Chapter 14

"Justin, what should I wear?" Gabrielle was searching through the closet of new clothing Justin had bought for her that day. They'd spent the entire day going from store to store, and Justin hadn't hesitated once to purchase anything Gabrielle had even laid eyes on. He was taking her out to a fancy dinner and he'd told her to pick out any of the dresses he'd bought her to wear to the restaurant.

"Uh, whatever you want to." Justin walked up behind her and placed his palms on her stomach as she stared into the large walk-in closet that contained all of her new clothing.

"Well, I want to dress for the occasion, and since you won't tell me where we're going, I need your help. Pick one out. Which one is your favorite?" Justin smiled to himself and skimmed through the new outfits. He came across his favorite, pulled it off of its hanger, and handed it to her.

"Justin, unless this place is a strip joint, I can't wear that."

"You asked me which one was my favorite." He laughed and left her to sit on the bed. Gabrielle continued to stare blankly into the closet.

"Is this place ritzy? Should I dress up? Or is it kind of a casual-dressy and I can just wear khakis, or something?"

"No, definitely dressy. Didn't we get you a black dress today?" Justin got up and walked into the closet and searched through the clothing. He pulled out the gown and presented it to her.

"Wow, where are you taking me that I have to wear that?"

"Someplace special." Justin laid the dress on the bed and began to undress Gabrielle. After some extra unnecessary fondling, Justin dressed her in the gown and Gabrielle made her way to the bathroom to finish the ensemble. Half an hour later, they were sitting peacefully at the fanciest restaurant Gabrielle had ever seen. Her hair was up in an elegant up-do with all of the accessories to match the elegant affair. Justin wore his usual modern suit and unnecessarily large diamond earrings, in Gabrielle's opinion.

Justin had ordered a lobster for each of them, and he'd paid the violinist an extra sum to play for their table privately. After he'd ordered and the wine had been poured for them both, Gabrielle excused herself to the ladies' room for a quick freshening up. The restaurant's fancy décor was carried throughout the bathroom, and Gabrielle gently placed her finger tips on the walls as she walked through the door. The entire décor seemed to have pure gold as its theme.

Justin subtly eyed his surroundings, surveying the area in which he was seated. The main floor of the restaurant was huge; it alone housed over two hundred tables. He never ate down stairs; he always requested and paid dearly for the seclusion that the upper private floor provided. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a familiar face. He knew that several celebrities came to this restaurant when they were in town, so the chance of seeing a familiar face was almost inevitable. Although, he prayed that this familiar face stayed put at her own table and kept her nose out of his business. Of course he knew her too well to expect his prayer to be answered.

"Justin, how are you?" She seductively walked over to his table and invited herself to occupy Gabrielle's seat. Justin rolled his eyes and threw his retort.

"What exactly do the words 'I never want to speak to you again' mean to you? Because I was hoping it meant that I'd never have to be this close to you."

"Oh, sweety, you were always the witty one."

"What do you want, Britney?"

"Oh, nothing. I just saw that you were here with a little friend, and I thought I'd see how you were doing."

"I'm more than fine. Could you go back to your table before she comes back? I don't want you to ruin her evening. I've got big plans for her."

"Big plans, huh? You used to make big plans for me, Justin."

"Don't do this, Britney."

"You did, Justin. Remember that time that you planned that week in Hawaii for us? Remember that? It was just the two of us for a whole week. Hmm, we barely left the bedroom." She giggled quietly, and watched her effect take over him.

"Don't you miss that, baby?" She covered his hands with her own and squeezed. She had this indescribable hold on him. He hung his head and closed his eyes, willing himself not to get lost in the memories. Rarely had they shared an unhappy moment together.

"Don't you remember that? I wish we were still on that vacation. I can't remember loving you more." Any time she even mentioned her love for him, he craved her. Her touch seemed to cure him of every negative feeling he had; she was magical to him.

"I'm not going to let you do this to me. You can't keep manipulating me like this," he whispered.

