"This looks amazing. You must have messed up good last night, but I am certainly okay with it if it means that we get to eat this." He pats me on the back in an encouraging manner.

I smile at him and nod. "Will you go get your woman up while i go get my man up?" I ask him as I move to go up the stairs.

He nods as he follows behind me. "It really does smell and look amazing, Arianna." He tells me.

This makes me smile but I do not turn around for him to see it. I continue on to my room and slowly and quietly open my door. I see Justin lying there looking almost peaceful. Justin looks so much younger and more simple in his sleep. The stress he gets over his album seems to melt away from his face. The worry and tension over us are almost nonexistent. I almost hate to wake him with the thought that this face may go away, but I have to hope that after our talk today I can erase some of those worries about us. I walk over to my bed and just cannot keep myself from running my fingers through his hair. I lean down and kiss him on the cheek. He stirs from his sleep and smiles but does not open his eyes. He reaches up and pulls me down to him and wraps his arms around me tightly as he nuzzles his nose into my neck. "Morning, baby," I do not want to move but there is breakfast downstairs that is getting cold. "Baby, you need to get up and get some clothes on. I made breakfast and it is downstairs waiting on us."

"Mmm, sounds good but we can always reheat it" He opens his eyes and they are full of mischief.

"As much as I would love to stay in bed, I do not think the other two will not be happy waiting on us and if they choose not to wait on us, I can't promise they're will be much left for us. Chase eats for a family of 8." I laugh as I sit up and pat him on the butt. "Come on, let's get up and have breakfast. Then, we can come back up and have a shower and have that talk we need to have."

He rolls over and sits up. "After a shower right?"

I roll my eyes at his question and just smile at him with a small wink as I turn and walk out of the room. "Get up for breakfast and we will play the rest by ear."

I pretty sure I hear his quickly jump out of bed and throw on the pair of jeans he had on last night that had been lying on the floor beside the bed. He quickly makes his way down the stair, but slows down when the smell hits his nose. "Oh my! That smells amazing." He proclaims as he walks into the dining room where the rest of us are sitting around the table.

Chase and Tabbetha are sitting on one side of the table, and I am sitting across from Chase on the other side, leaving Justin the chair beside me and across Tabbetha. He takes his seat and looks around the table and just smiles. "Amazing isn't it?" Tabbetha asks with a huge smile of her own. "Who knew our very own tough crazy kill-you-with-my-pinkie Arianna could cook. Let's eat now that we are all here."

Tabbetha goes to dig in, but I have to stop her. "We can't eat until we say a blessing," and I immediately receive a weird look from the two across from me. I look over at Justin and see a grateful look from Justin. I smile at him and just nod.

Justin says the blessing and then everyone digs in. No one says a word as the plates are covered and emptied and the covered again only to be emptied again. I look around the table and there is not one bit of food left on the table. I cannot keep the smile of my face. Everyone enjoyed the food that I made. Chase and Justin are both similarly slouching in their chairs leaning the head on the back of the chair with their hands resting on their stomachs, slightly rubbing them. Tabbetha looked like she is about to pop herself. I am so full that I feel like this may be how I die. I explode from too many pancakes. I laugh at my thought.

"What's so funny over there?" Chase asks, barely lifting his head to look at me.

"I was just thinking that I've been shot, stabbed, and have lived through it all, and this may be the death of me. Death my pancakes, exploding from overload." I explain causing a roar of laughter and agreement from everyone.

"Oh but what a way to go," is Justin's reply, getting more chuckles and nods.

"Well I guess we can't sit here all day moaning about how our pants aren't fitting." I say grabbing plates and moving them to the sink.

"Don't even think about cleaning up," Tabbetha tells me as she sits up too. "You cooked this amazing meal, and we are going to clean up this mess." Chase groans but gets up to help Tabbetha with the cleaning.

Justin also moves to help the couple out. I just step back and lean against the wall and watch. I can get used to this, cooking, cleaning, and just enjoying a simple life. I just hate that I know that we will never have a simple life. My lifestyle alone makes it complicated, but there is also Justin's lifestyle. He is constantly in public eye, traveling around, and being followed by cameras. The only time he is able to have a 'normal' life is when we lock ourselves up at the mansion. My house is not as ambushed due to fear of my so-called guards coming out, but people do still come out. I stand and watch for a little while longer and then decide to go upstairs and start that shower I was talking about earlier. I see that the trio is almost done loading the dishwasher and cleaning up whatever is left so I go ahead upstairs, knowing that Justin will join me soon.

