Lance looked around his office wondering what he could do next. He’d been back to work for a total of six hours. He didn’t want to admit it but he was actually bored. He didn’t know if maybe it was the actual work or the fact that he couldn’t really concentrate. He really couldn’t decide what the cause of his boredom was but he found it highly odd. He didn’t want to do paperwork and paperwork had been his thing when Nsync was still together as a group.

The moment the kid came back into his mind he found himself smiling. His smile grew wider when he thought about the kids’ mother. What was wrong with him? Since when did he get a crush on someone? Since when did he get a crush on a full family?

Sean and Noemi were just that. A family. It saddened him to think that Sean hadn’t mentioned his father during the hours he’d spent with him. Instead the kid was all about mommy this and mommy that. Not that he pitied the kid. It was more like he was brought up with both parents and he knew how important having both parents is.

He’d been thinking about both of them for two long days after leaving Justin’s two days ago. He hadn’t said a single word to her because he honestly didn’t want to say the wrong thing and have her wanting to leave. That fact didn’t mean that he hadn’t been watching her from time to time as she interacted with his friends.
She did smile and laugh at some of the dumb jokes Joey had made but she never fully joined the conversations that were happening. He wondered if the reason she had acted that way was because he had been there. He really hadn’t wanted to make her uncomfortable as he’d tried to say goodbye and leave. He had tried was the key word because Sean hadn’t wanted him to leave and had actually left him mother’s lap and had sat on his for the remaining time. She had looked up and given him a smirk but had said nothing. He had been wondering why she had completely changed. He didn’t know her very well, not at all but she was acting different. He had expected her to make a comment about him being in her presence but he’d been surprised when she said nothing at all.

“Bleechet, do I have anything else today?” he asked over the intercom on his desk.

“Has hell frozen over?” she said back to him.

“What?” he asked confused.

“I was just asking because hell would surely freeze over if you, Mr. Palm Pilot, didn’t know his schedule.”

“Funny.” he said.

“Did it?” The question was now coming from his assistant who stood in front of him.

“Did what?”

“Hell freezes over.” Bleechet said facing him across his desk.

“What are you talking about, woman? I just need to know if ‘m done for the day.” he chuckled.

“Oh my gawd!!!!”

“What now?” he asked putting his suit jacket on and adjusting his tie.

“You met someone.” she stated.

“I had a bunch of meeting where I met people, yes. You were at all of them Bleechet.”

“Oh cut the shit, Bass.”

“Such language coming from my beautiful assistant.”

“You have been here all day and you didn’t say anything?” she said ignoring his kind words.

“Say what?” Lance asked sitting back down on his chair.

“Who is she?”

“Who?”

“The woman you met?”

“What makes you think I met a woman?” Lance asked trying not to smile.

“Because I’ve known you long enough and plus you’re now blushing.” she pointed to his face.

“I am not.” Lance said but felt that he had to look at himself on the mirror behind him. He was blushing. What was next? Love letters?

“Yes you are.”

“I am leaving now because I don’t remember if I have anything else scheduled for today and my assistant isn’t ASSISTING.” Lance said walking around his desk toward the door.

“What color hair does she have?” she asked quickly as he walked by her.

Just as quickly Lance had responded. “Brown.” he closed his eyes when he’d realized he’d fallen for her trick. “Damn it.” he said before walking out of his office and hearing her giggle.

----------------------------------

Trace looked around the conference room for some kind of entertainment. Chris and Dani were with their financial advisor talking amongst themselves and he just waited patiently until it was his turn to speak. He really didn’t want to be there at that moment but Chris had him fly to Florida to have the meeting and he didn’t have much choice. He wanted to present his design for the new Fumanskeeto store and be done with it. The business side of things always got to him and they took too long.

He’d had a lot of demons hounding him for the past two days and to top it off he had a migraine from hell.

Part of his headache was due to his stupid sister coming to Justin‘s house right before he‘d left to Florida two days before. She had obviously wanted something. That something was related to Justin’s album. She wanted an inside scoop on how it was going. Trace had wanted to tell her to leave but Justin had given her a clip of what Jive had decided was his new single. She had been on her way after that.  He’d been upset with Justin for doing that but Justin had simply said, “publicity is publicity, Trace. She’ll get a couple thousands for it and she’ll leave you alone. You know how she is.” The fact that he knew exactly how his sister was, was what was giving him a migraine. He didn’t want to deal with her. EVER. He couldn’t stand the sight of her and he knew that his sister would be coming back.

