“Are you sure this will be…okay?”
“What? Yeah, of course it will be okay.”
Justin sighed and shifted uncomfortably in the leather seat. “I mean, is anyone going to recognize me in there?”
Grace glanced up from the rummaging she was doing in her purse, squinting at the blue building in front of them. “Oh. I don’t think so. Why?”
She knew the answer, of course, and Justin just shrugged, glancing in the rear view mirror.
“Just bring your wallet in,” she reminded, slipping out the driver’s side door. The heel of her stiletto made uncomfortable contact with the pavement and she winced. “They’ll need to copy your driver’s license.”
“What? Why?” Justin demanded as Grace opened the door to the backseat. “Now they’ll definitely know who I am.”
“They kind of need to know who you are, Justin.” Grace bit her lip against a curse as she struggled with the seatbelt. “Nicolina, stop bouncing. You are not making this any easier.”
Nicolina just flashed a winning smile, squirming out of the car seat and hopping to the pavement below. Justin remained motionless in the passenger seat, and Grace could see his hand trembling slightly as it rested on the center console.
“Just put your hat on. Come on.” She shut the car door against any argument he may have voiced and followed the skipping little girl up to the shiny glass doors. She didn’t check to see if Justin was behind her.
Grace stepped into the air conditioned office with a sigh, shushing Nicolina as she burst in with a loud, singsong, “Good morning!”
“Good morning, Nicolina,” the woman behind the front desk greeted warmly, smiling at Grace. “How are you today?”
“I’m wonderful,” Nicolina announced, twirling on the spot and nearly losing her pink princess lunchbox in the process. “Guess what, Ms. Christy?”
Grace flipped through the clipboard on the desk, searching for the “C” designation. She vaguely heard the sound of the door opening and closing behind her. Ms. Christy leaned forward, humoring Nicolina’s conspiring nature. “I don’t know, what?”
“My Uncle Justin is here today!” Nicolina’s voice seemed to carry through the front office, echoing within the entire school. To illustrate this announcement, she bounced over to Justin, standing awkwardly near the front door, and grabbed his hand to yank him over to the desk.
“On that note,” Grace interrupted, holding up a hand to Nicolina before she could continue talking, “I need to add Uncle Justin to Nicolina’s emergency contacts. He’s going to be dropping her off in the mornings from now on.”
Ms. Christy nodded officially, pulling a form out from a drawer near her hip. She handed it to Justin with a smile. “We’ll need a copy of your identification, as well, please.”
Justin handled it well enough, Grace noted, handing his driver’s license over with a tight smile. Either he was comforted by the fact that Ms. Christy was fairly middle aged and therefore relatively unlikely to recognize him, or he’d finally just taken a chill pill; she didn’t really care.
“Are you a family member?” Ms. Christy asked, and Grace jumped in before Justin could reply.
“No. Just a friend. He’ll be staying with us for a little while, and—“
“Uncle Justin lives with us now,” Nicolina announced from her perch on the child-sized rocking chair that sat in the corner of the office. “It’s because he got a divorce.”
Justin’s pen stopped moving over the form. Ms. Christy cleared her throat. Grace felt her eyes widen. “Nicolina!”
The little girl blinked, slowing her rocking motion. “What?”
“You can’t…you don’t tell people stuff like that,” Grace pointed out.
“Why not?”
She sighed, rubbing her forehead. “Because you don’t. Uncle Justin doesn’t need the world to know his business.”
Bad choice of words, she realized instantly, but Justin finished filling out the form with a flourish and slid it over the desk. Grace glanced at her watch; this was almost nightmarish, but the ability to be on time to the office every morning would be a nice change of pace.
Nicolina had slipped out of the rocking chair and wrapped her arms around Justin’s leg as Ms. Christy crossed the room to make a copy of his completed form and ID. “I’m sorry I told your business, Uncle Justin.”
Justin smiled down at Nicolina, smoothing his hand over her shiny dark hair. “That’s okay, Nic.”
Nicolina giggled at his use of her nickname. “Daddy says you can’t call me that,” she reminded. “That’s a boy’s name.”
“Well, maybe he and Mommy shouldn’t have given you such a long name, then.”
Grace rolled her eyes, glancing to her right as a door opened and a young woman she recognized as one of the teachers flitted in to speak to Ms. Christy. Grace watched her carefully, feeling her heart rise up into her throat as the woman looked over at Justin with a double take. Fuck.