***

After we get showered and dressed, we decide to stay in my room and talk. We are less likely to be disturbed and less likely to be eavesdropped on by Tabbetha. We sit on the love seat I have in the corner of my room. I am unsure exactly what it was he wanted to talk about last night so I stay quiet and let him talk.

"So, before things got a little crazy last night, I wanted to talk to you about a couple of things." He starts off. "I know we have discussed that you do not want to come out to my concert because of the whole family thing, but I want to talk about some things." I cannot stop my eyes from rolling at this. He knows I do not want to meet his family. "Please don't roll your eyes at me. I really want to talk about this. I realize that I went about this whole thing the wrong way. I understand that you are not comfortable with meeting my family and you do not want to and as your boyfriend I should respect this decision. I really do want you to meet my family, but we can do it when you want to. I don't want my family keeping you from coming to the concert though. I have worked really hard on getting prepared for this and plan on singing some of my new songs that I have written for this new album that coming out soon after the tour starts. I want you to see this and I want you to enjoy this. This is my life and you haven't truly been able to see it outside the paparazzi and a few public appearances." I start to turn down the invitation but he continues on. "I realize you are not wanting to because of my parents, but I was hoping that you will reconsider it. I will not try to force you to meet them and I promise not to trick you into meeting them by getting you all into a room together where you have to meet them or make an excuse to leave. I want you to want to meet them. My proposal is that you join me and come see me in concert. You do not have to meet my family if you do not want to. You will not be tricked into meeting them by putting you in a room together or having seats together. I will hang out with you but you must know that I will hang out with my family too, so if you do not want to meet them I will have to leave you alone for awhile. This is not my way of trying to talk you into it. I know that you will be okay alone if you go and that is why I am not worried about it and I believe you will not hold it against me if I do." He grabs my hands and holds them and looks into my eyes. "Will you please come with me to this concert and give me the encouragement and support that I need from you? I want to know what you think about it."

I sit there and take in everything he just told me. It does sound like a good deal and I would love to see my man in his element and just see with the passion that so many people talk about. "If you can promise me that you will not try to force me or trick me, and you won't try to 'talk me into it,' I would love to go." I tell him. He grabs me and pulls me into a tight, very tight, hug.

"You don't know how much this means to me. Tabbetha and Chase can, of course, come if you would like. Give you someone to be with while I'm onstage and with my family. I would love for them to be able to see the concert to." He just continues to hug me and give me kisses. "I love you so much!" He exclaims.

I laugh a little as he pulls away. "I love you, too, but can you calm down a little. You are starting to scare me."

He laughs some more. "Well how about we go give the duo, who I am sure one half is trying to listen through the door, the official invitation to the concert and make the plans?"

I nod and get up to follow him out of the room where we found Tabbetha sitting in a chair outside my door. "At least you got a chair this time." I roll my eyes at her. "You could be a normal, considerate human being and wait downstairs, and let us tell you what we want you to know."

"Whatever. I couldn't hear anything anyway," she pouts. "That's why I have a chair. I am sitting here waiting for you to come out to tell me. It really annoys me that you soundproof shit."

Justin and I both laugh at this. "It isn't completely soundproof as you've pointed out before. I hate that we are inconveniencing you. Will it make you feel better if I let you tell Chase that you are both coming with me to Justin's concert in a couple of months?"

She stands up quickly and squeals. "Yes it will!" she exclaims and runs downstairs to tell Chase.

"Eventually I am going to be able to talk in my own home without having to worry about people eavesdropping. Can't wait until those two get married and move out." I tell Justin as we stand there outside my room, holding each other and enjoying being alone.

"You will miss them though," he says kissing the top of my head.

"Terribly," is my reply. "I do owe them a huge wedding present, even though I believe letting them have the damn thing at the mansion should be huge enough." I try to keep myself from thinking about my friends going away.

"You know what you are getting them?" He asks me as we start to make our way downstairs.

"I think so, but we will see how it goes first. You going to get them anything or you want to go into on one present together?"

"I may get them something if they don't annoy me too much between now and then." He laughs, making me do the same.

So it starts. I am beginning to compromise with my boyfriend, and the life that I have gotten so used to and have grown to love is changing drastically on me. I do not know if I am going to be able to live through all of this without pulling my hair out, especially with the wedding. James is furious with my decision to let them have it there, and I have to make sure the house is wedding proofed. I have to get the guns put a way, make sure there are no suspicious weaponry lying around, my men do not make any scenes, the catering is taken care of, and the house is in shape to let people in and walk around a little. On top of all this, I have to get my own life together. I have to find a way to have a life with Justin without sacrificing my work, and get my work down without sacrificing Justin. I need help!