His biggest migraine issue was the fact that he hadn’t called Kayla. He hadn’t even let her know that he’d left to Florida. He’d planned not to call her at all but that had been the first day. Now it was the third day and he wasn’t quite sure why he was letting that fact get to him. The truth was that he knew he had a store to get ready in a short amount of time before Justin started promoting and he’d be on the road without much contact with Chris and she was a distraction. One that he couldn’t have while working out on tour with Justin. He just wouldn’t have time. He knew he was just lying to himself because he wanted nothing more than to spend time with her. But men ran from their feelings. Right? Right.

“Earth to Trace.” he heard Chris say.

“Oh sorry guys.” he said embarrassed that he’d been caught daydreaming.

“Ready?” Dani asked with a smile.

“Yeah.” Trace said getting up to the front of the room where his sketches of the store were.

“What’s up with him?” Chris whispered to Dani.

“Apparently, Trace has met someone special and she has him a little off.” she whispered back as Trace continued his presentation to the financial advisor.

“How do you know that?” Chris whispered back. “Oh never mind. Let me guess. Ms. I’m half naked on the cover of Rollingstone and my husband is going to kill me?”

“The one and only.”

“Figures.” Chris said before turning back to Trace and his ideas for the store.
-----------------------

Lance knew it was a bad idea going there but he’d gone anyway. He really didn’t have anything to lose. He’d already lost his mind the moment she’d started occupying his thoughts.

As he stepped out of his car he noticed for the first time that the parking lot had been empty. Besides his car there were about five cars spread all across the parking lot. One of the cars, a BMW was parked directly in front of the glass door. He’d also failed to see the big billboard sign in the entrance to the parking lot that read ‘Closed for renovations’ as his thought were overtaking him. When he walked up the side of the building he noticed Sean sitting on one of the remaining booths inside. He had a French fry in one hand while the other pushed a matchbox car back and forth on the tabletop. He smiled at the sight of the kid and he suddenly felt a longing to spend time with him. He knocked on the window but the loud power saw drowned the noise across the room. There were about five men working on different areas of the room he noticed as he walked around the BMW and squeezed past it and open the door. He walked into the room without being noticed and he shook his head at the fact that none of the men around looked to see who was coming in the building when a child was clearly sitting off to the side by himself. The thought of someone coming in the place and snatching the kid made him shudder. He walked over to Sean and covered his eyes.

“Guess who?” he said.

“Lance!!” the kid said excitedly as he turned around to face him. Lance was surprised and nurtured when Sean dropped his toy, got up on the seat and wrapped his arms around his neck in a hug.

“Hey there, bud.” Lance said hugging him back.

“I missed you.” Sean said.

“I missed you too.” Lance couldn’t have spoken truer words. He truly didn’t know how much he had missed the kid until he saw him through the window. “Where’s your mom, bud? Why are you sitting here by yourself?”

“Mommy is in the kitchen making me a cheeseburger.” Sean said patting the seat next to him so Lance could sit down. He extended a fry to Lance. “Do you want
some?”

“No, thank you. I already ate.”

“Okay.”

“So, have you had any fun these past three days?” Lance asked facing Sean.

“Me, Kay-Kay and mommy were supposed to go to Disney but Kay-Kay is leaving, so we can’t go today.”

“Kayla is leaving? Where is she going, Sean?”

“Did your friend send you to ask instead of being a man and doing it himself?” Noemi had been standing at the kitchen doorway watching as Lance had entered the room. Apparently her son lost the sense of knowing when his mother had entered the room because he hadn’t even looked up. It really irritated her that this guy was still trying to come into their lives. She knew she was being unfair to Sean because he hadn’t done anything but talk about his new friend  ‘lance’ and when he’d be able to play with him again. It drove her up the wall and she was really starting to feel like maybe giving the guy a chance to be their friend wasn’t a bad idea after all. But the sickening feeling she got when she looked at him was horrible. Horrible, in the way that she could see herself letting go and falling again. She had actually felt butterflies in her stomach as she watched him come into the diner. He wore a dark suit with a white dress shirt and a tan tie and the sight of him was truly beautiful. But she knew what a beautiful man like himself is capable of and she wasn’t going to give in just because her son liked him. “We don’t serve information here. As a matter of fact, did you not learn how to read at the school of aggravation you went to? We’re closed.”

