The next day Allie got up early so that she could start moving her things into the new apartment. She kept replaying last night’s events in her mind smiling to herself at the thought that Justin Timberlake had asked her out. It seemed almost surreal to her and yet it was real. She tried to keep her distance from him but he had a way of getting under her skin and before she knew it, she was agreeing to go on a date with him. She did make the right decision… didn’t she?
“Could you just put that lamp on the table over there?” Allie pointed over to the bedside table before she pulled her hair back into a ponytail.
“Right here?” Josh asked as he walked over to the table.
“Yeah that’s perfect.” Allie let out a sigh as she sat down on the bed. It was about four in the afternoon and she was exhausted from the move. Her parents and Josh had graciously lent her a hand and everything was pretty much set now. Well almost everything. She did have a few more boxes to unpack and her apartment could use some decorating but at the moment, it wasn’t looking too bad.
“It looks good.” Josh said as he looked around her room, taking a seat next to her.
“Yeah, it’s coming along.” She smiled over at him, nudging his shoulder. “Thanks for helping me with everything by the way.”
“No problem. You knew I couldn’t leave you hanging. But I do want some type of repayment.” He let out a laugh.
“What kind of repayment?”
“Well since I did help you move in and I gave my blessing to Justin…”
“Oh god.” Allie rolled her eyes at him, laughing softly as he continued.
“I want all the details of this date tonight and I mean everything. Don’t leave anything out.”
“What do you think is gonna happen? We’re gonna get some dinner and maybe see a movie. The end. Doesn’t sound all that exciting.”
“I don’t care. I just want to know everything. It’s not everyday your friend dates a celebrity.”
“I’m not dating him. It’s just one date.”
“Which will lead to another date and another one and then you’ll be dating.”
“Thanks for rushing everything for me.” She laughed shaking her head.
“So what time is he picking you up?”
“He said he would be here at seven. I need to start getting ready soon.”
“You need three hours to get ready?”
“Well I haven’t showered yet and I need to pick out something to wear.” Josh gave her a face before he started laughing. “Shut up! I’m a girl, we take longer to get ready. And he’s Justin fucking Timberlake, he could have any girl he wants and I have to compete with them.”
“You don’t have to compete. He asked you out and damn, I’ve never seen you get this worked up over a guy.”
“Yeah, I know.” She let out a sigh. “To tell you the truth I almost called him today to cancel our date. I have too much going on right now. I don’t want to add something else to the mix.”
“I’m glad you didn’t do that. Just relax; you’re going to have a good time. I think you’re just making a big deal out of nothing.”
“You’re probably right.”
“I know I am.” He hit her leg before he stood up again. “I’m gonna get going so you can start getting ready. Have a good time.”
“I will.” She stood up and walked him out of her room and over to the door. “I’ll make sure I call you tomorrow.”
“Why not tonight?”
“Are you kidding?”
“Yeah.” He laughed. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow and you better not forget!”
“I won’t! See you later.” Allie shut the door behind him and leaned against it letting out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. Only three more hours.
Justin shut his car door and walked toward the studio, twirling the set of keys around his finger. He was meeting Timbaland to work on a song that they had written together. He had less than three hours to start recording the song but he figured that he had plenty of time before he needed to pick up Allie. He opened the door to the studio and walked inside greeting the familiar faces that he saw. He walked into the recording booth were Timbaland was and smiled at him.
“Hey man, how’s it going?”
“I don’t know… I think we need to work on these lyrics.” Timbaland looked up from the soundboard tweaking the music of the song.
“What? I thought the lyrics were fine.” Justin’s face furrowed in confusion. They worked their ass off on those lyrics and now they weren’t going to work. He didn’t understand.
“If we want to keep the music then we need to change the lyrics. We have a good solid beat for the song but the lyrics don’t match.”
“It’s the only way around it?” Justin leaned forward and ran his hand over his face feeling stressed out.
“Yeah, we just need to work on the hook and the second verse. We can work on it now or we can just come back tomorrow.”
Justin looked over to the clock thinking about the amount of time he had. “Let’s work on it now.” He was a perfectionist and if he didn’t work on it now, it would bother him for the rest of the night.
“Alright let’s do this then.”
He knew he was pressed for time but he was going to make it work. He couldn’t be late for his date; he would just have to focus.
