Off of Valleyview Road, 11:35 a.m.

I've been helping her all morning. Apparently she's had this house for about two or three months now, but only recently has had the time to actually set it up the way she wants. It's not huge, but nice. Has a great back yard and pool and a nice view. I'm amazed how disorganized it is, though. My house was set up by my mom mainly so I didn't have to worry about decisions of where things went. Meredith wants to do it all on her own. It’s her first house on her own, that she bought herself. She seems very proud of it and she should be.

She assumed this morning that I was an electronics wizard, which I'm not, but I managed to get her entertainment center set up for her. When Trace comes by later I'll have him make sure it's working right. We also moved her piano this morning, not very far, just centered it in the room she wanted. It was so cute how she got all pissed off at me when after we were done moving it, I sat down and started to play. She kept going, “Justin come on, we have more to do!” Then she stomped her foot when I just played and sang to her, “Justin, come on…we have more to do…stomp your little feet and you might go through…the floor…”

I got smacked in the shoulder but her smacks never hurt. It’s kind of worth it just to see her get that little pissed off look on her face. I’ve come to realize over the past few weeks that everything she does amazes me. Every action, expression, word, is cute or beautiful or intriguing. Like now, how she’s barely holding up her weight on the end of this couch, but she’s biting her lip like it’s paining her so much.

It’s not even that heavy of a couch. She did the same thing when we went snorkeling. After a while she said she was tired and made me carry her around on my back while I swam. She’s tiny so it didn’t really weigh me down much and later that night she told me she really wasn’t tired she just wanted to hold onto me. She says things like that a lot, little sweet things that tell me she really really cares about me.

And I don’t understand why.

When I came to her beach house I expected to get slapped. All I was hoping for was to see her, to talk to her and tell her how sorry I was. But as soon as I opened that door and saw her laying in the bed staring at me I couldn’t help myself, and I needed and wanted and hoped for so much more. And she gave it. I never expected her to take me back that easily.

But I’m glad she did. I’ve really realized over the past week or two how much this girl is starting to mean to me. What started out as a simple little crush, an attraction, has come into this new thing. I wouldn’t call it love, I don’t know her that well yet, but the more and more I find out about her the more I find the possibility of love easier and easier. And it takes a while for me to get to that point where I can just fall. At least, normally it does.

Our time in Miami was wonderful, after we made up and went to the Keys for a day, we spent our time just relaxing. We talked about the months ahead, what she was doing, what I was doing, tried to plan times to meet up and both decided that the next few weeks were going to be insanely important for us. We agreed to spend every bit of time together, as much as possible. But what’s been so amazing about that was how the first night we came back to LA, I told her I was gonna go home and rest up and she didn’t seem upset. She nodded and said she couldn’t wait to get to her own home and sleep. When we decided to hang out as much as possible in the coming weeks I was a little afraid that she assumed that meant every moment. I’ve had girls cling to me and want to be around me 24/7 and while I don’t mind that most of the time, there are those moments when I need my space. And I think she understands that.

In fact, she’s only stayed with me one night since we’ve been back in LA and I haven’t stayed with her yet. She says I’m not allowed to stay with her until her house is completely in order. With the rate we’re going we might have it done by tonight. I hope so, I’d like to stay the night with her again. It’s nice sleeping with her, she’s warm but not too hot and she always fits perfectly against me. And she’ll snuggle or whatever but not too much, and when its time to really go to sleep she curls up on her own side and lets me sprawl out. I know she doesn’t realize she’s doing it, but I can’t stand when someone clings to me all night long and she doesn’t do that. And it’s also a plus that she didn’t mind me letting the dogs sleep in my bedroom. In fact she paid more attention to them than me or my house when I first showed it to her.

She’s also adorable in the mornings, grumpier than I am and likes to hang around in bed nodding on and off as much as I do.

