October 2000
I guess if I had been more of an MTV junkie I could have saved myself a lot of grief. NSYNC was at the height of their popularity and rumors were constantly swirling about Justin and a certain blonde pop star. But I had a job that kept me occupied and I really didn’t keep up with things like that. Rachel would occassionally mention to me that she had seen pictures of Justin here or there, but I didn’t really pay attention to anything that she said. Who he was or wasn’t dating was of no consequence to me.
It was a Wednesday night and I had just finished working a twelve hour shift. A hyperactive two year old had tried to pull out a chunk of my hair and an eight year old with a stomach virus had vomited all over the rose colored scrubs I worked in. Needless to say all I wanted to do was zap myself a microwave dinner and crawl into bed. Luckily I was off the next day and I fully intended to sleep through the next twenty four hours.
I came home and hung my coat up on one of the hooks by the front door. The same thing I did every day when I came home from work. I was about to call out for Rachel and ask her if she had remembered to go grocery shopping, when a familiar voice cut through the quiet in my apartment.
“When you said you were a nurse I was kinda hoping to catch you in one of those cute little hats and the short white dresses that zip up the front.”
I turned around and there he was. I just stood there staring at him and wondering if sleep deprivation had finally led me to the land of hallucinations. The happy look on his face faltered slightly as I continued to stand there looking slack jawed.
“Maybe this was a bad idea. You don’t look too thrilled to see me.”
“I’m just a little shocked, that’s all.”
He stood up from the sofa and stepped closer to me. “I was trying to surprise you, not traumatize you. If you want me to go. . .”
“Where’s Rachel?”
“She went that way.” He pointed down the short hallway.
“Excuse me for just one second.”
I all but ran out of the room and barged my way into Rachel’s bedroom. Rachel was standing in front of the mirror, fluffing her hair and checking her makeup.
“Rachel, why is Justin Timberlake in my living room?”
“Don’t be so formal. After all the spit you two swapped, you really ought to be on a first name basis.”
“How did he get here?”
“Probably by airplane, then by car. Just a guess.”
“This is not funny, Rach.”
“I beg to differ.” Rachel could see my scowl reflected back to her in the mirror. “He called here and said he wanted to see you. He wanted it to be a surprise, cause he knew that you didn’t believe him when he said he’d come. So I gave his driver directions and voila, there he is.”
“Why didn’t you call me at work and tell me he was coming?”
“Hello? That would have ruined the surprise.”
“How could you just take it for granted that I wanted to see him again?”
“Girl please. I’ve known you since kindergarten. You can’t convince me that you didn’t want to see him. You just tried to play it off because you thought he wasn’t actually going to show up.”
“Okay. It’s not like I don’t want to see him, but I would have liked a little advance warning. I look like crap.”
“I don’t think he’s going to care. That young man is quite taken with you. He’s been pumping me for information about you since the second he stepped in the door.”
“What kind of information? What did you tell him?”
Rachel gave me a sly little smile and picked up her coat. “My lips are sealed.”
“Your lips are going to be busted if I find out you gave up any of my personal business to him.”
“What business? All your torrid Blockbuster nights? You haven’t been on a date in months.”
My eyes went wide in horror. “You didn’t tell him that, did you?”
Rachel slipped into her coat and picked up her purse. “I’d love to continue this conversation Kay, but I’ve got to be going.”
“Going? Where are you going?”
“Out, obviously.”
I moved to the door to try and block her from leaving. “You can’t go.”
“I thought you two would want to be alone, so I made other plans.”
“You can’t leave me alone with him.”
Rachel arched her eyebrows. “Afraid you won’t be able to control yourself without a chaperone?”
Kind of. But really that’s not the sort of information that would be safe with Rachel. “He’s a stranger. What if he tries something?”
“You’re good with kids. If he gets frisky, just hit him on the knuckles and put him in time out.” Rachel pushed me to the side, opened the bedroom door and went out into the living room.
