JC was gone now, but Amanda hadn’t moved an inch.  She could still feel the warmth of his arms around her, his chest pressing against the curve of her breasts, his heart beating against her – she ached to feel it all again.  One short hug had probably felt better than anything she had ever felt in her entire life.

Of course she had been hugged before, and not just by family members, either.  Her and Simon had done their share of “making out” so she did know a little bit about how things worked.  Obviously she never let it go all the way. 

That had been a strange time in her life.  Her mother had just been diagnosed with the cancer that inevitably ended up taking her life and Amanda was going through, what she calls, her rebellious stage.  That’s why she had gone out with Simon in the first place.  Even though he was studious and intelligent, her father never approved of him.  No one would ever be good enough for his daughter as far as he was concerned.

Maybe that’s why she had never found love, because she was always too afraid to look.  The few girlfriends she did have in college always told her she was blind when it came to men.  That they looked, she just never noticed.  Of course she never believed them.  But with this sudden turn of events, she was beginning to wonder.  Did it take the attention of a god-like pop star to make her realize that maybe she actually wasn’t so unappealing after all?

At any rate, she was approaching the realization that Marcy had been right.  Amanda needed some advice and preferably before her next get-together with JC.  With that in mind, she threw on her most casual beige skirt and a red, knit v-neck before heading down to the store to find Marcy, hoping her friend wouldn’t be too upset about the way she had acted earlier.

She was thankful to find Marcy behind the sales counter ringing up the only customer in the store, Mrs. Bitterman, an elderly woman that shopped there regularly.  Why?  Amanda had no clue when there were a dozen or more expensive retailers right down the street, but for some reason the white-haired lady seemed to like this one.

Mrs. Bitterman smiled genuinely at Amanda as the two passed through the door, the older woman leaving and Amanda making her entrance.

“Oh, so did you decide to work today, after all, or are you coming to apologize?”  Marcy asked stubbornly.

“I’m sorry, Marce.”  Amanda looked at her friend with the best pleading eyes she could muster.   “You’re right.  I do need you.”

Marcy smiled satisfactorily and rested one hand against her kicked-out hip.  “Well, finally you admit it.”

“When are you getting off?”  Amanda asked.

“At four.”  Marcy answered.

“Do you wanna come over and help me?  I promise I won’t yell at you again.”  Amanda asked earnestly.

“I guess so.  I don’t have any plans.”  Marcy agreed with a tiny smirk.  “But you owe me after this morning.”

“I know, I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

“Lunch or something.”  Marcy continued.

“You got it.  I’ll buy you lunch tomorrow.”

“Deal.”

“So, I’m going to go to my office real quick and then you’ll meet me up at my condo?”

“Sure thing, sista,”  Marcy remarked with her trademarked sass.

“’K, see you in a little bit.”

“Bye,” Marcy called as Amanda headed out the door.  She was in such a hurry, and not paying much attention, that she ran right smack into Justin – literally, as in her forehead slammed into his chest.  And, she noticed, it was a rather nice chest, too.  Oh, but this was the wrong *NSYNCer to be having those thoughts about.

Immediately his bodyguards’ eyes were locked onto her.  She looked up at the overpowering man with an innocent stare before turning to Justin.  He was, after all, still a guest in her hotel.  “I am so sorry Mr. Timberlake.”  She took in a deep breath and continued.  “Are you enjoying your stay in our hotel, so far?”

He grinned with amusement.  “Very much, actually.”  He replied.  “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”  She rubbed her forehead softly and contemplated the idea of making a comment about how hard his chest had been, but decided that was probably not too smart, considering.

“Good.”  He said, just as some girl shouted his name from across the lobby.  The hotel’s security staff was on it immediately, calming the over-excited fan down to a whisper.  “I’ll tell JC you said hi.  See ya later, Amanda.”  And with that he was gone.  Well, walking away with his monster of a security guard anyway.  Amanda stood there a little surprised and embarrassed.  It hadn’t been so bad when she had no idea that he knew who she was, other than she worked for the hotel, but when he made that subtle announcement – well, her cheeks undoubtedly turned a nice rosy shade of pink.  Thankfully he didn’t stick around to witness it.

More than a bit flustered, she headed for the elevator to make that stop at her office as planned.

