Cierra takes the cart from the employee who was pushing it towards her and smiled a “thanks” in return. She sat her purse down in the basket, making her way into Whole Foods grocery store. Living with AJ, who is a nut about eating healthy, can either change a person or drive them insane. For Cierra, it’s both. She pulls her list from her pocket, heading down the first isle of the organic grocery store. Justin has been gone nearly three weeks and she’s only spoken to him a handful of times. He usually calls at night regardless the time difference but for the past week she hasn’t heard from him. She knew he was going to be busy with promotion therefore she didn’t push it. Grabbing a couple loafs of bread; she continues to make her way around the store.
Turning down the canned foods and various other items isle, she smiles at a young couple who are playfully bickering over what to make for dinner. Her phone starts to vibrate in her pocket, reaching in she grabs it smiling at the caller I.D, “Hey.” She answers, eyes scanning the various products on the shelf.
“Hey yourself,” Justin responds smiling into the phone, “You’ll never guess where I am.”
Grabbing a couple cans of corn with her free hand she shrugs, “Paris?”
He laughs, “No, the airport. I’m home.”
Her smile grew as pushes the cart towards the soups, “You’re not supposed to be back until the middle of next week.”
He frowns, “Do you not want to see me?”
Cierra giggles, reaching up for a small back of rice, “Of course I want to see you, silly! I’m surprised and happy.” Pulling the bag down, she knocks another one over in the process, “Hey, J, hang on a sec.”
Leaning down she bends over to pick the bag off the ground, another hand leaning down, grabbing it before she could reach it. Grinning, she leans back up to thank the person, the smile fades, “Hey,” the figure says.
Justin’s brows furry, “Who is that?”
Cierra clears her throat, taking the item from the man’s hand and placing it back on the shelf. She grabs her cart, pushing it the rest of the way through the isle. She doesn’t answer Justin’s question until she’s on the other end of the store, “Danny.”
She stops in front of the frozen foods when she notices Danny coming up the isle from the other end, “He’s following me.”
Justin shifts in his seat, “Where are you? I’ll meet you there. Are you in a public place? Cierra, leave and stay in your car until we get there.”
Danny stops a little ways back, waving slightly as if asking permission to get closer. She sighs, “I’m at Whole Foods and the minute you step in here the paparazzi are going to go crazy, they are already outside. There are a lot of people here; he wouldn’t do anything unless we were alone anyways. I’ll meet you back at my place when I’m finished shopping. I love you.” She didn’t wait to hear his reply; closing her phone shut she shoved it back in her pocket.
“Are you following me?”
He shifts but doesn’t move closer, “Don’t flatter yourself, sweetheart. I was picking up a couple things to cook Jess dinner tonight and I saw you in the isle, thought I’d be polite and say hello.”
She huffs, “Polite? Yeah right. Well, hello. Goodbye.” She opens the freezer door, pulling out a few more items on her list and tossing them into the cart. When she closes the door, he’s standing at the front of her cart.
“Just thought you should know that maybe you don’t know your friends as well as you think you do.” He smirks, placing his hand on the cart, “Besides, I was hoping you would agree to lunch with me tomorrow at my place. You know, so we can catch up.”
“So you can kill me for real this time you mean. Funny, Danny but no, please move.” He releases her cart and she moves around him and another man who was trying to get into the freezer they were standing in front of. She makes it to the end of the isle and turns around, he’s still watching her but made no effort to follow, “What do you mean I don’t know my friends as well as I think I do?”
His smirk turns into a full blown smile, “Ask AJ. I’ll see you around, Cierra. We have unfinished business to discuss but right now, I need to get home to my girlfriend.”
She makes a fake gagging noise, “She’s still with you? Have you told her? I’d assume not if she’s still around. I’m sure Justin could give her a call, I mean she does have the right to know her boy toy killed his child and beat his girlfriend to a pulp, don’t you think?”
They receive strange looks from various people passing by but she moves back when his eyes narrow, his anger building. He moves closer towards her, “You shouldn’t have been fucking your teacher,” He’s standing in front of her. She knows she should move but she’s scared yet at the same time she knows he wouldn’t do anything here. His family had an image to uphold. “You asked for it you damn cunt,” He whispers harshly, “And I should’ve finished you off when I had the chance but maybe I’ll get another shot.”
She opens her mouth to respond but her eyes widen as two large black hands wrap themselves around Danny’s arms, shoving him out of the way. Justin emerges from behind Tony, “Are you alright? Did he hurt you?”
Cierra looks over at Danny, who is straightening out his shirt and giving Tony the look of death. She watches as Tony stands in front of him, whispering harshly and adamantly but his face is pure anger with every word. Danny looks over at her one more time and winks before turning and heading towards the front of the store. She lets out the breath she didn’t know she was holding, “I’m fine.”
Justin grabs her chin in his hand, forcing her to look at him, “Are you crazy!? He just threatened to kill you!”
She jerks her face out of his hand and rolls her eyes, “I pushed his buttons, Justin. But I am fine. What are you doing here?”
He crosses his arms over his chest, Tony nodding at her before giving them some distance, “You hung up on me. I was worried so I came here instead of heading home.” He smiled tightly at a couple girls who walked by giggling before turning his attention back to her, “Now, what the hell were you thinking? I told you to leave.”
She turns around, back to pushing her cart to another isle, “I’m grocery shopping, Justin. He’s not going to stop me and neither are you.”
He watches as she places more items in her cart and smiles when she struggles to reach the peanut butter on the top shelf. He steps behind her, grabbing it. She looks over her shoulder as he puts it in her cart, pulling her shirt back down, “Thanks.”
He nods, turning back around. Leaning down, he kisses her softly on the lips, “I just want you to be careful.”
