It had been almost two weeks and Cierra hadn’t heard anything from Justin. Not that she had much time to notice. Between work, taking the girls minus Brandi to the airport and entertaining Brandi, she didn’t have time to even think about him. AJ wasn’t around much since she and Mark started spending more time together, not the Cierra could complain. Brandi decided to stay an extra week which Cierra was grateful for and the two were in the living room watching a movie.

            “I don’t understand how people fall in love with Brad Pitt. I mean if you look close enough he’s not all the cute” Brandi commented, eating a handful of popcorn.

            Cierra looked over from her spot on the floor, “Personally, I’m a Denzel kind of girl but to an extent Brad’s not a bad actor.” She reached over to the bag that Brandi was holding, taking her own handful of popcorn.

            “True… but he still looks like a monkey.”

            Cierra looked at the dead serious face Brandi was making and started laughing hysterically, “He…does…not…look…like…a monkey!” She managed to get out between breaths. Brandi started laughing along with her, both girls turned towards Cierra’s cell phone on the couch and Brandi raised an eyebrow, “Hmm, is the boy finally calling?”

            Rolling her eyes, Cierra picked up her phone and couldn’t stop the smile that started spreading across her face. As she flipped the phone on, Brandi started laughing again, “It is him! Do you need some … privacy?” She was wiggling her eyebrows.

            “You’re such an ass…Hello?” She answered.

            “How am I an ass?” Justin asked, he was back in the states for a couple days but hadn’t told Cierra. There was a charity fashion show that he was supposed to perform at, that they added to his schedule last minute. But then it was back to Germany to finish his promotional stuff., He sat in the back of the SUV taking him from the airport, poking Tony occasionally in the back of the head simply because he liked annoying the hell out of him.

            “Sorry, not you. Brandi is just being the bastard friend that she is. How are you calling me? Isn’t it like… tomorrow in Germany? Wait, shouldn’t you be asleep? Don’t you have a show in the morning?” Cierra asked, pushing the blankets off her legs and standing up. Flicking Brandi off as she heard her whisper, ‘talk dirty to me daddy’. She walked into the kitchen, pulling out a glass and filling it with water.

            Justin laughed on the phone, “One question at a time, baby. I’m back in the states for a fashion show. I suppose it is tomorrow in Germany and I’ll be asleep in no time. My show was cancelled because the host of the television show went into labor. What are you up to? How have you been? I’m sorry I haven’t called.”

            Straightening up, Cierra shut the refrigerator and leaned her hip against the counter, rolling her eyes at the inappropriate hand gestures Brandi was making from the living room floor, “Oh, well that would make sense then. I’m having a girl’s night with Brandi right now. I’ve been alright, just the usual; work and entertaining this loser. AJ and Mark are doing great, I’m guessing, since I haven’t seen much of her in oh, the three months we’ve been out here. Don’t be sorry. You’re a busy man; everyone wants a piece of you. But, listen, it’s really rude for me to be on the phone when I’m supposed to be taking care of this lunatic. Call you tomorrow?”

            Justin leaned to the left quickly as Tony turned around, trying to his him on the head, “I was actually calling to see if you are busy this Sunday night. I was hoping you’d go with me to the show. We’d only be there a few hours and then hit up one of the after parties.”

            “I’ll think about it. Can I let you know tomorrow?” She made her way back into the living room, sitting back down beside Brandi.

            Justin nodded, “Yeah, call me, please. Have a good night and I will talk to you soon.”

            Justin waited for her to say good-bye before hanging up. He stuck his phone in his pocket and looked up to see Trace, Tony and Andre staring at him. He cracked a smile, “What are ya’ll looking at?”

            Trace shook his head, “You failed to tell her Jess and her new boy is supposed to be there. Justin, this girl likes you. We all know and we know you like her. Please tell me you are not bringing her to this damn fashion show to make Jess jealous. I see Jess doing this for the simple fact that you won’t take her back but man, you are better than that.”

            Tony nodded in agreement, “I’ll kill you if you hurt her, dude. I like this one; for once. Although, she’s pretty badass. I bet she’d kick his ass without any of our help.”

            Justin groaned, “I am not taking her to make Jess jealous. Okay, maybe a little bit of me hopes that Jess does get jealous but I do like Cierra, a lot. We’re just taking things slow.” He leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes, “really fucking slowly.”

            Trace threw his head back and laughed loudly, “She’s not giving you any. That’s really funny!”

            Justin turned his head to look at his best friends, his eyes narrowing, “You, my friend, can shut the fuck up. Hey, Andre, feel like making a quick detour?”

            Brandi looked over at Cierra, in the ten minutes she’d been of the phone Brandi’s mood changed drastically. “So, I need to tell you something before you go to this thing with him. I want you to go and I’m fine staying here by myself, watching you on TV; I swear. But you need to know that I probably won’t be the only one to see you.”

            Cierra was starting to worry, “What’s wrong? What happened?” There was only one thing she could think of and she was really hoping it wasn’t true. Her dad had called a few days ago while she was at work, leaving her a voicemail telling her that she needed to call home as soon as she could. There was only one reason he’d insist so hard but she just hadn’t had the time nor did she want to hear the news.

