There was a strange atmosphere in the Timberlake mansion. Since Kristina’s departure things hadn’t been the same. Justina was pretty sad that her maman wasn’t there to sing her the same French lullaby that she had since she was a baby and little J was moody without his mothers warm touch. Justin’s love was still apparent, it hadn’t decreased any they just missed their mother was all. She had been gone for a few weeks now yet they still hadn’t grasped it all. It hurt Justin to see his children upset.
"Princess do you want some more juice?"
"No…."
"Are you sure?"
"Yup." They had to hit this head on or else their children would be depressed for a long time. Things didn’t seem as if they’d make a turn around regardless that Justin still held the divorced papers in his possession. What was the purpose of holding onto them? Even he wasn’t sure anymore. He hadn’t really talked to her besides answering the phone to give to the kids when she called. So what was the point of holding onto a pipe dream? Could it be the constant reminders of which their love used to be around the house? The black and white pictures they took in Paris, Michigan, and Tennessee still hung on the walls in the hall, the den still held a museum like presence of their adoration for each other. Picture after picture of Kristina and Justin decorated the room, then there was the bedroom that not only had pictures of the couple but more physical reminders of Kristina. Most of her clothes still hung in the closet along with keepsakes of her life back in Detroit. Prom knick knacks, little items she picked up in places they visited, stuffed animals he had gotten for her the first year that they had dated. Boy were they so happy then. Around that time was the European concert tour. How he hated to be so far from the girl he had deemed in one night was his soul mate. The thought caused Justin to laugh. Everyone thought he was crazy that night when he told them that he had found his soul mate. ’You’re sleepy’ Chris joked, Joey thought he was plain crazy but if he hadn’t went with his gut he wouldn’t have his pride and joy Justina and Justin. He was blessed to have to beautiful children and what once was a beautiful marriage. But it was all over and there was no point of trying to live in a past that was now nonexistent. Justin laid the small teddy bear back on the shelf and stepped out of the closet.
"Daddy! Daddy!" Justina called out.
"Yes princess?" Justina came running into her father’s bedroom.
"There’s someone at the door and you told me not to open the door for strangers. You said to come to get you if I heard the doorbell ring." Where Justin was in a bad mood it changed quickly. His daughter could forever take the gray cloud from above his head with just a smile. Or in her case repeating and following something that he told her what to do. First reminding him that she couldn’t date till she was 50, now going over his decree on not answering the door. Isn’t she a smart little cookie?
"Thank you baby" Justin lifted Justina into his arms and carried her along with him to the front door to see who his visitor is. Take a wild guess.
"Hey Justin, hey Justina."
"Hey Veneska, where’s Alesha?" he asked noticing that she was alone.
"Oh she’s at a friends house. She continues to complain about me not letting her visit and whatnot."
"Ah ok well um come in." Justin stood aside to let Veneska in. She had her moments where she had annoyed him before but now she was a bit of a help. Whenever he was a little busy at the studio she’d come over to help with the kids. Whether it be helping Justina with her homework to cooking the kids something if he was late, Veneska was a big help. She had turned into a good friend which surprised him. "Hey Justina do you think you can give me and Veneska some time alone?"
"Ok daddy." Justin lowered Justina to the ground so she could occupy herself while the grownups talked. The two walked into the living room and had a seat next to one another.
"So how are you?" she asked.
"I could be better."
"Still haven’t talked to her?"
"No, I mean she’s called and talked to Justina for while. They all went out the other day to the park but as far as we’re concerned nothing has changed."
"I’m sorry to hear that Justin." Tah yeah right, that was music to her ears. This at the moment was working so well for her. Being the sweet, lean on my shoulder when you need to cry friend was working just as good. Justin would remember who was helping him during his tough times and that was her. He’d then open his heart to her as well as his bank account which she was looking forward to.
"Thank you but its quite alright. Things happen you know."
"I know but I hate to see you in such pain Justin. You deserve better than that, truly you do." Better than Kristina? He wasn’t sure about that but then again they weren’t together so apparently someone out there was better than her. Justin was a firm believer in things happening for a reason. Their divorce plain and simple happened for a reason.
"Well I’m not going to dwell on it too much you know. It just hurts too much to keep dwelling on it."
"Yeah I understand, look tell you what how could I come over later with Alesha and I make you some of my yummy yummy veal parmagina. It’s really good I promise." Veneska’s pleading eyes made Justin give way to her advances. She didn’t have to come over and cook him dinner but she was going out of her way to do such so why not? No one else really understood the situation like Veneska since she was there to understand the whole baby thing and Kristina’s reaction to it. Yeah she knew alright, she was the reason why they were apart. If Justin only knew that Veneska was passing off Ruby’s child as her own Justin would flip his wig. But he never would know. So far everything they had planned was going their way, that would too.
"Sure that’d be great Veneska. I appreciate this really, your help, your kindness, all of it."
"No problem J, I’m gonna go out and get the stuff. Meet you back here around 6?"
"6 it is."
"Ok." Veneska and Justin got off the couch and headed for the door. This was too nice of her. He’d have to do something nice for her too, maybe a nice dinner of his own. Of course at a resturant where real good food was cooked. "Look Justin everything’s going to be ok, just give it time" Veneska grabbed Justin and held him close. He didn’t really grasp why she did that, maybe just to comfort him or something. Veneska headed out to her black Honda accord and dialed up Ruby up in a hurry. "Hey hey sweetheart."
"Hey, how’s it going?"
"Going great, I’m cooking him dinner…grabbing a dvd to watch once we put the rug rats to bed."
