Chapter 11

Tara's POV:

"What a fucking asshole!" stormed Jen, glaring at nothing in particular. "I can't believe he expected you to fall back into his arms after some half-assed apology or breakup or whatever. You're way better than that!"

"Yeah," Sasha chimed in. "If you ask me you were to good for him in the first place ..." she mumbled under her breath and for once I didn't feel like defending him. Let them have their field day.

"And can you believe that shit? Asking if he's yours and his kid? What kind of bitch comes out of her mouth like that at a christening?"

"But the best part was when Tara got up in her face and practically dared her to fight. Priceless!" Sasha crowed.

Jen added, "You saw how fast she shut up, right?" They both started laughing and I did, too. Hey, it was pretty funny.

After our laughter subsided, Sasha faced me. "Okay, fun and games are over. What are you gonna do, Tara? Take him back? Because you know how we feel about--"

I cut her off. "No! No, I'm not 'taking him back'. Right now I'm just trying to get through this weekend from hell. Justin is not in the cards for me except as Riley's dad. That's it," I said resolutely and everyone seemed to believe it.

Including me.

So we took our showers (well Jen and I did, Sash dashed off to JC's hotel after begging us to cover for her in case her parents came looking for her), lotioned up girl-talked for a minute and recounted the events of the day, finally checked on Riley and then crashed.

Getting ready for the promise of a new day.

*~*

The next day dawned clear and beautiful. Sunny and warm, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The women all drove to the nearest restaurant for breakfast and left the men to fend for themselves, as Lynn pronounced it was time we had a day off from cooking.. I'd only caught a glimpse of Justin as he entered the kitchen while we were leaving and I could see the confusion on his face. But it wasn't the time to discuss it. That would have to wait until later.

The ladies had a great time, gossiping and just having fun while chowing down. Everyone fussed over Riley, who was gumming down some pancakes, which was nice because it gave me a chance to eat until my stomach couldn't take anymore. Too soon it was over and we headed back to the house. When we got there. Justin was closeted away in the recording studio he'd had installed inside the house working on something and the rest of the men had scattered other than Mike, Trace and JC. JC, you could understand why - Sasha, of course. Mike - to catch up some more with me and the baby. But Trace? To stay and further his obsessive crush, if you ask me,

How creepy.

Everyone sort of disappeared to different areas of the house, leaving me alone with Lynn and Riley. I wasn't sure what to do next but luckily Lynn had an idea.

"Honey, why don't you take one of my old comforters and sit out there in the garden? Right there near the flowers? They're just blooming and should be perfect! I'll bring you some iced tea in a minute."

It sounded good; Lord know I didn't have anything else to do. So I agreed with her. "Sure." Grabbing the comforter and a bottle, we headed outside and settled down. Pretty soon Riley was crawling around and shrieking baby noises that were music to my ears. Kicking off my sandals, I stretched my legs out and let the warm sunlight wash over me, perfectly content.

And then guess what.

"Hey!"

Justin.

Making his way over to the comforter, grinning from ear to ear.

Oh God.

"How're my two favorite ladies?" Could he be any more smarmy?

I answered, "We're fine." And left it at that. I still wasn't over him not being more assertive around Cameron regarding our so-called relationship. I say so-called because there was none.

He went on, " It's a beautiful day out, mind if I join you?"

Again, I shrugged. "Whatever."

He sat down and grabbed Riley, who gurgled happily as he tossed her in the air a few times. The he settled her back down on the comforter again and turned to face me. "Tara, we need to talk."

Oooh! Tara instead of T! I'm sooooo scared!

"About what?" I snapped, knowing full well what he wanted to talk about. "About whether Cameron left or not? Because that's all I'm really interested in now."

He sighed. "She's gone," he told me. "She left early this morning. Trace took her to the airport."

"No long, sweet goodbyes?" I asked. Forgive me but I felt like being snarky.

