Justin smiled and mouthed thank you to the young man behind the counter who was nervously handing the NBA player his change and receipt.  The boy watched him as he walked out of the store, still shocked that he had just sold a pair of sneakers to his idol.

Trace continued to re-iterate to Justin that he wasn't buying the worried son in town to see about his father act, "Your dad doesn't even remember who the hell you are most of the time, so why da fuck you still there?" Trace didn't skip a beat before adding, "Actually, I know exactly why the fuck you're still there."

Justin quickly changed the subject. "You comin’ down for the reunion?"

"If I can get these designs prepped to send off before deadline.  I thought you weren't going to the reunion?"

"I'm not.  I'm about to head over to the hospital to check on my pops' test results and if everything’s cool, I’ll head out tomorrow night...Promised moms I'd spend time with her before I left town."

"You should stay and go to the reunion. I need a wingman. We've got a better chance of comin outta this thing unscathed if we stick together." Trace paused thinking to himself for a moment. "Plus, it might be good for you."

"Nah, I think you're right for once. I'm done this trip down memory lane."

"How is she?"  Trace asked, getting back on topic.

Looking down at a display case of one of the malls vendors, Justin sighed. "Fuckin gorgeous…I mean, you should've seen the look on her face when we bumped into each other. She bolted outta there so quick! And guess who the fuck she’s dating?" Without even giving Trace a chance to answer, Justin exclaimed, "Bobby fuckin Greene, man!"

Trace chuckled as he friend continued to update him on the events of what happened after his arrival back in Boone.  "...I'm pushing my luck wantin her to have coffee with me. Especially after last night. I'm sure she can't stand me now."

"Did she tell you no?" Trace asked.

"She said she'd think about it."

"Well it wasn't a no.  If she didn't give a shit, she wouldn't have stayed with you all night, Bro."

"I heard her crying this morning…Even if she says no to catching up, I want to at least make up for the fool I made outta myself last night."

"So come to the reunion and make up for it then! You ain't leaving anytime soon and you don't have shit else to do till you find out about your knee, JT."

"I'm leaving." Justin replied emphatically, more to convince himself than Trace.

"Bullshit!  No you're not." Trace snickered. "You ain't goin nowhere now that you've seen Cherish!"

Justin stood there silently thinking to himself when he heard Trace laugh on the other end of the line, "So I'll see you next Thursday, right?"

"Trace, I'm not staying. Two more days and I'm done with this town."

"Put your money where your mouth is, JT. I bet you a cool grand that your lovestoned ass will still be there when I get there next Thursday."

"That's an easy grand I'm willing to take from you, son!" Justin quipped.

"Alright…Bet." Trace said before telling Justin he had to head out to a meeting. "I'll see you next Thursday, homeboy!"

On his way back through town, Justin decided to grab some groceries before returning to his father's house to finish washing his soiled clothes and sheets from the night before. As he pulled into the parking lot, he spotted Cherish struggling to help Mrs. Sawyer down the road and carry grocery bags at the same time. He grabbed the black and white checked bag from the passenger seat and sprinted over to them, taking a bag from the old woman's arm. "Here, lemme help you with that, Mrs. Sawyer."

The old woman looked up at him and gasped, "Oh my, Lord! It's Justin!" before reaching up and kissing him on his cheek.

"Yeah, Mrs. Sawyer.” Cherish smiled, slightly irritated by the fact that she couldn't seem to shake him. “He seems to be popping up all over town."

Justin shot Cherish a look before grabbing the two remaining bags of groceries from her arms. Mrs. Sawyer had stopped to talk to a friend and Justin asked Cherish to peel the bag from his wrist so he wouldn't knock into it and fall.

"I see some things never changed."  Cherish smiled looking down at the striped Foot Locker bag in her hand.  "You still have a shoe addiction, I see."

"And that is where you'd be wrong."  he smiled.  "That's actually for you."

Cherish opened the bag and peered inside the shoe box.  Justin could see a smile slowly creep across her face as she noticed the black and pink Puma's staring back at her.  She looked up at him, "You didn't have to do that."

His ears turned slightly red as he thought back to the embarrassment of the night before. "Yes I did." 

"Well you might regret coming over to help us once we get back to the house."

"Why's that?” he asked.

"Oh how doth thou forget so quickly!" Cherish laughed. "Now that you're here, Mrs. Sawyer’s going to run you ragged with fifty items on her 'to-do' list."

"Shit." he mouthed silently to her.

Cherish nodded her head in agreement and smirked before turning around to help Mrs. Sawyer across the street.

