1. New Girlfriend

"So this is your place," Lindsay Campbell commented as she entered the living room of Justin Timberlake’s Los Angeles home. The room was mostly dark, the only light coming from a small lamp sitting on a table at the end of the couch.

"Yep, this is it," Justin confirmed with a smile as his date turned to face him.

"It’s nice. I like the paintings." She gestured to a large abstract painting that hung above the fireplace, but her sparkling green eyes didn’t leave Justin.

"Thanks. My mom picked them out. Pretty much everything in here that’s even remotely appealing was picked out by her."

"Nice." She dropped her purse on the coffee table and took a step closer to him, smiling coyly. "But you didn’t bring me here to talk about your mother’s great taste, did you?"

Justin grinned at her slyly, reaching his hand out to grab hold of her arm and tug her towards him. "No I didn’t," he breathed before his lips brushed softly against hers. Lindsay increased the pressure almost immediately. This was the moment she had been waiting for all night. It was their third date and Justin had finally invited her back to his place.

His hands slid down to the small of her back, pulling her closer to his body as their tongues entwined. Her hands slid between them and unbuttoned the buttons on his shirt. She slid the material off his shoulders slowly and deliberately and it fell to the ground as they worked their way towards the couch. Lindsay let out a satisfied moan before breaking the kiss to let Justin pull her shirt over her head. Her lips returned to his, kissing them over and over as though that was all they were meant for.

The pair finally fell down onto the couch, their sighs and moans greeted with the loud squeal from beneath them. They immediately broke apart and Lindsay jumped off the couch, surprised at what had felt like a human body underneath her. Justin slid off what felt like a pair of feet to the end of the couch as a head of jet black curls emerged from beneath a blanket. He’d been so focused one what he was doing with Lindsay that Justin hadn’t even noticed the blanket or the lump underneath it when they’d entered.

"Sorry!" the 13-year-old girl apologized in the half squeaky, half hoarse tone of someone who had just been awoken by two people twice her age landing on top of her in the heat of passion. She then proceeded to roll off the couch and bolt out of the room, the blanket still wrapped around her.

"No problem," Justin called after her with a chuckle. He turned his attention back to the blonde who was standing about two feet away from him, her jaw dropped in shock. He took her hand and pulled her back down onto the couch with him. "Now where were we?"

"Wait," Lindsay protested, placing a hand on his chest and pushing him away before he could land his lips back on hers. Recovering from the interruption did not seem to come as easily to her as it did to Justin. "Who was that?"

"Oh, that was Miriam, my maid’s daughter," he brushed the question off as though it were trivial.

"Your maid lives here?" Lindsay was incredulous that this was the first she was hearing of this. She and Justin hadn’t been dating that long, but she felt like she should know about a live-in maid with a young teenage daughter.

"Uh…yes."

"Why? Does your house really require that much attention?" Her family being quite rich, she had grown up in a house with several servants, but the only ones who lived there were the cook and the nanny.

"Well, yeah, it’s good to have someone here to keep an eye on things while I’m gone and she’s a really good cook and-" He paused, cutting himself off. "You know, I really didn’t invite you here to discuss my employees."

"You’re right." Lindsay’s smile returned and she seemed to remember why she was sitting topless on his couch in the first place. "Where were we?"

Their lips met again in a slow tender kiss. Justin’s hands reached up to cup Lindsay’s face, but they were soon interrupted once more by a frantic whispering from the doorway.

"Justin," Miriam hissed quietly, as though whispering would prevent Lindsay from hearing her. "Justin!"

"Yeah?" He broke apart from Lindsay again with a sigh and directed his attention to the small figure who was standing in the doorway, her blanket still wrapped around her body and held in the front by her thin mocha colored fingers.

"I’m really super sorry to…interrupt," she spoke the word carefully as though it had taken her a long time to choose it and she didn’t want to screw it up. "But my mom’s asleep and she locked the door and I can’t get back in and I don’t know what to do."

"Here." He reached into his pocket and grabbed his keys, then tossed them to her. Miriam caught them and mouthed "I’m sorry" as both thanks and apology. He just smiled and shook his head at her, slightly irritated by the interruption but never really able to be mad at her. She disappeared again and he returned his attention to the matter at hand. Lindsay was staring at him incredulously.

"You just give your keys to the help and let them wander off with them?" she inquired sounding scandalized. Justin couldn’t help laughing.

"Uh, she’s not ‘the help’." He formed quote marks in the air with his fingers. "She’s the daughter of ‘the help.’ And her mom has worked for me for three years. They’re practically like members of my family."

"That is weird," Lindsay stated matter-of-factly.

"Not really." He shrugged, rubbing his hand on her thigh subconsciously. Lindsay smiled at the action and leaned in to kiss him again.

"Justin," the now familiar whisper came from the doorway again. Lindsay broke away immediately and grabbed her shirt off the floor, pulling it over her head self-consciously. This was beginning to get unbearable.

"What, Miri?" He used the nickname that he had picked up from her mother years earlier.

"Uh, you have like a zillion keys and-"

"C’mere," Justin beckoned to her, cutting her off. He smiled apologetically at Lindsay as Miriam shuffled over to them sheepishly.

"Maybe I should go," Lindsay offered irritably as the thin, awkwardly lanky figure made her way over to them. Justin shook his head at her immediately, indicating that he wanted her to stay.

"Sorry," Miriam apologized again, handing the keys to her mother’s employer.