            “Danny’s out and he’s been looking for you. He came by right before I was pulling out of your driveway to head out here. He said you two needed to talk, that he had changed but he didn’t know how to get a hold of you. I refused to tell him and thank God your father wasn’t home otherwise he’d be dead right now. He got angry, starting yelling about how you still belonged to him and that if I didn’t tell him where you were, I’d end up just like you did. I told him so much for him being a changed man and got the hell out of dodge. I called your parents to let them know but I haven’t heard anything from them.” Her blue eyes watering, “I should’ve told you the minute it happened but I couldn’t over the phone and then when we showed up you were so happy and I haven’t seen you this happy let alone with a guy in so long, Cierra. I’m so sorry.”

            Cierra’s brown eyes got wide and she started shaking her head, “No, this can’t be true. It just can’t. He’s supposed to be in jail for 15 fucking years, Brandi. 15 at the minimum! Not a mere damn four!? What the hell? Attempted murderers get out for good behavior all of a sudden?! He almost fucking killed me! He killed my damn daughter! Oh God, Oh God, Oh God.” She stood up and couldn’t fight back the tears anymore. She thought he was gone, that she could finally move on and by the time he got out of jail, he wouldn’t even bother with her anymore. She’d be truly long gone.

            She jumped at a knock at the door, looking over at Brandi, fear written across both of their faces. Brandi stood up and walked towards the door, “He couldn’t have followed me, honey. I would’ve noticed and he wouldn’t have waited this long to make an appearance, you know this.” She looked through the peephole and sighed, “It’s just Justin and some really big Black dude.”

            Before Cierra could stop her, Brandi opened the door and let the men in. She turned around so her back was to them, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand and shirt. Justin stepped into the room and immediately noticed something was wrong, “What happened?” Tony said something to Justin along the lines of waiting out in the hall and Brandi decided she’d keep him company. Once the door shut, Justin turned back towards Cierra. Stepping towards her, he put a hand on her shoulder to turn her around. He saw her blood shot eyes and the fresh set of tears about to spill back over. Pulling her into a hug, she started crying again. He ran a hand up and down her back, pulling them to sit on the couch.

            After a couple of minutes, Cierra pulled back and Justin repeated his question, “You’ve got me worried. You were fine when we talked on the phone. If you’re this upset that I stopped by, I’m sorry. I should’ve asked when we were on the phone but I had to see you. I didn’t mean to ruin your girl’s night.”

            Cierra smiled a little and smacked his arm, “I’m glad you stopped by and I’m not upset because you didn’t ruin my girl’s night. That happened before you showed up.” She leaned back against the couch, grabbing Justin’s hand and lacing their fingers together, “Remember when I said I had some pretty big baggage of my own? Promise me you won’t run.”

Justin nodded, “Nothing you can say will make me run, Cierra. Unless you tell me you’re really a man and then we’ll have some issues.”

She laughed and turned her head towards him, growing serious again, “Well, I suppose I failed to mention that baggage was in jail for 15 years to life for my attempted murder and the murder of my unborn daughter.”

Justin’s breath caught in his throat, “What?” He tightened his fingers against hers, “What are you talking about?”

She sighed deeply and released his hand, standing up to pace back and forth in front of him. “I met Danny my junior year of high school. We dated and right before I left for college, I found out I was pregnant. We decided, along with our parents, that we would both still go to school until the baby was born and then they’d help us get a place of our own near the school. About three months into the pregnancy, I noticed his moods started changing. He wasn’t around as much and before long, I was finding out about all the other girls he was sleeping with. I called him out on it and that was the first time he ever laid his hands on me.”

“I knew I should’ve left, I knew it but I couldn’t. I loved him and I knew he loved me and our baby. Then it got worst. The hitting became more frequent to the point my teachers started noticing because I couldn’t hide the black eyes and bruises anymore. One evening, a professor of mine stopped me on my way to my car to question me. He went to touch on of my bruises but Danny saw and thought I was sleeping with him. I was six months pregnant. Justin, he beat me to the point that the doctor said if my housemate hadn’t returned home when she did, one more punch and I would’ve been dead. AJ saved my life. I was in the hospital for almost three months.”

She was crying again and Justin reached up to grab her but she pulled away. She was still talking but she was having trouble from crying so hard, “But it was too late for my baby. He killed her, Justin. He fucking killed her for no reason! He was arrested that night and for the rest of my freshman and into my sophomore year of college I had to relive every beating. Every word and every picture they could find during his trail. I was pictured by his lawyers as a money hungry slut and that he wasn’t even the father of my child. He was found guilty, I graduated and AJ and I moved out here. Then I met you. I didn’t think anything of it but if he sees me on TV and realizes...”

Justin finally grabbed a hold of her and pulled her onto his lap, “You don’t have to go, okay? Forget I asked.” He wrapped his arms around he as she cried on chest, “If he shows up, I’ll fucking kill him.”