“I wasn’t trying to be nosey. I just wondered.” Lance said watching as she put a plate in front of Sean. “The door was opened.”

“Not to the public it’s not.” Noemi said sitting across from him. “Sean isn’t the one you should be asking questions to.”

“Okay, then I’ll ask you.” Lance figured that if the only way she would talk to him was if he was equally rude, then he was going to do it. “Where did Kayla go?”

“I believe I said we were closed.” Noemi said rudely.

“Why do you act like that?” Lance said without thinking. In fact he had stopped thinking all together when he’d heard her voice and he had looked up and seen her for the first time. She wore a pair of Jeans and a white tube-top and he could clearly see the tan lines of the bikini she had been wearing at Justin’s three days before. “It’s very unattractive.”

“I wasn’t trying to attract anyone.” she said with a tone that cause Sean to look up from his cheeseburger that he had been quietly eating.

“Mommy, you’re being mean again.” he said looking at her.

“I’m just talking, sweetie. Finish eating so we can go.” she said giving her son a tender smile. Lance didn’t know what was taking over his being but he had a sudden urge to have her look at him that way.

“Can Lance come over?” Sean asked causing Lance to look at the kid wide-eyed.

“No.” Noemi said quickly.

“Why not?” Sean whined looking at Lance and then back at her with a pout. “He’s my friend.”

“Maybe some other time, Bud.” Lance said loosening his tie. He didn’t look directly at her but he did see her look at his hands as he loosened his tie and quickly catch herself before turning to look at Sean again.

“You promise?” Sean asked Lance.

“Sure.” He couldn’t really say yes because he was afraid Noemi would flip and he could already feel her eyes burning through his skin.

“Weren’t you leaving?” Noemi asked.

“Mommy!!” Sean said. “You sound mean again.”

“Why do you keep saying that? Mommy’s not mean.” she said rubbing his head playfully.

“Yes you are. You’re being mean to Lance.”

“It’s okay, Sean.” Lance said. “I’m going home anyway but it was really nice to see you….” Lance looked at her and said finished his words. “both.”

“Don’t go Lance.” Sean said pushing his plate away from him.

“Sean he has to go.” Noemi said sternly.

“How about if I stay until you finish your food?” Lance said to Sean but kept his eyes on the kid sitting next to him instead of looking up where he felt Noemi staring at him.

“Okay but I have to go to the bathroom first.” Sean said looking at his mother.

“Hurry up, Sean. Go.”

“I still don’t believe you answered my question about Kayla?”

“I wasn’t giving an answer to begin with.”

“What is your problem with me? You have acted hostile from the moment I walked into this place.”

“That’s easy. I don’t like you.” she said but still didn’t look at him.

“That was kind of harsh being that you don’t really know me. You’re still mad about our date?”

“What date? We didn’t have a date. We both know that it was a night we both sacrificed for Juan and Kayla. And look at how that turned out. It was a complete waste of time for both Kayla and I.”

“I don’t know about Trace and Kayla but I don’t think it was a waste of time on my part.” Lance said. “I really am sorry about the way I acted with you that night but I was just dishing back what you had given me.” Lance said as she rolled her eyes dramatically.

“So we’re even.” Noemi said cleaning up ketchup from the tabletop. Anything to keep from looking at him. “Now you can leave.”

“Don’t you want to know why I don’t think our date was a waste of time?”

“Not really, no.”

“I’ll tell you anyway. It wasn’t a waste of time because it sparked my curiosity.”

“About what?” she asked annoyed.

“About you.” he simply stated getting up from his seat and Noemi jumped a bit at the sudden move. “I’m going to go before he comes back. Think about what I said though.”

“About what?”

“My curiosity.”

“Curiosity killed the cat.” she said looking up at him  and he was able to look her directly in the eyes.

“I’m willing to risk my life. If you are.” he said before looking into her eyes one more time and walking out of the door.
-----------------------------

She walked around her apartment holding the phone up to her ear listening to the person on the other end. She was cranky and tired from being at the gym all day and at the moment she didn’t want to hear about what her parents would say if they were alive. Fact was, that they weren’t and she knew she was wrong to blame them for her dilemma but she wasn’t going to blame herself because that was just too easy.

