~~~~~*~~~~~

Clare lay on the couch in her office with her arm draped across her eyes to keep the bright daylight out. She'd tried to get a bit of sleep during her lunch break to ease the pounding in her head but she hadn't had much luck.

She couldn't ignore the niggling feeling in her stomach that she'd had since she'd woken that morning to find JC gone. He hadn't woken her to say goodbye, which she'd found confusing as he'd slept next to her—albeit above the covers—all night.

After they had shared that kiss she had, inevitably, fallen asleep. But she hadn't expected to find him gone in the morning. In fact, she'd been very much looking forward to waking and finding him still lying next to her.

Getting up from the couch, Clare headed straight across the room towards her miniature Hi–Fi, which she had bought in from home. She liked to have background music in her office whilst she worked as she disliked silence.

Flicking the power button on the Hi–Fi, she waited until the digital display illuminated, indicating that the C.D on the spindle had begun to rotate. Before the music began to play, Clare quickly changed the setting to 'radio'. The last thing she needed was the *NSYNC album to begin playing for the millionth time.

As soon as the room was filled with background music, Clare headed back towards her desk and sat back down in her chair. She fixed her eyes on a spot on the ceiling as a familiar song began to play, stealing the breath straight out of her.

Her eyes began to fill with tears as she listened to the lyrics that reminded her so much of... him.

Have you ever loved somebody so much it makes you cry? / Have you ever needed something so bad / You can't sleep at night? / Have you ever been in love, been in love so bad / You'd do anything to make them understand? / Have you ever had someone steal your heart away? / Have you ever tried to find the words / But they don't come out right? / Have you ever? / Have you ever?'

As the song finished, Clare glanced directly at her desk phone. Lifting the receiver, she punched the buttons that would connect her to JC's cell–phone and held the receiver against her ear. She didn't know what she was going to say, but she knew that she needed to hear his voice regardless.

Hearing the dialling sound, Clare took a deep breath and tried to muster her courage. She had to ask him—once and for all—what was going on between them. She couldn't handle any more uncertainty; especially not after their shared kiss...

"'Lo?"

Suddenly, Clare couldn't speak. He'd answered the phone a lot quicker than she'd anticipated and it had thrown her.

"Hello?" JC repeated with an edge in his voice. He didn't like people he didn't know having his cell–phone number, and Clare could only guess that he was assuming that a crazed fan had gotten hold of it from the silence on the other end of the line.

Realising that too much time had passed without her saying anything, Clare decided to cut her losses and end the call. Almost immediately the phone rang again, and Clare took a deep breath before answering in her usual professional greeting.

"H'lo Clare," JC said in an amused voice, and she could hear him chuckling down the line. "You called?"

Once again, Clare was thrown. She struggled to form the words that her brain was screaming at her to say. "Err... how did you know it was me?"

"Caller ID," he said simply. "Why'd you hang up?"

"Err... I..." Panicked? She thought to herself, "thought that maybe you were busy?"

"Nope, I'm not busy."

"Oh..."

"So what you up to today?" He asked her cheerfully, taking the lead in the conversation. Once again, Clare lost her nerve, and she realised that there was no way that she could raise such a delicate subject over the phone. She'd have to hope that he'd bring it up first.

"Just work. You know, the usual."

"The usual," he repeated thoughtfully. "You've been working a lot lately."

"Well, it won’t get done by itself," she said with an awkward laugh as she fiddled with the corner of one of the folders on her desk. The conversation fizzled out into silence and Clare mentally berated herself for being such a coward. There was so much that she wished she had the nerve to say.

"Well, anyway, I was just checking how you were," she babbled, realising that if she couldn't ask him about her feelings then there was no reason to prolong the conversation. Despite loving having his attention all to herself for a brief period, Clare was eager to bring the awkward conversation to a close. "I'll let you go. I'll see you in a couple of days?"

