Simonia sat at the kitchen table on the set of Moods, tapping her foot restlessly. It was nearing four o’clock and they had been shooting the same scene over and over. It was getting to the point where, although she just wanted to get it over with, she and Lila were somehow managing to mess up over and over. Partly it was them, but it was also partly Paxton’s fault who was making them laugh from the side of the set.

“Okay, no laughing this time!” Lila playfully scolded her.

Simonia rolled her eyes. “Stop playing footsies with me then.”

“Ooh!” Paxton’s voice came from off the set. “Lila’s playing footsies with Monia! Bill, get some lesbian action on film. You’d make a killing in the porn industry with those two.”

“Shut up, Paxton!” both girls called back at him.

“Okay, guys, can we concentrate here?” Bill asked. “Let’s just get this scene done.”

Simonia tried to get the smile off her lips and pulled her legs under her chair. She knew Lila was not just trying to make her laugh and she didn’t think she could stand doing the same shot one more time.

Bill waited until they were both ready and then called for action. Knowing the lines backward and forwards by now, she began the dialogue with Lila.

“Robin, you’re crazy if you think that Meisner’s gonna raise your mark if you flirt with him. He purposely tries-” She stopped abruptly when Lila burst into laughed. “What?!”

Lila wiped her finger on the skin under her eye. “You spit on me!” she got out before dissolving into more laughter, Simonia joining in.

Bill groaned from the edge of the set. “Okay. We’re stopping this scene for the day. This is hopeless. Paxton! Mackenzie!”

“Yes!” Lila cheered standing up. “Mon, you should spit on me more often.”

“Now they’re getting body fluids on each other?” Paxton asked as he came on the set, followed by Mackenzie. “Why am I not getting any scenes with these two?”

Simonia let Lila take care of tackling him and made her way off the set to her dressing room which was empty. She knew she had a good hour to kill while Paxton and Mackenzie did their scene and at the moment, the prospect of doing nothing sounded very appealing to her.

She sat down on her couch and pulled her bag up beside her from the floor. She opened the top of it and went to grab her wallet. Her hand found it and when she pulled it out, a small piece of paper came with it. She turned it over and saw the note from Justin. She had almost forgotten about waking up beside him a week earlier. Well, not entirely true. He had crossed her mind a few times and Patrick still hadn’t gotten tired of teasing her about it.

Leaning back in the couch, Simonia turned the paper over and over in her hands.

“What the hell,” she finally said, pulling out her cell phone and opening it. “Might as well.” She punched in the numbers Justin had scrawled under his note and then raised her phone to her ear. It rang four times and she was about to hang up when a male voice came over the line.

“Hello?”

“Hello?” she said back, frowning a bit. She wasn’t all that familiar with Justin’s voice but the voice she was hearing really didn’t sound too much like him. “Justin?”

“No. Who’s this?”

She rolled her eyes. “Who’s this?”

“Hey, you called here so-”

“I called for Justin and obviously you’re not him. This is his phone, right?”

“Yeah. He’s in an interview right now. Who is this?”

“Uh, look, just tell him Simonia called, okay?” she said quickly.

“Who?”

“Simonia,” she said more slowly.

“Sure, I’ll tell him,” the guy replied and she could hear the laughter in his voice. She rolled her eyes again and mumbled a quick goodbye before hanging up the phone. Figuring there was no point in sitting there, she got up and left her dressing room, deciding that if Paxton was going to make fun of her and Lila, she would do the exact thing right back to him. After all, payback’s a bitch.

As soon as the radio interview was over, Justin was out of the small room, slightly pissed off at the past twenty minutes. The DJ had been unrelenting with questions about his love life and sex life. It was all he could do to not snap as the questions intruded in on his life more and more.

“Justin.”

He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Trace and Mike waiting for him. “Can we get out of here?” he muttered when he reached them.

“Didn’t go well?” Trace asked as Mike led them outside where a car was waiting.

“It was shit.”

“Got something to make you feel better.”

Justin glanced over at his friend’s smug expression as they got into the car. “What?”

Trace handed him his cell phone. “Look and see who called while you were in there.”

Justin scrolled down to the received calls and saw an unfamiliar number. “Who?”

“The same person you woke up beside last weekend.”

Justin began to smile. “Simonia called?”

“Yeah.”

“What’d she say?”

