I looked at the clock on the dashboard that said it was almost eleven o’clock and decided it was time for me to find a place to stay, at least for the night. This isn’t exactly the kind of place I want to raise my son. I’m pretty sure someone is going to think I’m a prostitute while I’m walking into the hotel lobby, even with Brady in my arms. There was a man sitting behind the front desk with his legs up watching television.

“Hi, can we have a room please?”

The man held a finger up to me as he continued watching whatever was so important on television. I stood there, trying to rearrange Brady who was sleeping in my arms and is officially too heavy for me to carry. “What?” he finally asked when the show went to commercial a few minutes later.

“Do you have any rooms?” he nodded his head, “Can we… have one?’’

He held his hand out for what I assume is to collect my credit card so I sat Brady at the end of the desk while I found it in my purse. “Mommy, I’m tired.” Brady whined as he struggled to keep his eyes open.

“I know babe, we’re close.”

 The man passed a paper for me to sign along with the room key, “Room 20.”

“Thank you,” I answered as I picked Brady up again. That man was quite the jerk, I mean he saw me standing there with poor Brady and he couldn’t be bothered to even talk more than a word during a commercial break. I’m lucky the show didn’t come back while I was standing there. “Come on Brady, you have to be a big boy now and walk up to the room and help me carry our things alright?”

He nodded his head slowly, fighting to keep his eyes open, “Is Justin gonna come tomorrow?”

I ignored the question and handed him a bag before grabbing our suitcases from the trunk, “Stay close to Mommy, please don’t go ahead.” I don’t need to worry about that, he’s too tired to do anything but follow me in his zombie-like state. I didn’t expect much of the room and it certainly didn’t exceed my expectations.  The room was small, with two beds and the normal pay by the hour furniture bolted to the ground. I changed Brady into his pajamas quickly and washed him up before kissing his forehead and wishing him a good night sleep.

After I bolted the door shut I went to the bathroom to get myself ready for bed. It’s been a long, eventful day that’s for sure. I grabbed my cell phone out of the back pocket of my jeans and looked at it for a second before turning it back on.  I took a deep breath before calling my voicemail and listened to the messages waiting for me.

“So now you turned off your phone? What’s going on? This is absolutely ridiculous Chloe, you’re being stupid. Do you have any idea what you’re doing? Do you even know where you are? I’m worried sick, I don’t know what’s going on. Something could have happened. I don’t know if I should be pissed or worried. Please just let me know you’re all right. I’ll just keep calling.”

“Hey Booboo!” I heard Kelly’s voice which was a complete surprise, “Where are you? You’re boyfriend, Justin Timberlake, just left my apartment.  He says you’re MIA. He assumed I would know where you are but clearly that’s not the case. So now I’m worried too. You wouldn’t take my Brady and just leave would you? I feel like you’d at least say goodbye. So yeah, I’m really worried so please let me know what’s going on. I won’t tell the boy if you don’t want me to. I’d just like to stop being so out of the loop with you. Call me, k? Love ya Boo!”

I hung up the phone and wiped my eyes so I could stop listening to these messages that are just making everything so much harder than it already is. I left for a reason and I’m not about to just go right back because some people are a little worried. Sure, I should have told them but Justin would never have let me go. I could have at least told Kelly. I should tell Kelly. I text messaged Justin with three simple words: we are fine.

I then sat down on the edge of the tub and dialed Kelly’s number waiting nervously for her to pick up, “Chloe, is that you?”

“Did I wake you?” I answered softly, regretting I called her automatically. She sounds like she just woke up and I feel like I’m about to cry already. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m up, where are you? Are you guys all right? What’s going on?”

“We’re fine. We’re fine. We just left. It’s ok, I mean it’s not that big of a deal.”

“Sweetie, you just disappeared. There’s this man that you say was out to get you and you just leave? That scares us all.”

I rolled my eyes and wiped the tears away, “I’m telling you now that we’re ok. I’m sorry I didn’t let you know, or say goodbye.”

“You’re not coming back?”

“Not right now. I think it’s good for us to get away for a little.”

“Like a vacation? You can’t be gone for good, I mean you’re mother’s here.”

Now there’s no holding back the tears. How could I leave so quickly that I didn’t even remember we were leaving my mother? My mother who I used to go to see everyday but have recently gone down to about once a week ever since Justin came into our lives.  “Kelly, please…”

“Alright, I’m sorry sweetie. Don’t cry, I don’t mean to make you cry. I just mean that you go to see your mother every day so it’d be hard for you to run away from that.”

“I don’t see her every day. Ever since Justin I’ve been going less and less.” I felt a lump in my throat and automatically feel guilty that I let that happen.

“That’s good Chloe, you’re coping. You’ve had a rough couple months, it’s good that you don’t need to go every day anymore. He’s really worried about you guys you know.”

I nodded my head and felt the tears falling down my face again.  “I know.”

“He showed up here having pretty close to a panic attack. He couldn’t even sit down; he was pacing around the room. Every half hour on the dot he calls me to see if I’ve heard from you.”

“Well,” I answered after a few seconds of silence, “I just wanted to let you know that we’re alright and that you shouldn’t worry.”

“Where are you?”

