“So, what exactly is it that you are making?” I asked as I jumped on the counter in the kitchen of my parent’s house. Justin arrived a little over a half an hour after Melissa left to go to the office. I’ve been helping him to an extent, telling him where the pots and pans are. Other than that he made me promise to stay out his way. As amusing and entertaining it is to watch his face scrunch up in concentration, the occasional curse word slipping out of his mouth, I really wanted to know what he was making.

            He looked over at me from stirring a pot of noodles and shook his head, “You’ll just have to wait and see.”

            I swung my legs lightly back and forth, occasionally stealing a piece of broccoli when he wasn’t looking. “How was the rest of your night last night?”

            He smiled, “Quiet. Well, quiet after I gave my mother and Trace a detailed account of our date. My mom really likes you, you know.”

            I shrugged, “What can I say? I have that affect on people.” He smacked my denim jean covered thigh lightly with the wooden spoon and I giggled, “I’m kidding. I like your mom too. My mom seems to be pretty fond of you as well.”

            “Is this weird to you at all?” He questioned, raising an eyebrow at me. “I mean, this is our second date and we’ve already met the folks.”

            I laughed, biting on the corner of my bottom lip, “No, given how we met anyways. I think it’s weird you asked me out.”

            “That would make you weird for saying yes.” He winked at me, turning the burner on the stove off, “Why is it weird that I asked you out?”

            I shrugged, “I don’t know. I’m not used to being the one that gets asked out, I guess. It’s usually Melissa. But, I’m glad you did.”

            He sat the spoon down on the stove and moved over towards me. I opened my legs a little and he stepped in between, placing his hands on either side of my thighs on the counter. “I’m not good at the whole being attracted to someone and getting to know them before dating them. I like to date and I want to date you, if that’s okay.”

            I poked his nose, laughing when he scrunched up his face, “Seeing as though I let you near a stove without knowing what you’re cooking first, I’d say I want to date you too.”

            His face broke out into a grin as he pushed himself back, “Let’s eat!”

*~*~*

            After eating the delicious shrimp scampi Justin cooked for dinner, we made our way into the living room to watch movies. I watched from my spot on the couch as he looked through my parent’s huge DVD collection in the bookcase beside the television. My cell phone buzzed from the coffee table and Justin looked over his shoulder, a twinkle in his eyes, “Hot date tonight? I hope I’m not keeping you.”

            I rolled my eyes and flipped open my phone to a new text message, “its Melissa. Pick a movie, Mister.”

I’m pretty sure this is going to be an all night affair.

These people are dumb! Have ya’ll practiced making babies yet?

            I giggled, moving a little when Justin sat beside me on the couch. He placed his arm across the back, tapping my shoulder. I looked over at him, raising an eye brow when he just stared at me. Eventually, I scooted closer towards him as I typed my response,

You’re such a pervert. Do your work.

            I leaned forward and sat my phone on the coffee table, “I’m sorry. You have my undivided attention now. What movie did you pick?”

            He looked down at me as he scooted further down on the couch, propping his feet up on the coffee table, “Oh you’ll see.”

            As the movie started, I glanced up at Justin, “Really?” Out of all the movies, He had to pick Talladega Nights.

            He nodded, “This is a good movie!”

            I laid my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes, “Good? Huh. Not the word I would use.”

            Thirty minutes into the movie, I felt Justin squirm a bit. I moved to sit up as he did the same, “Are you okay?”

            He turned to face me, his expression unreadable, “Can we just talk? I’m not really paying attention.”

            I turned fully to face him as he picked up the remote and pressed pause on the movie. “Sure. What do you want to talk about?”

            He shifted his body towards me, leaning his elbow against the back of the couch. Placing his chin in his hand, he studied me for a minute before breaking out into a grin, “I want to know everything about you. Why’d you say yes?”

            I bit the inside of my cheek for a minute before answering, “I don’t know. You caught me off guard to be honest. The beauty of dating is the chance to get to know someone, right? Well, I’m getting to know you. So, Justin Timberlake, why did you ask me out?”