“Made a big deal when I wouldn’t tell her who I was and then a bigger deal when I asked who she was.”

“Did she say to call her back?”

“Just said to tell her she called.”

He smirked and leaned back in his seat. “I knew she’d call.”

“Call her back.”

“Maybe I will. Where was he when she called?”

“How the hell should I know. Just dial the number and see who picks up.”

He shrugged and pushed the button to redial the number. He raised the phone to his ear and listened to it ring.

“Hello.”

He stopped at the male voice. “Uh…Simonia there?”

“She’s busy. Want me to take a message?”

“Yeah, sure. Tell her Justin’s returning her call.”

It was silent for a second. “Alright.”

“Thanks.” Justin ended the call and then, on a second though, saved her number into his phone book.

After she was done the last scene of the day, Simonia wandered back to her dressing room with Lila by her side.

“So should we do Chinese or Italian tonight?” Lila asked.

“Umm…I feel like Chinese.”

“Order in?”

“To your house. By next week my house’ll be finished and we can go there.”

“Cool.”

Simonia pushed through the door of her dressing room and was greeted by Patrick. “Patrick, I’m going over to Lila’s.”

“Uh huh.”

“I don’t have any interviews tomorrow, right?”

“Nope.”

“Cool.” She grabbed her things from the couch and then turned towards the door. Patrick’s voice stopped her.

“So Justin Timberlake called.”

She looked back at him. “Oh.”

“Yeah, Justin Timberlake was just RETURNING your phone call.”

Lila started to laugh and Simonia rolled her eyes. “Thanks, Patrick.”

“So are you going to call Justin Tim-”

“GOOD-BYE, Patrick,” she said firmly, leaving the room and dragging Lila out with her. “Damnit, he’s irritating,” she grumbled as they walked through the building.

“He’s just teasing you.” Lila raised her eyebrows. “So…call him back.”

“Lila…” Simonia whined.

“What? If he’s returning your call that means that you’ve already called him so what’s the big deal in calling him again?”

Simonia frowned and got into Lila’s car. “You’re as irritating as Patrick.”

“You know you wanna call him,” Lila said, starting the engine. “Do it.”

Groaning, Simonia pulled out her phone and Justin’s number from her purse. “Not sure why you’re so interested…”

“Call.”

She rolled her eyes and dialed the number, shooting Lila a nasty look as she raised the phone to ear. “Maybe YOU should be the one cal-”

“Hello?”

She stopped abruptly as the phone was picked up. It sounded like him this time. “Uh, Justin?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s Simonia.”

“Oh, hey. How’s it going?’

“Fine. You?”

“Good. Feels like we’ve been playing phone tag.”

“Yeah.”

“So you called.”

“Oh, um, yeah. I just found your number and thought I’d call and see what’s going on.”

“Not a whole lot. I’ve done some recording and interviews and shit. That’s abou tit. I’m just at home now.”

“In LA?”

“Yeah. Where’re you? Sounds like you’re driving.”

“I’m with my friend. We’re going to pick up some Chinese.”

“Finished taping for the day?”

“Yeah.”

“So what’s your schedule like next week? Maybe we could go out for lunch or something.”

“Yeah, okay. I have Tuesday off.”

“That’s fine for me.”

“In Beverly Hills…?”

“Yeah. That’s good for me.”

“Okay. Why don’t you call me that morning and we can plan on a place to meet.”

“Sounds good.”

“Okay. Well, I gotta go. Talk to you later?”

“Sure.”

“Kay. Bye.”

“Bye.”

Simonia ended the call and looked over at Lila. “Satisfied?”

“Very.”

“Good. Cause I didn’t want to do that.”

“Do what?”

“Agree to go for lunch.”

“Why not? You said you had fun with him at the club.”

“But we were drunk and I don’t know, Lila. He had a crush on me before he even knew me. It’s going to just be weird.”

“It’ll be fine. Everyone’s had crushes. Do you think you’d be al weird if you went to dinner with Ben Affleck?”

“No.”

“And you’ve had a crush on him forever. Just give Justin a chance. Maybe he’ll surprise you.”

“Yeah, maybe.” She sighed. “I’ll do it. But if he’s a total creep then he’s getting your number.”

Lila flashed her a cheesy smile. “Wow. You’re such a true friend, Mon.”

Simonia smirked. “Yeah. I know, hey?”