*****************
*****************
Justin bent down to peer into his refrigerator. There wasn't much there, just some old cartons of Chinese food and a quart of skim milk, which probably only contained a few drops. Oh, well. His guest probably didn't know what food looked like, anyway. She looked to be of the undernourished type.
His lips curled in distaste when a shadow fell over him, blocking the light shining from the fixture in the ceiling. "Bridgette--"
"Barbara," she corrected.
"Okay, Barbara, then. Well, Barbara, you're standing in my light," he said slowly.
"There's light coming from the refrigerator, silly," she giggled.
Okay, maybe not slow enough. This broad is dumb as hell, he sighed. Why do I do this to myself? "Barbara, I want you to move," he ordered sternly.
"Why?" Barbara whined. "You can still see."
He stood up and glared down at her. "You know what? Get out. You're annoying the fuck out of me."
"No! I don't want to leave yet. We haven't even... I mean, that is why you brought me here." She reached for him, but he grabbed her hands and forced them back down to her sides.
God, how he hated uncouth females, and she was one of the most brazen chicks he'd ever encountered. What was I thinking, he asked himself. His hand found one of her elbows to escort her out in a gentlemanly manner. "I made a mistake. Please leave."
She stood outside his front door, tears welling up in her wide eyes at the thought of being put out. This was new to her; she always got what she wanted. She managed to form two big, fat tears and they plopped down her concave, modelesque cheeks for an added effect as she pouted in his direction. "You'll call me, won't you?"
"Sure," he mumbled, quickly closing the door on her pretty, tearstained face before she realized he didn't even have her number.
Throwing his body onto the couch, Justin admitted to himself that finding Barbara at a nightclub and bringing her back to his apartment hadn't been the smartest idea he'd ever had. Still, her only purpose was to serve as a distraction. His mind had been focused solely on Yancey since he left Memphis for New York Thursday morning. He'd had a so-called "important" appearance to make at a movie premiere Thursday night (said his manager--and Tim), since he had contributed a few songs to the soundtrack. Opting out of any scheduled post-premiere events, he'd gone to an out-of-the-way club called Body Shots where he had found Barbara. The unusually tall (taller than Justin), thin girl with the attractive green eyes, pouty pink lips, pale skin and dark red hair was a far cry from Yancey's medium height of five-foot-five and her outrageous curves, the luminous coffee-brown skin that off-set her light brown eyes, and the perfect mane of thick, black hair. Yes, Justin definitely believed that a distraction was what he needed.
Ever since Monday night, he had purposely avoided any contact whatsoever with Yancey. He'd managed to make two early afternoon visits with EJ at the Jacobs' house, hours before Yancey was scheduled to make her appearance after getting off from work. Justin and EJ were on a bonding course, moving slowly but most assuredly towards the finish line. The journey would be tedious, but Justin was confident they would get there.
He had decided after his plane ride to New York that he was no longer as angry with Yancey as he had been. He was still harboring residuals from that previous anger, because Justin had gone over their last conversation countless times in his head, needing to find a way to declare her actions unreasonable and stay furious with her. Despite his efforts, however, he was unsuccessful, for as much as he thought she was wrong for not talking to him about her fears concerning their relationship and their baby, he knew he was willing to be understanding about it. The reason he'd gone into a music career hoping to make it big was so that he could provide for his family doing something he was good at, something that brought him joy. He hadn't known when it would happen, but he had wanted to make her a part of that family. Yancey said she had broken up with him because she'd wanted him to prosper and didn't think he could do so with her in the picture. The common theme in the decisions made then was that they'd had their own ideas of how to express love for each other. He wanted to start over with her and build a new life because his heart still had a lot of love for her in it. But did she feel the same?
The time on his watch read 2:55 AM. Kind of late for a flight that same morning, but he could probably work something out. He was Justin Timberlake, after all. His fingers dialed the numbers that had become familiar in his years in the business, his mind on the task at hand.
"Thank you for calling LaGuardia, how may I help you?" a cheerful female voice answered.
"Good morning. Listen, I need to catch the next flight out of New York going to Memphis, Tennessee," he drawled, trying to charm the woman on the other end. He chuckled before adding, "I'm on a mission."
*****************
It had been four days since Yancey had seen Justin. She also had not talked to him, but Ada had informed her that Justin made visits to the Jacobs' residence Tuesday and Wednesday, staying at least an hour both times. "And he called before coming over," Ada had practically gushed during their conversation Wednesday afternoon. "I like 'em polite!"
Yancey was glad Justin could put aside his anger at her and still get to know their son. Then again, she didn't really expect any less of him. She knew that Justin was a "do it well or not at all" type of person; he always had been.
The house was quiet, although since EJ liked to sleep, she doubted he would be awake at ten in the morning anyway. She'd taken EJ to her parents' that morning although she was off all day Friday and Saturday. The grandparents, including "Grampa Paul," were taking the tyke all around Memphis. The adults had admitted to having no real plan at all when asking Yancey for her permission: "Whatever he sees and wants to do, we'll try and get him in there," Lynn had grinned. Lynn had even managed to get her ex-husband Randall and his current wife Lisa to let their youngest son, EJ's uncle, Stephen, come along. In exchange, they would all stop by Randall and Lisa's house so EJ could meet another set of grandparents. Randall and Lisa had been eager to meet EJ since Justin had told them about his son.
