Salina’s day at work went by slower than most as she had finished most of her work the day before and she decided to take off early since she was simply sitting at her desk doing nothing anyway.
Hmm, she said to herself as she locked her office, Came in late and I’m leaving early. She walked up to Jennifer’s desk and noticed the girl playing solitaire, obviously as bored as Salina.
“Okay, Jenn, let’s get out of here.” Salina said checking her watch to see it was only 2 o’clock.
Jennifer’s eyes lit up. “Really?”
Salina smiled. “Really. You wanna go to lunch? My treat.”
“Sure, yeah. That’d be great. How about that BJ’s around the corner?”
”Sounds good. I’ll meet you there in a few.”
“Okay.”
Salina walked into the parking lot and had just gotten situated in her car when her phone ring and she pulled it out.
“Hello?” She asked not bothering to check who it was.
“Hey, babe.”
“Hey. What are you doing?” She said as she started the car and pulled out of the parking lot.
”Helping Tyler move his shit. He says ‘hi’ by the way.”
”Hi Tyler.” Salina said. “How’s the moving going?”
”It sucks. Next time I’ll just hire movers for him. So, what’re you doing? I called you at work, but no answer.”
”Jenn and I are going to lunch at BJ’s.”
“Oh really? Can I come?”
“Uh--I think this is going to be a females only lunch, hun.” She said pulling into the BJ’s parking lot.
“Awww.”
“Don’t whine. Besides you still need to pack.”
“Ok, ok. Call me later?”
”Sure.”
”Bye, baby.”
”Bye.” Salina put her phone in her purse before she opened her door and got out of her car, spotting Jennifer standing outside of the restaurant smoking a cigarette.
“You really should quit that, you know. It’s bad for you.” She said as she walked up to Jennifer.
“I should quit a lot of things.” Jenn replied putting out her cigarette before they walked into the restaurant and were immediately seated since it was past the lunch rush.
They were seated at a table near the back and glancing over their menus when Jenn remembered something.
“Oh my God, I forgot to tell you.” She said suddenly.
“What?” Salina looked at her concerned.
“At like 11 while you were in the bathroom, JC called for you.”
“Oh. Yeah, I talked to him already.” Salina said shrugging it off. Jenn looked at her with a curious smile.
“So…JC?”
Salina looked up. “What about him?”
”There’s something going on there, isn’t there?”
“What do you mean?” Salina nervously glanced at her menu before setting it down completely.
“You and JC? Come on, Salina, he’s like always around the office and calling for you and stuff. If there isn’t anything going on, you should definitely start something cause that boy’s got it bad for you.”
Salina blushed noticeably. “You think?” She asked shyly.
“Duh!”
Salina laughed. Jenn was definitely a California girl at heart. “Well, okay, just don’t tell anyone.” Jenn nodded excitedly. “We’ve been together for a few days. We went out last night.”
“Really?!” Jenn shrieked and Salina immediately shushed her. “Are you guys keeping it on the down low?”
”I don’t really know. We haven’t really talked about it. We haven’t talked about a lot of things. My family flew in from LA and we’ve been entertaining them all week. Plus, he leaves tomorrow for a TRL appearance in New York.” She said before a waitress came to take their orders.
“Jeez. You guys don’t get any time together, do ya?”
”Well, we went out to dinner last night just the two of us. Then we went back to his place to watch a movie and just be together.”
“So that’s why you were late today.” Jenn grinned evilly. “That’s my girl!”
“No.” Salina smiled. “I spent the night, but nothing happened. I just can’t even go there because of Vanessa. I can’t make that same mistake again. I mean I don’t regret it because she’s the best thing to ever happen to me, but I don’t want any more of my children conceived out of wedlock, you know?”
“Yeah, I know.” Jenn sighed dreamily. “But for JC, I could quickly give up my morals.”
Salina laughed and shook her head. “He was a perfect gentleman.”
“Are you gonna see him before he leaves tomorrow?”
”Probably not. I have to go get my daughter from day care and he still needs to pack.”
”So stop by real quick and give him a goodbye kiss. You know you want to.” Jenn teased as their food was set in front of them.
“We’ll see.” Salina said and they set about eating their food. As they ate they talked quietly and Jenn told Salina about her plans to get a job as a publicist as well after she finished graduate school.
“Well, it’s good that you’re working at WEG then. You’ll get lots of experience.”