And she’s agreed to go home with me in a couple of weeks. My momma’s excited to meet her, and, well, I’m really excited too. It’s been a while since I brought a girl home and I think me and Trace have talked her up enough that there’s no way they aren’t going to get along. I’m glad Trace has been so supportive of this. I know it hurts him, I know he’s still getting over Elisha, but I also know that in time he’s gonna find himself a sweet little country girl just like I did.

And we’ll both be happy boys again, just like in the old days, but without all the high school type drama.

“Here?” I look up at her and she huffs.

“Yes, just put it down. It’s heavy.” I wait for her to put her end down before gently lowering it to the floor. When I stand up she’s leaning against the couch and pouting.

“What’s wrong?” I smile at her.

“I forgot to put those little scratchy things on the bottom.”

She turns and walks back further into the house towards the kitchen. “The what?”

“The little things that keep the legs from scratching the hard wood, momma told me I needed to make sure I put them on. Where did Courtney put that bag?”

I go to sit down on one of the chairs there for a moment and use the front of my tank to wipe off my face a little bit. We have the air condition on full blast, but it’s hot as hell outside and she’s had me doing some pretty heavy lifting all morning. “Hey, do you know what we’re doing for lunch yet? I’m starving.”

She comes back with an arm full of cushions and I stand up and help her get them all set up on the couch. “I have some oranges in the kitchen.”

“Girl you need to go to the grocery store, no wonder you’re so skinny.” We both sit down and I immediately start pinching her sides. She slaps my hand and passes me a look.

She puts her feet up on the table after a minute and then leans against me. “I think Court is gonna bring me by some food in an hour or so, I can call her and have her pick you up some, too.”

I put my arm around her and relax completely. It feels good to just chill out for a moment. “No, it’s cool. Trace is coming by in a little bit too and he’s supposed to be bringing me something.”

“Ohhh…” She giggles and looks up at me and pulls away and pushes herself against the opposite end of the couch. Her shoes go in my lap. “I see.”

“What?”

“I bet they’ll come here together.” She grins. “I think they’re dating.”

“They’re not.”

“They went out to eat and kept flirting and then fighting in Miami.”

“Trace is just teasing the hell out of her. He would never go for a girl like that.”

She shrugs and smiles at me. “What’s wrong with her?”

I stretch my arms. What’s not wrong with that girl? She’s totally opposite from everything that’s Meredith and I like everything that’s Meredith, a lot. Courtney’s, she’s the type of girl I can’t stand. She’s like those office chicks at Jive, worse than those. “Too uptight for his taste. The more I get to know her, the less I like her. ”

Meredith reaches down and pulls off her shoes and then looks at me. “Am I uptight?”

I smile at her and lean forward and smack the side of her hip lightly. “You gotta tight ass…”

She pushes my head away from where I’m leaning over her. I’m only about a foot above her crotch. She looks really pretty right now and I think maybe we could use a break. “Silly…” She says and smiles at me. Her arm shoots out and reaches over to the coffee table to grab the stereo remote.

“What are you doing?”

“Making sure this works…” Shit, I hope it works. I hope it doesn’t explode or something when she turns it on. That’d be embarrassing. She gets it going and puts on the radio and turns it up rather loud. Thank God it’s working properly. I got the speakers up and it seems like they are doing surround sound pretty well. Score points for me! I’m not a total electronics idiot. I see that she wants to lay around for a while so I go ahead and kick off my shoes and smile at her. Laying around with Mere is always the fuckin’ best.

She grins at me, but the look in her eyes is a strange one and she pats her chest and says in a quiet tone, “Lay down…”

I do what she asks and I lay my body gently down on hers and lay my head in between her breasts. I stare at one of them and notice that her nipples are hard. Now I know damn well she’s not cold. I can feel that she’s a little damp with sweat. She still smells good though. Her hand is running over my head and down my neck and I feel her hands grab my shoulders and try to pull me up. I lift up and look at her.

