“You’re not even dressed,” I state when Justin opens the door that night.

“You’re early,” he retorts.

I check my watch. “By like a minute. Were you really planning on getting dressed in this minute?”

“Maybe,” he says, stepping back from the door so I can enter the cabin. I can’t help but let my eyes run over his body that’s merely clad in a towel. I swear he does this on purpose. When we were dating I told him that my favorite part of his body was his chest and ever since then it’s like he finds opportunities to take off his shirt when I’m around. If I didn’t appreciate the view so much I might call him on it.

“Do you want to take a picture so you can take it home with you?”

I pull my eyes away from his chest to look up at his smirking face. “That’d be great,” I say flatly. “Where’s your camera?”

He laughs and reaches behind me to shut the door. “If you’d like to go check the burgers I will go clothe for you.”

“Not a moment too soon,” I call after him and watch him retreat into the bedroom before going to the kitchen. I move through the kitchen and step out onto the patio where the smell of cooking meat is in the air.

I’ve got to admit, I’m pretty excited about this meal. Justin makes the best burgers and considering I was looking at the prospect of a frozen dinner by myself tonight, this is going to be a feast.

I’m so glad that Justin’s out here at the same time as me. I thought it would be good to get out of LA and come up here and have some time all to myself but within the first night of being here I was ready to shoot myself with all the thinking I was doing. I try and keep my life as uncomplicated as possible and all this shit with Wes right now is making my life way more difficult than it should be.

Maybe Justin was right this afternoon when he said I should just ditch him. It’s only been a couple months that we’ve been dating so it shouldn’t be that big of a deal but I know it’ll turn into one. Wes has always been more serious about our relationship than me and I know that he’s looking for a wife. That and getting partnership is all he needs to make his life perfect. And it won’t help that he doesn’t see anything wrong with our relationship. I really need to think this all through but I don’t want to ruin my weekend by obsessing over it.

Two arms encircle my waist and suddenly I’m crashing back against Justin’s body and in the air. A yelp escapes me but it’s quickly covered by his laugh.

“Justin!”

“Lainey,” he mocks, hoisting me further up his body and in the air.

I kick my legs back, hoping to make contact with his body but all I’m met with is air. “Put me down, you freak.”

He laughs again and sets me unceremoniously back on my feet. “Chill out.”

I reach out and flick his earlobe. “You’re such a creep.”

He bumps me out of the way with his hip and moves to stand in front of the barbeque. “You’re letting them burn, Lainey.”

“I was about to flip them before you went all caveman on me.”

He grins over at me and reaches his hand out to me. He grabs my hip and yanks me over to stand right beside him and then starts flipping the hamburgers. I glance over at him and then shake my head. He must have gotten a headstart on drinking because he’s being more touchy than usual. I guess he’s forgotten that I currently have a boyfriend. So maybe things aren’t great between Wes and I but he’s still in the picture.

I push his hand away from my hip and take a step away from him. “Are we eating out here?”

“It’s nice enough to. Are you going to set the table?”

“Yeah.”

“Nice little homemaking wife setting the table for her husband who’s bringing home the meat….well cooking the meat.”

He must be drunk because if not he’s a complete idiot for saying something like that. I shoot him a look over my shoulder before going back into the house to grab the dishes. He needs to calm himself down before he does something really stupid.

Justin keeps himself under control for dinner and once he’s back to his normal self, I begin to have a really fun time with him. It’s been a while since we’ve hung out and I’d forgotten how much fun I have around him. He’s one of the few people I know who I don’t have to censor what I say and I can really just be myself around. He’s the least judgmental person I know and I think he may be one of the few who actually gets me.

Things get interesting once he breaks out the Malibu. The drinking game only lasts for thirty minutes before I’m more than tipsy and he’s not far behind. It’s been a while since I’ve just let loose and gotten drunk and it’s a nice change.

“Justin! Hold still!” I say through laughter as I grab his foot and yank it back towards me.

He groans and lays his back down on the carpet. “You’re tickling my foot.”