"I'm not manipulating you, Justin. I love you." A sparkle of black caught Justin's eye, and he looked up to see Gabrielle standing in the far hallway that lead to the exits and restrooms. He saw a glistening on her cheek, and he'd never felt more pain in his heart. Between Britney's admission of love and Gabrielle's hurt from seeing him with Britney, he felt a painful overload on his heart. For a second, he didn't know which way to turn. His love for Gabrielle was new and exciting and helped him forget about Britney, but his love for Britney proved to capture him and made him want her uncontrollably. He forced himself to think about what she'd done to him and the pain he felt from the memory broke him from his trance. He pulled Britney up with him as he stood; he escorted her back to her table and forcefully told her not to bother him. He walked away from her expression of shock and walked directly toward the hall in which Gabrielle was now hiding.

"I'm so sorry you saw her, Gabby." He moved to hug her, but she pulled away.

"I'm not sure what I saw here, so help me understand this before I jump to conclusions."

"When you left, she came and sat down. I didn't want her there, but she of course wouldn't listen to me. She tried to convince me to be with her again, but I just can't do that to you, and I'll never want to be with her after what she did to me. I told her not to bother us, and everything will be fine now. Gabby, I love you, and I don't ever want you to be concerned about her. She's not even an issue anymore, okay?" He saw the doubt in her eyes and desperately tried to calm her and assure her of his feelings for her.

"Okay." She agreed and welcomed him as he tried once more to hug her. They returned to their table, and as soon as he could, Justin stopped their waiter and requested to be moved to table that didn't have Britney in its view. Instantly, four waiters were called to carry coats, plates, and anything else that belonged to them; they were seated comfortably at a table without any other tables in its view.

After Justin spent a while longer assuring Gabrielle that there was no concern with Britney, their meals were served. They ate in peace and enjoyed the night as it went on.  Hours later, they returned to their hotel and slept the night away.

The next morning, Gabrielle woke with a pain in her stomach. She groaned at the familiar feeling and willed it to go away. Several minutes later, the pain hadn't budged, and salty saliva began to fill her mouth. Instantly she knew she was going to be sick, and quickly ran to the bathroom; she wasn't given even a second to prepare herself. She heaved the expensive lobster well into the morning until she heard a knock on the door.

"Gabby, you okay?" After yet another heave, she quickly replied that she was fine. She finally felt her stomach settle, and she stood to clean her mouth. Seconds later, she emerged to find Justin sitting on the bed, tapping his toes.

"Are you okay?"

"Ugh, yeah, I think I'm okay. Something must not have agreed with me last night." She laughed nervously.

"I'm sorry; do you want me to do anything?"

"I'm fine now."

"I just need a little medicine, I'll be fine. I'm gonna go downstairs and get some. Stay here." Gabrielle pulled her long dark hair into a pony tail and threw on a tee-shirt and jeans. After grabbing her purse and room key, she headed down stairs to hail a cab. He'd never notice she was gone if she hurried.

She walked down the aisles until she found what she needed; the pink bottle would prove to be her best friend. The little voice in the back of her head told her that she needed to pick up one last item before she checked out, and she quickly found the contraceptive aisle and grabbed the products she needed. Within fifteen minutes, she was back in the hotel room with her brown bag of purchases.

Justin was lying on the couch, flipping through the channels nonchalantly.

"Don't you have to work today?" she asked.

"Why were you gone so long? And no, I cancelled everything until our flight. I'm so tired, I need a break."

"Oh, that's good, I guess. I'm sure you need a little vacation. And it took me so long because I had to get someone to search for Pepto Bismal. They thought they were out. I think they actually sent someone out to get me some."

"Yeah, the good places will do that for you. You're sure you're okay?"

"Justin, I said I was fine." She snapped and walked into the bathroom to administer the medicine. Slowly, she pulled the pink bottle out of the bag.

"First thing's first." She poured a cap of the pink liquid and downed it quickly to calm her stomach. Then she stared at the bag left on the counter. She wondered if she was being too extreme. Then again, her cycle was off, but it was always erratic, so her lateness didn't worry her. She'd never experienced a normal cycle. The nausea had been her key to purchase the tests, and she gotten almost every one on the shelf.