He sighed, exasperated. "No! There's nothing between us now. Especially after all that shit about is Riley really mine. Fuck that bitch," he said angrily. "Riley is ours and that's the end of it. And anyone who doesn't like it can take a flying fuck!"

Secretly it made me glad that he trusted me so implicitly. I smiled a little. my ice slowly beginning to thaw. "So she's really gone?" Not that that would change anything. I was just asking.

He nodded, completely serious. "She left around 5 AM and Trace took her. I didn't want to see her anywhere near me, to be honest. I've never been more mad at a female before in my life! She can go fuck herself as far as I'm concerned. I told her to get her shit out of my house before I get back, too. I'm not gonna let you and my little girl get disrespected, you know? I'm just not. So ... she had to go. He grabbed a chubby leg of Riley's and pulled her back to the center of the comforter.

"Well, thanks, Justin. I'm just not sure what else to say ..."

He turned to me, all excited. "So, this is what I was thinking ... you and Riley should pack up and move to LA but only after we find a new house. That way we can make a fresh start with no bad memories, right? And then ..." he went on and on, waxing poetic about our live until I had to stop him.

Justin's POV:

"Justin! Stop!" Tara's voice cut through my pleasant musings.

"What?" Seriously, I had no clue what she was so upset about.

She shook her head. "You're going way too far here. I never promised you any of that."

Again I grabbed one of Riley's limbs and pulled her back to safety. "But we talked about this! We made plans, T!" I knew I looked so forlorn that I felt bad for her. I knew she'd feel bad for me.

She tried to be gentle. "No, Justin ... you talked about those things, not me. I just ... listened."

"Well why the fuck didn't you say something? Instead of letting me ramble on like that!"

"I did ... I tried. But you wouldn't listen. You were totally excited and you didn't want to hear how you were moving too fast for me. I need to ... if we're even gonna try to to do this again it needs to be very slow. And ... no, it's not exclusive. We can both see other people for the time being."

"Tara!" I was outraged but she forged ahead.

"But I will take you up on your offer to come to LA for awhile. It might be nice to get some things that I left behind and I know Sasha and JC wouldn't mind seeing each other. And ... maybe we can try taking things slowly. And I mean slowly, Justin."

I made a gagging noise, then a retching sound and she shushed me.

"Look, do you want us there or not?"

That shut me up immediately and then, interrupting us, Momma came out with some sweet tea and Tara, Riley and I enjoyed the afternoon, lazing around talking about everything and nothing. Although I couldn't keep the night before off of my mind when I had knocked on her door softly several times only to have no one answer.

It didn't matter though. We were gonna sleep together again soon, no doubt about it.

I was gonna make it happen. Just watch me.

*~*

On second thought, maybe Plan "Get Tara Back" wasn't working as well as I thought it might. Things just weren't going my way.

First of all, she informed me that the primary reason for the visit was for me to bond with Riley, which I did, in between working on my new CD. But it also left her free to run around town acting crazy. And it didn't help that Sasha's ass was there either. The two of them in a town like LA, single and free? Bad situation. Although free isn't wasn't what I'd use to describe Sasha since she was fucking around with JC for a fucking decade, but what the fuck ever. No good was coming of the town of them in LA.

Meanwhile I was on diaper duty. Watching kids shows and shit. Riley's gonna be a musician, I just know it. She's already got the beat down for dancing, and I swear when I hear her singing sometimes she sounds like she has perfect pitch! Can you imagine? Almost two and so talented. Momma says she reminds her of me at that age which is funny because I consider her to be Tara's mini-me.

Now back to Tara. She goes out almost every night in totally slutty outfits (that are kinda sexy I have to admit) and stays out all night. She even insists on sleeping in the guest bedroom. Tell me what's up with that? After everything we've been through she now refuses to sleep with me because it will "confuse" things.

Fuck that!

