When we arrived in Houston, we collected Barney, Bowser and our luggage and promptly caught a cab to what would be my new home in downtown Houston.

I let Barney out of his carriage as soon as possible knowing he would have hated every minute of being locked up in a tiny space like that and he shook vigorously in my lap, his ears flapping about until he’d shaken off that cramped feeling.

“I can’t move past how much cuter he is in real life,” Jules sighed looking out the window at the passing scenery but not seeing any of it.

I looked over briefly and smiled. I missed him already.

“And he smells so good…and he was so warm when he hugged me. I can’t believe you’ve hit that. I am so jealous,” She whined and I laughed.

She’d been talking about little else for the entire trip and I gladly filled her in on all the latest developments.

 “I hope he does come and hang out before I have to go back home, I need to redeem myself after that pitiful display.”

“You were fine,” I assured her and the cab seemed to be close to where we needed to be as I paid extra attention to the street names looking for Main Street.

“There it is, that’s my building,” I exclaimed.“Oh my god there’s palm trees out the front!”

The driver snuck a glance at us through the rearview mirror and parked on the curb.

There were few people out in the downtown area which I guessed would change come the weekdays, but today was quiet, the sky was blue and it was hard not to get high hopes looking up at the exterior of my new building.

I wanted to get inside as soon as possible and see what my apartment looked like, so we hurriedly unloaded our suitcases and Barney walked beside me as I held Bowser’s carriage in one hand, and my suitcase in the other, with Jules behind me.I turned the key in the security door and the foyer was large but inviting.

Catching the lift all the way to the top floor I couldn’t hide my excitement or my smile. We stood outside my new apartment door and I slowly turned the key inside the lock.

“Hurry, hurry, hurry I have to pee,” Jules exclaimed doing a jig on the spot and I flung the front door open as we both looked inside and gasped simultaneously.

“Oh my Goooood!”

“Holy shit!”

The door opened into a huge beautiful kitchen with dark wooden floors and cupboards and stainless steel appliances. The fridge alone would have been worth the entire contents of my own apartment back in New York.

The benches were marble, there was a double oven and the electric stove was set into the island in the middle of the kitchen.

The living area was furnished with tasteful, clean and comfortable looking furniture with a space behind the lounge for a dining area with an eight seater dining set that I would never have been able to fit in my other apartment. And that was just downstairs.

“This is way nice than your place in New York,” Jules sighed as I walked over to take in the view of the downtown area.

“This is nicer than Justin’s place,” I said looking over at her, “In fact this is pretty much my dream apartment, if I was allowed to decorate a place on my own, this is exactly how I’d do it…I don’t think I will ever want to go home,” I sighed suddenly remembering I needed to let Bowser out of his carriage.

“Okay I need to use the bathroom,” Jules said running up the stairs as I let Bowser out and watched him for a moment looking around uncertainly, wondering where he was.I pet him reassuringly and continued to explore when I heard Jules bellowing from the bathroom upstairs.

“You have a double freakin’ basin! I am moving in, that’s it! You don’t need all this space for yourself!”

I laughed and took the stairs to check out the bedrooms and they were both plain, but huge, and bright with buckets of sunlight filtering in through huge glass pane windows. I could imagine waking up in the bright sun and feeling it’s warmth on me, coaxing me out of bed.

I couldn’t wait to unpack, but I had quite some time to wait before the removals arrived so I fell down on my new bed in my master bedroom and smiled to myself.

I didn’t know what it was going to be like working with Elliot and I was sure this gig in Houston wasn’t going to be as sweet a ride as it was feeling like now. I knew there’d be long hours and lots of stress, but I’d worked hard to get to there and I wasn’t about to complain about it.

I picked up the phone on the bedside table and dialed in Justin’s number.It rang a few times before he answered; knowing right away that it was me.

“You made it.”

“Can I please just say that my apartment is way nicer than your apartment”

“That may well be the case, but the man owns your apartment, whereas I own my apartment.”

“Way to squander the delusion.”

