Chapter 3

It was amazing what a good nights sleep would do.  Well, technically he hadn’t hardly slept during the night, but whatever you called it, he felt much more alive when he woke up at three in the afternoon.  He groaned and stretched his body under the sheets of the bed, happy that he had three more hours until it was time to leave for the shoot.

But, of course, he was starving so he would have to get up.   Or, he could always call room service.   Nah, he felt ten hundred times better than he did the day before so he’d make an appearance in the lobby and sign some autographs, then head to the hotel restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner. 

On the other hand, the bed was mighty comfortable and he had it all to himself.  Maybe that’s why he had slept so good.  Funny, it used to be the other way around.  He used to sleep better when she was there.  Not anymore.   If that wasn’t a tell tale sign than he didn’t know what was.

Finally he decided to get up and take a shower.  He stopped briefly to look at himself in the bathroom mirror on his way, thankful that the bags had finally disappeared from under his eyes.  Today would be a much better day, he could feel it already.

His good mood didn’t subside as he shaved after his shower and towel dried his shaggy brown hair, knowing it would definitely be another hat day.   Besides, the stylist would be doing his hair when he got to the shoot so there was no need to make an effort now.  He threw on a pair of long cargo shorts and a t-shirt, covering his head with a fisherman-style hat before slipping on a pair of flip flops. 

Ready to go, he picked up his cell phone and called Mike.  “I’m hungry.  Can you come get me?”  He asked his bodyguard over the phone.

“Give me ten minutes, I’m downstairs.”  The man answered and hung up without another word. 

“Ten minutes.”  JC repeated to himself as he slipped the tiny phone into his pocket.  “Wonder what everyone else is doing?” 

He didn’t have to wonder for long as he heard a loud knock on his room door and answered it to find a bright-eyed and cheery Chris standing in the hallway.  “Hey.”  

“Hey, you’re awake?  Wow.”  Chris remarked with sarcasm as he pushed his way through the door.

“Yeah, I was just gonna go get some food.  Wanna come?”  JC asked, following Chris inside.

“Sure.  What happened with Jessie?”  He asked curiously as he plopped down on a couch in the main room.

“She left.  She was bored, I think.”  JC explained, taking a seat across from Chris in an empty chair.

“Oh.  Bored, huh?   Maybe she was just tired of being ignored.”

“Don’t start.”

“Hey, I just don’t understand why you two don’t break things off.  Why do you keep her around when you don’t even do things together anymore.”

This was not the conversation he wanted to have at the moment.   His day had started off really good, he didn’t want to spend the rest of it trying to figure out what to do about his relationship with Jessie.  “Can we not talk about this right now?  I’m in a pretty good mood and I don’t want to ruin it.”  He told his friend.

“Oh, okay.  Yeah, whatever.”  Chris replied.   “Sorry, I don’t want to ruin your good mood.”

JC rolled his eyes and stood up as he realized Mike was knocking at the door.  He answered it to find the body guard waiting patiently with his arms folded over his chest.  “Ready?” 

“Yeah, Chris is coming, too.”  JC informed.

“Oh, maybe we should call Jim then.”  Mike suggested.

“Ah, what’s a matter Mikey?  You can’t handle the both us?”  Chris smirked, brushing past the man and patting his hefty shoulder.

“Pshh, right.  Come on, let’s go.”  Mike huffed.

JC had half hoped that when they got down to the lobby area he would see Ms. Ballard behind the registration desk again today, but she wasn’t there.  He realized that she was probably busy off doing hotel stuff, whatever it is people that run hotels do.  

He wanted to apologize for the way he had acted the day before, but she had really caught him off guard standing in his hotel room.  That was the last person he had expected to be there, even though now, as he re-thought the whole situation, it did make perfect sense.  She was the person in charge, after all, and he had ignored the phone and the door.  Something could have happened to him.  Not likely, but possible.  Some psycho, deranged fan could have been waiting for him and attacked him, leaving him for dead on his hotel room floor.  Now that was a crazy thought.  He was letting his imagination get away with him.

Chris and JC signed autographs for a good twenty minutes in the lobby before finally making way to one of the five restaurants in the hotel.  This one, JC noted, was very close to that little bar where he had heard her playing the piano two nights before.  In fact, there was a door that adjoined the two and he could sort of see through it from his seat.  Of course, there was no one in there now.  He wasn’t sure if the place was even open at three thirty in the afternoon.