“Yes, I know that the diner is a complete mess right now, Uncle Tommy.” she said before rolling her eyes at whatever he said.

She had been having this conversation for over half an hour and she was starting to get snappy. And when she got snappy he never failed to mention her parents. Her parents, who left her with a huge responsibility that she wasn’t sure she wanted.

At seventeen she was basically left to care for herself. She had done so and now people like her uncle were insinuating that she was irresponsible. She didn’t take very well to being called irresponsible because the statement couldn’t be farther from the truth. She had been responsible forcefully as a high school student. A child. It hadn’t been her fault that her parents went on vacation and never came back. She had to grow up quickly and now for the first time in almost ten years she wanted to be carefree and live her life. She wanted to enjoy the things she had worked hard to get. She wanted to purchase something just to purchase something once in a while. The fact that she still hadn’t used even a quarter of  the fortune her parents had left her should speak for itself.

She hadn’t gone out and spent her  inheritance like any other seventeen year old would have. Not a lot of seventeen year olds get handed a twenty five million dollar check at their parent’s will reading. She had lived with her uncle and cousin, she had finished her last year of high school, she had worked to pay for her own dance classes and she had moved to Florida all on her own. When was she going to get a chance to enjoy life? When was she going to get a break from responsibilities?
At the present time she did deserve getting an ear full of her uncle because she had picked up and left without warning.  She didn’t want to be in California. California was a constant reminder of her parents. It was a constant reminder that she had responsibilities. It was a reminder that she had let her guard down.
It was a reminder of how stupid she had been to believe that someone like him would take her seriously. It had been her own fault anyway. And she honestly didn’t blame him for her stupidity. She wasn’t going to let him know that. That is if she ever saw him again. It had been almost two weeks since she last saw him after the cookout in California and eight days since had tried to call him but had gotten his voicemail. She had just written it off as his loss but she did hurt a bit.
The fact that she had let him in so quickly and had allowed herself to like him was haunting her. The fact was that in the end she was the one that had shed a few tears when she realized that it was over before it had even begun. She still thought that he had been a coward. If he hadn’t wanted to see her anymore all he had to do was tell her because God knew that was what she would have done. Bitch or not she had done it before and it just sucked that she had been the one on the other end.

She had come home and hadn’t answered her uncle’s calls. After starting to get annoyed she had answered the phone. That had been an hour ago.

“Yes, I am positive. Just stop everything right now until I can come up with something.” she said trying to get her words in before he started yapping again.  “I really don’t know what I’m going to do with the restaurant right now. I need time to think about what I’m going to do.”

She waited for him to speak but when he didn’t she decided that she needed to end the conversation before he started again. “I will call you some time next week. I’m sorry Uncle Tommy I have to go.”

After hearing him say something about her parent’s wishes again she hung up the phone without another word. “Arghhh!!!”

“Thank God!!” she said looking over at her friend who had spoken.

“Tell me about it. Hispanic men are impossible.” she chuckled. At the mention of Hispanic men her mind went to Juan and she cursed herself for doing that.

“Are you going to go get changed or are you going to dance in a towel?” he said.

“I don’t know why you are making me do this. You know what they always say.” she put a fake smile on her face. “You are a wonderful dancer but you aren’t what we are looking for.”

“That’s not true. They don’t all say that. You have make it through to the end.”

“Yeah but right when the artist comes in to see us rehearse they notice how short I am compared to the other girls and cut me.”

“You can’t do anything about your height.” he said with a laugh. “But you can get the job done and if you stop going to these tryouts you‘ll never get that big break and become a famous dancer.”

“You know I don’t want to be famous. I just want to dance professionally. I’m tired of showing people how to dance all the time. I want to be free and dance without having to repeat the step a million times until they get it.” she said frustrated.

“That job pays the bills, Kay.”

“My bills are paid for, Shane. About a millions times over so you know it’s not about money.”

“Okay so it pays my expenses.” he laughed.

“Yeah because having you around is an expense alright.” she laughed.

“Will you go change so that we can go?” he said turning the channel on the TV.

“Yeah, yeah.” she said heading to her bedroom.

“You’ll make it. I hear Marty Kudelka choreographed this try out.” Shane said a few minutes later when Kayla walked back into the living room.

“Really?” she rolled her eyes. “That bastard, I teach him how to move and he can’t even call the little people when he makes it to Hollywood.”

