Chapter 3: Who Spilled The Beans?
“Holy shit.” Mike commented as he pulled up to the gate of Justin Timberlake’s house. “This house if f**king huge.”
Elaine cringed at his language; she hated it when he swore like that. “It’s beautiful.”
She watched her boyfriend roll his eyes at her dreamy tone and push the call button. She leaned over him to speak her name into the speaker. “This is Elaine Jacobs from Life Touch magazine.”
“Come on up sweet stuff.” Came Joey’s voice, causing Elaine to laughed and Mike to scowl and step hard on the gas. Elaine’s body was jolted forward and had to struggle to get back in her seat. He was jealous; what a great start to the evening.
As they stepped out of the car Chris and Joey came flying down the steps and scooped Elaine up in hug. She was nearly knocked off her feel at the impact but somehow managed to keep her footing. “Hey guys.”
“Who’s he?” Chris whispered, childishly pointing at Mike, who was busy fixing his hair in the car window.
“That’s my””
“Can we go inside already?” Mike cut her off pulling her away from Chris and to his side like she was a piece of property.
“Hey Laney.” JC greeted as they entered the front door. Just as Elaine had thought, the house was even more breathtaking on the inside. How was it that a seventeen, soon to be eighteen, year old could afford something like this?
“JC,” She smiled. “This is my boyfriend Mike, Mike this is…four fifths of Nsync.”
“We’re just sync.” Joey added dumbly. “N is who we’re having the bash for.”
“Right.” Mike replied un-amused and walked over to the refreshment table to grab a beer.
“He’s uh,” Lance began searching for a word to describe Mike.
“Nice.” JC finished for him with a shrug. He seemed like a jerk but what are you going to say? They barely know Elaine; they can’t just go about insulting her boyfriend. “My phone’s ringing!” JC exclaimed in a panic, reaching in his pocket to retrieve his cell.
“Answer it!” Elaine played along.
“Quiet! It’s Justin!” JC announced getting what few people where there to quiet down. “Hey man……naw, I don’t feel like goin’ out…..spend your birthday with your mom……I’m tired man…..no….I mean why are going home, it’s your birthday? You should be out celebrating…..see ya.”
“What?” Chris asked excitedly when JC finally hung up.
“He’s on his way.”
“What!” Joey yelled.
“Nobody’s here yet!” Lance added.
“We need someone to distract him.” JC replied pacing the floor in thought.
“Why don’t you just tell him to meet you somewhere and just don’t show up? Then you can call him when you want him here and tell him the plans are off.” Elaine suggested.
Joey threw his arm around her shoulders. “This girl is just too smart.” He smiled.
“So is Justin.” Lance stated. “He’ll know something is up.”
The four men stood in silence for a good five minutes before one of them finally got an idea. Elaine in the meantime had wondered off in search of Mike and found his sucking down his fifth beer. He was well on his way to being drunk and the party had yet to begin.
“Laney! Oh Laney!” Joey called goofily. She turned her head to look toward the four approaching men with raised eyebrows. “We need your help.”
~*~*~
She could not believe she was doing this. How did she let them talk her into this? The better question was how did she talk Justin into this? The brilliant plan that ‘sync’ came up with was for her to call up Justin and ask to do a quick follow up for her article. She needed to keep him busy for about thirty minutes unless JC called on the cell phone he had her borrow to tell her to keep him out longer. Really smart.
Elaine quickly paid the taxi driver her fee and rushed out of the cold and into the warm coffee shop where they were supposed to meet. Her eyes scanned the room in search of him and stopped on a lanky figure dressed in black, with sunglasses and a baseball cap on sitting in the corner. That must be him. She began removing her gloves and scarf as she made her way over to him. “Hey there Justin.”
He looked up but didn’t say anything or remove his sunglasses. Elaine offered him a tight smile and sat down across from him. “Happy Birthday?”
Her eyes widened when she felt his bare foot begin to creep up the right leg of her flare jeans. She jerked her leg back hitting her knee on the table in the process and causing a loud commotion. When she heard her name she turned to see Justin standing in the back of the coffee house with an amused smile.
Elaine shot the man she had mistaken for Justin a dirty look and rushed over to Justin. “That was…gross.” She said sitting down across from him, still rubbing her throbbing knee. “What?”
He was staring. She looked so much different than the first time he had met her. Sure he thought she was beautiful when he first saw her but she looked so much younger and carefree.
“You just look different.”
“Was that a compliment or….” She trailed off.