The three men ordered their food and talked a whole lot about nothing, but JC kept finding himself gazing over at that doorway, the memory of her music lingering in his mind.  But what he had never expected was to catch a glimpse of her walk right past it, along with some man, carrying a clipboard in her arms.  Now was his chance and he had to take it.

Without a word he scooted his chair from the table and rose to his feet.  “JC, where are you going?”  Mike asked.

“I’ll be right back.  I’m just going over there for a second.”  He answered without looking back.  He was focused on the door.  He had to get to that bar before she left. 

The lights were off except for a few behind the bar counter that spanned along the back side of the room.  Mirrors lined the wall behind it with every possible type of alcohol you could imagine lined perfectly on high shelves above.  That’s where he found Amanda and the other man, apparently going over inventory or something.  The older man was reading off names of alcohol and she seemed to be checking them off on some sort of list.

He stood there very quiet for a moment as she had yet to realize he was there.  The girl was spacey.  She had done the same thing yesterday when he surprised her at the registration counter.  It was rare that he could walk right up to a girl and she not even notice he was there, not since the group had gotten so big, anyway.

She seemed a little more put together today.  Her reddish-brown hair was full of waves and it fell just below her shoulders, one big piece stayed tucked behind her ear as she stared down at the papers attached to the clipboard.  Her clothing was all business, with a white button down shirt tucked into either a skirt or slacks, he couldn’t tell because she was behind the bar.  Either way, she had a pretty nice figure underneath.  That he could tell.  He was a man after all.

Finally he made his move and headed towards the bar.  JC was only a few steps away when Amanda and the other man both looked up and noticed him heading their direction.  He could read the look of surprise on her face immediately.  Her eyes were a pale green color and opened up about as wide as quarters.  It was a look that made him smile.  For some reason he enjoyed sneaking up on her.

“Mr. Chasez.”  She spoke very professionally, with a little bit of shock intermingled in her tone.

“Ms. Ballard.”  He replied confidently.  “Do you think you could spare a minute?”  He stepped up to the bar and took a seat on one of the round, black stools, leaning his elbows on the cool, lacquered surface.

“Of course.”  She answered.

“I’ll go start on the stuff in the back.”  The other man remarked, grabbing the clipboard from her hands and heading towards a door to the side of the bar.

“What can I do for you?”  She asked, re-tucking that thick grouping of hair behind her ear.

“I just wanted to apologize for yesterday.  I didn’t mean to come across so rude.  I was just a little surprised, that’s all.”

“Oh, there’s no need to apologize.”  She spoke nervously.  He knew he made her nervous.  It was so obvious there was no way she could possibly hide it.  He had a tendency to do that to young girls, but not usually to ones his own age or older.  He wasn’t quite sure how old Amanda Ballard was, but he guessed she was probably a little bit older than him.  “I shouldn’t have intruded that way.  Your friends seemed a little worried and so I wanted to make sure there was no need for-“

“Please.”  He interrupted.   “There’s really no need to explain.  I understand you were just doing your job.”

She stared at him briefly with those pale green eyes, apparently without a response to his interjection, before letting her gaze flutter away from him, drifting off into the empty space behind him.

“So, do you ever leave this place?”  He asked.

Her brow wrinkled into the center of her forehead.  Almost as if she had to think about her answer.  “Of course.”  She finally spoke.

JC grinned, she looked a little flustered and that amused him fully.  He wasn’t sure why, but it did. 

“Why do you ask that?”  She continued.

“Just wondering.”  He remarked.  “Well, I don’t want to keep you away from your work and my food is probably getting cold.”   He stood from his stool and lifted his hat just enough to scratch the back of his head.  “I’d say that maybe I’d see you around, but I’m leaving in a couple hours and you’ll be gone by the time I get back.  Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She looked at him with complete and utter confusion.  “Sure.” 

“Maybe we could have lunch?  Or are you off tomorrow?”  He wasn’t even sure where that had all come from.  Was he asking her on a date because he hadn’t even realized those words had come from his mouth until it was already too late.

And she still looked totally confused.  “Day off?  Um, I don’t get those.  I’ll be here.”

“What do you mean you don’t get a day off?  Everyone has to have days off.  Even I get days off, well, sort of.”

“It’s not that I don’t get them, it’s just that I never take them.”  She explained.  

“Oh, well, that’s too bad.  Anyway, I should go eat now.” He took one step backwards, but his eyes didn’t leave her for a second.  “You do accept my apology, right?”