Yeah, I’ve seen those eyes before and I know what they mean. But these eyes are stronger than I’ve ever seen from her. Her eye lids are lazy and she’s got this smile, this sexy small smile. I feel her hands move down over my chest and to the waist of my shirt. Her hands are soon on my skin, fingertips against my stomach. She’s licking her lips and I take in a huge breath as I hold my body off hers. Contact right now would be….dangerous. “What are you doing…”

Her hands tug on my shirt and she whispers, “Kiss me.” She’s lifting herself up to meet me, like she’s fucking craving me to kiss her and touch her. We haven’t really made out that much since we’ve been back in LA, not by choice, we’ve just been hanging out and working on things together more than being able to relax. Well I take that back. Of course we’ve fucking made out, but just like a kiss that turns into a little heavier or something. This….the way she’s looking at me now, this is serious.

She wants something from me.

I take a breath, unable to really control myself completely and lean down to touch her lips with mine. She fucking attacks. And I can’t say I don’t like it. In fact, I like it a lot. She spreads her legs and lets me settle my weight down on her and kisses me like I don’t know, like I taste like chocolate or something. I know I don’t, but damn, that makes me think maybe I should bake her some cookies or brownies and we can, I don’t know…play.

I feel her hands on my bare back, gripping my sides and pulling something up. I pull away and she starts to kiss my neck. Shit, this girl can’t suck on my neck. I don’t care about hickies but that just…that’s gonna get me going to a place I can’t back down from. Fuckin’ commercial on the radio with that Gilbert Godfrey guy’s annoying ass voice and here I am getting a fucking hard on the size of Montana with my girl sucking on my neck and taking off my clothes.

Shit, she’s trying to take off my clothes. I pull back. “Mere…”

“Take it off.” She whispers, biting her lip at me. The shirt’s bundled up under my arms and she runs her hands over my chest, looking down at my torso and then back at my face. She smiles.

It’s a smile I’ve seen before. But never from her. I’ve seen girls under me, half clothed, breathing hard, giving me that smile, that smile that means, “get naked and fuck me…now.” This girl can’t be serious. I thought she had some standard, some waiting period or something.

“I thought…”

She latches her hands around my neck, shakes her hand and pulls me down so I’m laying on her again. “I’m not ready yet. I mean, wait. I take that back. I am ready. I’m ready as hell to have…” She takes in a breath and blushes slightly when she says, “have sex with you, but I can’t until I go to the gyno and get back on birth control. My appointment is tomorrow.”

I smile at her. That really makes me happy, to know that in just a few days I’ll be able to have her. It’s not all I want from her, and I’m willing to wait, but being unable to control my thoughts about her and the hard-ons that usually follow with this girl has been a hassle. Plus, it’s gonna be great when we do it. Not just because she’s hot or because I’ve been horney but because it’ll really mean something for us. I think it’ll really take us to a place where, where nothing can touch us. I wanna be connected with her like that.

“You’re ready?” I ask and touch her face.

Her voice is a husky whisper, “I want you so bad.” Shit, shit, fucking shit the way she said that is hot enough to make me come. I bury my head against her neck. I can’t even look at her any more, that look she’s giving me is just too much. “I wanted you in Miami. I planned to do it with you in Miami.”

“Planned?”

“I bought lingerie and silk sheets and candles and all this stuff, but then you were mean…”

I pull back away from her. Shit, now I’ve gone and made her think about that. She might have forgiven me, but I haven’t forgiven myself yet. I don’t know if I’ll be able to forgive myself for the way I treated her, and the more I find out about all her plans and what she wanted to do with me, the more I feel like the biggest asshole.

I don’t deserve her, but I sure as hell am gonna cherish her. “Girl, I…”

She covers my mouth with her fingers and smiles at me. “Shh, it’s ok. It’s better this way. I don’t wanna do this until I’m gonna be safe.”

I suck in a breath. I don’t wanna be an ass about all this, but if she’s ready and she wants to, and clearly, the way she has her legs wrapped around me and the way she’s pushing her lap into my crotch…she wants to. I mean, I’m not too much of a pussy to go to the store and get something. I lick my lips and look at her. “I can go get some condoms.”