Allie finished putting on her mascara before she ran into her room to change her shirt. For the past three hours, she had been frantically running around her apartment trying to do her make up and fix her hair as well as finding a decent outfit to wear that night. She pulled the shirt over her head and threw it to the ground as she looked for a different one.
“Shit, why don’t I have any damn clothes?” She glanced at the clock. “Are you fucking kidding me?” It was seven on the dot and she wasn’t ready. He would be there any minute and she still hadn’t picked a shirt to wear. She started pulling shirts of her hangers before finding one that she didn’t love but was willing to accept. She pulled it over her head quickly then proceeded to put on her shoes and grab her purse determined to be ready when he arrived.
She walked out to her living room and checked herself in the full-length mirror deciding that she didn’t look too bad. She took a deep breath and then sat on the couch waiting for him to come. She tapped her foot lightly obviously very impatient. She kept her eyes on the clock not daring to look away. It was currently 7:15, he was fifteen minutes late but she just assumed that he hit some traffic.
Fifteen minutes turned into thirty minutes that turned into forty-five and then finally an hour had passed. It was eight and there was still no sign of Justin. He had stood her up. She was crushed but at the same time, she sort of expected it from him. He was a celebrity and she was just some girl who bumped into him. It wasn’t meant to be. She grabbed her cell phone deciding to call him; maybe there was a reason for him not showing up. She dialed his number and waited as it rang into her ear. It quickly went to voicemail and she hung up frustrated with the situation. If there was a reason, he wasn’t going to show up he should have called her but he didn’t. He probably didn’t give a damn about her.
She leaned back against the couch staring up at the ceiling. She didn’t know what to do with herself. She couldn’t bring herself to get up and change because deep down she was holding out hope for him. He seemed like such a good guy but why was he doing this to her? She waited a little longer before slumber took over her body and she fell asleep on the couch.
Justin sung the last line of the song in the recording booth before Timbaland stopped recording. “Ok man, I think we got it.” Timbaland said glad that they were able to complete the song.
“I think it came out well.” Justin said as he walked out of the recording booth.
“The song is fucking awesome!”
“Ok you’re right.” Justin laughed. “Hey Tim, can you check the clock over there?” He pulled his phone out of his pocket noticing that he had a missed call. He saw that it was from Allie and he raised an eyebrow before looking over at Timbaland.
“It’s 10:15.”
“You’re fucking with me right?” Justin’s eyes widened. It couldn’t be that late.
“Nah, it’s 10:15. Why, what’s the problem?”
“I had a date at seven. Fuck.” He grabbed his keys making his way to the door.
“Damn, you better do something good for her to make up for this.”
“Yeah, you’re telling me. I’ll call you later.” Justin rushed out of the studio and over to his car. He tried to dial Allie’s number but she wasn’t answering her phone. Was she ignoring him? He didn’t blame her if she was. He got in his car and pulled out of the parking lot trying to figure out something to do. He needed to think of something and he needed to think of something fast. He figured there wasn’t anything that could really make up for his mistake but he was at least going to try.
Allie awoke to knocking on her door. She looked around the room, her eyes barely open. For a minute, she forgot about her date until she looked at the clock and noticed that it was eleven. He never called or anything. She couldn’t believe it.
The knocking continued as she made her way over to the door. She let out a yawn before she opened the door only to see Justin standing in front of her. She didn’t say anything right away. She just stared at him with a blank expression.
“Hi…” Justin tested out the waters trying to see just how mad she was.
“Do you know what time it is?”
“Yeah and I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to lose track of time.”
“You should have called or something but instead you just left me waiting here like an idiot.” She shook her head realizing how hurt she was. “You should probably just go…” She started to the shut the door but his arm blocked the door.
“Please just let me explain.”
“No Justin, there’s nothing to explain just leave.”
He brought his other arm out from behind his back and he put out his hand, which held three bags of McDonald’s. “It’s not a lot but I had to bring something and that was the closest thing I could find to real food.” His eyes bore into her hoping that she would forgive him.
Allie looked down at the bags before looking back up at him. She wanted to be mad at him but for some reason she found it extremely amusing that he had brought her McDonald’s as a form of retribution. A smile formed at the corners of her lips and Justin looked at her obviously confused by her expression.
“You really know how to woo a girl don’t you?” She asked him sarcastically.
“Yeah, I know but it was the best thing I could come up with. But I do have more.” He handed her the bags before leaning down to pick up another bag, which held some other things inside it.
“What’s in there?” She tried to look inside but he held the bag behind him.
