I can assure you that I had no intentions of allowing what happened last night to actually happen. I'm not sure how you go to bed one night sleeping next to your best friend and waking up the next morning wanting to rip his clothes off, but when the feeling didn't go away for the rest of the day I made a deal with myself to not act on it because clearly it was just my brain having some sort of weird reaction to something and it would go away in a week or so. However, the combination of the good news we got and the alcohol last night somehow tricked my brain into thinking that I could actually have feelings for him. The minute I put my lips on his I knew that I should take them off, let it be awkward for a day and then move on with our lives but that's not exactly how it went down.

I'm not sure if I expected him to kiss me back or not, but it was a nice surprise when he did. His lips were soft and seemed to fit perfectly on mine. His hand that was on the small of my back traveled up my back and he held onto my hair that I had taken out of it's pony tail right as we walked into the house, and the minute he nibbled on my bottom lip I knew that this was not going to end anytime soon. I didn't want it to end, but I also didn't want to fuck up the awesome friendship we had formed so after a few minutes I put my hand on his chest and pushed him back. The minute his lips were off of mine I wanted them back. I almost felt naked without them there and as I watched him lick his bottom lip I felt the urge to just attack him, but I closed my eyes before I did just that.

I went from laying on my side to my back placing my hand on my forehead not knowing what my next move should be, scared that everything that we had worked so hard to accomplish in our friendship was now down the drain. When I opened my eyes and looked to the side of me I saw Justin staring at me before he reached out to move a piece of hair away from my eyes. "Justin I--"

He shook his head causing me to stop talking, and then moved to hover over me. His legs on either side of me and his hands down next to my face holding him up, "Just shut up and kiss me." So when his face made its decent towards mine, I did just that. I kissed him like I've never kissed before. I managed to turn my brain off and stop thinking, and I lay there with him in my arms living in the moment. I took in his scent, and melted just a little bit every time he'd let out a moan making his lips vibrate against mine. I allowed myself to enjoy the touch of his thumb against my cheek, and the feel of his lips against my lips, and my neck, and my ear. I didn't think twice when I wrapped my legs around him or when I ran my nails down his back after practically ripping his shirt off. And after hours of the greatest high school like make out session of my life, I let myself relax when Justin put his forehead against mine for a minute before kissing it, laying down beside me with his arm holding me close to him, and I fell asleep to the sound of his heartbeat.

So this morning though quite similar to yesterday, in reality is a whole lot different. I looked over at him sleeping and couldn't help the smile that was forming on my face as I watched him and ran my fingers up and down his arm. I had 80 million feelings running through my body and my brain was no longer in the off position. I don't know what my life is going to turn into once he wakes up. I don't know if he's going to be mad, or upset, or maybe even happy. I don't even know what I'm feeling right now. As much as I think I'm ready to move on, I'm not 100% sure. Maybe I just have these feelings for Justin because I'm comfortable with him and not because I actually feel for him. And I can't help but think about how Jake would feel about this, but the feeling of safety that I feel when Justin has his arm wrapped around me has to mean something right?

I picked his hand up and moved his arm easily so that I wouldn't wake him, placing it back down on the bed when I stood up. Walking over to the other side of the bed I took the remote turning the TV off. He flipped over onto his stomach hugging the pillow under him, and I bent down to kiss his forehead before turning to walk out of the room.

Shockingly I was somehow not hung-over, but I hit the coffee makers "on" button the second I hit the kitchen. I sat on top of the island and watched the coffee drip until the pot was full. After pouring myself a cup of coffee I went to the breakfast bar and stared off into space trying to figure out what the hell was going to happen next. Nothing about this situation was normal even if you looked past the fact that we were friends, and the he was my brother's best friend. He was my boss. We live together, and we work together. He's the person I go to with problems. If whatever this is turns into something, all of that will change and I know for a fact that I'm not ready for it all to change. I started rubbing my forehead after taking a sip of my coffee when I felt a hand on my shoulder, and my breath got stuck in my throat.

"Mornin' sweetie."

"Oh...Good morning Mrs. H," I replied catching my breath again.

"Everything okay?"

I nodded taking another sip of coffee, "Mmhm, everything's great."

"You sure? People usually don't stare at the wall for an hour not moving in the morning."

"Oh I haven't been here for an hour..."

"Well when I came out of my room an hour ago, you were sitting right there looking at the wall sweetheart."

"I guess that would explain the cold coffee," I said sliding the mug off to the side and taking a deep breath, "Work does that to you I guess..."

"Is Justin working you too hard?"

