Summary: Salina Cortez is a single mom and the new publicist for NSync right after their initial split in 2002. When she meets and falls for JC Chasez is it possible for her to keep her priorities or will she get wrapped up in the ways in which he steals her corazon?
Categories: In Progress Het Stories Characters: JC Chasez
Awards: None
Genres: Drama, Romance
Challenges: None
Series: Around the World
Chapters: 22 Completed: No
Word count: 44999 Read: 48466
Published: Mar 18, 2008 Updated: Mar 10, 2009
1. Chapter 1 by jamiebrown232000
2. Chapter 2 by jamiebrown232000
3. Chapter 3 by jamiebrown232000
4. Chapter 4 by jamiebrown232000
5. Chapter 5 by jamiebrown232000
6. Chapter 6 by jamiebrown232000
7. Chapter 7 by jamiebrown232000
8. Chapter 8 by jamiebrown232000
9. Chapter 9 by jamiebrown232000
10. Chapter 10 by jamiebrown232000
11. Chapter 11 by jamiebrown232000
12. Chapter 12 by jamiebrown232000
13. Chapter 13 by jamiebrown232000
14. Chapter 14 by jamiebrown232000
15. Chapter 15 by jamiebrown232000
16. Chapter 16 by jamiebrown232000
17. Chapter 17 by jamiebrown232000
18. Chapter 18 by jamiebrown232000
19. Chapter 19 by jamiebrown232000
20. Chapter 20 by jamiebrown232000
21. Chapter 21 by jamiebrown232000
22. Chapter 22 by jamiebrown232000
Chapter 1 by jamiebrown232000
Author's Notes:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Salina Cortez gave one last glance to the apartment that had been her home for the last two years before letting a single sigh escape her lips as she shut the door to the apartment and her past. Salina had recently been assigned to work as the head publicist for the recording group NSync by her employers at JIVE records.
Salina had been working at JIVE for 3 years as an assistant to other account executives but had thoroughly impressed both her bosses and co-workers with her work ethic and discipline. She was only 22 when she came to work for them; by far the youngest Public Relations director ever employed there but her determination to land the job made the record company even more anxious to hire her.
Now Salina was packing up her home in Los Angeles and moving Orlando to start working with the world’s largest pop sensation. Salina had thought long and hard about this decision and decided it was the best decision not only for her but also for her 18 month old daughter, Vanessa. When Salina was first offered the job she immediately thought of her little Nessa and wondered if it would be a big deal to move the child to the other side of the country. She eventually realized that to an 18 month old it didn’t really matter where they lived as long as they were secure and they would certainly be more secure with the raise that Salina would get with the job.
Salina walked over to the car where her best friend, Anna, was waiting to take her to the airport. She climbed in the passenger seat and looked back at her daughter who was still fast asleep in her car seat.
“You ready, sweetie?” Anna asked her.
“Yeah, let’s do this.” She smiled and took one last look at the life she was leaving behind as they pulled out of the gated parking lot.
(1 week later)
“Ok, mi hija. Mama’s gonna go get a quick shower. So you just wait there, kay?” She said to her daughter who was busy stacking the blocks in front of her.
Salina quickly walked into the bathroom but left the door open so that she could hear her daughter. She stepped under the water quickly and exhaled as the hot liquid soothed her tense muscles. Today would be her first day really working with any of the guys. She had started working at the WEG offices in Orlando last week but was simply going through the preliminary orientations. Her boss, Johnny Wright, had been surprised when he first met her and noticed the small child clinging to her pants.
Salina immediately saw this and quickly attempted to inform Mr. Wright that she was attempting to locate a reliable baby-sitter, but Johnny cut her off and said that the baby was welcome. After being shown her quite large office and filling out all the paper work Salina and Vanessa were left to fix her office however they wanted and concentrated on that the first day.
Back at home Salina worked on getting all of her belongings unpacked and set-up in the new two-bedroom apartment that she was renting in Orlando. All of her things had arrived, as well as her car, the day after they had gotten there as planned and Salina immediately set to work making the apartment look like a home. Salina’s parents were planning to take a trip out to see her in a few weeks and she wanted everything perfect once they got there so they couldn’t make any remarks about what a mistake she was making.
She stepped out of the shower and quickly dried off before dressing, brushing her teeth, fixing her hair into a very neat bun and putting on just a little bit of make-up to make her look more professional. She then walked back into the bedroom to find her daughter laying on the ground and mumbling to herself as she pointed at the ceiling.
Salina smiled. “What do you see there, mi hija?” She asked using the term of endearment that her mother always used for her.
“Mama?” Nessa asked looking up at her smiling mother.
“Yep, are you ready to go to work with, mama?” Salina asked and picked her up to set her on the bed so that she could finish getting all of her files ready for work and Vanessa bag filled with diapers, snacks and enough toys to keep her busy. The whole office had surprised her at how much they enjoyed Vanessa being there which was causing Salina to procrastinate in finding that baby-sitter.
“Okay, baby, here we go.” She said before putting Vanessa on the floor and steering her to walk in front of her down the hallway to the front door. After locking the door behind them, they rode down the elevator and got situated in the car before Salina turned back to smile at her daughter before pulling out of her parking space and onto the street. This was the very beginning of their new life…
Chapter 2 by jamiebrown232000
Author's Notes:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
“J.C.!” a shrill voice screamed.
JC rolled his eyes before turning towards the stairs and calling, “What?” he yelled before sipping his coffee.
Footsteps hurried down the stairs and towards the kitchen where he was standing calmly. “What do you mean you’re going by yourself?”
“I mean, I am going to the premiere by myself….meaning without a date.” He stated bluntly.
Lisa flipped her blonde hair and pulled down the oversized shirt she was wearing so that she wasn’t completely exposed. She had tried to get JC to stay in bed with her this morning, but he wasn’t up for it. He had to go to some meeting with some new PR girl and was abandoning her once again for his career.
“You’re never here...we never spend any time together….and now you’re going alone to the one thing that we could do together!” She yelled.
JC winced and sighed. He knew this was coming but he had tried to prevent it as much as possible. “Look, Lisa, you know I like you, but I just...we just….we’re great as friends but the couple thing just doesn’t work for us.”
Lisa’s eyes widened. “What do you mean it doesn’t work for us?! It was working for us last night!”
“That’s not exactly what I meant.” He said before turning and rinsing out his cup and putting it in the dishwasher.
“Then what did you mean?”
“Lisa, think about it. When was the last time you and I actually had a conversation that went deeper than ‘What did you do today?’?”
“JC…” She whined and strode toward him in an attempt to lure him back. “Baby, you know, how much I care about you.”
JC stared at her in disbelief. “Rriiiight. Well, unfortunately, I just don’t see this working out so why don’t you stay and take a bath and have some breakfast, but then I’d appreciate it if you leave.”
“Are you serious?”
He nodded. He knew it was a cold thing to say but if Lisa was like any of his past few flings breaking it to her easy wasn’t near enough to make her understand. “Just lock the door behind you, okay?”
She nodded, close to tears.
“Look, we can still be friends. I’ll call you, but I gotta go because I’m gonna be late. You can even keep my shirt.” He said and kissed her cheek before he was gone leaving her standing in the middle of his kitchen, dumbfounded.
JC didn’t even flinch as he backed out of his driveway and put on his sunglasses before turning to drive across town. He didn’t flinch because he was used to girls like Lisa. They always said they cared that he was never there, but they didn’t. As long as they could stay in his house and use him for publicity it really didn’t matter to them where he was, what he was doing, and probably even who he was doing. Yes, he’d known Lisa for a long time and thought she really was a great person, but she often confused his celebrity and the real him and he was getting to the age where he didn’t want to be with a person just to be with them. He wanted to have a relationship that meant something. He hadn’t had one of those since Bobbie.
She was okay. He definitely loved her, but she grew tired of following him around the country. That was another thing he needed….a woman to understand that his music was well….his life.
JC pulled into the WEG parking lot and walked inside only to be greeted by the nineteen year old girl who worked there Shelley. Shelley was what one might call….obsessed with JC and for the life of him JC could not figure out why.
“Hey, Shelley.” JC smiled to be courteous, but didn’t stop as he walked through the office back towards Johnny’s office. Just as he turned a corner, he almost tripped over something tiny.
Once he had righted himself he looked back to find it wasn’t a something but a someone tiny he had almost tripped over.
There standing in the hallway looking up at him doe-eyed was a cute little girl that he had never seen before.
JC squatted down to get to her eye level. “Hello there.” He said to her and brushed a finger down her cheek.
The little girl giggled and pushed away from him which only resulted in her falling flat on her diaper-padded butt. This of course only caused her to laugh even more.
JC reached down to pick her up then stood up himself. “Who are you? And better yet…who do you belong to?”
The girl only looked at him and said “Hi.” quietly
“Ok, we’ve established ‘hi’. Now, I’d like to think that I know everyone here pretty well and I know them well enough to recognize their kids but I’ve never even seen a picture of you, cutie pie.”
“Bye bye?”
“You wanna go somewhere?”
“You bye bye?” she waved her little fingers then pointed to the poster above them
JC turned to look at it and realized it was from the cover of their No Strings Attached album.
He laughed a little in awe of how smart this girl was and she couldn’t have been two years old. “Yeah, that’s me ‘Bye Bye Bye’.” Just as he was about to ask her another question a young woman came hurrying around the corner only she turned away from them not towards them.
“Vanessa!” She yelled. “Vanessa!”
JC looked from the little girl whose eyes lit up at the sight of the woman and realized this was probably her mom. “Uh…Miss? Did you lose something?” He asked as he walked toward her.
She stopped in her tracks but didn’t turn around. Her shoulders sagged. “My daughter…my mind.” She said with tears in her eyes.
JC stepped up behind her and said, “Well, I don’t know about your mind, but I think can assure you that your daughter is safe and sound.”
Salina whirled around and exhaled at the sight of her daughter. “Oh Vanessa!” She cried and quickly took Nessa from JC’s arms and hugged her tightly. “Don’t ever leave like that again!”
Vanessa just looked at her mom. “Mama!”
Salina hugged her one more time and kissed her cheek before turning back to JC who was smiling at both of them. “Thank you so much! I don’t even know what happened I was putting her blanket on the floor and then I turned around and she was gone. It was my fault, I guess, for leaving the door open….”
JC cut her off. “Don’t worry about it. Glad I could help. I’m JC by the way.”
Salina’s eyes widened. “Oh no! Mr. Chasez, what a way to make an impression. I’m Salina Cortez your new Publicist.”
“Nice to meet you, Salina, and as I said before it’s no big deal. Call me JC or Josh which ever you prefer.”
“Ok, Josh. Uh…since you’re here do you want to follow me back to my office and we can get started?”
“That sounds like a great idea.” JC said right before Vanessa started to whine and wiggle to be put down.
Chapter 3 by jamiebrown232000
Author's Notes:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Salina put her down but quickly grabbed her hand which Vanessa tried her hardest to pull away. “Oh no you don’t, mi hija. After what just happened you’re lucky I don’t put a leash on you.”
JC laughed as she led the way down the hall to her office. “She’s so cute!”
Salina chuckled. “You obviously don’t have children.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because no one who has a child would ever say that.” She said before offering the seat across from her desk to JC. She closed the door and let go of Vanessa’s hand and the little girl scrambled over to where her favorite stuffed animal, a brown teddy bear that she called “Tebby”, was lying.
JC looked over at her affectionately. “What’s her name?”
Salina smiled. “Vanessa. I am supposed to be looking for a baby-sitter but I just don’t know about leaving my baby girl with a stranger.”
JC smiled at the slight Spanish accent that Salina spoke with. It was cute. “Well, don’t worry about it. This office loves kids.”
Suddenly a voice came from the doorway. “You should know, we’ve kept you around this long.”
They both looked up to see Johnny standing in the doorway. They greeted him and Johnny walked over and handed Vanessa a lollipop.
Salina raised her eyebrows. “Johnny, when I have a crazed 18 month old baby on my hands, guess who I’m gonna send her to?”
Johnny laughed and put a huge file in front of her. “Is this the NSync file?” she asked wide-eyed.
“Nope, that’s just Justin’s.” He smiled.
JC let out a huge laugh and Salina looked over at him curiously. “Don’t worry the rest of ours shouldn’t be that big. Just be glad you got to start with me.”
“Really?” She asked with raised eyebrows.
“Not to toot the man’s horns but he is one of the easiest to work with and doesn’t get himself into too much trouble…yet.” Johnny answered.
“Good to know.”
“Well, I’ve got a meeting with some new projects we’ve got coming in so I’ve gotta get going.” Johnny said as he set the rest of the files on her desk. “Just came to give you those. See ya, Jace. See ya, kiddo.”
“Bye, Johnny!” JC called then turned back to Salina who suddenly looked very nervous.
“Uh…so…ahem….JC, just to be sure, your album comes out February 27th, is that correct?” She asked as she flipped into business mode and started typing things into her computer as she flipped his file open.
“That is correct.” He said with an amused face.
“Okay, so the first thing I want to do is get you set up for some appearances on talk shows and maybe some gigs at the upcoming awards shows and football games. What do you think about that?”
JC looked at her and shrugged. “You’re the boss.”
“No, actually, you are.”
“You mean to tell me I get to decide if I wanna do these things?”
”Kind of. I strongly recommend you do these appearances, but if it is something that you are totally against I’m not going to make you.”
JC was impressed. The last few publicists the guys had employed had been fired because they had forced them, mainly Justin, to do appearances and say things that they didn’t want to. They had never truly been allowed to do what the pleased.
“You don’t get complete control, but I’ve watched some of your appearances and I’ve noticed that it’s clear when you don’t want to be somewhere and it definitely is not well received with your fans.”
JC nodded in understanding.
“So on that note…is there any talk show or anything thing that you really want or don’t want to do?”
“Can I not do ‘The View’? I don’t know if I can stand talking to five women on TV by myself. Joey said it was horrible.”
Salina laughed and typed some information in her computer not noticing that Vanessa had walked over to JC climbed into his lap and laid her head on his chest as she sucked on her thumb. JC was now running his hands through the curls on her head.
Salina finished typing and almost choked up at the sight of this man holding her daughter. “You don’t…ahem…you don’t have to hold her. I can just lay her down over there, it looks like she’s getting tired.” Salina said standing up and going over to the baby bag and getting Vanessa’s pacifier out. She reached to take Vanessa from him but the little girl held tightly to his shirt.
“It’s okay.” He said softly. “She’s fine.”
She looked at him. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, it does wonders for my ego to see that a girl wants me.” He smiled.
She smiled and stuck the pacifier in her daughter’s mouth as a replacement for her thumb. “I’m sure there are many of girls out there that could do wonders for your ego.” She said as she sat back down.
“Yeah but none of them are this cute.” He smiled at her and her breath caught…
Chapter 4 by jamiebrown232000
Author's Notes:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
It wasn’t until that moment that she realized how beautiful he was. The way his long hair bounced on his head when he laughed. And the way he looked so peaceful caressing her daughter’s hair. He almost looked like he could…Salina shook her head of the ridiculous thoughts and turned to his file.
“Is all of this information correct?” She asked and flipped the file around so that he could see it.
“Yep. It’s all right.”
“Good. Because once I get your schedule together I want to e-mail it to you…”
“Uh…I don’t really ever check my e-mail.”
“Don’t worry.” She said as she kept typing. “I’ll email it, fax it and snail mail it to you.” JC’s mouth dropped open. “And then I’ll call you the day before each event in case you forgot.”
JC was about to make a comment to Vanessa about her mother being super organized when he noticed that the baby had fallen asleep. He slowly got up and laid her on the blanket that was on the other side of the room. After straightening he looked at the wall where there was a picture of Salina with a young man. “Is this your husband?”
Salina’s head whipped around to see what he was referring to. She frowned. “Oh….no, that’s my brother Juan.”
“Oh. If you don’t mind my asking…are you married?”
“Nope.” She said still focusing on her computer before she wrote down a few names and numbers.
JC stared at her for a minute before looking at the rest of the pictures. “Are all of these guys your brothers?” He asked in hopes of finding out if she was in any way attached.
“Yep.” She answered.
“What are their names?”
Salina sighed before walking over to the picture of all 5 of them and pointing to them individually. “Mario, Juan, Robert and Tony.”
“Are you the baby?”
“Yep, that’s me. Mario’s the oldest, then Tony, then
Robert and then my best friend in the whole wide world Juan.” She smiled at the picture with her brothers. “What about you…the baby?”
“Naw…I’m the oldest. I have a sister, Heather, and a little brother, Tyler. What about Vanessa? Does she have any brothers or sisters?”
“Please, I can barely handle her.” She said and realized that JC was standing rather close in front of her. “Uh…so, I’m gonna call around and see if I can’t get you some interviews and then I will send you a list of them and if you have any problems then you can just give me a call, ok?”
JC smiled. “Sounds good.” He held out his hand. “Nice meeting you, Salina.”
She shook it. “Nice to meet you too, Josh.”
It had been two weeks since Salina had started her job with NSync and she had quickly learned that while she was supposed to be working primarily with JC a lot of her time was devoted to keeping the press away from Justin. A hard task for her considering she hadn’t met him and he wasn’t returning any of her calls. US Weekly had printed a cover story apparently on the week that Justin spent with his new girlfriend, Cameron Diaz, in Hawaii, complete with pictures of them flipping off the press and kissing on their surfboards.
Personally, Salina thought it was rather funny and while she knew the press had no business following Justin to Hawaii and interrupting his vacation, she also knew that him going around flipping off every photographer that comes by wasn’t the thing to do either.
So after that whole fiasco was finished she was back to focusing on getting JC some exposure. She was in the copy room Xeroxing calendars for all of the guys with Vanessa placed on her hip when JC arrived at the doorway without being seen by her. He didn’t, however, go unnoticed by Vanessa. JC had been spending a lot of time around the office since Salina had arrived and had even stopped by her apartment a few times to hang with her and Vanessa.
“Bye bye, mama!” She squealed.
“I know, mi hija, we’re almost done in here.”
“Bye bye!”
“I know, calm down.” She looked at her daughter and noticed the smile on her face which confused her. “Wait…what are you saying?”
“Bye bye!”
JC took that opportunity to walk into the room. “She’s saying bye bye. As in bye, bye, bye”
He sang. “She knows our songs.”
She smirked at him as she got the papers she needed and went to leave the room. “And when did you learn baby talk?”
“I took it in high school.” She turned to look at him and he shrugged. “She said it the first time we met. It was a very magical moment. Here’s the things I don’t want to do.”
Salina groaned as she took it and walked away from him. “Joshua, I sent this to you almost two weeks ago and you’re just now giving it back? Why do you NSync men like to ruin my life?”
“Who else is?”
”Justin, who won’t return my phone calls.” She said as she put on her glasses and began to read the paper.
JC took the opportunity to play with Vanessa as he flew her through the air. “That’s because you don’t have the right phone number.”
She looked at him. “You have to do this Jay Leno one.”
“You said I could choose.”
“I said that?”
“Yep.” He said breathless as he threw the baby up in the air and caught her.
“I lied. Don’t do that with her.”
“She’s fine.” He argued.
Salina sighed. “What do you mean I don’t have the right phone number?”
“Do you know how many times that boy has had to change his phone number?”
“So are you going to give me the right one?”
“Sure. Grab a pen.”
“Okay, go ahead.” She said pen-ready.
“It’s (549) 678-0943.”
“Thank you. You’re the best.”
“Do I still have to do Jay Leno?”
“Yes.” She answered as she picked up her phone and dialed the number hoping he would finally pick up.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Justin, this is Salina Cortez, your new publicist.” She said somewhat intimidated.
“Oh, hey! How are you?”
“I’m good and you?”
“Great! So what’s up?”
“Well, I’ve been getting several calls lately about the article in US Weekly…”
“Oh, great….look, I’m really sorry about that.”
“No, it’s not a big deal. I just wanted to let you know that since I couldn’t get a hold of you that I just went ahead and released a statement saying that you don’t wish to comment on your personal life.”
“Sounds great to me.”
“Are you sure? Because I could always issue something else.”
”Naw…it’s not big deal. Thanks though.”
“That’s my job.”
“Hey, how’d you get this number anyway?”
“Oh, JC is here and he gave it to me.”
“Yo, C, is there? Can I talk to him?”
Salina looked at the man who was now playing with her daughter’s dolls. “Uh….sure…hold on.” She said before putting him on speakerphone. “JC, Justin wants to talk to you.”
“Yo, C, what up, man?”
“J, how are you doing?”
”Good. I heard Lance got an invite to the studio to hear your album and I’m waiting for my invite.”
“You can stop by my house anytime, man. I just put in this great studio in the basement.”
“Cool. Hey, are you going to Chris’ bar-be-que thing on Saturday?”
“Yeah. I’ll be there. Speaking of holding out on something, when do I get to meet Cameron?”
“You already know her, fool.”
“But I don’t know her as your girl.”
Justin laughed. “She’ll be there on Saturday I think. What about you Salina are you going?”
Salina blushed and looked over at JC. “Oh, Snap!” JC said. “I forgot that’s why I was really coming over here. Do you wanna go to Chris’ house for a bar-be-que on Saturday?”
“I can’t”“ She started looking at Vanessa.
“You could bring her.”
“Bring who?” Justin asked from the phone. “A girl? I wanna meet the girl?”
”Weren’t you guys just talking about your girlfriend?” Salina asked him.
“We have an understanding relationship.” Justin quipped making JC laugh.
“I was talking about her daughter, Vanessa.” JC answered him. “She is cute though. She’d win your heart easily, J.”
“Bring her! Bring her!” Justin exclaimed. “Hey, look you guys I gotta get going but JC, you’re job is to convince the publicist to come to the BBQ on Saturday.” He said before hanging up.
JC stood up and clicked the off button on the speakerphone. “You heard the man. Justin Timberlake wants you to go and what Justin wants, Justin usually gets.”
“JC, I can’t. I don’t even know these people.”
“All the more reason for you to come. So you can meet them. All of us guys will be there, our families, security, it’s the first step in becoming a member of the crew.”
Salina just looked at him and sighed.
“I’ll even pick you up and drive you.” Salina still didn’t move. “I’ll take you out for ice cream, right now? It’s your lunch break, right?”
Salina cracked a smile. “Okay, fine. I’ll go. But I want a really big ice cream.” She said standing up and grabbing her purse.
JC picked up Vanessa and the three of them were out the door to eat some ice cream in the middle of December.
Chapter 5 by jamiebrown232000
Author's Notes:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Salina had tried everything possible to get out of going to the bbq that Saturday but nothing worked. She didn’t even understand why someone would be having a bbq in December but JC said that it would still be warm enough and that it was a yearly tradition. So here she was at 1 o’clock on Saturday afternoon running around like crazy trying to get herself together enough to go to a bbq.
A few minutes later the doorbell rang and Vanessa toddled as fast as she could to the door. “Hi!” she said through the door.
“Nessa?” JC asked. “Where’s your mommy?”
“Mama?” Vanessa asked and looked around.
“Yeah, go find your mama, Nessa.”
“Kay.” She turned around and toddled back to her mother’s room. “Mama?”
“Yeah, mi hija?” Salina asked as she finished putting on lipgloss.
“Bye bye!” She said using the name she’d given JC.
“He’s here?” Salina asked and picked up her daughter as she walked to the door. “You’re gonna have to learn his name. Say ‘J..C’.”
“C?”
“Close enough.” Salina said as she opened the door to reveal JC leaning rather sexily against her doorframe dressed in jeans and a button-down shirt left open to reveal a wifebeater. “Hey.”
“Hey.” He said as she stepped back and let him enter.
JC immediately took Vanessa from Salina’s arms and Salina went into Vanessa’s room to retrieve the ever present diaper bag. “Hey Nessie-girl.” JC cooed.
“C?”
“Hey, she just said my name!” JC exclaimed to Salina who smiled as she walked in. “Well, half of it anyway.” He shrugged. He looked over at Salina who was still silent and looking down to her feet. “Are you still nervous about meeting everyone?”
“Can you blame me?” She asked quietly.
“No, I guess I can’t.” He said walking over to her and pulling her into a small hug.
Neither one of them missed the perfect way that they fit against each other or how well Vanessa fit in right next to them. Everything about that split moment just seemed perfect. Salina pulled away, however, and moved to take Vanessa. “You ready?”
“Yep. Do you have a carseat for her?”
“It’s by the door.”
JC moved to lift the carseat and held the door open for Salina as she walked out with the little girl and their bag.
The bbq was in full swing by the time the trio arrived and that made Salina even more nervous. She’d have to meet everyone at once instead of in stages like she had prepared herself for.
“It looks like we’re a little late.” JC said as they walked up the steps to Chris front door. He didn’t ring the doorbell or knock like Salina had expected, he took out a key ring, unlocked the door and just walked right in. Salina stood in awe of him.
“You have a key to his house?”
”Yeah, we all traded keys early on.”
“Why?” She said entering the house.
“Well, when we first started getting money Joey and Chris were the only two with houses so they gave us keys so that we could crash there if we wanted to and it just became a thing that whenever we bought a house we gave at least one of other guys in the group a key.” He said leading her to the back of the house.
“Uncle C! Uncle C!” A little girl about 5 came running towards JC’s legs and latched on.
“Hey, there Bri-Bri. How are you doing? You’ve gotten so big!”
“I’m good. Daddy said if its okay with you I can come over to your house and record my Christmas song for mommy.”
“That sounds great. Just have your daddy call me, okay?” He looked back at Salina with a smile before leaning down to the little girl again. “Hey Bri, this is Salina. Salina this is Brianna.”
Salina smiled at the little girl before turning back to JC. “You’re niece?”
”Kind of. She’s Joey’s daughter. But all the kids call us ‘Uncle’.”
“All?” She said but was cut off by Brianna.
“You’re pretty.”
“Thank you, Brianna. So are you.”
“Uncle C says it’s a good thing I look like my mommy and not my daddy because mommy’s a…”
”Brianna!” A woman who looked about Salina’s age stood in the doorway of the living room with her hands on her hips. “Do not finish that sentence.”