“Just hold still,” I instruct, trying as best I can to keep my hand steady as I paint his toenails.

“I can’t believe I’m letting you do this,” he says, propping himself up on his elbows and staring down at his feet. “This comes off, right?”

I roll my eyes and laugh at him. “No, Sherlock, it’s permanent.”

He kicks my leg with his free foot. “You gotta take this off before we go back to LA. If anyone sees this…”

I break into laughter again simply because I cannot believe I’m actually sitting on the floor with Justin Timberlake painting his toenails a particularly bright pink. Another drink in him and I bet he’ll let me do his fingernails. I so want to be here tomorrow morning when he wakes up and sees his feet.

“Pink’s a good color on you though. You really should consider wearing it more often.”

“Not on my damn toes.”

“Just think of the fashion trend you could start,” I say. I paint his last nail and let go of his foot. “Every man in North America would have pink toenails within a week.”

He sits up completely and leans over to examine his feet. “That’s so gay, Lainey.”

I twist the lid of the nail polish shut and smirk over at him. “You don’t have to pretend to be upset. I read those homosexual rumors about you in the National Enquirer last week. I won’t tell anyone you asked me to paint your toenails pink.”

The words are barely out of my mouth before he’s tackled me onto the carpet and is trying to get me into a headlock.

“You’re going to smear the nailpolish!” I yell out in between laughter. “It’s not dry yet!”

“You’re such a little shit, Lainey,” he laughs, successfully getting his arm around my neck. “You’re taking that shit off.”

My laughter fades as I begin to get dizzy from the combination of alcohol and trying to pull myself out of Justin’s grasps. “I’m gonna throw up all over the carpet if you don’t let me go,” I threaten but he only responds with a loud laugh.

“Not my carpet,” he says, twisting me further under him.

“Jessica’s going to hate you! First you steal her nail polish to put on then you-”

My words are cut off suddenly by his hand clamping over my mouth. “There,” he comments, rubbing his knuckles over the top of my head. “Quiet.”

I push my feet against his knees futilely, trying to get him off of me. When I’m met with no results, I do the next best option and lick his palm. He pauses at that and winks at me.

“Don’t tempt me, Lainey.”

I roll my eyes and gather all my strength and push him away from me. “You messed up my hair,” I say, collapsing on my back on the carpet, tired from his little wrestling session.

He sits back on his heels. “Like you really care.”

I smile and drape my arm over my eyes. I really don’t care at all but it was worth a try to get him to feel bad for tackling me. “I spent so much time on it and now it’s all ruined.”

He grins and raises an eyebrow at me. “You didn’t seem to concerned about it when you were squawking about me smearing the nail polish on the carpet.”

I can’t help but laugh at that. “I worked so hard on your toes though.”

It’s quiet for a minute and I lift my arm to see him staring down at his feet. “I’ve come up with a suitable punishment for you doing this to me,” he finally says, lifting his eyes to look at me.

Is he kidding me? I’m pretty sure I wasn’t holding him down. He actually seemed a little too excited for me to paint his toes. “Oh you have, have you?”

A smile slowly forms over his lips. “You have to do a shot for every toe.”

My mouth drops a bit. “Ten shots would kill me at this point,” I state.

“Okay so you do half, I do half,” he reasons, already on his feet and going over to the counter where all the alcohol is laid out. “You can handle five.”

I groan a bit but don’t protest. I have a feeling he’ll all but force the alcohol down my throat and it’ll be easier just to go along with him.

I sit up from my laying position and shake my head a bit, trying to clear it. There’s still enough rational thought left in me to know that I should be calling it a night and go back to my cabin while I can still walk. But the amount of carefree fun I’m having with him keeps me glued to my spot until he comes over and drops to the floor across from me, setting two shot glasses and the half empty bottle of tequila in between us. I watch him pour alcohol in both glasses and take the one he hands to me.

“To having a kickass weekend,” he says, clinking his shot glass to mine.

