Serena stood at the mirror making sure that every strand of hair was in its place. She took a deep breath and slowly walked to the front door. As she pulled it open a glazed look formed over her face.

"Hi. Serena, right? I remember you from the club." Justin watched her standing completely still, never once blinking. "You okay?"

Kerri came up behind her roommate and smacked her hard on the back, "I can't take her anywhere."

Serena turned and rolled her eyes before looking back at Justin and saying hello. He put his hand out to shake hers and was startled when she pulled him inside to hug him tightly. Kerri just chuckled to herself and walked into the living room, leaving Justin helpless with her best friend.

"Your apartment's nice." He said as he looked around on his way over to the couch.

"Well it's not as big as Mansion de Timberlake, but it serves its purpose."

Justin lightly tugged her ponytail  as he rounded the corner to sit down next to her. Kerri was flipping through stations and called out to Serena to check on the chicken she had started baking earlier. Serena called over to Justin and asked, "What are you in the mood for? My breasts--I mean a breast?"

Kerri lightly elbowed Justin who was trying not to laugh, "Yeah. A breast would be very good right about now." He smiled.

Serena turned around and shook her head in embarrassment and made him a plate. The three of them spent most of the early afternoon watching a movie and competing at Playstation, before Serena had to head out to the station to catch up on work.

Once she was gone, Justin and Kerri made their way out to the balcony. He sat atop the hard, concrete ledge while she leaned over beside him. They talked briefly before being interrupted by her neighbor, who came out to water her plants and discovered the singer, just a few feet away.

"...Nah, he gets that all the time. I don't think they look anything alike. Justin's much cuter than him...Not to mention sexier." She laughed.

Her neighbor lingered outside, pretending to check on her plants as she tried to get a better look at him.  Seeing they no longer had privacy to talk anymore, Kerri decided it was time to go back in and motioned for Justin to follow her.

"Damn, I see how it is." He scoffed.

"See how what is?" Kerri asked as she bent down in the fridge to grab them a couple of beers.

"How you gonna say that this face isn't cute or this body isn't sexy." He stood in the middle of the living room pointing to himself.

Kerri rolled her eyes at his immodesty. She didn’t want him to harp on it all afternoon and said, “Ok. Calm down, Geronimo. I was just saying you were ugly to get her to leave us alone. She has a huge mouth and I don't want all my neighbors bugging me."

He gave her a cocky grin as he inched his way towards her. "And my sex appeal?"

Kerri handed him a beer. "Well I'm sure that a lot of girls might fall for that whole thing you do when you do that thing with your eyes and push together your bottom lip with your thumb and index finger, but I'm a woman...I need more than that."

"It must have some affect for you to have been observant enough to know it as well as you do." He smirked.

"No. You just do it all the time!" She complained.

She secretly thought it was cute, but wasn’t going to admit it. She, instead, retreated to her bedroom to check her email. Justin followed behind her, throwing himself onto her bed. She focused her attention on the screen and began typing and he complained about how hard her bed was before rummaging through her cd collection to compare their taste in music. Kerri was too preoccupied with emails from work to see what Justin was doing.

"Oh-oh, here she comes...Watch out boy she'll chew you up...Oh-oh, here she comes. She's a man-eater." He sang excitedly as he put the cd into her stereo and pressed play.

Kerri found herself singing along with him as he played 20 seconds of each song on the CD. He went up behind her, singing and clapping in her ear, "Private Eyes. They’re watching you!" He clapped his hands close to her ear twice. "...They see your every move"

"Come on, man!" She shoved him away.

"What are you doing?" He asked leaning over her shoulder to look at the screen.

His cologne smelled really nice mixed in with whatever soap he had used that morning. Kerri pushed the thought from her mind. "I have to write my boss back about an interview I did with someone. But I'm here writing what you are singing instead of what I need him to know!"

He laid down on the bed and patiently waited for her to finish. "You never asked me what I needed to talk to you about."

Kerri kept her eyes focused on the screen as she continued to type, "I figured that if it was as important as you made it seem, you'd tell me when you were ready." She finished up the last sentence and hit send before pushing in the keyboard drawer and crawling onto the floor to put back the cd's Justin had taken out.

"Well, here's the thing." He sat up and threw a pillow at Kerri to get her full attention. "Remember how you keep saying that you'd quit if you knew you and your crew had somewhere else to go?