“But Uncle C”“
“I’ll deal with Uncle C later go see if you can help Carrie with the boys okay?” She said before turning to JC. “What are you teaching my child?”
”Nothing. I think it was Chris who said that stuff.” He said with his hands up.
The woman shook her head and then turned to Salina and smiled. “Hi, you must be Salina. I’m Kelly, Joey’s fiancée and Brianna’s mother.”
“It’s nice to meet you.”
“I’m so glad this one talked you into coming.”
“It was more like conned into coming but whatever.” She laughed.
“And who is this beautiful creature?”
“This is my daughter, Vanessa.” She said looking down at the child who was remaining quiet and taking in the scene.
“Hello, sweetheart.”
“Hi.” Vanessa said quietly.
Kelly smiled and turned her attention back to Salina. “Come on, Salina, I’ll show you where you can put the diaper bag and everything.” She said taking Salina’s hand and leading her away from JC. “JC, everyone is out back so you should go say hi.”
“Yeah.” JC said and made his way to the backyard.
After about ten minutes of chatting with Kelly a little, Salina decided to head out back and meet everyone. She excused herself from Kelly and began walking in the direction of what she thought was the backyard, however, she only ended up in the kitchen. “Okay, mi hija, how do we get back there…I hear the voices but I don’t know how to get there.”
“Hi.” A male voice came from behind her. “Salina?”
“Yeah. That’s me.”
“I’m Justin. We spoke on the phone.”
“Yeah. Hi nice to see you.”
“You lost?”
Salina blushed. “A little.”
Justin chuckled then grabbed a beer out of the refrigerator before offering her one which she declined. “This house is so twisted around, I think Chris even gets lost sometimes. Follow me.”
Justin lead the way to the glass door that lead to the backyard and held the door open for her. “Hey Jace, I think you lost something.” He yelled to JC who was sitting at the large table where everyone seemed to have gathered around. Upon seeing Salina he immediately hopped up and was to her side.
“Everyone…this is Salina, our new Publicist. Salina this is going from the back to the front…over there burning the food are Chris and Lance; there’s Carrie, the two boys are their sons, Justin and Joshua, then there’s Lynn, Justin’s mom; Paul, Justin’s dad; Justin you met, Cameron, Joey, Bev, Chris’ mom; Emily, Chris’ sister; Taylor, Chris’ other sister; Tyler, my brother; and, Steve, Joey’s brother.” He said. “Oh yeah and everyone this little girl is Salina’s daughter, Vanessa.” He said taking Vanessa out of Salina’s arms.
“Um…hi everyone.” Salina smiled nervously.
They all greeted her and invited her to sit down. Salina sat down next to JC and went to take Vanessa from him, but she refused her and kept entertaining herself with JC’s necklace.
“So, Salina, how are you adapting to life in Orlando?” Lynn asked.
“Good, thank you. It’s a lot calmer than Los Angeles, so I like it.” They all nodded and then broke off into their own smaller conversations.
Salina spent the rest of the evening chatting with the girls and watching the guys play basketball with the kids. At one point Salina even allowed JC to take Vanessa out and put her on his shoulders as he played with the guys. When JC began to smell something funky he took her over to Salina.
“Mommy, I think your baby went doo-doo.” He said with a turned up nose.
Salina smiled up at him feeling a bit more relaxed from wine coolers she’d had. “Well, Carrie here tells me you’re a pretty good diaper changer.”
Carrie nodded. “Out of all five of them I think he’s the best and two of them have kids of their own.”
JC whined. “That doesn’t mean I like to do it.”
“Hey, the rule is whoever is holding her when she goes has to change her.” Salina replied.
“So what happens if no one’s holding her?” He challenged.
“Whoever held her last.”
“Please help me.” He complained.
Salina sighed and stood up and followed him into the house. “What are you going to do when you have your own kids and they need their diapers changed?”
He smiled innocently over his shoulder at her. “Send them to you?”
She chuckled. “Don’t count on it.”
“Ok.” JC said as he laid Vanessa on the blanket spread out on the floor in one of the guest bedrooms that had been allocated the kiddie room. He reached for the diaper bag as Salina stood at the door and watched. “We can do this can’t we kiddo?”
He carefully took out a fresh diaper and was unsnapped her outfit. He was becoming quite confident when he unfastened her dirty diaper and Vanessa started to squirm and cry. “Hey, what’s up, kid? I just wanna get ya clean.”
Salina took that opportunity to walk over to him and calm her daughter down a little. “She’s getting tired. It’s past her naptime. I should lay her down.”
JC finished securing the new diaper and lifted her up. “Can I put her down?”
“Uh…sure. I’ll be downstairs.”
“Ok.”
Salina walked towards the door and had just exited the room when she heard JC start singing to her.
When the visions around you
Bring Tears to your eyes
And all that’s around you
Are secrets and lies
I’ll be your strength
I’ll be your warmth
Keeping your faith when it’s gone
The one you should call
Is standing here all alone
And I will take
You in my arms
And hold you right where you belong
Till the day my life is through
This I promise you…This I promise you
I’ve loved you forever
In lifetimes before
And I promise you never
Will you hurt anymore
I give you my word
I give you my heart
This is a battle we’ve won
And with this vow
Forever has now begun
And I will take
You in my arms
And hold you right where you belong
Till the day my life is through
This I promise you
Salina hadn’t even realized that JC had stopped singing as she stood in the hallway and silent tears ran down her cheeks. She didn’t realize until he stepped out of the room and almost slammed into her.
“Whoa.” He chuckled. “Sorry.” He looked at her closely. “Salina, what’s wrong? Are you crying?”
She sniffled. “You sang to my baby.”
He laughed. “Yeah. It’s the best way to get kids to go to sleep, I’ve found. What about that makes you cry?”
“Because every time I think that I might find a fault in you, you do something like this with me or Vanessa and it only reinforces my belief that you are perfect.”
“Aww.” He said and pulled her into a hug. “Trust me, I have many, many faults.”
”Like what?” She asked her voice slightly muffled by his shirt.
“Well….I’m really bad at dancing.” He joked.
She giggled. “Shut up.”
“No, really. Ask any of the guys I am far from perfect. A perfect guy would have given you the list of rejected appearances the next day and not two weeks later.”
”Well, that makes me feel better.”
“I’m glad.” He smiled before pulling back and wiping the tears off of her cheeks. “Let’s go downstairs.”
She agreed and they headed back downstairs where everyone was now congregated in the large living room, the family members had left and all that was left were the guys, Cameron, Carrie, Kelly, Brianna and the twins.
“Where’ve you guys been?” Chris asked.
“We put Vanessa to sleep.” Salina answered sitting down next to Lance with JC on the other side of her.
“I put Vanessa to sleep. You watched.” JC corrected.
“Details, details.” She waved him off.
“So, Jace, we were saying that everyone is gonna go to Justin’s for Christmas eve, you in?” Joey informed.
“Yep.” He nodded.
“What about you, Salina? See you at Justin’s?” Kelly asked.
“Oh”uh”I guess.” Salina offered a small smile.
The rest of the evening was spent talking and laughing about the occurrences in each guy’s lives. Salina had been informed that the guys hadn’t been in one place like this since Chris’ birthday in October and even then none of them could stay long.
Halfway through their conversation, JC got up to get something to drink and Joey followed him in.
“So?” Joey asked as JC opened his soda and took another swig.
JC looked at him innocently. “What?”
“What’s up with you and the gorgeous publicist?”
“Better not let Kelly hear you saying that.”
Joey waved him off. “Seriously, man, you’ve been to WEG more times these last few weeks than I think you ever have, you pick her up and bring her here and now you’re putting her kid to sleep? Sounds like one big happy family to me.’
“You’re way off here, dude.”
“You’re not attracted to her?”
“Of course I am, Joe. Who wouldn't be? But I haven’t had a real relationship since Bobbie.”
“So, it’s about time you start one.’’
“Not with the new publicist.” JC said shaking his head.
“Why?”
“Because, Joe. She’s new here and at WEG plus she has a kid.” JC whispered loudly.
“So, are you being a pussy cause she’s new here or cause she has a kid?”
JC shook his head and pointed at Joey. “Joey, just leave it alone ok?”
Joey just held up his hands and nodded before following JC out the door back to where everyone was.
Chapter 6 by jamiebrown232000
Author's Notes:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Before long it was after 10 o’clock and Salina told JC that she needed to get Vanessa home. The fact that Vanessa had slept that long worried Salina because she knew that Vanessa would now be waking up very early the next morning. Salina and JC loaded up his car and headed back to her apartment where JC again helped Salina carry the carseat and Vanessa up to the apartment. JC then laid the still sleeping Vanessa in her crib.
“She’s gonna be up so early tomorrow.” Salina whined.
“So, you should probably get to sleep soon.” JC told her as they walked back into the living room his conversation with Joey weighing heavily on his mind.
“I’m not at all tired.” JC turned to her and finally worked up the courage to ask her something he’d been wanting to know since they meet.
“Can I ask you something?” He said quietly.
“I don’t know where he is.” She responded before heading into the kitchen to get a bottle of water out of the refrigerator and offering him one.
He accepted it and slid onto the stool at the counter. “Who?”
“Vanessa’s dad. That’s what you wanted to know, right? Where he is?”
“Yeah. That’s what I was gonna ask. What happened?”
“He…left.” She said sitting down beside him. “A few months after I told him I was pregnant he left. I have no idea where he is or what he’s doing and frankly, I don’t care. He called about a month after Nessa was born and asked about her, but I haven’t heard from him since.”
“You’re not worried about what to say when she asks about her dad?”
“Yes, I am. But I don’t think that will happen for awhile so I’m not going to stress over it now. My main focus is just raising her right now and providing for her.”
JC reached out and put his hand on top of hers. “Well, you’re doing a great job.”
She smiled and hugged him. “Thank you. And thank you for being so great with her, she’s fallen for you hard.”
“And I her.” He pulled her away and looked into her eyes. “She’s a great kid and beautiful, just like her mommy.” Salina grinned and noticed JC leaning in to kiss her.
Just before his lips touched hers, Salina stopped him. “JC…”
“Shh.” He interrupted. “Don’t think, just feel.” He said before crushing her lips with his. Salina hesitated at first not wanting to give into the feelings surging inside her for the sake of the little girl asleep just yards away. But she couldn’t hold back long as her arms slipped around his neck and she deepened the kiss and moaned.
JC pulled back and looked at her. “Are you ok?”
“Are you kidding?” She said before pulling him back into the kiss and playing with the curls at the nape of his neck. Soon she felt JC’s tongue seeking entrance into her mouth which she granted and started to move backwards towards the couch where JC laid her down and then climbed on top of her.
Instead of resuming the kiss though JC laid with his head on her chest and they both tried to get their breathing under control. Salina sighed as she ran her fingers through his hair.
“JC?” She asked.
“Hmm?”
“What are we doing?”
He raised his head to look at her. “What?”
Salina sat up forcing JC to sit up next to her. “This…whatever it is…is not a good idea.”
He couldn’t believe what she was saying. They had just shared the most amazing kiss JC had ever experienced. “And why not?’
“Because I’m your publicist. Of all people I know that the last thing you need right now is a relationship. Not to mention the fact that I have a daughter.”
“You know I’m crazy about Nessa and you just said she’s crazy about me.”
“She is, but JC I just started working for JIVE and it’s going pretty well. I don’t want that to end.”
He took her head in his hands. “Listen to me. You will not lose your job if we pursue this. I promise.”
He leaned in to kiss her again quickly. Then he hopped up and pulled her towards the door. “I’ll tell you what, you think about this tonight and I’m gonna go home and get some sleep. And I will call you tomorrow, when you see my number on the caller id you can either answer or don’t. If you don’t, there’s no hard feelings, we’ll just go back to our publicist-popstar relationship, ok?”
She smiled. “Ok.”
He grinned then reached to open the door and stepped out. “So, goodnight. Sleep well.”
“You too, Josh.”
Chapter 7 by jamiebrown232000
Author's Notes:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Salina certainly didn’t have to worry about Vanessa waking her up the next morning because she didn’t sleep all night. She was too worried about JC’s call the next day. She had gone over the pros and cons of the situation in her head a million times and while her heart was telling her to go with the feelings that she hadn’t felt for a man in over two years, her head was warning her against it.
The next morning she heard Vanessa jabbering from her crib at the early hour of 7 o’clock and decided that she might as well get up and start her day seeing as how she wasn’t getting any sleep anyway. She sauntered into Vanessa’s room to see the little girl standing up in her crib and talking to Tebby.
“Hola, mi hija. Comó estás?” She said speaking to the girl in her native tongue. She had pledged to herself when Vanessa was born that she would teach her Spanish and it would be spoken regularly in their home.
“Bien? Me too…I think.” Salina took Vanessa into the kitchen and put her in her high chair. After setting a handful of cheerios on the tray in front of Vanessa she busied herself with cleaning the kitchen. After she was finished with that she vacuumed the apartment, folded the clothes she had washed two days before and dusted the entire apartment. Once she was finished she looked over to the clock and realized that it was only 11 o’clock. She looked over to Vanessa who was standing on the couch looking out the window and plopped down next to her.
“What’s up, mi hija?”
“Out.” Vanessa pointed sadly.
“We can’t go outside, mi hija, we have to wait for JC to call.”
“C?”
“Yeah.” She said and pushed Vanessa’s curls out of her face. “Nessa, do you like JC?”
“Bye bye?”
Salina pulled Vanessa onto her lap. “Yeah, do you like him? Huh?”
Of course Vanessa didn’t answer, but suddenly took an interest with her toes.
“Yeah…you like him.” Salina had made up her mind. She was going to give this thing with JC, whatever it was, a chance. When he called she was going to pick up the phone and tell him to come over. It startled her when the phone rang and she hesitantly lifted it to look at the caller id. She wasn’t surprised to see JC’s number appear and she took a breath before she answered.
“Hello?”
He breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh my God, you answered.” He smiled though she couldn’t see it.
“Yeah, I did.”
“I’m sorry, I called so early. I just couldn’t help it…I was too anxious and nervous and I guess a little bit excited. Um…now that you answered, I want to ask you and Vanessa on a date tonight.” He said beating Salina to the invite she was going to give.
“Um…both of us?” She wasn’t expecting that at all.
“Well, kinda. It’s dinner at my house and after we put Vanessa to sleep it’ll be just the two of us.” He said in an incredibly sexy voice.
“That sounds great. What time?”
“How about 7?”
“Okay, we’ll be there.” She giggled. “Uh…I need directions to your house.”
“Oh…duh! I forgot.”
After JC gave Salina the directions they hung up and
Salina spent the rest of the day playing with her daughter while JC went to shop for dinner. At around 5:30, Salina decided that it was time to get herself and Vanessa ready to go. She set Vanessa on her bed with a Teletubbies video playing while she took a shower, dressed and put on her makeup. She let her hair naturally dry so it was wavy and then she walked into the bedroom to grab Vanessa to get her ready.
“Okay, mi hija, do you want to wear your yellow sundress thing?” She asked as she walked into Vanessa’s room. She looked at Vanessa who just reached out for her Tebby when she saw him. “Okay, I guess I get to pick the outfit.”
By 6:30 Vanessa and Salina were ready on and their way out the door when the phone rang. Salina thought about not answering when she saw that it was her mother but decided against it.
“Hello?” She answered.
“Hey, mi hija. Como estás?”
“Bien, mama. And you?” She said as she lifted Nessa into her arms.
“Muy bien, gracias. Y donde está mi nieta?”
“She’s right here, but we are on our way out, mama, can we call you back?”
“Donde están que va?”
“Just, you know, out to eat.”
“No se olvide una chaqueta para Nessa”
“Jacket for the baby, got it. We gotta go now mama, okay? Say hello to dad and the boys for me. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Ciao.” She said before hanging up and walking out the door with Nessa.
Twenty minutes later they pulled up to JC’s large home and Salina stared in awe. “What did I get us into, mi hija?” She asked her daughter. After collecting her daughter and the diaper bag she walked up to the front door and rang the bell.
She gasped when JC opened the door grinning sexily in his oversized sweater and black sacks. “Hey.” He said leaning in to give her a kiss. “I’ve been waiting to do that all day.”
She smiled. “It was definitely a nice way to begin the evening. But can I get past the threshold?”
“Oh, yeah. Come on in.” He said opening the door and stepping aside.
“C!” Vanessa laughed as she bounced up and down in her mother’s arms. Salina set her down and Vanessa immediately went and wrapped her arms around JC’s legs.
JC laughed. “Hey there, cutie.” He said as he lifted his legs with her still wrapped around the left one and led Salina further into the house.
Salina looked around and let out a quiet laugh.
JC stopped and turned to her, smirking. “What’s so funny?”
“It’s just that your house is so….bachelorish.”
JC nodded slightly embarrassed before picking up the two glasses of wine and handed her one. “Yeah, well, I’m not here much.” Just as he said this is an overweight 10-year old cocker spaniel walked into the room. Vanessa immediately tightened her arms around his leg and began to whine for him to pick her up. “It’s okay Nessa. Millie’s old and lazy…she won’t hurt you.” He knelt down and the little girl clung to his neck tightly. He put his arm around her and motioned for the dog to come to him. “Come here, Millie-girl.”
The dog sauntered lazily over to him and licked his hand before smelling Vanessa’s shoe. “No-no!” Nessa said shaking her finger at the dog making JC laugh. Nessa hesitantly reached out and pet the dog on his ears before letting go of JC entirely and hugging the dog tightly.
“Nessa, not so tight.” Salina said.
“She’s fine.” JC said. “Millie’s used to kids. My cousins come and play with her while I’m gone.” JC took her hand and pulled her to him looking down and making sure that Nessa was still busy with the dog. “I’m really glad you called.” He said smiling.
“Me too.” She said before leaning up to peck him on the cheek. “What’s for dinner?”
“I got this pasta thing that I can’t pronounce, but it’s really good.” He said walking around the island to the oven.
Salina sat on the stool after looking back to check on Vanessa. “You got take out?” she asked smiling.
JC blushed. “Yeah. Trust me, you don’t want to eat my cooking.”
“You’re that bad?”
“Well, I could probably make you a bowl of cereal, but I figured you might want something a little more elegant.” JC explained as he dished out the meal for the three of them.
“I see.” Salina was about to say something else, but was interrupted by Vanessa.
“Mama, mine?” She asked Salina putting her arms up indicating that she wanted to be picked up.
“What?” She asked as she watched JC walk into the dining room.
“Mine.” Vanessa said as she pointed at the dog.
“No.” Salina shook her head.
“Yeah.”
”No. You’re too young for a dog.”
“Yeah.” She said before leaning back against her mother.
“Okay, guys, dinner is ready.” JC said leading them into the dining room where he had their plates set up and even a high chair for Vanessa.
“Please tell me you didn’t buy a high chair, Josh.” Salina said as she walked over to it and strapped Vanessa in.
“It’s here in case Joey or Lance need me to baby-sit.” He said pulling out her chair and kissing her before sitting down himself.
“Do you baby-sit for them often?” She asked as she took a bite of her food. “It’s really good.” She commented before he could respond.
”Thanks, I’ll tell the chef.” JC chuckled. “Uh…out of the guys I probably baby-sit the most. Because Justin is always gone and I really don’t think they trust Chris enough to leave their kids with him. Not that he would let them get hurt, he would just wreck their houses and let them eat chocolate all day. So I get to baby-sit, but there’s still probably a long list of people that they’d call before they’d call me.”
The two talked and laughed quietly together as they finished their meal. Salina smiled as she watched JC feed Vanessa as he ate his own food. He caught her staring and smiled back. “What?”
“You’re just…perfect with her.”
He smiled and stood to clear their plates. Salina took that opportunity to grab Vanessa and wipe her off. She then walked back into the kitchen where JC was standing talking on the phone. He held up a finger to signal that it would just be one minute. Salina nodded and walked out of the room into his living room and looked around. She stopped in front of pictures of JC with various people and Vanessa reached out to point at one.
“Who?”
“That’s JC.”
“No.”
”Yeah. When he was younger…see, that’s him too.” She said although her throat tightened at the sight of his arms wrapped around a beautiful woman. She had no right to be jealous, they weren’t really anything serious yet and she didn’t even know who the person was.
“Who?” Vanessa asked pointing to the woman.
Salina cleared her throat. “I…uh…I don’t know, sweetie.” She said turning around and seeing JC standing there watching her.
“That’s my sister, Heather.” He said trying to read her face.
Salina let out a sigh of relief. “Oh…it’s his sister, sweetie.” She said to Vanessa who just laid her head on Salina’s shoulder and yawned. “I think she’s tired.” She said as she glanced at the clock on the wall.
“Here.” JC reaching for her. “We can lay her down upstairs.” Leading Salina to one of the guest rooms upstairs.
Chapter 8 by jamiebrown232000
Author's Notes:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
JC got to experience what it was like to try to get a moody toddler to sleep that night. After the two were finally able to be alone downstairs JC pulled Salina over to the couch and plopped down with his head on her shoulder.
“I now understand why married couples always say they’re too tired to have sex.” He said groaning.
Salina chuckled and blushed. “Think about how people with twins or triplets must feel.”
“Oh man, that must be horrible.”
“Yeah, well, the happy moments outweigh the tiring ones by far.”
“Like what?” he asked sitting up and turning to her.
“Watching her take her first steps, say mama for the first time…stuff like that.’
JC smiled as he watched the happy glow in her eyes grow. He lifted his hand to cup her cheek. “I love that look you get when you talk about Vanessa.”
She smiled and leaned in to kiss him. JC quickly responded to the kiss and traced her bottom lip seeking entrance which she granted. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her onto his lap so that she was straddling him. She moaned into his mouth, but when she felt his hands sliding under her shirt she pulled away and rested her head on his chest, both breathing heavily.
“I’m sorry.” He said hugging her to him.
“Don’t apologize. I’m so attracted to you and if this was two years ago we’d definitely be going at it right now, but I can’t just be frivolous with my life anymore. I’m a mom.”
“I know. I know and we’ll go as slow as you need to. I promise.” He said staring her straight in the eyes.
She smiled at him before laying her head on his shoulder. They sat like that for a few minutes, her arms wrapped around his neck and his hands rubbed her back.
“Will you sing to me?” she asked him.
He smiled and she felt him smirk. “No.”
“Come on. I answered the phone.” She complained making him laugh.
“I have to sing all day tomorrow, come on, babe.” He reasoned.
She smiled at him calling her ‘babe’. “Next time?”
“We’ll see.”
“You know you have to go to New York for TRL on Friday, right?” she asked.
He nodded. “Are you coming with me?”
She shook her head. “I can’t. My family’s coming out to spend Christmas here.”
“Do I get to meet them?”
“You’re already meeting the folks?” she asked leaning back to look at him and sliding off his lap to sit beside him.
JC didn’t answer her question. “When do they get here?”
“Tomorrow.’
“Do you have to pick them up?”
“Uh-huh.”
“I can drive you. We’ll take my Navigator.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. You can’t take them all in your car.’
“Not everyone’s coming. Just my mom, my dad and two of my brothers.”
“Well, what time do we need to leave for the airport tomorrow?”
“By 12:30.”
“Okay, I’ll pick you up from WEG.” He said sealing the agreement with a kiss.
She smiled goofily and started to stand up but he pulled her back down. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I still have work to finish, so I need to go plus I have to work in the morning so I have to get up early, Mr.-sleep-in-til-12.” She smirked.
“Very funny.” He said and sighed. “Okay, wait here and I’ll go get the baby.”
Salina relaxed back into the couch and waited for JC to appear with her daughter. A few minutes later she heard footsteps and turned to see JC carrying Vanessa, who was wrapped up in a blanket, and the diaper bag down the stairs.
Salina stood to meet him and took the diaper bag from him before leading him out the front door and to her car. After she unlocked it JC leaned in and buckled the sleeping child in and Salina put the bag on the front seat. JC walked her around to the driver’s seat and opened the door for her.
“Be careful.” He said. “And call me when you get home.”
She nodded and pulled his head down to kiss him one more time before she left. When they pulled away they were both breathless and Salina slowly got in her car. JC closed the door and walked to the front door as he watched her pull away.
*********************************************************
Salina’s eyebrows furrowed as she watched the five men on the television in her office goof off and joke. When the camera focused on her boyfriend she raised her eyebrows at the short hair he had back when the video came out. She was almost about to laugh at Chris’ braids when there was a knock on her door. She looked at the clock on her computer and realized that it was probably JC coming to pick her up.
“Come in!” She called as she turned her attention back to the screen so that she could quickly finish watching the video before she had to leave.
JC frowned as he walked toward her. “What are you….oh no! Turn it off, babe!” He yelled covering his face.
Salina laughed. “I can’t I need to watch it so I can learn more about you guys.”
“Well, trust me you’re not going to learn a whole lot from...” He picked up the box and read it. “NSync In the Mix that you don’t know already.”
“No, you’re different now. All of you.” She said standing up and walking over to switch off the television before walking to him. “You have big hair now.” She joked fluffing his hair with her hands then wrapping her arms around his neck.
He pouted. “Aww…I thought you like my hair.”
“I do.” She said running her fingers through it and standing on her toes to kiss him.
JC looked at his watch. “We need to get going. Where’s Nessa?” He asked looking around the office.
“She’s at day care.” Salina said stepping away from him to pull on her sweater and leading him out of the office.
“Day Care?”
”Yeah. She can’t keep coming with me to work everyday.”
“Why not? She was the only reason I came to see you.” He said opening the car door for her.
“Haha.” She dryly stated and waited for him to climb into the driver’s seat. “She needed to be around other kids anyway. Being around adults all the time isn’t healthy for her.” She sighed looking out the window.
“Aww…is mommy missing her baby?” Salina turned to him with tears glazing her eyes and nodded pathetically. JC chuckled and grabbed her hand pulling it to rest on his thigh. “I’m sorry, sweetie, I didn’t mean to make you cry. I’m sure it’ll get easier for you. She’s not grown yet, babe.”
She smiled at him and changed the subject. “Are you nervous about meeting my family?”
JC shook his head. “Naw. Parents love me.”
Salina smiled and raised her eyebrows but decided not to say anything.
