Gentleman?

The questioning, single word had flashed across the screen of JC's phone an hour and a half earlier, awakening him. Now, an hour and a half later, the ten character message still taunted him as it continually brought his attention back to the otherwise white page.

"Hey, Ty," JC murmured as he interrupted the comfortable silence between the two. He waited for his brother to look up from the newspaper he was reading at the café's breakfast table before continuing. "Have you ever gotten a text like this from a woman?"

Tyler looked down at the text and chuckled before taking a sip from the coffee mug in front of him. "Who sent that to you?"

"Katrina," JC replied, exiting out of the inbox and leaning back in his chair. "She sent it to me this morning and I don't know what it means."

"I thought Katrina was mad at you after you deleted a message from her voicemail."

"She... is," JC answered slowly. "She... was."

Tyler studied his brother's face for a maximum of three seconds before he shook his head with a sigh. "You hooked up with her, didn't you, Jace?"

"Nope."

"Right," Tyler scoffed.

"I'm not messing with you, it wasn't hooking up," JC insisted. "But we did end up in bed by the end of the night."

"So you talked out the whole voicemail dispute that was going on between the two of you?"

"We argued about it. I was mad, she was furious, and I was going to leave but..." JC's voice trailed off. "I don't know."

"You know what happened, JC," Tyler reminded him. "I just don't understand why you did it. Sex complicates everything."

"No, Ty, the sex wasn't the problem. The sex was," JC had to smile at the memories of the night before rapidly replaying in his head. "Staggering? Like, you're movin' slowly but, you know, at the same time you can't really breathe because it's that good?"

"I don't need to know the details, bro."

JC frowned. "Her text makes it sound like I just got some and left her apartment. Like, she was a booty call or something."

"Maybe she thought you'd spend the night?" Tyler offered. "Maybe she didn't expect you to tiptoe out late at night right after doing what you guys did."

JC furrowed his eyebrows in thought. "I didn't think it made much a difference," he mumbled honestly, as he played with one of the salt shakers resting on the table. "She fell asleep so I left."

"Well, stop looking into it so much, man," Tyler said. He adjusted the tie he wore before patting the sides of his pants to ensure his keys were in place. "I've got a client to see in a half hour so I should get going. I think Kat's just trying to be normal with you again. Maybe the text was out of sarcasm; a way of trying to make conversation."

"So do I reply or do I leave it there or should I just go see her later or should I wait a couple days before I give her a call?"

Tyler grinned as he rose from the chair. "JC, you need to just go back to being normal around her. I'm a psychologist, listen to me. If she's still mad at you, she's a woman, you'll know it. Until then, stop analyzing. You're a musician not a scientist."

JC laughed lightly as he pulled a fifty dollar bill from his wallet and stuck it under the salt shaker he was toying with. "I suppose," he said. "I suppose we can go back to being normal."

* * *

Katrina's eyes scanned the words on the pages that were fastened to the clipboard she held in her left arm.  Her head bobbed to the rhythm of the faint music she heard coming from outside in the store. Her one woman dance party of checking off boxes and marking off labels gave her mood the boost it needed after the past three days.

The music suddenly became louder when the door swung open and Rihanna's ‘Only Girl' boomed into the storage room as though you had just entered a concert that had already started.

"Kat?" a fellow worker called out to her as she stood in the doorway. "Are you almost done with those?"

Katrina turned around and gave a confident nod. "Almost."

"Do you want me to finish them for you?"

Katrina gave a confused smile but shook her head. "I'm okay, thanks. I don't have too many more to check out. I'll be out in a while."

The woman turned her head out the door to whisper something before calling out to Kat once more.

"How long's a while?" she asked. "We need your help with a customer out here."

"Ask Sheila to help," Katrina replied, not bothering to look up. "She and Nicole are somewhere by the Plus Size clothes racks."

The music slowly faded as the door closed and Katrina continued her morning's work. She used her free hand to open the cardboard lid to one of the many boxes clustered in the corner of the large room.

She was about to reach for the one of the rolls of labels on the iron shelf behind her when the door was pulled opened once more, quicker than the last time. The abrupt occurrence forced Katrina to snap her head up in surprise.

"Are you not available to work with customers this morning or something?" JC asked, letting the door close behind him.

Katrina stood up straight, the nerves in her face momentarily paralyzed as she recognized her surprised guest. "You're the customer?" she asked, slightly stunned.

JC nodded, pulling off the grey beanie he wore on his head. "Hey."

Katrina shook her head almost in a panic as JC made his way further into the room. "No, no, Jace, you can't be in here, my manager would kill me. This is employees only, I can't-"

"Relax," he told her with a small chuckle. "I know this is employees only. I talked to your manager by the counter. She said it was cool."

