Tyler watches as Ari shuts the door behind herself and turns to JC. “Did you really have to yell at her?”
JC groans and runs a hand over his face; he leans back against the counter and crosses his arms then as if thinking better of it, he pushes off and starts heading toward the doors too.
Tyler hurries and cuts him off just as JC puts his hand on the handle of the door. “Let me. You need to calm down, man. I know you’re tired and stressed out but…just let me.”
JC watches him for a minute, considering the request before he nods and takes his hand off of the handle. Tyler pulls open the door and steps outside.
The oppressive heat of the day settles on him immediately and he shields his eyes with his hand to scan the large back yard. His eyes finally settle on her sitting on the edge of the pool, Maestro lying beside her on the patio stone. Her flip flops are stacked next to her while her legs dangle into the pool.
He makes his way down the patio steps, crosses the grassy area and approaches her. “May I join you?”
She looks up at him and nods, shrugging one of her shoulders as she does. He slips off his own flip flops and then takes a seat next to her, sliding his own legs down into the water next to hers.
“Leave it to the little Canadian girl to find the one spot around the pool where there’s shade.” He chuckles and looks over at her but she doesn’t laugh.
He nudges her leg with his foot under the cool water. “Hey. I know he really regrets yelling at you…”
She shrugs again and then sighs. “I know. He’s tired and stressed out. It’s-it’s not that…” She shakes her head and continues to stare at her feet moving underneath the clear water of the pool.
“You realize no one doubts your intentions with him, right? I mean, money wise. We’re way past the point of thinking in any way that you’re in this for his money. He’s way past that too…but it seems like you’re still stuck on it.” She still doesn’t speak so he continues. “You guys live together, you love each other…I don’t see why you’re so averse to him sharing what he has with you.”
She shakes her head. “It’s not that I’m averse…” She starts but then trails off, as if she’s hesitating to share her thoughts with him.
“Then what? You want to marry my brother, right?”
She looks up at him in surprise at the directness of his question.
When she still seems to hesitate to answer he sighs and then asks, “Do you have any cash on you?”
Her eyes narrow and she looks at him questioningly. “Uh…a little, I think…why?”
“Show me.”
She continues to look at him skeptically as she reaches into her pocket. She pulls out a five dollar bill, two one dollar bills and a few pieces of loose change.
He reaches forward and takes one of the dollar bills and slips it into his pocket. “It’s not my usual going rate, but whatever.”
“What?” She seems utterly confused.
“Now we have attorney-client privilege, you just hired me for an hour. You can say whatever you want and I’m legally not allowed to tell my brother, even if I wanted to.” He flashes a Cheshire grin at her and she actually finally cracks a smile. “There. That’s what I like to see. Come on, Ari. You want to marry my brother right?”
Her shoulders relax slightly, as if she’s finally able to release some tension. When she looks up at him she’s biting her lower lip but she then simply states, “Yes.”
He nods quietly as he looks down into the pool; of course he’d known the answer to his question. It had been obvious to him for quite a while. He just wasn’t sure if she’d ever said it out loud or admitted it completely to herself yet.
“Okay. So when you’re married, are you still going to have such a hard time accepting anything that has to do with ‘his’ money?” she shakes her head and he raises an eyebrow, “Then what’s the problem with doing it now?”
She slides her feet out of the pool water and wiggles her toes as she seems to mull over his question, her feet slip back down into the water and she says, “I think my biggest problem is that I’m coming into this relationship with what feels like very little while he has a lot. I feel like I won’t be contributing enough to the ‘family pot’, you know? If we do get married then he’s asking me to marry him while fully knowing this so it…feels different.”
“And you think he doesn’t know that now?”
She sighs and shrugs again. “I don’t know, Tyler. I mean, I think he does. I’m just…slow on the uptake I guess. lt’s just something I have to get over.”
Tyler nods and watches her for a moment then says, “There’s something else too right?”
She takes a moment to answer and then she says softly, “I also think that I never want to be seen as a ‘kept woman’ you know? I don’t want to ever be seen as some type of…”
“Trophy wife?” he finishes for her.
