A week later, Jamie was staying at WEG while the house was being touched up, and as she waited for her father to come down from Memphis. The guys had all started recording and putting things for the second leg of the tour together, so that meant that schedules were filled. Wedding rehearsals would start next week, and everyone was getting excited about that. Over all, the atmosphere in Orlando was tingling with excitement and anxiousness of things yet to come.

Jamie tucked the cordless phone between her shoulder and her ear and held up another shirt. “…and then I came home and took a shower. Not very exciting, if you ask me.”

      “It sounds heavenly.” She heard Justin yawn and she knew that he was run down from their full schedule. “I had the day from Hell in the studio, and then they decided to spring a sudden dance practice on us. I think my legs are going to fall off.” He groaned as he carefully placed himself into the recliner in his living room. A bag of ice covered his right knee and heating pack was underneath his sore back.

      “Poor baby.” Jamie giggled and Justin couldn’t help but smile at her childish laughter.

      “Yea, well I know what would make it better. I was thinking that maybe you could come over and we could order dinner and dessert and then I could seduce you in the hot tub.” Jamie’s eyes rose quickly at his statement and she cleared her throat.

      “My, my, that does sound inviting. But I’ll have to pass.” She could almost see Justin’s disappointment through the phone.

      “Why? Got a hot date?” he joked.

      “Actually, Luke’s taking me out to dinner. He’s leaving tomorrow so we decided tonight would be a good time to get together.” She grew worried as the silence stretched on longer and longer. “Justin?”

      “Sorry I asked.” His tone was short and Jamie knew she had messed up, but she wasn’t going to listen to his boyish jealousy.

      “Don’t even start with me, J. We are just friends, and you know that. Luke’s leaving for a completely different state in 24 hours and I would like to say good bye. This has nothing to do with you, so get over it.”

      “You know what? You’re right; it has nothing to do with me, so we don’t even need to be having this conversation right now.” Jamie cursed as her ears were met with the drone of the dial tone. She slammed the receiver down and grabbed the shirt off her bed, putting it on roughly. She didn’t know what had gotten into Justin, but lately he was being a selfish prick and it was starting to get on her nerves. She knew that he was under a lot of stress, but the world wouldn’t stop turning if she didn’t see him for one night.

She pushed those thoughts aside and finished getting ready. Luke would be at the restaurant soon and she needed to meet him there. But the thought of Justin still pulled at Jamie’s conscience.

~*~

Justin rubbed his temples furiously and let out a primal grunt. He was being selfish, but was it too much to ask that after a long day he could relax and spend time with his girlfriend? It’s not that he didn’t trust her, he was just insanely jealous of the relationship and bond that Luke and Jamie shared, and it was pissing him off.

He picked up the phone and dialed a familiar number, hoping the person was still home.

      “Hi, Katie. Yeah it’s Justin. I was wondering if you wanted to come over tonight, you know. Maybe we could go for a dip in the hot tub or something.” A slight echo of guilt rang in his ears but he pushed it away. “I know it’s been a long time, that’s why I wanted to see you. OK, I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

~*~

Jamie’s fork scraped across her plate as she played with her food, “Oh for God’s sake James, get out of here and go see the boy.” She looked up and Luke and sighed wistfully.

     “He’s mad at me. We had a fight about you before you picked me up.” Luke resisted the urge to roll his eyes for about 10 seconds before he gave in.

      “Heaven forbid you two fight. It’s not like you haven’t done it before.” Jamie sighed again and Luke was about ready to slap her.

      “I know that, but it just made me mad that he expects me to be there 24/7 when he calls, and I can’t have any guy friends. I mean, it’s YOU we’re talking about here.”

      “Gee thanks, I feel honored.”

      “You know what I mean.”

      “I do know, but does he? I mean, we haven’t exactly told anyone about me, now have we?” Jamie glanced up and him and had to smile.

      “Come on Luke, I mean, it’s not like you hide it or anything.” He shook his head and sighed.

      “James, you’ve known me for a long time now, and you know all that comes with me. Now, I’m coming for a guy’s point of view here, so bare with me. What Justin sees is that his beautiful girlfriend is going out with a best friend that she’s completely comfortable with. It’s completely natural for him to be jealous because he’s worried, what man wouldn’t be? And he has no idea why things between us would never work, because he doesn’t want to see that, all he wants to see is you not going out with him.”