“All finished.” Ms. Christy handed Justin back his ID. “Are you familiar with our sign in procedures, Mr. Timberlake?”
If the young teacher had any doubts about who Justin was before, they were all blown out of the water, now. Grace rubbed the back of her neck tensely, glancing at Nicolina as she spun around the room, oblivious.
“Uh.” Justin looked at Grace from under the bill of his hat. “I don’t think so.”
“Well, you’ll sign her in right here.” Ms. Christy referenced the clipboard, flipping through the alphabetized sections to reveal Nicolina’s name. “Along with the date and time of drop off, and any special instructions for the day. You’ll also need to indicate who will be picking her up that day on this line.”
“I’ll still be picking her up,” Grace assured. “Justin will just drop her off.”
“No problem.” Ms. Christy replaced the clipboard with a smile and Grace cleared her throat, feeling increasingly tense as the young woman continued to stare at Justin. He hadn’t appeared to notice, but she could tell by the shaking of his hands as he shoved them in his pockets that he had.
“Okay, Nicolina. Ready?” Eager to leave the office as quickly as possible, Grace snagged the hood of Nicolina’s jacket and pointed her towards the hallway that would lead to her classroom. She motioned for Justin to follow and prayed the young teacher wouldn’t make a scene.
Justin hung in the background as Grace followed Nicolina into her preschool class. She greeted the teacher and made sure Nicolina’s lunch was placed safely in her cubby.
“Who’s picking me up today?” Nicolina asked as Grace helped her pull her jacket off. “You, or Daddy?”
“Probably me.” Grace tucked Nicolina’s jacket in the cubby next to her lunch box and held out her arms. “Do I get a hug?”
Nicolina pretended to deliberate, always the drama queen. “Hm…I guess so!”
She flung herself into her mother’s embrace, and Grace smiled at the sensation of Nicolina’s tiny arms wrapping around her neck tightly. “I love you, my darling. Have a good day.”
“I love you too,” Nicolina sang, releasing Grace and twirling over to Justin, who picked her up and kissed the top of her head. “Bye, Uncle Justin! Will you have snack with me after school today?”
“I’ll have a snack with you any time, Nic.” Justin set her down and Nicolina waved at both of them before skipping off to join her classmates. Grace nodded for Justin to follow her quickly before anyone else noticed him, leading him to the side exit to avoid the front office, just in case.
Both of them let out audible sighs once they were back in the SUV. Grace inserted her key in the ignition and placed her hand on Justin’s shoulder as she turned to back out of the parking space. “Now, that wasn’t too bad, was it?”
Justin buckled his seatbelt. “Depends on how you define ‘bad’. I have a feeling I’m going to regret this bargain.”
“I think you’ll be okay.” Grace flicked her blinker on, adjusting her sunglasses as she pulled out onto Fountain Avenue. “This is LA, Justin, and an expensive private preschool. I’m sure other celebrities send their kids there.”
“You don’t know?”
Grace shrugged. “Not really. The parents stay pretty private. Either way, JC’s never had a problem.”
Justin didn’t say anything, but Grace knew what he was thinking, that JC had never had a problem because he was not nearly as famous, especially not these days. Hell, Grace had seen a total of ten magazine covers featuring Justin’s face and some kind of devastating headline in the last 24 hours alone.
But the point was moot.
“Look, if you really don’t want to do it…” Grace trailed off, shrugging again. “We can work something else out. I mean, it would be a huge help to me, and Nicolina’s certainly excited about it. But it’s not like we’re going to kick you out if you decide it’s just not gonna work.”
Justin sighed heavily, closing his eyes as he leaned his head back against the seat. “No. It’s fine, I can handle it. All I have to do is sign her in, shove her in the classroom, and run out, right?”
“Something like that.” Grace hesitated as she approached the next intersection. “So where am I taking you? Back home?” She glanced at her watch again, nervously.
“Nah, I’m going with you. I’m meeting JC at the studio.”
Grace nodded, swerving into the left turn lane. “Just make sure that you two get home in time for dinner tonight, okay?”
“Yeah.”
Story Notes:
this story came like a shot out of nowhere. and it just keeps coming. hope you enjoy it.
disclaimer: though the story uses real people as a basis for its imagination, I own nothing and no one except the words as they are written.
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