Chapter 17 

Justin had an ok time after Nicki left, but it just wasn’t the same without her. 

He talked to her Sunday and Monday after her shift. They were both excited for their date on Tuesday, Justin’s birthday. 

“What are you planning?” Justin asked. 

“Not telling.  You’ll just have to wait and see.”

“Turnabout is fair play,” Justin laughed. “I’ll see you tomorrow after your shift?”

“Yup. Be ready.”

“See you soon.”

Justin sat for a while, thinking things over from the party, and the weeks before. Definitely NOT how I thought my birthday was going to be a few weeks ago, but I still get to spend it with Nicki, so it can’t be all bad. 

He got ready for bed, when his phone buzzed. It’s officially your birthday! Hope you have an amazing day. Nicki

He smiled. Thank you. Can’t wait to see you. Now get some sleep.

He woke up in the morning to a buzz from his driveway. He looked at the clock. 9:00. Well, a decent time to be woken up. He walked slowly out to his driveway. The car was gone, but a small basket was at the edge of his driveway. He picked it up, and brought it inside. There was a card on top of the basket. 

Hopefully you haven’t had breakfast yet by the time this arrives. Enjoy. Let me know which one is your favorite. Happy birthday! Nicki

He smiled as he opened the basket. There were various pastries from the bakery they went to, danishes and croissants in different flavors. Justin made some coffee and eggs, and had a couple of the pastries. 

He went into his studio, playing around with songs he had started earlier, working on lyrics or arrangements for the instruments. Suddenly an idea came to him, jotting down lyrics and laying down a base track idea. He spent the next few works working on it, when his phone rang. 

“Hey, birthday boy!” said JC. 

“Thanks man, what’s up?” Justin laughed. 

“Wondering if I can stop by for a bit,” JC answered. 

“Actually, yeah, I’m working on a song and could use your input.”

“I’ll be over with food.  Ideas are better with food.”

“Sounds good, see you soon.”  Justin went back to his work at the board, playing with the track. JC walked into the house, and into the studio with pizza. 

“Time for a break, lemme hear what you got,” JC said, putting the pizza down in front of Justin and opening it up. 

“Yeah, I guess it’s time for a break,” Justin sighed. 

“Good day so far?” JC asked. 

“Yeah.  Nicki sent me breakfast, that was nice. I know I’ll see her for dinner, but I wish I could have seen her for lunch.”

“Who do you think sent me?” JC smiled. He handed Justin another card. 

Enjoy some time with your bestie and your favorite pizza.  See you tonight. Nicki

“She really is trying hard on this!” Justin said, impressed. 

“That’s a great thing, J. You’re making great new memories pretty close to the old ones. You’ll be proposing again in no time.”

“Yeah, pretty sure that’ll still have to wait a bit since this is all new to her. Hopefully not another two years, but I’d wait as long as it takes for her.”

“Alright, let’s hear what you’ve been working on,”. JC said. 

Justin played a couple samples of things. It had a great beat, a full synthesizer electronic sound. Then he layered in some of the lyrics he’d come up with.

JC bobbed his head as he listened. “Definitely has potential, I know it’s just a rough cut. How long have you been working on it?”

“The last few hours,” Justin admitted. 

“Not bad for that soon, I’m liking where it’s heading.”

They ate pizza and played around with the music and lyrics. 

“What’s the inspiration for it?”  JC asked. 

“”It’s not obvious?  I wrote this for Nicki. The chorus is from part of our first date.  It’s a love song you can dance to.  I can’t wait for it to be done so I can play it for her. ”

“I’m sure she’ll love it once she hears it,”. JC encouraged. 

They talked, finished the pizza, and hung out for a while. Justin felt very relaxed.  Around 4:00, JC got up off the couch. 

“Well, I gotta go, helping with the next part of your night. It was good to hang with you today. I’m here when you need me, ok?  Happy birthday.”

Justin nodded. “Thanks. For everything.”  He went back towards the studio when his mom called. 

“Hi mama.”

“Happy birthday, darlin.  Has it been a good day so far?”

“Yeah. Nicki has been spoiling me throughout the day. She sent me breakfast, then had JC come over with pizza.”

“Sounds like she’s sweet on you again, that’s a good sign.”

“Yeah. I just wish she had her memories back. I told her about who I am, that I’d been hiding my fame from her. I still haven’t told her we’ve been together for over 2 years. She thinks it was a more recent thing.”

“Why don’t you tell her?” Lynn asked, curious. 

“I want her to WANT to be with me, not because she feels she HAS to because that’s what we were before.”

“With all she’s done today, I think she’s trying to tell you how she feels…”

“I mean, I feel like we’re back in that place again.”

“Does she know that?” Lynn asked. 

“I think so. Like you said, would she do all this for someone she wasn’t sure about?”

“I hope you’re right, darlin. I just want to see you happy.”

“I am, mama.  I am.”

“Have a great rest of your birthday. Love you.”

“Love you too, mama.”

It was soon 6:00, and Nicki arrived at Justin’s. He opened the door to see her with her arms full of bags. 

“What’s all this for?” he asked. 

“I’m making dinner tonight. The rest are clothes to change for dinner.  You can help me put stuff down on the counter, but then I want you to distract yourself for a bit while I cook.”

“Thanks for everything earlier today. It was all wonderful.”