When they reached the house, Justin helped unpack the groceries and as he pulled out a set of light bulbs, Mrs. Sawyer took the opportunity to ask him to replace the blown bulbs in the foyer. Cherish watched gleefully as Mrs. Sawyer bossed him around the house with chore after chore. She took it as her opportunity to duck out, telling them both she had to get going and for Mrs. Sawyer to call her if she needed her. "Take it easy on him, Mrs. Sawyer. He's not used to all this manual labor now that he's turned into a prissy ole city boy. He might mess up his manicure."

"Cherish, you are so bad!" Mrs. Sawyer laughed.

Justin shot her another evil look before fixing his face and smiling down at Mrs. Sawyer who was now handing him a hammer to hang a large picture frame on the wall.

Later on that afternoon after Justin had finally finished helping Mrs. Sawyer and running his own errands, he headed to the hospital to check on his father. He greeted Kathy as he walked past the counter, making his way to his dad's room, but as he went to open the door he could hear a familiar voice on the other side laughing.

"You like it so far.  I can tell!" the female voice exclaimed.

"This is getting good!  I can't wait to see what happens to him and Beck in the cave!"

Justin pushed the door open slowly and stepped further into the room, shocked to see Cherish curled up in a chair next to his father's bed, reading a book aloud.  His father’s eyes danced with excitement as he listened.  Cherish could feel another presence in the room and looked up from reading and spotted Justin next to the hanging curtain. "Hey."  he nodded towards her.

"Justin!" 

Justin's eyes quickly darted to his father who was smiling over at him, arms outstretched, anticipating a hug.  He was in a complete state of disbelief.  It was rare when he father recognized him at all, let alone at first glance.  "Hey pops!"  he smiled widely making his way over to his father to embrace him. "How are you?"

"This is my son, Justin."  his dad pointed out to Cherish, introducing the two of them as if they'd never met before.  Justin was about to correct his father, but Cherish sat up in her chair and outstretched her hand to his.  "It's nice to meet you."

"He plays basketball for the Boone Trailblazers! He's gonna make it big after he graduates."

Realizing his father believed it was still 1999 and he had no idea who Cherish was, Justin’s hopes were slightly dashed.

"Well that's wonderful, Randy." Cherish smiled. "If he's as talented as you say, I'm sure he's gonna go very far."

"This lovely young lady came in to read to me, JT."

"Yes.  Once a week we have a date.  Isn't that right?" Cherish asked, rubbing the side of his arm.

Randy looked confused. "Once a week?"

Cherish placed her hand over his and squeezed it gently, "Yep."

A nurse soon came in to take his vitals and check his bandages. Cherish and Justin moved out of her way and stood off to the side. "You read to him every week?" he leaned over and asked as he watched the nurse.

"Yeah.  He enjoys it." Cherish replied, also watching the nurse.

Justin looked towards her in disbelief, "I would think that after everything that happ-"

"It doesn't have anything to do with that." Cherish shook her head. "He doesn't have anyone else.  I do it so he has something to look forward to every week.  Even if he doesn't remember, there’s a small part of him that's familiar with our weekly visits."

After the nurse finished up she walked over and told Justin that the doctor would be in to update him shortly. Cherish took that as her cue and walked over, grabbing the book off the bed and stuffing it into her purse, "Well I'm going to let the two of you catch up.  I'll see you next week, Randy?"

"Yep!  I wanna know what happens in the cave!"

"Okay."

Justin watched her as she slipped on her sweater and grabbed her purse to leave. He told his father he'd be right back and called after Cherish in the hallway.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"No need to thank me.  I wasn't doing it for you." she said, before turning and walking away.

Justin just stood there watching her as she disappeared down the hall, wondering what she meant.

After speaking with the doctor at length, Justin found out his father’s tests were rescheduled for the next morning where they would finally determine if they could clear him to be released back into the nursing home. This would mess up his plan of spending the day with his mother and getting out of town as quickly as possible.

When he got back into Boone later on that evening he headed over to the bar in an attempt to buy Cherish that cup of coffee he had promised her the night before. He knew he wasn't going to be in town much longer and wanted to catch up. But more importantly, he needed answers to the millions of questions that were running through his mind.

As he walked into the pub, he noticed that it was pretty busy and there were only a handful of booths and tables free. He spotted Ann Marie behind the bar, "Oh no you don't, Justin!  I refuse to serve you today!  I'm already two shakes of a lamb's tail away from gettin' fired!" Her southern drawl getting thicker as she got angrier.

Justin chuckled, promising her that he wasn't there to drink. "Is Cherish around?"

"No." Jimmy yelled over as he poured drinks. "She called and said she needed to get some sleep before open mic at seven."

Justin nodded to Jimmy that he understood, trying to place his face. "Is that you Clayton?"

"Hell yeah man!"

"Jimmy muthafuckin Clayton?!" The two teammates briefly embraced looking at how old the other had gotten since high school.

"How you been?" Jimmy asked looking him over, "How's your knee?"