“It was good seeing you again Justin, but I’ve got to get going.” I tried to grab a hold of her arm, but she shrugged me off and made her way to the door.
“You kids have fun.” She gave me another smart assed smile, then flounced her way out the door.
I stood facing the closed door because I was too embarrassed to turn around. But I couldn’t stay like that all night, so eventually I turned around to face Justin. He looked as uncomfortable as I felt.
“I think I should leave. Mike is right downstairs, he can take me back to the hotel.”
It dawned on me that I was being rude and immature. The guy came all this way to see me, the least I could do was be hospitable. “No really, I want you to stay. I’ll admit I was a little shocked to find you here, but I’m glad you came.”
The tense look on his face eased up a little bit. “I was hoping I could take you out to get something to eat.”
“I really don’t feel like going anywhere, but if you want we could order some take out and hang out here.”
“That sounds good.”
I stepped into our kitchen and pulled a bunch of take out menus from the drawer. “I need to get out of these clothes and take a shower. Decide what you want to order and I’ll be right back. Help yourself to something to drink.”
He took the menus from my hand and sat back down on the sofa. After I got out of the shower, I stood in front of my closet trying to decide what to put on. I didn’t want to look like I had tried too hard, but I also didn’t want to look like a slob. I decided against a skirt, because those were too easy access. I contemplated sweats, because they would have been comfortable, but not exactly sexy. I finally decided on a pair of jeans and a cream colored v-neck sweater.
I slicked my damp hair back into a ponytail and smoothed on a little tinted lip gloss. When I went back to the living room, Justin was holding a Corona in one hand and a framed picture of Rachel and me in our Girl Scout Uniforms in the other.
“Cute picture.” He gave me an appraising head to toe look. “Do you think that uniform still fits?”
I took the picture from his hand and put it back on the shelf. “Did you decide what you want to order?”
“Is this Chinese place any good?”
“Yeah. Their cashew chicken is the best.”
“Sounds good. I’ll have that.”
I was doing my best to seem calm and relaxed, but it wasn’t easy. Justin’s eyes were glued to me the entire time that we waited for the food to arrive and even while we were eating. He was watching my every move. This wasn’t like the way he casually checked me out on the night that we first met. The way he was looking at me was obvious and blatant. He was definitely letting his interest and his intentions be known.
After we finished eating, I slipped in a cd. Al Green’s Greatest Hits. I’ll never be able to listen to that cd without thinking about Justin. Just one more thing that he’s ruined for me.
As soon as Tired of Being Alone started up, Justin started nodding his head to the music and singing along. “I used to have this cd.”
“What happened to it?”
“That’s a good question. Joey took it and that was the last time I ever saw it. It’s probably stuck between the cushions on his sofa.”
“He just took it without asking?”
“That’s the way it works with us when we’re on the road. Nothing you own is safe. If you lay something down for more than five seconds you should be prepared to kiss it goodbye. Cd’s, books, games, socks. If you have a pair of clean underwear you have to guard them with your life. Basically everything is up for grabs. Life on the Nsync tour bus is not as glamorous as some people would like to believe.”
“That sounds horrible. I can’t imagine what it must be like to spend so much time crammed into a small space like that.”
“It’s not as bad as I made it out to be. We get on each other’s nerves but we have a lot of fun together too. Those guys are my brothers. I know it sounds corny when we say it in interviews but it’s true.”
Justin was just as easy to talk to as I had remembered, so I started to relax. “What did you come back to Atlanta for?”
“I came to see you.”
I had assumed that he was in town for some other reason and had decided to see me too. “You made a special trip just to see me?”
“I told you that I wanted to see you again and I meant it. We added a second leg to our tour so this is like the only week that I have off really. We start rehearsing again next week , just to make sure we have everything tight. Then we go back on the road the week after that.”
“You only had one week off and you’re spending part of it here? With me?” I didn’t know if I should be flattered or frightened.
“I spent a couple of days with my family and then I decided to come here. I want to apologize for not calling you first. I wanted to surprise you. It didn’t occur to me that I’d probably be imposing on you. Sometimes I do things without really thinking them through first.”