"No," I replied all to quickly for my liking, "No Justin was great," I shook my head realizing what I said, "Is great...I mean...He's a great boss. That's what I mean."

"You sure you're okay?" She asked looking at me with concerned eyes while pouring herself a cup of coffee.

"Yeah, really I'm fine."

"Well look what the cat dragged in," she said looking behind me. I turned around to see Justin walking down the stairs, shirtless and drool worthy. I quickly looked back and pulled my mug closer to me, taking a sip of the still cold coffee.

"Mornin' Mama," he said wrapping his arm around her shoulder and kissing the top of her head. After picking up a muffin that was sitting on the island he walked around to the breakfast bar grazing my back with his hand before he sat down on the stool next to me. Has he ever done that before? "Hey Em."

"Hey," I said quickly not looking at him as I slid off the stool, "Want some coffee?"

"Love some..."

I flew past Lynn filling my cup with coffee and reaching up to grab him a mug with my other hand, but because I'm such a mess I managed to hit the cup I was filling, knock it over, spill coffee all over myself and the floor and watch the mug shatter into a million pieces. "SHIT!" I yelled putting the pot back in the holder and reaching for a towel hanging on the stove behind me. Lynn appeared at my side with a dustpan and brush, and much to my dismay Justin knelt down in front of me with paper towels. "Sorry, I'll replace your mug...I just..."

"It's okay Em, it's just a mug. Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine, I just want to get this cleaned up."

"You're hand doesn't look fine," he said pointing to my right hand that was swelling faster every second that past.

I didn't even realize that I burnt my hand until I looked down and then the pain started setting in, "It's just burnt, it's fine," I said dealing with the pain to continue to clean the mess making sure to keep my gaze on the floor and not Justin.

"Em..."

"I'm just going to grab some cleaner so that the floor doesn't smell like coffee forever."

"Em..."

"Be careful don't step on that glass."

"EMILY!" he yelled grabbing my wrist as I was getting up causing my focus to now be on him. I looked into his eyes and I instantly felt the urge to cry, but managed to swallow my tears back, "It's okay," he said.

"I know, but I don't want anyone stepping on glass or in coffee so I'm just going to get the cleaner..."

He held onto my wrist tighter not allowing me to get up. I looked back up at him biting my bottom lip, "It's okay," he said again, and from the look in his eyes I knew he wasn't talking about the broken mug or the coffee on the floor.

"Justin go help Emily with her hand, I've got this," I heard Lynn say from behind me but I was unable to take my eyes off Justin. He let go of my wrists and stood up holding his hands out for me to take to help me up as well.

We walked to the bathroom upstairs in silence, me following behind him, and he pushed my shoulders down making me sit on the toilet while he opened the cabinet above the sink to find a first aid kit. He pulled out some burn ointment and gauze then knelt down in front of me to apply it. I squeezed my eyes shut in hopes that not looking would make the pain less, but every now and then I would hiss in pain when he hit a really bad spot. When he started wrapping my hand I opened my eyes and watched him. It looked like we were back in elementary school and he was looking at my hand like a really hard math problem on a test. "So is this how it's going to be now?" he asked while he secured an ace bandage with two hooks, "You're not going to look at me, and you're going to walk around like a zombie?"

I looked at the tile on the floor not really knowing what the right thing was to say in that moment, and a chill went down my body when I felt him put a piece of my hair behind my ear. "I was drunk," was the best thing I could come up with.

"I wasn't."

"Justin..."

"What?"

"Justin..."

"You said that already," he said putting his finger under my chin to push it up so that I'd look at him. "Tell me you wouldn't have done that if you weren't drunk," he paused to really look at me and I felt like I was under some sort of spell, "Tell me that you don't want to kiss me right now...and I'll back off. We'll go back to the way things were before 10pm yesterday and it'll be like nothing ever happened."

"It would never work..."

"Says who?"

"Says life Justin," I replied before standing up to pace the spacious marble bathroom. "There is not one thing that would make me believe we would work."

"Like what?" he stood up and looked at me with a doubtful face.

"Like the fact that you're my boss number one. Number two; you're my brother's best friend. Not to mention the fact that all we ever do is fight, so one of us is bound to get hurt in the end..."

"None of that really matters to you Emily and you know it. You know that we haven't fought like we use to for close to a year, and you don't care about mine and Trace's friendship because you know that no matter what that won't change. And what are you afraid of conflict of interest at work? Last time I checked the only person that can get you in trouble for that is your boss and I think that I could find a way to talk him out of scolding you. So why don't you tell me the real reasons why you don't think it'd work."

"Those are the real reasons! What happens if we don't work out...then what? You're still going to be my boss, and you're still going to be Trace's best friend..."