Justin caught up briefly with his old friend and told Anne Marie he would be back later. As he was walking up the driveway to his dad's house he spotted a police car creeping slowly up the street past him...The cop inside starring at him.

"JT?"

Justin bent down and looked at the man.

"It's Ryan!"

"Hey man!  What's up?"  Justin smiled.

"Nothin man!  I can't believe you're in town!  You here for the reunion?"

"Nah.  My pops is in the hospital.  I'm just here checking on him."

"Sorry to hear that.  Is it serious?"

"He fell and hit his head. They're running tests now."

"Well come on!  Let's catch up!" Ryan persuaded.

Justin apprehensively slid into the front seat of the patrol car and they headed off through town talking and catching up. Ryan, Justin, Trace, and Bobby used to be best friends when they were little. But once they hit high school everything changed. Bobby and Ryan started hanging out with a different crowd and the four of them just grew apart.

"You see your girl yet?" Ryan asked as they turned the corner towards the high school.

"She's not my girl anymore."  Justin muttered, averting his attention out the window.

"She owns the bar now." Ryan said.

"Yeah I heard.  What's up with that?"

“Darla left it to her in her will after she died…Left everything to Cherish. They'd gotten close over the years. Cherish started working there a couple months after we graduated. She was like the daughter Darla never had."

Justin was about to ask another question when he looked towards Ryan and noticed he'd pulled a joint out of the sun visor and lit it.

"Are you shittin me?!" Justin looked around to see if anyone else noticed the police officer smoking a joint as they drove down the residential street. Ryan had always been a bit of a degenerate, so Justin found it strange that he was even a cop, but after watching him blow smoke circles into the air, Justin quickly realized that some things don't change after all. When the initial shock wore down, Justin asked, "What's up with her and your boy Bobby?"

"Oh man..." Ryan sighed letting his head fall back against the headrest as he looked up at the roof of the car. "We don’t talk that much anymore, but you know Bobby's been obsessed with her since high school.  They hooked up a couple years ago.”

Ryan could see the concern on Justin’s face and reached over, offering him some of the joint, “I don't think she's too into him though…just doesn't have that same look in her eyes that she did when the two of you were together.  But I guess there aren't that many guys to choose from around here."

"Speaking of which...You married?" Justin asked, trying to get off the topic of Cherish and Bobby altogether.

"Yep! Me and Kathy Miller…Been married six years next month." Ryan smiled.

"Congratulations! I just saw her earlier at the hospital."

Ryan slowed down the car and stopped in front of Cherish's childhood home.  Justin took notice of the "For Sale" sign on the perfectly manicured lawn. "Didn't think we would come here, did you?" Ryan asked.

"Ummm...I figured we would pass it, since this is the street. Are they moving?"

"Mr. Cummings decided to downsize since it's just him in the house now. He wants to go sailing on his boat or some shit rich people do. I hope you haven't turned into one of those types of rich people, JT."

The two old friends laughed and continued down the street. Ryan handed Justin the joint to hide as they came across some kids on skateboards riding in the middle of the road. He yelled out for them to move out of the middle of the street, but they were shrugged him off. Justin grabbed the handheld mic of the police radio and had Ryan change the setting. "This is the police." The intercom on the patrol car boomed. "Get out the middle of the GOT DAMN street before we run your punk asses over!" he yelled.

"Yeah! You fuckin punks!" Ryan shouted, pressing down on the gas, the patrol car accelerating towards the teenagers and scaring the hell out of them. The two laughed themselves almost to tears.

"How long you staying?" Ryan asked, taking a long puff from what remained of the joint.

"Just another day.  I'll probably leave Friday morning."

"Awww damn! Why don't you stay through the weekend? Since you're gonna miss the reunion and all. I was gonna invite you over to the house.  A bunch of us get together once a month on Friday's and play cards, drink, and shit."

Ryan could see hesitation in Justin’s face. "Cherish'll probably stop through. We always order a keg from her since the party goes through the night."

"I might…We'll see."

On their way back towards his dad's, Justin noticed Cherish's truck around the side of the pub and asked Ryan to drop him off there. The parking lot was overrun with cars and when he walked in he noticed that all the tables were now full. He could see Cherish behind the bar with Anne Marie and two other employees, frantically preparing drinks, taking orders, and ringing up sales on the registers. Anne Marie spotted him and yelled out. "What'll you have, JT!?"

Cherish looked up at him and shook her head as she poured a customer’s beer from the tap. He just won’t give up, she thought to herself.

"Just a beer!" he called out to her. "And a burger and fries to go when you get a chance. Thanks!"