Most importantly, NO SEX. NONE. NADA. And I an not happy about that shit. I need sex in order to think, breathe, just fucking exist! And since Tara arrived two weeks ago I haven't creeped not once, no matter how tempted I've been. That's how committed I've been! And for what? Blue balls, that's what. Oh - Riley's crying. Gotta go.

Sasha's POV:

Where do I start? With the fiasco in Shelby Forest, TN (it sounds so much more country than Millington) or the hot nights in LA? Shelby Forest was a trip and a half. Timberfuck was in rare form, trying to play host yet keeping himself between two girls who wanted to beat each others ass like the whole something. It was funny to watch, especially the big show down where Cameron tried to step to my girl Tara and ended up running away to save her ass from the beat down of the century. Pure comedy.

Then Timberfuck was all stuttering "Cam ... we need to talk ... Tara and I ... well, we talked and ..." and that was it. Cameron guessed the rest (guess she's not as big an idiot as I thought) and flipped out and that's when she challenged Tara to a fight thinking someone would step in to help her out. NOPE! So then after Cameron ran away, Justin was all "See? Now we can be together" or some shit like that and Tara just gave him a dirty look and walked away as well she should have.

Back upstairs, she basically told me and Jen that the night before was a booty call which we thought was sketchy but we gave her the benefit of the doubt when she didn't go sneaking downstairs to see him again.

*gag*

But she was pissed for him not being a man and standing up and telling Cameron the truth before she could guess it with all his stammering and stuttering. You should've heard him outside on Lynn's patio. If she hadn't had the nerve to call my friends and family the cast of Motown I might've laughed if it hadn't come from her anorexic ass.

Lucky for her she made her grand escape and was ghost by the time I blinked an eye. Back to Tara - she's not as sprung as she once was. Well she says she isn't but I'll believe it when I see it. But for now her word is good. Let's just hope she keeps the physical and emotional stuff from the sex. That's it. Guys do it all the time! Fuck so do I! Shit.

Right after the mess at Lynn's I called JC and plans were set in motion. We rendezvoused at his hotel and SERIOUSLY got busy. I know, I know, you're asking why I'm not married or something by now. I just like how things are. We're not screwing anyone else but we're free to flirt around. Well, it's been years of fighting, arguing, semi-apologizing, make-up sex ... it works for us.

I guess there's really no right way to describe us. We've been 'together' for almost 10 years now, hell, we've lasted longer than Tara and Fuck face. We're not together constantly, like up each others' asses. He's on the West Coast and I'm on the East Coast, we just make lots of trips back and forth for extended periods of time. Sometimes we talk about making it official but I'm scared and I think he is, too. What if he's not 'The One'? So many people shack up and everything is fine until they get married and then it's over. I don't want that. When I get married it's gonna be forever or at least it'll be done in California which is a 50/50 state so I can be sure to get half so I can continue my lifestyle uninterrupted.

Oh shit. I guess I kinda love the motherfucker. In love? I don't know. Love? Yeah. He's second only to Riley, Tara and Jen now. Sadly, he beats out my parents because at least he's not on my ass about needing an allowance and becoming an old maid. If I'm not ready to get married even if it's to 'that White boy' as my dad loves to say then it's my business. I'll do something when I get ready. JC seems ready sometimes ... I know he wants kids. So do I. So maybe soon. Jen's engaged and Tara's already got a baby and we swore we'd raise our kids together so maybe I need to get on the ball.

Whoa, I went way deeper than I meant to there. Back to the matter at hand.

After we got some ass, JC agreed with me about the Cameron stuff too much, even for Justin. I brought it up after a marathon session.

"I hope he knows how much trouble this is gonna be if he doesn't handle it correctly," JC sighed. "This is definitely some shit."

"He's trying to get back together with Tara. She's not buying it now, though."

We looked at each other for another momentarily, then burst out laughing, saying, "Yeah ... right."

I swear, I'm the only girl to want to murder this jerk - why oh why does my best friend do this to me?

Anyhow, JC and I spent the night together and I ended up creeping into Lynn's house in the wee hours of the morning. When I arrived in the bedroom Jen heard me and stirred. I asked her, "Where is everyone?"

