"I was going to get a glass of water. The weed and the alcohol have me dying of thirst right now."

"There's bottled water in that tiny fridge over there." Justin pointed out with one eye almost half open.

Kerri inched her way over to the small fridge and grabbed a bottle of water. She slowly walked back over to the bed taking small sips and trying to think of another excuse to retreat from the bedroom. But it was no use. She laid back down, sheet and all, and tried to fall back to sleep. His arm crept its way around her waist and when he felt the sheet, he quickly pushed it out of his way so he could touch her.

She could feel Justin's breath on the back of her neck as he drifted back off to sleep. Her mind was racing a million miles a minute as she replayed the events of the night before through her mind. How could they both let his happen? Not just once, but twice! They were supposed to be friends.

Kerri was exhausted…Exhausted from thinking and re-thinking about what she was going to do or say to him when the sun came up. She eventually decided to take Justin's advice and cross the bridge of consequences in the morning. She scooted back a few inches until her body was up against Justin’s chest. A smile glimmered across her face, when she felt his lips brush across the back of her neck and his embrace tightened around her.

At around 10am Kerri opened her eyes slightly and discovered her head draped across Justin's chest. She could hear the repetitive beating of his heart and could feel the warmth of his hand on her naked back. She could hear the TV and turned her head slightly to see what was on. Justin's hand lightly rubbed her back and it was then when she realized that he was awake. "Sleep well?" he asked.

Kerri pulled at the sheet and lifted herself off Justin's chest to cover her exposed body. "Yeah. I think I forgot where I was for a minute there."

Justin watched her as she looked around the room holding the sheet tight against her chest. "What are you looking for?"

"My clothes." She laughed nervously.

"They're still in the kitchen," he smiled, thinking about the night before.

"How many times did we..."

"You don't remember?"

"I remember being in the kitchen with you and then here in your bed, but I-"

"You don't remember about the balcony?"

Kerri shot her head back at him, "The balcony?"

Justin just laughed, "I'm kidding. It was only those two times." He lifted his hand up to touch the side of her neck, "I'm sorry about that."

Kerri didn't know what he was talking about. She lifted her hand towards her neck and could feel the slight sting of pain. She grabbed the sheet and got up from the bed, heading over to the mirror to investigate. She noticed a large circular mark on her neck. It was almost red and she could see where some of the blood vessels had burst. "I got a little carried away last night." He confessed.

Kerri pressed down on the area and moved her hand away when the pain resurfaced. She could see Justin getting up from the bed and heading towards her--Still naked. She could feel herself staring down, taking in every inch of him as he drew closer to her. He walked up beside her and Kerri bolted out of the way. He could tell she was uneasy. He bent down and opened his dresser drawer to grab a pair of boxers and slid them onto his body. He then leaned down again and grabbed another pair along with a t-shirt and walked over to Kerri who was now standing near the corner of the room.

"You can put these on." Justin placed the clothes into her outstretched arms and lifted his hands towards Kerri's neck, fixing her necklace in place. She noticed what appeared to be faint traces of teeth marks as well as long red lines, like those of fingernails, running down length of his chest. She dropped the clothes onto a nearby chair and traced her index finger over one of the lines. "I'm sorry about this."

Justin looked down and noticed the marks and smiled. "I guess I wasn't the only one who got carried away," he leaned over and kissed her gently on the lips.

In mid-kiss Kerri put her hand on his chest and lightly pushed him back, "We need to talk before this goes any further."

"Okay.” He smiled as he ran his fingers across hers, still planted on his chest. “But talk to me while I get ready. Cause I have to be downtown by 11:30." he said, making his way to the bathroom.

Kerri picked up the sheet, so as not to trip and fall over it and followed him. She stopped in the doorway. "Last night was...For lack of a better term...Different."

Justin chuckled to himself as he put the toothpaste on his toothbrush. Kerri leaned up against the door and continued to talk, "I don't know why we did what we did, but I just don't want to start something with you that neither of us is ready for..."

With his mouth foamy from the toothpaste he spit and looked towards her and said, "I just got out of a relationship. And I know you did too.” He walked over to her and could see her tense up as he got closer. “I'm definitely not trying to jump back into another one right now either, Kerri. You have nothing to worry about." He kissed her cheek lightly, getting a few dabbles of Colgate on her face.

Although the weight had been lifted from her shoulders, part of her was agitated by his nonchalant attitude towards their night together. "So what do we do about last night? You want to just start all over and pretend it never happened?" she suggested.

