JC was seated on the small balcony with the autobiography he’d picked up at the coffee shop, enjoying the crisp fall air. For being in the middle of the D.C. “bubble,” the spot was fairly quiet.

His phone alerted him to a new text message.

Opening up the phone, he saw a message from Allyson. I didn’t have to work after all.

JC smiled at the message. He was surprised that she actually wanted to keep talking to him.

Welcome to the no plans club, he typed back. I have more hot water if you’re interested in another cup.

Allyson did not even attempt to hide her excitement as she read the message on her way to the Metro station. Another cup sounds great, she sent back. Once she arrived on the platform, she stomped her feet, unable to fully contain her excitement anymore. She was going back to JC’s without any need to leave by a certain time. The butterflies were going crazy in her stomach now.

A repeat of a few hours earlier, JC let Allyson in as she buzzed the apartment and she settled into the same reading chair once inside.

“So why D.C.?” he asked, handing her a cup of tea as he sat down on the couch near her chair. “I know you said you moved here for school, but why D.C.?”

“American University had a great program and internship opportunities. Plus, they offered me a pretty nice scholarship,” she said before taking a sip of her tea.

He nodded. “Makes sense.”

“Did you ever consider school?” she asked, a bit more pointedly than she intended.

“I mean, sure. I graduated high school before anything happened with *NSYNC. I saw a lot of my friends from Florida and Maryland going off to college, and I considered it. But I couldn’t not explore writing. Those last few years on the show, I really started to fall in love with the craft of songwriting. I went out to LA for a bit with Tony and then worked with Justin and Robin a little in Nashville. Then, *NSYNC happened, and here we are.”

Now it was Allyson’s turn to nod. “Do you ever regret any of it?”

“Not at all. Not. At. All. I had some amazing experiences with my best friends, wrote some songs I’m really proud of and learned more about myself in the process.”

She smiled. That was the honest, thoughtful answer she’d hoped to hear. And the fact he didn’t hesitate made her believe it was the truth and not a stock answer he’d crafted over the years.

After talking a little more, they turned their attention back to HGTV where they proceeded to comment on every decision the homeowners and designers made.

“You’d make a great contractor,” Allyson said, turning to look at him on the couch after he argued with the TV about one of the decisions to take out a wall dividing the living room and the kitchen.

“Well, thank you,” he said, accepting the compliment with a smile.

Soon, two more hours had passed and the clock on the wall indicated it was 7 p.m.

JC looked at his wrist to ensure the accuracy. “How is it 7 already? We went from tea time to dinner time. You’re welcome to stay for dinner if you want. I was going to try to make some baked pasta recipe a friend sent me.”

“No, I don’t want to be a burden.” She started to gather her things together.

“Believe me, you won’t be. I appreciate the company. It’s a nice change.”

Allyson just smiled, getting out her phone to text Mandy quickly that she was on her own for dinner. “So how are you in the kitchen?” she teased as she hit send. “Should I plan to have pizza on standby?”

“I aim for edible.”

She busted out laughing. “Oh great! I’ll find the number to that new pizza place that just opened around here.”

“Just give me a chance,” he pleaded through a laugh.

She grinned as she settled back down into her chair. “OK, but let me know if I can help. I’m pretty useless in a kitchen, but I can take direction.”

Without looking up from the refrigerator, he just said, “Monitor what granite they choose. I like the one with flecks of brown.”

He heard her laugh from the living room. “I do too. It gives it some extra definition.”

He looked up peering through the cutout between the kitchen and living room. “Exactly!” 

After 30 minutes of HGTV play-by-play, Allyson smelled a not-so-pleasant aroma coming from the kitchen. “Uh, everything OK in there?”

JC came around the corner looking like a guilty schoolboy. “Pepperoni or cheese?” he asked with a half-smile as Allyson couldn’t help but laugh.

“Pepperoni is fine.”

JC placed the cordless phone back on its docking station and flopped down on the couch with a sigh. “OK, so I fail at cooking.”