Jamie pondered Luke’s words and she realized for the millionth time that he actually made sense sometimes.

      “As much as it pains me to say this, Luke, you’re right.” He smiled and rubbed his fist against the lapel of his coat.

      “I know, I know. You can say it James, I’m the master.” She rolled her eyes and signaled the waitress.

      “Yes, can I get a piece of that death by chocolate cake?” She thanked the girl and then turned back to Luke. “I’m going to take your advice and go see him, if you don’t mind.”

      “Not at all James…and make sure you actually eat some of that cake.” She laughed as his eyebrows rose suggestively and he ran his tongue across his lips.

      “I can only imagine what your dirty mind is thinking.” Luke smiled devilishly at this.

      “You don’t have to imagine it James, you can LIVE it. And with a body like Justin’s, I wouldn’t blame you one bit.”

~*~

Justin sat back in the hot tub and smiled across at the brunette that was wit him. Her bathing suit left very little to the imagination and the way she was looking at him gave him goose bumps. She stirred the water with her fingers before flicking a little onto Justin.

      “Oops, it looks like I got you wet.” She slid over to him and slowly raised her arm out of the water, reaching toward Justin. She ran a wet finger down his chest, tracing a pattern in the droplets of water she left.

Justin swallowed hard and pushed away the image of Jamie that popped into his head for the millionth time. He smiled at Katie before leaning in to kiss her deep red lips. Just as their mouths were about to touch, the doorbell rang and Justin jumped back quickly.

      “Sorry.” He mumbled, a deep blush filling his cheeks. “I need to get the door.” Katie quickly grabbed his arm as he started to stand up.

      “Don’t go; whoever it is will go away. Stay with me Justin…I’m the only thing you need to get right now.” She started to go for the ties to her bathing suit and Justin shifted uncomfortably. The door bell rang again and this time he moved away so she couldn’t grab him.

      “It could be an emergency. I’ll…I’ll be right back.”

He grabbed a towel and wrapped it tightly around his waist. The door bell sounded again and he hurried to get there before the person got mad. Opening the door his jaw dropped to see Jamie standing there.

      “Hey, Justin. I’m so sorry about earlier. I brought some dessert over, if your offer still stands.” She noticed for the first time that he was wearing a towel and that water was dripping from his chest. She felt even worse because she figured he had been all alone doing what he said they should do together.

      “Justin sweetie, who is it?” A very feminine voice called from the back and Jamie’s head snapped toward the sound. Her eyes darted between the back of the house and Justin’s guilty face.

      “Tell me that Chris has a cold and he’s highly intoxicated, that’s why he called you sweetie.” Justin’s eyes shifted for everything but Jamie’s face as he searched for an explanation. “TELL ME!” She shouted and Justin jumped.

      “Ah…James, what are you doing here?” He laughed nervously and Jamie’s anger raised about ten notches.

      “I came to apologize for spending time with my best friend tonight instead of you. But it looks as though you haven’t been very lonely.” Just then Katie came from out back. She was drying herself off with one of Justin’s towels, and Justin looked ready to crawl in a hole and die.

      “Hi, I’m Katie. I’m one of Justin’s friends.” Jamie looked her up and down and did nothing to hide her disgust.

      “I can see that. If you’ll excuse us, I need to talk to Justin…ALONE.” Katie glanced between the two and noticed the heavy tension.

      “Um…I need to leave now anyway…it was good seeing you again Justin. Nice to meet you…ah…” She reached for Jamie’s name but James just stood there and stared the girl down. “Never mind…Uh…bye.”

Jamie turned back to Justin, awaiting an explanation. When he stood there silent she laughed bitterly and started to talk.

      “You know what Justin, I can’t believe you. I can understand you being upset about me going to dinner with Luke, but I never imagined you’d stoop this LOW.” At the mention of Luke, his head snapped up and he was getting just as angry.

      “Well, I figured if you can go out with a friend, then I can have one over.”

      “God, Justin! The situation with me and Luke is completely different from the one with you and Katie. Nothing could ever, EVER happen between Luke and I, I don’t know how many times I can tell you that.”