“After all the work you put into our first date, I think you deserve a great birthday. Well, you know what I mean…” she stammered. 

“I’ll leave you to it. What should I wear for dinner, since you brought a change of clothes.”

“It’s your birthday, wear what you want. Be comfortable. I’m dressing up a little, but that’s more for you than for me.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.  Can’t wait,” he said as he kissed her cheek before heading back to the studio. 

Nicki took all the food out and started cooking. She stayed in her scrubs as she cooked, saving her outfit change for once dinner was ready. Justin continued to work on the song for Nicki, nowhere near polished enough to have her heat even a taste yet. It has to be perfect, album ready before she hears it, he thought as he worked. 

In what seemed like no time at all, his phone buzzed. I’m finishing getting ready, but dinner is ready and on the table. I’ll be ready in about 5 minutes. 

Justin walked to his bedroom, into his walk in closet, looking for what to wear. He decided on a black long sleeved shirt and jeans. He walked down the hall towards the dining room when Nicki opened the door from the guest bathroom. 

“Hello, birthday boy,” Nicki smiled. “Ready for dinner?”

Justin nodded. “You look beautiful.”  Nicki was in a royal blue long sleeved shirt with light denim jeans. 

Justin sat at the table. “It smells AMAZING, Nicki. Thank you.”

“I hope it tastes ok, I followed recipes I had Heather help me with.  We have mushroom and spinach stuffed manicotti with a meat sauce, and chicken carbonara for our pastas. I also made roasted broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, and baby potatoes.”

Nicki sat opposite Justin at the table, watching him take his first bites of everything. 

“It’s delicious, restaurant quality. Really, you may have missed your calling,” Justin gushed. 

“It’s just something I’m good at, being at the hospital really does bring me so much joy.”

“Speaking of which, I have something for you to consider.”  Justin got up and brought some papers to Nicki. “You’re in the Pediatric ICU at the hospital. On the same campus, so no change in commute, is the UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital. It’s more family focused, so you get to help families work together on helping these kids, could make it easier to move around and learn different parts of care beyond the ICU, like kids with cancer or other ongoing health issues.  Just something to consider.”

“Thanks, I’ll take a look later,” she said, putting the papers on the counter. “For now, it’s all about you.  I tried to make some of your favorites.  Again, Heather helped a bit on what you like and finding recipes.”

“It’s delicious. So much work for all this food.”

“You’re worth it,” Nicki smiled as she ate. “So, now that your big secret is out, tell me about being in *NSYNC and what led to you going solo.”

“Wow, um, ok. It’s been a while since I’ve had to start at the beginning, a lot of people know, but with your situation, it’s a little weird. I guess I’ll start at the beginning.”

As they ate, he told her how they got started, going overseas before blowing up on American radio and TV, working with JC, and how close the guys had all been. 

“Is it weird being apart from them?” she asked. 

“At first, yeah. I’ve adjusted as far as in the studio and on tour. They’re still my brothers. Joey got married not that long ago, we were all there for that. I don’t see them as much as we used to when everything was in full swing, but we keep in touch with the important stuff.”

Nicki cleared their plates and started putting things to soak. She pulled something out of the fridge for dessert. 

“That Tiramisu was amazing, so I figured we could have more,” Nicki said. “After that you can open your present.”

“You didn’t have to get me anything,” Justin said. 

“Heather said I had it from before the accident. After looking at it, that made sense, so there we are.”

They ate their dessert, then Justin opened her gift. It was a photo album, with some pictures of Justin and JC and the rest of *NSYNC, pictures throughout the years, along with more recent pictures of Justin and Nicki. Pictures she’d taken of him at their beach, pictures he knew were from dates but appeared just artistic or fun to the casual observer. There were blank pages at the end with a note inside. 

Your past, present, and room for the future. We’ll fill this together.  Happy birthday, Nicki 

Tears welled up in his eyes. “Thank you Nicki, this means a lot to me.”

“I wish I could take proper credit.  All I did was find it in my room,” she blushed, getting up to start dishes. 

“Here, let me help,” Justin said, starting to stand up. 

“Don’t you dare. It’s your birthday, you don’t lift a finger.  Look through the pictures while I finish here.”

“I wish you knew where you found these pictures, some of these go back pretty far.  Brings back lots of memories for sure.”

“Tell me about some,” Nicki suggested. 

He chose an early picture of *NSYNC, from their Pleasure Island showcase. He told how nervous they all were, how his mom and sent out stuff to his and JC’s fans from MMC to get a crowd together. Then he told the story of getting permission to do a show outside the Walmart Chris’s mom worked at and taking over the parking lot with fans. It made Nicki smile to hear him talk about these memories so fondly, despite not remembering feeling sad when Justin first went solo. 

Nicki finished the dishes, walked over to Justin, still sitting at the table looking through the pictures. She put her arms around his chest, kissing his cheek, then his neck. “You ready for the last part of the night?”

“There’s more? You’ve done enough…” Justin said. 

Nicki leaned close to his ear. “I’m taking tomorrow off, we have all night and tomorrow for whatever you want. You sure you’re done for the night? Remember, you don’t get to do anything, tonight is all me doing things for you…”

“I mean, I suppose I’m ok with that…” he laughed, kissing her before following her towards the bedroom.