Blair thought she might start to hyperventilate. There was no way this was happening. It was going to be a disaster, and she knew it. There was no mistaking that there would be a disaster on her hands. She began to feel queasy. The room began to spin and she felt her heart rate quicken. Her breath was short and fast. She didn’t hear her assistant come in and ask if she was all right. She was focused on the spinning and the sick feeling in her stomach. This wasn’t just the baby. This wasn’t morning sickness that was awakening at half past noon. This was her nerves telling her that this would be a mistake, a huge disaster.
Blair’s assistant had taken to trying to calm her down. It wasn’t working though. Someone who passed her office suggested getting a paper bag for her, but continued to walk, not bothering to help. Sometimes people were awful. Jill, Blair’s assistant, thought the paper bag was a good idea and told her to just be calm while she went to get one. Blair put her head in her hands as she rested her arms on her desk. Definitely a disaster.
“Oh God,” Blair whispered. She finally felt Jill pat her shoulder with a paper bag in her other hand.
“Oh,” she gasped, throwing her hand to her chest in relief or panic, Blair couldn’t tell which. “Good Lord, Blair. Are you all right?”
“Fine,” she said, not looking up. “I’m fine.”
“You scared me so much,” Jill said, definitely relieved. “I thought something awful had happened, are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine, Jill,” Blair nodded, taking a sip of water from the water bottle on her desk. “Really, thank you.”
“Okay,” Jill nodded as she walked out of Blair’s office and over to her own desk across the hall. She came back with a few small slips of paper. “These are for you. Chad and Michael have called twice about the Louisiana guys and people from the Food Network called earlier this morning. I mean to give it to you when you came in, but I forgot.”
Blair looked through the message slips. She nodded up at Jill and smiled slightly to reassure her. “Thanks, this is great. I’ll give them a call in a second.”
“Justin, it’s Blair,” she said as she hit the unlock button on her key chain for her car. “I’ve been trying to get a hold of you all day. I really need to talk to you so call me when you get this. I guess I’ll try your house again. Call me.”
Blair dialed his home phone number and left a message there as well. It wasn’t exactly an emergency, but because it was such short notice, she needed to talk to him. It wouldn’t be a big deal if it was just her friends, but this time it wasn’t just her friends. It was someone much meaner and scarier. Someone she wouldn’t wish upon anyone. Someone she didn’t want to have to deal with that night. Blair drove over to her house to change for dinner. She would also have to fix her hair because these people she was going to be facing didn’t like the way she was currently wearing her hair. These people, one in particular, didn’t like that her bangs were long and hung in her face. It wasn’t as if she just refused to get her bangs cut so they hung in her face, they didn’t even really hang in her face. They were where bangs were supposed to be. That’s what bangs are. They are in your face.
As soon as Blair walked in the door, she dropped her keys and purse on the kitchen table as she went to the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water. She next entered her room where she flung off her black open toed shoes and searched her closet for something to wear. She hated all of her clothes. Well, more than half of them no longer fit, so that left her with a problem. Looking through her closet made her terribly upset because she hated the fact that she couldn’t wear a lot of the clothes that she owned. She had been putting off buying more clothes for when the baby came because she really didn’t want to feel bad about herself. She couldn’t help it. She knew that it was natural to gain weight, in fact, it’s what happens, and she knew that it was bound to happen, but it didn’t make it any easier to deal with. She felt shallow for feeling insecure, and told herself to just calm down.
She had nothing to wear. Great.
Blair decided to just deal with her hair instead of change her clothes. Changing her clothes was making her upset. Blair pulled her hair back into a half ponytail leaving only a few wisps of hair around her face. That would have to be good enough. She grabbed her phone off of her dresser and dialed Justin’s cell phone one more time as she slipped back into her shoes. No answer. Shit.
Blair took her water with her out to the kitchen where she picked up her purse and keys. Off to Justin’s house to find him. She saw that his car was in the driveway. She then remembered that he did have multiple vehicles, something she didn’t understand. Blair knew that more than likely he was home. He usually drove his escalade, he liked it best he had said. What she didn’t understand, though, was why he wouldn’t answer his phones if he were home. Blair rang the doorbell twice before entering the house on her own. She called out his name and walked down the hallway towards his office. He wasn’t in there.
Blair yelled his name again and went upstairs. She heard singing coming from one of the rooms down the hallway a little bit. The closer she walked to Justin’s bedroom the louder the singing got. Sure enough, it was him. She knew it was him. She heard the shower shut off and she shook her head with a laugh. He was singing in the shower, what a dork. Blair leaned up against the doorframe waiting for him to emerge. She vaguely thought about going downstairs and waiting for him, but decided against it. After all, they didn’t have a lot of time.
“Jesus Christ!” Justin jumped, gripping the towel around his waist tighter. “Holy God, Blair. Don’t do that again.”
She laughed, “Sorry.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Justin,” Blair said, coming further into his room. “I have been trying to call you all day to tell you that we have to go to dinner with my parents tonight. I would have told you sooner, but you never picked up your phone.”
“Your parents?” Justin asked, scratching his neck out of habit. It was something he did when he was uncomfortable. “Tonight?”
“Yes!” she said frantically. “At seven.”
“What time is it now?”
“Six-fifteen,” Blair said, checking the digital clock on his bedside table. “We have to go.”
“Why tonight?” Justin asked, sitting down on his bed.
“Because they asked and I said okay?” she replied, “We don’t have anything else going on. If anything, it’ll be free food,“ she smiled at Justin, who just laughed at her lameness. “Hurry up and get dressed.” She pushed his back to tell him to get a move on, as well as some clothes. “I’ll be downstairs.”
Justin, from inside of his closet, gave a muffled ‘okay’ as he picked out a pair of khaki pants and a blue polo shirt. He dressed quickly all the while thinking about a potential disaster unfolding. He hoped that her parents weren’t as bad as she described them. He hoped they wouldn’t lay a guilt-trip on Blair and make her feel bad about herself. Justin went back to his bathroom where he tried to control his very short curls and brush his teeth. Before long, he was ready. He put some socks on his feet and followed them by a pair of shoes.
“You ready?” Justin asked when he saw her sitting on the couch reading a magazine.
“Yeah,” she said, standing up. “Wow, you look great.”
Justin smiled bashfully and shook his head. “You look great too.”
“Oh, thank you,” Blair shrugged and grabbed her purse off of the coffee table. “Shall we go?”
“We shall,” Justin nodded with a smile and headed towards the garage door. They weren’t going to drive the escalade, Justin said. He told her they’d take the Mercedes instead. Blair didn’t really care what vehicle of his they took.
“Where were you today?” Blair asked when they reached the end of the drive way. “I tried calling you like one hundred times.”
“Oh,” Justin said. “I was downstairs for a while and then I worked out and was out by the pool.”
“And in all of those activities, you can’t answer your phone?”
Justin laughed and changed the radio station. He wasn’t finding anything he liked so he stuck in a CD, “Well, when I was downstairs in the studio, I don’t pay attention to my phone and then when I was out in the pool I left my phone inside on accident now that I think about it. I don’t know what my deal was today.”
“Oh,” she nodded.
“Excited for tonight?” Justin asked, knowing the answer.
“No,” she told him, pouting. “Not at all.”