When they arrived at the airport they headed for the baggage claim where they were to meet her parents. After waiting about 15 minutes for them, Salina spotted her mother leading the group toward them. As soon as Salina had seen them she threw her purse to JC and took off towards the group and launched herself onto her brother though JC wasn’t sure which one it was. He smiled at the family all gathering around his girlfriend as he began walking towards them.
“Mama!” Salina smiled as she hugged her mother tightly. “I missed you.”
“Y mi tambien, mi hija.” Just then her mother noticed JC standing by watching them. “And this must be...uh…Joshua?”
”Oh, yeah. You guys, this is my boyfriend, Josh.” She said to her family while smiling at JC. “JC this is my mom, my dad, my brother Robert and my brother Juan.”
“It’s nice to meet you all.” JC smiled, but his smile wavered as the only one who smiled back at him was Salina’s mother.
Salina stifled her laugh as she led the group over to where the bags were beginning to come out. JC, Robert and her father lifted all the bags off of the conveyor belt.
“You didn’t tell me he was a gringo.” Juan whispered.
Salina frowned at Juan and raised her eyebrows. “Does it matter?”
“Not to me.” Juan said with an amused smile on his face as he motioned for her to look to where JC was unsuccessfully trying to make conversation with her father.
She smiled back at her brother and pulled him toward the exit. “Come on.”
Once they were in the car, the conversation seemed to halt, so Juan and Robert thought they would spark up something.
“So, Josh, where are you from?”
JC looked at Juan from the rearview mirror before answering to be sure that Salina’s brother was actually speaking to him. “Uh…I’m from Maryland originally, but I’ve lived here in Orlando since I was 13.”
“And how old are you now?”
“I’m 28.”
Salina locked eyes with JC and rolled her eyes. “Josh, is in the group that I’m doing publicity for.”
“He’s your boss?!” Robert asked. “Dude, that’s gotta be great!” He said hitting JC on the shoulder lightly.
JC chuckled lightly into his hand as he continued to drive.
“Por favor, Roberto, leave him alone!” Salina turned to face her brother with a stern expression.
“English or Spanish….not both.” Her father spoke for the first time.
“Sorry. Anyway, Josh, we need to go pick up Vanessa.” She spoke softly as her family broke into their own conversations.
“Ok, how do I get there?”
“Get off on 31st and make a right onto Olympic.”
“Okay.” He said merging into the right-hand lane. As he was getting off the freeway he subtly reached over, grabbed Salina’s hand and lifted it to his lips before setting both their hands between them on the center console.
Well, JC thought it was subtle, but Salina’s mother had seen the whole thing and was now smiling slightly at the two even though she knew what her husband was going to say to her as soon as they were in privacy.
When JC pulled into the day care center, Salina turned around and spoke to her family. “Ok, JC and I are going to go in and get Vanessa. You guys,
decide where you want to go to dinner okay?”
“No vamos a salir para la cena, yo cocinaremos.” Her father responded.
“Daddy, I don’t have food at my apartment for you to cook.”
“Then we can stop at the grocery store. Unless, of course, Joshua minds stopping by the store.”
“No, I”“ JC started but Salina interrupted him.
“Papa, él es famoso. No puede ir a un mercado.”
“Well, he does not have to go. He can drop us off and we can go.”
“He’s staying for dinner. I already asked him to.”
“Eso está muy bien. Juan, Roberto, JC y Vanessa permanecerá casero y tu, su madre y yo vayamos a hacer compras.”
Salina rolled her eyes and looked at a very confused JC. “Come on.” She said before getting out of the car. JC followed her lead and held the door to the day care center open for her as they walked inside.
“Why’d you do that?” Maria asked.
“What?” Marco asked.
“You made her mad. The least you could do is try to be nice to her boyfriend.”
“Yeah, dad, he seems like a nice guy.” Juan offered
“He’s a gringo.” Marco grunted.
“So that makes him a terrible person? You are going to be nice to him whether you like it or not.” She told him with a stern voice. “And from now on, no Spanish around Joshua unless you’re planning on translating for him. The poor boy looked confused.” She sympathized.
Her husband gave her a weird look. “Why are you rooting for him so much?”
Maria pointed out the window at the couple who were now exiting the building with Salina’s daughter. JC holding the door open for Salina with one arm as he held Vanessa in his arm with the other. “Because look at how much they care for each other.”
Salina opened the door and handed Vanessa to her mother so that she could spend sometime with her grandparents during the car ride home and hopefully take some attention off of JC and herself.
“Here, mi hija, look abuela and abuelo.” She cooed at her daughter before closing the door and getting in the front seat beside JC, she turned to her dad before he could speak. “I know, English or Spanish.” She said before turning back and giving JC a nod.
“Ok, here we go.” JC said backing out of the parking space and heading towards WEG so that they could pick up Salina’s car before they headed back to Salina’s apartment. Salina, her mother and father all rode in her car while JC sat with her brothers and daughters. When he pulled into the extra space that came with Salina’s apartment that he had gotten used to parking in the entire family unloaded the car and carried their luggage upstairs to Salina’s apartment.
“Ok, mom, dad, you’re staying in my room. Juan, Rob, you’re on the couch and I’ll sleep in Vanessa’s room.” Salina directed everyone to their sleeping areas. “You guys can put your stuff in Vanessa or my room, it doesn’t matter.” She said to her brothers.
“What are you gonna sleep on in Nessa’s room?” Her mother asked.
“Oh, JC has an air mattress thingy, he’s gonna bring over for me later.”
Marco grunted as he hauled his wife and his bags off towards Salina’s room. “What? What did I say now?” Salina looked toward her mother.
“I bet he thought you meant JC was staying with you here. Both of you on the air mattress.”
“NO!” JC quickly stepped in. “No, no, no…That’s not what she meant. Go tell him that’s not what you meant.” He said to Salina.
“Joshua, calm down. I’ll go talk to him. Then he and I will go shopping for dinner. Do you mind if we take Vanessa with us?” Maria asked.
Salina sighed. “No, just don’t buy her anything sweet especially if she reaches for it.” Salina’s mother nodded and left the room. Salina looked into her living room where her brothers had already placed themselves in front of the television with Vanessa. “What was that you said about parents loving you?” She smirked at JC who made a face at her.
“They usually do, your dad’s a tough one to crack.” He said before sitting down in her large overstuffed chair and pulling her down to sit on his lap. “So what were you arguing about in the car?”
“Huh?” She was confused. He’d been in the car at the same time she was.
“I don’t speak Spanish.”
”Oh.” She laughed. “Sorry, I argue better in Spanish than in English, so I always fight with him in Spanish. Anyway, I just told him that you’re famous and you can’t go to the store. So he said that you could drop us off and we’d go, but I reminded him that you are staying for dinner. And he decided that my parents and I would go shopping, but I realized that that won’t work either.”
“Why not?” He said resting his head on her shoulder.
She looked at him seriously. “Because leaving you with my brothers is almost as bad as leaving you with my father.”
“Oh my god, we’re seeing other people.” He said rolling his eyes.
Salina laughed. “I wouldn’t blame you.”
He looked at her. “You’re too good to give up though.” He said before leaning in to kiss her, but just then her parents walked in and he almost dumped her on the floor he stood up so fast.
Maria gave him a knowing smile as she walked over and picked up Vanessa. “Well, we’re gonna go to the store. Where’s the closest one, mi hija?”
Salina gave her parents the directions to the store and the keys to her car and they left shortly after that with Vanessa in tow. As soon as they were gone Salina took the opportunity to drag her boyfriend to her room to be alone with him for at least five seconds.
Once the door was closed, Salina pounced on him and dragged him towards the bed while kissing him feverishly.
“Salina”wait”Salina.” He said between kisses.
“What?” She asked exasperated.
“Your two older brothers are right down the hall. And it’s not a very long hall.”
“So?”
“SO? I know if some guy I’d just met went into a closed bedroom with my sister, I’d be pissed.”
“They don’t care.” Salina shook her head and pulled him back down on top of her. When JC stopped her again she sighed and gave up. “Just one last kiss?” She asked pathetically.
He smiled and gave in to her and gave a very quick peck on the lips then jumped up and headed for the door.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “That’s so not what I meant.” She said yanking the door open and stomping down the hall to sit in the living room with her siblings.
Robert looked at his watch. “Well, that was quick.” He said causing Juan to laugh and JC to blush, but Salina didn’t answer and instead took the pillow from behind her and smacked her brother upside the head with it.
Chapter 9 by jamiebrown232000
Author's Notes:
Thanks so much for the reviews!! Keep em coming! Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Later that night…
The family had sat down that evening and had a large meal, talking about all the things that had been happening in their lives. After dinner Salina’s father decided he wasn’t feeling well and he went to lie down in her bedroom. Her brothers went into the living room to watch football on TV and JC went back to his house to get Salina his air mattress. That left Salina, Maria and Vanessa to clean up the kitchen and talk.
“So, when did you guys meet?” Maria asked as they were washing the dishes.
“I already told you he’s my boss…kind of.”
“Yes, but when, where, mi hija, come on give me the scoop.”
Salina laughed at her mom. “Um…my first day at work, Vanessa wandered off and he found her.”
“You take Nessa to work with you?”
”I used to, but not anymore. After that he and Nessa got really attached and he would stop by the office, then he started stopping by here and I don’t know we just started to get feelings for each other.” She paused. “Nessa loves him.” She said looking at the little girl sitting in the middle of the floor chewing on a cookie.
“He seems like a sweet guy. You’re lucky.” Maria offered her blessing.
Salina smiled back at her. “I know. Do you want some tea, mom?”
“Yes, please.”
The two women sat at the table and drank their tea and by the time that JC showed up with Justin and Chris in tow they were laughing out loud.
“Babe!” JC called as he opened the door to the apartment. “She really needs to start locking this door.”
Salina walked out of the kitchen and laughed at the three men struggling to get the air mattress through the door. “Uh….guys why didn’t you just deflate it?” She asked as her brothers hurried to help.
“Cause this genius over here forgot how to deflate it quickly.” Chris answered her with a huff.
“Yeah, God forbid JC keep the directions to anything.” Justin said.
“Alright, alright. I’m sorry.” JC said as he lead the way into Vanessa’s bedroom. When the 5 men reappeared Salina introduced Justin and Chris to her family and JC told her that they were getting ready to head out to a club, her brothers actually decided to join them and Justin and Juan were engaged in an interesting basketball conversation as they headed out of the door. She followed them out and said goodbye to JC as Justin, Chris, Juan and Rob waited by the elevator.
“I’ll call you tomorrow. Maybe we can get your parents to baby-sit so we can go out before I leave.”
Salina nodded. “Okay, have fun. No hooking up with any girls.” She said sternly though her eyes were smiling.
“Damn! You ruined my plan.” He smiled before leaning in to kiss her. “Bye, baby.”
“Bye.” She said as she watched him walk down the hall before he disappeared into the elevator.
The next day Salina left her daughter at home with her parents while she headed to work. Without the interruptions of Vanessa, JC or having to leave to pick up family members she got more work done than she normally did in an entire week. She had updated every guy’s file; set up appearances for JC, Justin and Lance; and, phoned the news editor of US weekly to see if it was at all possible to get their photographers to back off Justin for a little bit. She was almost done with her workload when her new assistant, Jennifer, spoke on the intercom.
“Ms. Cortez, I have Janet Jackson’s rep on hold for you. Do you want to take the call?”
Salina immediately sat up in her chair and told Jennifer to put the call through she composed herself and picked up her phone when it rang. “Salina Cortez.” She said professionally.
“Hi, Salina, this is Jeff Blum here, Janet Jackson’s rep.”
“Yes, hi Jeff, how can I help you?”
”Well, I just wanted to tell you that Janet had such a great time working on Justin’s album in 2002.”
Salina squinted her eyes, confused. “Well, it has always been a dream of Justin’s to work with such an esteemed artist as Janet Jackson…however, I have a feeling you have something else you want to run by me.”
“Janet has a new album coming out and it hasn’t gotten the amount of publicity we were hoping for. She was recently requested to perform for the Super Bowl and she thought it would be a great idea to have Justin come on as her surprise guest.”
”Uh-huh…well, what did she have in mind?”
”Well, I don’t really know, I was hoping that the two of them could get together to discuss all of that.”
“Jeff, you know that you don’t need my permission on this. Janet could have called Justin herself and he would be her willing slave.” Salina said starting to put her things away.
Jeff laughed at her. “I know, but in this case you’ll need to sign a contract with MTV, the NFL and CBS. Just legal things you understand?”
“Yeah, well, I will call Justin right away and let him know and when he says yes I’ll call up the companies. Can you leave all the contact information with my secretary?”
“Sure thing, Salina. And thanks a lot for doing this, it’ll really boost our sales.”
”Not a problem.” Salina said before she hung up.
Just as she was about to shut her computer off for the day she realized what he had just said. “Sales? Oh no, JC!”
In all the excitement about Janet Jackson, Salina forgot that the person who she was trying to publicize was JC and putting Justin in the spotlight for the Super Bowl would put more attention on him than he really needed right now. But she had already promised Janet’s camp that she’d look into it so she would just do what she had to to get JC as much publicity as possible. Oh well, she couldn’t worry about that right now, she had to call Justin. She quickly dialed his number and leaned back in her chair.
“Well, if it isn’t my favorite publicist!” Justin answered.
“How did you know that it was me?” She asked smiling.
“Caller ID.”
”I rank high enough on your list of people to be in your phone?”
“Yes, my dear, now what can I do for you?”
“How much do you love me?” She asked him as Jennifer walked in and handed her a package.
”Is this one of those womanly trick questions?”
Salina rolled her eyes. “Nevermind. What are you doing on February 1st?”
“Uh…I don’t know, why?”
“Cause Janet Jackson wants to know if you’ll perform at the Superbowl Halftime Show with her.” She said opening the package and pulling out a booklet with a post-it on the front asking her to pass the booklet on to Justin. She took the post-it off and read the front cover.
”Are you shitting me?!” He asked excitedly.
“No, I don’t often ‘shit’ people, Justin. Do you want me to tell them yes?” She asked distractedly.
“Duh! Why’d you even call me, you know I was gonna say yes.”
“Yeah, I know. Hey, I got another movie script here for you, do you want me to send it to you?”
“What’s it called?”
Salina looked at the title. “Uh…Edison.”
“Yeah, why not I’ve got nothing better to do with my time. Hey, when is JC’s album coming out?”
Salina sighed as she turned her computer back on because she was now going to have to get in touch with MTV, the NFL and CBS. “In March.”
”It got pushed back?”
”Yep.”
“Why?”
”You’d have to ask him, he’s the one that pushed it back.”
“Yeah, but you guys don’t, ya know, talk about that stuff?”
”Huh?” She said as she looked through her database for her contacts at the companies which hopefully Jennifer had added to their list.
“You know…like pillow talk or something or even when you're alone?”
Salina paused in her search. “We’ve only been dating for like three days. We haven’t had all that much alone time what with my family and Vanessa.”
“Oh.” He said and then spoke to someone on his end of the conversation. “Hey, my girlfriend just got here, so I need to go, but…uh…have C give me a call, k?”
”Sure, Justin.” She replied.
“And Salina?”
”Yes, Justin?”
”I’m sorry about just assuming earlier.”
Salina smiled. “It’s okay, Justin.” They said their goodbyes and hung up. In the next hour and a half Salina made all of the necessary phone calls for Justin to be added to the set list for the Superbowl half time show and had also arranged for JC to be the halftime entertainment for the ProBowl the following week. He was supposed to make an appearance at the Grammy’s to promote his album and to show that the other members of NSync supported Justin, but Salina knew that a performance would help his cause a lot more than just an appearance so she pulled him from the Grammy’s. She would deal with the fans’ backlash regarding none of Justin’s bandmates being there when she got to it. By the end of the day she was drained and tiredly locked her office and waved goodbye to Jennifer.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Jenn.”
”Okay, get some rest!”
“I’m gonna try believe me.” She said as she walked out of the office and across the parking lot to her car. She braved the light traffic and made it home to her apartment in 30 minutes where she was surprised to see JC’s car parked in what was becoming his spot. If she had the energy she would have been worried about what was going on inside but she didn’t so she simply slowly trudged up the stairs to her apartment and let herself in. When she was inside her eyes widened at the sight. In the kitchen to her left her father, mother and daughter were all in the kitchen cooking happily and to her right her boyfriend and brothers were sitting on her couch watching a football game, beers in hand. No one seemed to notice her as she entered and put down her stuff until Vanessa looked up.
“Mama!” She screamed causing her mother, father and boyfriend to look towards her. Vanessa quickly ran over to her mother to be picked up.
“Hey, mi hija. How are you? Oh, I missed you today.” She said giving Vanessa a kiss. When she looked up JC was standing in front of her patiently awaiting his turn. Salina just looked at him confused as if to ask why he was all of a sudden fitting in with her family.
JC frowned. “I don’t get a kiss too?”
”Not until you tell me why it looks like I’ve entered the twilight zone.” She said shifting Vanessa to her other hip.
“Huh?”
“What is going on here? My parents cooking a meal politely…you with my brothers watching football and drinking beer? Not the picture I was expecting to come home to.”
”Well, I don’t really know. Your family has been super nice to me since I got here.” He leaned in and
whispered. “Even your dad.”
Salina raised her eyebrows at him then looked around at her family who were enjoying themselves, but she decided not to ruin a good thing. She shifted her daughter on her hip before giving JC a quick peck on the lips. He smiled contently and went to sit back down on the couch. Salina set Vanessa down and made her way into the kitchen.
“What are you cooking, dad?” She said picking up a slice of red bell pepper and popping it into her mouth. Vanessa had followed her into the kitchen and was whining, wanting to be picked up. Salina tried not to pay attention, however, because she had decided to start showing Vanessa that whining wouldn’t get her everything she wanted.
“Just you wait and see. It’s going to be fantastic, hmm?!”
Salina nodded and began chatting with her mother until Vanessa let out a loud shriek and began to cry. Everyone looked down at Vanessa and Salina finally relented and picked her up. She didn’t stop crying, however, so Salina took Vanessa into her room and tried to calm her down. She softly swayed back and forth with Vanessa in her arms as she quietly hummed to her. JC had been standing in the doorway watching, but quietly stepped up to Salina and wrapped his arms around both of them and swayed with them. Salina rested her head on his chest and sighed.
“How was work today?” JC asked.
“Interesting.” She answered.
JC’s eyebrows furrowed. “Why? Did Justin do something again?” He rolled his eyes.
“No. Janet Jackson’s rep actually called me about having Justin appear on the halftime Superbowl show with her.”
“Really?”
“Mm-hmm. And of course he said yes, so I had to call around and set that up. While I was calling I mentioned your album debut and actually managed to make you the halftime entertainment for the Pro Bowl the following weekend.”
“I thought I was gonna go to the Grammy’s with Justin.” He pouted.
“It’ll be better for you to do this. More publicity.”
”If you say so.”
”I do.” She looked up at him.
“Ok.” He said leaning down to kiss her. “Do you wanna go to dinner with me tomorrow night?”
Salina smiled at him shyly. “Like a date-date?”
He chuckled. “Yeah…a date-date. Just you and me. Your mom said she’d watch Vanessa. I even asked your daddy for permission.”
”I’m not 16, you don’t need permission to go out with me.”
”Well, regardless it’s done. So will you go?” He asked quietly as he rested his head on hers.
“Of course. Where we goin?”
“I cant tell ya. Just be ready by 7, kay?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Alright. I’m going back out here with your brothers.”
”Alright.” She said as he stepped through the door to leave her to have time with her daughter.
Chapter 10 by jamiebrown232000
Author's Notes:
Two chapters in one day! Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Salina spent the entire next day anxious about her date with JC although she wasn’t entirely sure why. She had technically been with him for a few days, but never had the two of them gone out alone together and simply had time to themselves without worrying about crying babies or family members or work.
They were simply going to enjoy each other’s company. So by the time Salina got home from work that evening it was already 6 and she had to rush to get ready for her date.
Her mother helped her choose something to wear and do her hair as she rushed around the house.
Her father and brothers had gone to a local sportsbar with Juan’s new best friend Justin Timberlake to watch a football game and be guys, so she was leaving her daughter in only her mother’s care.
“Ok, how do I look, mi hija?” Salina turned to the little girl sitting on the bed who giggled and clapped her hands. “Good.” She said just as she heard the doorbell ring.
She picked up Vanessa and her purse and headed to the living room wear JC was laughing with her mom. When she entered he immediately turned to her and grinned.
“There’s my two favorite girls!” He said lifting Vanessa from Salina’s arms and giving her a kiss before turning to Salina. “You look beautiful, hun.” He said as she took in her knee length spaghetti-strap plain black dress.
“So do you.” She replied as she kissed him and took the rose that he held out to her. Her mother took that moment to interrupt.
“Ok, so let me have these.” She said taking Vanessa from JC and the rose from Salina. “I’ll put this in a vase so that you two can get going.”
Salina nodded as she kissed Vanessa’s cheek. “Bye-bye, baby. Mommy will see you tomorrow when you wake up. I love you.” She said as JC got her coat off of the coat hangar and helped her into it. JC said goodbye to Salina’s mother and daughter and with one last look at her daughter Salina walked out the door with JC following behind her. Once they were settled in the car and on the rode, Salina broke their silence.
“So where’re we going?”
”It’s a seafood restaurant on the pier. It’s called Bonefish Grill.”
”The pier? How far is that from here?”
”About 45 minutes. We’re having a late dinner.”
”Oh I see.” Salina said smiling. “What time is your flight on Friday?”
“11, I think.”
“You think?”
“Don’t worry. I have the confirmation sheet at home. I wont miss my flight, Miss Publicist.”
“I wasn’t going to say that.”
“Yes, you were.” He said turning to smile at her quickly. “And while we’re on that subject, no shoptalk tonight, okay? It’s just us.”
Salina agreed while grinning at him like a fool.
They pulled up to the restaurant about 30 minutes later and JC helped Salina out of the car before giving the valet his keys. He took her hand and led her into the building. The waiter seated them in a back corner immediately upon hearing JC’s name although there was a long line of people waiting for tables.
“Did you have a reservation?” Salina asked after they had sat down and were handed menus.
He shook his head. “No.”
She smirked at him. “Is that one of the perks of being JC Chasez, you get immediate seating.”
He grinned evilly. “Actually, I told him I was with Salina Cortez and he seated us immediately.”
She rolled her eyes while smiling. “Yeah, right.”
Just then their waitress walked up and blushed cutely as she noticed that she would be waiting on a popstar all night. “Hi, my name’s Marcy I’ll be your server tonight. Would you like anything to drink or an appetizer to start you off tonight?”
JC grinned at her, causing her to blush even more. “Could you bring us a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc please and do you want an appetizer baby?”
“Uh…let’s try the Coconut Crispy Shrimp.”
“Ok, I’ll be right back.” Jen said quickly and JC grinned at her again as she hurriedly left the table.
“That wasn’t nice, Joshua.” Salina chided her boyfriend.
“What?” He asked innocently.
“You were making that girl uncomfortable on purpose.”
“It’s fun!”
Salina shook her head at him, but let it go. “So, do you bring all your girls here?”
”Actually, I’ve never been here before. My friend Carlos told me about this place, so there.” He said as if he had put her in her place.
“The guy who is helping to manage you for your album.”
“Yeah, Johnny’s kinda busy with Justin and some of his other acts so I just asked Carlos to manage me.”
“Sounds good. When do I get to hear the album?”
”You haven’t heard it yet?” Salina shook her head. “Well. I’ll have to get you a copy of it. Hey, you’re tricky you turned the conversation to work!”
She laughed. “I didn’t mean to I promise.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you decide what you want?”
“Yeah, I’m gonna get the Grouper Piccata with mashed potatoes. What about you?”
“I am going to get the…Pistachio Parmesan Crusted Rainbow Trout with Angel Hair Marinara.”
Salina nodded as Jen walked back to them looking slightly more confident. She poured the two of them glasses of wine and set the bottle on the table for them before speaking more calmly. “Are you two ready to order?”
The two of the placed their order with the young server who promised to bring out their appetizer soon before going back to their conversation.
“So how did Vanessa like Day Care?”
”Oh, she didn’t cry or anything when I dropped her off. She went straight toward the little doll house and never looked back at me.”
“I’m sure she missed you, baby.” Salina nodded. “When is she going back?”
“I’m gonna take her tomorrow so my family can go sight-seeing without the burden of a baby on their hands.”
“Are you going to go with them?”
She shook at her head. “I’ve gotta work.” She said as Jen brought their appetizer and they both began to dig in.
“Take the day off.” She gave him a look that clearly said ‘yeah right’. “I’m your boss and I’m telling you to take the day off.”
“See, now when you say it like that, it makes me feel like Monica Lewinsky or something. I’m dating my boss…yuck!”
“That’s what you told your family.”
“For lack of a better way to explain it. But technically you’re not my boss cause you cant fire me and you don’t pay me. I’m your boss cause I tell you what to do, so there.” She said mocking the phrase he had used earlier.
JC laughed at her while still eating. “Whatever you say, boss lady.”
“How long are you gonna be in New York?” She asked him as he reached for her hand.
“I don’t know. A few days. I’m gonna do my Christmas shopping while I’m there. By the way, what should I get Nessa?”
”I don’t know, but don’t you dare buy a whole bunch of things to spoil her.” She said sternly.
“But I want to spoil her. My sister is too old to spoil and everyone spoils Brianna, Nessa’s all mine!” He said excitedly.
“She doesn’t need to be spoiled.” Salina responded as their food was set in front of them.
They ate quietly for a few minutes before JC spoke again. “You know, if you’re worried that I’ll spoil her and not you, you don’t need to. I’ll spoil you too baby.” He said bringing her hand to his lips and kissing it with a gleam in his eyes.
“Neither one of us need to be spoiled, hun.” She said before offering him a bite of her fish which he accepted.
“It’s good.” He said before giving her a bite of his.