Later that evening, after schmoozing with more people than he could count, JC settled down at a table beside two fourths of his band mates, namely Justin and Lance.  The other two were off mingling somewhere or other.  His watch read seven thirty and JC was already geared up to leave.  But that wasn’t an option just yet, so he sat down at the half-empty table and decided to eat the dessert that had been brought to him.

“So…”  Justin sounded as JC sat in the chair beside him, “I had a little run-in with the hotel manager this afternoon.”

Lance looked up from his piece of cake with a bit of confusion.   He was the last one to know about JC’s interest in Amanda and had no idea what Justin was referring to.  The only reason that Justin knew so much was because he was the one person that JC had confided in.  The others had their guesses, but that was about it.

“Is she hot or something?”  Lance asked, a little puzzled, before taking another bite of his dessert.

“She’s got JC written all over her.”  Justin remarked, raising his eyebrows for effect.

Those words struck a chord in him because they actually sounded pretty damn good.  He couldn’t have put it better.  But he opted to stay quiet and wait for Lance’s next remark, or inquiry.

“How come I don’t know anything about this?”  Lance asked, curiously glancing over at the man in question.

JC just shrugged.  He wasn’t denying the fact, but he wasn’t admitting it either.

“What about Jessie?”  Lance, not surprisingly, had to ask another question.  “Are you going to cheat on her again?”

JC calmly folded his napkin and placed it beside his near-empty dessert place.  “I thought we weren’t talking about that anymore?  How come that always gets brought up?”

“What?”  Lance asked naively.  “It’s not like she’s here.  Besides we all know you did it just so she’d dump you, but…” and he smirked before finishing, “she didn’t.”

“Thanks for reminding me.”  JC replied.  “And, if you must know, I’m not sure exactly what’s going on with Jessie and I.”

“Anyway,”  Justin interrupted, “she ran right into me coming out of that clothing store in the hotel.”

JC turned to him with glint of interest in his eyes, waiting to hear the rest of the story.

Justin, of course, continued.  “I think I might have embarrassed her a little because I mentioned that I’d tell you she said hi.”

Grinning widely, JC asked, “and what’d she say?”

“I didn’t stick around to find out.”  Justin remarked and shoved a bite of cake into his mouth.

JC let out a quiet laugh and looked back at his plate.  “I’m gonna see her later tonight,” he informed.

With that bit of information, Lance’s fork tumbled down onto the pristine white table cloth.  The other two men just looked at him oddly.  “What?” he asked, carefully scooping frosting off the table.

“Did you forget how to eat?”  Justin asked with a smirk.

“You alright, man?”  JC remarked.

“Yes, I’m fine.  It was an accident.  Okay?” 

“Here comes our waiter, I think he’s gonna make you finish eating in the back,” Justin joked.  Lance only responded with a roll of his light colored eyes.

It wasn’t long after that Justin left from the table to go talk with a mutual friend.  JC decided after a minute that he’d join him.  “Hey,” Lance said, as JC stood.

“Yeah?”

“Don’t forget we’re leaving pretty early tomorrow.”

“I know, man.  Thanks,” he remarked and met up with Justin across the room.

The next hour seemed to tip-toe by.  Once they were finished with the press, Justin was the first person to tell JC to get out of there.  So just after 8:30, he rounded up Mike and high-tailed it to the car, making the call to Amanda as soon as they were safely on their way.  He was a bit perturbed when her answering machine picked up.  A little disappointed, he left a message. ” Amanda, it’s JC.  I’m on way back to the hotel now.  I’ll try you again when I-“

“Hello?”  She finally picked up.

“Hey, it’s JC.”

“Sorry.  I just walked in the door.  I had a slight crisis in the lobby that I had to take care of, but it’s okay now.”

He could tell she was a little out of breath.  “What kind of crisis?”

“Do you really want to know?”  She asked, her voice sounding much more relaxed and confident over the phone.  It was a voice that intrigued him to the fullest.

“I don’t know, do I?”

“Let’s just say, there was a little scuffle between a younger girl and an older woman over some group I won’t mention,” Amanda explained.

“What?  You’re kidding?  What kind of scuffle?”

“I didn’t actually witness it so I can’t really say, but they were both escorted safely out of my hotel.  Along with a few others.”

“Man, there was action and I missed it.  No one got hurt did they?”

“No, unless you count a few hurt egos, but that’s about it.”