"Really? What'd you say?"

"Hi, I'm JC Chasez," he grinned and Katrina felt a relieved smile quickly take the place of the frown on her face.

"That makes sense," she said with a sigh. "Hi."

JC looked around at the boxes. "Inventory mess?"

"I'm sorting it out," Katrina told him. "I think it's alright, for the most part."

"That's good," JC nodded.

There was an odd few second silence between the two before Katrina looked up at him with an expecting smile.

"Are you going to tell me what you're doing here?" she asked.

JC nodded his head and his hands nervously kept busy with the beanie. "I just, uh," he cleared his throat. "I wanted to follow up from last night."

"Go ahead," Katrina encouraged as she momentarily turned her attention back to the clipboard.

"I wanted to know how you felt about it."

"Me?" Katrina questioned. "Are you asking me to give you a review?" she asked with a smile.

"No! No no, no," JC laughed. "What I meant was, I wanted to know where we stood, you know? That text you sent didn't help with clarifying things either."

"The ‘gentleman' thing?"

"Yea."

"Just my way of teasing you after you left last night," Katrina admitted casually. She stopped herself when she realized JC didn't respond. "Did I scare you or something?" she asked, stifling a laugh.

"No, I just didn't know what to think about it. I didn't know if I offended you or if you were still mad-"

"About the voicemail? Not really, not anymore."

"Oh, good. Then I'm glad that we cleared that up."

"Well I can't hold that grudge over you forever, can I?" Katrina murmured. "I just figured it'd be better if we stop talking about it."

"I agree," JC said, going along with her. "We're adults and we're not going to let one stupid-"

"Very idiotic and unnecessary," Katrina corrected him.

"Are we okay?" he asked, sincerely.

She smiled as she set down the clipboard and label roll on the shelf and folded her arms across her chest. "Yea, we're good. Thanks for coming by."

JC raised his eyebrows, pleasantly taken aback. "Wow, that's not something I hear every day."

"Well, enjoy it, because I doubt I'll be saying it any more often."

Katrina checked the time on the silver, analog wrist watch on her left arm before turning to the boxes and placing both hands on her hips. "I really should get back to work, Jace," she said. "Are you doing any work today?"

JC quickly went through his schedule for the day.

"Yea, I'll be in meetings probably from around ten o'clock to three and then I've got to hit the studio till maybe seven or so." He lifted his arms to rest the beanie back over his thick, brown hair.

"Well, you better get going," Katrina said.

"Hey, Kat?"

"What?"

"Do you have plans later?"

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't."

JC situated a fixed stare in her direction.

Katrina giggled when she noticed the expression spread across his facial features.

"I do have some things planned for later," she stated. "I'm going for a run and then I intend to indulge in some books that have been sitting in the back of my closet that I have yet to read."

"How eventful," JC acknowledged half sarcastically. "How about you come by my place tonight and chill out with me?"

"I don't think so, bud," Katrina declined, patting him on the back as she walked around him. "I just want a couple of days of peace without having someone around to entertain, you know what I mean? It's been a hard week."

"Given the circumstances, I guess I can leave you alone this one time."

She smiled. "How about Friday?"

"I'm busy Friday. I'm working at the studio all of Saturday afternoon. Saturday night?" he suggested.

 "Me and Pixel shall be at your place at let's say, nine? I don't get off my shift until eight thirty."

"Sounds good," JC concurred.

"Okay, Jace, as much as I love having you here to distract me, and I do, I really, really, really need to get back to my shift, so please get out of here."

"Alright, I'm going," he told her before he dipped his head to the side to kiss her cheek as Katrina continued to scribble notes onto her paper. "I'll see you Saturday."

"Don't forget," she called out to him as a warning.

"I won't," JC promised as he made his way toward the door.

"Do you need me to bring anything?"

"Condoms," he replied. "I'm all out."

Katrina smiled as she let out a soft sigh. "Starbucks and popcorn it is."

* * * * * * *

"I think you're probably going to have to do this one over."

JC sat intently behind the large soundboard that Saturday night as he leaned forward in the black, leather chair. His right foot lifted halfway off the carpeted floor to beat in sync to the music coming from the speakers of the Apple laptop next to him.

His arms were folded across his chest clothed by a short sleeved, white t shirt whose simplicity showed off the definition in his shoulders and biceps.

He had been in the studio for a good six hours working with an upcoming female vocalist and good friend of Tyler. The writing process had dragged along longer than he had hoped the day before as well as earlier that morning but he was thoroughly enjoying the production process.

JC looked down at the lyric sheet on his lap to follow up with the words of the song. Man, it felt good to see his name written at the top of the page. There were few things that excited him more than doing what he was doing: Working or, more specifically, making music with anyone and everyone who was willing to take a chance with him.