Justin finished rinsing out his mouth and lightly toweled it dry. He turned around and leaned his hands back against the counter, looking over at her as he asked, "Is that what you wanna do?"

Kerri could almost sense disappointment in his eyes. The steam from the running shower was making the room foggy and causing beads of water to form on their bodies. Kerri’s eyes kept following this one bead in particular that was slowing making its way down his neck and in between his pecks, darting from left to right down his abs, before disappearing into the waistband of his boxers. Justin got up and inched his way over to her and placed his hands on the sides of her hips and said, "I don't wanna pretend it didn't happen. Cause frankly, I enjoyed every inch of you."

Kerri turned her head away and smiled, her face beet red. "Yeah. It was pretty nice.”

"Just nice?" Justin's lips trailed up her neck to her ear. "You’re so full of shit right now. But that’s okay.” He let his tongue flick against her lobe. “I’ll just have to give you another taste to try and change your mind."

Kerri's eyes rolled into the back of her head as his tongue trailed along the outline of her ear. He hands delicately slid up the front of his chest. She hooked her arms under his and let her fingertips glide up the curves of his back. "Oh, you want to be friends with benefits, huh?"

"You shouldn't even have to ask." he whispered as his tongue glided down the middle of her neck.

She tried to debate the pros and cons in her head as he continued to tease her with his tongue. What’s the worst that could happen? They could end up having an even better time with one another? No strings. No commitments. She was young and wanted to have fun for once and Justin…Justin was this tall, strong, virile man who just made her body want to take up permanent residency underneath his. Kerri's hands disappeared inside the lining of his boxers as she grabbed onto his butt, "I just want to be clear on what we both want here, Justin."

His breath caught in his throat when her nails dug into the cheeks of his ass. He bit down on her neck gently as he attempted to unravel her from the bed-sheet, "Yes. That's exactly what I want right now, girl."

"Good." Kerri grinned mischievously. She pushed down his boxers until they were by his ankles. Justin freed her body from the sheet, letting it fall to floor as he stepped out of his shorts. He wrapped his hands around her bare waist, her skin hot beneath his fingers, and drew her closer, pressing her against him, and himself against her. A familiar scent hit him and it took him an instant to recognize it---Arousal. His eyes drifted shut when he felt her take his bottom lip into her mouth, sucking it gently. Kerri could hear a single beep from the clock in the bedroom. It was now 10:30 and she knew if they continued, Justin would be late for his appointment. She smiled against his mouth, "Maybe we should continue this later on when you get back."

Justin looked out into the bedroom at his clock. He took her hand and pulled her into the shower with him and grabbed the phone that was installed on the wall. Kerri didn't know who he was calling at a time like this. As it was ringing, Justin let his tongue dance with hers as the water beat against their naked bodies. "Yeah, it's Justin." He said between kisses. "I'm gonna be running a little late."