“You just keep those feet planted firmly on the ground, don’t go falling in love with the place or you’ll never come home.”

“Too late. There are palm trees here and there’s a swimming pool, a gym …and I have a double basin.”

“Ahh, a double basin well…can’t compete with that, that’s the X factor right there.”

“Yeah…so anyway, I just wanted to call and tell you that we made it here completely assembled, and…its nice here… aaand Barney is marking his new uncertain territory right as we speak.”I informed him watching Barney squatting on the wooden floor in the hallway.

“Oh…how nice, I’m glad I got to be a part of it,” Justin responded as I sighed.

“I guess I better go…anyway I just want to say hi. I miss you already.”

“I miss you too, go do what you gotta do and call me later okay, I’ll be up.”

“Okay. I love you”

It fell out of my mouth, but it didn’t feel natural. It never really did, when I told him I loved him and even though I felt like I did, I could never help but notice how it never rolled off my tongue the way it was supposed to, but I pushed it out of my mind putting it down to the fact that it was just my mind up to it’s old defensive tricks again.

“I love you too,” he responded and I hung up the phone and sat up looking down at a very guilty beagle.

I found the keys to the company Lexus SUV and Jules and I decided to drive around to explore a little and also find a supermarket and liquor store so we could stock up for the week.

“Oh my god, look at that guy. Cute,” Jules sang pointing out the window and I barely caught a glimpse of him as we passed. “There are cute guys everywhere here!”

“Maybe you should ask your company if they can send you here for six months.”

“Nah, the furthest they’ll ever send me is Queens,” she grumbled as I snuck glances down at my iPhone which was directing me through Downtown Houston.

“Justin is really cute,” Jules said again and I laughed.

“Yes Jules, he’s very cute.”

“No, but like, really, really cute.”

“So I suppose you worked out that we’re back on when you saw him there,” I asked her looking over at her and she smiled.

“Yeah, and if I didn’t know it from standing between you two at the airport then I sure got the message when I heard you talking to him on the phone…you guys are using the “L” word and everything…what if you two get married?”

“Jules,” I said stopping her before she really got carried away and suggested we cure cancer together.

“What? It’s possible.”

My mind was going to that doubtful place again that only seemed to be active when Justin wasn’t around.It wasn’t that I didn’t think stranger things had ever happened than if Justin and I did end up getting married, it was just the fact that it seemed so far fetched to me that didn’t sit right in my mind. Almost like I knew that that would never in a million years happen.

“Jules, I know you’re going to think I’m out of my mind, but…I have to tell you something.”

“Here it comes,” she said ominously turning towards me in her seat.I took a deep breath and tried to keep my eyes on the road, while also trying to watch her reaction.

“I can’t help but feel a little…negative about Justin.”

“What on God’s green earth is there to feel negative about with that man,” she asked and I sighed.

“Jules, I was friends for him before I started sleeping with him and I saw what he was like with the girls he was with before me and I’m not just talking about the one night stands, I mean relationships he was in that…he told me he willfully messed up because he just wanted out.”

“So?”

“So, I’m totally falling in love with him and if he does the same thing to me I’ll die.”

Jules just chuckled and slipped on a pair of sunglasses, casually leaning back against the leather seat.

“It’s called “being in love” honey and it happens to all of us. Sometimes it lasts, sometimes it doesn’t, but that’s the way it goes” she said

“That’s no consolation”

“Look, you’re being neurotic enough for both of you and he can only reassure you so many times before eventually gets sick of it, and tells you that if you don’t trust him now, then you never will, so just calm your shit and go with the flow.”

“I don’t tell him I don’t trust him, I tell you, and you’re not being very helpful.”

“He’s a good guy, I can tell.”

“That’s what you said about Joseph before he cleaned out your bank account.”

“His name was Jordan…and lesson learned. No regrets! You know what, love Justin like you loved Adrian,” she said and I wasn’t sure what she meant.

“Dump him for another guy?”