Clare always kept up to date with the group's schedule; for personal and professional reasons. She regularly kept up to date with their working schedule, and so she already knew his plans for the next few days.

She knew that they had a busy few days planned, and so they would be spending most of their time away from the Compound. Whether she saw them socially or not would depend on how hard Sara pushed them in dance rehearsals. Chances are they'd be using their spare time to catch up much needed sleep.

"Yup, will do," JC said cheerfully bringing a smile to Clare's face. "See ya, Clare."

Clare hung up the phone but continued to clutch the receiver to her ear as she mentally berated herself for wussing out once again. He'd certainly sounded pleased to hear from her, but she had been hoping for slightly more enthusiasm after the events of the night before. Still, she reassured herself, at least he is talking to me. He obviously isn't feeling so overcome with remorse over what happened that he wishes to avoid me completely. That's got to be a bonus.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Chris pulled into the free parking space outside Jamie's apartment building at around seven–thirty that evening. He'd borrowed Justin's beloved Mercedes Benz, as he'd wanted to do everything that he could to impress Jamie. However, when he'd remembered that Justin's car was baby blue, he'd begun to have second thoughts as to whether she really would be impressed.

Chris had planned to pick Jamie up at around eight o'clock. However, he'd been so jittery about the date that he'd been unable to stop himself from leaving ridiculously early. As Justin had warned him to take care of his car on pain of death, he'd been so focused on driving carefully from the house he shared with JC to Jamie's apartment that his anxiety had been somewhat brushed aside.

As he sat in the driver's seat and stared over at the lit up windows of Jamie's apartment, Chris concluded that it was probably weirder for him to kill the spare time by sitting alone in the car, and so he shut off the engine and took a calming breath before opening the door to get out.

It was just a short walk from the parking bay to the entrance to Jamie's apartment building, and Chris kept reminding himself that she was worth putting himself through this emotional rollercoaster. He had, after all, been working up the courage to ask her out for months.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Kelly, Jamie's female cousin, was in the middle of styling Jamie's hair when the buzzer for the front door went off.

"Oh no, he's early!" Jamie exclaimed in a panic as she raised a hand to clutch at her half–finished hair.

"No, don’t!" Kelly chided her as she slapped away her hand and forced her to remain in the chair instead of rushing to her feet, as Jamie had attempted to do. "I shall get the door. You stay there."

Before Jamie could say anything, Kelly had skipped over to the door and answered the buzzer, letting Chris into the building. She skipped back and resumed pinning Jamie's hair into a classy chignon as though there were no reason to be anxious at all. Inside, Jamie was dying.

Despite her protestations earlier in the day that it was only dinner, and that going out for the evening with Chris barely counted as a date, as the hours had passed—and the reality of what she'd agreed to had sunk in—Jamie had become more and more anxious. The butterflies in her stomach were almost intolerable, and she'd attempted several times to pick up the phone and cancel before her conscience had kicked in and she'd forced herself to get a grip.

In a way, she was relieved that Chris was early, as it meant that her ordeal was almost over. She knew that it was the build up to the date—rather than the actual date—that was distressing her, and that as soon as she saw him she would be fine again. Now that she'd accepted that Clare had been correct and that he had been harbouring feelings for her, Jamie, too, had begun to dwell on possible feelings that she might have been overlooking.

Maybe he was slightly more attractive than the other men in the group. Perhaps he did have a good sense of humour, and quick, bright eyes that seemed to light up when he laughed. Maybe he wasn't so short, after all. It seemed that the more she thought about it, the more things she realised that she found attractive about him. Perhaps discovering that he had feelings for her had actually made him more attractive in her eyes.