“Yes of course, Mr. Chasez.”  He hated that formality in her voice.

“Please, call me JC.”  He asked, taking another small step backwards.

“Of course, JC.”  She said it, but she still sounded all business-like.

“Alright, well, I’ll see ya tomorrow then.”  Finally he turned and left, feeling really strange about the whole scene that had just played out.  His friends were really going to give him a hard time for that one. 

Amanda stared at the doorway JC had just left through.  She was frozen with disbelief, shock, surprise, amazement, and about a hundred different other emotions that she had never felt before.  Had he just asked her out on a date?

He only wanted to have lunch.  Maybe he just felt really guilty for the way he had acted the day before.   That must have been it.  There was no way he really wanted to go on a real date with her.   This was just lunch.

But even so, she was still in shock.  She had been in shock the minute she saw him standing in front of her and it had yet to disappear.  He sure had a way of a sneaking up on her.  Never had she ran into the same celebrity so many times during their stay at her hotel.  She was beginning to think these occurrences were happening for a reason.

She breathed in deeply, trying her best to remember what exactly she had been doing before he had so surprisingly interrupted.  Her concentration was completely lost.  “Inventory.”  She whispered softly to herself.  “I was doing inventory with John.”

Just as she started to turn and meet John, the head bartender, she heard his voice again.  “Oh, Amanda?”  She looked up to see JC standing just barely in the doorway.  “It is okay if I call you Amanda, right?”  He asked.

She stared at him for a second, stricken with more surprise.   Why had it been so difficult for her to find her voice lately.  The guy practically knocked the speech right out of her.  Finally, she found it.  “Yes, of course.”  And how come she kept saying of course so much?  Every other word came out as of course. 

“Anyway, is two okay for lunch?  I know that’s kind of late, but we’ll be shooting a video all night so I’ll have to get some sleep sometime.”

Now she knew.  Now she knew why he had looked so tired the day before.  She had to admit, he looked much, much better today.  In fact, he looked pretty damn good, but she was trying really hard not to think about that.  “So you were serious?”  She asked.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t have asked if I wasn’t.  Are you busy tomorrow?”  He stepped a few feet into the room and about ten times closer to Amanda, or so it seemed, and she felt her pulse increase about twenty times.  She couldn’t understand why he had such a wild affect on her.

“No, I’m not busy.  I mean, I’ll be working, but that’s okay.  I’m always working.”

“Good.”  He grinned and it sent her heart into a flutter.  He had a beautiful smile.  She couldn’t help but realize how much more awake and cheerful he seemed today.  God, if she did go to lunch with this man she could really be getting herself into trouble.  What in the world was she thinking?  “Well, not good that you’re always working, although I can definitely relate to that.  Anyway, I’ll see you then.”

“Okay.” 

He turned to leave and then turned back around quickly.   “Wait.”  He said.  “How do I find you?”

“You can just pick up any of the hotel phones and ask the operator to page me.”  She told him.   “Or we could just meet in the restaurant.”

“That sounds good.  You pick since you know which one is best.” 

It was then the thought occurred to her that if she had lunch with him in the hotel it would be the gossip of the entire staff and surely get back to her father.  That might not be such a good idea.  “You know what, I just remembered I’m going to be in meetings all day tomorrow.”  She made up a quick excuse, hating herself with every word, but it really was for the better.

“Oh.  Oh, well that’s too bad.”  He remarked, a blank look spreading across his face. 

She hated to lie.  Oh, the guilt was welling up already.  She was a terrible liar.  She couldn’t do it.  She folded under pressure – the pressure of herself.  “No, that’s not true.”  She admitted.

He looked at her completely baffled, with one eyebrow raised slightly higher than the other.  “Oh.”

A little flustered, she shoved her hands in the pockets of her black slacks and stepped out from behind the bar.  “I really just, well, it would be unprofessional of me to-“  She really was at a loss for words because, honestly, it could be considered a business lunch and wouldn’t really be that unprofessional of her.   But it was more than that, at least for her, and everyone would know it.  Amanda was readable, that was one thing she knew about herself and the staff knew her well enough to know it too.  They’d all guess right away that she had a little crush on this member of the hottest so-called boy band in the entire universe.

“To have lunch with a guest?”  He asked.

“Yeah.”

“Oh, well in that case, maybe some other time when you’re not working.”  He flashed a tight lipped smile and she visibly noticed him take in a deep breath.  “Guess I’ll see ya around – maybe.”