After getting his beer from Anne Marie, Justin inched his way over to a free spot against a large wooden column near the kitchen, where he was waiting for his order. He watched and listened as people spouted off poetry and sang during open mic. Through the corner of his eye, he watched Cherish at the bar talking to two semi-well dressed gentlemen who had just walked in. They seemed out of place in Boone and Justin's curiosity was peaked. Cherish walked the two men over to a reserved booth and servers quickly brought over drinks. She had a brief conversation when them and then headed over to where Justin was standing, finding a spot on the opposite side of the column to lean against as she looked towards the stage.

"Who are the suits?" Justin asked.

"Talent scouts from a studio I used to temp at in Memphis. They come in every few weeks. They're back to check out the guy on stage." she replied. "He’s one of the kids from the high school. He's really talented, but can't seem to catch a break. I told him I'd see what I could do for him, since he heard stories of how my ex made it as far as the NBA!" she said sarcastically "I guess he thinks I'm some sort of miracle worker for lost causes."

Justin averted his attention back to the stage, never responding to her snide remark. The teenager on stage nervously clung his guitar to his chest as he talked about the song he was about to sing. As he started to play, Justin watched as Cherish hurried over to one of the tables to help Jimmy serve their food.

How do I ask her to come back to me

After I've told her goodbye

How do I love her so desperately

When for so long I’ve pushed her aside

How do I walk back into her life

When I’m the one who walked out on her's

How do I ask her

To see me again

I told her that I wasn’t sure

That we could be friends

When Cherish went to resume her spot against the column she noticed another man standing there. Justin moved back slightly to make room for her and she reluctantly stood in front him. She soon got lost in the music and Justin watched her intently as she swayed her head to the beat, listening to the boy sing. He slowly inched his way forward, trying to be as close to her as he could. She barely noticed him until she leaned back slightly and could feel his chest up against her back and his breath on the back of her neck.

God can you whisper in her ear

Anywhere on the way to her car

Before the wind blows too far

Away from my heart

Can you whisper in her ear

Anytime while she’s lying on her bed

Can you tell her everything that I’ve said

Everything that I’ve said

Cherish closed her eyes, allowing herself to be close to him, leaning her head back slightly against his right shoulder. Justin pressed his luck and leaned down telling her the kid was good while inhaling her scent. She nodded, shifting uncomfortably, but still allowing their closeness. She let her left arm fall to her side and tapped her hand against the her leg to the beat. Justin could see her hand dangling there and tried to suppress the urge to entwine it with his own. He leaned down and told her about bumping into Ryan, the stoner cop. They both quietly chuckled feeling the warmth and vibrations of laughter coming from the others body. He pressed his luck once more and inched his left hand forward and slowly ran his finger down her open palm, before pressing his hand against hers. A surge of warmth ran through her body at his touch and just for a moment she welcomed the contact.

How do I try and explain everything

When nothing I say seems to fit

How do I get her to pick up the phone

Baby how did we ever get like this

Tell me what kind of man

Lets love slip away

And leaves such a good thing behind

I’m holding my hands pressed

Praying to find

A way to fill in this hole

That I have inside

And in a blink of an eye the moment was over. An employee came and told Cherish she had a phone call, prompting her to quickly move away from him and up the stairs to her office to take the call. Anne Marie also called out to him about his take out order being ready. Justin sighed deeply, letting his head fall back in frustration over the interruptions. He walked over and grabbed the bag of food, tossing $40 down on the counter and waving to Anne Marie on his way out the door. As he walked around the corner, he suddenly stopped and argued with himself about whether or not he should go back inside.

God can you whisper in her ear

Anywhere on the way to her car

Before the wind blows her too far

Away from my heart

Can you whisper in her ear

Anytime while she’s lying on her bed

Can you tell her everything that I’ve said

Everything that I’ve said

Anne Marie was shaking a drink for a customer when she noticed Justin come rushing back into the bar past her and up the stairs leading to the restroom and Cherish's office.

"When can we catch up?" He asked walking in and shutting the door behind him.

Cherish was rifling through the file cabinet and never looked his way, "I'm really busy tonight, JT."

Justin walked over and stood on the opposite side of the open drawer, begging that she talk to him. 

"I can't, JT. I have a ton a stuff I have to take care of," she said pointing down to the pile of paperwork on her desk.

"She grabbed the phone and started to dial, but Justin gently took the phone from her hand and placed it back down on the receiver. He walked closer to her and turned her chair to face him and said, "I'm not leaving until you talk to me. Just give me twenty minutes and I'll go. I won't come back in here again."

Justin placed his hands on her knees begging, "Please, Cherish."

She starred at him for a moment, biting nervously at her bottom lip before responding, "Okay...Twenty minutes."

Before Justin even had a chance to speak, they were both startled by the office door flying open and smacking hard against the wall.

"What the fuck is this I hear about your car being outside Timberlake's all night, Cherish?" Bobby yelled as he stormed in and saw Justin kneeling down in front of her, his hands on her knees.