”Actually, Johnny’s already said that I could have a position at WEG once I’m done with school.” Salina of course already knew that since it was her job to oversee Jenn and decide if she had what it takes to do the job, but she smiled and congratulated Jenn as if it were news to her.
The whole time she was eating lunch, Salina could not stop thinking about Jenn’s earlier words and by the time they had said goodbye and Salina was driving she had made up her mind.
She drove quickly to pick up Vanessa and phoned her brother to see what they were doing. Her brother informed her that they were still out and about and had decided to go out to dinner that night if she wanted to join them. Salina declined and told him she’d see them at home later.
“C, mama, C!” Vanessa said from her carseat.
Salina smiled. “Yeah, we’re gonna go see, JC.” Salina said as she got off of the freeway to go to his house.
Salina smiled as she pulled into his driveway and saw his car there. She got herself and Vanessa out hurriedly and was just about to ring his doorbell when he opened the door and looked at her in shock.
“Wha-What are you doing here?” He asked.
“I wanted to see you before you left and so did Nessa.” She said handing over Vanessa who was reaching for him.
“Hey sweetie.” He said to the grinning little girl who wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. “I’m gonna miss being able to breathe.” He choked out.
Salina made the little girl loosen her hold before she kissed JC. When he pulled back she looked at his hands where he was holding his keys and wallet. “Were you going somewhere?” she asked.
“Uh…my parents came out to see Ty’s apartment, so I was headed back over there.”
”Oh my God, I’m so sorry. Go ahead. I have the worst timing.” She said taking Vanessa back and walking towards her car.
JC frowned and scratched his head. “Sal, wait”I’m glad that you’re here. I am.” He said as he ran after her.
“No, I know. But you never get to be with your parents, so go. It’s fine, Josh, really.”
“Wait”come with me.” He asked quietly as he grabbed her arm to get her to face him.
“I’m sorry…what?” She said as she put Vanessa down to run around JC’s lawn.
“Come with me. Meet my family.”
“You’re kidding.”
” I met yours!” JC said smiling.
“You didn’t have to,” Salina said looking around him towards Vanessa, “Nessa, don’t pull the grass up.”
JC turned to look at Vanessa smiling innocently at her mother. “I know, I didn’t have to, I wanted to. But my family wants to meet you now.”
“What about Nessa?”
”She’ll come with us, Sal, I wasn’t gonna leave her here.” He said.
“No, I mean what are your parents gonna think of me when they see her? Nessa, mommy said don’t do that.”
“They’ll think you’re the best mother in the world, like I do.” JC sighed. “Did you-uh-did you know that I’m adopted?”
Salina looked up at him quickly. “What?”
“Yeah, my biological mother gave me up when I was 5. My mom has told me countless time how she has no idea how anyone could give their baby up. So she’ll be proud that you were selfless and have done everything in your power to give Vanessa the best life possible.”
Salina smiled weakly and wrapped her arms around him. He kissed the top of her head. “So what do you say?” He asked.
“Ok.” She said smiling up at him.
“Yeah?”
”Yeah.”
”Good, but I was just kidding though I was only going to get something to eat.” He laughed as Salina’s jaw dropped.
“Are you serious?” She asked and JC began to worry when she hadn’t cracked a smile. He nodded and she pushed away from him. “JC!” She said as she went to Vanessa. She busied herself with wiping Vanessa’s hands and face off as he spoke.
“What? I wanted to see what you’d say!”
”So why didn’t you just ask me?”
”Because you probably wouldn’t have given me an honest answer.” She glared at him. “Alright, I’m sorry. Anyways, I wasn’t kidding about all of it, my parents are here and I am adopted. I just wasn’t going over there.” JC sighed as he turned and saw a few of the teenage girls that lived in his neighborhood watching them from the gate at the end of his driveway. “Can we at least take this inside? Or leave or do something to get away from them?” JC asked her quietly while nodding his head in the direction of the girls causing them to shriek a little.
Salina turned to look back at the girls and smiled at the way they were acting before turning to walk towards his house.
JC turned to look at Vanessa who was looking back up at him with questioning eyes. “I think I just made your mommy mad, munchkin.” He said grabbing her hand and walking slowly with her into the house. He turned quickly to wave at the girls and noticed one of them had a camera.
He frowned. “Shit.”
“Shit.” Vanessa echoed.
“No, no, no. Don’t say that, sweetie. Your mommy will kill me.” JC kneeled down to her level. “That’s a bad word, ok? Don’t say it. No, no.”
“No, no?”
”Yes! Good. Say that! No, no.” JC stood up and nudged the little girl inside so that he could close the door. “Now, where’d your mommy go?”