I smile and go along with him, throwing it back. I’m past the point of the tequila burning and it slides down my throat pretty easy. As soon as the glass is away from my mouth, Justin is filling it again.

“To you finally being free of Janice,” I toast and he lets out a ‘Whoot!’ before taking his shot. I follow suit.

“How about…” he trails off as he hands me the refilled shot glass. “To you showing Wes what’s up and coming out here without him to hang with me!”

I toast with him even though I didn’t exactly come up to the cabin to spend time with him. Reasoning at this point seems a little pointless.

“Ugh, I don’t think I can do two more,” I say after swallowing my third shot. “I swear you’re trying to kill me.” He laughs and takes my shot glass from me and as soon as it’s out of my hand, I lay down on the carpet again, rolling onto my side. Only a second passes before Justin lays down as well, facing me.

“Okay, I’ll be nice and let you skip the last two shots,” he says, reaching out his finger to tap my nose. “Next time we got out though you owe me two shots.”

I close my eyes and groan. I know he’s going to hold me to that. “Fine.”

It’s quiet for a brief moment before he speaks again. “I’m really glad we both came up here this weekend. I would have been lonely if I was up here all by myself.”

I open my eyes to look at him. He’s a bit blurry and I blink a couple times to clear my vision. “Me too. Even though you ruined my plans to be intellectual and read my book tonight.”

He laughs and I watch him through half closed eyes as he moves a bit closer to me. “You would have been so bored.”

“I know.” I bite on my lower lip and let my eyes examine his. The large amount of alcohol in my system makes me bold enough to ask my next question. “Did you really mean it when you said you were still in love with me?”

He blinks and doesn’t pull his eyes from mine. It only takes him a couple seconds to answer. “Yeah. I meant it.”

I should have expected an honest answer out of him but now I don’t know what to follow it up with. “Oh.”

“You were like the best girlfriend ever,” he says after my pitiful response. “And we only broke up because of that stupid condo thing. Why wouldn’t I still be in love with you?”

“I guess.” I blink a couple times and suddenly realize just how close his face is to mine. He licks his lips and his eyes connect to mine again and…oh man, I know those eyes. I dated the guy for almost a year. I know what those eyes mean. And I may be drunk off my ass but not drunk enough to forget that I have a boyfriend waiting for me in LA. “Justin,” I say, stopping him before he can get his mouth any closer to mine. “Wes.”

A slightly sour look comes over his face and he backs his head away. “Wes,” he repeats as if the name gives him a bad taste in his mouth.

I roll onto my back and rub my eyes. I feel like I’m about to pass out. I need to get back to my own cabin. I take a deep breath and pull myself up. Instantly a wave of blackness passes over me and I stumble forward. Justin’s arms go around me and catch me before I fall over.

“You can’t even make it back to your cabin,” he says. “Stay here tonight.”

That is SUCH a bad idea but he’s right about me not being able to get back to my own cabin. I’d probably trip and end up sleeping on the deck all night. “Where do I sleep?”

He looks towards the hall. “My bed’s pretty big.” He glances back at me and then quickly goes on. “I think there’s a guest room across the hall too.”

“Help me get there,” I say, putting my arm around his neck for support.

“I can’t help still being in love with you,” he mumbles as we stumble down the hallway.

“We’re both drunk and we both need to stop talking,” I reply, letting myself sit down on the bed when I reach it. I stare up at him and he stares down at me.

“You’re sure you don’t want to crash in my room?” he asks. “It’s not so stuffy in there.”

Like stuffiness is his real concern. I’m so tempted but I’m going to tell myself that’s because I’m drunk. “Another time, J-star.”

He gives me a half smile and nudges my foot with his. “I’m gonna hold you to that.”

“I bet you will,” I say, pulling my legs onto the bed and laying down. My eyes almost shut, I watch him lean over and kiss the top of my head and then straighten.

“Bathroom’s down the hall,” he says. “Night.”

“Night,” I mumble back and then roll onto my side, my eyes already shut before he even exits the room.