“NO! Just love him like you know he wouldn’t ever do anything to hurt you…you know…love like you’ve never been hurt…dance like you’ve blown a microchip or…whatever the fuck that saying is.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at her as she pointed out a supermarket up ahead.

“Look there’s a market right there…seriously if you don’t want him, pass him along to me, I’ll put him to good use,” she said suggestively and I glared at her a moment.

“What about Trace?”

“I will use Justin to get to Trace,” she explained like it was the most cunning scheme ever thought out, but all I could do was look at her confused.

“What is wrong with you?”

“What?” she shrugged innocently.

“Using Justin to get to Trace? What is wrong with that sentence?”I parked the car and we headed into the supermarket, pulling a trolley and wheeling it through the first isle.

“You don’t understand, when we were in the airport and Justin was saying how awful Trace was-“

“I swear if you say it only turned you on more, I’m going to barf.”

“It totally turned me on more! It’s like I just want him to get me into so much trouble!”

“God help us all,” I grumbled dropping various fruits and vegetables into my cart, “but you know Jules, talking to you about your weird obsession with Trace makes me feel a lot better about my relationship with Justin, so thanks!”

I looked over at her and saw her trying to balance a banana on the front of my cart.

“What are you doing?”

“If you put a banana at the front of your cart it means you’re single and looking,” she responded and I just laughed and headed for the strawberries.

Having Jules there made all the difference for me and I knew if she hadn’t have been there for me the first few days, I might not have made it.

We played tourist for the first few days, sampling the local bars and eateries and I fell in love with a bar called The Red Dust room, where during the course of Jules’ week, we managed to visit the place every night from Monday to Friday.They played cheesy music from the eighties and early nineties that we often sang to at the top of our lungs in our inebriated state, and the owner Morris often had to call us a cab home, but not before he joined us for a song or two.

By Friday I was starting to get nervous about work.I was sure I was about to walk right into a battle zone, but I didn’t know what to expect, but if I ever seemed like I was thinking about it too much, Jules made sure I forgot about it quickly enough.

However, she was set to fly home early on Saturday afternoon and I really didn’t want her to go.I had gotten used to having her around and the no holds barred conversations, drunken sing alongs and the hours of laughter.She promised that she would come and visit me again as soon as she could afford it and by Saturday afternoon, I was alone again.

I sat on my couch and started to realize that I didn’t enjoy my time alone like I once did. Bowser had taken up residence on top of a bookshelf, probably thankful to leave such close quarters as our New York apartment behind, and Barney, well he was my shadow and was anywhere I was.

I pulled my laptop into my lap and logged onto my Gmail finding a few unread messages. I skimmed the concert alerts and moved the penis enlargement offer to the spam folder making my way up a list and wondering why I had signed onto to so many mailing lists until finally I got to the one I wanted to get to.

Hey, Just wanted you to know that I am tentatively booking you on the weekend of September 4th.

By then it will have been two weeks apart and we’ll be due for a visit.After that I will be LA for a couple of weeks.

Yay? Nay?  

I hit “reply” and quickly typed my response.

I can’t wait to see you.

I was pretty sure that accurately enough captured what I thought about his proposed visit and suddenly I had something to look forward to again and I settled back into my couch with a smile just thinking about him being there with me.

On Monday morning, I was ready for my first day in the Houston branch.At least I thought I was.

 I was greeted by Elliot at reception and quickly learned that the receptionist, Karen, was the sole employee in the Houston branch. Karen was maybe in her early to mid twenties and with a pleasant and subtle twang in her speech and an enthusiastic demeanor which I would later find to be a miracle considering the Everest-esque task of her job.

Elliot took care of all the client relations, but the rest was up to Karen to battle her way through as much administration as possible which in the scheme of things wasn’t much, but more than any one person on earth could ever be expected to manage.

Either of them had the time to simply hire more staff or worry about processes and procedures and things just got done, on a “only if the client asks for it” basis.

My jaw was literally agape when we stood by Karen’s desk and Elliot explained to me that, they were a two man team and that was it.