The couple spent the rest of the evening feeding each other dinner and then sharing a piece of cake for dessert before heading back to JC’s house considering it was only about 9:30. Once they got to JC’s, he let her borrow a pair of sweats and a shirt to change into so they could watch a movie comfortably. Salina lifted the shirt to her nose and smiled at the smell of JC just as he knocked on his bedroom door. He walked towards her with a few dvds in his hands. “Let’s watch it in here.” He suggested. She gave him a skeptical glance. “Come on, nothing’s gonna happen it’s just more comfortable in here than on the couch.”
“Okay.” Salina agreed as she plopped down on his bed. “What are we watching?”
“Bad Boys II. Have you seen it?” Salina shook her head. “Me neither, but Justin said it was good. He went to the premiere.” He said as he put the dvd into the player then grabbed for the remote.
“I bet it was good there.” JC chuckled as he joined her on the bed. It took them a minute to get comfortable but eventually they settled in. JC leaning against the headboard with pillows behind him and Salina lying next to him with her head on his chest. JC started the movie and turned the light off and the two of them watched the film together laughing and making comments and having the occasional quick make out session.
Salina rolled on top of JC as the credits rolled and hit the mute button on the remote. She gazed at her boyfriend. His beautiful blue eyes reflected by the light of the television. She leaned forward again to kiss him and he wrapped his arms around her. When she pulled away she grinned evilly, “You promised me a song the next time we were alone and we’re alone.”
JC groaned. “You remember that?” She nodded enthusiastically.
She gave him her best pout. “Please, baby, I’ve been
very, very good.”
“What if I don’t want you to be good? What if I want you to be bad?” He teased.
“I think I can do that.” She said as she started kissing along his jaw and down his neck.
He moaned as she did and whimpered when she pulled back. “So are you gonna sing or not?”
“What do you want me to sing to you?”
“One of the songs from your album.”
He sighed and sat up. “Ok.” He sat up slightly and sang the lyrics to a beautiful ballad he wrote called Build My World. Salina sat and listened quietly in awe of the raw talent and emotion that seeped from his lips. When he finished she placed her hand on his cheek.
“Aww baby are you lonely?”
He looked into her eyes and said seriously. “Not anymore.” He kissed her then deeply and passionately. A kiss full of meaning for the both of them and they were both very unhappy when she had to pull away to check the time. Knowing what she was thinking JC quickly spoke, “Stay with me. Don’t go home…please.”
“I have to.”
“No, you don’t. I already told your mom that you would just stay at my house.”
”JC!”
“What…come on, your mom doesn’t care.”
Salina sighed. “Fine.” She relented and he grinned at her while crawling under the covers and pulling her with him. He turned off the now blank TV screen and pulled her to him.
“Are you trying to seduce me?” She asked.
“Would it possible to do that?”
She shrugged. “Maybe.” He smiled at her through the dark and leaned down to kiss her sweetly.
Salina wrapped her arms around his neck and he shifted so that he was lying partially on top of her. Salina sighed as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her as close to him as possible as he continued to kiss her.
Chapter 11 by jamiebrown232000
Author's Notes:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
The alarm went off the next morning at 6 am signaling for Salina to get up for work. She reached over and turned it off before turning to wake her boyfriend.
“Josh,” She said rolling on top of him and fingering his cheek.
He groaned and stretched a little before letting out a small smile. “Hey, it’s early. Go back to sleep”
Salina smirked. “I can’t. I have to go home so I can get ready for work.”
“So you couldn’t have left a note?” He said finally looking at her.
“You have to take me cause I don’t have a car.” He nodded in response while yawning. “I’m gonna take a shower. You get up!” She said before she climbed out of the bed and walked into the bathroom.
JC laid in bed for the next ten minutes remembering all of the events of the previous night. He smiled at the memories and for a moment considered trying to convince her to stay in with him today but decided that that would be pushing his luck.
When he heard her turn off the shower he got out of bed and put on a t-shirt and some sweats. His head turned when he found her dripping wet, picking up her clothes from where she’d left them the night before when she changed into JC’s sweats, covered in only a towel.
JC’s breath caught in his throat as she bent over to retrieve her bra giving him a perfect view of her backside. He groaned and she turned to him with her eyebrows raised.
“Can I help you?” She asked.
He shook his head slowly. “I’m good, thanks.” She smirked and walked back into the bathroom to dress. He went downstairs and put on some coffee then went back upstairs to brush his teeth and wash his face. When he got back to his room Salina was putting on her shoes.
“Hey, there’s coffee brewing downstairs if you want some. The mugs are in the cabinet next to the fridge.” He said while walking into the bathroom and picking up his toothbrush. He looked at it for a second and turned to find her standing in the doorway. “Did you use my toothbrush?”
She nodded shyly but he shrugged and stuck it in his mouth as he got out his toothpaste. Salina waited for him to finish brushing his teeth and washing his face before she approached him. She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a firm kiss on the lips.
“Coffee?” She asked. He nodded and she led him out of the door down to the kitchen where she poured both of them coffee as he got out the cream and sugar. They took their coffee with them as they got into the car and JC drove them to Salina’s apartment.
“So what are you doing today?” Salina asked him.
“Helping my brother move into his apartment and, ugh, packing.” He said like it was the worst thing in the world.
“Well, you don’t need to pack that much do you? You’re only going to be gone for a few days.”
“I know but I just hate packing in general, ya know?” She nodded at him.
“By the way, you’re leaving at 8 am tomorrow.”
“How do you know?”
”I called Kristi while you were downstairs and she told me. I figured if I didn’t you would have missed your flight.”
“No, I wouldn’t have. Kristi is organized like you, she calls me every time I have to go somewhere to remind me of the time. Just like you, honey.”
She smiled at him as they parked and they got out of the car. They walked up to her apartment silently and entered the home to find Salina’s mother sitting at the table in the dining room looking quite amused with how uncomfortable they became when they saw her there.
“Hi mama.” Salina said trying to stay quiet as Salina’s brothers were still sleeping in the living room.
“Hi.” She said laughing lightly. “Hi Josh.”
“Hi Mrs. Cortez.” JC said ushering Salina into the apartment more so that he could close the door.
“Okay, I have to go change.” JC looked at Salina with eyes that clearly begged her not to leave him alone with her mom. But she just winked at him devilishly before heading to her room to quickly find something to dress in before her dad woke up to find her and JC there to create more tension.
“Josh, are you hungry, mi hijo?”
“Uh…no…that’s okay.”
“Here, sit, I’ll make you something to eat before you leave.”
JC smiled politely and sat down at the table. Maria had just begun to cook the food when they heard jabbering coming out of the baby monitor. Maria’s hands were full so she asked JC to go and get Vanessa up for her.
JC quietly walked to Vanessa’s room to see the little girl standing up in her crib “talking” to her Tebby who had dropped over the side.
“Hey, sweetie.” He said causing Vanessa to look up at him and smile.
“C?”
“That’s me, cutie.” He lifted her out of the crib and immediately smelled something foul. “Eww. Did you go do-do?”
Vanessa just giggled at him. “Yeah, you won’t think it’s funny when you have to change someone later on, huh?” He looked around and placed the baby on the changing table. “We can do this without your mommy.” He said as he pulled off her nightclothes and then took off her diaper. It took him a while to locate everything and figure out how to use it all but he finished and even picked out a cute little outfit for her to wear. However, that’s as far as he got because he couldn’t figure out how to snap the outfit together.
So he carried the baby out into the living room where everyone had gathered having smelled the food cooking and over to Salina. “Okay, I give up. Is there a trick to these snappy-things?”
Salina looked at him strangely as he sat down next to her with Vanessa in his lap. “Yeah, it’s really difficult. Watch.” She said doing it with one hand and shaking her head before going back to one of the many articles she had been reading about the guys in order to learn more about their past and how they answered questions. She had made it through most of their appearances and by no means was planning on reading every one of their articles, but wanted some background on them.
“Do you realize that you guys give the same answers for every interview?”
JC shrugged. “They ask the same questions in every interview.” He said handing Vanessa to Juan who had been asking for her and started to eat his food. “Change the question and we’ll change the answer.”
Salina nodded accepting his answer before standing up to pour herself another cup of coffee. She was going to be late to work but she didn’t care. As she sat back down JC took notice of her outfit.
“Babe, how many different outfits do you have?”
”What do you mean?”
”Every time I see you, you’re in a different one.”
“You think that’s bad? You should see her pile of shoes.” Juan remarked.
JC looked under the table at her feet as he chewed. “Come to think of it, I’ve never seen those shoes before.”
Salina just shrugged and kept drinking her coffee. JC grinned at her slyly. “Are you a shopaholic?”
“Yes.” She said seriously. “It’s my one character flaw.”
Robert coughed. “One?”
Salina threw him a glare as she walked over to her mother and father and kissed them each goodbye before she lifted Vanessa into her arms while balancing her bag on the other. She then turned to JC who was putting his plate in the dishwasher. “You leaving?”
“Yeah, I’ll walk you out.” JC said goodbye to her family who all bid him a farewell and Salina’s mom walked over to him.
“Have a safe flight, Josh.” She said giving him a hug shocking both JC and Salina’s father. JC then followed Salina out the door and took Vanessa from her arms. As they walked downstairs and out to Salina’s car, she listened to him say goodbye to her daughter.
“You bye?” Vanessa asked looking at him sadly.
“Yeah, sweetie, but I’ll be back in a few days.”
“’Kay.” He kissed her cheek as they reached the car.
“Be good for your mommy.”
”Kay.”
”Take care of her and make sure she doesn’t miss me too much.” Salina rolled her eyes from where she was putting her bag in the backseat before she turned to take Vanessa from him so that she could put her in her carseat. JC sighed as he watched her and ran his fingers through his hair when she finally turned to him she gave him a look.
“This is pathetic. We’ll see you in a few days. You’ll be fine. We’ll be fine.” She assured him as they walked to the driver’s side of the car.
“I know.” He said. “I’ll miss you.”
”I’ll miss you too, honey.”
JC leaned down to give her a long kiss before she opened the car door and got in. He told her and Vanessa goodbye one more time before kissing her and shutting her door so that she could be on her way. JC watched her car pull out of her spot and out of the parking lot before heading towards his own car.
“Mama?” Vanessa called from the backseat.
Salina sighed. “Yes, sweetie?”
”C, bye.”
Salina smiled. “Yeah. He’ll be back.”
“Yeah.” Vanessa said before resting her head back onto the carseat.
Chapter 12 by jamiebrown232000
Author's Notes:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Salina’s day at work went by slower than most as she had finished most of her work the day before and she decided to take off early since she was simply sitting at her desk doing nothing anyway.
Hmm, she said to herself as she locked her office, Came in late and I’m leaving early. She walked up to Jennifer’s desk and noticed the girl playing solitaire, obviously as bored as Salina.
“Okay, Jenn, let’s get out of here.” Salina said checking her watch to see it was only 2 o’clock.
Jennifer’s eyes lit up. “Really?”
Salina smiled. “Really. You wanna go to lunch? My treat.”
“Sure, yeah. That’d be great. How about that BJ’s around the corner?”
”Sounds good. I’ll meet you there in a few.”
“Okay.”
Salina walked into the parking lot and had just gotten situated in her car when her phone ring and she pulled it out.
“Hello?” She asked not bothering to check who it was.
“Hey, babe.”
“Hey. What are you doing?” She said as she started the car and pulled out of the parking lot.
”Helping Tyler move his shit. He says ‘hi’ by the way.”
”Hi Tyler.” Salina said. “How’s the moving going?”
”It sucks. Next time I’ll just hire movers for him. So, what’re you doing? I called you at work, but no answer.”
”Jenn and I are going to lunch at BJ’s.”
“Oh really? Can I come?”
“Uh--I think this is going to be a females only lunch, hun.” She said pulling into the BJ’s parking lot.
“Awww.”
“Don’t whine. Besides you still need to pack.”
“Ok, ok. Call me later?”
”Sure.”
”Bye, baby.”
”Bye.” Salina put her phone in her purse before she opened her door and got out of her car, spotting Jennifer standing outside of the restaurant smoking a cigarette.
“You really should quit that, you know. It’s bad for you.” She said as she walked up to Jennifer.
“I should quit a lot of things.” Jenn replied putting out her cigarette before they walked into the restaurant and were immediately seated since it was past the lunch rush.
They were seated at a table near the back and glancing over their menus when Jenn remembered something.
“Oh my God, I forgot to tell you.” She said suddenly.
“What?” Salina looked at her concerned.
“At like 11 while you were in the bathroom, JC called for you.”
“Oh. Yeah, I talked to him already.” Salina said shrugging it off. Jenn looked at her with a curious smile.
“So…JC?”
Salina looked up. “What about him?”
”There’s something going on there, isn’t there?”
“What do you mean?” Salina nervously glanced at her menu before setting it down completely.
“You and JC? Come on, Salina, he’s like always around the office and calling for you and stuff. If there isn’t anything going on, you should definitely start something cause that boy’s got it bad for you.”
Salina blushed noticeably. “You think?” She asked shyly.
“Duh!”
Salina laughed. Jenn was definitely a California girl at heart. “Well, okay, just don’t tell anyone.” Jenn nodded excitedly. “We’ve been together for a few days. We went out last night.”
“Really?!” Jenn shrieked and Salina immediately shushed her. “Are you guys keeping it on the down low?”
”I don’t really know. We haven’t really talked about it. We haven’t talked about a lot of things. My family flew in from LA and we’ve been entertaining them all week. Plus, he leaves tomorrow for a TRL appearance in New York.” She said before a waitress came to take their orders.
“Jeez. You guys don’t get any time together, do ya?”
”Well, we went out to dinner last night just the two of us. Then we went back to his place to watch a movie and just be together.”
“So that’s why you were late today.” Jenn grinned evilly. “That’s my girl!”
“No.” Salina smiled. “I spent the night, but nothing happened. I just can’t even go there because of Vanessa. I can’t make that same mistake again. I mean I don’t regret it because she’s the best thing to ever happen to me, but I don’t want any more of my children conceived out of wedlock, you know?”
“Yeah, I know.” Jenn sighed dreamily. “But for JC, I could quickly give up my morals.”
Salina laughed and shook her head. “He was a perfect gentleman.”
“Are you gonna see him before he leaves tomorrow?”
”Probably not. I have to go get my daughter from day care and he still needs to pack.”
”So stop by real quick and give him a goodbye kiss. You know you want to.” Jenn teased as their food was set in front of them.
“We’ll see.” Salina said and they set about eating their food. As they ate they talked quietly and Jenn told Salina about her plans to get a job as a publicist as well after she finished graduate school.
“Well, it’s good that you’re working at WEG then. You’ll get lots of experience.”
”Actually, Johnny’s already said that I could have a position at WEG once I’m done with school.” Salina of course already knew that since it was her job to oversee Jenn and decide if she had what it takes to do the job, but she smiled and congratulated Jenn as if it were news to her.
The whole time she was eating lunch, Salina could not stop thinking about Jenn’s earlier words and by the time they had said goodbye and Salina was driving she had made up her mind.
She drove quickly to pick up Vanessa and phoned her brother to see what they were doing. Her brother informed her that they were still out and about and had decided to go out to dinner that night if she wanted to join them. Salina declined and told him she’d see them at home later.
“C, mama, C!” Vanessa said from her carseat.
Salina smiled. “Yeah, we’re gonna go see, JC.” Salina said as she got off of the freeway to go to his house.
Salina smiled as she pulled into his driveway and saw his car there. She got herself and Vanessa out hurriedly and was just about to ring his doorbell when he opened the door and looked at her in shock.
“Wha-What are you doing here?” He asked.
“I wanted to see you before you left and so did Nessa.” She said handing over Vanessa who was reaching for him.
“Hey sweetie.” He said to the grinning little girl who wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. “I’m gonna miss being able to breathe.” He choked out.
Salina made the little girl loosen her hold before she kissed JC. When he pulled back she looked at his hands where he was holding his keys and wallet. “Were you going somewhere?” she asked.
“Uh…my parents came out to see Ty’s apartment, so I was headed back over there.”
”Oh my God, I’m so sorry. Go ahead. I have the worst timing.” She said taking Vanessa back and walking towards her car.
JC frowned and scratched his head. “Sal, wait”I’m glad that you’re here. I am.” He said as he ran after her.
“No, I know. But you never get to be with your parents, so go. It’s fine, Josh, really.”
“Wait”come with me.” He asked quietly as he grabbed her arm to get her to face him.
“I’m sorry…what?” She said as she put Vanessa down to run around JC’s lawn.
“Come with me. Meet my family.”
“You’re kidding.”
” I met yours!” JC said smiling.
“You didn’t have to,” Salina said looking around him towards Vanessa, “Nessa, don’t pull the grass up.”
JC turned to look at Vanessa smiling innocently at her mother. “I know, I didn’t have to, I wanted to. But my family wants to meet you now.”
“What about Nessa?”
”She’ll come with us, Sal, I wasn’t gonna leave her here.” He said.
“No, I mean what are your parents gonna think of me when they see her? Nessa, mommy said don’t do that.”
“They’ll think you’re the best mother in the world, like I do.” JC sighed. “Did you-uh-did you know that I’m adopted?”
Salina looked up at him quickly. “What?”
“Yeah, my biological mother gave me up when I was 5. My mom has told me countless time how she has no idea how anyone could give their baby up. So she’ll be proud that you were selfless and have done everything in your power to give Vanessa the best life possible.”
Salina smiled weakly and wrapped her arms around him. He kissed the top of her head. “So what do you say?” He asked.
“Ok.” She said smiling up at him.
“Yeah?”
”Yeah.”
”Good, but I was just kidding though I was only going to get something to eat.” He laughed as Salina’s jaw dropped.
“Are you serious?” She asked and JC began to worry when she hadn’t cracked a smile. He nodded and she pushed away from him. “JC!” She said as she went to Vanessa. She busied herself with wiping Vanessa’s hands and face off as he spoke.
“What? I wanted to see what you’d say!”
”So why didn’t you just ask me?”
”Because you probably wouldn’t have given me an honest answer.” She glared at him. “Alright, I’m sorry. Anyways, I wasn’t kidding about all of it, my parents are here and I am adopted. I just wasn’t going over there.” JC sighed as he turned and saw a few of the teenage girls that lived in his neighborhood watching them from the gate at the end of his driveway. “Can we at least take this inside? Or leave or do something to get away from them?” JC asked her quietly while nodding his head in the direction of the girls causing them to shriek a little.
Salina turned to look back at the girls and smiled at the way they were acting before turning to walk towards his house.
JC turned to look at Vanessa who was looking back up at him with questioning eyes. “I think I just made your mommy mad, munchkin.” He said grabbing her hand and walking slowly with her into the house. He turned quickly to wave at the girls and noticed one of them had a camera.
He frowned. “Shit.”
“Shit.” Vanessa echoed.
“No, no, no. Don’t say that, sweetie. Your mommy will kill me.” JC kneeled down to her level. “That’s a bad word, ok? Don’t say it. No, no.”
“No, no?”
”Yes! Good. Say that! No, no.” JC stood up and nudged the little girl inside so that he could close the door. “Now, where’d your mommy go?”
Vanessa seemed to know the answer to that question instantly. “Mama! Mama! Mama!” She screamed as she toddled into the kitchen where Salina was standing at the refrigerator.
“What is it, mi hija?” She asked not looking back but reaching in to pull out sausage and setting it on the counter. JC looked at the counter and noticed that there was already pasta and pasta sauce sitting there.
He looked to her. “You’re cooking?”
“No, you’re cooking.” She said as she took his hands and put them under the kitchen faucet so that he would get the idea to wash them.
“You’re joking right? You want to leave here alive?”
“You have to learn to cook eventually. What will happen if you are in the middle of a blackout and you can’t go to McDonald’s to get a burger. You need to be able to cook.”
“If there was a blackout…which by the way we don’t have here very often, California Girl…I wouldn’t be able to cook anyway.”
Salina opened her mouth to retaliate but realized that he was right. “Well, you’re gonna learn anyway. Come on.”
JC left it alone because he already knew that he was in trouble with his joke from earlier and if Vanessa let his profanity slip from her mouth, he’d really be in trouble. So he decided the least he could do was cook for his girlfriend. “Okay, what do I do?”
Salina slid onto one of the stools at the bar and started giving directions. “Fill that pot with water and put it on the burner on high for it to boil.” She said pointing to a pot that was hanging from his rack of pots and pans. He did as she asked and soon he was in the middle of cooking a delicious meal.
“Hey, what does mi hija mean?” JC asked as he stirred the sauce.
“What?” Salina looked up from where she was playing patty cake with Vanessa.
“Your mom called me mi hija this morning and when you just called Vanessa that it reminded me, what does it mean?”
Salina laughed. ”I’m sure she didn’t say mi hija.”
“Yes, she did.” JC defended.
“Sweetie, mi hija is only for girls. She might’ve said mi hijo.”
“Yeah that was probably it. What does it mean?”
”Uh…there’s no real translation…literally it means ‘my boy’…but people use to as a term of endearment like sweetie or something. Usually parents use it when talking to their kids. Or when anyone is talking to a kid really.”
“So could I call you mi hija?”
”No.”
”Why not?”
”I’m not a kid.”
”But you said it was a term of endearment.”
”Yeah…for kids, Josh.”
“Your mom called me mi hijo and I’m not a kid.”
”But you’re a lot younger than she is. It’s like saying ‘my son’ or something.”
“It’s a very confusing language.” He sighed as he checked his noodles.
Salina laughed. “English is much more confusing, trust me.” She said as she got Vanessa’s sippy cup from the diaper bag and went to the refrigerator to find something to fill it with.
Vanessa toddled after her mom and almost made Salina trip when she turned around with the juice in her hand.
“Vanessa…go stand….there.” She said nodding her head in the direction of JC.
Vanessa walked over to him and he lifted her onto his hip so she could see what he was doing.
“I do?” Vanessa asked as she reached for the wooden spoon.
“No, baby, it’s hot, okay?” He said as he tried to balance her. Salina came to rescue him as she handed Vanessa her cup and set her back on the floor.
“Baby, go play with Millie, okay?” She said as Vanessa spotted the dog sitting in the corner and ran towards her. Salina turned a looked at him, taking in his full appearance for the first time since she’d arrived. “You know, I’m still kinda mad at you…but I gotta tell you you’re looking kinda sexy right now.” She said.
JC was dressed in all black. Black jeans, a tight black shirt showing off his muscles and a black beanie. JC smiled as she wrapped her arms around him from behind as he kept cooking. “I like this scruffy thing you got going on.” She said as she ran her fingers lightly over his stubbled cheek. “It smells good, hun.”
JC turned his head and lightly kissed her hand. “Here taste this.” He commented as he got a spoon out of the drawer and lifted some of the sauce to her mouth. “Careful, hot.”
She swallowed the sauce and smiled up at him. “It’s perfect.” He smiled and leaned down to kiss her. Their kiss turned passionate and didn’t stop until Salina realized that his sauce was boiling. She pulled away quickly. “Babe, your food.”
“Oh, no!” He said turning around quickly and pushing her out of the way. “I think it’s ready.” He said.
Salina nodded and got plates out of his cabinet. JC looked at her when she handed him only one plate. “I’m not hungry.” She said.
JC looked crushed. “What? After I just made this whole meal for you?”
”It wasn’t for me. It was for you. So you wouldn’t have to go out. I just ate remember?”
He nodded and snatched the plate from her hands pretending to be angry as he shoveled food on his plate. Salina crept up behind him again and started kissing the back of his neck.
“Wasn’t I the one that was mad?”
JC’s eyes closed as her breath hit him. “You need to stop.”
”Why?”
”Because your one-year-old daughter is about to get a lesson on the birds and the bees.” He whispered.
Salina snickered as she walked away from him over to where her daughter was sitting, trying to take off her shoes. Salina moved her hands and finished the task for her. Vanessa immediately stood up and crawled into JC’s lap as he ate.
Salina’s mouth dropped. “I think my daughter loves you more than she loves me.” She pouted as she flopped down on the ground.
JC whispered something into Vanessa’s ear making her giggle. She climbed down and walked over to hug her mom. “Wuv you, mama.”
She giggled as Salina grabbed her and pulled her down to lie with her. “I love you too, mi hija.”
“And C?”
JC’s head lifted as he was now much more interested in the conversation.
Salina noticed and smirked. “No sé ahora. Quizá.” She said to the little girl.
“Hey, that’s cheating. You can’t speak another language.”
“She understood me, right sweetie?” she asked Vanessa.
“Si.” Vanessa said giggling before covering her mouth.
“What? She knows Spanish?” He asked.
“Well, yeah, I speak it at home with her usually.”
“You do? I never hear you.”
”Well, I don’t do it when you’re around. But I want her to be bilingual.” She turned to Vanessa. “Tiene hambre?” she asked her and Vanessa nodded.
“Can you teach me to say something?”
Salina stood up to make her daughter a plate. “What do you want to know how to say?”
“How do you say, ‘don’t be mad’?” He asked.
She smirked at him as she fixed a plate for Vanessa. “No sea enojado.”
“No sey en-o-ha-do.” He stumbled making her giggle.
“What?”
“You’re such a gringo.” She laughed as she sat down and put Vanessa in the high chair next to her.
“Hey you wanna help me with something?” JC asked her as she set Vanessa’s food on the table.
“Depends what it is.”
“You’ll like it, I promise.” He watched as she lifted the fork to Vanessa’s mouth
“What is it?” She pressed.
“Packing.” He said timidly.
“Yeah, right.” She said with a laugh.
“Please.” He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. He kissed her neck. “Please, baby, I need your help.”
Salina smiled softly and tilted her head to kiss him. “Go pick out the clothes you want to take and I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Yay!” he said and tousled Vanessa’s hair before jogging to the stairs.
Vanessa craned her neck as she watched him run by her then turned back to her mom with a questioning glance.
Salina shrugged. “He’s strange I know.” She said as she wiped Vanessa’s mouth and lifted her from the high chair.
She walked up the stairs then put Vanessa down as she walked into JC’s room. She looked around, but couldn’t see him.
“Josh?”
“Yeah?” he said as he walked out of his closet with an armful of clothes.
“Babe, how long are you gonna be gone?”
He shrugged. “A few days.”