“No. You’re not imposing. Actually I think it was really sweet of you to come here. I honestly didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”
“Once you get to know me, you’ll see that I don’t say things that I don’t mean.”
“How long are you in town for?”
“Unfortunately tonight is all the time I have. I have to leave in the morning.”
I tried to hide my disappointment, but I couldn’t. “I can’t believe you came all this way just to spend a couple of hours with me.”
“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since that night. I meet a lot of women, but no one’s ever stuck with me the way that you have. I started to think that maybe I was psyching myself into thinking that the entire night was more special than it actually was. I had to see you again and make sure that my mind wasn’t playing tricks on me.”
“So, was your mind playing tricks on you?”
“No. You’re every bit as amazing as I had remembered.”
I glanced down, hoping that he wouldn’t be able to see the blush spreading out across my cheeks. “I’m glad you came. I’m just sorry that we can’t spend any more time together.”
“So am I. I’ve got obligations that I can’t get out of for the rest of this week, but I don’t have anything to do next weekend.”
“You’re coming back to Atlanta next week?”
“No. I was hoping that you would agree to let me fly you to Orlando. Joey’s throwing a Halloween party. He’s doing it next weekend because that’s the last free time any of us will have for quite a while. Do you think you’d like to come?”
The rational part of my brain had gone on vacation since the moment I turned around and found Justin standing in my apartment. Instead of thinking through the implications of agreeing to spend the weekend with a stranger, I started trying to think of who I could get to cover my shifts at work.
“Where would I stay?”
“I’ve got a house down there, so you could stay with me. Or if you’re uncomfortable with that, I can get you a hotel room. You could come on Friday evening, we’d go to the party on Saturday and then you could fly back on Sunday afternoon.”
I agreed without a second of hesitation. “Okay.” If I could go back in time and kick myself in the ass, I would.
Justin’s face lit up with a huge smile. He scooted over closer to me and pressed his mouth to mine. We spent the rest of the night making out. It got pretty intense, but Justin was completely respectful. His hands never strayed below my waist and there was no mention of sex. He acted like kissing me and touching me was all he wanted to do.
He was still there at two o’clock in the morning, which was when Rachel came back. He promised to call me so that we could make the final arrangements for the trip, then he kissed me goodnight and left.
As soon as the door closed behind him, Rachel started asking me a bunch of questions, but I tuned her out. I went into my room and fell into bed with a big, stupid smile on my face. Justin was the star of every dream I had for the next week.
******************************************************************************
The week that followed was the longest one of my life. I couldn’t wait until I could see Justin again. I counted the seconds until my shift was over on Friday. As soon as I was off work, I rushed home, grabbed my bags and Rachel drove me to Hartsfield.
My plane touched down at Orlando International Airport at a little after nine o’clock that night. Mike, one of the group’s bodyguard’s, met me at the gate and escorted me out to the car. He dropped me off at the Marriott and when I checked in and went up to my room, Justin was in there waiting for me. I was barely in the door before he swept me up into a hug.
“I didn’t think you’d ever get here. I missed you.”
“It’s only been a week.”
“That was way too long.” He gave me a kiss before finally letting my feet touch the floor. “How do you like the room?”
I stepped away from him and took a look around. Naturally he had checked me into the best suite in the hotel. The kind of room that I never would have been able to afford on my own.
“It’s gorgeous, but you didn’t have to go all out for me.”
“Yes I did. Why don’t you go ahead and unpack?”
“Okay.” I started putting my clothes away, taking special care not to let Justin see the costume I had brought with me. I wanted him to be surprised. While I went to take a shower and freshen up, Justin called room service and got us something to eat.
While we ate Justin talked to me about what the past year had been like. He told me about the lawsuit with Lou and all the trouble they’d had just being able to keep their name and get their album out. We talked about the Disney movie that he had been in. He said that it sucked and that he sucked in it. He even told me about how he thought he might like to go solo someday, but he didn’t know if he would actually be able to leave the group behind. He told me funny stories about fans and being on tour and the stupid things that he and the other guys did to pass the time.
