeling was probably the rush of the affair itself, the adrenaline of the possibility of being caught was probably what kept them coming back to each other every time.

Kara felt Trace's hold on her tighten as he sighed, lost in daydreams of his own. She needed adrenaline rehab so she could say goodbye to her naughty relationship with Justin and make an honest attempt at a real relationship with Trace.

But all her happy thoughts of a peaceful future with Trace faded when she faintly felt her phone begin to vibrate in her pocket. Her heart began to beat a million miles an hour. She couldn't help but wonder if it was Justin. He knew she was spending the evening with Trace and therefore shouldn't be disturbed, but he rarely listened to her reasoning. His day with Marz was most likely coming to an end and he wanted her attention. But there wasn't very much she could do about it. Trace was sitting just behind her, with a clear view of her phone. He'd be able to see Justin's name and any words he'd sent to her clearly.

There was always the possibility that it wasn't Justin. Maybe it was Marz saying she was staying the night at his house, or an email from Jive about the album, a question from Lauren about Marz's schedule, any number of things.

But already the suspicion was beginning to wear on her. If she looked at the screen and saw that it was Justin then she'd HAVE to read it, she'd have to answer him. Then she'd have to find an excuse to go back into the house, away from Trace, and he'd wonder what was going on.

"Are you gonna answer that?" He asked.

He'd felt the device in her pocket vibrate and was waiting for her to reach for it. Kara reached into her pocket and pressed a random button. Now the phone wouldn't vibrate anymore and she could pretend to ignore it until the proper time.

"No. I don't feel like moving."

Whoever, or whatever, it was would have to wait until later.

The next morning Kara awoke at 7am, to the sound of her phone vibrating against the nightstand. Besides the loud ring, it was banging against the lamp, and she didn't appreciate the uninvited interruption into her sleep time. Grabbing it quickly, she answered it before it had a chance to wake Trace too, who was sleeping besides her. She glanced over at his sleeping form as he rolled over and snored deeply.

"Hello?"

She heard Justin's voice faintly through the phone.

"Hang on," she said into the receiver.

Getting up from the bed she quietly made her way into the hall. She glanced towards Marz's door. It was closed so she was probably still asleep. Kara crept downstairs and into the kitchen, out of anyone else's earshot.

Justin was growing more and more impatient by the second, his nails rapping on the wooden table top in his kitchen as he struggled to keep himself in check. He hadn't spoken to Kara in hours, and now she was on the line but all he could hear was silent and occasional rustling. He wanted to know what was going on.

"Kara?" He questioned.

"I'm here," she said. "I had to sneak downstairs so I didn't wake up Trace."

"Oh," Justin sounded. "He stayed the night?"

"Yeah. We were up talking until really late."

Justin wasn't sure what to say. He knew logically that there wasn't anything wrong with Trace staying at Kara's. That was his girlfriend, and that's what any normal boyfriend would do; he'd spent the night there with Marz plenty of times. But he wasn't expecting the tightening in his chest. He didn't want any other guy sleeping next to her, sharing her bed, cuddling with her at night. It hurt as much as if Marz had called and told him that she had spent the night with someone.

"Well, that's cool I guess," he said.

"So, Justin it's seven in the morning. Why are you calling me so early? This better not be some phone sex thing."

"Why didn't you answer me last night?"

It was bad enough that Trace had been around all day and he hadn't been able to see her, but then she'd completely ignored him by not responding.

"I'm sorry, I forgot."

"You forgot?" He asked in disbelief.

"Well I couldn't look at it right away because Trace was right there and he could see, and then it just slipped my mind until now."

Slipped her mind? How could he have slipped her mind?

"You could have checked it sometime. I mean you went to the bathroom at some point, didn't you? I doubt he followed you in."

"I just figured it wasn't anything super important -like the end of the world- or you would have called or texted again."

Justin rolled his eyes. He shouldn't have to harass her to get a simple reply.

"Well next time can you try not to forget me?"

It may have come off as a lighthearted joke, but he meant it. He heard Kara's soft chuckle on the other end and smiled.

"Justin, I don't think I could ever forget you, but I'll try not to let your text go ignored anymore."

Good. She may not have been his girlfriend, but he needed his time with her too.

"So," he began. "What's new on your end?"

"Well, before I forget Trace asked about the other night and I had to tell him something different than Marz."

"Why? What did you tell him?"

"Trace is in the studio with us all the time, so I couldn't tell him about Adriana the Imaginary Producer. I told him I was out with my friend Charita."

"Marz thinks it was Adriana, and Trace thinks it was Charita. Could you make this any more complicated?"

"Hey! It's not my fault," she complained. "I wasn't prepared to be the brains of this operation. How come I have to do all the thinking and you just get to go along with it?"

Justin shrugged.

"I guess it's because I come up with all the secret dates."

"Yeah," Kara muttered. "The fun stuff. That reminds me, I'm missing part of my bathing suit. Have you seen it? Pink and swirly."

"No. It's not buried in your bag or something?"

"I don't know, I pretty much went through everything in there, but I could have missed it. Do you think it's in the car?"