"It’s okay." He looked through the keys for a moment before picking out the correct one. He slid it off the key ring and handed it to her. "Keep it."

"’Kaythanksbye." All three words became one as she dashed back out of the room, anxious to leave the awkward situation she had found herself in.

"No more interruptions?" Justin called after her hopefully.

"Nope!" cried the response, distant enough that he knew she was almost to the back door and out of the house. Smiling to himself, he turned back to Lindsay, now sure that he could give her his full attention.

***

***

"Mama, have you seen my shoes?" Miriam came sliding through Justin’s back door and into the kitchen, her feet bare.

"Yeah, I found them when I was picking up in the living room a minute ago. They’re over there," Kalani Colobong responded, nodding towards the doorway where she had set her daughter’s shoes just minutes earlier. "You better hurry, Anita’s gonna be here any minute."

"I know, I know," her daughter sighed in her annoyed teenage fashion as she slid her sandals onto her feet. She turned back towards her mother. "How do I look?"

"Gorgeous, of course." Kali grinned at her daughter from across the room, secretly thinking that she was growing up way too fast. She could barely believe that today was Miriam’s first day of 8th grade. It was only one more year before she’d be entering high school. Looking at her daughter standing there in her jean miniskirt, leggings and off the shoulder top, hair straightened and swept back into a ponytail, she almost felt like she was looking at a slightly altered version of herself 15 years earlier. "You’re definitely going to be the hottest girl in school this year. Now get the hell out of here."

"Nice, Mom." The sentiment was accented by a surprised laugh as Miriam shook her head and headed out of the kitchen to leave. "Bye! Hi Justin."

"Hey, punk," the tall, half awake man who was just entering the kitchen returned the greeting with a yawn.

"Hey! Kiss!" Kali called as her daughter disappeared into the living room.

"Whoa. I do not pay you for that," Justin joked as he slid onto one of the bar stools across the counter from where she was scrambling eggs.

"Funny," Kali replied dryly. Miriam reappeared, gave her mother a peck on the cheek, then quickly dashed out of the room again without saying a word. "Bye, hon! Have a good day!"

"Where’s she off to in such a hurry? And why are you scrambling eggs?" Justin inquired. It had just registered that was what she was doing, and she never made breakfast for him. He always ate cereal afterwards anyway, so she had given up making him anything decent to eat in the mornings.

"First day of 8th grade. And don’t worry, I made your favorite." She took the eggs off the stove as they finished cooking, then grabbed the box of Cap’n Crunch sitting next to her and slid it over towards her employer.

"Thank you kindly."

"No problem."

"But who are the eggs for?" he asked again, pouring himself a generous helping of Cap’n Crunch.

"Well I thought your lady friend might have better taste in breakfast foods than you do. And God knows you can't cook," Kali explained. She had to suppress a grin as she piled the eggs onto one of Justin’s ridiculously expensive plates and sat it next to him on the counter.

"Lady friend?" Justin repeated incredulously. "Who says ‘lady friend’? And anyway, she’s gone. She had to work early this morning."

"Gone?" Kali inquired raising a dark eyebrow in interest. She slid the skillet she’d been using for the eggs into the sink and turned back to face Justin, tucking a loose piece of jet black hair behind her ear as she did so. "That sounds like a promising relationship."

"Hey! I also do not pay you to be bitchy. Sit your ass down and eat these eggs," he ordered as Kali laughed at his animated response.

"I was just kidding, you know that." She ruffled his hair affectionately, sitting down on the bar stool next to him and setting to work eating the eggs that had been intended for Lindsay.

"Yeah, yeah," Justin grumbled grouchily. It was too early in the morning for her to be teasing him about something he was already a little sore about. He knew Lindsay had to work early, but she could have at least woken him up and said goodbye before she left. He didn’t think that was asking too much. "How did you know about Lindsay anyway?"

"Um, well, as you may recall...you two nearly broke my daughter’s rib cage last night," Kali reminded him with a smirk. "She told me this morning that she was afraid she’d ruined your chances of getting laid. I had to reassure her."

That Justin had to laugh at. He could just picture Miriam’s small pout and furrowed brows as she expressed her concerns to her mother. "No, it was fine. It did kind of ruin the moment, but fortunately, I am extremely talented in more ways than one."

"Well, I’m sorry. We didn’t think that you were getting home until today and she wanted to watch TV, so I let her go use yours and she fell asleep, so I just left her there. And also, ew."

"Yeah, I got back early," Justin stated, a bit distracted as he began glancing through the newspaper that was sitting on the counter next to him.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious." Kali giggled, finishing off the eggs and standing up to clear the dishes and finish loading the dishwasher.

"Did you just say 8th grade?" he ignored the insult as something she’d said at least ten minutes earlier returned to him.

"No, but I did say it about ten minutes ago."

"8th grade? Holy shit. Little Miri."

Kali turned the water off and abandoned the dishes briefly to turn around and look at him, her eyes wide and head shaking in disbelief. "I know, right? When did we get so old?"

"Hey, speak for yourself, lady! I am not old! I am still young and virile." He flashed his set of perfect white teeth at her as he slid off the bar stool, having finished his cereal. Kali couldn’t help bursting into laughter.

"Don’t say ‘virile.’"

"Okay, that’s it, I’m leaving. Wash some dishes." With that, he left the room, the laughter of his maid still ringing behind him.