“What did you even do?” Allyson bravely asked.

“Well,” he started before trailing off, “I threw out the directions and looked up a similar recipe and went based on that, and and well, I burned it. Bad”

Allyson tried her best not to laugh, but as soon as she looked over at him and their eyes met, she couldn’t keep it in anymore and she burst into laughter, quickly followed by JC, who also was stifling a laugh at his confession.

“I think I’ll stick with home design.”

“And I’ll stick with coffee and pastries.” She gave him a reassuring smile to let him know she was only teasing.

Ten minutes later the intercom buzzed and a few seconds later their pizza was at the door. “Thanks, man. Keep the change. Yeah, have a good one, man.”

She smiled hearing how nice he was, even when he wasn’t “on.” Yeah, I picked a good one to be a fan of, she thought. “You know he’s going to get back to the store and brag that he just delivered pizza to JC Chasez.”

“OK, fan brain!” he laughed. “But just as long as he can’t follow it up with, ‘And he was an asshole,’ that’s fine.” His tone becoming more serious than Allyson expected.

He set the pizza down on the kitchen table as he grabbed a couple plates from the cupboard.

“Table or TV trays?”

Allyson shrugged, leaving the decision up to him.

“I have to know what they choose. Let’s go with TV trays.”

With the pizza on the tray table, Allyson was struggling to find the proper dining position in the oversized reading chair. To be close enough to the table, she needed to sit on the edge of the chair but then she looked tense, which made her stress about how she looked.

JC could sense her struggle. “You know you can sit on the couch. It might be a little more comfortable.”

She hadn’t wanted to press her luck or make it seem like she was trying to get too close to him. They had had a fun night and day, but this was still music superstar JC Chasez and she was still Allyson Stewart, barista.

Still playing it safe, she moved to the opposite edge of the couch with her tray table.

They downed slice after slice as they continued to celebrate and criticize the homeowners’ decisions.

It was close to 9 p.m. by now, and JC switched the channel to the local news station.

“Coming up at 9: A shelter in place has been ordered for the Tenleytown area as police search for a potentially armed suspect who fled police after an attempted traffic stop.”

“Oh shit!” Allyson said to the TV as she pulled her phone out to call Mandy.

“What’s going on?” she quickly asked.

“I’m not sure exactly,” Mandy responded. “Police just used their car PA systems to tell people to stay inside and lock their doors. It was only about 10 minutes ago all this happened.”

“Are you OK?” Allyson asked her roommate.

“Yeah, I’m good, but you might want to hang out a bit before you come home or maybe stay the night at Shannon’s.”

Suddenly it dawned on her that she hadn’t told Mandy she wasn’t at work. “Well,” she dragged out glancing over at the person on the other end of the couch. “I’m actually at JC’s right now. I didn’t end up having to work.”

“Oh really now?” Mandy said in a sing-song tone.

JC smiled back as he heard half of the conversation and muffled tones from the other side. He was impressed with how calm she was in the situation.

“OK keep me posted.”

“Well this is awesome,” she said leaning back into the couch. “This is all happening outside my townhome. Mandy said police rolled through the streets about 10 minutes ago telling people to stay inside and lock their doors. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have stayed for dinner. I could’ve been out of your hair. Now, I don’t know if I can go home.”

She glanced at JC who looked genuinely concerned.

“No, are you kidding? I’m glad you did. You might have been in the middle of all that. You can spend the night here if you want. I’d much prefer that than worried about you making it home with a gunman on the loose.”

She smiled at the thought of JC worrying about her. There was such a sense of calm with him. 

“I know my buddy’s got extra everything in here,” he said, as he walked into the bedroom. Walking back into the living room, he announced, “Yeah, they’re in the cabinet. And I’ll take the couch.”

“You’ll what?” Allyson said, snapping out of the daze she was in. “No, no, I’ll take the couch. Please.”

“I won’t let you.”

She just shook her head. She knew she wasn’t winning the argument.