Vanessa seemed to know the answer to that question instantly. “Mama! Mama! Mama!” She screamed as she toddled into the kitchen where Salina was standing at the refrigerator.
“What is it, mi hija?” She asked not looking back but reaching in to pull out sausage and setting it on the counter. JC looked at the counter and noticed that there was already pasta and pasta sauce sitting there.
He looked to her. “You’re cooking?”
“No, you’re cooking.” She said as she took his hands and put them under the kitchen faucet so that he would get the idea to wash them.
“You’re joking right? You want to leave here alive?”
“You have to learn to cook eventually. What will happen if you are in the middle of a blackout and you can’t go to McDonald’s to get a burger. You need to be able to cook.”
“If there was a blackout…which by the way we don’t have here very often, California Girl…I wouldn’t be able to cook anyway.”
Salina opened her mouth to retaliate but realized that he was right. “Well, you’re gonna learn anyway. Come on.”
JC left it alone because he already knew that he was in trouble with his joke from earlier and if Vanessa let his profanity slip from her mouth, he’d really be in trouble. So he decided the least he could do was cook for his girlfriend. “Okay, what do I do?”
Salina slid onto one of the stools at the bar and started giving directions. “Fill that pot with water and put it on the burner on high for it to boil.” She said pointing to a pot that was hanging from his rack of pots and pans. He did as she asked and soon he was in the middle of cooking a delicious meal.
“Hey, what does mi hija mean?” JC asked as he stirred the sauce.
“What?” Salina looked up from where she was playing patty cake with Vanessa.
“Your mom called me mi hija this morning and when you just called Vanessa that it reminded me, what does it mean?”
Salina laughed. ”I’m sure she didn’t say mi hija.”
“Yes, she did.” JC defended.
“Sweetie, mi hija is only for girls. She might’ve said mi hijo.”
“Yeah that was probably it. What does it mean?”
”Uh…there’s no real translation…literally it means ‘my boy’…but people use to as a term of endearment like sweetie or something. Usually parents use it when talking to their kids. Or when anyone is talking to a kid really.”
“So could I call you mi hija?”
”No.”
”Why not?”
”I’m not a kid.”
”But you said it was a term of endearment.”
”Yeah…for kids, Josh.”
“Your mom called me mi hijo and I’m not a kid.”
”But you’re a lot younger than she is. It’s like saying ‘my son’ or something.”
“It’s a very confusing language.” He sighed as he checked his noodles.
Salina laughed. “English is much more confusing, trust me.” She said as she got Vanessa’s sippy cup from the diaper bag and went to the refrigerator to find something to fill it with.
Vanessa toddled after her mom and almost made Salina trip when she turned around with the juice in her hand.
“Vanessa…go stand….there.” She said nodding her head in the direction of JC.
Vanessa walked over to him and he lifted her onto his hip so she could see what he was doing.
“I do?” Vanessa asked as she reached for the wooden spoon.
“No, baby, it’s hot, okay?” He said as he tried to balance her. Salina came to rescue him as she handed Vanessa her cup and set her back on the floor.
“Baby, go play with Millie, okay?” She said as Vanessa spotted the dog sitting in the corner and ran towards her. Salina turned a looked at him, taking in his full appearance for the first time since she’d arrived. “You know, I’m still kinda mad at you…but I gotta tell you you’re looking kinda sexy right now.” She said.
JC was dressed in all black. Black jeans, a tight black shirt showing off his muscles and a black beanie. JC smiled as she wrapped her arms around him from behind as he kept cooking. “I like this scruffy thing you got going on.” She said as she ran her fingers lightly over his stubbled cheek. “It smells good, hun.”
JC turned his head and lightly kissed her hand. “Here taste this.” He commented as he got a spoon out of the drawer and lifted some of the sauce to her mouth. “Careful, hot.”
She swallowed the sauce and smiled up at him. “It’s perfect.” He smiled and leaned down to kiss her. Their kiss turned passionate and didn’t stop until Salina realized that his sauce was boiling. She pulled away quickly. “Babe, your food.”
“Oh, no!” He said turning around quickly and pushing her out of the way. “I think it’s ready.” He said.
Salina nodded and got plates out of his cabinet. JC looked at her when she handed him only one plate. “I’m not hungry.” She said.
JC looked crushed. “What? After I just made this whole meal for you?”
”It wasn’t for me. It was for you. So you wouldn’t have to go out. I just ate remember?”