"I was in there earlier and I didn't notice anything. But I didn't exactly look either."

"That's the only other place it could be. But that's okay right? You said you rarely ever drive it, so no one will see it."

"Yeah."

Justin decided to ignore the fact that when he had driven it today, it had been with Marz. He was sure she hadn't seen anything suspicious, or she probably would have questioned him about it earlier.

Kara was curled up on the couch checking her Facebook account when Marz stormed in the house sighing loudly. She heard her sister's purse hit the hardwood floor and then her shoes hit the floor soon after. Something bad had happened -no, strike that- something catastrophic had happened. The last time Marz came in to the house like that was when Jive had told her that they didn't like the sound she was going with on her second album, and that she should start over from scratch. That had put Marz in a funk for the rest of the recording period and in result that was her worse selling album. Kara silently prayed that that hadn't happen again.

"He doesn't love me anymore," Marz said sadly.

Kara could tell that her sister was trying her hardest not to break down right then and there.

"Who doesn't love you anymore? Come here," Kara said.

She placed her laptop on the coffee table in front of her and moved over to pat the seat on the couch next to her. Marz followed her sister's orders and curled up next to her in fetal position. It broke Kara's heart to see her sister like this. She wrapped an arm around Marz' shoulders, gently comforting her, and silently cursing Jives execs.

"I think Justin's cheating on me."

Those six words froze Kara to the core.

"Wh-What makes you say that?"

"He's been really distant lately. I mean, I know he's working on an album and he has William Rast, so I can understand him being physically distant sometimes.. But when we do spend time with each other it's like he's not all the way there mentally. He never puts that damn phone down! I mean come on, I know Trace is his best friend and business partner, but do you have to spend every waking moment communicating with him? They're together in the studio and the boardroom, do they have to constantly text too?"

The sick feeling in Kara's stomach grew with every sentence her sister spoke.

"And sex! Oh my gosh, sex never used to be an issue for us. It was like the boy was fuckin' insatiable, but these past few weeks, nothing. I had to practically beg him to sleep with me last night, and even then he didn't even say my name, he just kept mumbling things like 'baby' and 'babygirl'. It made me feel like I was nothing to him; I felt so disgusted that I couldn't find it in myself to let him hold me afterwards." That was when Marz broke down.

The tears started flowing freely from her brown orbs and Kara had to fight back tears of her own. It was her fault that her sister was experiencing this pain and that's what hurt her the most.

"And then yesterday afternoon was just the icing on the cake."

"Yesterday afternoon?"

"Yeah, I went to Justin's after I left here and ran some errands with him. By the way, he has the same car and headlights as ya'lls producer friend."

"Really?" Kara asked lightly.

"Yeah, so I decided to wait in the car while he dropped some papers off at William Rast and I found a woman's swimsuit bottom in the backseat."

Kara gasped, she had left it in his car…and her sister found it.

"That's exactly what I did. But he did say that he rarely drives the car so it could've been there for a while."

Justin did say that so it very well could have been from a previously fling/relationship, and Kara's bottoms could be somewhere in her mess of a tote.

"What kind of swimsuit was it?" Kara asked.

"Pink-ish with swirls on it…just like the one you're wearing in that picture," Marz said, nonchalantly pointing at the picture flashing on her sister's screensaver. Silence filled the room as both women digested the statement. Kara didn't even realize that her computer was still sitting there open, so when Marz had said that it took a second to click in her mind that she'd been busted. It was a completely different story for Marz though. She might have had a flippant tone when she said it, but as soon as she did she realized what she'd just discovered.

"It was yours wasn't it?" Marz asked softly.

When Kara didn't answer Marz knew she'd gotten her answer.

"How could you?" She hissed.

"I'm so sorry," was all Kara managed to choke out after moments of silence.

"My own sister. I can't believe this. My own sister!"

Then it happened. In a flash Kara felt Marz' weight lift off of her and her right cheek sting. Marz had slapped her. She held her cheek as the tears flowed freely now.

"You conniving bitch," Marz seethed. "How long has this been going on?"

Kara continued to hold her bruised cheek crying softly.

"I said, how long has this been going on!?!" Marz demanded.

"Since New York," Kara replied meekly.

"I knew it. I knew it. I knew something was going on between you two. I didn't want to believe it though. I didn't want to believe that two of the people I love the most would sneak behind my back and hurt me like this."

"I'm so sorry," Kara repeated.

"So, all those text messages, that was you, wasn't it? All those extra studio times? Oh my gosh, I practically pushed you in to his arms didn't I?"

"No! It was my fault. I shouldn't have let him kiss me."

"Let him kiss you?! Bullshit! Don't you dare put this on Justin! You threw yourself at him, just like you threw yourself at Trace."

Marz' words stung worse than her slap had. She knew what Kara had gone through with her ex-boyfriend and him accusing her of flirting with every man she spoke to when he was really the one who was cheating. Marz knew that saying that would hurt Kara like Kara hurt her.

"I know what I did was wrong, but that was low even for you," Kara said.

Marz didn't speak at all as her sister grabbed her purse from the foyer table and stormed out of the house in tears.