She shakes her head and moves her hands to my shoulders and helps me pull off my shirt. Her hands go to my chest and it feels so fucking good to be touched like this. Sure she touched me when we were in Miami and I was just in my shorts at the beach or when I was asleep with just my boxers, but this is different. This is enough to turn me on beyond belief. She kisses me for a moment and then whispers close to my lips. “I wanna feel you when we have sex Justin, not some fake thing. I don’t want there to be anything holding us back. I wanna feel you inside me…”

“Shit girl, you can’t say stuff like that.” I pull her body hard against mine. I need to feel this girl too and to hear her say that she really wants me inside of her…oh, fucking shit. Dammit, I’m gonna have to go home and jack off. I just know it.

“Well, you know until we can really have sex…” I sigh and kiss her neck as she whispers into my ear, “There are other things we can do…”

I suck in a breath and push my dick into her. She moans a little underneath me and it makes me get chills to know that she likes that. Maybe, maybe I’m not gonna have to go home and jack off. “Like?”

Her hand is at my hip and I can feel her trying to move it in between us. I pull back a bit and look in her eyes and she smiles at me. “Let me touch you…”

That’s…that’s too much. I don’t want her feeling like she has to, like she has to get me off to appease me for waiting to have sex with her. “Meredith…” I shake my head and try to pull away.

She pulls me back down against her. “Justin, I want to. Don’t even think about trying to talk me out of this ‘cause I know you want it, too.” I just stare at her and then I feel it. She bites her lip and gets a shy look in her eye as I feel her grab me through my shorts. Damn…damn, damn, damn. I haven’t felt that in such a long time.

And it’s weird cause like, ok, a couple months ago I was fucking this girl named Jocelyn and she was really pretty and all and had a dirty mouth, but she was always so rushed when she did things, like sexual things. A lot of times it seemed like all she wanted was sex. She didn’t really care about the fooling around part. And sometimes that’s better than the actual thing.

Ok, nothing’s better than actually being inside of a woman, but working on getting inside can be a hell of an adventure.

She’s touching me slow, trying to get a grip around me through the shorts. I sigh and tell her to stop for a second. She does and I pull off some of the cushions that we put on the couch so that I can lay down beside her better and have more room. She turns up on her side facing me and I put an arm around her and put the other behind my head. I feel her hand, small and soft run over my torso and then down and down.

This time she doesn’t fool around with the material of my shorts and goes under the elastic of my boxers to actually touch me. I suck in a breath and feel myself go rigid.

“I’ve been craving this for so long…”

She kisses my neck and strokes me. God, this is fucking insane. I almost forgot how good this felt. “Remember our last night in Miami, when we were making out on the back porch?” She whispers in my ear and moves her leg over mine a bit. I spread my legs and push my thigh against her crotch, hard.

I laugh and turn to kiss her for a second, “You mean when I was dry humping you and sucking on your neck?”

She blushes and bites her lip. “Yes…”

“How in the hell are you going to be shy with me right now when just a second ago you were talking about touching me. And now, now you’re fucking…” I gasp as she squeezes me hard and runs her thumb over the head. She’s stroking so slow, so God damn slow.

“But I didn’t say, ‘I wanna rub on your dick,’ did I? No, I was polite.”

I chuckle and kiss her again. “You sayin’ I ain’t polite?”

“Sometimes you’re a little too crude.” I turn on my side hoping she’ll stop jacking me off, ‘cause honestly, I wanna come, but not in my shorts.

“I think it gets you hot.” I smile at her and she rolls her eyes.

“Yeah, right.”

She doesn’t stop touching me so I reach up with a hand and cup her breast. “Then why are your nipples hard?”

“Justin!” She pulls her hand away from me to smack me and I just touch her more, squeezing her and running my thumb over her nipple.

“Excuse me…” I laugh and kiss her and get her so she’s on her back. “Madam, why are your breasts excited and pushing out so erotically against your cotton tee shirt?”

“Shut up…” She growls and pouts a little bit. And I do what she asks. I shut up and I kiss her. Her hands grab at me and her legs wrap around me and I start moving my hips to get a little friction in between us. She can feel how hard I am and I think it’s making her want me. She’s moaning and sighing just a little bit, real quiet like.