“It’s the clothing and hair.” He continued ignoring her question. “When I first met you your hair was in a French braid and now it’s down and you’re wearing jeans and a sweater instead of your lavender business suit.”
“Most men wouldn’t have remembered what I was wearing or even know what a French braid is.” She smirk. “Is there something you need to tell me Justin?”
“I’m not gay if that’s what you’re thinking.” Justin quickly defended sipping at his latte. “Just observant I guess.”
“Let’s get off the subject of my looks shall we?” She smiled.
“You had some questions you were just dying to ask me.” Justin smirked. “It sounded awfully important on the phone.”
She blushed in embarrassment remembering that awkward conversation.
FLASHBACK
“JT.” Justin answered. Elaine had to stop herself from laughing at they way he answered his phone.
“Hello, Mr. Timberlake? This is Elaine Jacobs from Life Touch Magazine,” She began. “I interviewed you and the rest of Nsync yesterday afternoon.”
“Yeah.” He replied recalling the spat between them.
“I was-uh-wondering if you would be willing to meet me somewhere so that I could ask you a few more questions.”
“When?” He sighed heavily.
“Now.” She shushed Joey and Chris in the background who where laughing like hyenas. “If that’s possible. I have a deadline and I really need these question’s answered. I would have asked on of the others but I can’t seem to get a hold of any of them.”
“Fine, let me give you the address to my house..”
“No!” She exclaimed. “I mean do you know where”um Mr. Toad’s coffee shop is?”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s meet there.”
“Whatever,” He replied nonchalantly. “I’m just gonna stop by my house to change and””
“No! You can’t!”
“Why the hell not?” Justin asked angrily.
“Because….because we just don’t have time for that. I’m sure you’re dressed fine. I’ll see you in ten. Bye.” She said quickly and turned off the phone.
END OF FLASHBACK
“Sorry about the rush I just have to have this article on my boss’s decks tomorrow morning.”
Justin leaned back in his chair and motioned for the waitress to bring him another drink plus a coffee for Elaine. “Don’t worry about it. I wasn’t doing anything tonight anyway.”
“Isn’t it your birthday?” She asked smoothly.
“Eighteenth.”
“That’s a big one.” Elaine smiled.
“It would be if I were with my family.” He replied sadly. “They all live in Memphis.”
“Both sets of parents?” She asked as her coffee arrived.
“Naw, just my mom and Paul.” He looked up at her. “Shouldn’t you be like writing this down or something?”
“Oh! Right.” She smiled sheepishly pulling out a small note pad and pen.
Approximately four coffee’s later:
“Uh, I think you’re ringing.”
Elaine’s brow creased in confusion. She didn’t have a cell phone; she couldn’t stand the things. JC! She quickly gabbed her purse off the floor and after a quick moment of trying to figure out how to answer the phone did just that.
“Hello?”
“Where are you?” Came JC’s frantic voice.
Without thinking Elaine grabbed Justin’s wrist to look at the time and then cursed when she realized how long they had been talking. “I’m so sorry, I lost track of time.”
“I told you thirty minutes not two hours!”
“I’m sorry we’ll leave right now.”
“Hurry.”
Elaine sighed and stuffed the phone back into her purse and stood up. “We gotta go.”
“How late are we?” He asked helping her on with jacket.
“An hour and a half. I was supposed to have you there”” She gasped and put her hand over her mouth. “Oh no! I just ruined the surprise.”
“I already knew something was up.” Justin laughed.
“I told them I couldn’t handle it. I’m no good at keeping secrets. When I was little my mom got my sister an easy bake oven and she told me not to tell and I told almost the minute I saw my sister. She was like ‘mom told me she got me and easy bake oven want to go play with it?’ and stupid me was like ‘sure I think it’s still in mom’s closet.”
“Elaine.” He interrupted her ramblings. “It’s okay.”
“Just pretend to be surprised okay?” She asked desperately. “Don’t tell them that I told.”
“I Promise I’ll act surprised.” He chuckled. She really did feel bad. “You need a ride or what?”
“Oh I’ll just call a taxi.”
“We’re going to the same place you might as well ride with me.”
“Then they’ll know I told you.”
“We’ll just tell them that you told me you had some more questions to ask me and we were sick of coffee.”
“Okay.” Elaine agreed following him out to his car. “I still can’t believe I spilled the beans to you. I’m such a dork.”
TBC....(Thanks to everyone who has left me some feedback and please leave more!)
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