Justin stayed until I put my head on his shoulder and started nodding off. He put me to bed and went home.
He came back the next morning and we spent the day together. We had breakfast together and he showed me around town. It was a little weird at first that Mike had to come with us everywhere that we went. But he followed us at a discrete distance and after a while it was easy to forget that he was there.
Justin had some errands to run that afternoon, so he dropped me back at the hotel so that I could get ready for the party. He said that he would be back to pick me up at eight. I spent the rest of the afternoon talking to Rachel on the phone and then I took a nap.
I got up at about six and started getting ready. I was in the bathroom putting the finishing touches on my costume when I heard Justin come into the room.
“Kay, come on out. I need to talk to you.”
“I’m almost done.” When I came out of the bathroom Justin took one look at me and his chin hit the floor.
He looked me up and down. “Damn.”
I was wearing a nurse’s uniform. Or as they called it at the costume shop, a naughty nurse uniform. It was a white minidress that zipped straight up the front. I had the zipper partly undone and my push up bra was working overtime. I was wearing red fishnet stockings, a garter belt and red stilettos. I had styled my hair in curls that fell across my shoulders and I had on the trashiest shade of blood red lipstick that I could find. The outfit was topped off by a white nurse’s cap with a big red cross on it.
“Do you like it?”
“Hell yeah. Did you wear this just for me?”
“Maybe.”
He grabbed my hand and twirled me around in a circle so that he could look at me from all sides. He shook his head and let out a breath. “Damn.”
“Would you stop saying that?”
“I can’t help myself. You look hot.”
“Thank you.” I finally took notice of what Justin was wearing. “Why aren’t you in a costume?”
“That’s what I need to talk to you about. Something came up.”
“Something like what?”
“I tried to get out of it, but I’m supposed to have dinner with this producer and a casting director. There’s a small part in a movie that they want to offer me.”
“I thought you said you didn’t want to do another movie. You said that you had a horrible time making Model Behavior.”
“I did. But Johnny and my mom insisted that I at least meet with them and hear what they have to say. Probably nothing will come of it, but I really do need to go. I’m sorry.”
“No. I understand.” I looked down at myself and started to feel ridiculous in the costume. “I guess I should go ahead and take this off.”
“No. You can still go to the party. I plan to keep this meeting as short as possible. I’ll just meet you there.”
“I don’t want to be there without you. I don’t want to wander around by myself in a room full of strangers.”
“You won’t be alone. I arranged for you to go with JC and Bobbie.”
“I don’t know JC and Bobbie.”
“You’re gonna love JC. I promise. And Bobbie, well no one really likes Bobbie. You can just ignore her. Everyone else does. Including JC.”
“I don’t know.”
Justin put his arms around me and pulled me closer to him. “I swear you’ll have a good time. You can meet all the guys and I will be there as soon as I can. I wouldn’t leave you with JC if I wasn’t sure that he’d take good care of you.”
“Alright.” Justin leaned into me and just as he was about to give me a kiss, we heard a knock. He opened the door and there was a vampire and a witch standing in the hallway.
Justin pulled me around in front of him and made the introductions.
“Kayla, I want you to meet Bobbie.” I stuck my hand out to her and she gave me a limp handshake with the tips of her fingers. She gave me a rather dismissive up and down look with her icy eyes and smirked slightly.
“And this is JC.” JC firmly grasped my hand between both of his. Despite the fact that his girlfriend was standing right beside him, he was staring at me in open appreciation of the outfit that I was wearing. He kept his eyes locked on mine the entire time. There was something about JC’s smile that was so comforting and trustworthy. I liked him immediately.
“It’s nice to finally meet you Kayla. Justin hasn’t stopped talking about you since he met you.”
“Oh really.”
JC nodded his head. “Oh yeah. He kept saying how beautiful you were and I can see for once in his life that he wasn’t exaggerating.”
