If stress were an actual object, it would appear in the form of a massive hammer, and it would currently be pounding right between Grace Freeman’s eyes.
Grace sat in the back of the SUV reserved for the tour with her lap top out and her cell phone attached to her ear. The past few weeks she had been in Orlando keeping up with the paperwork of the tour and making sure all the bills were getting paid on time. She had thrown herself into this tour, using is as an excuse to forget her personal problems, but it seemed that she had put the blinders on a little too heavily and now things were getting out of control.
On the plane out to the tour she had received a voice mail telling her that there was a very pissed off pop star and his attitude was affecting the rest of the tour group. On top of this she had received an e-mail from Johnny saying that he had heard things about glitches on the tour that had been left for far too long, and if Johnny was being made aware of these things then Grace knew it was bad.
She hadn’t heard about the Jamie situation, in fact she was blissfully unaware of it all, but with the cars pulling up to the venue she wasn’t far away from enlightenment.
Striding into the arena with more confidence than she really felt, Grace made it her mission to find Dave and figure out what the hell was going on. As she turned the corridor she stopped short before she ran into one fifth of *NSYNC…a very moody one fifth of *NSYNC.
“Justin, how’s it going?” She clutched a hand to her chest from the fright of running into him so abruptly. Grace almost shrank back from the fire in his eyes as he lifted his head to look at her.
“Today is not the day to be asking me any questions. And just a warning, if your little assistant gets within yards of me or my band mates, I will NOT hesitate to have security escort him away. This is my show, and you might want to remind him of that.”
Grace stood still as Justin stalked off down the hallway and into the Toy Room before slamming the door forcefully.
“Well, that was a welcome back if I ever had one. What the hell happened while I was gone?”
She shook off the encounter and continued down the hall way toward where Dave was supposedly set up.
Knocking lightly on the door she didn’t wait for an answer before she opened the panel of wood and stepped into the room.
“Excuse me, who the hell do you-“ Dave’s angry rant stopped short when he noticed that it wasn’t just any intruder in his office, it was his boss.
“Hey Dave…I’d ask how things are going, but I think I have an idea already.”
Grace settled down into one of the chairs in front of Dave’s desk and set her stuff down next to her. She sighed with a stressful exhale of air and closed her eyes for a moment.
“It’s good to have to back Grace. I’d like to tell you that things are running smoothly but there’s a certain pop prince that seems to have his panties in a bunch.”
“Tell me about it. I ran into him in the hall way and had to check my pulse afterward to make sure he hadn’t killed me with the looks he was shooting me.”
Dave let out a slight chuckle and settled back into his chair.
“Yes well, it seems that he’s been a little spoiled on this tour and he’s just being a brat.” He knew it was wrong, but the man didn’t really care. He knew that Grace had no idea about what went down while she was gone, and he fully intended for her to get his version of the story. He wanted her on his side anyway.
“I’m surprised too. I didn’t really get that impression from him before the tour started, especially with Jamie around. The boy seemed entirely too wrapped up in that girl to even want to pitch a fit.”
With that Dave cleared his throat uncomfortably. He knew he had to tread carefully here or Grace would know something was up. He needed to convince her of his version and make it believable enough so even if the members of *NSYNC mentioned it, she would think they were exaggerating.
“Well…I think I may be able to shed a little light on this situation.”
Grace raised an eyebrow in his direction, “Oh, please do.”
“Well, Jamie went home for one, and that’s probably the first reason that Justin’s pissy. She left yesterday evening and he’s been in this funk ever since.”
“Wait, she left? Why?” Grace had seen Jamie and Justin together before, and she was having trouble believing that Justin would send Jamie away, or that Jamie would willingly leave.
“As you know James’s father, Allen, passed away, and I guess that the stress was just getting to both of them. They’d been fighting a lot recently, and had started to gang up on me. I think that they needed an outlet for their emotions and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But Jamie confided in me one night and I really felt that being here, especially fighting with Justin, wasn’t helping her heal. So she and I discussed it and she decided that she needed some time to get herself together.”
Grace sat back in the chair and eyed Dave warily. Something about this was wrong.
Dave and Grace had been close since college, and she really didn’t want to believe that he had turned into this manipulating man, but the slimy smile on his face and the outrageous story that just came out of his mouth was started to sway her opinion. Well…Two could play at this game.
“Oh my…well I hope the poor thing is OK. I do think something needs to be done about Justin though. I don’t want the quality of the performances to go down just because he’s missing his girl.”
Dave’s smile grew as he heard Grace’s statement.
“Grace, my love, you couldn’t be more right. I was thinking…”
Jamie closed her eyes and fought hard to stop the tears that kept threatening to fall. It had been two days since she left Justin’s side, and she wasn’t coping as well as she had hoped.