      “How do you know that James? I mean, you’re both attractive people, and you’ve said yourself that you’re comfortable with him, I think you and Luke would work better than we do.” Jamie was stung by his comment; it hurt her to know that Justin didn’t think they were working.

      “Justin…Luke…is…GAY!”

The silence that followed her statement was so long and complete that it felt as if the world had stopped turning. Justin stood in the doorway, mouth open and eyes wide.

      “What? I…James…You…Oh God!” His hands went up to his face and he massaged his temples roughly. “I’m SUCH an asshole.” Jamie stood there, waiting for him to say something of relevance. He looked up at her quickly and knew he should apologize, but he felt he needed to clear up the situation first.     

“James, I want you to know that nothing happened here tonight. I never touched Katie, never.” Jamie’s eyes started to fill with water when she didn’t hear the words she wanted to.

      “But something was going to happen, wasn’t it? You didn’t call her over for a friendly chat, did you Justin?” He stuttered and searched for the right words but nothing came to mind, so he decided to be completely honest.

      “I was mad at you James. I was jealous that you were going out with Luke and that I was going to be here alone. I don’t know what I was expecting when I called Katie over, but it wasn’t for light conversation, no.” Jamie roughly wiped the tears from her cheeks and she shoved the Styrofoam container that held the chocolate cake at Justin.

      “Here, I brought some dessert…maybe Katie would like to be seduced in your hot tub again.” She turned and hurried down the walk way back to her car. Justin wanted to call out to her, but he knew that he needed to let her go so she could calm down. Both of them were very upset and this needed to be resolved when they were calm and under control of their emotions. He sighed heavily and closed his door, walking back into the living room.

      “God, what have I done?”

Jamie sat in her car for a moment to collect her thoughts, but when she did that she remembered why she was sitting in her car and not in the house with Justin. She angrily started the vehicle and shoved it into gear. Tears were streaming down her face and the sight of Katie walking toward them from the back of the house kept flickering through her head.

What would have happened if Jamie hadn’t show up when she did?

She pushed that question and the thoughts that went with it out of her head and drove the rest of the way to Johnny’s. When she arrived she was disheartened to see that there were other cars in the drive way, and most of them weren’t there usually. This meant that there were people there, and knowing Johnny, he’d want her to meet them.

Jamie went in through the side door, closest to the stairs. She let out a sigh when she saw the room was empty and she made her way up the stairs to her room. She had made it about half way up the stair case when she saw JC standing at the top. He had an unreadable look on his face and Jamie had a feeling that he knew what was going on.

      “Hey James, how are you doing?” The tone of his voice wasn’t the normal, up beat JC, and she knew right away that Justin had called. Well, there was no use in beating around the bush.

      “Terrible JC, I feel like shit.” She tried to shove past him but he put out his hands to stop her.

      “Jamie, talk to me.” She turned to look at him and as soon as eye contact was made she lost any sense of control she had gained. She collapsed into his arms and let the tears flow freely. He led her into her room and sat with her on the couch. When she regained her composure she looked up at him and spoke the words that had been on her mind the whole ride home.

      “God Jace, I still can’t believe this happened to me…to US.” JC handed her some tissues and she wiped her nose and eyes. “I never thought he would hurt me so badly.”

      “Sweetie, I don’t know what to tell you. I was so shocked when he called me and told me what happened. He’s not this type of person, and I have no idea what made him do this.” He stroked back the hair that had fallen in her face and she leaned her head against his shoulder.

      “I can understand him being jealous, but I never imagined he’d be so stupid.” She sniffled a few times and hiccupped once, enough to startle her. JC’s heart went out the girl he saw. She looked as if she’d just lost a very long battle, and he was sure it felt that way to her. He still couldn’t quite grasp the fact that Justin was about to cheat on Jamie. It baffled him because one; Justin wasn’t the cheating type at all. If he ever felt the need to cheat, he’d take it as a sign and break things off. And two; even though it hadn’t been said yet, Justin was madly in love with Jamie.

      JC knew the latter because it was written all over the boys face, and he’d even come close to admitting it to JC one night on the bus. Now, JC had known Justin for a long time now, and in a span of time like that, you begin to learn things about a person, and understand them more than say, someone that’s new to their friendship. He knew that Justin regretted everything that had gone on that night, and he also knew he was going to have one hell of a time making it up to the girl that was crying in his arms right now.