“Thank you.”
“We better get going.”
We made moves to leave, but Justin grabbed JC’s arm. “Kayla, why don’t you and Bobbie head on downstairs? I need to talk to JC for a second.”
The ride in the elevator with Bobbie was beyond uncomfortable. She kept her eyes trained straight ahead like I wasn’t even there. I wanted to ignore her like Justin said, but I thought I could at least try to make conversation.
“How long have you and JC been together?”
“Not quite a year.”
“He seems like a nice guy.”
“They always seem nice.”
“What does that mean?”
Bobbie turned to look at me. “Justin is nowhere near the angel that he makes himself out to be.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Let me give you a word of advice. Get everything out of Justin that you can, but don’t get too attached.”
“I don’t know what your relationship with JC is like, but I’m not with Justin for money.”
“Your mistake. Don’t say you weren’t warned.” Then she turned to face the front and went right back to pretending that I didn’t exist.
I didn’t give a lot of thought to what she had said. I figured that she knew that Justin didn’t like her and she was just trying to say something to mess things up for us. Little did I know she was the only person that even made an attempt to tell me what I was getting myself into.
Bobbie and I stood around in the lobby, each of us doing her best to pretend that the other wasn’t there. JC came down about ten minutes later and then we were on our way. Bobbie spent most of the ride to the club looking out of the window, like she would rather have been anywhere else.
When we finally got to the club, the place was packed and the music was on full blast. Bobbie disappeared into the crowd and JC took me around to make introductions.
To say that I got a cold reception from the rest of the guys in the group would be an understatement. I could understand why Joey acted the way he did. He was with Kelly, his off and on girlfriend, and I guess he thought I might slip up and say something about the night that he spent with Rachel.
But I couldn’t think of any good reason why Lance couldn’t meet my eyes or why Chris looked at me and shook his head. I thought that maybe they were put off by the fact that I was older than Justin or maybe it bothered them that I was black.
I know now that they didn’t want to be around me because they didn’t want to be active participants in the game that Justin was running. Even as nice as JC was being there was a certain underlying feeling coming from him. I couldn’t put my finger on it then, but now I know it was pity. They all knew that Justin was playing me, but no one wanted to get involved and say anything.
Despite the weird vibe that I was getting, I still managed to have a good time. JC and I talked and danced all night long. It was almost like Bobbie wasn’t there. JC wasn’t paying any attention to her and she didn’t seem to care that he was spending all his time with me.
The DJ started playing old school rap songs and JC and I were tearing up the floor to some Tupac, when Justin finally showed up. The song playing was called I Get Around. I really wish I had paid closer attention to the lyrics of that song. It would have told me a lot.
JC was behind me with his hands on my hips, but he slipped his arms around me and clasped them together over my stomach when he saw Justin heading our way.
“Thanks for looking out, but you can let her go now.”
JC propped his chin on my shoulder. “What if I don’t want to?”
“Afraid you don’t have much of a choice. I saw her first.” Justin grabbed my hand and rather forcefully pulled me away from JC. “Besides, you’ve got a woman of your own.”
A strange look passed between them. JC opened his mouth, like it was right on the tip of his tongue to say something, but he didn’t.
Over the years it would always be hard for me to figure out when Justin and JC were just teasing each other and when they were about to have a serious fight. No one could deny the love between them, but theirs is a relationship full of tension and jealousy. Justin has always felt that JC was more naturally talented than him. And JC has always felt like no matter what he did he would always come in second place to Justin.
I didn’t know it then, but I was just setting myself up to be one more thing for them to fight over.
“Alright. It was nice meeting you Kayla.” JC gave me a kiss on the cheek, his lips falling just a little too close to the corner of my mouth, then he turned his attention back to Justin. “Can I talk to you for a second?”
Justin hesitated like he wanted to say no, but he just nodded his head and let JC pull him off into a corner. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that the conversation was about me. This was the second hush-hush conversation they’d had and I was starting to feel paranoid. There was a lot of finger pointing and a little bit of shoving until Joey stepped in and pushed them apart.
