The guys flew out for their concert that night and Jess got back to a somewhat normal life. She moved back home a few days after the press conference to an apartment that had a high tech security system installed while she was away. She was starting to get herself settled in and trying to get her writing back on schedule. Things had quieted down a fair bit. Josh had wanted her to change her phone number, but as she was a freelance writer, it didn't make sense to get an unlisted number because she would just be giving a new number out to her clients. Instead, she put on call display. It gave her a bit of an edge when she could see who was calling her before she answered.
"Hey, Chris!" she answered the phone cheerily.
"Hi, Jessamyn. I'm going to have to call you on a different phone sometime, just to confuse you."
"What are you up to today?" she asked.
"The usual. We're on a bus headed somewhere. I think we have a show tonight."
"Excited about performing tonight?"
"Yeah, I guess," he sighed.
"Oh, please, Chris!" She rolled her eyes. "Try not to sound too bored. I know how much you love to perform."
"You're right, I love it. I guess I'm just a little tired and homesick today, but do I get a charge out of being on stage."
"You're homesick and you called me?" Jess was surprised.
"Yeah, is that a problem?"
"No, I just thought if you were homesick, you'd call your family."
"Nah, I felt like talking to you, not my folks. Besides, you have been on tour with us, so you understand how crazy it is and I don't have to explain it all to you and you're away from it now, so you can keep me grounded and normal. Does that make sense?"
"Surprisingly, yes," she smiled. "Although I don't think I can really be classified as normal."
"Well, I suppose that's true," he laughed, "but I won't hold that against you. So, what are you up to tonight?"
"Well, I have plans..." she started.
"Really? With who?" He hoped he didn't sound too jealous.
"Taylor. We're having a sleep over. We're going to watch chick flicks and eat popcorn and stay up all night talking."
"Taylor? My Taylor?"
"Yes, your sister Taylor. You don't mind do you? She's such a great kid, and I love hanging out with her."
"No, I don't mind at all. I think it's great that you two are hanging out. I know she really looks up to you."
"She does?"
"Yeah, whenever I talked with her when you were there, it was ‘Jess this and Jess that'. She thinks you're really neat."
"Well, the feeling is mutual. So, did you call for any specific reason? I'm not trying to brush you off, but I have to do a couple of things before I go get Taylor."
"No, I just missed you, that's all."
"Aw, Chris, that's sweet. I miss hanging out with you too. If I wasn't so busy with deadlines for the next while, I'd sneak out and join the tour."
"Well, you know, if you hadn't quit your job, you could have been with us now."
"Yeah, yeah. You know I loved working for Josh, but I really needed to get out on my own. Besides, now I'm doing what I love, just like you guys."
"Yeah, and you're doing great! What are you writing now?"
"An article about Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Sounds exciting, eh?"
"Eh? There's that Canuck I know and love!"
"Oh stop. I know y'all just jealous of my cool accent."
"Ugh! Now you sound like Lance! Stop it! I give!!"
Jess just laughed. She was used to the guys teasing her about her accent. She'd lived in the States for quite a while now, but she still sounded Canadian through and through.
Chris and Jess talked for a few more minutes, and then he had to go to get ready for an interview.
Jess puttered around her apartment doing odd jobs and getting herself a little more organized. She left about an hour later to pick up Taylor. When they got back to her place, Jess got out all the fixings to make home made pizzas. She and Taylor had a blast loading up the pizzas and making crazy combinations.
They ate their pizzas and then got changed in to their pyjamas. Jess pulled out the sofa bed and they added lots of pillows so they could lounge comfortably while they watched the movies. By the time the second movie was half over, Taylor was asleep. Jess shook her head over the depravity of the modern youth and went into her own room. She figured she could surf online for a bit until she got tired.
As soon as she logged in to her instant messenger, she had a message from Chris.
"Hey! I thought you had plans tonight!"
"Yeah, I did. Tay crashed, so here I am."
"Cool. Hey, wanna talk?"
"What are we doing now?"
"I mean really talk. Hold on. Answer the phone."
Sure enough, the phone beside her on the desk rang.