Amanda just stood there incredibly mad at herself for turning down such a tempting offer.  Maybe?  Oh, that sounded so disappointing.

“It was nice meeting you, Amanda.”  He said.

“You too, JC.”  She had to force herself to call him by his first name because it still just didn’t feel right.  She never referred to guests by their first name, but he had specifically requested her to, so she did.

“See ya.”

“Bye.” 

He turned and left and she literally smacked herself on the forehead because she was so frustrated with herself for chickening out, because that’s what she had done.  She had completely, one hundred percent chickened out.  Oh, she was such a wimp!

JC returned to the restaurant and both Chris and Mike looked at him completely puzzled.  “What?”   He asked, scooting his chair up to the table.

“So, you do like her?”  Mike asked curiously.

“Who’s her?  Who’s her?”  Chris chimed in with excitement before taking a huge bite of his greasy hamburger.

“I asked her to have lunch with me tomorrow and she turned me down.”  JC admitted casually, inspecting his turkey sandwich to make sure it was the way he had ordered it.

“You got rejected?”  Chris asked, his mouth half full.

“Guess so.”  JC spoke nonchalantly, picking up a french fry and shoving it into his mouth.

“Why’d she say no?”  Mike asked.

“Something about being unprofessional for her to have lunch with a guest.”  He mumbled through a bite of his sandwich.

“Oh, that’s a bunch of crap.”  Chris remarked.  “I don’t believe that for a second.  She just doesn’t like you.  That’s all.   Wait, who is this girl, anyway?”

JC rolled his eyes and took another bite of his food.  He had to agree, he didn’t quite believe her excuse, but he didn’t think that it was because she didn’t like him, either.  In fact, he knew she liked him.  Why would she get so nervous around him if she didn’t?  It had to be something else.  Maybe she was afraid of what people would think?  He could understand that one.  He didn’t like it too much, but it was understandable.

Really, he didn’t know what he was thinking anyway.  He had a girlfriend – sort of.  He shouldn’t have asked Amanda to lunch in the first place.  “It doesn’t matter, anyway.”  JC remarked to his friends.  “I don’t know what I was thinking when I asked.  You know I don’t have time, I mean, I shouldn’t be going to lunch with strange girls.  It’ll only start more rumors.  Besides, I do have a girlfriend.  I don’t know what I was thinking.”

For once Chris stopped eating and gave JC the most serious look from the tops of his dark eyes.  “Are you trying to convince us – or yourself?”

That was a question in which he had no answer for.

An hour had passed since she had regretfully turned JC down on his invitation to lunch and Amanda had been kicking herself ever since.  Well, not literally, but she sure felt like it.  She had finished up inventory with John in a hurry so she could return to her office and wallow in her own self pity.  She was so mad she could have just about punched her own self in the face.

She glared at her phone as the intercom beeped.  The last thing she felt like doing was talking to people on the phone.  Actually, she didn’t feel like doing anything except for being mad at herself.  “Yes?”  She asked, punching the speaker button.

“Amanda, there’s a Josh on the line for you.”  Her secretary informed.

Josh?  She didn’t know any Josh.  “I don’t know a Josh.  Did you get a last name?”  She asked.

“He said you would know who he was.  He spoke with you earlier in the bar.” 

JC?  And then she remembered his bio.  He must have been using his real name so no one would be suspicious?  Or maybe because he was afraid the operator could be some crazy fan?  Who knew.  “Okay, thank you.”  She told her secretary and picked up the phone.  “Hello?”

“Amanda?  Sorry to bother you again.”

“JC?”  She asked.

“Oh, yeah.  Sorry, the J stands for Josh, anyway,  I didn’t want the operator to get any ideas.”

“Oh, no problem.” 

“So, I’m feeling kind of weird about earlier.  Do you think we could talk for a minute?  I’ve gotta leave in about an hour.  Maybe you could come up to my suite?  Or would that be unprofessional, too?  It’s just that it’s a lot harder for me to go places than it is for you.   I mean, not to sound selfish or anything, it’s just if I come to you then I’ll have to get my bodyguard and I’ll have to stop and talk to fans – not that I mind doing that – but it will take like a half an hour just for me to meet you somewhere.”