It’s so hot just to lay on her and do this. I keep wondering what she looks like naked. When we were in Miami I kept picturing her without that little bathing suit of hers. And she has that little tattoo on the back of her hips, right above her ass. That’s so fucking hot. I wanted to ask her to take a shower with me or a bath when we were down there, but I was too chicken ‘cause I was trying not to push too much with her since I was still trying to work myself out of the asshole ditch.

My hand goes up under her shirt and she doesn’t protest when I pull up her tee shirt to find a little thin, pink bra underneath. God her breasts look so good right now. I sigh and she laughs at me but I don’t care. I lean down and kiss her to shut her up. I start moving against her again. I guess we probably look stupid, me all dry humping her on her couch with us all half clothed. But I don’t care. It feels damn good.

“I can’t wait ‘til we can really do this…” I press myself into her and hold it there. “It’s been almost four months.”

She sighs and rubs her hands over my shoulders. “Try three years, big boy.”

“Three?” Poor girl. I hope I can treat her right when the time comes. She deserves to get laid good. Ok, that probably sounds bad. What I mean is, she deserves to have someone make her feel that good, to please her that well. “Damn, I better perform then.”

She laughs and my muscles relax a little. Her laughter does that to me. “I’ve almost forgotten what it’s like.”

“Really?”

“No,” She laughs some more and kisses me briefly. “It just makes me not realize I’m craving it that much when I say it.”

I move down and kiss her breasts a little bit, the part that’s sticking out the top of the bra. I move to the fabric part and gently bite down on her there. She squirms and I take my hand, find hers and put it back in between us. She quickly finds my hard on again and I look up at her and press my lips in the middle of her chest. “Don’t stop…”

She holds me through my shorts again and I want her to really touch me again, without clothing in the way. But I’m not gonna force her hand down my pants. She doesn’t do what I ask. She stops and pulls her hand away and moves to sit up. I look at her with wide eyes. Did I do something wrong? Dear God, don’t tell me I fucked something up again.

“What is it?” I quickly ask and pull back so that I’m sitting back on my knees.

She smiles and sits up like me. She moves her hand to touch my face and kisses me slowly. “I wanna see you…” She grabs me through my shorts and then moves her hand up over my body and back up to my shoulder and pulls me into a deep kiss. “Let’s go to my bedroom and get out of these nasty clothes…”

She’s smiling at me and damn, do I want to. God, I wanna go back and get naked with her. Maybe I can ask her to take that shower, now. But dammit, I don’t know if I can control myself. I look down and I’m sticking out pretty far in my shorts. I really gotta start wearing something sturdier than basketball shorts when I’m around this chick.

I mean, what if she starts wanting it and I don’t have condoms and she’s not on birth control and…and I wanna say that I’d be a man and be able to stop myself. But sometimes when I’m around her my head gets all clouded and I get irrational. And I’m afraid I won’t be able to control myself. “Mere, I don’t know…”

“I can control myself.” She says, reading my mind.

I pull away from her and she’s biting her lip and looks excited like we’re at the fucking ice cream shop and she’s five years old. Damn, she’s gonna devour me? I laugh at her and reach behind her to pull her into a hug, us still on our knees, my hands on her ass. “Really?”

“When I’m sober yes…” She smiles at me, this little devilish smile. She takes off her top and throws it over the back of the couch before reaching down and pushing her hand down into my shorts. She grabs me again, bites her lip and leans back and pulls me down on top of her. This is too much for me.

“Mere…I can’t, I can’t control it.” God she’s touching me fast and hard, it’s like she wants to get me off right here. And she’s kissing me, not letting me talk. I pull away and she pulls on my neck so that her lips can suck me there. “I can’t. Not with you…not with you doing that…”

She doesn’t care. I really think this girl doesn’t care and hell. I don’t either. I kiss her so hard, thrusting my tongue in her mouth. I decide if she’s gonna play this game then I’m gonna play along. I pull away and grin at her. “Can you control it, if I do it to you…”

A small little shocked look comes over her face and she arches her back just a bit and grips my dick real hard when I cup her through her shorts and press my palm right over her spot. I wanna make this girl feel good ‘cause she’s done way too much for me from the start.