JC wandered off in Bobbie’s direction and Justin came back toward me. He closed his eyes and sighed. The angry look on his face disappeared and by the time he reached me he was smiling again.
“What was that all about?”
“It’s a long, boring story. Let’s just say that JC is a drama queen and leave it at that.”
That answer wasn’t completely satisfactory, but I didn’t want to cause any trouble so I just let it go. Justin and I danced for a little while, but the party was winding down and pretty soon it was time for us to leave.
Justin led me outside to his car. He opened the door for me and then settled himself into the driver’s seat. “Should I take you back to the hotel or do you want to come to my place?”
I’ve got to hand it to him. Justin has never believed in beating around the bush. “We can go back to your place.”
The corner of his mouth turned up and he gave me one last look before pulling off. Justin drove like a maniac. We zipped through the streets of Orlando at speeds that I am sure were well over the limit.
We pulled up to his house and made our way up the long winding driveway. I think to use the word house would be an understatement, it was actually a mansion. The inside was absolutely gorgeous. And everything was white. Pure, sparkling white.
“How can you live here? I’d be afraid to touch anything.”
“I don’t actually get to spend a lot of time here. I think this will probably be the first time I’ve been able to spend two nights in a row here.”
I walked around admiring everything. I could feel Justin’s gaze following me all around the room. I turned suddenly and his eyes were glued to me. He’d been caught staring, but he didn’t seem embarrassed and he didn’t look away. If anything his stare became bolder.
“Aren’t you going to give me a tour?”
“Sure.” He took my hand and led me up the stairs. We came to a stop in front of the first door on the right. His bedroom. He ushered me into the room and then closed the door behind me. He went over to the bed and sat down on the edge of it, but I continued standing.
“Do you start all of your tours with the bedroom?”
“Why save the best for last?” He leaned back, resting his weight on his elbows. He cocked his head toward me in a beckoning gesture. “Come here.”
I shook my head and leaned against the closed door. “I’m just fine right where I am.” We both knew what was going to happen that night, but I thought he should work for it at least a little bit.
He grinned and I knew he could tell where I was coming from. He decided to play along. “Sorry I missed most of the party.”
“That’s okay. I had a good time anyway.”
“So I saw. I have to tell you, when I first stepped in there and saw JC dancing all over you with his hands on your hips, I had to remind myself that he was a friend. I didn’t like the way it looked.”
“So you’re the jealous type.”
He stood and walked toward me and he didn’t stop until he had my back pressed flat against the door. “I can be.” He put his hands on either side of my head effectively boxing me in. “Does that bother you?”
“Why would it bother me? I’m not your woman.”
He licked his luscious lips and let out the sexiest little laugh. “You’re gonna be.”
“Isn’t that a little presumptuous?”
“Nope. Just a fact.” He pressed his lips against mine and reached for the zipper running down the front of my dress, unzipping it all the way. He brushed the parted folds of fabric aside revealing the lacy red bra and matching thong that I had on. He traced his hands across my stomach, causing the muscles there to jump under his touch. His fingers went below the waistband of my underwear and didn’t stop moving until he reached the tight bundle of nerves at my center. He lightly stroked across me before moving lower and entering me, first with just one digit, a second following closely behind. His free arm snaked around my waist and he lifted me off the floor, using the pressure of his body to hold me up. I wrapped my legs around him, moving my hips in time to the thrusting rhythm of his hand.
We deepened our kiss, my moans of pleasure getting lost inside of his mouth. Suddenly Justin spun around with me in his arms and dropped me in the center of his bed. He was out of his clothes and on top of me with a condom in his hand before I even had time to blink. So much for making him work for it.
The first time was fast. Built up tension and anticipation made it impossible for either of us to hold out for long. As soon as he entered me my stomach started fluttering, my inner walls clenching around him. He thrust against me three, maybe four times and that was all it took for both of us.