Amanda had to hold back a chuckle, because for the first time since she had spoken to him, he sounded like the one that was nervous.  She had no clue why, but if she wasn’t mistaken, he sounded just a little unsure.  She must have thrown him a curve when she turned him down for lunch.  “Sure, I can take a little break.  What room are you in again?”

“You don’t know?”  He asked her.  She couldn’t tell if he was joking or serious.

“Well, no.  I don’t have every guests room memorized.  I’m not that good, Mr. Chasez.”  That had slipped.  His name had slipped and she knew he’d call her on it.

“Please, call me JC.”  She knew it.

“Sorry.” 

“Anyway, I was just messin’ with you.  I’m in room 2707.” 

“Okay, give me about ten minutes.”  She told him.

“See ya then.” 

Amanda didn’t know what the heck she was doing as she rode up in the elevator to JC’s room.  And why on earth would he want her to come up to his room?  And where the heck was his girlfriend?  Up until that moment that little factoid of information had completely escaped her.   Maybe she wasn’t his girlfriend after all…

She stared at his room door for a full minute before she finally gained the courage to knock.  He was, after all, the one who had requested the meeting.  Not her.  She had no reason to be nervous.  But she was.   Just like always.  This man had really sent her world in to a tizzy ever since she had first seen him two nights before.  What was wrong with her?

He answered the door almost immediately and she realized, immediately, that this was a very bad idea because each time she saw him he seemed to grow more and more attractive.  And this time was definitely no exception.  For a change, she got a glimpse of him without a hat and she had to admit she liked what she saw.  His hair was pretty long and it had some definite curl to it.  She could only imagine being able to run her fingers through that hair.  Oh!   She shouldn’t even be letting those thoughts in her head.  Yes, he had some weird interest in her, but she was sure it was nothing like that.  He could have women ten billion times better looking than Amanda, that she was sure of.  Besides, when it came to experience, she had none.  Guys could sense that stuff so surely he wouldn’t be expecting some sort of fling or something crazy like that.  She hoped – or did she?  Her hormones were raging… Oh, but that was another story altogether.

“Come in.”  He grinned and opened the door wide enough for her to step inside.  “Did you notice any crazy girls hanging out in the halls on the way up?”

“No, not really.”  Amanda answered, feeling just a bit awkward and uncomfortable.  The room seemed different than it had the day before, although she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.  One thing she did notice was the distinct scent of man that lingered in the room.   It was a clean mix of soap and aftershave and it sent her nostrils into a frenzy of delight because it wasn’t very often that she smelled those sorts of things, especially from a man as attractive as the one in front of her.

“That’s good to know.  So, about earlier...”  He said, motioning for her to sit down on one of the sofas before he sat down across from her on the other.   “Just wanted to say sorry for overstepping my boundaries.  I really had no business asking you to lunch.  I don’t know what I was thinking.  My mind has been a little haywire lately.  I hope you weren’t offended by my invitation.”

Now she was really thrown for a loop.  Of course she wasn’t offended.

“I mean, now that I think about it, I understand completely what you were saying.  You being seen with me in your hotel, well, it would probably just start rumors for the both of us and I’m sure you don’t want that.  I know I don’t want that.  It really was a bad idea.”  He continued.

Amanda glanced around the room, realizing there was not one hint of woman anywhere.  Yesterday it had been obvious that he hadn’t been staying alone.  Today the room was half empty and that, she realized, was the thing that was different.  She was a little confused about his whole situation and who that girl had been, but she was in no way brave enough to ask.  “You don’t have to apologize, really.”  She assured him, beginning to feel a little rejected herself.  As if he was taking back the invitation.  Well – she guessed – technically, he was.

“You’re right.  You’re right.”  He repeated, resting his elbows on his knees and folding his hands together.  “You know, I just can’t stop thinking about you playing the piano that night.  How come you don’t play more often?”

Ah ha!  That was his weird fascination with her.  Amanda knew she played pretty good, but that good?  She had no clue she was good enough to spark the interest of a real musician.  She smirked and took a breath as her nerves calmed down just a notch or two.  “It’s really just a hobby.  My father would kill me if he knew I did that.  That would be very unprofessional.”

“Playing the piano?”  JC asked with surprise in his voice.

“Yes, in front of hotel guests.”

His eyes narrowed and he leaned forward towards her.  “Your father seems kinda bossy.  Not that it’s any of my business.”  He interjected quickly.  “I just don’t see why that would be such a big deal.  You playing the piano and all.”