She screws up her face in a pained expression and he chuckles softly. “But you won’t be. You have your own business, your own career…you have something other than just being ‘JC Chasez’s girlfriend’,” he says doing an air quote with his fingers. “Do you plan on having that change after you marry?”
She shakes her head. “Absolutely not.”
“Then I don’t see what the problem is. Do you really care so much about what other people think? As long as you and Josh are happy, that’s what’s important isn’t it?”
She shrugs again and flips her hair back from her face.
“I don’t think Josh would ever let you become that either, to be honest. I think one of the things that have attracted him to you the most is that you’re your own person and you’re independent. He doesn’t have to swoop in and take care of things because you’re not able to. You don’t need him in order to function in your day to day life; you have an equal partnership.”
“I know. I know, it’s just me and my stupid head again. I get on him all the time about being stuck in his head and I’m being just as bad,” she concedes.
Tyler chuckles as he elbows her in the side playfully. “You just need to chill a little. And plus, I’m pretty sure that you need much bigger boobs to be considered a Trophy Wife…”
Ari laughs loudly and gives him a shove. “I guess this is the type of legal advice one whole dollar gets…”
**********************************
“What’s going on with you, Josh?” Karen says quietly as she watches JC take a seat on a bar stool at the kitchen island.
JC shakes his head. “I’m just getting frustrated,” he says as he scratches his cheek absently. He stays quiet for a few more moments and just as Karen is going to say something he speaks again in a soft voice and for a moment she’s taken back to when he was a little boy and he was admitting a secret to her. “I bought her a ring, Mom.”
She turns on her stool so that she can face her son. “Okay,” she says softly, unsure if there is something else he wants to add. When he doesn’t she says, “And you’re reconsidering or…”
JC shakes his head quickly. “Of course not. I want to marry her. She’s The One.”
She narrows her eyes. “Then what’s with the solemn admission of buying her a ring?”
“I’m starting to wonder if she’s going to say yes. Up until recently I would have told you I was about ninety nine percent certain she’d say yes, but I’m not sure now. And…and I can’t go through that again.”
Karen sighs, she could have killed that Nikki girl all those years ago when she’d made JC believe that she would be happy to marry him and then turned him down. She understands now why she had turned him down and honestly is thankful that he hadn’t married her. But she still remembers how broken he’d been afterwards and how it has greatly influenced his later relationships whether he was aware of it or not. His relationship with Ari has changed him greatly, for the better and she is infinitely grateful to Ari for that. Her son deserves better; they deserve each other.
“You were young sweetheart; you didn’t really know what you were getting into. It was different then, it’s different now.” She reaches forward and softly places her hand on his cheek to make him look up at her and repeats, “It’s different now.”
He nods, turns to rest his elbows on the kitchen island and run his hands over his hair with a sigh. “I know. I’m just scared that I’ll have to plead with her to accept the ring because I paid for it…” He smirks slightly and glances over at Karen.
She laughs. “Well we all know she’s not dating you for your money don’t we?”
JC nods and takes a deep breath. “Definitely. I just don’t know what to do with that anymore. She just doesn’t seem to be able to get over the fact that I have money.”
“I don’t think it’s that, Josh. I think she’s just uncomfortable with the fact that when you buy her those expensive things, she can’t afford to buy you something just as expensive in return.”
“But I don’t want or need anything expensive in return. I don’t see money that way. Yeah, I have a lot of it. I saved it. I knew that we wouldn’t be touring and performing for sold out crowds forever. I knew it would eventually end and I would need a cushion. I didn’t want to become washed up JC Chasez that used to sing in *NSYNC and now takes any movie role or does any reality show in order to get some money to pay the bills.”
She nods and pats his arm gently. “You did good. You know how proud your father and I are of you.”
Her voice falters slightly when she mentions his father so he smiles sadly and gives her a hug. “He’s going to be fine, Ma. I know it.”
Karen nods and kisses his cheek gently. “I know. Now honey, you need to have a straight conversation with Ari about this once and for all. Once it’s out in the open and you both put your cards on the table, I think it’ll put the issue to bed.”
JC nods. “I know, and I will.”