The second time was completely different. It was slow and gentle. Justin took his time. He explored every inch of my body, like he was trying to memorize me. He was observant and attentive, taking note of every moan, every shiver. Like he wanted to learn everything it took to satisfy me.
By the third time, he knew my body so well that he had me begging, clawing his back and crying out his name. Sprung doesn’t begin to describe how he had me. It was our first night together and I did things with him that I hadn’t done with any guy I’d ever dated before. Justin had me completely turned out and it only took him a few hours to do it.
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He woke me up the next morning by bringing me breakfast in bed. It was only a bowl of Fruity Pebbles and a glass of juice, but it was the thought that counted. The single rose that he’d laid across the tray touched my heart.
He sat down facing me, watching me eat. His intense stare made me think about how horrible I must look. I know that my makeup was probably smeared all over my face and the loose curls I’d had the night before were a rat’s nest matted against my head. He had actually made me sweat out my perm. Justin on the other hand looked as fresh as he ever did. You would never know that he had just rolled out of bed.
“Will you stop staring at me like that? We can’t all wake up looking pretty like you.”
“I think you look gorgeous.” He leaned forward and kissed me, then he made a face. “But your breath is kicking.”
I pushed against his chest. “You’re not exactly minty fresh yourself.”
He rolled his eyes. “No, I’m not. So I guess it won’t matter if I kiss you again.” He took the tray off my lap and sat it on the floor. He pressed his lips against mine and leaned over me, trying to ease me back into a reclining position. I knew what he wanted, but I wasn’t having it.
I pushed against his chest until he sat back. “No, Justin.”
“Why not?”
“If we have sex again I won’t be able to walk.”
“What if I said I’d carry you wherever you wanted to go?”
“Nice try. But no way. Didn’t you get enough last night? And earlier this morning?”
“I’m a nineteen year old guy. There’s no such thing as enough.” I glared at him and he gave it up. “Alright. I’ll let you rest. I forgot that your poor old bones probably can’t take it like they used to.”
“I’m barely four years older than you.”
“Practically ancient. But I won’t hold it against you. I like old women.” I popped him upside the head. “I meant to say older women.”
“If you want to make it to twenty you’d better watch your mouth.”
“Yes ma’am.” I made a move to hit him again, but he grabbed my arms and pulled me into a hug. “What do you want to do today?”
“I don’t know. What do you want to do?”
“You already said no to what I wanted to do.”
“Justin. . .”
“Maybe we could go shopping. Would you like that?”
“Yeah. That sounds good. I guess I can take a shower here and then you can drop me by the hotel to pick up a change of clothes.”
“You don’t have to do that.” Justin got up and rambled around in the back of his closet. When he came back he had a pink t shirt and a pair of blue jeans with him. I looked down at the clothes, the women’s clothes that he had just laid down, then I looked up at him.
“Whose clothes are these?”
“My cousin. She stays here whenever she’s in town and she left some clothes behind. You and her are about the same size, they should fit.”
It was a plausible enough story, but still I wasn’t sure. Justin sensed my hesitation.
“Do you really think I’d be bold enough to go to my closet right in front of you and pull out some other woman’s clothes for you to wear? I’d have to be crazy.”
The lie he was telling rolled off his tongue with practiced ease. He was just that bold and just that crazy. And I was just that gullible.
“Okay.” I picked up the clothes and carried them into the bathroom with me. I was in the shower for all of five minutes before Justin joined me. I’d like to be able to say that I continued to resist his advances, but the second I felt his warm soapy hands slipping across my skin, I knew I’d let him do whatever he wanted.
I had never been a particularly naive person and under normal circumstances I could smell a bullshit line from fifty feet away. But there was something about Justin that just short circuited part of my brain. Right from the start I let him have his way with me and I was willing to believe every word that came out of his mouth.
We spent the rest of the day going in and out of every store at the Florida Mall. I’d never been with a man that loved to shop so much. He went in Abercrombie & Fitch and it only took him twenty minutes to drop about as much money as I would make in a month. He was spending money like it was water and he was generous with me too. Despite my protests, he dragged me into Saks and preceded to buy me anything that I showed the slightest bit of interest in.