“Where the fuck are you two at?”

“You might want to turn down…” I gasp, her eyes pop open and before we have time to move I’m looking towards the hallway and so is she and there are two other people looking back at us. That Courtney girl’s mouth is dropped and she’s just staring at us and Trace is too, but I see laughter forming in his face.

“Oh…”

Shit Justin…MOVE.

“Fuck…” I back up off her and she curls into the back of the couch.

“We’ll be in the kitchen.” I hear Trace say quickly and watch as he pulls on Courtney’s arm. I don’t say anything until they disappear.

Hell, I can’t even think before they disappear. I take a few breaths, trying to stop my heart from beating this fast. All the blood that was rushing to my crotch seems to be pumping back up in my ears now. I sigh. And then I start to wonder: how the hell did they get in? And how did we not hear them? The radio wasn’t that loud. Shit, don’t tell me she doesn’t lock her doors. It could have been anyone, a crazy fan, a stalker, paparazzi.

I take a breath, sit up normal on the couch, and lean forward a bit putting my head in my hands. “Shit, Mere did you not lock your door? You need to be safer!”

“No, I did. Courtney has a code.”

I look at her in shock as she puts her shirt back on. “You gave her the code!”

She just stares at me for a moment. Does she not realize what could happen? “Yeah, she knows the access code too…” I stare at her. I can’t believe this. “Why’s it so bad?”

“You trust her that easily already?”

“She hasn’t given me a reason not to.” She shrugs.

I honestly can’t believe she’s saying this to me. From the girl who cried to me that night months ago, cried her fucking eyes out until I had to finally calm her down, hug her and let her take a nap on the couch in the studio because she was so upset over what Leah did, to this, someone who’s willing and ready to trust the next assistant that walks in the door. She’s only known this Courtney bitch for like two weeks or so. She knew Leah for almost two years and that girl still fucked her over.

If she’s not careful she’s gonna get hurt again. I told her she was gonna have to be careful about who she lets in. I told her that was one of the biggest down falls of being famous, not being able to trust many people. I thought she got it. I thought she understood.

“Well I don’t trust her, and I don’t think she should have the security code to your house. You’ve known me longer than her and I don’t know the code.”

“Come on Justin, she’s my personal assistant. If you want a damn code, I’ll fucking tell you. But don’t be mad at me. Doesn’t Trace know every code and have every key to your place?”

That’s completely different and it’s lame for her to even try to compare them. “Of course he does, but Trace lives with me and I’ve known him for forever and this is entirely different. Who says she couldn’t have had a camera right now and plastered the fact that you were giving me a hand job on the six o’clock news.”

She takes in a breath and hands me my shirt. She won’t look at me, but she whispers, “She’s not Leah.”

“Right, and you didn’t think Leah would take pictures of you and Megan’s drunken party one night.”

She shakes her head, stands up off the couch and starts to walk away. “Shut up Justin.” Shit, I’m doing it again.

I get up, holding my shirt in one hand and grabbing her arm in the other. She looks at me. She looks upset and I hate it. I hate seeing her like this. “Look at me. I’m right, aren’t I?”

She takes a breath and I see her start to break and I pull her into me. She holds me tight and says quietly into my shoulder. “It can’t happen twice, right?”

“It’s not supposed to happen once, Meredith. What she did to you isn’t supposed to happen at all. People aren’t supposed to be that greedy and fucked up, but they are. And I hate to be cynical but there’s more people out there like that than you know.” I sigh and run my hand over her hair and she hooks her arms under me and holds onto my shoulders. “You’re not being careful enough and I don’t mean to be an ass, but now it’s not just your reputation on the line, it’s mine, too. I mean, we haven’t even talked about what were gonna do with the press. It’s not like we can keep it a secret that we’re together...” I pull back a little and move my arms from around her and hold her face in my hands. “But I don’t want to talk about us to them. I want us to be private and I want to keep you, this, us to ourselves as much as possible. It’s no one else’s business really.”