“No, you can’t look unless you forgive me and let me redo this date.”
“I don’t know… it’s a little late for a date don’t you think?”
“It’s never too late. Just let me set up.”
“Set up?” She crossed her arms over her chest as she eyed him.
“Yes, set up. Trust me.”
“Fine, you get one more chance but that’s it.” She stepped out of the doorway to let him inside.
“Thank you.” He walked in and looked around her apartment trying to figure out where he was going to do this. He could do it in the kitchen but it was too small. Maybe in the living room but it might be a little cliché. He looked around a little bit more until he saw her balcony. He smiled to himself and then looked over at her. “Do you mind going into your room while I get everything together?”
“You’re going to make me wait longer than I already have?” She laughed softly.
“I promise it won’t take long.”
“Ok… but I’m timing you this time.” She walked into her room and when Justin was sure she was out of sight he grabbed the bags and walked out to the balcony setting up a mock date. When he thought he had everything under control he walked over to her room to get her.
“I’m done.” She walked out of the room and looked him over.
“What did you do?”
“You’ll just have to see.” She cautiously made her way over to the living room and looked around not noticing anything out of the ordinary. She looked back at him confused about this whole thing when something caught her eye out on the balcony. When she moved in, she didn’t have any furniture for the balcony except a small table that sat alone but now when she looked out there the table was covered with a tablecloth and two small candles were placed in the middle. She smiled knowing that the tablecloth was plastic and that he probably just picked up all of this stuff a few minutes ago but it didn’t matter to her, the thought he put into it was nice. She walked out on the balcony and laughed looking at the McDonald’s bags.
“You really are something else.”
“It would have been better if I had been here on time. I really am sorry about that.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore; I think this might have made up for it. It was a sweet idea.” She smiled at him.
“Well I’m glad you approve. Why don’t you take a seat? You didn’t have any chairs so I used some pillows from your couch. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Interesting idea.” She laughed and shook her head. “I don’t mind.” She took a seat on one of the pillows and he sat down across from her. “So I hope you have a quarter pounder in one of those bags.”
“I have one of everything in these bags.” He laughed and looked through the bags before he pulled out a quarter pounder. “Here you go.”
“Thanks.” She opened the wrapper and grabbed some fries before taking a bite of her burger.
“And I have a chocolate and vanilla shake. Which one do you want?”
“Chocolate please.” He handed her the shake and she took a sip from it. He grabbed a big mac for himself and he started eating. Allie smiled over at him and he caught her eye.
“What?”
“Nothing, I just realized why all the girls want you.”
“Because I’m so damn sexy they just can’t resist?” He wiggled his eyebrows.
“What? No!” She laughed throwing a fry at him. “It was nice of you to do all of this. You could have just called and apologized but you actually came over.”
“I honestly didn’t mean to miss our date. I was looking forward to it.”
“Well I think it all worked out in the end. You redeemed yourself I think.”
“Good to know that all you need is some McDonald’s to make you feel better.” He smirked and laughed. She glared at him slightly before throwing a few more fries at him.
“Next time I’ll expect more.”
“Next time?”
“Yeah, next time.”
“So you’re calling the shots now?” Justin grinned.
“I am. Do you have a problem with that?”
“Not at all. I’m just glad you’re actually thinking about next time.”
“I guess you have me intrigued.” She smiled at him before taking another bite of her burger.
They finished their meals and talked for hours telling each other different stories and sharing their interests. There was never a dull moment shared between the two of them. It was now four in the morning and they were sitting on her couch clearly becoming exhausted with each passing minute.
“Is it really four?” Allie rubbed her eyes. “You kept me up passed my bed time.”
“Yeah, it’s passed mine too. I should probably get going so you can get some sleep. He stood up from the couch and put on his jacket. Allie got up too, disappointed that the night was over but was thankful that she could get some rest. She walked him to the door and looked up at him.
“Thanks for the night Justin. It might have been one of the best dates I’ve had… might being the key word.” She winked at him.
“Thanks for giving me another chance. I promise I won’t let this happen again.”
“I know you won’t.”
“I’ll give you a call tomorrow.” He smiled as he leaned down placing a light kiss on her lips, a kiss that she wasn’t expecting but welcomed nonetheless. “Goodnight.” And with that he left and she stood there speechless. All she could think about was Justin and the amazing night that they had shared together.
Story Tags: triangles