JC let out a throaty laugh and turned to Mike as he drove.   “Two fans got into it in the lobby.” 

“Hmmm, glad I wasn’t there,” was the only response the man had.

“Anyway,” he said, returning to his conversation with Amanda.  “We’re about – How far are we, Mike?”

“Ten minutes.” 

“We’re about ten minutes away,” JC told her,  “so, I’ll see you in fifteen.”

“Okay,” Amanda replied happily.  “See ya then.”

“Bye.”  He hung up the phone and slid it into his jacket pocket. 

Mike shook his head slowly, making an annoying clicking sound with his tongue.

“What?”  JC asked, realizing the man was obviously forming some sort of opinion.

“It’s not my place to say,” Mike answered.  His deep voice was enough to scare even the manliest of men, but JC was used to it.  Deep down the 300-plus pound man was as soft as a teddy bear – well, when he wanted to be.

“Just say it.  I won’t fire you, I swear.”

A laugh bellowed deep from his throat as he turned to glance at JC for only a brief second before returning his attention back to the road.  “I didn’t think you would,” he remarked.

“Well, what then?”

“Nothing.  You just got it bad for this girl.  I can tell.”

“Pshh,” JC sounded, looking away from the man and glancing out the side window at nearby traffic, “do not.”

His words had said one thing, but his tone had said something completely different.  “Yeah,” Mike rebutted with disbelief.

Oh well, JC wasn’t really too concerned about what other people thought.  If he was he wouldn’t have taken it as far as he already had.

Amanda tried convincing herself that she wasn’t nervous, but she was.  The advice Marcy had given earlier ran repeatedly through her brain, one piece she had used already.  “Don’t let him think you’re waiting by the phone,” Marcy had told her.  So when he called she had stretched the truth just a little.  The scuffle in the lobby wasn’t a lie, she just changed the time a bit.  Originally it happened an hour or so earlier.

“Don’t be nervous,” Marcy had stressed, “be confident.  Men like confidence.”  Amanda was confident when it came to her job at the hotel, but this was reasonably new territory and her confidence was lacking somewhat.  She was bound to try her best and fake it.

When his knock finally did land on her front door, she had to pep herself up during the entire ten second walk to open it.  She took a deep breath, noted how fast her heart was racing, and slowly turned the knob.

Then she nearly passed out.

Not only was he still dressed from his charity dinner and looking absolutely breathtaking in black suit and tie, he was holding one single-stemmed red rose, just for her.  The guy definitely knew how to get to a girl.  Everything he was doing was working.

He smiled, handed her the delicate bud and softly said, “for you.”

“Thank you.  You didn’t have to do that,” she remarked, trying desperately to wipe the silly grin she knew was plastered across her face, but he had that affect on her and it was hard to fight it.

“I know,” he replied. 

“Did you want to sit down?” she asked, gesturing towards the beige sofa.

“Sure.”

She followed him to the couch, her eyes gliding down his back while she was safe from being caught.  Flashes of their earlier meeting and his perfect abdomen flooded her mind.  She’d pretty much bet her life savings, which was pretty hefty, that this man looked good in just about anything he put on, as well as nothing at all.   That thought made her temperature rise in an instant.

Amanda shook those naughty thoughts away as they sat down.  “So, did you have something planned?”  She asked him.

“Did you?”  He asked with an inquiring smirk.

Oh, did she ever…  But she wasn’t that brave.  In fact, the mere thought made her giddy and a tiny giggle snuck its way out of her vocal chords.

Of course he wanted to know what she was so amused by.  “What?”

“Nothing,” she grinned. 

“Uh huh, that didn’t sound like nothing to me,” he smirked. 

Amanda only grinned more.  Did he even know what kind of affect he had on her?  She had a sneaking suspicion that he did.  How could he not?  Women get giddy over him all the time, she was sure of that, he had to realize when it was happening.

“So, how was your dinner thingy?” she asked, hoping to change the subject.

“Boring as hell,” he answered honestly. 

“Sorry to hear that.” 

“It’s okay.  It’s part of my job.  I’m used to it,” he answered, reaching up to loosen the tie around his neck.  “You mind if I use your restroom?” he asked her.

“Oh, no.”  She stood to show him down the dark hallway.  “It’s the second door to the left,” she pointed.