Jen announced, "Still asleep, like I should be. I won't even ask what YOU'VE been doing."

I rolled my eyes and brushed her comment off, heading for the shower. My luck held up: Jen didn't follow my ass and as a plus Justin would be grossed out when he found out where I spent the night. Yay!

When I got out of the shower, sure enough, Jen and Tara were sitting on the bed with Riley, eager for every detail. I don't know why, we didn't do anything that we didn't do before. Although now that I think about it. Jen is missing her fiance pretty badly and Tara ... well her ass is just plain nosy. I gave them the 411 but it wasn't like we were swinging off of chandeliers or anything. Nothing really new to report.

So then we got to talking about who else? The saga that is Tara and Justin. Who the fuck cares anymore. I mean really?

Well I guess I do. Care, I mean. Because I sat right down and listened to Tara go on about why she wouldn't be with Justin again. I was proud of her for not accepting his lame ass stand up to Cameron. She deserved better and instead of letting him walk all over her like she's done in the past, she stood up for herself.

Unfortunately though, she's going to visit him in California with Riley. Which of course means I'm going too, to make sure she doesn't fall under his spell yet again. Someone has to watch the baby while those two act the fool, right?

Justin's POV:

You're not going to fucking believe this shit. NOT BELIEVE.

First the clubs, shopping and partying all over town with Sasha while I'm stuck at home. Not that I mind being with Riley, but still. Next, blathering on and on about the New Kids on the Block reunion. I mean come ON. NKOTB? Jesus. She HAD to see them on the East Coast because she had to go with Jen. Hadto. And so I graciously agree. I even arranged for Momma to come over and help when she's gone! So I'm trying to be patient and do right and let me show her I can be her perfect boyfriend but I haven't gotten so much as a kiss. I hoped she would give me one when I took her to the airport - yeah my girl and her wack ass friend are riding in a private plane because that's how I do it - but no, nothing. And after the effort of doing all of that (well it only took only once phone call really) she could show some fucking appreciation. Although she did and jump up and down and hug me ecstatically but that was about it. No kisses, no feeling, no touching ... no me touching her ass ... I just can't take it anymore!

But I haven't gotten to the best part yet! She met Donnie Wahlberg, the fucking love of her life since she was like 12. How the hell can you compete with that? I am sick. If she fucks around with them I'll kill both of them. I'd know if they did, too. I know Tara like the back of my hand and I'd peep that shit right away. Plus I have my ways of finding out shit. So when she called me after the first show I played it cool.

"You having fun? Where are your friends?" I wanted to talk to the motherfucker before he tried to bust a move in front of my girl. Which sucked because Donnie and I were kinda cool before but if it came down to him or my girl you know which way I was rolling.

"Oh we're just hanging out with Donnie and Jordan right after they got off on stage. Wanna see?"

Then her cruel ass texted the pic to me where she was all cuddled up with Donnie, as was Jen with Jordan, leaving Sasha in the middle looking disgruntled. Shit pissed me off even more. T looked so pretty and Donnie was all wrapped around her. And there was nothing I could do, short of committing a felony and going to jail.

But back to the story ...

"What the fuck are you doing, hanging out with them?"

"They invited us to the after party and I hang with whomever I like, Justin. Don't get it twisted."

I fumed. "I don't like this, Tara. Not one fucking bit!"

"Oh calm down," she tried to reassure me. "I liked him when I was 17 for God's sake. I'm just here to have a good time and relax. I'm not sweating him anymore. It's just something fun to do with my girls."

Right.

So why then did she pack the sexiest lingerie and clothes? She was driving me crazy between my dick getting hard and her looking so gorgeous. Something had to give. This was all my fault, using my contacts to set things up for her. I just wanted her to be happy again. Well my plan worked and then some.

If it was between me and Donnie, I really wasn't sure who she'd choose.

Again, fuck me.