"Yeah?"

"Well, I was bragging about you to people over at 104.7 and a lot of them know your show. They wanted to set up an interview if you were interested?

Kerri narrowed her eyes towards him, hoping that he wasn’t just joking around with her. "Are you bullshitting me?”

"I swear.”

Kerri didn't know what to say. She was completely shocked. "It sounds incredible, Justin. A little too incredible. What's the catch?"

"No catch. They just want to make sure you're a free agent when you come in to interview. They don’t want to have to battle another station for you."

"I knew there was something! I can't, Justin...I can’t just walk into the station and quit and not have something concrete lined up. I have other people besides myself to worry about. What if they don’t like me and I end up not getting the job? I’ll have majorly fucked myself and everyone else.”

“They'll love you! You gotta start focusing on you for a change, Kerri. Stop worrying about everyone else so much. You can’t be happy going in there every day, dealing with your ex. I’m sure that if things don’t work out with this interview…Which I know they will…Everyone will be able to find something else.”

Kerri sat there, elbows rested on her knees as she ran her fingers through her hair trying to absorb what she was really thinking about doing. “I have to at least talk to everyone about it first. I don’t want to just spring it up on them at the last minute.”

“If I’m wrong, then I'll slide you a few dollars till you find something else.”

"You most certainly will not!" she scolded, throwing the pillow back at him.

"Kerri, I know you're ready to move on to the next level. But to do that you gotta take the chance and just go for it."

"It's easier said than done, Justin."

Kerri wished she was blessed with his 'go for it' attitude. Justin's dreams had already come true and she felt his view of her situation was unrealistic. He didn't have to put himself out there anymore. He'd already done that years ago. He also had his mother and family backing him up and supporting him each step of the way. Kerri only had herself. She and Serena were barely surviving. If she were to quit her job and not have anything stable set up when she left, she'd not only be putting herself at risk, but her best friend as well.

"You're afraid. I get it, but fear is nothing compared to the feeling you'll have if you don't take a chance, Kerri.

Kerri had been wanting to move on for a while. It was a small radio station and they didn’t really have the resources to take her where she wanted to be in her career. When she and Serena had gotten the call from Mr. Winter's office down in Memphis about possibly having her show syndicated, she knew that if that were to happen, she could branch off with no worries whatsoever about herself or her crew. But her bosses were hell bent on holding onto her. It was one of their most popular shows during the day and if they lost her, they would lose listeners and money.

Before leaving to head home, Justin told her to really think about it before she gave him a definite answer.

The next afternoon at work, Kerri had gotten her crew together to discuss the situation. Everyone seemed to be in her corner, but it still didn’t make her feel any better about the decision she had to make.

Unable to concentrate, Kerri sat at the table most of the day, staring at the screen between commercials. Justin was right. She was afraid…Afraid of failing. She glanced around at her co-workers. She knew this wasn't where she wanted to be for the next year--continuously having to answer to her ex-boyfriend day in and day out.

Kerri wanted to be in charge of her own show. She wanted to be the one to negotiate her salary. She dreamed of being able to say, "take it, or leave it" to people who wanted to undercut her talents. She was tired of having to bend to other people’s wills because it was good for business. Kerri always had an ear for talent and an eye for detail and never once not given a hundred percent to her work.

In the short time that he knew her, Justin had hit it right on the mark. How could he know her so well, without barely knowing her at all? He’d done it again. He’d somehow swooped in a second time and unlocked another door inside of her, but this time she couldn’t shut it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BANG BANG BANG

"What the fuck?" Justin complained as he struggled to make his way down the stairs to answer the front door. He was half asleep and his vision was blurry. He opened the door and tried to focus in on the person in front of him. "Damn, Trace. You forget your key again?"

"Justin. It’s me...Kerri."

He wiped his eyes and squinted to see her face. He looked down at his watch, "Jesus, Kerri. Do you know it's 4am?"

She stood outside his front door looking down at his feet. "How serious were you about that interview. Because, I need to know if I have to go back to work tomorrow and grovel to get my job back."

He looked at her and could see she was scared to death. Her hands were trembling and her face was completely flushed of color. "I'm very serious." He put his arm out to her and motioned for her to come inside.