“Thanks.”

Amanda walked back into the living room and looked down at her delicately shaking hands.  “Don’t be nervous,” she whispered to herself softly, “you have nothing to be nervous about.”  She took in another deep breath and stopped to inspect her reflection in a wide mirror on the wall behind the sofa, her body adorned in the same beige skirt and red v-neck.  She had changed five times in between and somehow decided that everything else she owned was too stuffy.  Marcy had suggested she go shopping, but Amanda didn’t want to appear too differently.   She didn’t want him to think she was changing herself for him. 

After a minute he appeared from the hallway, Amanda was still leaning against the back of the sofa and checking herself out in the mirror.  Quickly she stood up and tried to pretend like she hadn’t been primping.

JC walked towards her, took off his jacket and laid it over the back of the sofa beside her.  “So, what should we do?” he asked, reaching for her hand.

“Um, I don’t know,” Amanda responded, allowing him to pull her a few steps towards him, but all the while realizing he was looking even more delicious without that coat and tie, and now, as he was only a step or two away, the clean scent of his cologne had clambered it’s way right up her nose and left her wanting to just eat him right up – well, sort of.

“You know,” he said, keeping a gentle hold of her right hand.  “I’m feeling a little overdressed.  I think I’m going to go change, if you don’t mind.”

“No, I don’t mind.”

“Good, you wanna come with me?” 

“Okay.”

“And then we’ll get the heck out of here.  Sound good?”

“Sure.” 

With that decision made, they were out the door.  Amanda was a little surprised when his bodyguard wasn’t lurking around the corner, waiting.  “Should you be just walking around without your bodyguard?” she asked as they neared the elevator at the end of the hall.

“As long as we don’t go down in the lobby I think I’ll be okay,” he remarked.

“If something happened to you, the hotel could be held responsible.  I mean, since you’re with me and we are in the hotel.  It’s kind of my job to keep guests safe, especially-“

“Amanda,” he cut her off, “don’t worry about it, okay?”  He told her before reaching to press the button for the elevator.

“You’re right, sorry.”

“I know you work way too much and that’s all you ever think about,” he said, “but do me a favor.  Tonight, don’t think about the hotel.  Okay?  Let’s just have a good time.”

His statement was partly correct, but lately she had thinking a lot about him so her mind wasn’t always focused on the hotel.  In fact, over the last two days the hotel had been the farthest thing from her mind, except for the fact that she was inside of it.

They stepped into the empty elevator and JC leaned against the back wall, his jacket strung through his arm as he rested one hand in his pocket.   It was a pose that was full-on sexy in a very big way.  Amanda stood a few steps away and tried not to stare, even though it had been difficult to take her eyes off of him in the first place. 

It was a quiet ride that lasted only a minute.  They stepped into the hall to immediately find Justin, three girls in their late teens, and one bodyguard.  Amanda realized that these fans had some sort of radar because it seemed they were locked on to that elevator before the doors even opened.  They didn’t scream or yell, they just eyed JC like he was a piece of meat and they were starving. 

JC turned to Amanda and grinned as he slipped both hands in his pockets and told her, “It’ll just take a couple minutes.”

“No problem.”

Amanda stood back a step or two and watched the interaction.   There were autographs, a couple pictures, and of course hugs all around.  But JC didn’t hug those girls like he had hugged Amanda.  Or maybe she was just hoping there had been more to hers, but hugging those three fans seemed more mechanical than when he had hugged her. 

Finally Justin’s huge bodyguard saw the girls to the elevator and JC and Amanda continued towards his suite, Justin following closely behind.  “So, what’s the plan tonight, kids?” he asked.

JC looked back at his friend with a smirk.  “Don’t know.  You?”

“Ah, I’m waiting for Joey and Lance to get back so we can go clubbin’.  Interested?”

“I think we’ll be doin’ our own thing.  Thanks,” JC responded. 

Interesting choice of words, Amanda thought.  Doing their own thing?  Hmmm…  She wondered exactly whatthing they would be doing.  God, she was pitiful.  Here she was, the one that had told him she wasn’t the type of girl to have some sort of fling, or whatever, and now that’s all she could think about!  She was loosing her mind, that’s all there was to it.  Her mind was completely gone.

“So… how’s your head, Amanda?” Justin asked.  “My rock hard chest didn’t bruise up your pretty little forehead now, did it?”