      “James, why don’t you get some sleep? You look beat and I’m sure you wouldn’t mind some shut-eye.” She nodded and stood up, stretching her tired muscles.

      “I need to be up early so I can say goodbye to Luke at the air port tomorrow.” She yawned widely and JC fought the urge himself.

      “Do you have a ride?”

      “Yeah, I have the car that Johnny’s letting me borrow until my dad comes down next week.” She moved around the room and JC watched her, his concern growing with each passing moment.

      “Let me take you tomorrow James. I don’t want you to be alone.” She glanced at him and gave him a bitter smile.

      “It’s a little late for that, don’t you think?” She sighed and shook her head. “I’m sorry, JC. I shouldn’t be taking this out on you; it’s not your fault.” She plopped back on the bed with another sigh. “I’ll be OK, I just need some time. And who knows? Maybe we’ll be able to work though this.” The words that she spoke were hopeful, but they weren’t filled with very much conviction and that worried JC even more.

      “I know I shouldn’t really step in here, but James, Justin is going to do everything in his power to make this up to you. He really didn’t know what he was doing tonight, and nothing did happen. You do have to give him credit for that.” She stared at him for a few seconds before speaking calmly.            

      “I heard a quote somewhere, it goes ‘… people will judge you by your actions not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold, but so does a hard boil egg.’ In this case, both Justin’s intentions and actions were wrong, and I don’t know if forgiveness is possible just yet.” She wiped at her eyes again and looked up at JC with fresh tears. “How am I supposed to forgive the man that broke my heart? How am I supposed to make him see how much pain he put me through? JC, I’m falling so hard for him that it hurts to breathe…how do I make him see that?” JC didn’t know any of the answers to any of those questions, but he had a good idea that Jamie wasn’t asking to get any answers. He walked across the room and pulled her up into his embrace. He kissed the side of her head and tried to give as much comfort as he possibly could.

      “Good night James, sleep well. If you need anything, I’ll be in the room across the hall.” He kissed her forehead and then left, closing the door behind him. Jamie fell back onto the bed and let the fatigue plaguing her body take over as she gave into a fit full sleep.

(The Next Morning; 7:00am)

Justin sat at the kitchen table, an empty beer can sitting, clutched in his hand, many more spread randomly around the room. His jeans were wrinkled, his shirt was dirty, but at this point he didn’t care.

He had attempted to sleep once last night, but as soon as he started to drift off, he could hear Jamie’s voice coming at him from somewhere in the dark. He had woken up, sure that she was in the room with him, but he was met with an empty house.

Empty.

That’s how life felt right now. He felt empty all because of his hormones and his nasty jealous streak. How was he supposed to fix this? He, the preacher of trust in a relationship, had just done the one thing he swore he would never do. He had broken Jamie’s trust by even thinking about using someone to forget his anger and pain. That’s all Katie would have been anyway. She would have been a way to forget, and that’s something he never thought he himself would do.

Never say never, right?

The one thing that kept flashing through his mind was the fact that nothing DID happed. Sure, he’d invited her over intending to indulge a little, but he wouldn’t have gone all the way…would he? That was where things got scary. He didn’t know how far things would have gone last night if Jamie hadn’t shown up. Katie was a nice girl, but Justin had always known that she’d wanted to get with him for a long time. She had never tried anything, but he had never given her the opportunity. Last night, for one fleeting second, Justin had seen just how deep her desire ran. So even if he hadn’t been intending on doing much more than make out in the hot tub…Katie’s mind was set upon something else.

Shaking off his depressing thoughts, he swallowed the last of his luke warm beer, and set the can down with an angry clink. He was royally fucked at the moment, and he had no idea which way to turn. Being intoxicated didn’t help the situation much, but that was beside the point.

He stood up quickly, regretting it the moment the action was done. A wave of dizziness came over him and he felt he was either going to hurl or pass out, whichever came first. He sat back down with a thud and rested his aching head on the table. After the intensity passed, he slowly stood up again and carefully made his way up stairs to his bathroom.