"What happens if we do work out? Be honest Emmy, you're scared. You're scared because you have feelings for me and you don't know what to do with them because you feel like it's wrong to be happy since Jake is dead. You're looking at the what if's and automatically going to the worst-case scenario because you're not use to things working out for you. You don't want to get hurt, and you think I'll leave and that's the real reason why you think it won't work not because of work or Trace."

I stopped in my tracks in front of him with tears filling my eyes, "You don't get to do that," I said pounding my finger into his chest, "You don't get to tell me how I feel or how I should feel. And even if that were true, can you blame me? 

He shook his head while resting his arms on my shoulders, "Tell me you don't want to kiss me right now."

"I can't kiss you..."

"Tell me you don't want to."

"I can't," I said looking up into his eyes and letting tears fall.

"I'm not going anywhere Em...I'm not going to leave you," he said brushing a tear away with his thumb.

"I'm scared."

"I know," he pulled me close and I rested my head on his chest knowing beyond a reasonable doubt that I wanted to at least give whatever this is a fair shot. "We'll take it slow," he said placing a kiss on the top of my head.

"What if I'm not ready?"

"Listen to me," he said backing away and bending down to be eye level with me, "If it's too much, just tell me okay? I promise you I'll back off and won't make it awkward."

"Okay," I nodded after a few minutes, "Let's...Let's do this," I laughed. "But can we have like a trial period where we don't tell anyone just to see how it goes before I become a staple on E News?"

"What do I look like a magazine subscription? Try it free for 3 months and if you don't like it cancel with no cost to you?" he chuckled.

"You do sell a lot of magazine's Timberlake..."

"Are you going to kiss me yet?"

"Do you accept my trial offer?"

"I accept," he said leaning down, and I smiled before his lips hit mine. "I knew you couldn't resist these lips once you got a taste of them."

"Shut up!" I laughed hitting his arm, "Go...Be normal or something. I'm going to the office, I have more then a ton of work to catch up on."

***

Let me give you a piece of advice. If you're the President of a company, never take more then a week off of work. I know for a while there I slacked and didn't go in for some time but that didn't mean I wasn't doing work at home without people knowing. This time however I've done nothing for a good week and a half and when I walked into my office I couldn't see my desk underneath the pile of work. Not to mention I literally had close to 900 E-Mail's to get through. I sat down at my desk at 9am and I haven't moved for 12 hours. When my office phone beeped I was so focused on getting work done I nearly jumped out of my seat. I hit the red flashing light, "What's up Sandra?"

"Miss Logan, sorry to bother you but Mr. Timberlake is requesting to see you in his office. He says it's an emergency."

"Did he happen to mention what it's about?"

"No, I'm sorry he didn't."

"That's okay, tell him I'll be there in a minute, thanks."

I threw my pen down and looked up at the short stack of paper in front of me feeling really proud of myself for getting so much done. Spinning around on my chair I turned my IPod off and made my way down to Justin's office hoping that this emergency wouldn't have me staying here for another 12 hours. All of the offices down the length of the hallway from mine to his were dark and the doors were closed, and I let out a huge yawn as I looked out of floor to ceiling windows that gave me a view of LA. Sometimes I wonder how I ended up with a job like this.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked after knocking and walking through his door not waiting for an answer.

"What are you doing in there?" he asked from behind his desk that was 80 sizes too big for him.

"Working...What's the big emergency captain?"

"Close the door," he replied not taking his eyes off the computer. I shut the door behind me and stood in front of his desk, "Come look at this."

I walked around to the other side of his desk, and he pushed his chair back so that I could stand in front of the computer, and no sooner did my eyes land on the computer screen did he grab my waist and pull me down on his lap. I laughed putting my left hand over his while looking at the screen. "What's this for? The release party?"

"Nope..."

"Then what?" I asked craning my neck to look at him realizing now that there really was no emergency.

"I'm taking you to dinner...there," he pointed at the screen.

"That's your big emergency Mr. Romance?"

"Yes. I'm hungry, that's the biggest emergency of all," he said pushing me up off his lap and spinning me around to face him.

"Justin I have so much work to do..."

"I heard the boss said everyone had to go home for the night. Something about them coming in to spray for mice. They use deadly chemicals that can't be ingested."

"Did he say that?" I asked tugging on his shirt to pull him down towards me.

"He did," he nodded, "Came in here to tell me and everything."

"Lucky for you I listen to my boss," I said softly grazing my lips against his as I spoke.

"Mmmm," he replied pulling my bottom lip into his mouth, "Lucky me."