It would have been nice if Luke could have left the tour with her and come back to Orlando, but he was already in hot water for taking so much time off of work and he really couldn’t lose this job.
Justin’s Mom had come by the previous day to try and help Jamie adjust, but it just wasn’t the same. It almost made it worse, because a lot of Lynn reminded Jamie of Justin, and it made her miss him even more than she already did.
Jamie knew she was getting too attached to him. She had barely a life of her own outside of Justin, but with her father’s death, she was having a hard time finding the desire to maintain her independence. Justin was her rock, and she had fallen so hard for him. Losing her father made he realize just how precious their love was, and she wanted to make the most of it all, enjoy every moment she could. That was a little difficult now, seeing as he was halfway across the country and she was in Orlando.
With a deep sigh that seemed to resonate from her toes, she stood up from the porch swing she had previously been occupying and traveled into the house.
“Hey sweetie, how are ya holdin’ up?” Lynn was standing over the stove stirring some pots and she smiled as the young girl made her way over to the counter, hopping up on the granite surface.
“Eh, really lonely. I don’t know, I know that I should really find a life of my own, but I just wasn’t ready yet. I needed a little bit more time with Justin before I went off and found my own life.”
Lynn threw her a sympathetic smile and patted Jamie on the knee.
“I know it’s hard darlin’, believe me Justin let’s me know how hard it is.” She chuckled slightly, “And it may be difficult to see it, but I think that this time might be good for you. I know there are still things that need to be settled with your father’s estate, and was hoping you would let me take you to a lawyer I know sometime tomorrow.”
Jamie swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat and fought back tears for the millionth time that evening.
“Yeah, I guess that’s a good idea.” He voice cracked and Lynn looked up to see the girl barely holding it together.
Dropping the spoon that she was stirring with, Lynn turned to the Jamie and wrapped her in a tight hug.
“I know sweetie, I know it’s hard. It’s OK to cry though James, it’s OK to feel sad. C’mon, let’s get you into some comfy clothing and settled down with some soup and a movie, that sound ok to you?” Jamie nodded weakly and allowed to Lynn to lead her upstairs.
-*-
An hour later found Jamie wrapped up in one of Justin’s old sweatshirts struggling to keep her eyes open as she snuggled on the couch. The vibration of her cell phone startled her awake and she almost fell off the couch.
“Hello?” She mumbled a reply, not bothering to check the caller id.
“Hey baby girl, you sleepin’?” Justin’s strong voice came over the line and Jamie wished she could melt into the phone.
“Mmm…nope. I was watching a movie and eating some of your mom’s soup. Justin, she’s gonna make me fat!” He chuckled at her childish giggle and wished more than anything that he could be with her at that moment.
“My Momma’s the best cook. I’m jealous that you’re getting to eat all that home cookin’ and I’m stuck with tour food.” He heard her sigh into the phone and his heart ached.
“Well, I could live with tour food forever if it meant being with you.” She knew it was cheesy, and she knew that she sounded pathetic, but she felt that she was entitled.
“I miss you baby girl, how you holding up?”
“Taking things day by day I guess. I miss you too though. Your mom and I are going to see a lawyer tomorrow to see if we can settle my dad’s stuff. I’m not sure I want to go.”
“You’ll be fine James, and my mom will be right there with you. And just think, only 10 more days until I’m home.” She could hear the pain in his voice as he spoke, and she wished that things didn’t have to be like this.
“How’s the tour? Still making all those girls faint?”
He let out a deep chuckle and smiled for the first time that day. “Oh you know it. No, things are going all right, the show’s I mean. I’ve actually been a prick to most everyone but the guys, I just want to make things as difficult for Dave as possible.”
“Just be careful please, I don’t want things to get worse.”
“James, they’re probably going to, but I’m ready this time. I’m ready to fight back. That man shouldn’t be running this tour, he shouldn’t be running any tour, and I’m going to make sure that he doesn’t do this to anyone else.”
Jamie sighed and closed her eyes. “Let’s talk about something else, I don’t want this to ruin our conversation.”
“All right” Justin cleared his throat and grinned into the phone, “What are you wearing?”
Jamie let out her first genuine laugh in a few days. “You are such a dork Justin. You’re not going to seduce me over the phone!” Justin laughed along with her.
“Yeah, but I fully intend on seducing you when I get home.”
She blushed and was glad that he couldn’t be there to make fun of her for it.
“Well see Mr. Timberlake.”
“I love you James, and I miss you like crazy, but they’re calling for a meeting so I’ve gotta go. Have a good night baby girl, I’ll try and call you later tonight.”
“ OK, I love you too Justin.”
A few seconds later she hung up the phone and snuggled back into the couch, wrapping Justin’s sweatshirt tighter around her. It was going to be a very long 10 days.