Hesitantly, she opened the box and read the instructions carefully. She followed the grotesque instructions and patiently awaited the allotted minutes. When her watch had made its final round, she clenched her eyes shut and picked up the white stick. It had a line right through the middle. She gulped. What did a line mean on this test? She'd forgotten to read the result indications, and she scrambled through the garbage to find her answer.

"Yes!" She yelped when she discovered her results: A single line meant negative, a plus sign meant positive. She felt like dropping to her knees and thanking God. She smiled to herself...maybe she really had eaten some bad lobster. Gabrielle quickly threw the rest of the unused tests back in the brown bag and closed it up. She began to cover the evidence of the used test in tissue, but suddenly the door opened.

"What is going on in here?" Justin's smile quickly turned to a frown when he saw Gabrielle hide her hand behind her back. She'd done it so quickly that he hadn't had time to notice what the object was.

"What do you have?" he asked, poking at her waist, "And why did you just scream?" He jumped behind her and she quickly whirled around to keep the test hidden behind her back. With a few quick fake-out moves he'd learned on the court, he maneuvered his way around her and grabbed the test out of her hand. His eyes widened and he gasped at the object in her hand. She hung her head in embarrassment.

"What the hell is this!?"

"Nothing, Justin, give it back." She reached for it, but he flipped it over to reveal its diagnosis.

"A line? What the hell does that mean!? Are you pregnant!?"

"God, Justin, don't you ever respect privacy? Give that back to me!" She snatched it from his hands and raced past him to the bathroom in her room with her brown bag and pink bottle in hand.

"Gabby, don't you walk away from me. What is going on? Are you pregnant?" He banged on the locked door she was hidden behind.

"No, Justin, I'm not pregnant. Leave me alone."

"Why did you take that test? Do you think you're pregnant? Is that why you got sick!? Gabby, open up!" After successfully hiding the test in the trash, she ripped the door open.

"Calm the fuck down, Justin." Her speech was nervous and hurried.

"Do you think you're pregnant?"

"No, Justin, the test was negative. I'm fine."'

"But you did, didn't you? You couldn't be pregnant that fast, we just has sex the day before yesterday."

"I know that, but I got sick, and I'm kinda late, so I thought I'd check to make sure. I'm not, though, so don't freak out."  She hadn't reminded him that they'd had sex over a month ago, and the tests would be able to give her some accuracy.

"Yeah, but if you think you are, it's too early to tell. You have to take another test. C'mon, let's go get one. You'll take it in a few days."

"Justin, no, I'm fine. I'm not pregnant. Can we just forget about this, please? This is really embarrassing, and I just wanna go lay down; I don't feel so good."

"You weren't even going to tell me, were you? You were just gonna throw that thing away and act like nothing ever happened."

"Yeah, so? What difference would it have made, I'm not pregnant, so why should you know if I took a test and it came out negative? There's no need to worry you."

"I can't believe you weren't gonna tell me."

"Justin, come on. Let's just forget about this. I don't want to talk about it anymore." Gabrielle pulled him back to his spot on the couch and cuddled up under his arm. He eyed her suspiciously and she cracked.

"Okay, I wasn't going to tell you, and I'm sorry. I just didn't want to worry you...or lose you."

"You wouldn't lose me if you got pregnant. There are ways to take care of that, you know?"

"I'm not even going to ask what you meant by that." Abortion wasn't even an option for Gabrielle, and she didn't want to hear Justin say that that was one thing they could consider; she didn't want to lose the respect she had for him.

"Just tell me about these things, okay? Don't try to hide them, I get nervous when the people I care about start to get dishonest. Let me know if something's going on, okay? Promise me." Gabrielle looked into his eyes.

"I promise." She snuggled closer into him, and he kissed the top of her head.

"Okay." He stroked her hair and held her tightly into him. Gabrielle hoped that the test had been accurate. For his benefit, she let his mind rest at ease. She just prayed that her cycle would resume so that she could finally let her mind rest at ease.