“In Las Vegas, or just outside I guess. We’re at a hotel, I’m not sure what we’re doing in the morning.”

“Will you let me know?”

I nodded my head, “Yeah, I’ll let you know as soon as I know. I’ll talk to you soon Kel.”

“Alright sweetie thanks for calling me back.  Please leave your phone on and give Brady a big hug for me.”

“OK, bye Kelly.”

After I hung up with Kelly I noticed I had a text message back from Justin that read: What do you mean you’re fine? Where are you?

I replied back: I mean we’re fine. Please don’t worry about us. Then I turned off my phone and climbed in bed.

The next morning I woke up to Brady calling my name. “Mommy! Are we going to go soon? I don’t like this house.”

I smiled before sitting up and tossing the remote at him, “We’ll leave very soon, don’t you worry. I just want to take a quick shower and then we’ll head out and find some breakfast. Why don’t you get change all right? I’ll be fast.” I gave him a big hug, holding on extra long for Kelly and kissed his forehead. When I got out of the shower I packed everything up quickly, luckily it didn’t take very long since I didn’t take too much out. This place creeps me out just a little and I sure as hell don’t want anything getting infected that doesn’t have to.

“Alright Monkey, are you ready?”

         Brady nodded his head and jumped up quickly. He’s been ready to go out here since the second we walked in. I can’t say I blame him; we’re definitely rushing out of her as fast as we can.  “Where are we going now Mommy? Back to that place with the waterfalls?”

         “I don’t think so, we’ll have to think of something else. For now we’re just going to go get some breakfast. What are you craving? Some pancakes? Waffles? Scrambled eggs?”

         Brady giggled, “I want everything! I’m starving Mommy, my whole tummy is growling. Can we get some ice cream too?”

         “For breakfast?” I laughed, “I don’t think so Monkey, you’re being silly. Maybe we can stop and find some later on.”

         “OK Yay! Are we going back home?”

         “No, we’re going on an adventure. Can you please grab that bag again so we can get going?” He grabbed the bag quickly and followed me to the door, “Make sure you stay close to me now, alright?”

         “ALRIGHT!” Brady shouted with a giggle, “I’m gonna get a big waffle!”

         “Oh yum, I think I might get a waffle too, that’s a good idea Brady.”

         As we walked out of the room I heard Brady squeal before running off to gods know where, “Brady? Come back here!” I shouted. I felt like my whole life was crashing down. Where in the world is Brady running off to? We’re at this seedy hotel on a busy street with cars speeding by and not exactly the best cliental but Brady just runs off like he’s seeing someone worth taking the chance of getting kidnapped or hit by a car. When I actually looked to see where he was going I saw Justin leaning against my car wearing blue jeans, a black t-shirt and a pair of sunglasses.

         I took a few deep breaths trying to calm myself down before I continued walking slowly to y car. What is he doing here? How did he find us? Why is he here? These are all the questions, among with a million other questions, were flying through my head like a flock of seagulls.

         “Justin!” I heard Brady scream as he dropped the bag and jumped into Justin’s arms. “Hi Justin! I knew you was gonna come! Are you coming with us on our adventure? Is that how come you’re here? You know, you wasn’t here yesterday and I asked Mommy if you was gonna come later. Did you know we’re going to see them fountains again? Do you remember them? Them was my favorite!”

         “Whoa,” Justin replied with a smile, “It’s good to see you, kid. I missed you.”

         “I missed YOU! You know what Justin? I missed you so much, even ask Mommy. I brought Hungry Hungry Hippos cause you said we was gonna play but then you left! It’s ok though, cause I brought it anyway and I knew you would come back and we could play it later! Wanna play? Wanna play it now?”

         “Not right now Tec, later for sure. Get in the car, ok buddy? I’m going to talk to Mom for a minute.”

         I walked by Justin and to the trunk so I could put our bags in. he came next to me and grabbed the bag from my hand placing it in the trunk for me, “How did you get here?”

         “Plane… then cab.”

         “How did you know we were staying here?”

         “I drove around looking for your car. I’m telling you, that cab driver was getting a little annoyed with me,” he smiled.

         “Look, I’m not going back. So… please don’t do this in front of Brady.” I felt my eyes start to water again. It was hard enough for me to leave in the first place. I can’t keep doing these goodbyes.

         “I didn’t say anything about you coming back.”

         The what the hell is he doing here? Obviously Kelly told him where we are which doesn’t really surprise me. I should have told her not to, although I thought it was obvious I didn’t want him to know. I’m not blaming Kelly, next time I’ll have to make myself clearer.

         “Where are you guys headed?” Justin continued as he crossed his arms over his chest.

         “Breakfast.”

         “I’m hungry,” he replied with a slight smirk.

          I bit at my lip and looked him over. It’s hard to say no when he gives me that look. I turned my gaze to Brady who was watching us carefully. “Fine but just breakfast, and you can’t ask questions or expect answers. We’re eating breakfast and then we’re leaving, and you have to be ok with that.”

         He nodded his head even though I know there’s no possible way he’s going to be ok with everything and just let us go. No way. But I guess we’ll deal with that when the times comes. Brady needs to have one more time with Justin and he needs to be able to say goodbye. I need to start acting like a mother and do what’s best for him.