Justin sighed as he glanced at the clock on the dashboard of his car as he sped down the road in Beverly Hills.

“Nervous?” Mike asked from his spot in the passenger’s seat.

Justin scoffed. “No. I would just rather not be late. Most people don’t like that.”

“Wearing some cologne, huh?”

Justin sighed again. “Give it up, Mike. I’m wearing no more cologne than I usually do, or wearing any different clothes than I usually do or any shit like that so just drop it.”

Mike laughed. “Sure man.”

Justin passed a few cars and glanced over at him bodyguard’s smirk from the corner of his eye a couple times. “Okay. What?”

“Nothing.”

“Right.” He looked back at the road, trying to ignore Mike and concentrated on getting to the restaurant where he was meeting Simonia Lahey for lunch in a couple minutes. He had been looking forward to the lunch for the past few days. Not only was he getting a break from all the promoting he had been doing, he was getting to spend his times with Simonia, something he hadn’t had the pleasure of doing yet while sober. He just hoped it would be as good as he had been anticipating.

They arrived at the restaurant a few minutes late and Justin parked in a hurry before getting out. Mike led him inside.

A nice aspect of Beverly Hills was that people weren’t quite as star struck as other places and the maitre’d hardly blinked an eye as he led Justin and Mike across the restaurant and out to the patio. Justin’s eyes landed on Simonia sitting alone at a small table, running her finger around the edge of her glass. She looked up as they neared and smiled. She didn’t get up but instead gestured to the chair across from her.

“Sit,” she simply said.

Justin smiled and pulled out the chair as Mike went to sit at a table a few feet away where another large, black man, who Justin assumed to be Simonia’s bodyguard, sat.

“Have you been waiting long?” he asked.

“Nope.”

He stared at her for a brief moment. She was so carefree and he couldn’t deny the small feelings of nervousness he felt. But he guessed it made sense. After all, he was the one who had publicly said he liked her, not the other way around.

“So why are you in Beverly Hills?”

“Mostly promotions. I also promised a friend that I’d help him produce a track for his cd.”

“Who?”

“Pharrell Williams.”

She smiled and leaned back in her chair. “You’re little buddy.”

“What?”

“Seems like every time I hear one of your names I hear the other.”

He shrugged. “We’re pretty good friends.”

A waiter appeared to take their drink orders and after ordering a club soda and lime, Justin watched Simonia order an ice tea, giving the waiter a friendly smile.

“Okay, so are you nice to everybody?” he asked as soon as they were alone again.

She focused her brown eyes back on him. “What?”

“You’re always so friendly to people,” he said, gesturing in the direction of the departing waiter.

“They spit in your food if you’re rude.”

“Doubt they’d do that at this restaurant.”

She shrugged.

“Besides that, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say anything bad about anyone in any interviews or anything.”

She leaned her elbows on the table. “Didn’t your mother ever teach you if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all?” She shrugged again. “It’s just how I was raised.”

“Still a country girl at heart.”

“Always.”

Justin took a sip of the club soda placed in front of him. “Is your brother still here?”

“Nope. He left on Wednesday.”

“Does he live near here?”

“He lives in Indiana with the rest of my family.”

“Oh.”

She picked up her menu and opened it. “What were you thinking of getting?”

He opened his menu as well. “Not sure.”

“I was thinking of the thai salad.”

He stared at the food choices in front of him. “Maybe I’ll get a burger or something.” He stared at the menu for a few more seconds before deciding on a hamburger and closed it. “What’s your week like?”

“Same as usual. I have a couple days off so it’s good.”

“The nice life of a pampered actress.”

She smirked. “Almost as good as the pampered life of a popstar.”

*                      *                      *

The meal lasted a couple hours before Simonia realized that she still had to go and make sure the renovations on her house were done correctly. She reluctantly ended the conversation.

“I really should get going. It’s past two.”

“Yeah, me too,” Justin agreed.

She bit the inside of her lip and stared at him for a minute. “This was fun.”

“Yeah.” He played with his napkin. “Hey, do you want to do something tomorrow night? You were saying you had it off.”

“Sure,” he said, surprising her. “That could be fun. What time?”

“Um….how about five.” She scribbled her address down on a piece of paper and handed it to him. “Here’s my address. You can just stop by around then.”

