Chapter 10

Justin’s phone buzzed, he answered the call. 

“Hello?”

“Yes, Mr. Timberlake, this is Dr. Hanover.  We wanted to let you know Nicole will be released some time tomorrow after my rounds in the morning. She’ll need someone to take her home.”

“Thank you,” Justin said. “Thank you for everything. Is there anything I need to do after she’s released?”

“Her life needs to be as normal as possible. Keep things as close to they were before. She’ll be able to volunteer at the hospital for a while, she’s been placed on a paid leave for now. Someone from her team has volunteered to pick her up and drop her off, but try and keep her outside of work life the same. I know she’s very important to you, so I’m sure you spent a lot of time together. I definitely want to encourage that so she hopefully gets more memories back, or at least develops an attachment that is close.”

“You’re pulling for me to win her back, aren’t you?” Justin smiled. 

“As I said, I know she’s important to you. Talking with her team, you were very important to her. I think she needs you in her life, no matter what happens next. With any luck, yes, we’re all pulling for you. I’m not one to spread office gossip, so I’ll leave it at that. I’ll see you tomorrow morning around 9, Mr. Timberlake.”

“Yes. Thank you, again.”  He hung up the phone. 

A few minutes later, his phone buzzed again. 

“Hi,” he answered with a smile. 

“Hi. Hope it’s ok that I called.”

“Totally ok,” he replied. 

“So they just told me I get to go home tomorrow.  They said I need someone to take me home. Heather has work, I was wondering if you could drive me,” Nicki asked. 

“Sure, but this won’t count as our date.”

“I didn’t say it would, I look forward to a proper date with you,” she smiled. 

“Even if it’s not til the weekend?” 

“I’d wait as long as it took.”

“Good to know. You kinda like me, don’t you?” he chuckled. 

“We’ll have to find out, won’t we?” she quipped. 

“What if I see you sooner?”

“Than tomorrow?” she laughed. 

“Between tomorrow and the weekend,” he replied. 

“I wouldn’t mind,” she smiled. 

“I’ll definitely see you tomorrow, for sure.”

“It was good to see you this morning. I’d ask you to come back, but I worry you’ll get sick of me.”

“That’s my line,” he laughed. 

“Is it? Well, I’m stealing it for now.”

“Not possible, so you know,” he assured her. “Would you like me to come over?”

“If it’s no trouble, otherwise I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Let me know when you order dinner and I’ll head over,” he laughed. 

“I will. See you soon Justin,” she smiled. 

“See you soon, Nicki.”

Justin busied himself around the house waiting for her to contact him. He watched some tv, listened to some music he’d discovered recently, anything to distract him and pass time. He suddenly had an idea, and got out his phone. 

Instead of hospital food, let me know what you want to eat and I’ll grab it on my way. 

Well, he thought, that makes it better than me bringing something in for me and her being sad mine looks better, even if it’s something simple. 

His phone buzzed. Surprise me. Go ahead and grab food, I’ll probably be hungry by the time you get here. See you soon. 

He smiled. He knew just the thing, one of her favorite guilty pleasures. He checked himself in the mirror before he left, and got in his car. He drove to a little hole in the wall restaurant, placed his order, then headed to the hospital. 

His frequent visits to Nicki meant the staff were watching him more, especially as word spread that they had been together. Nicki had kept that part of their relationship quiet at work. They watched him as he walked through the hospital, craning their necks to watch where he was going. He didn’t see, but they were all whispering to each other about Nicki and her famous visitor. 

He knocked on her door. “Come in,” she replied. 

“Dinner, as promised.”

“It smells amazing. You can just knock and come in, no need to wait for me to say something. Though the next time will hopefully be the last for a while. So, what smells so good?”

“There’s this great little Chinese food place. I got broccoli beef, General Tso’s chicken, potstickers, and some hot and sour soup. A little bit of everything.  They were great and split the soup for me into two smaller containers.”

“We could’ve shared…” Nicki said. 

You say that NOW… he laughed to himself. 

He dished her up a plate and gave her a container of soup. She tried a bite of everything before digging in. “Wow, this is great. Where’d you find it?”

“You told me about it when we first met. You’d ordered some for dinner one night when I was over for a movie.”

“Well, thanks for reintroducing me. This stuff is amazing. Yeah, I probably would’ve had all the soup if you’d let me.”

“I thought ahead,” he laughed. 

“I’m glad you came, it’s been boring here. Most of my friends just texted well wishes but didn’t come out, so it’s been kinda lonely between doctors and nurses coming in. I’m excited to go home, see what all I remember or rediscover.”

“I’m glad I had some down time. I’ve only been home for about 6 months.”

“Oh right, the music thing. Where were you before that?”

“I was on the road, did a bunch of shows.”

“Was it lonely?”

“A little. There’s the rest of the band, but it was great getting to perform.”

“Would I know any of your work?”

“You’re a fan, yes. That’s actually part of why Heather brought you to the party. You kinda begged her to go to see JC.”

“You and JC worked together on music?”

“We’ve been writing together and stuff for around 10 years.  That started once the other thing we did fell apart. We’d had this love of music and stuff that we worked together on things hoping to make it big someday. Next thing I know, we left Florida and were living out here.”

“Was it hard to be away from your family?”

“I still go back a lot, or my mom and stepdad will come out, but my mom was with me a lot before I turned 18. Once I was a legal adult she stepped back a little, but not much. Enough to let me do my own thing, mess up every once and again.”

He tried to make it sound more normal than it really was, having homes in several places, traveling a lot. 

“Wait, you’ve been working on music the last 10 years? How old are you?”

“I’ll be 24 in two weeks.”

“You’ve been doing music since you were 14?!”

“A little younger, but JC was helping me out a bit. Got my first bite of things when I was 14 though, yeah.”

“Small stuff, like local shows and stuff, right?”

“Something like that, yeah,” he lied. He knew telling her he was a teenage popstar would’ve just sounded crazy. Even he couldn’t believe where things had led him sometimes. 

“You said you moved TO Florida, where had you lived before that?”

“Tennessee, just outside of Memphis.”

“What was it like growing up there?”

They spent the next hour and a half talking about his childhood, where he grew up, his friends, favorite memories. He could have gone on forever. 

“Wow, look at the time. I know it gets dark early but I’ve been here a while…” he said. 

“I don’t mind,” she smiled. She slowly took his hand in hers. “I’ve liked our little dates, excited for the real thing.”

“Me too,” he blushed. 

“Still not telling me what we’re doing or where we’re going?”

“Nope. You’ll have to wait and find out. I just hope you like it as much as I think you will.”

“You’ll be there, I’ll like that.”

“I should probably go, visiting hours are probably over soon. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Can’t wait.”

He held her hand, looking into her eyes, pulling her hand up and kissing the back of her hand. 

“Sweet dreams, Nicole.”

“Good night, Justin.”

He left her room, closing the door behind him. They both sighed happily, excited to see each other in the morning. 

Justin went home and ran on the treadmill for a bit, trying to get some of the energy from the night out so he could sleep. Tomorrow is the first day of really sweeping her off her feet, he thought as he lay in bed, closing his eyes.