She sighs, “But in our work it doesn’t happen that way…”

“We can try, please Mere. Just, be more careful. I’ll call up Johnny and we’ll all have a meeting sometime soon and we’ll talk about what we’re gonna do as far as questions in interviews about each other. They’re gonna come up and we need to be on the same page about them. I mean, hell girl, we worked together on our albums and…”

“I know, ok?” She huffs and pulls away from me, almost like she doesn’t want to have this conversation. But we have to have it. There’s no getting around it. “Let’s just go in there and talk to them.”

I don’t let her get away from me that easy and I look her dead on. “I don’t trust her, Mere.”

She nods. “I’ll be more careful, I promise.” She turns to walk away from me but shit, I don’t wanna end this conversation on a bad note. We were just having so much fun and, and then we were interrupted and I just want to make sure that our mood and our day together hasn’t been ruined. I tug on her arm and come up behind her, close.

“What?” She seems upset. I smile at her and run my hand up her arm to her neck.

“Can we finish later?”

She tries to keep a frown, but it doesn’t work and I lean in and kiss her cheek. “Maybe…” She says. I kiss her on the mouth briefly. She smiles. “If you are nice….”

I laugh and kiss her cheek again, hug her and whisper, “Oh I’ll be really nice.” She laughs and pushes me away and starts to walk into the kitchen. I follow her and put on my shirt.

When we get into the kitchen Trace is smiling at me. What a cock. That girl is just standing there, trying to look busy with unloading the bags of take out they have. I hope to God, for Mere’s sake, and mine, that she’s cool. But I don’t trust her and I don’t like her. And Meredith can’t expect me to just be ok with her knowing all of our business. “Sorry about that…” Mere says and I run my hand over her back before going to the fridge and pulling out a can of Diet Coke and handing it to her. I grab one for myself.

“I’m use to it.” Trace shrugs.

“What? Justin and hand jobs?”

I laugh. I can’t believe she just really said that shit. I pinch her side for a moment. “And you call me crude…” She laughs at me and smacks my hand away. She’s such a silly girl. I wrap my arms around her and blow on her neck and tickle her sides. She squeals and Trace and I laugh at her.

I look up and see that girl just staring at us. I hold Mere tighter and sway with her for a moment. “You alright there, Courtney?” I ask, staring her down.

She lifts her head but doesn’t look me in the eye. “Fine. We brought you guys lunch.”

“We?” Meredith asks and I know in her voice she’s insinuating that they’re dating. I know she thinks they are but, that’s just not right. Trace wouldn’t like a girl like her. I mean yeah, I kind of forced him on her in New York, but that was just ‘cause I wanted some time with my girl. If he starts liking her or dating her I’m gonna have to have a talk to him. ‘Cause that means Elisha fucked with his head more than I realize.

“Yes, but we made sure to have wild kinky sloppy sex in the backseat before we came in.”

Meredith laughs, but I don’t really. Why is he making jokes about that? Courtney just stares him down. “I could sue you for sexual harassment.”

“Anyway,” Trace rolls his eyes. Good, make sure she doesn’t think you like her. “So Courtney and I have news…”

“News?”

“Both your cell phones were turned off I assume. Angie and Justin’s manager were trying to contact you guys this morning.”

“For?” I ask.

She looks right at Meredith. “You’re shooting your video next week.”

Mere nods and I realize I’m still holding her. Damn, it feels good to hold her. “Yeah, for ‘Look Your Way’…”

I laugh a little. That’s our song. That’s our hot ass jam that they’re gonna be releasing soon. I lean down and start singing the chorus against her ear, kissing her there.

“Hush…” She swats at me, but she was just dancing when I sang it. It’s such a hot little jam.

“They wanna know if you’ll make an appearance.”

I look up at Trace, “Me?” He nods.