It was as if the powers that be were trying to punish him, and rub in the fact just how much he had screwed up. First, he stubbed his toe getting into the shower, and then the hot water stopped working, giving him the coldest shower he had ever taken. After that, he towel got stuck in the door, and the pants he was going to wear were in the dryer, and they weren’t dry. The day from hell had started, and Justin Timberlake was its prime victim. The worst part of it was the fact that Justin knew he deserved everything that happened to him that morning, and then some.

~*~

Jamie stood next to Luke at the airport. She shoved her hands into her pockets and rocked back and forth on her heels.

     “James, you know I’ve never been one to hide the truth, and I’m not about to start now. You look like shit.” She smiled ruefully and adjusted the dark glasses that covered her dark circles.

      “You can thank Justin for that.” Jamie had explained everything that had happened earlier this morning, and Luke was beginning to thing that his leaving wasn’t such a good idea.

      “I can stay for longer in you want me to…” Jamie held up her hand to stop him.

     “There’s no need to baby sit me, I’m a big girl Luke, and I can handle big bad Justin on my own. Believe me, four angry pop stars is a little more effective than just one angry best friend.” Luke smiled and hugged Jamie to his side. He kissed her forehead before picking up his carry-on and slowly making his way to the gate.

      “If you need anything, please call me, and I want you to call and vent too.” He sighed when the stopped at his gate. His eyes searched the area before he looked back down at Jamie. “Be careful with your heart and his, Sweet stuff. It’s a precious thing, and it shouldn’t be broken too often.” He smiled evilly before continuing. “Oh, and tell JC that that ‘just woke up and rolled out of bed’ look suits him very well…very well indeed.” He let out a low whistle and Jamie bubbled with laughter.

      “I’ll tell him that Luke…and thanks.” He kissed her cheek before winking and then turning to walk down the sky way. Jamie waited until she couldn’t see him any more before she turned and headed back to where JC was waiting.

JC watched as a worn and wary Jamie came walking in his direction. She looked like she had gone ten rounds with a WWF super star, and lost horribly. He had known she hadn’t gotten much sleep because he heard her pacing and crying throughout the night. He had wanted so badly to go comfort her, but he didn’t exactly know HOW.

      “Ready to head back?” Jamie asked as she fell into step beside JC.

      “Actually, I have a few things I need to do, if you don’t mind tagging along. I just figured I get them out of the way now.” Jamie looked at him skeptically, but she sensed no underlying meaning in his words so she shrugged.

      “What the hell? Why not?” JC smiled at her and they made their way to his car.

Jamie played with the radio as JC drove along, lost in his own world. “Where are we going?” She asked, after she had settled on a station of her liking. JC bopped his head to the music and didn’t answer. She reached over and smacked his arm.

      “Huh?” Jamie rolled her eyes and smiled.

     “Where are we going?”

      “Oh. Well, I have to pick up some things at my friend’s studio; he’s got some tracks that I’m working on. I need to drop off a few things at the post office, and then I need to grab my bag and head over to the rehearsal studio. We have more recording and practice to do today.”

      “And where in this is Jamie needed?”

      “No where, I just want the pleasure of your company.” She eyed him carefully before asking her next question.

      “And where in this list is the ‘take Jamie home’ part?” A small grin slid on his face, and Jamie didn’t like it at all.

      “That part is after the ‘take Jamie to rehearsals with me.’ ” Jamie groaned and threw her head back against the seat.

      “JC, I really don’t want to confront him now. I don’t want to hear his apologies and his reasons, not yet. I can’t bear to look at him and know what he was going to do. I know you want to help, but doing this will only set us back.”

      “Hey, no where on that list did I mention helping Justin and Jamie. I don’t think he deserves your time yet anyway. I want you to come with me, because I think we need to talk, and I won’t have time to take you home anyway.” She watched him carefully and sighed.

      “But you know that he’s going to be there, and he’s going to want to talk to me.” JC bobbed his head in agreement.

      “I know that, but it’ll be damned hard with four of us standing in the way. I promise James, you don’t have to talk to him if you don’t want to.” She sat back in her seat and closed her eyes. All she really wanted to do was sleep, but she knew that hiding away from everything wouldn’t help much. The pain of seeing him with someone else was still fresh and deep in her mind, and she knew it was going to take a whole hell of a lot to forgive him.