“So why so many clothes?”
“In case I wanna change.”
Salina sat down on his bed and started folding clothes. Vanessa climbed up next to her and started jumping,
“Down, Vanessa.” She said in a motherly voice making JC laugh. “What?”
“You’re such a mom.”
“Well, good.” She laughed.
“Come here, munchkin.” He held his arms out to Vanessa who jumped into them. “Come help me out.” He said as he walked back into his closet while holding the giggling Vanessa upside-down.
Salina smiled as she thought of the bond that her daughter and boyfriend shared. It pained her to think she and JC probably wouldn’t work out and Vanessa would be the one getting crushed.
“Hey, why the long face? I realize folding my underwear isn’t exactly exciting but geez.” He joked even though she was holding a pair of jeans, not his underwear.
“Is it true that you only wear your underwear once?”
JC groaned. “Where did you hear that?”
“Everywhere.”
“I forget that you’re my publicist.”
“Why? I’ve been your publicist longer than I’ve been your girlfriend.”
“Yes, but in my opinion the publicist isn’t the more important job between the two.” He said before leaning in to kiss her. Their lips just barely brushed when Salina burst out laughing. “What?”
She pointed behind him and turned to see Vanessa walking out of his closet with his shoes on her feet. He laughed. “You are so adorable.” He told her as he walked over to her and picked her up. He laid down on the bed taking Salina and her daughter with him. Salina snuggled into him as Vanessa got comfortable lying on his chest.
“Can we stay like this forever?” Salina asked him.
“Of course.” He said as he kissed the top of her head.
Chapter 13 by jamiebrown232000
Author's Notes:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
“Hello?”
“Have you seen the paper?” Salina asked frantically.
”I’m good, sweetheart, and you? I had a great flight.” JC said as he settled into the black SUV that was picking him up from the airport.
“JC, I’m serious!”
He sighed. “Which paper?”
”All of them!”
”Calm down. What is it?”
”Us! On the cover of all of the entertainment sections.”
“Me and you?”
”Me, you and Vanessa.” She said as she flipped through the various papers that Jenn had set on her desk that morning.
“Wait, from when?” He said as he signaled for Lonnie, his bodyguard, to pull over at the newsstand. He jumped out and picked up the first three newspapers and magazines that he saw with his picture on it.
“Yesterday. In your front yard.”
“Oh my god.” He said into the phone as he looked at the pictures. Lonnie quickly paid for the papers and ushered JC back into the SUV as people began to recognize them.
“I know. Who could it have been? Paparazzi on your property? Isn’t that illegal?”
JC sighed as he remembered the teenage girls with the cameras. “It wasn’t the paparazzi.”
“What? How do you know?”
”Those girls who were watching us…they had cameras.”
”Oh.”
“I’m sorry, babe. What did Johnny say?”
”Nothing. Just to be sure you have a statement when you go for TRL just in case.”
JC paused not sure what to say. “What do you want me to say?”
”You can say whatever you want as long as you don’t mention Vanessa’s name.”
”I would never do that, babe.”
“I know.”
”Are you okay?” He said as he read the caption that said, “JC Chasez of NSync with Publicist.”
”Yeah, it just caught me be surprise.” She said as she tossed most of them into the trash.
“Are you okay with everyone knowing?” He asked more carefully looking at another headline that read, “JC Makes a Third NSync Daddy,” above a big picture of him and Vanessa.
“I guess. We hadn’t really talked about who would know and who shouldn’t.”
“I know. We should’ve done that before I left. I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault.” She said pulling up her e-mail account on her computer so that she could begin to respond to all of the various e-mails she had received over the articles. “It’s kind of weird to be responding to all these questions that are about me.”
“Now, you know how I feel at interviews.”
”Yeah.” She said quietly, still not quite sure how she felt about everything. It wasn’t the same at all. JC was famous by choice, he asked to be put in the spotlight…she did not. She knew what she was getting into when she decided to date him, but now she wasn’t so sure she made the right decision. Her entire career was at stake.
”Salina, are you sure everything’s okay?” He said as they pulled up to the TRL studios. JC inwardly groaned at the number of people that were standing outside waiting for him to get out of the car. “Wait…hold on for a second cause it’s going to get loud.”
He got out of the car and held the phone by his leg as he waved and smiled at the girls crowding the street. He was quickly ushered into the building and immediately turned his attention to his phone.
“Sorry.” He said.
“What was that?”
”All the people outside TRL.”
”Oh.”
He sighed and put his hand out to Lonnie to give him a second alone and walked to a secluded corner in the lobby. “Babe, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing…I just…I don’t know, I’m PMSing I guess.” She lied.
“Oh.” He said not knowing how to respond to that.
“Yeah, well, you’d better go. The show is starting in a half hour.”
“I know. I’ll talk to you later?”
”Yeah, call me when you’re done.”
”Okay, bye.”
”Bye.” He started at his phone as he walked over to Lonnie who was reading one of the magazines that they bought.
“She okay?” Lonnie asked.
“I don’t know. What do you think I should say?”
”Just say, she’s your girlfriend and your girlfriend’s daughter. I mean, you don’t have to go into detail.”
“I know.” He said as they stepped onto the elevator. “I have an idea, how about you take this interview and I’ll defend you when the girls try to rip off your shirt.”
Lonnie laughed. “I would if I thought they’d believe I was a scrawny, little white boy, man.” He said as the elevator doors opened.
JC followed him over to where an intern wearing a headset and holding a clipboard was smiling brightly. “Mr. Chasez?”
“Call me JC.” He smiled briefly. “I’m late.”
”Yes, it’s okay, right this way.” The intern led the way over to a room where JC remembered always getting his make-up done by an elderly woman named, Kit.
“Joshua! You’re late!” She said as he smiled at stepped into the room.
“I’m sorry.” He said as he sat in her chair and closed his eyes waiting for her to start.
“Hey, Sal?” Jenn said from the doorway of Salina’s office.
“Yeah?” She asked looking up from her computer screen.
“It’s three. JC’s on.” Jenn responded before turning Salina’s TV to TRL and sitting in the chair across from her.
“Hi, welcome to TRL. I’m Quddus and this is LaLa and today we’re not only counting down your top 10, but also we have one of the members of the largest pop group in history. Here he is JC Chasez!”
The crowd cheered as JC entered the studio shaking hands and smiling as he went.
“Wassup, man? Good to have you back.” Quddus said.
“It’s good to be back.”
“Now Q and I were talking earlier about how every time NSync came you guys shut down Times Square. Now you all come separately and still manage to do it. Why is that?” LaLa asked.
“We got great fans, man, what can I say?”
“Okay so be honest…when’s the last time you saw, say, Joey?”
“Actually, we were all together in Orlando like a week ago because Chris had a barbecue at his house.”
“What’s a barbecue with NSync like?” Quddus asked.
“Um…I mean, it’s the same as a barbecue you would have with your friends and family, you know? We eat, we drink, now two of us have kids and we never really get to see them so we get to play with the kids. It’s just relaxing with family basically.”
“Speaking of kids, there’s a few rumors going around that you have a kid of your own. True?” LaLa asked as she pointed to the screen displaying a picture of Vanessa holding JC’s hand.
Salina held her breath.
“Well, I wish I could take credit for that beautiful little girl, but those aren’t my genes, man.” He laughed nervously. “It’s my girlfriend’s daughter.”
“What’s her name?”
“My girlfriend’s name is Salina.” He said not wanting to give Vanessa’s name.
“Like the singer?”
“Uh…yeah, yeah…I guess. I’ve never thought of it that way.” He shrugged and laughed with the audience.
“Does your girlfriend sing?”
JC chuckled. “No, she’s a publicist.”
“Your publicist?” It was more of a statement than a question.
“Uh-huh.” Quddus noticed JC’s answers were becoming short so he decided that he would cut in.
“Okay, well, we’re gonna cut to a break, but when we come back we’re gonna premier JC’s new video.”
“He talks with his hands a lot.” Jenn commented as she turned to look at Salina. “Sal, you can breathe now.”
Salina let out a breath. “He did good.” She said relieved.
“You didn’t think he would?”
”I don’t know. I guess I knew deep down he would do fine, but I was still worried.”
“Well, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. You guys are gonna be”“
She stopped abruptly when there was a knock on the door.
“Salina?” A guy stuck his head in the door.
“Yeah, can I help you?”
”I’m Marco.” Salina raised her eyebrows still confused. “I'm helping to manage JC.”
Salina’s eyes widened. “Oh! Come on in!” Jenn got up and offered her seat to Marco who took it after shaking Salina’s outstretched hand. “What can I do for you?”
”Well, actually, I can’t stay long. JC had mentioned that he wanted you to have a copy of his album and I was in the neighborhood so I thought I’d drop it off.” He said handing her a CD inside of a case.
“Oh, well, thank you.”
“No problem.” He said standing up. “So everything’s going okay with appearances and everything?”
”Yeah.” Salina said after hesitating slightly thinking about all the events of the morning. “Yeah.”
“Good.” He said and started to walk for the door. “He talks about you all the time, you know?”
”JC?”
“Yeah. He really likes you and your daughter too. He gets a light in his eyes when he talks about you that only you can put there.” Salina smiled lightly. “I just thought you might need to know that after all that’s happened this morning.”
Salina and Marco’s eyes locked and in that moment she completely understood what he was trying to say to her. He was concerned that she would leave JC over this big controversy and break his heart. Just like so many of his girlfriends had done to him in the past…leaving him shattered. Marco didn’t want to ever watch his friend go through that again.
“I care about JC a lot.” She reassured Marco. “I don’t want us to end any more than he does.”
Marco nodded and exited her office.
JC sighed as he entered his suite in the hotel and set his bags down. He’d been out shopping with Lonnie since he’d finished taping TRL and it was now 9 o’clock. He was exhausted.
He laid back on his bed, reached for the phone and dialed the now familiar number.
“Hello?” JC smiled when she answered.
“Hi, sweetheart. Where are you?”
”I’m at dinner with my mother and daughter.”
“Tell your mom I said ‘hi’.”
“Ok.”
”No, do it now.”
”JC…” She sighed.
“Now.” He insisted like a five year old and she complied. Her mother returned the greeting and Salina held up a finger to signal to her mom that she’d only be another minute.
“You sound tired, honey.”
“I am. I’ve been shopping all day.”
“What’d you buy me?”
“A bowling ball.” He responded while yawning.
“Haha.” She said dryly.
“Hey, can you talk for a minute?”
”Sure, what’s up?” She asked.
“Are…uh, are we okay?” He asked quietly.
“Huh?”
“This morning. You seemed…upset. So I wanna make sure that we’re okay.”
Salina smiled though he couldn’t see it. “We’re fine, JC.” She said and shook her head at her mother’s questioning glance. “Um…Marco came by my office today.”
”Oh, yeah, did you like the album?”
”I loved it, baby.”
“Ok, well, that’s all I wanted. Go back to dinner with your mom.”
”Ok, call me later?”
”Sure. Bye, baby.”
“Bye.” She said in a sing-song voice.
“Your brothers seem to like him.” Her mother said casually as she continued to eat her salad.
“Mom.” Salina said in a warning tone as she put her phone away and turned to smile at her daughter who was munching on her French fries.
“I like him, too.” Her mother said ignoring Salina’s warning.
“And what’s next…‘Dad likes him’?”
“He does.” Her mother said nodding.
“Yeah, right. Dad wasn’t this bad with Miguel.” She responded cringing at the mention of her ex and Vanessa’s father.
“Dad knew you and Miguel would never have worked out even with Vanessa in the picture.”
“And JC and I will?”
”I think so and I’m pretty sure dad does too.”
“Right.” She wouldn’t let herself believe that she and JC could fall in love and live happily ever after because she knew when that didn’t happen she would be crushed.
“You know, you can let yourself live a little, mi hija. You’re only 26.”
“Yeah, but I have responsibilities now and I have to look out for what’s best for Vanessa. If I get my hopes up about this she’ll get too attached and she’ll end up hurt and that’s not fair to her.”
“But you have to let yourself be happy. Vanessa will be happy as long as you are…you are happy with Joshua.” Her mother finished and Salina chose not to respond. Instead she turned to her daughter and began chatting with her effectively ending the conversation with her own mother.
Chapter 14 by jamiebrown232000
Author's Notes:
Thanks for the reviews! Sorry, it's taken so long to update, but here's two chapters for you!
Three days later JC arrived back in Orlando on the day before Christmas Eve. Salina was anxious all day while she was at work. She was surprised that she had gotten any work done at all, but she had put together a few press releases for the guys and had started to put together meetings to plan Nsync’s Challenge for the Children event that they held every year which she had been put in charge of. She ended up staying an extra half hour before Jenn finally forced her out of the office and to her car. She called goodbye to Jenn as she climbed into her car, excited to get home and call her boyfriend whom she hadn’t spoken to since dinner with her mom because they had both been busy preparing for the holidays.
Salina had decorated her entire apartment with little help from her family and had been running around Orlando for the past few days shopping while JC had done the same in New York.
Salina arrived at her apartment and grinned when she saw JC’s car parked in what had become his spot. She walked quickly up to her apartment and quickly unlocked her door to see her mother, father, and two brothers in the living room watching TV, but frowned at the realization that two very important people were missing.
“Hey.” She said and only her father turned to her as the other three were engrossed in the screen. “Where’s JC and Vanessa?”
”Uh…they went to play in Vanessa’s room awhile ago.
Something about a dollie.” Her father said before turning back around.
Salina’s eyebrows raised at her father’s nonchalant attitude toward her boyfriend, but walked in the direction of Vanessa’s room anyway.
She smiled when she came upon a sight that warmed her heart. JC and her daughter curled up on the air mattress that she had been sleeping on for the past few nights.
She walked over and knelt beside them. She kissed Vanessa’s forehead before she kissed JC on the lips. He stirred and slowly began to respond to her kiss. She pulled back and smiled.
“Welcome home.” She said warmly.
He stared at her for several moments completely mesmerized by her. “You are so beautiful.” He whispered. “I almost forgot how beautiful you are.”
Salina grinned. “If you’re gonna be like this every time you leave, I’m gonna be planning a lot of out of town appearances for you.”
He smiled and leaned up to kiss her again. When he couldn’t kiss her the way he wanted to he moved the sleeping little girl over and sat up completely so that he could wrap his girlfriend in his strong embrace.
He sighed. “I missed you.” He said as he inhaled her intoxicating scent.
“I missed you, too.” She said settling back against him. They were quiet for a few moments just enjoying each other’s company when JC finally broke the silence.
“You don’t have to work tomorrow do you?”
She looked up at him like he was crazy. “Tomorrow’s Christmas Eve, Josh.”
“I know, I was just wondering.”
”No, I’m celebrating Christmas with my family in the morning and then they have a flight back to LA at three so they can celebrate Christmas day with my grandparents and my other brothers.”
“That’s what I thought. So…you’re still going to Justin’s tomorrow night?”
”Oh, I completely forgot. What is everyone even doing here still? Why aren’t you guys going home for Christmas?”
“Well, Joey’s family is here, Justin’s family is out here for the holidays, my family is here, Lance’s parents are out here and Chris already went home, so he’s not coming.”
“Hmm…well, ok.”
“Good because they all want to see you. And….my mom invited you and Vanessa over for to my brother’s new house for Christmas dinner.” He said studying her before quickly adding. “And I’m being serious this time.”
“Your brother’s cooking Christmas dinner?”
“No, my mom’s cooking in my brother’s house. Now, come on stop stalling…do you want to go?”
Salina smiled up at him. “Sure. That way you can just stay over here on Christmas night instead of driving to your house after Justin’s thing then back here in the morning.”
“Ok, cool….cool.”
The next day
Salina spent the morning with her parents and brothers opening gifts together and watching Vanessa run around the apartment with her new toys. Salina watched as her brothers playfully argued and her parents rested together on the couch with Vanessa playing quietly in their laps. It was times like these when she wondered how she would live for years in Orlando without her family there as a support system.
At one o’clock JC showed up with his Navigator and the family piled all of their belongings into his large SUV. Salina strapped Vanessa into her car seat quietly and sighed as she slid into the front passenger seat. JC noticed her solemn mood and intertwined his fingers with hers as they drove to the airport silently listening to the passengers in the back talk amongst themselves. Once at the airport JC pulled up to the curb and Salina climbed out to bid her family farewell.
“Bye, Juan.” She said as she hugged her brother.
“See ya, sis.” He said as he went to collect his bags from the back of the truck. Salina said goodbye to Robert and her father before turning to her mother with a sad face.
“Oh, mi hija.” Her mother said as she wrapped her daughter in a hug. “I am so proud of you and I love you so much.”
”I love you too, mama. Ciao.”
”Ciao, mi hija.” She said before turning Salina to look at her dad giving JC a manly hug and telling him to ‘look after his little girl.’ JC nodded and smiled at the man before the /family began to move into the airport. JC walked over to his girlfriend and put his arm around her guiding her to the car.
“Come on, babe.” He said softly as he closed her door and walked to the driver’s side of the car. He got in and turned to look at her. “You ok, honey?”
She smiled slightly and nodded at him before resting her head on the window and closing her eyes. He turned to quickly check on Vanessa who was watching the cars outside drive by with fascination before turning on his car and heading to Justin’s house.
When he pulled up to Justin’s at around 5, there were quite a few people outside the house and Justin walked over to greet JC.
“Hey, man.” Justin said as JC stepped out of his car and signaled for Justin to be quiet because Salina was still sleeping.
“Hey, can you do me a favor?” JC asked as he opened the back door to get Vanessa out of her car seat.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
”Take Vanessa inside. I need to talk to Salina.” JC answered as he handed Justin the baby.
Justin nodded and did as he was asked. JC sighed and ran his hand through his hair before he closed the back door and got back into the driver’s seat.
He leaned over and brushed Salina’s hair out of her face. “Babe? Salina…we’re here.”
Salina stirred gently, leaning into his touch. Her eyes flickered open and focused on JC’s face.
“Hey, are you okay?”
She smiled at his concern. “Yeah, I’m sorry I worried you.”
”Stop. You have nothing to be sorry for.”
Salina sat up and looked down at her hands. “This is just the first time that I’ve said good-bye to my parents without knowing when I’d see them again.”
JC nodded. Salina looked in the backseat and quickly looked back at JC when she noticed Vanessa was gone.
“Justin took her inside.” JC answered before she could even ask the question. “Come on, let’s go in.”
The two stepped out of the car and JC pushed the button to turn on the alarm before he wrapped his arm around his girlfriend and led her toward the large house. When they got to the steps in front of the door Salina turned to him.
“Thank you for worrying about me.” She said shyly.
“Anytime, honey.” He said before giving her a quick kiss. JC opened the door and they were greeted with the sound of laughter and the smell of delicious food.
“Mama, mama, mama!” Vanessa yelled as she ran towards her.
“Hey, mi hija. What’s up?” She asked as she lifted her daughter into her arms and followed JC further into the house.
“Wa-wa.” Vanessa answered signaling that she was thirsty.
“Oh, sweetie, I left your cup in my car.” Salina sighed as she spotted Lynn and walked over to her leaving JC to chat with Joey and Justin’s friend Trace. “Hey, Lynn, do you guys have some water or something for her?”
“Oh, yeah, sure.” Lynn said standing up and leading Salina towards the kitchen. “In fact, we have these juice box things that’ll probably be better for her. She probably won’t be able to swallow the water.”
”Yeah, I didn’t think so, but I left her cup in my car which is back at my apartment.”
Lynn laughed at her as she looked into Justin’s pantry and pulled out a package of fruit punch juice boxes. “Well, Justin bought these thinking that his brothers were going to drink them when they came out, but their dad let them go for broke with the sodas so they haven’t touched the juice.” She finished putting the little straw into the box and handed it to the baby. “Here you go, sweetie.”
“Thanks, Lynn.” Salina said as she set the little girl down and watched her wander over to where JC was standing and lean onto his leg as she drank her juice.
“It’s no problem. What’ve you been up to?”
”Not much. My family was in town for about a week, but JC and I just got back from dropping them off at the airport.”
“So, you’re spending Christmas alone?”
”Oh, no, we’re going to have dinner with JC’s family.”
“Oh, that’s good.” Lynn said, but was interrupted by her son.
“Salina, can I have your daughter?” He said wrapping his arms around her from behind
”I’m afraid I can’t let you have her, pop star.” Salina smiled and kissed his cheek.
“Hey! Step away from my girlfriend.” JC called from the dining room where he was playing poker with Vanessa in his lap.
“You can’t have the baby and the mommy. Pick one!” Justin challenged making Salina laugh.
JC pretended to think about it while looking back and forth between Salina and Vanessa. “Sorry, honey, I gotta go with the baby.”
Salina shrugged. “That’s okay. I can stay in Justin’s warm embrace forever.” She said holding onto his arms tighter.
“Fine, we don’t need ya. Do we, Nessa?” He said kissing her head.
Everyone laughed when Vanessa looked at him with a mean face after he kissed her and pushed his head away.
Salina laughed and unraveled herself from Justin’s arms before walking over to sit beside JC at the table and taking Vanessa into her lap so that JC could play easier.
“Alright, let’s do this.” Justin said taking a seat on the other side of Salina with his drink in hand and picking up his cards.
The guys played poker for at least the next half hour before Salina became incredibly bored and went to find Kelly.
She found her in Justin’s entertainment room sitting on the couch with all the kids lying in front of the large TV watching Finding Nemo. Salina set Vanessa down and watched her run over to sit next to Brianna before she plopped herself down next to Carrie on the couch.
“Hey, how’ve you been doing?”
“Good.” Kelly answered. “Did you guys just get here?”
”Uh…about hour ago. I was sitting in the other room watching the guys play poker.”
”Boring.” Kelly announced from where she was stretched out on the couch across from theirs.
“Yes, it was.” Salina agreed. “You guys ready for Christmas?”
“I already told Joey we need to leave early because we have all kinds of toys to put together before tomorrow morning and I don’t want to be up all night. He went for broke on the toys."
"Well, I guess they only get to be kids once, right?" Salina smiled and settled in to watch the Disney movie.
Chapter 15 by jamiebrown232000
“I can’t believe you’re not putting out milk and cookies.” JC said to Salina softly as they walked into her apartment later that night.
Salina looked at him as she closed the door behind him and followed him as he carried her sleeping daughter to the small bedroom. They had decided to leave the Christmas party at around nine because Vanessa was getting cranky having missed her nap that day and Salina didn’t want to have to stay up too late putting together toys like Kelly had said earlier.
They had said goodbye to the other families and loaded into the SUV so that they could be on their way home.
“She’s sleeping, Josh. She’s not going to know the difference.”
“Did you explain the concept of Santa Claus to her?” He asked as he laid her down and switched her baby monitor on.
“I tried, but I don’t think she got it. She just knows that a strange man is coming here with toys.”
JC laughed as he followed her out of the room and closed the door slightly. “Well, that’s the most important part I guess.” He said and sat down on her bed as she started taking out the toys she had bought Vanessa out of her closet. “I still can’t believe you aren’t having cookies though.”
”Don’t think that I don’t know why you want me to make cookies, Joshua.” She said giving him a wary look as she got wrapping paper out from under her bed and sat beside him.
“What?” He asked innocently.
“The only reason you want me to have cookies for ‘Santa’ is because YOU want to pretend to be ‘Santa’ and eat all the cookies.”
JC gasped dramatically. “I can’t believe you would think I was capable of something like that.” He said smiling as he kissed her cheek and stood up. “I’m gonna go get my bag from the car.”
”Okay.” She said as she continued putting together a Barbie doll house that she had bought to add to Vanessa’s ever growing collection of Barbie toys. When JC returned he sat beside her and helped her put together the rest of Vanessa’s toys before they carried the toys she had bought Vanessa and the massive amounts that he had bought Vanessa into the living room and set them up in front of the couch.
JC watched as Salina filled Vanessa’s stocking with little toys and a few candy canes and smiled. Never would he have thought that he would be okay with setting up toys on Christmas Eve and even finding it fun, but at that moment he felt more domesticated than ever. He felt as if he was supposed to be there sharing this Christmas with the two girls and nothing had ever felt so right and scary at the same time.
“What’s wrong?” Salina asked pulling him out of thoughts.
JC shook his head. “Nothing. Can I give you your first present now?”
”It’s not Christmas yet.” She said shaking her head and giving him a disapproving look.
He glanced at his watch and shook his head right back at her. “You’re wrong. It is 12:02, missy. Christmas day has indeed begun. So, come on.” He said pulling her back towards her bedroom.
He sat her down on the bed when and went to dig through his bag to find her gift. After a few moments he walked over to her and handed her an envelope before kneeling in front of her.
She looked at him skeptically. “What is it?”
”Open it and see.” He laughed with his hands braced on her knees.
She quickly opened the package and held up a laminated pass that said, “Flora Day Spa” on it.
“It’s an all day pass for you to spend at the best spa in Orlando next week.”
”Really?” She smiled at the thought of being pampered for an entire day.
“Yep. On Wednesday you and a friend of your choice, probably Jenn, are going to spend the day there while Nessa and I bond a little bit.”
”You’re gonna watch Vanessa?”
”Yeah. Why? You don’t think I can do it?”
”No, I know you can. What are you gonna do?” She asked and JC couldn’t miss the worry in her voice.
“Oh, I thought we’d watch a few action flicks, throw back some beer then head to a strip club.” Salina rolled her eyes in return. “I’m kidding. I don’t know we’ll chill out and watch ‘The Lion King’ or something. Don’t worry.”
“I’m not worried.” She said softly looking him in the eyes. “I trust you. Thank you for this.”
“You’re welcome.” He whispered before kissing her tenderly.
“We better get to sleep.” She said as she hesitantly pulled away.
“Okay.” He pulled away from her and she walked into the bathroom to change and brush her teeth. When she returned he had changed into pajama pants and was standing shirtless next to her window.
She smiled and walked over to him. “Whatcha looking at?” She said wrapping her arms around him from behind.
“The stars. It’s beautiful out.” He said turning around in her arms and kissing her head.
“You gonna write a song about it?” She giggled.
He let out a laugh. “I don’t write about every beautiful thing that I see, you know.”