Mere pulls away and looks up at me. Her eyes look so excited. “Oh please…” She covers her mouth and shakes her head. “I mean, you don’t have to. Wow. Sorry…” She laughs nervously and bites her lip at me. I guess it is kind of weird. I mean, that might be cool being in her video. We did work on it together. But that’s gonna lead to questions, more so than there already are. Hell, I shouldn’t care. “It might be awkward, but I mean, you are on the song, you did produce it and we wrote it together. Just a little cameo would be cool. You sittin’ in the club with fly honies all around.”

I laugh and nod at her. “That could be cool.”

She narrows her eyes. “You better not like the fly honies too much.”

I laugh some more. “Yeah, that’d be cool.” I shrug and wink at her. “As long as I can fit it into my tight schedule.”

She rolls her eyes. “Nerd.” Trace hands me a box of take out and I spend a few minutes trying to find a fork to eat with. I keep opening up drawers and finally I find one. Man, I’ll be ready when this place is organized, too. ‘Cause I’m gonna be spending a lot of time here and if I can’t find a damn fork then we are gonna have a problem.

“Oh, I got you those frames you wanted this morning. They’re in the car.” I look up and see that Courtney is talking to Meredith.

“Let’s go get them.” Mere whisks around and goes out the backdoor in the kitchen. Courtney sighs and follows her. I don’t know what her deal is. It’s like everything she does seems so tiring to her. Damn, get over it. You picked this job chick.

I shake my head.

“So…”

I look up and see Trace chomping on a burger and smirking at me. I stab my salad with the fork. “Bad timing, Ayala.”

“I’ll make an excuse and get us out if you need time to bone her.”

I laugh and take a bite. Then I pop open the can of soda. “I told you we aren’t boning, yet.”

“That’s a shame.”

It’s quiet for a moment and I stab at my salad some more and take a few more bites and try to look out the window in the kitchen to the driveway to see what Mere and Courtney are doing. I see them talking and when Courtney turns around I see Mere make a face behind her back. “You trust that chick?” I ask Trace, going back to my stabbing.

“Who, Court?”

“Court?” I ask. So now he’s calling her by her little nickname, too. Great. “Yeah, Courtney.”

He shrugs. “Don’t really see any reason not to.”

“She seems too uptight to me, too by the rules. Too preachy.”

I don’t look at him, but I feel him staring at me and finally, after about a minute, I look up. “She’s not gonna sell some shit, Justin.”

I put the fork down and ask, “How do you know that? We don’t know this girl.”

“Well I’ve hung out with her. She’s just got a high stress level. I think doing anything sneaky would make her head explode or something. Too dangerous of a deed for her.”

I shake my head. I guess if I trust anyone about reading people it’s Trace. He’s pretty good with being able to scope people out. I just hope his dick isn’t in the way this time. “If you sense something weird with her tell me, alright?”

“You know I will, but she’s cool man.”

I have to ask. “You’re not fucking her, are you?”

“No….” He pauses but won’t look at me. This is not a good sign. That means he wants to. “Of course not. And if I was it wouldn’t matter, right?”

I can hear the girls coming back from outside and I sigh and say, “I don’t trust her. That’s all I’m saying.” Mere comes back in and we all decide to sit at the table instead of standing around. I guess this girl isn’t too bad, but I still don’t like her and they can’t expect me to be trusting with her at the snap of a finger. It’s gonna take time.

And I swear, if any bad press comes out about Mere and I, I know who I’m interrogating first. I know that sounds harsh but Trace’s first impressions aren’t the only ones that I trust. I trust my own. My first impression of this chick was bad. I thought she was too uptight, too controlling, and too moody.

That opinion hasn’t changed much over the past few weeks. I don’t care if Trace is fucking her or if Mere and her do become best friends. That doesn’t mean I have to like her. I’ve never been the best at being a trustworthy kind of guy. People have let me down too much in my life to make me be able to put a lot of faith in them. Call it a fault, call it being over cautious but I don’t want shit coming out about me, and I won’t stand for someone hurting my girl, not again.