At the sound of a polite knock at the door, Jamie rushed to her feet and—despite Kelly's protestations—opened the door in a hurry, a big grin forming on her face as she regarded Chris in his black suit.

"Hi!" She said breathlessly as he gave her a brief wave. To her surprise, he looked even more nervous than she did.

Jamie had only ever seen Chris dressed up to attend award ceremonies, and even then it'd been under duress. The fact that he'd chosen to dress up for her made her smile. She felt flattered that he'd made such an effort, and that he was prepared to make himself feel uncomfortable in an attempt to impress her. For Chris and smart clothes did not usually mix.

"Are you going to invite him in, or does he have to stand there 'till you're ready?" Kelly teased from behind Jamie's shoulder. Jamie started at the sound and blushed as she realised that she'd been caught staring and had completely forgotten her manners.

"Right! Err... come in. I'm nearly ready, I just have to finish my hair," Jamie explained as she gestured him inside.

"You're not wearing those tonight, then?" Chris quipped as he pointed down at her panda bear slippers and took a few steps into the apartment.

Mortified, Jamie stared down at her slippers in horror, but Kelly was quick to step in for her cousin. "Nope," she said with a chuckle as she shoved her cousin gently in the direction of her bedroom. "She's got some special Tweety–Pie ones for the date!"

Making the most of the distraction, Jamie promptly disappeared into her room to continue dressing as Kelly smiled eagerly at Chris. Obviously, her cousin had told her that she worked with *NSYNC, and that she'd agreed to go out on a date with Chris, but even as he stood before her, Kelly still couldn't quite believe it.

She'd hoped to meet the members of *NSYNC during her vacation, but she'd never quite imagined that it would be like this.

"Kelly!" Jamie called anxiously when she realised that her cousin hadn't yet followed her into the bedroom.

"Excuse me," Kelly said with a smile before she skipped out of the room.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Libby drove up to the Compound in her beloved dark purple Toyota Celica, which she had recently bought and had been saving up for what'd seemed like forever for.

She grabbed her book bag from the passenger seat and exited the car, swinging her bag over her shoulder as she made her way over to the main building. It was dark out, and much later than she'd ever been at the Compound before but she knew the pathway like the back of her hand and so didn't feel worried about being all by herself.

She'd needed somewhere quiet to study where no one would interrupt her, and the Compound had seemed like the best place. Even though home was a more comfortable place for her to study, Libby found the sounds of Clare making dinner, or even watching TV—even though it was in another room—too distracting for her to be able to concentrate.

She'd run through her plans with security, and they'd agreed that providing she lock up after herself, that she could spend as long as she like there. Consequently, she walked straight into the unlocked building and only had to swipe her I.D card on the sensor by the reception to disable the alarm before heading upstairs to her office.

Throwing her bag down onto her desk, she first picked up her mug from where she had left it next to her desk phone and headed back out of the room towards the stairs. She would need as much caffeine as possible to get her through her session of revision, and as the kitchen was on the ground floor, she'd be taking a lot of trips up and down the stairs throughout the duration of the night.

She had no time for sleep. Strong coffee would have to do.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Jamie appeared before Chris with a shy grin and playfully said, as she spun around to show off her dress, "Tadarr!"

She wore a long, straight royal blue dress, of which the straps were thin and the neck line a flattering V–shape. Her hair was lifted up off her face with the odd loose strand dropping beside her flushed cheeks. To match her dress, she wore a pair of small–heeled midnight blue shoes to match her outfit.

As he regarded her, Chris' jaw almost hit the floor. "You look amazing!" He gushed, as he finally found his voice.

"I do believe he's stunned!" Kelly giggled as she watched his reaction to her friend's entrance.

Jamie shared a smile with her cousin before turning back to Chris. "Are you ready? Shall we get out of here?"

"Yes, Ma’am!"