"Hi Chris." She laughed.
"Hey, Jessamyn," she could hear the smile in his voice.
"What are you so happy about?"
"I'm talking to you, what else?"
"You know you're a nut, right? We already talked today."
"Fine, you don't want to talk to me, I'll just go find someone who does." He tried to sound sad and pathetic, but it just made her laugh more.
"Oh, Chris," she laughed. "Don't go. You know I like talking to you."
"You do?" His voice lit up again.
"Of course I do!"
"Good, ‘cause I love talking to you." His voice changed a bit then. She couldn't pin point the emotion that was coming across, but it was there. She paused, not knowing how to reply. Chris cleared his throat. "Look, Jess, there's something I need to ask you."
"Um, OK." She wasn't sure where this was going.
"Jess? Come on, it's nothing bad, really."
"If it's not bad, why do you sound like you're afraid to ask me?"
"How do you do that?"
"Do what?"
"How do you read me like that? I am nervous, well, a little bit."
"OK, Chris, now you're making me nervous. Just get to the point, OK?"
She heard him take a deep breath. "OK, here goes. Jess, next time we're in the same town at the same time..." He drifted off.
"Chris?"
"Next time we're in the same town, will you go out with me?"
"That's what you were so worried about? Please, Chris, you know that you don't have to ask me to hang out with you. I love hanging out with you." She felt relieved.
"Jess, Babe, I don't mean hang out with me. I mean go out with me, like on a date. You know, just the two of us, maybe some romance, see where it goes?"
She didn't know what to say. She'd liked Chris for quite a while, but she never dreamed he'd ever return the feelings. Did he?
"Jess? Are you there?"
She licked her lips, trying to buy some time. "Um, yeah, I'm here. Chris?"
"Yeah."
"Did you just ask me out on a date?" She asked in disbelief.
"Yep."
"You did. Uh...why?"
"OK, Jess, this isn't going the way I pictured it. It was supposed to be me asking you on a date and you saying, ‘Gee, Chris, I'd love to!' and I'd say, ‘Great! I'm really looking forward to it!' and we'd make some more small talk, and when I finally hung up the phone, I'd do a happy dance around my room because you'd agreed to go out with me."
"I'm sorry, Chris, I just, I need to know why you asked me. Did JC say anything to you?"
"Believe it or not, Jess, I am capable of asking a woman out on my own. Look, if you don't want to, just say so, OK? I can handle it. I thought we had something developing, but if not, that's fine."
"No, Chris, that's not it! I'm sorry. It's just that you could have any woman you want, why me?"
"How about because I find you very attractive and I love being with you and I am dying to sink my fingers into your hair and pull your face to mine so that I can kiss you?"
A shiver ran down her spine and she smiled, "Really?"
"Yeah, really. I didn't think I had hidden my feelings that well from you. I thought I was pretty obvious actually."
"Um, well, I kinda thought you were acting a little differently lately, but.."
"But, you didn't want to get your hopes up, right?"
"Yeah, how did you know?"
"JC told me. He knew I was interested in you and he said that you might have a hard time letting yourself get your hopes up."
"Dang, he knows me too well."
"Yeah, he does. Wait a minute, what did you think JC had told me?"
"That's not important," she said quickly. "Why were you talking to JC about me?"
"Oh no you don't! Come on, cough it up, then I'll tell you mine."
She sighed, and tried to sound angry. "Fine. I thought JC may have told you something that I didn't want you to know."
"Hmmm...that sounds interesting. What was it?"
"Did you ever stop to think that maybe I still don't want you to know?" She laughed.
"Yep, but I'm just nosy. Hey! You never answered my question. Hang up."
"What?"
"Hang up. We're going to start this over." The phone clicked in her ear. She looked at the phone in her hand, shrugged, and disconnected from the call.
She was still looking at the phone when it rang. She jumped.
"Hello?"
"Hello, may I speak with Jessamyn please?" He was being overly polite.
"This is she."
"Jessamyn, this is Christopher Kirkpatrick."