She smiled as he led her over to the bed and they laid down together. He reached over and turned off the light before pulling her to him.
“So, what’s been your inspiration recently?” She asked running her fingertips over his bare chest.
He sighed and paused momentarily before answering her. “You.” He said. “And Vanessa.”
She looked up at him. “Really?”
”Yeah.” He said with his eyes closed, smiling slightly.
“And occasionally Halle Berry.”
She slapped at his arm playfully and he laughed before pulling her closer. “Nah, just you and Nessa are all the inspiration I need.”
She smiled and kissed him lightly before closing her eyes as well. “Merry Christmas, Josh.” She said.
“Merry Christmas, baby.” He replied before they both drifted off to sleep.
Salina woke the next morning at nine o’clock to hear baby chatter coming from the monitor sitting on her nightstand. She smiled and carefully slid out of bed, so as to not wake JC before she trodded down the hall to greet her daughter.
“Hola, mi hija. Feliz Navidad.” She said as she lifted her out of the crib and kissed her cheek. “You wanna go get JC?”
“C?”
“Yeah, come on.” She said as she entered back into her bedroom and set Vanessa down next to JC.
Vanessa crawled over to him and sat on his chest and looked at him closely before turning to her mother. She put her finger to mouth and made a shooshing motion.
“Shh! He seepin.” Vanessa whispered and Salina concealed a giggle and sat down next to them. “No, mama, no.” Vanessa said putting her hands over her mother’s mouth to keep her from laughing.
“Mi hija, it’s okay. Wake him up.”
”Up?” Vanessa asked with an unsure glance.
“Yeah.” Salina nodded.
“C?” Vanessa said shaking his head from side to side.
“C? Up? Mama say 'up'!”
JC groaned and opened his eyes to look at the beautiful baby sitting on top of him. “Ugh..” He cleared his throat. “Hey, sweetie.”
“C, up?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m awake.” He said stretching his arms over his head and looking over to Salina. “Hey, you. You sent the kid to wake me up?”
“I figured you’d be more obliging if it was her.”
”You were right.” He said and lifted Vanessa off of him so that he could sit up and wake up fully. “You ready for Christmas, munchkin? Ready for presents?”
“Pwesens?” She asked looking from JC to her mom.
“Heck yeah you’ve got presents. Let’s go see.” Salina offered as she set Vanessa on the floor and watched her patter out of the room before turning to JC. “You ready to open presents?”
JC smiled and thought of how nice it would be to do this with her every year. “Yeah, yeah, I’m ready.”
The two adults sauntered out into the living room to find Vanessa already scooting around on her tricycle with her new Barbie backpack on her back. JC sat on the couch while Salina headed into the kitchen to turn on the coffee pot and get out fixings for pancakes.
“Mama, mine?” Vanessa asked as she scooted herself into the kitchen. Salina stooped down to her eye level and smiled at her daughter.
“Yep, it’s all yours. You like it?”
“Yeah.” She said getting bored with her mother and riding off back towards the living room. Salina stood up and laid down on the couch with her head in JC’s lap. He smiled as he stroked her hair.
“She’s talking a lot more.”
“I know. I think it’s because she’s been at daycare so she has to talk to communicate with the other kids.” She said as Vanessa moved on to the next present which happened to be a doll house given to her by JC. “I can’t believe you bought her that.”
“It’s cute.” He argued. “Perfect for her.”
“Where am I gonna put it?”
He shrugged. “Not my problem.”
She slapped at his stomach and he laughed. “I’ll make it your problem when I send it to your house for storage.”
Vanessa toddled up to her mom and held the container of play-doh in her hands. “Off.” She commanded pulling at the top.
Salina took the container from her and attempted to open it several times before giving up and handing it silently to JC who smirked. “Come here, sweetie.” She said holding her arms out to her daughter and kissed her cheek. “I love you.”
“Love too.” Vanessa said giving her mother a sloppy, wet kiss on the cheek.
Salina giggled and pointed to a present that was sitting next to Vanessa’s doll house. “Mi hija, go get that present for mommy, kay?”
Vanessa looked at the present before walking over, lifting it and bringing it to her mom. “Mine?”
“No, this is what we got JC, remember?”
“Yeah.”
JC smiled and handed Vanessa the newly opened play-doh container. “You got me a gift?” He asked as Salina sat up and handed it to him.
“Of course.” She said smiling before she told Vanessa to take her play-doh into the kitchen so that it wouldn’t stain her carpet.
He smiled at her and Vanessa looked at him expectantly. “Off.” She said.
“Well, aren’t we demanding today?” JC smiled and pulled her onto his lap before he tore the paper off of the leather bound journal.
He looked at the brown book with the words "Josh’s Journal" inscribed on the front.
“I noticed the journal that you write in is getting a little full, so I bought you a new one.”
He looked at her wide-eyed. “I didn’t even know you knew I had a journal.”
”I saw you writing in it the night I stayed over.”
“I thought you were sleeping.” He commented as Vanessa took the journal from his hands and began flipping through it.
Salina shrugged. “You thought wrong. Do you like it?”
“Of course. I love it, baby.” He said leaning over to give Salina a quick kiss. “And thank you, Nessa.” He said planting a big raspberry on her cheek making her giggle and wipe at her cheek. Vanessa walked away from them to continue sifting through her toys and Salina returned to her previous position with her head in JC’s lap.
“I’m glad we got to spend Christmas together.” JC said to his girlfriend softly.
Salina smiled. “Me too.” She said sitting up slightly to hug him.
JC, Salina and Vanessa spent the rest of the morning eating breakfast and opening presents. By the time Vanessa went down for her nap at 1, JC and Salina were ready for a nap too. Salina yawned as she cuddled up to JC as they stretched out on the couch. “What time do we need to be at your brother’s?”
“At about 5. You can take a nap if you want.”
“Will you take one with me?” She asked cutely.
”Of course, baby.” He said kissing her forehead gently.
The couple woke an hour later and busied themselves with getting ready to leave for dinner with JC’s family.
“Josh, what do you think of this one?” Salina asked walking into Vanessa’s room where JC was changing the baby’s diaper.
“It’s great.” He stated with disinterest.
She sighed. “You’re not even looking.”
”Baby, I’m sure it’s just as wonderful as the 10 other outfits you’ve tried on. Could you please just pick one?”
“I just want to look perfect for when I meet your parents.”
He turned to look at her. “You always look perfect, honey.”
“Nice try. Really, what should I wear?”
He sighed as he leaned back against the changing table with Vanessa sitting beside him on the table also gazing at her mother. “I think you should wear the one you have on now since we need to get going.”
Salina huffed. “Fine.” She said and scurried back into her room to get her shoes and purse.
JC shook his head as he collected Vanessa and her diaper bar. “Let’s go, munchkin.”
“’Kay.” She responded cutely.
Thirty minutes later, JC had finally gotten his girlfriend out of her apartment and on the road.
“How far is your brother’s house?” Salina asked as she nervously tapped her fingers on the arm rest.
JC reached over and put his hand over hers to cease the act that was slowly driving him crazy. “About 15 miles. Not bad.” He glanced at her briefly. “It’s gonna be fine, Sal.”
She nodded. “I know, I know.” She turned then to look out the window.
The rest of the ride was filled with JC singing quietly along with the radio, but he stopped suddenly when he heard Vanessa humming along with him.
Salina shook her head at the look he had on his face. “Don’t say it. Don’t even think it.”
“Babe, she’s perfectly on key.”
“I know. I can hear her, JC.”
”Normal 2-year-olds can’t do that. Where’d she learn that?”
”I don’t know. Probably from hanging around my office and stuff.”
“Sal, she could be the next Christina!”
“I don’t think so.”
“Why not”
”Because I said so.” She said firmly giving him a look that clearly stated the conversation was over. JC would have commented, but didn’t considering that they were pulling into his brother’s driveway and he didn’t want Salina any more tense than she already was.
Once JC had stopped the car Salina closed her eyes and took a deep breath as JC collected Vanessa from her carseat and walked around to open Salina’s door.
”You okay?” JC asked with a slightly amused tone as Salina reached into the backseat to retrieve Vanessa’s diaper bag
“I’m fine.” She smiled and followed him up to his brother’s apartment where he knocked loudly on the door. He gave her a reassuring smile and kissed Vanessa on the cheek just before the door was opened by a long, curly-haired young woman.
“Hey, big brother.” The girl said and stepped aside to let them through,
“Hey, what’s up?.” JC turned to Salina. “Salina, this is my sister, Heather. Heather, this is Salina and her daughter Vanessa.”
”It’s so nice to meet you. You’re all we’ve heard about during the last couple of weeks.” Heather said excitedly giving Salina a hug.
Salina smiled graciously thankful for being so warmly accepted by the first person she’d met in his family and was about to respond when another voice came from deeper within the apartment.
”I think I hear my eldest son out there somewhere.” A man’s voice called and JC grinned as he grabbed Salina’s hand and led the way to the living room where JC’s father and brother were sitting watching football.
“Hey, dad.” JC said giving his dad a manly one-armed hug with Vanessa still clinging to him.
“Well, now who’s this beautiful little girl?” Roy asked giving Vanessa a warm smile.
“This is Vanessa and her mom, my girlfriend, Salina.” JC said gesturing to Salina who was standing next to Heather, watching her boyfriend interact with his dad.
Roy turned to her and smiled. “And more beautiful than the baby is her mother.” He commented making Salina blush.
“It’s so nice to meet you, Salina.”
”It’s very nice to meet you as well, Mr. Chasez.”
”Mr. Chasez? What am I old or something? Call me Roy. This is Josh’s little brother, Tyler.” He said pointing to the young man still sitting on the couch who had yet to pay attention to the new people in the room.
When Tyler still didn’t acknowledge them, JC reached over and hit his brother on the back of the head. “Ow!” Tyler exclaimed and looked at his brother. “What the hell was that for?!”
”You didn’t even notice I was here.” JC responded.
“Who cares? I just saw you yesterday.”
”Tyler Chasez, be nice to your brother!” Salina turned quickly to see who she assumed to be JC’s mother come into view from the kitchen. “How are you, my son? I’ve missed you.”
JC leaned down to give his mother a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “I’ve missed you too, mom. I want to introduce you to Salina and Vanessa.” He held his breath because the person that JC most wanted approval of these two new people in his life was his mother.
His mother smiled widely and welcomed Salina with a large hug and invited her to come and chat with her and Heather in the kitchen while the boys watched the game. Salina accepted graciously and when she asked JC if he wanted her to take Vanessa with her, Roy stepped in and said that they were going to teach Vanessa the ins and outs of professional football.
Salina laughed and followed Heather and Karen into the kitchen.
“Do you two need any help?” She asked the mother and daughter who were putting the finishing touches on the food.
“No, I think we’ve just about got it.” Karen answered. “So, tell me, Salina, how do you like the new job? Josh tells me you’re a lot better than their last publicist.”
Salina laughed. “Well, I think JC’s kind of biased, but I like it a lot. I’m excited for his album to come out.”
”Ooh, did he let you hear it yet?” Heather asked.
“I listened to some of it last week. I haven’t gotten through the entire album yet.”
”Is it good?”
”Yeah, it really is. It’s very different, which I think is good. It doesn’t sound like anything else that’s out right now.”
“Well, that’s good. I’ll have to ask him for a copy.” Karen stated.
The three women talked for about another hour before the food was finally ready to be served and Salina went to round up the boys and wash Vanessa up for dinner.
Salina was busy washing Vanessa’s hands when JC stepped into the bathroom behind her.
“Are you okay?” He said placing his hands on her shoulders.
“Yeah, you’re family’s great.” She said smiling at him before turning and giving him a quick peck on the lips. He smiled and Salina lifted Vanessa into her arms so that they could make their way to the table.
The couple spent the rest of the evening eating and talking with JC’s family. Salina learned a lot more about JC from seeing how he interacted with his family and also from hearing the embarrassing family stories that come from meeting your boyfriend’s family for the first time. After they ate dinner, the all moved into the living room where they exchanged presents. Salina was surprised that there was even a present each for herself and Vanessa and was very thankful for the cashmere sweater that JC’s mom had given her. At about nine Salina and JC decided to call it a night and headed back to Salina’s apartment.
“I’m glad I got to meet your family.” Salina said softly as JC drove.
“I’m glad you did too. Just like I’m glad I got to meet yours.”
Salina smiled. “Me too.”
JC pulled up to Salina’s apartment and helped her carry the carseat, Vanessa, the presents and Vanessa’s diaper bag upstairs. Salina quickly put Vanessa in her crib and returned to find JC still standing by the front door. She frowned.
“You can stay if you want, you know.” She offered.
“Nah, I should probably go. Make sure my house is still there and stuff.” He laughed. “I loved spending Christmas with you, Sal.”
“Me too.” She smiled. “Will you call me tomorrow?”
“Yes ma’am.” He smiled back at her and leaned in to kiss her goodnight. “Bye, baby.”
”Bye.” She said as she closed the door behind him. She leaned back onto and sighed. How had she found such a perfect guy?
Chapter 16 by jamiebrown232000
“So, there’s food in the refrigerator and she needs to go down for a nap at about 2, but don’t let her sleep for too long or she’ll never get to sleep tonight.” Salina said as JC and Vanessa watched her grab her belongings and open the front door to her apartment. “Oh, and she’ll probably ask for ice cream after you feed her, but she definitely doesn’t need any. So, nothing sweet and also”“
“Salina, you’re giving me a headache.” JC interrupted her. “We’ll be fine. Go, relax with Jen, don’t worry about us.”
She sighed. “I know, it’s just been a long time since I’ve left her with someone besides family members.”
“I know, but it’s me. I won’t let anything happen to her.”
“True.” She took in a breath. “Ok, I’m going now.” She leaned over to kiss both of them before grabbing her purse and heading out the door.
She was going to pick up Jen and the two of them were going to have lunch before using the spa day that JC had given her as a Christmas present. Three weeks had passed since they had spent Christmas together and she had been working non-stop ever since. JC had all, but moved into her apartment and their relationship was progressing nicely.
JC turned to Vanessa. “So, what should we do, munchkin?”
“Incrwbwls.” She said drooling over her shirt as she said it.
He reached out to wipe the drool with her collar and question her. “I’m not hip to the baby lingo there, kiddo. You wanna do what now?”
Vanessa sighed and climbed off the couch and toddled over to the TV stand to retrieve a DVD before handing it to JC. “I have.”
JC looked at the cover. “Oh! You wanna watch The Incredibles?”
Vanessa nodded and attempted to climb back up onto the couch, but only succeeded in falling back onto her bottom. Her bottom lip quivered and JC could tell that she would start wailing at any minute so he bent down to scoop her up into his lap.
“Aww precious. Are you okay?”
She nodded with her bottom lip sticking out as she pressed her face into his chest. “I faw.” She mumbled.
He smiled down at the little girl and kissed the top of her head. “Ok, honey, I’m gonna put your movie on and then I’ll make you a sandwich, k?”
She nodded as he lifted her off of his lap and sat her on the couch as he stood up. “Kay.” She responded.
He turned on her video then headed into the kitchen to make them both PB&J sandwiches. After he was finished he got a soda for himself and poured some milk into her sippy cups. He knew Salina didn’t normally let her eat her food on the couch, but he didn’t want to pull her away from her movie and he figured that’s what he was for, to let her do things her mother wouldn’t.
“Ok, sweetie, here’s your sandwich.” He handed her half of her sandwich and set the rest on the coffee table before sitting down next to her and starting to eat himself. He had taken only one bite when his cell phone rang.
“Yo!” He answered and took another bite.
“Joshua,” his mother scolded. “That’s how you answer your phone?”
“Nope, but I saw it was you and I knew you’d get mad.” He joked.
His mother chuckled. “How are you, honey?” He stood up and went to talk in the kitchen so he wouldn’t disrupt Vanessa’s movie.
”I’m good. How are you? Dad? Heather?”
”We’re all great. What are you up to today?”
“Salina and her assistant went to the spa. So I’m babysitting Vanessa.”
“Oh!” His mother gushed and he rolled his eyes. “How is that cute, little baby?”
“She’s fine. She’s watching a movie and eating her lunch right now.”
“You know, we all really like them, Josh. Salina’s great and Vanessa is just too adorable.”
JC placed his soda can down on the counter. “Yeah, they are great. I’m glad you approve, mom.”
“Is this serious?”
“Mom, we’ve only known each other for like a month and a half. How ‘serious’ do you think it could possibly be?”
“Well, I only mean do you think this will go anywhere? You know you’re not getting any younger.”
JC out right laughed at that. “Is that your not-so-subtle way of saying you want some grandkids?”
”Well, not tomorrow, but if you start looking for someone to settle down with then I’ll have some eventually.”
“Well, when I’m ready to settle down, I’ll let you know,” He said before feeling a tug on his jeans. He looked down and stopped mid-sentence. “Hey, munchkin, uh….what’d you do there?”
Vanessa looked up at him with tears in her eyes as she tried to get the peanut butter from her sandwich out of her hair. “Is stuck!” She cried
“I see that.” He was at a loss for words. “Uh, ma?”
“Yeah, honey?” His mother asked over the phone.
“Hypothetically, if a kid had peanut butter in her hair, how would one get that out?”
“JC! You put peanut butter in her hair?!”
JC rolled his eyes. “Yes, mom, I put it in her hair.” He responded sarcastically. “Why would I do that?”
“Joshua Scott, I don’t know who you think you’re talking to, but”“
”I’m sorry. How do I get it out?”
“I don’t know.”
“How can you not know?! You’re a mom. My mom! Didn’t one of us do anything like this when we were little?”
“Well, Heather stuck a lollipop in her hair once, but I just cut it out. She had a big chunk of hair missing for awhile.”
“I can’t cut her hair! Salina will kill me!”
“Well, why don’t you try washing it out?”
JC grabbed up Vanessa and headed to the bathroom with his mother still on the phone. “Wash it out…right.”
He turned on the water and started a bath for her. “Okay, is there like a rule about whether or not I can see her naked?”
“She’s a baby, Josh, and you’re babysitting. It’s not exactly child pornography.” His mother sighed at her son’s ignorance when it came to children. “I take back the thing about grandchildren. Any kids you have will be dead within the week.”
“Hey!” He exclaimed lifting Vanessa and setting her into the water.
She immediately started screaming and a startled JC looked up and, panicking, dropped his phone into the water.
“Shit!” he said reaching into the water to find it scorching hot. “Fuck!”
He immediately lifted Vanessa out of bath and set her on the floor as he turned off the water. Vanessa was now crying softly while grabbing at her feet.
He looked at her sadly. “I’m sorry, Nessa.” He said picking her up and holding her against his chest as he quickly reached in and grabbed his phone. He dropped it on the floor and turned the water on cold to cool down the bath. “I’m kinda new at this baby-sitting stuff. I told your mom we’d be fine and already things are a mess. She hasn’t even been gone for an hour.”
The child remained silent as he turned off the water and tested it making sure that it was okay to set her in. She was resistant at first, but JC was able to get her in and wash out the peanut butter without incident.
By the time Vanessa’s bath had finished and JC had dressed her, she had fallen asleep and JC laid her in her crib before heading to the living room to clean up the big mess they’d made.
Three hours later, Salina was actually shocked to walk into her apartment see JC and Vanessa sitting on her couch watching a football game and cheering.
She watched from behind the couch as Vanessa, standing on the couch with JC’s baseball hat on, screamed “Boom!” every time the players tackled each other and laughed hysterically.
“Couches are for sitting on, not jumping.” Salina interrupted as she hugged Vanessa from behind and kissed her cheek. She turned to JC. “You’re a bad influence.”
“Mama, look!” Vanessa pointed just as another player was tackled. “Boom!”
Salina sighed before walking around the couch to sit between her boyfriend and daughter. She leaned against him and he kissed her head. “Little girls are supposed to be obsessed with dollies and mermaids, not sweaty, fat men running into each other. Should I be worried?”
JC shrugged. “Well, it’s the Patriots, honey. I mean if it were the Lions, I’d be worried. How was your spa day?”
“It was wonderful! Just what I needed. Thank you.” She kissed him as Vanessa jumped up and down again. “You know, I half expected one of you to be dead when I came back home.” She said grabbing her daughter and pulling her to her chest.
“We had a great time, didn’t we, Nessa?” JC asked and the little girl smiled up at both of them.
Vanessa lifted her foot. “My owie?”
Salina looked concerned as she grabbed her daughter’s foot, but saw nothing there. “What happened to your foot, baby?”
JC cleared his throat. “Uh…we, uh, had a little bath accident, but she’s fine now.” He said quickly.
“What kind of accident? Why were you giving her a bath?”
“Well,” JC let out a nervous laugh, “I made her a PB&J for lunch and I guess she didn’t like it or something cause a whole lot of it ended up in her in hair. So I gave her a bath, but the water was too hot, so she got hurt. But-but she’s fine now, see…boom!?” He cringed waiting for her to explode.
She looked at him before looking at Vanessa and back to JC. She tried to hide the huge smile threatening to grace her face, but couldn’t as she let out a huge laugh. “Are you serious?” She asked between breaths. “Wow, only to you, Joshua Chasez.”
“So, you’re not mad?”
She ceased her laughter and took a deep breath. “What for? She’s fine. Besides, in all honesty, all I wanted was for my daughter to still be alive when I got back.”
His eyes narrowed. “That’s horrible, Salina.”
She laughed again. “I’m sorry, baby, but you’re not the world’s most experienced baby-sitter.”
“Well, regardless, we had fun today.”
The next few weeks flew by in a flash with Salina and JC both being extremely busy. They only actually saw each other on weekends and the nights that JC slept over at her apartment. Both were preparing for JC’s album release and Salina was busy handling phone calls for the rest of her busy clients.
Salina rolled over, out of JC’s arms, as her alarm blared loudly from her bedside table. Shutting it off, she placed the heels of her palms to her eyes before sitting up and sighing.
“Babe, it’s 5am. Go back to sleep.” JC said as he rolled over, turning his back to her.
“I can’t,” she whispered. “Grammy nominations come out today. I need to be at the office to answer the phone when it starts ringing about Justin.”
“So sure he’s gonna get nominated?” JC smirked.
“I got an email yesterday. I already know he’s gonna be nominated. Trick of the trade, honey, don’t tell anyone that I told you about that.”
He turned over and stared at her. “Does that mean you guys know if we win before we do also?”
She nodded and yawned as she stood up. “Usually, yeah.”
”What a bunch of liars!” He called after her as she walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower.
“Hey,” She called from the bathroom. “Do you think you can take Vanessa to daycare for me?”
“I guess, yeah.”
”Thank you so much! It’d be horrible trying to get her up right now.”
As Salina walked up to her building she looked up to find Jen balancing two cups of coffee and smoking a cigarette.
Salina shook her head and took her cup of coffee. “You’d rather risk 2nd-degree burns than give up your cancer stick for one morning?”
“It’s a large part of my life,” Jen remarked as she put it out.
“However short it may be.”
The two women walked into the building and rode the elevator up to their floor together. Once there, Salina took a deep breath as she settled herself behind her desk and prepared herself for the long day ahead of her. She opened her email and decided to get her morning press clippings out of the way before she was bombarded with phone calls, making it impossible to get any real work done.
She had gotten through The Los Angeles Times, the Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly and The New York Times when she looked up to see her email being flooded.
“It’s been announced,” she whispered to herself. “Jen!”
“Yeah?” She called back.
“Can you get Justin on the line for me?”
“Yep.” She waited and threw her papers away before she heard Jenn call to her again. “I have Justin!”
“Hey, honey.” Salina greeted the tired man.
“It’s fuckin’ 4am. What could possibly be this important?”
“Oh, yeah, I forgot about the time difference. Well, you were nominated for three Grammy Awards, important enough for ya?”
“You know, this would be a really cruel joke to play on someone this early in the morning.” He said sitting up in bed and rubbing his eyes.
“I’m not joking, J. You got it! I’m sending you a copy of the email now.”
“Seriously?!”
“Yep.”
“Sweet! Oh my God, I’m so excited.”
“I figured. Before you freak out, I need a statement from you.”
“I don’t care. Just say thank you and congrats to other nominees,” he said as Cameron rolled over and glared at him. “I gotta call my mommy. Talk to you later.”
Salina laughed lightly as she began to write her clients’ statement and get the rest of her work done for the day.
At 2 p.m. Johnny walked into her office carrying a salad from the deli down the street from the office.
“You have to eat sometime,” he commented setting it before her and taking a seat. “So, how’s everything going? You overworked?”
“No, actually, everything’s been kinda slow.”
“Well, good cause I was wondering how you feel about taking on Challenge for the Children this year. You and Jen, maybe give her some more responsibility.”
“Uh, sure. I mean, what exactly needs to be done?”
“Well, the guys want to do it in Miami this year. We’re kinda hoping to go all out for this one since honestly, it’ll probably be the last one.” Salina nodded silently. “So, you’d need to find venues to hold the games & parties; celebs to participate; hotels; caterers, etc. It’s a lot of work that’s why I’m asking you early.”
“Yeah, I can do that. Definitely and I’ll have Jenn handle a lot of it. I think she’s gonna be great by the way.”
“Yeah, me too,” Johnny sighed and stood. “Did you talk to Justin yet?”
“Mm-hmm, I called him with the news this morning.”
“He’s ecstatic.”
Salina waved her arms around at all the boxes cluttering her office. “This is all for him. Congratulations presents.”
“You’re gonna have it sent to L.A.?”
She shrugged. “Some of it. I’ll go through it all to see what he might actually want.”
Johnny nodded. “Well, I’ll have past information about Challenge sent over. Thanks so much for doing this Salina. Melinda would handle it, but she’s swamped with new artists we’ve just signed on.”
“No problem. Thanks for thinking of me.” Johnny smiled at her and left.
Salina let out a breath before going back to her work. When Salina was finally able to pick up her daughter at six she found Vanessa crying in the corner of her classroom.
“Nessa, baby, what’s wrong?” She asked as Vanessa turned away from her and pouted.
“Mama fogot.”