“I think it’s because it reminds him of my mother.”   Oh, Amanda, you are getting in way over your head.  She couldn’t believe she had mentioned her mother.  She was not ready to tell this man that she had barely met her life story.

JC just kind of looked at her as if he wanted to ask, but she could tell that he didn’t want to pry.

Finally Amanda just gave in and told him. “She passed away three years ago.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”  He said.  “I wasn’t trying to be nosey.  I just hate to see talent go to waste.”

“Yeah, well… my talent would be running this hotel.”  Amanda explained.

“That’s not a talent.  That’s a job.”  JC remarked with a smirk.  “I mean, not that you’re not good at your job.  I’m sure you very good at it.  But, well, you know what I mean.”  She watched as his face fell into his hands and he groaned as he rubbed his eyes.  He looked up at her and sighed.  “Forgive me.  I’m really not myself lately.”

“And why is that?”  She asked, hardly believing that she had asked because she promised herself not to get too personal.   Of course that was before she had blurted her mouth off about her mother.

“I need a vacation.”  He answered with no hesitation, stood up and stretched his arms towards the ceiling.  Amanda tried hard not to look, but she just couldn’t not look as his t-shirt lifted above the waist of his shorts just enough to give her a hint of his ivory colored skin.  He had been hiding a stomach that could have easily passed for a washboard.  If she guessed right, that wasn’t a six pack it was more like a twelve pack – if there was such a thing.

She reminded herself that her hormones were raging and even the chubby bell hop would probably look good to her right now.  Well… maybe not.

“Well,”   he said, rubbing a hand over his stomach – a hand that she grew a little jealous over because she’d love for it to be hers at that very moment.  “I don’t want to keep you from your work.  Thanks for coming by.”

Amanda stood up, still a little confused as to why he had asked her there in the first place.  She guessed because he wanted to straighten out the whole lunch idea thing.  But really, that hadn’t been necessary at all.  The only thing their little visit had accomplished was sending her hormones into overload.

She walked towards the door and he followed, but instead of reaching for the handle she hesitated and took in a deep breath – a breath consumed with his clean manly scent as she turned to face him behind her. “You know, this really wasn’t necessary.  I mean, I wasn’t offended or anything.  You didn’t have to explain to me.”  Really, she wasn’t sure what exactly she was trying to say.

He stared at her with those deep blue eyes.  Eyes that she could actually see now, eyes that were alive and awake and full of life, not like they had been the day before.  There was no hat to shadow them.  They were open and bright and looking right at her.  When he smiled his whole face lit up and when he looked at her that way, it made her feel things that she had never felt before.  “I know.”   He finally spoke.  “Honestly, I just wanted to see you again.”

His honesty left her speechless and confused.  The only thing she could think of to say was, “why?” 

He chuckled softly and his gaze dropped to the floor for a brief moment before he looked up at her once more.  “That’s kind of a strange question.  I don’t know why.  Just because.”

“Oh… okay.”  She was feeling very unsure and that nervous feeling had crept up again, ten fold.  “I should probably get going.”

“Right.   Well it was nice talking to ya.” 

“You too.”  She replied, her heart pounding so hard she’d swear it was getting ready to beat right out of her chest.   As he reached to open the door for her, his arm brushed against her shoulder and caused a zillion little tremors to travel from one end of her body to the other.  If accidental touches made her feel that way, she could only imagine what one purposely given would do.   She shunned the thought, hoping to divert the rosy ness she felt heading towards her cheeks.  Why was she feeling a little embarrassed?  She had no clue, but figured it had something to do with the fact that he had completely turned her on by just one little two second touch.  Lord, she was in trouble.

She stepped into the hall, took another breath of courage, smiled and waved goodbye.

“Don’t work too hard, now.”  He smirked.

“I’ll try not to.”  She grinned, “bye.” 

She was having a hard time taking her eyes off of him as he stood with such confidence in his doorway, leaning his side against the frame with his arms folded comfortably over his chest.  Finally she managed to turn away and focus her sight down the hallway.

“See ya later.”  He called to her.   She looked back one more time and grinned before her feet actually started moving.  His eyes were burning a whole through back, knowing that he was still watching her.  At last she heard his door shut and breathed a huge sigh of relief.  What in the hell was going on?  This was absolutely crazy.  Just plain madness.   She had no idea what to think now.

But the memory of him so close and his arm brushing up against her made that tingly feeling sneak right back up.  Why did she already find herself hoping to see him again – and soon?

©2001 BrandyRae