“Well…where are the files?”

“What files?” Elliot shrugged, telling me all I needed to know and I looked at Karen and sighed deeply.

“You’ve been doing all this on your own? How is that even possible?”

“It’s not,” she shrugged with an acceptance of defeat in her voice, “I have a backlog of documentation going back…” she looked up at the ceiling, “maybe two years”

My brand new handbag slipped off my shoulder and landed on the floor and looking around at the piles of mismatched, unfiled documents in the office, I started to feel like I was much too over dressed in my skirt suit.I should have worn jeans like Elliot and Karen were.

I knew it was going to be bad, but I hadn’t anticipated this.I looked at Elliot who had inherited this mess and he smiled sympathetically.

“I know, believe me, I know…but that’s what you’re here for right?”

I could only nod, and wondered how much I could actually do, realistically in six months.

In an office space that housed 10 workstations and three offices, I had a lot of desks to fill, budget permitting, and that meant a lot of training.There was nothing to do, but start immediately so the first thing I did was take Elliot into his office, close the door and basically demand that the first role to be filled was front of house so that Karen didn’t have to spend all her time answering phones, because it didn’t take me too long with her to come to the conclusion that she was way beyond the reception role.

As soon as he agreed, I set up my office next to his and phoned our CEO’s assistant to send me all of Houston’s budgets so I could see how much I had to work with, and though I guessed it wasn’t much, and when they came through, I knew I had my work cut out for me.

I rested my head in my hands and took a moment to gather my thoughts, feeling so overwhelmed by the task ahead, that I wondered if I could even do it.I had to hire and train at least four members of staff and I had almost nothing to pay them.

At the end of my first day, all I wanted to do was go home, get changed and curl up on my couch, with my crochet blanket and pets.

Bowser was no longer interested in sitting with Barney and I anymore so it was just me and my beagle and a big glass of wine. Daunted by the thought of even boiling pasta, I ordered Chinese food and thought about calling Justin but even that seemed like hard work.

I didn’t want to think. I didn’t want to move, I just wanted to eat more than necessary and then stay up late trying to avoid the arrival of tomorrow for as long as possible.

The Simpsons as always provided a sufficient distraction and my buzzer sounded earlier than I had anticipated.I didn’t bother greeting the poor delivery guy, I simply buzzed him in and waited by the door with a fist full of notes and a tired expression.

I could hear his footsteps coming down the hallway and swung the door open before he could knock only to find that it wasn’t my Chinese food at all but something much better.

 “On a scale of one to ten, how surprised are you to see me,” Justin smiled holding up his arms and an irrepressible smile came across me and I jumped into his arms.

“I knew you’d surprise me early, but I didn’t think it’d be this early.”

“Well, it’s nice to know I am only half predictable.”

“Yeah, maybe a five on that surprise scale, but an eleven on the happy scale” I told him smiling widely as I finally let him go and stepped back to let him in.

“Please. Come in weary traveler, and rest your aching bones,” I held out my arm and his eyes swept across the lower level of my apartment.

“Nice isn’t it,” I asked proudly as he shrugged indifferently.

“It’s alright.”

“Alright? You’re just sore ‘cause I said it was nicer than yours.”

“No, it’s just lacking something,” he said placing his finger over his lips thoughtfully, “Oh yeah! That’s what it’s missing, a deed in your name.”

“Why do ya always gotta bring that up,” I asked letting my inner New Yorker loose to which he responded in the same fashion.

“’Cause I’m Justin Fawckin’ Timberlake and I own my own apartment dat’s why.”

“Yeah well, you’ll be sleepin’ wid the fishes if you don’t start showin’ me respect.”

“I’ll kill your dawg and make it look like an accident, you cockroach. How’s that for respect?” he returned nodding towards Barney and he did it so well, that I couldn’t keep in character any longer and burst out laughing and hugged him again.