“Want me to bring something for dinner?”

“Sure. If you want. It would save me from trying to figure out something to eat.”

He stuffed the paper into his pocket. “Okay.”

She pushed back her chair and he did the same. “What are you up to for the rest of the day?” she asked, standing.

“Couple interviews.”

She smiled. “Have fun.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’ll try.”

“So I’ll see you tomorrow?” she asked, picking up her things.

“Yeah.” He paused and then stepped forward and she smiled and accepted his hug. His arms had a nice feeling around her. He pulled back after a couple seconds and ran a hand over his short hair.

“I’ll try and be there by five.”

“Okay. See you.”

He nodded and she turned, meeting up with Rob as she left the restaurant.

“That went long,” Rob commented.

She shrugged. “A couple hours.”

“Have fun?”

“Yeah. He’s a funny guy.”

“And you’re going to see him again tomorrow?”

“He offered to help me move back into my house. Wasn’t about to say no.”

“Okay.”

“Just don’t tell Patrick. He’ll have a field day with that.”

“My lips are sealed.”

*                      *                      *

At four fifty three, Simonia parked her car in the driveway of her house and quickly got out. Bill had called her in that morning to reshoot some scenes and it had gone way overtime. She had finally raced out, ignoring Patrick’s questions on where she was going.

Dropping her things on the floor of the hallway, she ran up the stairs two at a time to her room. She hadn’t bothered changing out of the set clothes, even though she wasn’t supposed to take them home with her, and desperately needed to change out of the jean skirt and tank top she had on. She dropped those clothes on the floor and pulled out some of her own-a pair of white fleece pants and a black t-shirt-before going to her bathroom and pulling her curled hair into a quick twist. Her cell phone started to ring when she put her toothbrush in her mouth.

“He-o?” she asked through a mouthful of toothpaste.

“Busy?” Jill asked, laughing.

“Hod on,” she managed to get out and pulled the phone away from her face as she finished brushing her teeth and spit into the sink. “Hey.”

“What were you doing?”

“Brushing my teeth. What’s up?”

“Not much. Stuck in traffic so I thought I’d call. Are you on the set?”

“I just got home. It was supposed to be my day off but I had to go in and reshoot some scenes.”

“Poor you.”

“Damn straight.”

“Guess what.”

“You’re flying to Saturn.”

Jill giggled. “No.”

“You bought a camel.”

“Close.”

“Really?”

“No.”

“Oh. Okay tell me.”

“I broke up with Devon.”

“What? Why?”

“I dunno. The past couple weeks we’ve just been fighting and he’s moving away to Chicago next month so it just wasn’t worth it.”

“That sucks.”

“It’s not that bad.”

Simonia left her bathroom and went downstairs. “It still sucks.”

“Just a bit.” Jill paused. “What’re you doing tonight?’

“Fixing up my house.”

“That’s a lot of work.”

“Justin’s supposedly going to come over and help me.”

“How was your lunch with him yesterday?”

“Pretty good.” Simonia went over to the front window and moved back the curtain. “Oh. I think he’s here.”

“Wanna talk later?”

“Yeah…” she trailed off. “That’s weird. He’s just sitting in his car in the driveway.”

“Are you sure it’s him?”

“Pretty sure. Same car as he was driving yesterday.” Simonia started to smile. “Why the hell is he just sitting there?”

“Maybe he’s building up the courage to come in. To overcome the nervousness of his crush over you.”

“Yeah, I’m sure that’s it.” She let the curtain drop and began to walk towards the kitchen. “I hope he brought good food with him. I’m starving.”

“Now, is he bringing the wine or you?”

“The wine?”

“For your date. Gotta have some sort of alcohol.”

“Oh, right, the DATE,” she said sarcastically. “I thought we’d skip the wine and get right into my bed. I bet that boy would give me the best-”

“Ew, ew, ew! Okay, stop! That’s the LAST visual image I need.”

Simonia smirked. “Oh, I thought you’d enjoy that.”

“Yeah, I’m so sure.”

Simonia started to respond but was cut off by the doorbell. “Oh, my bedmate has arrived.”

“You’re a pervert, Monia.”

“It’s a gift.”

“Sure. Call me later.”

“You got it.”

“Bye.”

“Yep.”