Kerri smirked and pushed him up against the shower wall, letting her tongue follow the streams of water that were running down his body. "...About 10 min-" Justin drew in a gasp when he felt her mouth encircle his cock. "Shit...Better make it 30 minutes." he breathed deeply, running his fingers through her wet hair.

~~~~~~~~

“Good afternoon, everyone!” Kerri gleamed.

She stepped into the production booth with a carrier full of Starbuck’s and started to hand them out to Serena and the rest of the crew.

“Good morning.  Why are we so happy today?” she asked as she handed Kerri the schedule for the show.

As much as she tried, Kerri just couldn’t wipe the silly grin off her face. “No reason.” She said before heading out into the other room to get ready.

Kerri ripped the tag off the scarf she had just bought on her way to work to cover up the mark Justin had left on her neck and adjusted it once more. She could feel Serena’s eyes on her and knew that it would only be a matter of minutes before she read right through her. Kerri tried averting her attention away from Serena to the board, adjusting the audio levels in her headset. 

“You look well rested. You’re glowing this morning, beautiful.” Todd smiled as he rounded the table to get to his seat.

“Thank you.”

Kerri wasn’t well rested at all. She was well fucked, though. Memories from earlier rushed through her brain like the water from the shower head had rushed over their faces as they kissed each other passionately. And there it was. That silly grin that she had tried so hard to suppress moments earlier was back rearing its ugly head again. “You didn’t!” a voice rang out through the speakers in the room.

Kerri looked up and could see Serena standing there with her jaw half open, gawking at her friend in disbelief. “I don’t know what you mean.” Kerri acted aloof.

“You know exactly what I'm talking about! Are you serious? Last night?”

Kerri couldn’t shake the smile off her face and just shook her head. “What do you mean?”

“Just wait till this show is over, Kerri Roberts!” Serena scolded, trying her best to act upset.

During the drive home Serena grilled Kerri about the night before. “Are you going to be satisfied with it being this way?”

It was an honest question. Kerri hadn’t even had much time to process everything herself. But for once in her life she felt it was okay to be irresponsible and spontaneous every now and again. She was only human. She couldn’t be perfect all the time. In the time she spent with Justin, she finally understood that she was allowed to have fun and be free and make a few harmless mistakes just like anyone else out there. He’d given her that outlet to be spontaneous and not think so much. She was tired of worrying all the time. She’d lost sight of that so long ago…Especially after David.

David was the ex-boyfriend who'd broken Kerri's heart.  The same David who had taken the Polaroid’s of her.  The same one who would smugly waved at her each morning when she was back working at 93.3.

They'd both come from completely different worlds. David's family was pretty well off and lived in Houston, Texas. He'd temporarily given up the good life to venture out on his own to discovery who he really was and if he could survive among the masses. He was a senior enrolled at UCLA and had bumped into Kerri one morning while looking at the job board. To everyone, including them, it seemed like love at first sight. Four years of bliss.

They carried on like a married couple; Making decisions together on what to eat, what to wear, how much to spend.  After graduation, David had gotten a job at 93.3 and had also gotten Kerri her own show, which he helped manage. It was so much responsibility and commitment for two people so young.  They even invested in property together in hopes that one day they could call it their own.

David's parents would constantly try and sway them from getting too serious too fast. They had their entire lives ahead of them. But for Kerri, David was her entire life, as was she for him. So what went wrong?

It all started after their four-year anniversary. Since they were practically with each other 24 hours a day anyway, Kerri and David talked about officially moving in together. Kerri rushed around looking at furniture to put in their new home, matching coffee cups, robes, etc.  David was busy flying back and forth from California to Texas because his uncle was very ill with Cancer. He died weeks later. It left David shattered.  They had been closer than he'd ever been with his own father. His uncle was only 45 at the time.

Kerri tried to be there for him as much as she could. But after discovering life was too short, David was flying back home almost every other weekend to be with his family and mend their relationship.

One weekend Kerri scrounged up enough money to get a plane ticket out to Houston to surprise David. The family had gone out for lunch and the maid let her in, like she had so many times in the past. Kerri headed to David's wing of the house to put down her things and wait for him to return home, but found herself surprised to hear David's voice coming from the bedroom. She walked up to the door and went to open it, but heard a female voice cooing. At quick glance she could see her boyfriend and this stranger lying in bed next to one another in a loving embrace--Fingers entwined together and sweet nothings being spewed from their lips. It permeated the air like toxic waste to Kerri.

She didn't even want to give him the satisfaction of knowing he'd made a fool out of her, but the fury inside took over. She walked into the room slowly and stood at the foot of the bed. Neither of them noticed her presence until she cleared her throat right before David and his female companion were about to make love once more. Upon speaking to the naked female, Kerri discovered that David and Teresa-that was the bitches name-had been dating for quite a few months now. Apparently she'd also been there for him when he really needed her too.

Kerri didn't make a scene. She left Houston quickly and quietly. David traveled back to California trying to make amends for what had happened but the damage had already been done. It was over after that. Kerri was too heartbroken to fight over the property that had just been signed over to them after 2 years of what seemed like endless payments. She simply signed it over to David in hopes of severing all ties with him completely. But it was harder to get away from him at work. He was in fact her boss, so she had to answer to him every day. She never raised her voice or argued with him in front of people at work. Besides Serena, no one had any idea what a sleazebag he was. She was too afraid that if she did finally just let herself be human for a minute, she would explode and she and her crew members would be out of a job.

“When I think of everything that I’ve been through, I'd have to say yes…I’m satisfied with our agreement, Serena.”

Kerri shook the thoughts of the past out of her head and looked towards her friend in the passenger seat and smiled. “So tell me what happened last night with you and Trace?”

Serena shot her a look and asked, “Are you sure you want to hear about me, Trace, and my Kmart sheets?”

Kerri couldn’t help but double over with laughter as the two friends waited for the light to turn green.