“I’m so happy you’re here! Do you want a beer,” I asked looking up at him in his grey sweatshirt and white t-shirt.He hadn’t shaved and I swore his hair had grown at least an inch since the last time I saw him.

“Nah, show me your place,” he said taking me by the hand and we started in the living room.

“Ok, well this is the living room, dining room…bookshelf with cat permanently attached at the top.”

“Hey cat, please don’t kill me in my sleep,” he greeted Bowser with a sharp wave.

“Oh he won’t come down, he only leaves his lofty pedestal to join us little folk when it’s meal time.”

Bowser cast us a scornful glance and then looked away and I sighed as we moved on, leading Justin up the stairs.

“Bathroom,” I announced swinging open the door and turning on the light.

“Nice enough, I guess.”

“Shut up,” I laughed as he poked around doing strange things while I watched on amusedly, like lifting the toilet seat, turning the shower on and off and then walked over and sat in the bath tub, shifting to get comfortable.

He nodded with some level of approval as I watched from the doorway while he pulled himself out of the bath and rejoined me in the hallway.

“You done?”

“Quite. Now, to the guest room.”

Obliging his request I lead him to the guest room and turned on the light as he stood tentatively in the hallway, poking his head in quickly.

“Sure, cool. It’s nice. I think it needs a little more work, but I see where you’re going with it.”

I smiled to myself and then looked up at him and shrugged.“Well…that’s it, that’s the tour.”

“You forgot a room,” he said, an observation I was waiting for him to make.

“I can’t take you into my room yet.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“If I take you to my room right now, we won’t come out,” I advised him remaining stoic and his eyebrows barely flickered in one of his usual measured responses.

“I see,” he said looking past me thoughtfully for a moment. “And that’s bad because…”

“I have Chinese food coming,” I responded, “and no comments about coming before the Chinese food,” I said pointing a finger at him before he had a chance to be cheeky, a faint smile on his lips.

“Seventeen hundred miles to see you and you’re gonna deny me the last twenty feet?”

I smiled coyly and looked down at my feet trying to remain cool even though his voice was suggestive and made me want to leave the delivery boy knocking and buzzing until he get the message that no one would be answering the door and left.

“Just think of it as building up anticipation,” I replied, knowing it was a feeble response, but I couldn’t think with him standing there looking down at me the way he was.

“I don’t know about you, but I feel I have been sufficiently built up after a week without you.”

Although he knew I was as malleable in his hands as clay, I loved to flirt with him, so I didn’t want to give in just yet.

“So, what’s another twenty minutes,” I asked making no attempt to sound less casual, a half smile tugging the corner of his lips as his eyes burned into me.

“In the twenty minutes it’s going to take for your delivery guy to get here, I can get you there twice. You know I can.”

I felt my stomach sink to the ground and my skin flushed instantly, because I liked it very much when he was being evocative and haughty. When I didn’t respond right away, he looked at his watch.

“I tell you what, I’ll give you five minutes to deliberate, I’m pretty sure I can do it in fifteen.”

“Fifteen minutes, that’s quite a test you’re setting yourself,” I said feigning doubt and he shrugged.

“I think I can rise to the challenge.”

“I think you already have,” I murmured my eyes flickering down between us and back up to catch him smile.

“I was waiting for you to notice.”

“I’ll tell you what,” I sighed straightening up and stepping over to him to hook my fingertips into the waistband of his jeans and pressing against him.“I’ll waive the five minutes to think about it, but boy, you’ve really set the bar quite high.”

“You don’t think I can do it?”

I shrugged challengingly as he looked up at the ceiling for a moment, stroking the length of my arms and then looked down at me.

“Well, I figure, going by the temperature of your skin right now you’re already half way there so the first one won’t take much. A couple minutes maybe,” he explained and if I didn’t already know how good he was with my body in his hands, I could sit and listen to him tell me what he was going to do to me all day.

“Oh really?”

“Yeah Sophie, really. After that it’s just correctly determining the right split of time between rest, and making you come again.”

By the time he finished his sentence I could barely breathe and I was way past want and right into need.