~~~~~*~~~~~

"So do you maybe wanna do this again sometime?" Chris asked Jamie as they made their way out of the restaurant several hours later with their arms linked.

Jamie smiled over at him and said, "I'd love to. I had a lot of fun tonight."

A comfortable silence existed between as they made their way back to Justin's car, before a cool wind began to blow causing Jamie to shiver and goose bumps begin to appear on her bare arms and shoulders. "It's cool out tonight," she observed as she began to rub her hands over her arms.

"Here, take my jacket," Chris said as he shrugged off his coat and handed it to her.

"It's okay. We're nearly at the car now."

"Oh," Chris replied as his face fell slightly. "I was going to suggest that we take a walk across the beach?"

Jamie hesitated. "Isn't that kind of thing for couples in love?" She asked nervously.

Chris shrugged as he continued to hold out his jacket for her to wear. As she flashed him a smile, Jamie slipped her arms into the sleeves of the coat and allowed him to lift the jacket onto her shoulders. "Is that a no?" He asked.

"No," Jamie said as she turned around to meet his eyes. "I'd love to walk across the beach with you."

"Great."

~~~~~*~~~~~

After walking several hundred meters along the beach hand in hand, Chris abruptly came to a stop and pulled Jamie to a standstill beside him.

She turned to look at him and giggled at the unexpected change of plans. Acting completely on instinct, Chris quickly pulled her into his arms and leaned forward to kiss her.

As their lips met, Jamie fought against her instinct to laugh and unfortunately, failed. She broke away and burst into a fit of giggles as Chris stared at her in horror.

"What?" He asked her, feeling incredibly self–conscious and paranoid.

"It's just that I'm finding the fact that you can be serious absolutely hilarious."

Chris rolled his eyes at her answer and pulled a face. "And you felt that was the moment to show that, did you?" He asked the hurt evident in his voice.

Jamie met his eyes and immediately felt bad for laughing at him. Perhaps the two glasses of wine that she'd had with her dinner to settle her nerves hadn't been such a good idea after all. "I'm sorry," she said sincerely and offered him an apologetic smile.

After she composed her face, Chris once again decided to risk another kiss and once again their lips met. As Jamie managed to resist laughing this time, Chris felt his confidence return to him and he reached out to lightly place his hand on her backside.

It was all Jamie needed to once again burst into a fit of laughter.

"What now?" Chris huffed in frustration.

"I'm so sorry!" Jamie said as she struggled so speak through her laughter. "It's just... you know... it's funny! Suddenly it was, 'Ooh, Chris' hand is on my butt'."

Jamie noticed Chris' disapproving expression and tried to straighten her face for the second time. "I'm sorry..." she said, "I'm okay now."

"Nah, forget it," he said as he playfully rolled his eyes, "the moment has passed." He was a lot more hurt than he was willing to admit, but knew that it wasn't worth him giving her a hard time over. They had—after all—been enjoying a relatively good date until now.

"I really am sorry, Chris..." Jamie said as she tried to meet his eyes. She was beginning to feel really bad about her reaction to his kiss and she hoped that he wouldn't hold it against her. The evening had managed to convince her of one thing—she certainly did have feelings for him.

In fact, she'd been surprised by how easily they had gotten along. She'd already known that he had a good sense of humour, but she hadn't been expecting him to be such a good listener as well. Or have had such an interesting life even before his time in *NSYNC.

Jamie realised very early on into the date that she would definitely consider going out with him again. She only hoped that she hadn't put him off from asking.

~~~~~*~~~~~

As Libby headed sleepily back along the corridor from the direction of the kitchen for the fourth time—having re–filled her coffee mug—she almost ran straight into Justin who was heading towards her in the opposite direction. Having believed herself to be the only person in the building, the sight of him appearing before her in the dim lighting sent a shudder of fear through her and she jumped in alarm.

"Jeez!" She hissed as she clutched a hand to her heart as the adrenaline rushed through her system, sending her heartbeat into overdrive. "You scared me!"

Justin—who had been just as alarmed by her appearing out of nowhere—glared back at her as he, too, tried to recover from the shock. "You scared me!" He corrected her before pulling out his cell–phone from the back pocket of his jeans and squinting at the digital display. "What are you doing here at... eleven thirty?" He asked as a frown appeared across his forehead.

Having recovered her composure, Libby rolled her eyes and brushed past him as she made her way back toward the staircase and her office. "What are you doing here at eleven thirty?" She challenged as he followed her up the stairs.

It was a difficult question for Justin to answer. In truth, he had finally worked up the courage to consider telling her how he felt about her, after eight months of torturing himself with the fact. He'd called Clare hours before to see if Libby was in the mood to spend the evening with him, but she'd politely explained that Libby was at the Compound studying.

It had taken him twenty minutes to drive from his mother's house to the Compound, and two and a half hours to get out of the car. And, now that she was actually before him, he began to wonder if that was perhaps enough time to find his courage. Especially as she seemed to be in a particularly bad mood.

As they entered the office, he smiled awkwardly at her but Libby ignored his effort to be friendly and made her way straight over to her couch. She shoved some of her textbooks—which were scattered on and around the seats—out of the way so that she could sit down, and as an afterthought, made room for him, too. Needing no invitation, Justin headed over and sat down beside her.

Why does he have to look so good? Libby thought to herself as she watched him settle himself on the couch. Why does he have to turn up here, unannounced, late at night, and look like an Abercrombie model? I'm meant to be studying my course notes. Not him.