“Oh, honey, I didn’t forget you. I could never forget you. I was just distracted at work. Mommy’s sorry. Do you forgive me?”
“No.” She whined.
Salina looked at Vanessa’s teacher who had walked up to them. “I’m sorry I’m late.”
“It’s no problem. She’ll get over it. This happens often with our single parents.”
Salina blushed and quickly collected Vanessa and her backpack. She blinked away her tears as she drove home.
The one thing Salina had always feared about being a single parent was that she wouldn’t be able to provide Vanessa with everything that a child deserves and it seemed that was exactly what she was doing.
Chapter 17 by jamiebrown232000
When they arrived home and Salina placed Vanessa in her high chair, both girls were on edge. Salina went about making their dinner while Vanessa banged her fork against her plate, intentionally aggravating her mother.
“Vanessa!” Salina yelled without turning from the stove.
Vanessa continued.
“Do you want to go to bed?” Salina threatened and Vanessa momentarily stopped. Salina sighed and bent to take her dish out of the oven when Vanessa decided to start banging again. Startled, Salina dropped the pan right on her foot, splattering food all over the floor.
“God!” Salina yelled grabbing her foot and flinging her towel in anger. It subsequently landed on Vanessa who got scared and started screaming.
JC, using the key Salina had given him that morning, walked in almost scared by the spectacle. “What’s going on?”
“I dropped the goddamn dish on my foot and now there’s food everywhere!” Salina replied still hopping around on one foot as she tried to clean up. She looked up to where Vanessa was still crying. “And SHE needs to get out of my sight!”
JC stared at her in disbelief as he walked over and picked up the little girl, cradling her against his shoulder. “Salina…”
”I’m serious, JC. She was banging on that plate after I asked her not to repeatedly which made me drop the plate.”
It was now JC’s turn to sigh. “Look, why don’t you get all this up and order a pizza. I’m gonna go put her down then we’ll talk.” He didn’t wait for her answer as he took Vanessa (who’d quieted down) to her room and went about the nightly routine of getting her ready for bed.
JC shook his head as he rocked her and thought about how common an occurrence it was for him to be putting a child to bed these days and wondered if he was really ready for that. This was like a real family, where the mom gets mad at the kids when the dad’s at work and then dad has to fix everything. JC wasn’t sure that he could fill that role of dad.
Once Vanessa had fallen asleep he walked back into the living room to see Salina lying on the couch with her arm over her eyes. He quietly poured them both a glass of wine before removing her legs and sitting down. She looked at him and turned so that she was lying back against him.
“So, what happened?”
She sighed and sipped her wine. “I was late to pick her up so she got mad. She was giving me the silent treatment all night and it was grating on my nerves. Then we got back and she started that banging and I just lost it.”
“That’s it?”
She sat up and looked at him. “What do you mean ‘that’s it’?”
”Well, it’s not like you to get so upset over a temper tantrum, Sal.” He noticed her eyes dart around nervously. “Talk to me. What’s really wrong?”
”When I went to pick up Vanessa, I apologized to her teacher for being late and she said, ‘That’s okay, it happens to all our single parents’.” She waited for JC to comment and when he didn’t, she explained. “It’s just…I’d fooled myself into thinking that I was all Vanessa needed. She didn’t need another parent and I was doing a good enough job on my own.”
“Honey, you are. You’re doing a great job.”
“Yeah, right. How can I be? My daughter hates me!”
“Salina, she’s two. She’s not even gonna remember this tomorrow.”
”That’s not the point.”
”I know. And believe me when I tell you that Vanessa is the luckiest girl in the world to have you as a mother. All parents (single or married) make mistakes. You’re gonna make a lot more mistakes and there’s gonna be many more times when she’s mad at you, but that doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong. It probably means you did something right.”
She looked up into his eyes and smiled before kissing him lightly. “Thank you.”
“Anytime.” He released her as the doorbell rang and went to pay for their pizza. As he was waiting for his change the nervous, domesticated feeling he had gotten earlier returned and he suddenly felt an intense need to get out of there.
“Hey, Sal,” He called walking back into the living room. “I’ve gotta run back over to the studio, so I’m gonna leave you with the pizza, okay?”
“I thought the album was completely done. Why are you going to the studio?”
He stuttered for a second. “I’m working on Dallas’ album with him. He wanted me to hear a few things.”
Salina nodded slightly and gave him a kiss goodbye. “Be safe.”
He chuckled and nodded as he walked out of the door and down to the elevator.
“So, you just left?” Dallas asked as he watched his friend and colleague mess with the knobs on the sound board.
“I already told you that I don’t wanna think about it anymore. Can we just focus on the track?”
”Well, I could if your relationship problems weren’t making my track sound like shit.”
JC rolled his eyes. “I thought it sounded good.”
“If you’re not gonna talk about it I might as well go.”
JC sighed. “I think I’m falling in love with my girlfriend.”
“Hmm, yeah, I know when I’m falling in love with a gorgeous woman I’m extremely uninspired to make a love track too.”
“It’s not that. But she’s got a kid and I’m not ready for such a commitment.”
“You’re not getting married, JC. And would it be such a horrible thing if you did settle down?”
“No, I guess not. I don’t know I just panicked when I was consoling Salina and putting Vanessa to bed. I’m not a dad.”
Dallas shrugged. “All I know is, it sucks that you just ran out on her when she was depressed. Girls don’t dig that kinda shit. It’s a dealbreaker. Is that what you want?”
JC looked up quickly. “No! I just…I need to find a happy medium.”
Dallas sighed. “We’re not gonna get any work done tonight. Go home to your woman.”
“I’m sorry, man.”
“Don’t sweat it.” Dallas said giving JC a hug before walking out of the studio.
JC sat in the studio for a while thinking about his relationship before getting up and driving back to Salina’s apartment.
He used the spare key to enter the apartment and trudged down the hall to her room. He checked on Vanessa before opening Salina’s door.
“Hey, it’s me.” He said as he pulled off his jeans and climbed into bed with her.
She yawned and turned to face him. “I thought you weren’t coming back.” She said and he noted the worried look on her face, immediately feeling bad.
He smoothed the worried lines on her forehead away before speaking. “You mean tonight or ever?”
She shrugged. “Both.”
“Of course, I’d come back. I, uh, I got kinda scared tonight. I’m sorry.”
“I’m not asking you to be a daddy here, JC. I know that’s the last thing you need right now. The last thing you want.”
“No, that’s just it. I think I was scared because I found myself wanting that. I found myself wanting to come home to you and Vanessa.” She stared into his eyes and waited for him to continue. “Salina, I love you.”
She smiled and gasped. “I love you too.” She said hesitantly causing him to smile. He leaned forward and kissed her and she moaned into his mouth as she deepened it.
His hand crept up her shirt as she clutched at her hair and kissed him passionately. He pulled away from her and took off his shirt before shedding her of hers.
She sat up and hesitantly unclasped her bra before getting rid of it completely and lying back down. His head bent down and she groaned when his tongue circled her left nipple. She gasped at the feeling he was stirring inside of her.
When he finally came back up to her lips she was frantic for him. He smiled slightly and whispered his love for her in her ear as she kissed his shoulder and neck, holding him tightly.
She blindly reached for her nightstand and ripped open a condom and grasped his member tightly. She stroked him a few times before covering him, returning her arms to wrap around his neck and pulling him down for a kiss.
He slowly entered her and waited for her to adjust to the feeling of a man again. He gradually started to move faster and faster inside of her and let out the most sensuous groan when she wrapped her legs around him, causing him to sink deeper within her.
When they came down from their ecstasy moments later he stood and entered the bathroom to shed himself of the condom before rejoining her in bed.
“I love you.” She said as she kissed his jaw.
“I love you too.” He said as she drifted off to sleep
Chapter 18 by jamiebrown232000
Three weeks later, Salina and JC entered the Superdome for the SuperBowl hand-in-hand.
Salina had been successful in keeping Justin’s guest appearance for the halftime performance a secret. She had also gotten all five of the NSync men down to Florida to watch the SuperBowl and discuss plans for this year’s Challenge for the Children.
Salina and JC entered the box suite where Lance, Justin, Cameron and Chris were already celebrating, beers in hand.
JC let go of Salina’s hand as he ran up behind Lance and jumped on his back. Lance, startled, almost spilled his beer. He looked back at JC and smiled, “Fucker! I almost spilled my drink.”
JC smiled and hopped off his back and tosseled his hair. “You could get another,” he joked as Lance rolled his eyes and moved on to hug Salina.
Once the entire group had arrived and everyone was served drinks and food, they settled into their seats and watched the game with the normal allotment of hooting and hollering.
When it was time for the halftime show, Salina walked with Justin and his bodyguard to the bottom of the stadium. She watched from the sides as he performed with Janet and her jaw literally dropped when Justin’s last line and choreography exposed Janet’s breast.
She watched as the two were rushed off the stage. When Justin reached her she almost slapped him.
“Tell me that wasn’t part of the choreography.”
His face contorted amusedly. “Well, not exactly. Let’s go back upstairs. I need another beer.”
She sighed and followed him as her cell phone rang. “This is Salina.” She groaned as the first of what she was sure would be many press inquiries came in.
The minute Justin walked into the box he was greeted by Cameron and a host of friends trying to get information.
“Dude, what the hell was that?” Chris asked.
“I don’t know. It wasn’t what we planned.”
“J, where’s Salina?” JC questioned.
“Handling press calls outside.” Justin sighed and sat back down realizing what a big deal this actually was. Cameron perched herself on his lap and kissed him.
“Try not to think about it, babe. Just enjoy the rest of the game.” She said.
”She’s right, J. There’s nothing you can do about it now.” Joey agreed from his spot beside Kelly.
“I know Craig, trust me when I know what happened, you’ll know.” Salina spoke in a voice JC had never heard. “A feature on what, Craig?! He’s not doing any interviews over this bullshit.”
JC’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets and he laughed quietly before leaning back against the wall and watching her stress herself out.
Salina closed her phone without saying goodbye, but continued typing into her Blackberry. She had yet to notice JC.
“Pretty crazy, huh?” He asked softly.
She looked up at him and nodded. “You’d think they had sex right up there on stage or something.”
“Partial nudity is a pretty big deal to the FCC.” He reached for her hand. “Come on. Come enjoy the game, babe.”
Just then Salina’s phone rang, but JC grabbed it from her and turned it off quickly.
“JC, I need to answer that.” She cried and reached for it as he held it over his head.
“Nope,” he shook his head. “Come on, you’re just gonna get more and more stressed. What’s the worst that can happen? US Weekly will print, ‘Timberlake’s rep couldn’t be reached for comment’.”
She sighed and nodded before placing her arm around his waist as he led her back inside.
“What the hell do you need this big of a suite for?” Joey asked as he sat down on the plush couch in the suite that Justin was sharing with Cameron. “It’s only you and your girl.”
“If I didn’t where would you fools meet?” Justin asked from his place on the floor.
“Ok guys, let’s get started.” Salina said as she passed out schedules and information. “Okay, now trust me this stuff will change, but I just wanted to take you through the preliminary plans for Challenge.”
Salina walked them through the events that would take place that week, stopping every so often to answer questions.
When she finished she checked her Blackberry quickly and turned to Justin. “We need to talk after this.”
He nodded and she returned to the task at hand.
“Ok, here’s the list of celebs that we’re planning to invite. If there’s any ideas tell me now and stuff you come up with later you can call and tell Jen about.”
“Who’s Jen?” Chris asked.
Salina gave him a dumbfounded look. “My assistant. Chris, you talk to her every time you call my office and you don’t know her name yet?”
Lance thwaped Chris on the back of the head with his pamphlet and the other guys laughed as Chris just shrugged.
The guys spouted off their ideas and once Salina had gotten their most updated contact information she excused them to leave.
“I’ll be there in a second.” She told JC as he walked out with Lance.
“How you holding up against the psychos?” Justin asked her referring to the journalists that had been hounding her for answers.
Salina took in a breath. “Justin, the FCC is getting involved now. They’re going to fine you, Janet, CBS, the NFL…everyone involved.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know yet…a lot. They’re conducting a full-on investigation.” She cringed at his angered expression. “This is serious, Justin. They may not let you go to the Grammy’s.”
His head snapped up. “They can’t do that!”
“Yes, they can. It’s the same network.”
He stood up and went to the mini-bar and poured himself a drink despite it being only 3 o’clock in the afternoon.
“Fucking CBS! I actually have a chance at winning this time, Sal. Do anything you can please! I need to be there. I won’t take Cameron, I’ll take my mom.” He said quickly.
Salina chuckled and realized that she hadn’t been as subtle about her distaste for Cameron Diaz as she had thought. “I’ll see what I can do. I’m not making any promises and at the very least it’s going to require you to make a public apology. I need you to be 100% honest with me when I ask you this next question, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Was it really a ‘wardrobe malfunction’ or was it planned that way?”
“No! It was never supposed to expose her.” He stated emphatically.
She nodded and began to collect her belongings. “You know, you might wanna call her. See how she’s holding up.”
He shook his head. “Nah, don’t wanna bother her.”
She stared at him before responding. “Okay, well I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Alright, thanks.” He said from his place on the couch as she let herself out.
When Salina returned to her room, she was actually relieved to find JC not there.
She climbed onto the bed and realized that she hadn’t had a moment to herself since the new year had started.
With the work for Challenge, Justin’s SuperBowl incident and JC’s album getting ready to be released, she’d been swamped with work. She was thankful that she’d had Jenn watch Vanessa for the weekend so she and JC could spend some time together.
Sometime during her mentally writing her statement for Justin’s website she fell asleep and woke up an hour later to JC climbing in beside her.
“Hey,” she yawned.
“Sorry, I didn’t want to wake you.”
She shook her head. “It’s okay. Where’d you go?”
“Joey, Chris and I went to check out the pool.” He said as he wrapped his arms around her from behind
“Checking out hot chicks?” She smiled.
“Already have a hot chick right here, babe.” She laughed and he kissed her cheek.
“Thank you. What time does our flight leave?”
“Not till nine. You can rest for a bit longer.”
She rolled over to face him and kissed him. “Yay!” She whispered. “Was it good to see all the guys together again?”
“Yeah, as much as I do love having the freedom to make my music the way that I want; there’s nothing like the five of us being together. I forgot what it was like.”
“Do you guys ever fight?”
He frowned. “Like fist fight?”
“No, just argue?” She rested her forehead against his chest as they spoke.
He shook his head. “Not since we first started out. That was only because we were around each other so much. Once we got bigger and didn’t have to share rooms or all pack into one bus we never fought.”
“Wow.”
“Mm-hmm”
”Who’s moodiest?”
He drew in a breath and scratched his brow. “Uh…Justin, I guess.”
She let out a grunt. “That really doesn’t surprise me.”
“He…I don’t know, he’s much more in the spotlight than the rest of us.” JC argued for his friend. “Even when we were just beginning, the media drew him out more. His relationships, decisions “ everything is in the public domain. Though I guess it’s made him the most successful, it’s also hardest for him.”
“Did it ever cause tension among the five of you?”
“A little, I guess, more than we’d like to admit. But it was more just an annoyance that we’re asked about him when we’re trying to do our own thing. More than anything we’re proud of the kid.” She stared at the admiration in his eyes.
“I love you.”
He smiled. “Well, I love you too, Sal. And I feel bad that you’ve done nothing, but work so how about we order up some food and have a romantic 3 hours before we have to leave?”
“Oh my God, that sounds like perfection. I’m gonna go change into my sweats, you order the food, okay?” She kissed him quickly and ran into the bathroom to change.
Later that evening after eating dinner they laid in bed together watching Forrest Gump and feeding each other strawberries.
“Is this a true story?” Salina asked as Tom Hanks made the Watergate call on the TV screen.
JC laughed. “No! You think one man witnessed Watergate, met like 3 Presidents, and played ping-pong in China?”
“Well, I don’t know. He’s telling it all like it’s a true story. Like who thinks of these things? Star Wars! Another one that makes no sense.”
JC sat up quickly causing Salina, who was lying on his chest to sit up as well. “Don’t hate on Star Wars.” He warned.
“You’re a Star Wars nerd?!”
He scoffed. “I think the word ‘nerd’ is a little harsh.”
She giggled. “Aww. I never knew.” She leaned in to kiss him. “Do you wear glasses?”
“Yeah,” he groaned as he laid down and pulled her back on top of him. “But I just recently got them. Old age is catching up with me.”
She giggled. “What’s your favorite food?”
“Vodka.” He stated in all seriousness.
She rolled her eyes. “I said food.”
He rubbed his hand over his face while keeping his other arm securely wrapped around her. “Uh…I don’t know. Why are you asking me all these questions?”
“Because I wanna know you. We never just sit and talk its either business or watching Vanessa. Never just us, like this. I like us.”
He stared at her and placed a kiss on her head. “I like us too.” He took in a breath. “So what else do you wanna know?”
She smiled and although she was tired before she and JC spent the rest of the night packing and talking.
Salina smiled to herself as she and her boyfriend rode the elevator up to her floor together. JC noticed and shifted her bag on his shoulder.
“Excited to see your baby?” he asked.
“Yeah, I don’t ever leave her, but it was nice to relax.” She responded as the elevator doors opened and she led him to her apartment.
Just as she was about to unlock the door, he pulled her to a halt. He kissed her gently before hugging her tightly against him. “I love you, Sal.”
“I love you too, Josh. I had a really good time this weekend.” She said not realizing that she sounded like a 15-year-old coming home from her first date.
JC laughed. “Yeah, we should do it again sometime.”
Salina hit his arm playfully. “I’m trying to be cute here.”
“I know.” He said, kissing her one more time before she unlocked her front door.
“There she is.” She heard Jenn say as she turned towards the living room.
She grinned as Vanessa came running towards her. She bent down to scoop up her daughter and swore the toddler had grown six inches since she’d last seen her.
“Hola, mi hija. Mommy missed you.” Vanessa giggled in response as Salina covered her daughter’s face in kisses
“Geez, you’d think you’d left for years.” Jenn cracked from her spot leaning against the couch.
“The mommy missed her baby.” JC remarked as he kissed the top of Vanessa’s head and excused himself to go to the bathroom.
“So, how was she?”
“She missed you a lot. But she was an angel, as always,” Jenn said as she put all of her stuff back into her duffel bag.
Salina smiled and hugged her daughter closer. “You were a good girl for mommy?”
Vanessa nodded. “I good.”
Jenn looked at Salina hesitantly before uttering her next words. “Umm…so Tyler stopped by a couple times while you guys were gone.”
Salina frowned. “Tyler? Why?”
Jenn shrugged and sat next to Salina on the couch. “He said he was checking up on Vanessa.”
“Well, that’s sweet, I guess.” Salina noticed Jenn’s troubled face. “What’s up?”
“Is he…seeing anyone?”
“Tyler? No, I don’t think so. Why? Are you interested?”
“I don’t know.” Jenn sighed. “I mean we seem to have a lot in common and I was getting the flirty vibe from him. We’re supposed to hang out this weekend.”
“Well, it sounds like fun. He’s a really sweet guy. Give him a chance.”
“Give who a chance?” JC asked as he re-entered the room.
“This guy Jenn is semi-dating.” Salina answered vaguely.
JC nodded and leaned over to kiss Salina goodbye. He then scooped up Vanessa and gave her a big, wet kiss. “Bye, munchkin.”
“C, bye-bye?” Vanessa asked him with her hands on his cheeks.
“Yeah, I gotta go home. But I’ll see ya tomorrow. I’m making you and mommy dinner.”
Jenn scoffed. “You’re cooking?!”
“He lost a bet.” Salina answered as she took her daughter back. He kissed her one more time before bidding Jenn goodbye and letting himself out.
“So, what are you gonna wear on your date?”
Jenn sighed again. “I don’t even know if I’m going for sure.” Salina remained silent. “Thanks for not saying anything to JC.”
“No problem. He & Tyler are pretty close though. He’s gonna tell JC.”
“That’s okay.” Jenn stood and hauled her bag to the door. “I’ll see you at work on Monday.”
Salina watched Jenn walk out of the door before turning to her daughter. “Did you miss me, mi hija?” She asked kissing her daughters cheek one more time. “Mommy missed you so much.” Salina sat Vanessa down next to her doll house and mother and daughter played together for hours.
Chapter 19 by jamiebrown232000
Author's Notes:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
The next day Salina woke up with a pounding headache and a horrible stomach ache. She heard Vanessa crying in her room so she stumbled blindly to Vanessa’s room before picking the girl up and stumbling back to her own room to lie back down. Vanessa stopped crying as Salina pulled the covers back over herself, but began to roll around on the bed.
“Vanessa, come up here and go back to sleep, mi hija.”
Vanessa crawled on top of her mother and smiled. “Mama up?”
Salina sighed. “I’m sick, baby. You have to let mommy rest.” Salina tiredly stood up and headed into the kitchen to grab Vanessa some juice and crackers. When she returned to her room she silently thanked JC for buying her the TV and DVD player that she had in there before turning on cartoons for Vanessa.
She settled Vanessa at the end of the bed with her breakfast and entertainment before climbing back into the bed herself.
A few hours later there was a knock on the door.
“Salina, hello?” JC called as he entered the dark apartment and placed the groceries he’d bought for dinner on the counter. “Sal? You here?
Upon hearing another’s voice Vanessa turned to see her mother sound asleep. Quietly she crawled off the bed and toddled towards the front of the apartment. She peeked around the corner and let out a quiet, “Hi” to the person whose back was turned to her.
She lit up when the person turned around and it was her favorite male.
“C!” she threw her arms up in the air which had become her signal for him to pick her up.
Vanessa had gotten to the age where she no longer liked being picked up and carried around, but with JC all of that flew out the window. Salina supposed that Vanessa felt safe in his arms which is why the little girl insisted that he carry her everywhere. He didn’t mind because he also loved having her in his arms.
“Hi, sweetiepie. Where’s your mommy?” He said looking at her ruffled pajamas and messy hair. It wasn’t like Salina to just let them sleep around all day.
“Mama sweeping.” Vanessa pointed to Salina’s bedroom.
“She’s sleeping?” JC frowned and both heads turned as they heard Salina vomiting in her bathroom. “Uh-oh. Mommy’s sick.” Vanessa nodded as if she understood as JC carried her towards Salina’s room.
“Salina?” He called setting Vanessa on the bed and continuing into the bathroom where he found his girlfriend lying in a ball on the floor.
She looked up at him pitifully. “Is Vanessa okay?”
He nodded. “Yeah, yeah. She’s fine.” He went to sit down next to her and pushed her sweaty hair away from her face. “You’re burning up. What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. My stomach is killing me and I’ve been throwing up all morning.” She shivered as she curled up into a tighter ball.
JC picked her up and carried her to the bed. As he laid her down he noticed a swelling in her abdomen. When he bent to examine it closer and put his hand on it she let out a whimper. “Baby, we gotta get you to a hospital.”
She shook her head. “No, I’ll be fine. I just need to rest until tomorrow.”
“Salina, this doesn’t look good. What if you have internal bleeding or something?”
“I don’t.” She said closing her eyes.
He opened his mouth like he was going to argue with her for a minute before going back into the kitchen to put away the groceries. While he was on the phone with Tyler and packed an overnight bag for both Salina and Vanessa and put them in his car before heading back into Salina’s room and picking her up without one word to her.
“What are you doing?” She moaned as she buried her face in his neck.
“Taking you to a hospital. Come on Vanessa.” He called to the little girl who was watching him with wide eyes. She quickly jumped off the bed and followed him out into the hall. “Close the door, Nessa.” She did as told and followed him to the elevator.
“JC, I already told you I cant go to a hospital. What are we gonna do with Vanessa? I don’t want her there, she could get sick.”
“Tyler’s gonna meet us there and take her back to his place.”
“Vanessa?” She called weakly for her daughter.
Vanessa looked up worriedly at her mother, but didn’t respond.
“She’s right here, babe.” JC consoled her as he walked the two girls to his car. He first placed Salina in the front seat and buckled her in before putting Vanessa in her car seat and driving to the hospital which was fairly close to Salina’s apartment complex.
Tyler was already in the lobby of the hospital when JC pulled up and stayed with Vanessa in the car while JC carried Salina into the emergency room and checked her in. While Salina was waiting for the triage nurse to examine her, JC went back outside and told his brother to take the little girl home and pick her up something to eat. The brothers swapped keys and Tyler left with Vanessa in JC’s car.
When JC entered the hospital again, the triage nurse was helping Salina into a wheelchair.
“What’s going on?” JC asked as he stood next to his girlfriend who rested her head on his frame.
“Her condition seems pretty serious, so we’re gonna take her on back so the doctors can get a look at her. You can follow me, Mr. Chasez.” The nurse said as she began wheeling Salina back behind the large metal doors. The nurse had JC stand outside the curtain of the small cubicle as she examined Salina.
When JC was finally allowed back by her side, she was twisted up in a ball facing away from him. “How you holding up, Sal?”
“Can I go home now?” She asked.
He laughed. “No, the doctor hasn’t even been here yet. Just relax.”
“I hate hospitals.” She pouted.
He rolled his eyes. “Well, you’re here now so deal with it.” Just then the curtain opened again and a tall, handsome, young-looking doctor stepped into the room.
“Hello, folks. I’m Dr. Thomas, one of the ER doctors on call tonight. You have a little bit of a stomach ache over here?” The doctor asked Salina.
“I wouldn’t say ‘a little bit,’ but yeah.” Salina sighed as she rolled over to face him.
“Okay, let’s see what we got here.” He laughed.
Salina closed her eyes as the doctor lifted her shirt and pressed against her abdomen lightly. Salina whimpered at his touch. “Sorry. It looks to me like appendicitis, but I wanna get you some tests to see for sure.”
“How old are you?” Salina asked him suddenly.
“How old do I look?” He smiled and JC raised his eyebrows at the two in amusement.
“Doogie Howser-ish.”
The doctor laughed and patted Salina on the shoulder. “I guarantee you, I’m not a teenager. I’m going to go have the nurse take you for the ultrasound and then I’ll be back to check you out when you get back.” The doctor left and JC looked at Salina.
“Why are you staring at me like that?”