“You really shouldn’t talk about yourself that way, Kay. You’re five four, you aren’t that little.” he laughed.

“Whatever, ‘Mr. I’m tall, dark and handsome and women throw themselves at me when I dance‘ Let’ go.”

“I can’t help that I’m tall and sexy.” he said following her to the door and closing it behind him.

“I didn’t say sexy.” she laughed.

“Ohh but you thought it. Same thing.” he said putting his arm around her lovingly as they stepped into the elevator that would take them seventeen floors down.

“You know you’re a sexy hunk of a man.  I don‘t have to say it.” she said rubbing his chest teasingly.

“Girl, you better stop before I have to rip your clothes off right here in the elevator.” he said in his sexiest voice. “Now let’s show Marty a thing or two about real dancing.”
 
-----------------------------------------

“What am I supposed to be looking for again?” Trace asked for the fourth time.

He had been in Justin’s office for almost an hour. They had been in the studio all day working with Jenn and now they were searching through boxes of magazines that Justin had in boxes.

Justin and Trace had gotten into the topic of Noemi looking familiar because Trace had been telling Justin about his situation with Kayla or lack there of.

He hadn’t tried calling her and as far as he knew she was back to Florida because Lance had called him the week before and told him that he’d seen Sean and he said that Kayla had gone home.

When Trace had mentioned Noemi to Justin he got up from his seat and had told Trace to follow him into his office. Trace tried to tell him that he just remembered her from the diner but Justin was stubborn and he insisted that he’d seen her somewhere else. Justin had said that he could of sworn that he’d seen her on the cover of a magazine and that he knew he had copy of it. That had led them to digging into Justin’s closets and taking out about fifteen boxes he had.

Trace had gone through three boxes and he still didn’t find what he was supposed to have found. The task was hard to do because Justin had hundreds of magazines ranging from Penthouse and Hustler to Playboy. Trace really couldn’t understand why he still had all the magazines. Juliana wasn’t going anywhere and as long as she was around the ‘dirty magazines‘, is what she called them as supposed to Justin’s ‘grown men magazines’ wouldn’t leave the boxes. It was pointless to keep them in boxes if he never looked at them since he had a wife that looked like Juls.

“I know I’ve seen her and I’m not going to stop looking until I find it.” Justin said putting the lid on the box he had just gone through.

“Why are you so interested? If Juls knew…”

“If Juls knew what?” Juliana said coming into the room. She wore her white bikini bottoms and a bathrobe that wasn’t tied exposing her neck to her belly button as she walked into the room.

“You want to put some clothes on.” Justin simply stated as he picked up the next box.  Things hadn’t exactly been merry in the Timberlake home and she was working on his last nerve purposely.

“Why? I’m at home and I‘m hot from the tanning bed.” she said sitting down on the couch next to Trace who hadn’t even looked up at her.

“I’m not the only man in the house, Juliana.” Justin said sternly as he looked through the magazines.

“Oh please, Trace has seen me half naked before, he doesn’t care.” she said grabbing one of the magazines Trace was setting next to her bare feet as was finished looking at them.

“I’ve seen you half dressed, Juls. There’s a difference when I’m trying to get measurements with you in your underwear and you being half naked.”

“Oh shut up.” she said flipping through the magazine. “What are you guys doing? Having an orgy?”

“Ha.” Trace said sarcastically as he opened another magazine and flipped through it.

“I’m looking for something.” Justin said looking up to see that she still hadn’t closed the robe. “Will you close up you robe at least, if you are staying in here?”

“Relax.” she said getting up and purposely flashing him before tying the string around her waist. “What are you looking for in porn magazines? I thought I asked you to get rid of these.”

“You asked and my answer was no.” Justin said picking up the stack he had made and placing them back in the box.

“That answer seems to be going around a lot.” Juliana threw the magazine on the pile next to her feet. “Can I help?”

“Where’s Andie?” Justin asked grabbing another box.

“She went somewhere with Lance.” Juliana said grabbing a box. “What am looking for?” Juliana asked as she was opening the box she had set in front of her. “Oh my God!!” she said causing Justin and Trace to look at her.

“What?” Trace and Justin said at the same time.

“I knew she looked familiar.” Juliana said grabbing the first magazine out of the box. She held it up for the men to see. “Is this what you’re looking for?”

“I told you.” Justin said to Trace going around his desk and grabbing the magazine from Juls. “I KNEW IT!!”