“And if I may add in my little two cents…you know you’ll never get anywhere good by yelling at your wife right?”
He makes a pained face and scratches the back of his head. “I know, Ma. I was out of line. I’m tired and stressed out but it’s no excuse, I know.”
She nods and pats the hand that is still resting on the counter. “So,” she says excitedly as her face brightens. “When do you expect to propose and can I please see the ring?”
JC laughs and shakes his head. “I don’t have a set plan yet and no, you cannot. You’ll see it when it’s on her finger.” He smirks as he stands up from the stool, leans down and pecks her cheek once more, “In the meantime, I have an apology to make.”
With that he walks toward the patio doors, opens them and walks out into the backyard.
He’ll make it right.
She smiles to herself as she stands and starts picking up empty bowls and cutlery to place into the dishwasher.
**********************************
“Can I cut in?” JC says as he walks up to his brother and Ari sitting on the edge of the pool. They seem to be laughing at something. “What’s funny?”
Tyler laughs and stands up, “Nothing man, you don’t want to know.” With that, he pats JC’s shoulder and grabs his flip flops before making his way back into the house.
JC looks down at Ari; she is looking up at him with a tentative smile. “Hi.”
“Hi.”
He lowers himself down to sit next to her, hiking his basketball shorts up on his thighs so he can slip his legs into the water as well. “Listen Ari, I’m-“
“Wait. There’s something I need to say, please hear me out.”
He nods and turns to look at her patiently.
“I know you’re getting frustrated with me. I get it. I’m getting frustrated with me,” she says then laughs softly. “I realize that you don’t think I’m with you for your money. I just seem to have this mental block when it comes to accepting things you give me that are worth more than my car, you know? I think it’s partly because I know I will never be able to reciprocate-“
He starts to interrupt and she raises a hand to quiet him. “Let me finish. I realize you don’t expect me to, and I know that’s true. It’s just hard for me to get that into my head.” She takes a breath. “ I love you. So much. And I can’t picture living my life without you, so I realize that I have to come to terms with the fact that you come with certain things like incredible stubbornness, eggshell peppered scrambled eggs and yes, a crap load of money.”
They both chuckle softly. “I just never want to feel like or be perceived as a kept woman. I want and need to keep my own identity in our relationship. It’s really important to me and I need to know you will support that.”
He nods and reaches over to grasp her hand, sliding his fingers between hers and squeezing them. “I do. I always will. You have no idea how comforting it is to me that I am not solely responsible for your income, your entertainment and your self-worth. You’re a strong woman that complements me and doesn’t either hide behind me or stand in front of me. I feel like we stand next to each other and walk forward at the same pace.”
She’s looking at him and he sees tears start pooling in her beautiful blue eyes, he’s about to say something when she speaks. “That’s…beautiful.”
He blushes and looks down for a moment before he looks back up as she leans in and presses her lips to his gently. When she reaches forward and rests her hand on his neck as they kiss, effectively deepening their connection, he can’t help but feel like they’ve finally turned a corner and that he no longer questions if she’ll marry him.
As they pull apart, he notices that she seems to be thinking about something funny and he smiles. “What?”
“Nothing…” She laughs softly, then smiles back. “Actually, I was just thinking that I won’t have to get bigger boobs…”
His eyes narrow and he looks at her truly confused. “What?”
She laughs loudly, “Just something your brother and I were discussing earlier-“
“My brother was talking to you about getting bigger boobs?” he cuts in and turns to look over his shoulder toward the house as if he can yell at Tyler from where they are sitting. “I think I need to have a discussion with my brother.” He laughs, gets up quickly and grabs a surprised Ari to throw her over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold. “Talking to my girl about her boobs…” He shakes his head and pats her behind as they laugh and he carries a squirming Ari across the backyard and back into the house.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Only two more chapters and an epilogue left for this story, catch up on it while you can!
Chapter End Notes:
Oooh, so what's next for JC and Ari? I always enjoy getting reviews!
And again, praise be to elle-miranda for being a kick ass beta!
And again, praise be to elle-miranda for being a kick ass beta!
Story Tags: phonesex boyfriendjc showersex jc producerjc