"Hello, Christopher," she laughed, it was unusual to use his full name. "How are you this evening?"
"Why I am just great, thank you so much for asking me! Jessamyn, I would like to request the privilege of your company for a date the next time we are in the same town. Would you do me that honour?"
She smiled, "Gee, Chris, I'd love to!"
He gave up the pretence of being sophisticated. "Really? Great! I'll plan out a totally awesome date, I promise!"
"Good, I will look forward to it. When do you figure you'll be back in town?"
"Aha! I knew you were eager to go out with me! Um, let me see, where's my itinerary? OK, maybe uh, six weeks from now. I think. I'll find out for sure for you. You know I'm no good with this schedule thing. Of course, if I'm scheduling dates regularly, I'll get really good with the schedule."
She felt a blush creep up her cheeks. "OK, can we go back to a normal conversation? This is a little weird."
"What's weird, the idea that I want to go on a date with you?"
"Well, the idea that anyone would want to go on a date with me, especially you."
"OK, well that's just plain silly. I hear JC ask you out all the time."
"Yeah, well, JC just asks me out for the fun of it. He thinks it boost my ego. If I actually said ‘yes', he'd fall over in shock."
"So why is me asking you out weird?"
"I don't know, I guess, it's just that you're the only guy I would have wanted to ask me out, and you did and things like that don't normally happen for me."
Chris didn't know quite how to answer that one. He knew that Jess had a rough time growing up, but he didn't know the details. He knew there was more to what she had said than what was on the surface. The silence was becoming awkward. "So...what do you want to do on our date?"
"Well, I guess that would depend on where and when it is, but not a movie, OK?"
"No movies? Any particular reason?"
"It's just that when you watch a movie, you don't get a chance to talk to your date and I mean, what's the point? You might as well go out with all your friends then."
"Good point. I don't think I want to share you on our first date. Hmmm...think about it some more and let me know if you have any ideas, OK?"
"Sure," she had a jaw-cracking yawn.
"Am I keeping you up, sweetie?"
She giggled. "Sweetie? I like that. I'm tired, but I don't want to hang up yet."
"Good, I'm glad you like that. I'll save the better pet names until we've gone on a few dates. I don't want to hang up either. Tell me about that article you're working on, the one on Eleanor Roosevelt."
Jess was surprised he had remembered what her article was about. She described the research she was conducting and how she saw the article shaping up. She found Chris to be a good sounding board. They talked about other things for a while. Then Chris seemed distracted.
"What?" he hollered.
"Chris?"
"No, honey, not you. One of the guys is banging on my door. Hold on."
She heard him walk over to the door and open it. He put his hand over the phone. She could hear that Chris was talking to someone, but couldn't hear what he was saying.
"Hey, Jess!" It was JC.
"Josh? What's going on?"
"Just came to check on Chris. He was going to come out with us and didn't, and I wanted to make sure he was OK. I guess he got distracted by some pretty girl who has been talking to him all night, huh?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Uh-huh, sure. He already told me you said yes. And I'm glad. Do you know how hard it has been for me to keep secrets from both of you?"
"Josh, thanks. You are the best friend I've ever had."
"I know, just promise not to forget all about me while Chris sweeps you off your feet, OK?"
"You know I couldn't forget you."
"Good. I'd better go. Chris has this look in his eyes that suggests if I don't give him the phone back I'm not going to be around much longer. Bye!"
"Bye, Josh!"
Chris got back on the line. "Honey, do you know what time it is?"
"Mmm, let me see...I can't see the clock, I took my glasses off. Oh, I give up, just tell me the time."
"It's 2:30. As much as I would love to talk to you all night, I'd better let you go. I've got to be on the bus in a couple of hours and I know you've got lots of work to do."
"All right, I guess you're right. I've enjoyed this call though," she smiled.
"Me too. Close your eyes for a sec."
"OK," she sounded skeptical of what he might be up to.
"OK, I'm giving you a kiss on your forehead. Did you get it?"
She smiled, "Yeah, thanks."
"Sweet dreams, Jess."
"Good night, Chris."
Story Tags: celebritysync jc chris