She leans up on her toes, kissing him again, “I know, I’m sorry. He just pissed me off telling me I needed to talk to AJ because I don’t know my friends as well as I do and I told him that I was going to have you tell Jessica about all this shit and it pissed him off.”
He tilts his head to the side before shaking it and moving to push the cart while she walks beside it, grabbing the last of her items. “You need to be careful, baby.”
She stops and sighs, “I know. It was dumb and I’m sorry.” She looks back at Tony who is walking behind them, looking bored. She grins, running up to him and throwing her arms around his neck. He laughs, hugging her back, “I’m sorry to you, too. Although you could’ve snapped him in half and I kind of wish you did.”
He nods, the smile never leaving his face. They make their way to the front register. After paying and loading up her car, Justin turns towards Tony, “Can I ride with her?”
Tony shrugs, “Yeah, we’ll follow though. Meet you at the apartment or house?”
The steady clicking of cameras is really starting to annoy Justin, she can tell, “The apartment,” She answers for him, receiving a glare, “What? I’ve got frozen stuff Justin plus, it’s not like they don’t already know where I live. They followed me here this morning.” After the event she attended with him, she’d been getting a lot more attention, not just from photographers but people in general. It freaked her out but she didn’t want to upset Justin. It came with being his girlfriend. She turns her head when the photographer called her name, asking for a smile. She gave him a small one before turning back to Justin who was shaking his head.
Tony heads towards the black SUV while Cierra and Justin get in the car. The photographers had been nice to her, actually, moving out of the way so they could pull out when they were ready. She buckled her seat belt, looking over at Justin who was staring back at her an amused look on his face, “What?”
“You were flirting with that pap.” He’s grinning so she knows he’s joking.
She rolls her eyes, “That’s Markus. He’s been following me around for the past two weeks and I realized that once I stopped acting like the bitch you told me, they do leave me alone a lot more. Give me space. So take that!” She sticks her tongue out at him eliciting a laugh from him. She turns the ignition and Justin’s hand covers her on the gear shift, before she can put the car into reverse.
“I missed you.”
She looks at him, ignoring the pictures that are still being taken, “I missed you, too.”
He leaned forward, kissing her softly. They pull away laughing as the clicking got more intense and rapid, “I think we made them happy for the next 48 hours.”
She giggles, backing out of the space, “I’m glad your home. I can’t wait until Thanksgiving!”
He leans his head back, closing his eyes, the tiredness from the flight taking over, “I’m glad I’m home, too.”
She leans her back against the island, her ankles crossed. She was watching him put her frozen foods in the freezer, an amused look on her face. He was so adorable, she couldn’t stand it. He was wearing blue and white shorts and a white t-shirt. She was surprised he didn’t run straight for her room and pass out. Tucking a piece of her now straightened black hair behind her ear, she asks, “So, about Thanksgiving…”
He closes the freezer door. Turning he leans his back against the counter, mimicking her position, “What about it?” He smiles.
She shrugs, “What are you doing for it?”
“Well, I was hoping with you. I mean, I’m going back to Tennessee. I’d really like it if you came.”
She leans her head to the side, “I would love to but I don’t want to leave Brandi here alone. AJ is going back home tomorrow and won’t be back until the Monday after.”
He nods his head, “I understand. How come you’re not going home?”
She sighs, straightening up. Pushing off the island, she stands in front of him, one leg on either side of his. She wraps her arms around his neck and leans in towards him, “It’ll be the first one I’ve missed since I was a fetus, and they won’t kill me. Besides, I’m not ready to go back home yet. My parents are coming out during Christmas though. Would you … maybe want to meet them?” She moves one hand to rest on his chest, playing with the logo on his shirt.
He grins, “Yes, I would. You’re father is not going to kill me is he?”
She laughs, “No. I think he secretly likes you. I talk about you to them all time.”
Both their heads turn at the sound of a key in the lock. Brandi walks in, her arms full of her own groceries and steps into the kitchen, smiling at them, “Hey pop star, when you get back?”
“A couple hours ago. How you doin’, midget?”
Cierra steps back, smiling at their playful banter. She helped Brandi unload the groceries, “I did some shopping, too.”
“It’s the least I could do. Oh, hey, so I am thinking about going home for Thanksgiving. I mean, if that’s alright with you.” She ducks her head in the refrigerator.
Cierra pivots around and Justin’s eyes are twinkling at her, “Does that mean you’ll come to Tennessee with me?”
Brandi straightened up, “You’re taking her home for Thanksgiving? Hmm.” She winks at Cierra, “I leave tomorrow but I will probably be back by next Saturday. Got to get some Black Friday shopping done.”
Cierra frowns, “Tomorrow? Everyone is leaving me tomorrow, you bastards.”
Brandi laughs, poking Cierra on the nose before heading back towards the door, “Stop pouting. I am going to run down to the pharmacy and then Macy’s. I should be back in a couple hours.”
Waving, Cierra turns back towards Justin, “Yes, I’ll go with you to Tennessee.”
He grins, moving closer to her, “You know,” He whispers huskily, “I haven’t seen you for almost three weeks.” He moves until her back is against the island again, he steps between her legs. Leaning down, he kisses right behind her ear lobe, smiling at the soft moan that comes from her, “And Brandi won’t be back for awhile. AJ’s at work right?”
His hand moves under her shirt, rubbing her stomach and she nods, “I need to call the airlines,”
He leans back, pressing his forehead against hers, “I’ll take care of it.”
“Well, at least let me run to the ATM or write you a check for the plane ticket,” He kisses her quiet.
“No, it’s fine. Now, welcome me home.” He pulls her roughly against him and she laughs. He kisses her again but she pulls back for he can deepen it. She grabs his hand, pulling him down the hallway to her bedroom. He really loved this woman and as much as it excited him, it scared him, too.