"Good…good…."
"So you know when to make the phone call tonight right?"
"At 8:45 when you’ll pretend you’re sleep."
"Right, Ruby this is the start of it all!!!"
Dinner went exactly how she wanted it. Justin loved the dish just like she had hoped. She put on her show once more being the good sweet girl, the potential step mother to his children, listening to everything Justina talked about that happened in class. Yawn, she’d rather her a lecture on jock itch. At least that was more entertaining but she listened anyways. Confused at the entire situation at hand Justina played a part of her own, a good little girl. She didn’t want her father to be upset with her if she acted how she really felt toward Veneska so she plastered a smile on and talked her curly little head off. Inside she didn’t like the way that Veneska was moving in on her mother’s territory, but still she was all smiles. See, shouldn’t she be an actress after all? After dinner, Veneska placed a big helping of strawberry pie on each person’s plate. Since Kristina told her that Justin loved strawberries she made it her goal to find a recepie and master it just for his liking. Which once again he totally did. He had tried some one time when Kristina took him to Big Boy’s back in Detroit but Veneska’s version was delicious.
"Hey Justin, I rented Scary movie 3 for us to watch tonight if that’s ok with you."
"Um….yeah sure that’s fine." Did she plan on spending the night there? He didn’t remember talking about all of that but if Alesha fell off to sleep then he wouldn’t want Veneska to wake her up from her rest. Hours after playing each child fell off to sleep. Justin offered Veneska to stay over in one of his guest rooms so she wouldn’t have to leave out so late.
"Have you seen this movie?"
"No not yet, is it good?"
"Yeah its soooo funny, I like it better than the other two. Simon Rex is so hot."
"Uh…yeah sure he is, he’s what I constantly have fantasies about" Veneska raised her eyebrow.
"Hmm is that so?" she joked.
"If you couldn’t tell I was joking around."
"I know, I know come on lets just watch the movie." Veneska turned on the movie keeping her eye on the time for Ruby to call. It was getting closer and closer to 8:45 so she laid her head down on Justin’s shoulder. Pretending to be in a deep sleep she awaited for her 8:45 call to come along. The ring of her cell phone indicated Ruby was right on the money.
"Veneska, your phone is ringing."
"Answer it for me" she mumbled. He didn’t necessarily feel comfortable with answering another person’s phone but since she gave him the go ahead he did just that.
"Hello?"
"Hi yes is this Ms. Willits?" Dumb question, could you not tell it wasn’t her? Especially with the male voice but Justin paid it no mind.
"No this is not, she’s actually sleeping right now, can you leave a message?"
"This is the Bonneview apartments, she is 6 payments behind in her rent. If she doesn’t pay by tomorrow we have no other choice than to evict her."
"What?" Justin had no clue Veneska was in such financial turmoil. She never really talked about her job or her source of income. She never asked him for money but if she was that far behind he wouldn’t have minded to help her.
"She is behind in her rent payments sir."
"Sorry to hear that, I’ll relay the message."
"Thank you." Justin looked over at Veneska who was knocked out or thought she was sleep. She heard everything that happened.
"Aw Veneska why didn’t you say anything" he whispered to what he thought was a sleeping Veneska. "Its ok…I’ll see to it to help you with whatever you need." That morning Veneska woke up in one of Justin’s guest bed’s. Man she hadn’t slept in a bed that comfortable in ages. Last time that happened was back in south beach when she was sleeping with that guy she thought was in the mob. "Hey sleepy head" Justin smiled. She slept like a baby that entire night.
"Hey…" she stretched. "I fell off to sleep?"
"Yeah last night during the movie."
"Wow, sorry about that."
"Its ok…..look Veneska there’s something we need to talk about."
"What is it?" she inquired playing dumb. She knew what he wanted to talk about and she anxiously awaited what he was going to do about it.
"Um last night you got a call from your aparment. They said you were 6 payments behind? What gives?"
"Well I’ve been in between jobs. I’m working at Fred Segal trying to make ends meet but the job sucks plus I had to take a lot of days off for Alesha’s paternity test and whatnot."
"Why didn’t you ask for my help?"
"I didn’t want you to think that I only wanted you for your money so I just tried to do it all on my own."
"Veneska, Alesha is my daughter. Where you live is where she lives, I can’t have my child and her mother out in the street. I can help you if you want."
"No, no its ok I can do this on my own plus I was ready to move from the. The neighbors suck." Then Justin uttered the magic words she was longing to hear….
"Move in with me."
~*~
"Ok so these are the keys to his other home. He’s already told me that no one has been there in a long time and if I needed it for anything I could so knock yourself out." Veneska had Ruby come over while Justin was out with the kids at the zoo. Justin’s fathering skills actually surprised her. He was so intuitive with his children, especially a child that wasn’t even his, hilarious right?
"I can’t believe this is happening!!! When we came up with this I never thought it’d work! But it is Ven! It is!"
"I know, I can’t believe it either. We did what we set out to do. Broke the happy little couple up, got them divorced, now I’m moving in and you’re moving into his other old mansion. Isn’t this great or what?!"
"More than great! So what are you going to do about Alesha?"
"What about her? So far this whole father thing has been working just fine. Its not like you care about her."
"Hey wait a second I do care about her, well I did for awhile. She was beginning to be a hinderance you know. Hard to get a good high with a damn kid in the way."
"Yeah tell me about it. Well she’ll be raised with two great parents, trust me."
"I do so far you’ve given me every reason to."
"Thank you thank you."
"So what are you going to do now?"
"Seal the deal, make him mine."
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