Despite herself, a smile began to form at the corners of her mouth and she shook her head forcefully to remove the foolish thoughts from her mind. She was giddy enough that even the most illogical thought seemed like a good idea, and she realised that she would have to be very careful what she said so that she didn't make a complete fool of herself.

"I just needed to talk to you..." Justin began nervously as he looked her directly in the eye.

Libby raised an eyebrow and looked back at him expectantly. She was tired, irritable and was all too aware of all the work that she wasn't getting done whilst he was talking to her. Each second that passed with him saying nothing ate away a little more of her patience.

"Spit it out, Curly," she snapped as he continued to stare at her like a rabbit caught in the headlights. "Unless it can wait? I'm really shattered and have a pounding headache..."

Justin leaned down and picked up one of her discarded textbooks before beginning to flick through its pages casually. He knew that he was wasting precious time but he couldn't help it. Having her so close to him was only heightening his anxiety, and he needed to stall to be able to maintain his nerve.

"I'm not surprised," he replied. "You actually understand this?"

Libby let out a bitter laugh and said, "To be honest, at this time of night, no."

Unfortunately, it was true. Despite her many cups of coffee and determination to get through at least one more chapter of her textbook before she called it a night, she had to admit that everything that she'd read for the past half hour had gone completely over her head.

Justin nodded once and dropped the book back onto the floor as he let out a grunt of disgust. There were times when he was very grateful that he'd been able to skip higher education.

Now that she'd been temporarily distracted from her studies, Libby began to feel the full force of her tiredness hit her like a hammer. Nights of staying up late to study and getting up way too early in the morning to cram in as much revision as she could before her morning exams were beginning to take their toll on her. She shuffled closer to Justin on the couch and used his body as a prop to lean against. Her exams were important to her, but she was beginning to wonder if they should be occupying as much of her time as they currently were.

"What was it you wanted to talk about?" She asked in a more gentle tone as she leaned her head against his shoulder and let out an elongated yawn. Justin shifted his body weight on the couch so that she settled more comfortably against him. The strength and warmth of his body were soothing, and Libby began to feel her mind and body begin to unwind as he started to talk.

"It's something that I've been meaning to say for a while—" He began tentatively.

"Hmmm," Libby replied sleepily as she yawned once again. She hadn't realised how tired she really was until now.

"—and I've been thinking it over a lot recently. There's never felt like a good time to say something before, but I think I just have to bite the bullet—"

"Uh–huh," Libby mumbled as her eyelids began to droop. She was fighting against the overwhelming desire to close her eyes but she was fighting a losing battle; the gentle, low timbre of his voice was only helping to lull her to sleep.

"—It was really what happened with Joey that got me thinking... about the future and stuff. Things are going really well with the band right now and of course the tour coming up will kinda throw a spanner in the works for a bit. But at the same time, I'm kinda starting to think that there aren't perfect times for stuff, you know? You just have to bite the bullet and just go with it. Hope for the best. Gotta' take a chance at something once in a while... right?"

He glanced down at Libby's face to gauge her reaction. She'd been suspiciously quiet during his speech and he'd been surprised that she hadn't tried to interrupt him a few times, or told him off for rambling like she usually did.

Taking her silence as an indication for him to continue, Justin sucked in a deep breath and let it out in a rush along with his next words. "So... anyway... what I'm trying to say is that I'd really like to see if this thing between us could go somewhere, you know? You must realise that I have feelings for you, and I think that you might also have feelings for me. So why don't we see where this goes? And I know that you still might be upset about breaking up with Dan. I totally get that, and it's fine with me if you need some time. But Libby, I promise you that you won't find anyone who's as crazy about you as I am."

He paused and waited for her response. None came.

"Libs, did you hear me?" He asked after several seconds of waiting with bated breath. "Did you hear what I said?"

Still there was no answer.

He glanced more carefully at her face and realised at once why she hadn't answered him. His stomach sank with disappointment. It was the closest he'd come to admitting his feelings to her and yet she hadn't heard a word. The irony was painful. "Great," he muttered aloud. "You're asleep."

~~~~~*~~~~~