It was only a bonus that the woman he was working with was as insanely beautiful as she was talented.

"How much higher do I have to go?" the twenty-six year old, Lisa, asked him.

"You need to go an octave higher on the last note of the second verse."

The woman heaved a sigh as she let her head fall back so that her high, dirty blonde bun hit the back of her own chair, identical to the one of her producer.

"You'll get it, don't worry," JC assured her. "We're just going to come back in here on Monday so that we can perfect it and record the official demo. Other than that, we're done."

"Are you sure we're going to get this done in time?"

"Do you trust me?" JC asked with an almost teasing smile. "If you do, then stop worrying. You're doing just fine. I won't let you send this demo in until the track is absolutely unblemished."

Lisa reached over to squeeze one of his hands appreciatively. "I really am grateful that you agreed to work with me, JC."

"Hey, the talent is all in you. I'm just trying to bring it out on this song," he told her, setting the papers down on the soundboard to lean back. "And any friend of Tyler is a friend of mine so it's all good."

"I know you're probably a busy guy, balancing the whole celebrity thing with your music and travelling and your girlfriend. I bet it's tough a lot of the time."

JC chuckled. "Not as tough these days. No girlfriend and less travelling but life balances out. I can't complain."

"Are you not ready to settle down or something?"

"I like to have my fun and I'll leave it at that."

"I haven't met that right person yet either."

"You're still in your twenties, you're young," JC reminded her. "You'll find a good guy."

"But I haven't found him yet, is what I'm saying," she slowly said. She ran a finger from the base of JC's fingers to over his wrist. She gave him a sly smile. "Out of curiosity, do you kiss as well as you sing?"

JC studied her with a pleasantly, questionable expression on his face. "You're pretty bold, aren't you?"

"I prefer the word ‘confident.'"

"I do a lot of things as well as I sing."

Lisa shrugged her shoulders. "Well, that's not exactly something Tyler mentioned so I can't take your word."

He rolled his chair closer to where she was and leaned over the handle so that his lips were inches away from hers. "You say you don't have a boyfriend," JC started. "Try me," he challenged.

No more than a single second had gone by before the woman's dark shade of lipstick had transferred over to JC's own light pink lips and her hand was pressed against his chest.

"You're pretty good," she noted, and the frown lines on JC's head suddenly became visible.

"Do you do stuff like this with all your producers?" he asked.

"Do you do stuff like this with all your upcoming artists?" she queried.

"I usually keep my sex life out of my studio, figuratively speaking."

"Who said anything about sex, JC?" Lisa spoke innocently cunningly.

He smiled before letting one of his arms move to grip her around the waist before planting a wet one onto her lips.

"So do you want to stay here or should move the party out front where the cars are parked?"

"Your place sound good?" he asked as he pulled her up to stand with him.

Lisa bit her bottom lip in an attempt to conceal her obvious excitement as she took his hand and let him lead her over to the exit of the studio.

She was going to have sex with JC Chasez.

* * *

A little less than fifteen minutes later had passed before the two stumbled through the front door to a modern, one story house. Her jacket was already off as was JC's brown belt.

"Second door on the left down this corridor," she advised him, slightly breathless.

JC ensured that his hands kept busy with the generous assets that her body offered as they walked unsteadily over to her bedroom. It took a moment for her to find the doorknob in the darkness and her hands fumbled when JC's mouth had already found the sweet spot on her neck.

The man stuck to his word. She concluded he did indeed do a lot of things just as well as he sang and they hadn't even done what she had in mind yet.

The two finally made it into the dark bedroom before Lisa had taken the lead. She took the opportunity to push the man in front of her directly onto his back on her quickly becoming unmade bed.

"I feel like I need to ask," she began as she straddled him. Her hands pressed down onto the mattress on either side of his face. "Are you tested positive for anything?"

"I'm clean," JC assured her. "What about you?"

"Same. So I don't have to be worried?"

"The only thing you need to worry about is if you're going to be able to get up and walk later," he muttered as she rested her weight on him and her core pressed into him.

As their tongues became reacquainted, there was an involuntary vibration coming from in between them.

"What's that?" she whined, pulling away from his lips.

"My stupid phone," he mumbled. JC sighed impatiently as he tried to fish the device from out of his pocket.

Lisa turned to the remaining sensitive areas of JC's body to keep her company while he tried to silence the phone's loud vibrations.

He was about to throw it onto the next side of the bed when Katrina's photo caught his eye. There was a text message.

I'm about three minutes away. Open the gates.

JC's eyes widened and every nerve that had been set on fire in his body had immediately just collapsed with not one flickering flame to keep any of them alive.

"Oh my God," JC groaned, and it wasn't because of where Lisa's lips had suddenly ended up.