“I think I’m ready to show you my room now.”

“Don’t bother, right here’s fine,” he breathed before covering my mouth with his as we sank like lead down onto the rug in the hallway.

Easing himself over me, he knew we’d built each other up enough to skip past niceties and raked at my bottom lip with his teeth and gripped my hip to hold me in place while he ground into me hard.

Eager to confirm that he was right in assuming that I was plenty primed, his hand wasted no time, finding its way up beneath the hem of my dress, across my thigh and into the front of my underwear and as soon as he touched me he broke our kiss and smiled.

“That’s what I thought,” he said watching me closely while he worked two of his fingers around, “I just need to find your sweet spot,” he said thinking aloud, while his fingers searched in circles until he found a place that made me gasp and throw my head back.

“There it is,” he grinned, his narrow eyes glinting and fixed on my every reaction until I had given away all he needed to know about where to touch me and how to do it, in order to rush me right into my first oblivion.

He needed all of his weight to hold me down while my fingers embedded themselves around his wrist until exhalations ceased coming out as moans and I was left to catch my breath feeling the flooding feeling start to dissipate as quickly as it had come.

He rested his forehead on my chest for a moment until I let him withdraw his hand from between my legs and then looked up at me biting his lip.

He looked at this watch and I couldn’t believe he was still taking his self issued challenge seriously.

“I don’t want to rush your recovery time, but the quicker we can get to the main event the better.”

“I don’t think I have another one left in me,” I said doubtfully still trying to stop my knees form shaking from the last.

“Speak for yourself,” he breathed and I smiled into his kiss as he worked above me to free himself from the prison of his jeans, and as he lifted my dress, I suddenly felt him hard against my thigh.

“This wasn’t part of the deal,” I sighed, the pit of my stomach twisting as I let him inside and felt him fill me completely.

“Let’s just hope this serves your benefit more than mine,” he said, his voice hinting at some relief.

“I doubt it,” I smiled challengingly.

“God knows I’m going to try and prove you wrong,” he murmured throatily and with one last glance at his watch, I wrapped my legs around him and felt him start to thrust slower than I thought he would have. I watched his face and moaned appreciatively, touching his back and neck, feeling his muscles working under my hands.

“Don’t wait for me,” I started to say knowing his restraint wouldn’t have been easy, and urging him to abandon his silly challenge, but he shook his head.

“No we have time,” he assured me and I smiled and rested my hand against his ribcage to make him stop.

“In that case,” I said pushing him up and he followed my lead until he was sitting up with his back against the wall and I was across his lap, kissing him deeply while I rocked my hips slowly. Really slowly.

His hands were gripping me so tightly at my hips that I was sure I’d bruise later, but I knew he’d have similar marks on his shoulders and back.

Striking a delicate balance of slow but rough, I started to think that maybe I would get there again if he was able to hold out, and the need to get there before him started to develop.

Hearing his breath and feeling it on my face, and the sharp little gasps he would make when I worked him just right was all the encouragement I needed and I loved to watch him close his eyes and bite his lip.

It was hard to keep the pace slow, but when I began to feel a familiar build, I got excited and sunk my hand into the hair at the back of his head and gripped it tightly until he knew I was close.

I felt his back straighten, his arms lock around me, and with a slight step up in tempo, he got me there again, and not a moment too soon as I heard his loud moans muffled against my shoulder.

It was a hot, tense, and blissful moment, until the rocking towards each other slowed to a lazy writhe and the radiant heat between us faded to almost nothing, but a muted aching reminder of the pleasure just past.

When I could finally talk, I lifted my head from his shoulder and kissed him with a satisfied smile.

“I will never doubt you again,” I assured him from my perch on his lap and he raised his eyebrows and nodded.

“I think that was a very good use of time,” he panted with just enough strength to look at his watch before his arms collapsed beside him while he caught his breath.

“Oh, cool! A minute and a half to spare,” he said with self satisfaction, just as the intercom buzzer sounded.