“I was just watching you flirt with the nice doctor.” He replied as he stood up and walked to her bedside.
“I was not flirting.” She narrowed her eyes at him.
“You were flirting, Sal.” He smiled and kissed the top of her head. “Thank God I’m such an understanding boyfriend.”
She sighed. “I’m sorry I’m being such a brat.”
“It’s okay. You’re sick, you’re allowed. We’re gonna get you better and back home soon.” He started to sit back in his chair, but she caught his hand.
“Jace?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
He smiled. “I love you too.”
“No, I mean I really love you. More than I’ve loved anyone else besides Vanessa.” He gazed down at her before leaning in to kiss her. “I’ve been throwing up all day.”
He stopped a breath from her lips. “I really don’t care.” He said kissing her fully on the lips. She smiled when he pulled back and he sat back down.
Just then a nurse came in to take Salina down for an ultrasound. JC bid her goodbye and went back outside to call Tyler.
“Hello?”
“Hey, how’s it going over there?”
“Oh, we’re having a blast.” Tyler said out of breath making JC wonder what they were doing. “What’s up with Salina?”
“They think she has appendicitis. She’s down getting an ultrasound right now. They’re probably gonna keep her here overnight so I need you to call Jenn and let her know that Salina will be out for a few days. I don’t have her number on me right now, but if you call WEG there’s always a receptionist on call who has the cell numbers. Jenn can let Johnny know tomorrow-”
“Don’t sweat it, Jenn’s on her way here now.”
“What? Why?”
“I called her.”
“Why do you even have her number?”
“We’re sort of seeing each other…kinda, I guess.”
“Kinda…you guess?” JC asked. This was all news to him.
“Well, we hung out for a bit while you guys were at the SuperBowl and I had called her earlier today and asked her if she wanted to go out tonight, but with Salina being sick I had to call back and cancel.”
“Aww, Ty. I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”
“Nah. It’s no big deal, she’s just gonna come over and hang out with Vanessa and I.”
“Well, thanks man, I owe you.”
“Yeah, I have a BMW that I’ve got my eye on.”
“You got it.” The brothers bid each other goodbye and JC walked back inside to find the doctor and nurses prepping Salina for surgery. The doctor looked up when JC walked in.
“Well, Mr. Chasez, it looks like she’s got appendicitis, so we’re taking her in for surgery right away.”
JC nodded and looked at Salina. “Babe, I’m gonna be here when you get back, okay?”
“Okay. Did you check on Vanessa?”
“Yep, Tyler’s taking good care of her.”
“Okay, I love you.” She called to him as she was wheeled out of the room.
“I love you too” He whispered to her retreating form.
Chapter 20 by jamiebrown232000
Author's Notes:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Salina was kept in the hospital for three days before she was finally deemed well enough to go home. JC stayed by her side almost entirely the whole time, clearing out his schedule so that the only time he wasn’t in her hospital room was when he went to get food or home to shower.
Against Salina’s wishes, JC had also called her parents to inform them of their daughter’s hospitalization and her mother had flown to Orlando to take care of Vanessa while Salina was in the hospital and recovering at home.
JC turned to Salina quickly who was gazing out the car window as he drove them home from the hospital. “Did you know that Jen and Tyler are dating?”
She smiled as she turned to face him. “Yeah, she told me.”
“When?”
“The day we came back from the Superbowl.”
JC’s eyes widened. “That’s who you were talking about? My baby brother?!”
“Yep. Apparently, he went to visit her a few times while she was baby-sitting Vanessa that week and they hit it off.”
“Hmm.”
“What?”
“Nothing. I just never would have guessed. My brother isn’t exactly a relationship-y kind of guy.”
“Maybe he’s changed since he’s getting older.”
“Maybe.” JC said as they pulled into her apartment complex.
Salina was overjoyed when she walked into her apartment and was able to hug her daughter. The little girl had only been to visit Salina once while she was in the hospital and with being out-of-town and then being hospitalized, Salina felt like she hadn’t spent time with her daughter in two weeks.
Vanessa whined when Salina wouldn’t pick her up due to her still healing abdomen, so JC stepped in and lifted the little girl into his arms as Salina’s mother coaxed the younger woman to lie down and get some rest.
“Mom, I’ve been laying down for three days. I kinda just want to sit up and watch a movie or something. Tomorrow I’m gonna have a ton of calls to make for work.”
“Why?” her mother asked as she sat next to her daughter and JC and Vanessa sat on the floor together playing with her blocks.
“The Grammy’s are on Sunday and the ProBowl. I can’t go to either so I need to make sure I have someone who can escort JC to the ProBowl and Justin to the Grammy’s. I’m really wishing I’d had you going to the Grammys right about now.” She said to JC.
“I can go alone.”
She gave him a skeptical look. “No, you can’t. And even if you could, you’re not going to.”
He shrugged and went back to helping Vanessa build a tower.
“So, what are you going to do?” her mother asked.
Salina sighed. “Depending on how I feel, I might send Jen with JC and I’ll just go with Justin to the Grammys.”
“Why does Justin get you?” JC pouted from the floor.
“Cause he has all this stuff going on with the Superbowl and I don’t know that I trust anyone else to handle his interviews. If I don’t go, he won’t be walking the red carpet.”
“Do I have to do interviews?”
“Yes, you have an album coming out in less than a month. You do all the interviews you can, sir.”
Maria stood up and announced that she was going to make them dinner as Salina reached over to turn on the television.
Later that night, after Vanessa and Maria were fast asleep, JC laid with Salina on her couch.
“So, are you really going with Justin to the Grammy’s?” JC asked as he played with her fingers.
She rolled her eyes. “It really bothers you that much? Josh, it’s not like I’m cheating on you with Justin or something.”
“No, I know. It’s just”you just got out of the hospital and you’re not feeling 100% yet. You don’t need to be dealing with the rabid crowds of the Grammy’s.”
Salina chuckled at his statement because as hectic as award shows could be, rabid crowds was a bit of an overstatement. She leaned back to kiss his jaw while smiling. “I love that you’re so worried, but I have to go. It’s my job, but I promise I will not leave this apartment until then.”
“Pinky swear?”
She hooked her pinkie with his and the two drifted off to sleep.
“So, I heard JC was mad that you’re here with me and not him.” Justin commented from the other side of the limo next to his mom.
Salina’s head snapped to attention from where she was gazing at the crowds outside her window. It was the day of the Grammy’s and Salina had accompanied Justin and his mother to the Staples Center in Los Angeles where it was being held.
She had sent Jen off with JC to Hawaii which obviously pleased both Jen and Tyler, but left JC in sort of a funk. Salina, on the other hand, had flown to LA with her daughter and set up camp at her parents’ house.
She had decided to make it a week-long trip and visit her old friends while she was in town.
“Who told you that?” She asked Justin.
He shrugged. “Word gets around. I didn’t mean to get you in trouble with loverboy or make things harder for him and his album release, Sal.”
She shook her head. “It’s not your fault, Justin. Don’t worry about it.”
“Well, are you sure you’re feeling well enough for this, sweetie?” Lynn asked her.
“Of course. Ready to face the masses.” She said as her door was opened and she stepped out followed by Justin. An array of flashes went off when Justin stepped out of the limo and Salina guided him up the red carpet as fans screamed his name.
Salina had decided that in lieu of recent events, Justin would bypass all interviewers, pose briefly for photos on the red carpet and head inside for the show in order to not bring up the “Nipplegate” fiasco. That, of course, didn’t stop the photographers from yelling out comments about the situation and questions. As he inched further and further down the red carpet, Salina noticed Justin’s jaw tensing and broke in. She quietly pulled him faster down the red carpet.
“Are you okay?” She asked as the group was escorted to their seats. Justin nodded and Salina made sure he and Lynn were comfortable before heading backstage where all of the publicists waited to see if their clients received any awards.
Chapter 21 by jamiebrown232000
The next day Salina handled press phone calls and inquiries from her parents’ living room, but decided to take a break when Anna showed up. The two headed into the backyard to watch Vanessa run after butterflies.
“So, how’s life in Orlando been?” Salina’s best friend asked her as they watched Vanessa play.
“It’s been good. Busy, but good.” Salina answered.
“Yeah, you’ve definitely been busy.” Anna smirked at her.
Salina rolled her eyes. “If you’re referring to a certain musician, I plead the fifth.”
“How serious is it with you guys?”
“Pretty serious. I need to call him though, the ProBowl seemed to go well, but he’s pretty upset with Justin and me. I need to talk to him.”
“Why’s he mad?”
“I think he’s stressed because his album is being a little overshadowed by Justin’s ‘nipplegate’ fiasco.”
“Well, I don’t blame him,” Anna paused. “So, you love him?”
Salina took in a deep breath. “Yeah.” She said as she picked at her parents' grass.
“And you’ve known him how long?”
Salina sighed. “Anna, don’t start.”
“I’m just saying, this seems awfully familiar.”
“This is nothing like with Miguel.” Salina answered tensely.
“Are you sure?”
Salina sighed and stood up without answering. She walked over to Vanessa and brushed grass off of the little girl’s outfit. She refused to look up when she heard Anna walk up behind her.
Anna sighed. “I’m sorry. I just…I worry about you, you know?”
“I know that, but you don’t have to.”
“I just hate what you went through with Miguel”‘
“That wasn’t your fault, Anna.” Salina interrupted.
Anna had introduced Salina to her cousin, Miguel, several years before and carried the guilt of the hurt that Miguel caused her best friend to this very day.
“If I hadn’t set you guys up, he wouldn’t have put you through all that sh-crap,” Anna caught herself in front Vanessa. “I’ve never seen you in that much pain and he’s my cousin.”
“Yeah, but it wasn’t all bad. If you hadn’t introduced us, I wouldn’t have Vanessa. I would go through a thousand heartbreaks to have her in my life.” Salina said as she kissed her daughter’s cheek. “But none of that matters because this is different and JC is nothing like Miguel, I promise.”
Anna nodded. “I believe you. Just be careful.'
Salina rolled her eyes and handed Vanessa to Anna as she stood up. “Yes, mom. I’ve gotta go call him, I’ll be right back.”
Salina walked into her parents house and up to her old bedroom where she could phone her boyfriend in private. She hadn’t spoken to JC in two days because she wanted to give him space to deal with the emotions he seemed to be wearing on his sleeve lately. He hadn’t been subtle about his annoyance with Justin in the past few days and even less subtle about his irritation with Salina being in LA with Justin rather than in Hawaii with him.
Salina let out a breath when she received JC’s voice mail. “Hey, babe. It’s me. Just calling to see what you’re up to out there in Hawaii. I, uh, I saw your ProBowl performance and you looked great, of course. So…just call me back when you get the message, okay? I love you, Josh. Bye.” She shut her phone quietly and sat in her room for several minutes thinking about how she was going to handle her JC situation as his publicist and his girlfriend.
By the next day JC still hadn’t returned Salina’s call and she was beginning to worry that he was more upset with her than she had originally thought. She had spent the day at Universal Studios with her family and was putting Vanessa to bed that night when her cell phone rang in her pocket. She closed the door to Vanessa’s room and pulled out her phone.
“Hello?” She answered.
“Hey.” The sound of her boyfriend’s voice filtering through caused her to release a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.
“Hey, baby. Are you okay? How’s Hawaii? Is Jen still there with you?”
“Salina, slow down.” He said and she couldn’t quite read the inflection in his voice. It was very still and calm, but also quite serious. “I”uh”I’m sorry.”
“What?”
“I’m sorry that I haven’t called. I’m not mad at you; I want you to know that. I could never be truly mad at you, I love you.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “I love you, too. I just didn’t know what to think when I hadn’t heard from you and I knew you were upset about Justin.” She trailed off.
“I was upset about all of that, but it wasn’t his fault and it definitely isn’t your fault. Shit just happens and I’m sorry I was such a jackass about it.”
“It’s okay, I understand.”
He paused. “How’s the kid?”
Salina smiled. “She’s good. I just put her to bed, we spent the day at Universal.”
“Aww, I wanted to take her there.”
She laughed. “Well, you missed it, hun.” She paused. “I miss you so much, Josh.”
“I miss you too. But I’ll see you tomorrow, right? I mean, I can come over after my flight gets in if you want.” He stated unsurely.
“You bet your ass you’re coming over.”
It was his turn then to let out a laugh. “Okay, then. I’ll see you tomorrow, baby.”
A few weeks had passed as JC debuted his album and Salina assisted with his promotional efforts. The album hadn’t been a stunning success, but both JC and JIVE Records seemed to be pleased with the sales and had begun arranging tour dates for him. In the meantime, Salina was busy planning the fast approaching Challenge for the Children event for the guys and securing attendees and press to be present.
All the while, the relationship between Salina and JC flourished as the two spent every free moment they had together with Vanessa. JC had actually began thinking of what it might be like to have the two women live with him and was trying to scrounge up enough courage to ask her. JC knew Salina enjoyed her independence and did not want to become too reliant on JC. Convincing her to move in with him after only having dated her for six months was going to be a feat, he knew, but if their relationship continued at its current pace, he knew that he’d be asking her soon enough.
There was no way he could have known that their relationship was about to take a dip.
Salina had been working in her office during a warm day in the middle of May when an unexpected visitor popped in.
“Hey, boss?” Jen’s voice called over the intercom.
“I’ve asked you repeatedly not to call me that.” Salina responded with a smile. “What’s up?”
“Mr. JT is here to see you.” She answered and Salina heard Justin laugh in the background.
“Really? Send him in please.” She couldn’t think of any reason why Justin would be in Orlando and visiting her.
“Hey there, girlie.” Justin smiled as he walked in and handed her a cup of Starbucks coffee.
“Hey,” She responded unsurely as she looked at the cup then back at him. “What brings you to my neck of the woods?”
“Oh, nothing. I was in town and just thought I’d stop by and say ‘hi’ to everyone.”
Her eyebrows narrowed and sat back in her chair, thinking. “Just stopped in to say ‘hi’? Coffee? A catch. You want something.”
Justin sighed and sat in the chair across from her. “I need your opinion on something. Your honest opinion.”
“Okay.”
“And it has to be as my publicist, not JC’s girlfriend.”
Salina tensed noticeably as she didn’t want to be put in the middle of another “JC vs. Justin” issue ever again. “What’s going on, Justin?”
“Do you think that doing another NSync album would hurt my career?”
She sucked in a breath, she hadn’t been expecting a question like that at all. “What do you mean? Where is this coming from?”
“Well, we’ve all kind of decided that we’re going to make the decision about whether or not we’re going to do another group album when we all meet up at Challenge. So, we’re all supposed to go over the pros and cons on our own before then. Didn’t JC tell you?”
Salina felt a little embarrassed. “No, but he doesn’t really discuss his musical life with me unless it’s related to my job.”
Justin was quiet for a moment. “Oh, well, what do you think…about, you know, about what I asked?”
“Um…well, I think there can be pros and cons.” Salina stated diplomatically. “Obviously, you guys have a huge fan base, but you have a pretty good following of your own and you’ve developed a lot of respect from others in the music industry that I don’t think you had before.”
“So, you think I shouldn’t do it?”
“I didn’t say that.” She shook her head emphatically. “I thought you guys were contracted for another two albums with JIVE, anyway.”
Justin waved his hand dismissively. “I can get out of that. But I am worried about the other guys, I know that at least most of them want to do this and if I say ‘no’ it kinda leaves them in a big pile of shit. I mean, I still may want to go back later, but I don’t think I want to right now...They’re gonna be so hurt.”
“Well, that’s true, but I don’t think there’s any way to get around that. They’re going to be upset if you say ‘no,’ obviously because they need you to keep this group going. They don’t have thriving careers in the same way you do, Justin. I mean, you haven’t even done anything in 6 months and you’ve still grown more famous.”
“I don’t want it to be about fame.” He argued.
“People don’t by albums of faceless artists.” She pointed out. “Anyway, that’s not the point. If you’re not going to do another album with them you need to definitively say that at Challenge. First, you’ve been dragging your NSync fans around long enough, they need an answer once and for all. Second, the other guys have been turning down other career opportunities thinking that by the end of this year, you’re all going to be back in the studio and they needed to make time for that.”
“They have? But JC’s album…?”
“I didn’t mean JC. I meant Joey, Lance and Chris, they’re ready. If you really don’t want to make another album, you need to tell them.”
“They’re gonna hate me.” Justin looked down at his shoes.
“Maybe, but I doubt it. They're your friends and they love you. At the end of the day, Justin, you have to do what you think is best for you. I will say that I’ve never heard a harmony sound so sweet as when the five of you are singing together, but if you want to find a new sound that works better for you, then you should do that.”
“Thanks, Salina.” He smiled and stood up. “I should go get Johnny’s opinion and then think on this for a couple of weeks.” He started to walk towards the door.
“Uh…Justin?” Salina called.
He turned back with a smile. “Don’t worry, I won’t mention this conversation to JC.”
“Thanks.” She sighed as he walked out of the door. “Because he’s going to go crazy when he finds out.”
Salina finished up her day’s work and then collected Jen so they could walk to their cars together as they did every day.
“Bye, Chelsea.” Salina called to the receptionist and Jen waved to the girl.
“Bye, Jen.” Chelsea replied, completely snubbing Salina.
The two older women exchanged looks as they walked outside together. “Boy, does that girl hate you.” Jen laughed.
“I don’t get it. What did I do?” Salina asked.
“You’re dating the man that poor girl’s in love with.”
“JC? Really?”
“Oh, please, you’ve never seen the way she drools all over herself when he’s nearby?”
Salina shrugged as they reached her car. “I guess I’ve never paid much attention. Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow, Jen.”
Chapter 22 by jamiebrown232000
In the weeks leading up to the Challenge for the Children, Salina distanced herself from JC as he began excitedly talking about what it would be like to work with the guys of NSync again. He had spent a lot of time on the road for his club tour, but called Salina every day and mentioned their forthcoming reunion at least once during each conversation.
He began to notice her distance and asked her about it several times, but she always played it off as being tired and busy. JC had planned to ask her to move in with him once he finished his tour in June, but decided to put it off due to her recent lack of enthusiasm about their relationship.
Salina sighed as she listened to JC jabber about the weekend they were about to experience as she unbuckled Vanessa from her carseat and pulled her out of the car. She set the little girl on the ground, then walked to the back of the SUV to help JC and Lonnie get their luggage out. The three had finally arrived in Miami for the Challenge for the Children weekend and were staying in their own private cottage as were the rest of the guys of NSync and their guests.
Salina had arranged for Jen to come down and help out with the event and much to Jen’s delight, Tyler had been “hired” to be Vanessa’s baby-sitter for the weekend while everyone was busy with the event.
“So, who all is already here?” JC asked Salina as they unpacked.
“Joey, Chris and Lance should all have gotten here already.” She replied.
“Where’s Justin?”
“He’s coming later.” She answered shortly.
“He’s not going to be at the thing tonight?”
“Yes, he will. He’s just not here yet. He wanted to cut it close like that, don’t know why.” She sighed.
He stared at her for a few moments. He couldn’t for the life of him figure out what had been bothering her. “Are you okay?” He asked for what seemed like the millionth time in the last 4 weeks.
“I’m fine. Just thinking about how much work this weekend is going to be.” She cringed as the lie rolled easily off her tongue.
“Don’t worry about it so much, babe. You’ve done a fantastic job already. It’s going to be amazing.” He kissed her and wrapped his arms around her. “What day are we having the meeting?”
Salina closed her eyes. “Whenever you guys decide you’re ready.” She took a deep breath. “Josh, what if it doesn’t come out the way you hope? What if you guys decide you don’t want to do another album?”
He was quiet for a moment and Salina was afraid she had said the wrong thing. “It’s possible, but I don’t think that’ll happen. We’ve all been able to stretch our wings for a little bit, it’s time to come back now. Plus, we owe JIVE some more albums.” He said stealing another kiss from her before turning away and walking over to where Vanessa was playing with her doll on the floor. “You girls want to hit up the pool before the scavenger hunt thing tonight?”
Salina smiled and nodded before moving to pick out Vanessa’s bathing suit along with her own. She let JC focus on getting the little one dressed while she snuck into the bathroom to change. JC groaned appreciatively when she stepped out in her barely-there bikini.
“Mothers everywhere must wonder how you have this body after having that child.” He said kissing her neck and making her giggle.
“I burn calories chasing after her.” She said as he retreated into the bathroom to change into his own trunks.
Salina looked in the direction of where the guys had walked away from them two hours ago for about the tenth time.
“Girl, don’t worry about it.” Carrie said from the lounge chair next to her. “They’re big boys they’ll be fine.”
Salina nodded and went back to adding more sunblock to Vanessa. The men of NSync, their significant others and children had all been outside by the pool relaxing without the interruption of cameras when Chris decided that they better get what they were all dreading over with. So the five men walked away from their families back to the hotel where they had been for the last two hours.
Salina and Jen had spent the past three days working their butts off with celebrities and various members of the press. All of the events had gone off without a hitch and Salina had watched from across the stadium as the five men sang the national anthem together for what she assumed would be their last public performance as a group. She watched the five men grin at each other upon finishing and blinked back the tears that for some reason had clouded her vision. She caught JC’s glance and offered him a smile, then turned around to address the journalist who was standing next to her inquiring about his interview with the guys.
The weekend had been a complete success and the two girls were exhausted. After a few hours at the spa, paid for by the members of NSync, they had taken root poolside with the rest of their group.
“Sal!” Tyler called to her. “Can I bring Vanessa in?”
”Yeah.” She said as Tyler got out of the pool and took Vanessa’s little hand. Salina smiled as she watched all the kids play in the water with Tyler, Matt, Juan, Trace and Steve. The women all laid on the lounge chairs and relished the fact that they did not have to deal with boyfriends or husbands or children. All of the adults knew in the back of their minds that when the five men came back they were either going to have huge smiles on their faces or be in really bad moods. Salina had a pretty good idea of which it would be.
She looked towards the hotel again and saw four people walking towards them. Lance and Joey were walking together talking quietly. Chris was behind them and seemed to be deep in thought. Justin was walking slowly behind him, with his hands in his pockets. Salina searched for JC, but didn’t see him.
“Uh-oh.” Kelly breathed from the other side of Salina as she locked eyes with Joey.
Joey and Lance quickly made their way to the sides of their women. Lance knelt next to Carrie and she kissed his forehead while Joey laid back onto Kelly in the lounge chair. Chris said nothing to his date for the weekend as he walked to the edge of the pool and watched his niece and nephews play. Lastly, Justin silently took Cameron’s hand and guided her away from the pool area back to where their cottage was. Not a word was said by any of the four men, but their actions spoke clearly. Salina was really worried now because she knew JC probably hadn’t taken the news well at all.
“Joey?” She called quietly knowing he was upset.
He turned to her. “He’s in the big ballroom with the piano. Second floor.”
“Thanks.” She turned to Tyler and Vanessa, but Kelly spoke before she could.
“Go. We’ll keep an eye on her.”
Salina nodded and walked quickly towards the hotel. She found the ballroom quickly and heard piano music trickling from the doors. It took her a second to figure out the song, but soon she realized it was the music from ‘This I Promise You.’
She walked into the room and saw him sitting at the piano. Concentrating on the keys as he played carefully, not wanting to mess up. She walked slowly over to him and put her hand on his shoulder.
He stopped playing immediately and she felt him tense. She tried to massage his neck and shoulders, but he moved away from her, standing up and pacing the floor. “You knew, didn’t you? That’s why you’ve been acting so weird, you knew.”
That question caught her off guard. She didn’t think JC knew that she knew what Justin was going to say.
“I had a pretty good idea, yeah.” She said timidly.
“Why didn’t you say something?”
”To him or you?”
”Both!” He said starting to get angry.
“Well, I didn’t say anything to him because it’s not my job to get involved in things that only concern the five of you. I didn’t tell you because when I talked to him he hadn’t made a decision one way or another. I just knew what he was going to decide.”
”You should have told me.” He said accusingly.
“I couldn’t. Part of my job is to be his publicist too and to keep certain things confidential. Dating you doesn’t change that.”
“It should! You should have said something during all those conversations we had about this.”
Now he was making her upset. “Why JC? So you could’ve made a big deal about?”
”This isn’t a big deal?!”
“That’s not what I meant. I just… you would’ve told the other guys and you all would’ve been snubbing Justin these past few days and this whole weekend would’ve been ruined.”
”Well, as far as I’m concerned it is ruined.”
”JC, this weekend isn’t about you, it’s about the money you raise.”
“I know that publicity bullshit! I’ve said many times myself!” She was startled. He’d never yelled at her or swore at her before. “But you know as well as I do that the real reason the five of us are here was to make this decision. Frankly, I’m surprised he showed up.” JC chuckled spitefully.
Salina gulped. “Did he say he wants to quit?”
JC scoffed. “No, he wants to focus on his movie career.” JC said in a mocking voice. “He doesn’t even want to put out a ‘Justin Timberlake’ album.”
Salina nodded. “What’d the rest of the guys say?”
”We’re all ready.”
“And he’s not.” Salina said sitting on the piano bench and looking at her feet.
”Of course. If I had a multi-platinum selling album, movie deals flowing in, artists all over the world wanting to work with me and Cameron Diaz on my arm, I’d screw over my best friends too.”
Salina looked up at him astonished. She said nothing and it wasn’t until JC stopped pacing that he noticed the hurt on her face.
“What?” he asked.
“I can’t believe you.”
”What?” He asked again slightly more aggravated.
“Cameron Diaz on your arm? Is that what you want? Some high profile celebrity so that you can walk around and rule the world like Justin? If so why didn’t you just stay with Tara?”
”Ugh, Salina, I’m not doing this with you right now.”
”Doing what, JC?”
”Stopping to make you feel better because something I said came out of context. That’s not what I meant and you know it. God! I don’t have time for that, I have to figure out how to save my goddamn career.”
Salina narrowed her eyes at him. “Fuck your career, JC!” She said before standing up and leaving.
She listened to see if he would call out for her, but he didn’t. She looked back to see if he was following her, but he wasn’t. Completely forgetting about Vanessa, Salina walked out to a secluded section of the beach and sat down. Tears streaming down her face.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.