After wearing a hole in his credit card, we dropped by the hotel so that I could pick up my stuff and check out. When we got back to his place, we ordered in and had dinner by candlelight.
Once we finished eating we stretched out on the sofa. Justin had me pulled tight against him. My head was resting against his chest and I could feel the vibrations when he spoke to me.
“Do you really have to leave tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“Isn’t there anything that I can do to convince you to stay for at least one more day?”
“You know I’d like to, but I can’t. I had to beg just to get this time off. If I’m not at work on Monday morning, I’ll be fired.”
“I know. I’m just gonna miss you. We go back out on the road on Tuesday and I don’t know when I’ll get a chance to see you again.”
“I’ll miss you too.”
“When ever you can get time off I’ll fly you to where I am. And I’ll call you every day.”
“You don’t have to say things because you think it’s what I want to hear.”
“That’s not what I’m doing. I know it’s way too soon to say something like this, but I’m gonna say it anyway.” He leaned away from me so that he could look in my eyes.
“I really feel like me and you could have something together. I don’t know how to explain it, but I’ve never felt this way before. Just this instantaneous comfort. I feel like I’ve been with you forever.”
“I feel it too.”
“I thought you did. I want to spend as much time with you as I possibly can. But I have to tell you something.”
“What?”
“You need to understand that having a relationship with me isn’t exactly the easiest thing in the world.”
I remembered the conversation we’d had the first night we met when he told me about the girlfriend that cheated on him because he wasn’t around.
“I understand that you’re busy.”
“It’s not just the time thing. You’re gonna hear a lot of crazy stuff about me. I can’t stand next to a female for five seconds without some magazine declaring that I’m engaged to her. It can be a lot to take.”
I sat up beside Justin and took his hands in mine. “I know better than to believe everything I read in tabloids. Unless you give me some reason not to, I’ll trust you and I’ll believe what you say.”
“I need to tell you something else. You know who Britney Spears is, right?”
“Yeah. What about her?”
“I was seeing her for a little while. I’ve known her for years and we even dated for a little while."
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Me and her are on the same record label and they think it’s good publicity for us to be seen together. So sometimes she’ll come visit us while we’re on the road and I’ll take her out to dinner or whatever. It’s nothing serious. Mostly just photo ops, but I just wanted you to know. You’re bound to see pictures of us together and I don’t want you to get the wrong idea.”
I was quiet for a minute, letting that information sink in. What he was saying didn’t really seem all that farfetched. I’d heard before that sometimes managers would push people to go out together just so that they could be seen.
“Does Britney understand that you two aren’t really dating?”
“Definitely. She’s got a boyfriend of her own back in Louisiana. What I have with her is basically a business arrangement.”
You see how he got me? He volunteered the information. I mean logically, if he were up to something shady, he wouldn’t have brought Britney up at all. Or at least that’s the bullshit rationalization that I fed myself. He had cast his line and he was reeling me in.
“I’m not worried about you taking some girl out to dinner. Just as long as you’re not sleeping with her, we won’t have a problem.”
He looked me straight in the eyes. “I swear to you, I have never had sex with Britney Spears.”
His voice and the look in his eyes was completely sincere. And why wouldn’t he have sounded sincere? It was true when he said it. At that point he hadn’t actually had sex with Britney Spears. Not yet.
“Then like I said, we don’t have a problem. Now can we move on? I really don’t want to spend our last few hours together talking about some other woman.”
Justin smiled at me and placed a light kiss on my cheek. We spent the rest of the night talking about his schedule and mapping out plans for when I could come and visit him.
The next morning he rode with me to the airport and kissed me goodbye at the gate. I spent the entire plane ride home thinking about him. Thinking about how lucky I was to have met him and how I couldn’t wait to see him again.
It would be three months before I found out what really kept Justin away from that Halloween party. He was out on a date with another woman.
I don’t think I have to tell you who it was a date with.