            He chuckled, “Well, I thought you were beautiful the minute I saw you and then you sang that song at the cookout. I don’t know, I guess I just wanted to get to know you, too. Tell me about your life, Ari.”

            I laughed lightly before taking a deep breath and letting it out, “Alright, hmm. Well, I come from a rather large family as you saw the other night. I graduated from college a couple years ago with a degree in Criminal Justice and moved to New York with Melissa where we still live today. I have a Welsh corgi named Foxy and a guinea pig named Mimi. “I tilted my head to the side, “Anything else?”

            “Favorite color?”

            “Blue.”

            “Movie?”

            “Breakfast Club.” He’s on a roll.

            “TV Show?”

            “Criminal Minds.” I giggled, “Anything else, Detective?”

            He rolled his eyes. “So, when you date someone do you just… date them or do you date multiple people at one time?”

            I leaned my head to side, watching as his concentrated on my face. I smiled before answering, “I’m a one man kind of woman. I really suck at the whole dating thing. I’ve only been on two dates, every other time it has been a relationship so I don’t know how I would react to dating more than one person at a time. What about you?”

            “I have the tendency to be ‘overwhelming’ or so I am told. I prefer dating one at a time and usually by the end of the first date I can tell if it’ll work or not.” He responded, shifting to stretch his arms over his head. He covered his mouth as he yawned and I looked over at the clock.

            “Are you tired? It’s almost ten.” He nodded reluctantly. I stood up and he followed suit, “I’m not kicking you. I’ve had a great time but I don’t want you to stay if you’re ready for bed.”

            He walked over towards me, slowly. He held his arms out and I grinned, stepping into his hug. Wrapping my arms around his neck, his hold tightened and I closed my eyes. He spoke up after a few moments, “I really like you. Is that okay?”

            I laughed, feeling his body shake with laughter against mine and nodded, “Yeah. It’s okay.”

*~*~*

            “So, I’m starting to rethink our friendship.” I groaned, shifting under Melissa’s weight. I was more tired than I thought the previous night and fell asleep almost immediately after Justin left. I opened one eye to glance at the clock: ten after eleven. As much as I love Melissa, I’m pretty sure her brain does not function like the normal person. Why she felt the need to pounce on me is beyond my comprehension. I really needed to start locking my door at night.

            I mustered all the strength I could seeing as though I was rudely awaken and shoved Melissa off of me. She plopped down beside me, crawling under my covers. I rolled over on my side so my back is to her and pulled the covers over my head, “Could you please just go away? I’m tired!”

            She giggled, “I am running on four tall coffees and four red bulls. I’m waiting for my crash and until then, I’m just going to fuck with you. Besides, Milt’s downstairs and I hate grown up talk.”

            I chuckled, pushing the covers off of my head, “I’m up.” She clapped her hands together, getting out from under the covers. Walking over to my side of the bed, she grabbed my outstretched hands and pulled me up. I adjust my white tank top and princess frog shorts before walking to the bathroom in my room to brush my teeth and pulled my hair into a ponytail.

            I emerged after taking care of my business and rolled my eyes at Melissa, “I hate you.” The smell of bacon hit me full force as I opened to door, “Did they cook breakfast?”

            Nodding from her spot on the end of my bed, she stood up and followed me out of my room. As we made our way down the stairs I heard a familiar laughter and looked over my shoulder, my eyebrows raised. I just couldn’t figure out who the laughter belongs to Melissa shrugged and continued to nudge me down the stairs, “I’m hungry. Move it woman.”

            I laughed as we stepped into the dining room attached to the kitchen and stopped dead in my tracks. I heard Melissa snicker from behind me and I elbowed her in the stomach before looking back at the table. My uncle, Justin, my mother and Lynn were all sitting around the table, laughing about whatever it is they were talking about. “You knew.” I accused.

Melissa continued to giggle, stepping around me to grab a plate and headed towards the food that was sprawled out on the kitchen counter, “Morning everyone.” I greeted before following Melissa into the kitchen. “I really fucking hate you. Why didn’t you tell me he was here?” I whispered harshly. “I’m walking around in my frog pajamas!”

