Joey watched her face for awhile as she looked at her hand. He could tell that she had no interest in the card game and was simply trying to play just to please him. It was sweet of her to come keep him company after stealing away his last opponent.
“You know we don’t have to play cards, if you don’t want too.” Joey finally said. Mandy looked up at him and smiled; she was really trying to figure this game out.
“I don’t want you to be bored, since Katy killed the TV and all.” Mandy explained.
“We can just sit here and talk.” Joey suggested. Mandy looked at him blankly, what on earth did the two of them have to talk about? It was like they were from two different planets. When she froze and didn’t answer, Joey set his cards down on the table and moved to be beside her on the sofa. She reluctantly set her hand down as well and turned toward him.
Joey had hoped Mandy would start the conversation off, but when she said nothing he started to ponder what to say first. There really wasn’t much going on in his life right now accept Kelly and the girls, but he assumed Mandy didn’t want to hear about that.
“So tell me about this music video?” Joey asked, when he couldn’t think of anything else.
“We went over the lyrics last night, the four of us, and we came up with some great ideas. We might start shooting it soon; after all we don’t want to keep you guys here too long.” Mandy answered. It stung a little to think that they might all be leaving soon; Mandy thought she could stay here like this forever. But eventually someone could find out and ruin it.
“I am not going to lie I was totally freaked out at first, but you know it’s been nice to get away for awhile.” Joey said. He looked down and was picking at his finger nails.
“Yeah well next time I recommend a vacation to a kidnapping as a form of escape.” Mandy laughed. Joey laughed too. His laugher was so warm; it made Mandy’s eyes close. Joey looked over at her, she seemed so at peace. That is when he leaned in to kiss her. Her eyes opened as he approached her and she turned her head suddenly, letting the kiss fall on her cheek instead. Joey snapped back when he realized what he had just done.
“I am sorry I shouldn’t have.” He rattled off nervously.
“It’s alright; I shouldn’t have done what I did to you in the club. I am a flirt and it just sort of happened, of course Katy was encouraging me which didn’t help.”Mandy said, that guilty feeling suddenly returning. Okay so maybe talking with Joey was a bad idea, they should have stuck with just playing cards. “Joey we can’t…” Mandy started to say, but she turned and became lost in his big brown eyes.
“Yeah I know. I just can’t help but become enamored with you and your innocence.” Joey said. He played with his wedding band and secretly hoped Mandy hadn’t seen him do it. “We can be friends though, right?” Joey questioned.
“Sure, I have a lot of hot guy friends.” Mandy said with a smile. She was laughing on the inside that Joey had just called her innocent, after all she had kidnapped him. She was just glad that Joey wasn’t mad at her and made a mental note to try to watch how much she flirted with him from now on. She just wanted to be close to him. “So as my new friend, you care to show me what in the hell I was doing wrong here?” She added picking her hand back up and showing it to him. This just was not her game.
Joey laughed and slid a little closer to her, he carefully went over her hand with her and showed her where she had gone wrong, all the while trying hard not to touch her in a way that a friend wouldn’t.
Mandy had just adjusted to Joey’s closeness when Lance reappeared from the recording booth. She sighed inward, almost glad to see Lance. Surely she wouldn’t be tempted with him around. Lance joined them around the table and questioned them about what they were doing. Mandy suddenly remembered why they were all here in the first place. She got up and casually patted Joey on the knee before excusing herself, as she headed for the recording studio. She thought that she should check on Justin and JC to make sure that they weren’t up to something.
Upon entering JC didn’t even look up at her, but Justin gave her a friendly wave from the sound proof room, where he was trying to re do a few lines. Mandy slipped in beside JC and looked over at what he was doing, which wasn’t much. It wasn’t hard to pick up on JC’s demeanor.
Mandy began to try to start up a conversation with JC, which was harder than it should have been in her opinion. He kept giving her short answers and he wouldn’t even look at her. Mandy started to play with the sliders on the mixer out of sheer boredom.
“Stop doing that.” JC stated, it wasn’t that she was hurting anything, her movement were just annoying him. He just wanted to get this all done so that he could go home and just forget any of this had ever happened.
“So why don’t you like Kim?” Mandy finally asked, her curiosity getting the best of her at this point.
“She’s bossy and she just knit picks everything that I do.” JC sighed, without looking over at her. There was a hint of something in his voice that Mandy couldn’t place. She took a chance and pulled something out of her back pocket, she had been carrying it around in case Kim had another melt down. She tossed the photo onto the laptop in front of JC and waited for a reaction.
“What the hell is this?” JC asked lift the photo to get a better look at it in the dimly lit room.
“That is one of the photos that Katy took while you and Kim were passed out. You can keep it if you want.” Mandy offered. She watched at JC’s features softened slightly. There it was. He couldn’t deny it. He liked what he saw in the photograph. JC shook his head suddenly as if to shake a thought he was having.
“Excellent, now I have something to show to the police.” JC said, trying to let on too much. It wasn’t that he had a problem with his crush on Kim, but she clearly didn’t feel the same way about him and he was talking to her good friend.
“I think you just don’t get along because you are so much alike.” Mandy said trying to repeat what she had told Kim earlier.
“I am not like that.” JC answered. He kind of felt offended.
“Are you sure about that? You are kind of being snippy to me right now.” Mandy replied. JC looked over at her; there was something in his eyes, like he wasn’t telling her everything. “I am guessing that you are not so good at poker either.” Mandy added, recalling how Joey had just kicked her butt and claimed that she had a pretty good ‘tell’ when she was bluffing. JC just looked at her confused; He couldn’t understand what a card game had to do with anything that they were talking about.
“You like her don’t you.” Mandy questioned. JC turned to her suddenly; try not to act surprised by her question.
“I am not admitting to anything; accept that I want to go home.” JC replied, but it was alright Mandy didn’t need a confession at this point. She was pretty sure that they were both just fighting with their feelings for each other but maybe in time and with a little help they could both cave in and find happiness.
Brandi and Chris were now in the kitchen helping Kim fix dinner. Chris glanced at the front door and he felt a guilty feeling wash over him. Since their talk Brandi hadn’t tried to restrain him, but she was keeping an eye on him just in case. She wanted to him feel like she trusted him, she even wanted to trust him, but she knew she couldn’t let him leave under any circumstance.
She saw him looking toward the door, but he didn’t move toward it so she let it slide after all there was not harm in thinking about something. He turned back to them and aided Brandi with the salad without giving the door another thought. Once they were done Chris delivered the food to the guys himself while Brandi remained upstairs, still unable to face the guys yet.
Chris didn’t fight when Mandy chained him again, after all just because Brandi trusted him it didn’t mean the others had to. By now it was getting late and they needed to secure the guys for the night any way.