Alright, with that statement – teasing or not – she took back the thoughts about how nice his chest had been.  He didn’t deserve those thoughts from her, not now.  But Amanda was too sweet to snap back, so instead she glanced at him over her shoulder and said, “it’s fine.  Thanks.”

Justin let out an amused laugh.  “You’re funny.” 

Amanda wasn’t quite sure how she had been funny, but… okay. 

“Well, I’m this way,” he announced, pointing to a hallway that veered towards the right.  “See ya.”

JC and Amanda both said good bye before being left alone once again. 

“Did he tell you how I ran into him earlier?”  Amanda asked as JC slid his key into the lock on his room door.

“Yeah, he mentioned it at dinner,” JC answered nonchalantly as they stepped inside his dark suite.  He flipped on a light and tossed his expensive jacket onto a chair.

“You know, I’m not usually so disorganized.  I’m usually way more together than I have been over the past few days.  I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she told him.

“I saw your bathroom, Amanda.  You don’t have to explain to me,” JC remarked as he sat down to untie his shiny black shoes.

She didn’t get it.  He saw her bathroom?  What did that have to do with anything?  A little confused, she had to ask, “huh?”

“Yes, your bathroom,” he repeated, looking up from his hunched over position.  “I saw how neat it is.  You’ve even got the labels lined up on your hair stuff.”

“You noticed that?” she asked with surprise.

“Yep.  I noticed that you are a very organized person.  You also have your CD’s in alphabetical order.”  He slid out of both shoes and stood up a good half an inch shorter than he’d been before, but that still put him a good five inches over Amanda.

“Well, how could you find what you wanted if they weren’t?”  Automatically she felt the urge to defend her anal condition of being such a highly organized person, but really she knew he wasn’t insulting her.  He had merely been stating the obvious.

“I guess it just takes longer,” he said with a grin.   “I’m gonna go change.  I’ll be right out,” he told her.

“Okay.”

Amanda slowly spun around on her heels, waiting while JC was off stripping down to his skivvies in the next room.  That thought alone made her stomach dip with excitement as if she had just dropped off the highest peak of her favorite roller coaster. 

She wandered around the room aimlessly.  There wasn’t a whole lot to look at.  Not too many of his things were left out for her to glance over.   She imagined he kept those things in the bedroom.  There was a shopping bag sitting beside the sofa, but all that was left inside was an empty shoe box.

When he finally reappeared, he looked much more comfortable.   The kind of comfortable that made Amanda want to reach out and grab him and squeeze him as tight as she possibly could.  Of course, those type of impulses were shoved aside and ignored.

He sat down beside her on the sofa, pulled one knee up and turned in her direction.  “Now that I feel much more myself,” he said, “we have a conversation to finish.”

“We do?”  Amanda asked, noticing that he was incredibly close to her.  So close, that she could smell the fresh scent of toothpaste on his breath.

“Yes, you were going to tell me why you spend so much time working?”

“Oh.  Well, I don’t know.”  She really didn’t know how to put that answer into words. 

“Alright, I’m gonna let you slide for now, but we will discuss this tonight,” he told her.  “Mike’s on his way to pick us up and then we’ll get out of here.  If that’s okay with you?”

“Of course.”

“Good.”  He grinned and playfully grabbed on to her index finger.  Her breath stopped short, even if he was only touching one finger.  It didn’t matter.  It was still a touch.

He dropped her finger and slid his leg off the sofa, sitting straight forward before leaning his elbows on his knees.  “You really don’t get out enough, Amanda,” he commented after a second, glancing at her from the side.

Boy, that was the understatement of the century.  “I guess not.”

He chuckled and looked forward again.  “So much we don’t know about each other Amanda and so little time to learn.  You don’t have a curfew now, do you?” 

He was teasing and for once she picked up on it.  “No, of course not,” she replied.

“That’s good,” he turned to her again and winked, “because my days are all screwed up, so I’ll be awake for awhile.  Although, I could always sleep if I really tried.”  It was more like he was commenting to himself rather than her.   Either way, she was thoroughly enjoying just sitting beside him on the sofa and she would happily just sit there for the rest of the night if that’s what he wanted.  She didn’t dare think about the fact that once morning came around there’s a chance that she might never see him again.

©2001 BrandyRae