Melissa nodded, trying to hide her giggle as she took a bite out of her bacon strip. I placed my hand on my hip, waiting for her finish. Her blue eyes twinkled, “I’m sorry, okay? Only his mom was down here when I first walked in. I didn’t know he was here until I came into the room with you so shush. Plus, he might think you’re hot in your princess frogs.”

            She nudged me and winked. Grabbing her plate, she reentered the dining room to eat. I grabbed the last plate on the counter and began putting bacon when a voice from behind me spoke up, “Nice shorts.”

            I narrowed my eyes before turning around, “Thanks. I like to think so.” Justin stepped further into the kitchen. He leaned against the counter and watched while I put the rest of my food on my plate. I sat the plate down and turned to face him, “Can I help you with something, Mr. Timberlake?” I took the chance to finally get a good look at him. He was wearing William Rast denim jeans and plain white t-shirt. He really was fucking adorable in his glasses.

            He gave me a lopsided grin, “Just wanted to say hello.” Leaning forward, he kissed my cheek and I bit the inside of my lip, “And Melissa was right. I do think you look hot in your shorts.” He gave me a wink before pushing off the counter and retreated back to the dining room. I grabbed my plate, willing the blush that crept up on my cheeks away.

*~*~*

            After breakfast, I excused myself to go take a shower and get ready. I’m not one to be embarrassed easily but being around Justin makes me nervous. I guess I like him. Stepping out of the shower, I wrapped my white towel around my caramel body and opened the door, using my free hand to wipe the steam off the mirror. My long black hair was now curly from being wet and I scrunched it a little before picking up my toothbrush again. As I was about to put the toothbrush in my mouth, someone cleared their throat from inside my room.

            I sat the toothbrush down and stepped into the room to see Justin sitting on my bed, holding my stuffed frog, Maggie. “I’m doing everything possible not to look up but Melissa told me it’d be okay if I waited in here. I heard the shower on and I was going to leave but I became highly interested in this frog. You do realize one of its legs is falling off?”

            “You can look up, I’m not naked. And that’s Maggie. I’ve had her since I was 3 so be careful, she’s very fragile.”  I walked further into the room, towards my dresser. I pulled out a pair of jean capri pants and a grey tank top and turned to head back towards the bathroom. Justin was watching me. “What?”

            “Your hair… It’s nice like that.” He complimented and I smiled back.

            “Well, thank you. Let me change. I’ll be right back.” I reentered the bathroom to finish getting ready. When I emerged I was dressed, my hair was pulled back in a clip and I had managed to put a little make up on. Not much. Just a little bit of powder, blush and mascara. It was supposed to be hot outside again.

            “So what are your plans for today?” Justin asked as I sat down beside him on the bed. He held Maggie up to my face, making kissing noises.

            I laughed, grabbing the frog out of his hands and sitting her back at the head of my bed. “Nothing, I should really start on a paper for school but I think I am going to get some ice cream. What are you doing?”

            “Well, I wanted to see if you wanted to hang out.” He glanced over at me, curiosity in his eyes.

            “Justin, this would be our third date.” He nodded so I continued, “Are we…?”

            He bit his lip and raised his eyebrows, “Are we?” He whispered.

            I giggled, “I don’t know!” I threw my hands up, “I like you. I like you a lot. But you haven’t even -” I stopped, looking down at my hands. “I’m not used to dating. I haven’t done it in a really long time.”

            He placed one of his hands on top of mine, pulling them apart. Lacing our fingers together, he used his free hand to turn my face towards him so I was giving him my full attention, “I haven’t what, Miss Ari?”

            I let out the breath I didn’t know I was holding, “Kissed me yet.”

Leaning down, he grinned as our noses touched, “Well, why didn’t you just say something?”

His lips were pressed against mine before I could respond. He kept his free hand on my cheek, turning his head to the side slightly. I sighed in content when I felt his tongue ran across my bottom lip. He pulled back first, our faces still close.

Yeah. We so are.