Yancey's home was clean and since she couldn't go shopping like she wanted, she decided to continue reading the novel she had started days ago until it was time to get ready for her scheduled hair appointment at one o'clock. "I swear if I could afford to, I'd go shopping and buy out every damn store," she complained half-heartedly to herself as she settled down with the book. Shopping had always been Yancey's favorite pasttime. She had loved having nice clothes and shoes as a young girl and especially in her teenaged years. Having a child had severely cut out her spending; however, Yancey couldn't think of anything else she'd have willingly given up shopping for. She'd wear rags and old shoes with holes, stuffing newspaper into them to keep her feet warm if it meant she'd be able to give her child the best of everything.
She had been reading for about thirty minutes when her doorbell rang. The tall, brown-skinned man on the other side of the door grinned when she opened it, the dimples in his cheeks winking. Yancey squeaked in surprise and jumped into his open arms. "Freddy! When'd you get here? How long are you staying?"
"Hey, sweetie!" he responded, hugging her tightly. Fredrick looked around once he got inside and had closed the door. "I got here this morning. I came by myself. I'll be gone Monday afternoon. The Atlanta mayor's office can do without me for a few days. So where's my boy?"
"At Ma and Daddy's. I took him this morning. Ma, Daddy, Mama Lynn, Mr. Paul, EJ, and Justin's little brother Steven are... doing stuff today. But where is Junior? Where's Sheila? Why didn't they come?" Yancey threw question after question at her brother, causing him to place one finger to her lips so she'd be quiet.
"With his mama. He wanted to come but Sheila was acting a fool again. She took him to her sister's house, in Gainesville, for the weekend." Fredrick fixed his light brown gaze on his baby sister, tilting his head to the side in a manner that they both had. He thought she looked worried despite her smile. "What's wrong?"
"Nuh-uh." She shook her head and flopped down on her couch. "Tell me what's wrong with you and Sheila. Y'all having problems?"
He sat next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "We're not having problems. Yet. She's just getting on my nerves. But let's not talk about me. Why didn't you tell me about Justin coming back to town?"
What the hell is going on? Why does everybody know my business? "You've been talking to Mama about me again, I see."
"Nope. I talked to Angie. She said Justin was in town, and she told me you'd told him about the baby but he didn't take it too well. Walked out on you, I heard. I ain't too happy about that, but I'm gonna let it slide unless you tell me he's still acting like that." Fredrick squeezed her shoulder and rested his cheek on the top of her head.
Yancey could feel the tears coming, but she blinked them back. "I didn't know Justin was going to be in town. Showed up at my house all unexpected. Angie is the one who gave him my address, did she tell you that? I haven't talked to her since Sunday, but Justin and EJ have officially met, and they're becoming acquainted. He's been going by Mama's this week and spending some time with EJ."
"Why hasn't he been coming by here?"
"He doesn't--Freddy, I ran him off. I didn't want to, but I had to let him know... He doesn't want anything to do with me now," she said softly.
"Let him know what, Kiki?"
"See, I wanted him to know everything, just so, you know, we could see where we stood. What our relationship would be from now on, and all that. I knew he'd be mad at me after I told him. I knew he'd be mad because I was mad at myself for feeling the way I felt. So I told him I had to tell him why I did him the way I did years ago, why I called him up back then and told him I didn't want to see him anymore. I know we were young, but there were times when I felt I was way over my head in that relationship. Freddy, I didn't know you could love somebody that much. I thought I could let him go, for his dreams' sake, before he realized I was holding him back and he let me go. If he had broken up with me I don't know if I'd be sitting here talking to you right now. I would have died. I felt that way then and I still feel like it was the right thing to do. He actually said that I didn't love him enough. Can you believe that?"
"Hmm," was the response.
"What? What was that?"
"Nothing... I'm just tripping off how you're talking. Little Sister, I love you and everything, but I don't even need to know the whole story to know that you're putting this brother through some stuff. I've always liked that cat and I can't help but think you're messing his head up."
"I don't know what the hell you're talking about." She removed his arm from her shoulder and faced him, her own brown eyes flashing angrily as they looked into his. "Is everybody but me crazy?"
Fredrick shook his head. "Nope, I don't want to hear it. I can tell right now you're about to turn this into a Yancey thing and make it all about you."
She felt like screaming. Why was everybody saying that?
Her brother stood and offered his hand to help her stand up. "I didn't come to sit on your couch and chat about Justin, that's for sure. This subject is too damn depressing. I came to take you out to lunch. Go on and get dressed, do what you gotta do. And when we come back, you're going to call Justin to apologize some more."
Yancey didn't argue, instead she lifted the corner of her mouth in a half-smile, the anger at her brother forgotten, as she walked down the hall to her room. "You need to get me back here on time. I have a hair appointment at LySandra's at one."
"Yes, well, Justin better have his ears full of apologies by tomorrow morning," he ordered. He heard the door close and said under his breath, "And since I think you two belong together, I want my future brother-in-law back."
Number of reviews: 20
Print:
Chapter or Story