He nodded and snatched the plate from her hands pretending to be angry as he shoveled food on his plate. Salina crept up behind him again and started kissing the back of his neck.
“Wasn’t I the one that was mad?”
JC’s eyes closed as her breath hit him. “You need to stop.”
”Why?”
”Because your one-year-old daughter is about to get a lesson on the birds and the bees.” He whispered.
Salina snickered as she walked away from him over to where her daughter was sitting, trying to take off her shoes. Salina moved her hands and finished the task for her. Vanessa immediately stood up and crawled into JC’s lap as he ate.
Salina’s mouth dropped. “I think my daughter loves you more than she loves me.” She pouted as she flopped down on the ground.
JC whispered something into Vanessa’s ear making her giggle. She climbed down and walked over to hug her mom. “Wuv you, mama.”
She giggled as Salina grabbed her and pulled her down to lie with her. “I love you too, mi hija.”
“And C?”
JC’s head lifted as he was now much more interested in the conversation.
Salina noticed and smirked. “No sé ahora. Quizá.” She said to the little girl.
“Hey, that’s cheating. You can’t speak another language.”
“She understood me, right sweetie?” she asked Vanessa.
“Si.” Vanessa said giggling before covering her mouth.
“What? She knows Spanish?” He asked.
“Well, yeah, I speak it at home with her usually.”
“You do? I never hear you.”
”Well, I don’t do it when you’re around. But I want her to be bilingual.” She turned to Vanessa. “Tiene hambre?” she asked her and Vanessa nodded.
“Can you teach me to say something?”
Salina stood up to make her daughter a plate. “What do you want to know how to say?”
“How do you say, ‘don’t be mad’?” He asked.
She smirked at him as she fixed a plate for Vanessa. “No sea enojado.”
“No sey en-o-ha-do.” He stumbled making her giggle.
“What?”
“You’re such a gringo.” She laughed as she sat down and put Vanessa in the high chair next to her.
“Hey you wanna help me with something?” JC asked her as she set Vanessa’s food on the table.
“Depends what it is.”
“You’ll like it, I promise.” He watched as she lifted the fork to Vanessa’s mouth
“What is it?” She pressed.
“Packing.” He said timidly.
“Yeah, right.” She said with a laugh.
“Please.” He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. He kissed her neck. “Please, baby, I need your help.”
Salina smiled softly and tilted her head to kiss him. “Go pick out the clothes you want to take and I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Yay!” he said and tousled Vanessa’s hair before jogging to the stairs.
Vanessa craned her neck as she watched him run by her then turned back to her mom with a questioning glance.
Salina shrugged. “He’s strange I know.” She said as she wiped Vanessa’s mouth and lifted her from the high chair.
She walked up the stairs then put Vanessa down as she walked into JC’s room. She looked around, but couldn’t see him.
“Josh?”
“Yeah?” he said as he walked out of his closet with an armful of clothes.
“Babe, how long are you gonna be gone?”
He shrugged. “A few days.”
“So why so many clothes?”
“In case I wanna change.”
Salina sat down on his bed and started folding clothes. Vanessa climbed up next to her and started jumping,
“Down, Vanessa.” She said in a motherly voice making JC laugh. “What?”
“You’re such a mom.”
“Well, good.” She laughed.
“Come here, munchkin.” He held his arms out to Vanessa who jumped into them. “Come help me out.” He said as he walked back into his closet while holding the giggling Vanessa upside-down.
Salina smiled as she thought of the bond that her daughter and boyfriend shared. It pained her to think she and JC probably wouldn’t work out and Vanessa would be the one getting crushed.
“Hey, why the long face? I realize folding my underwear isn’t exactly exciting but geez.” He joked even though she was holding a pair of jeans, not his underwear.
“Is it true that you only wear your underwear once?”
JC groaned. “Where did you hear that?”
“Everywhere.”
“I forget that you’re my publicist.”
“Why? I’ve been your publicist longer than I’ve been your girlfriend.”
“Yes, but in my opinion the publicist isn’t the more important job between the two.” He said before leaning in to kiss her. Their lips just barely brushed when Salina burst out laughing. “What?”
She pointed behind him and turned to see Vanessa walking out of his closet with his shoes on her feet. He laughed. “You are so adorable.” He told her as he walked over to her and picked her up. He laid down on the bed taking Salina and her daughter with him. Salina snuggled into him as Vanessa got comfortable lying on his chest.
“Can we stay like this forever?” Salina asked him.
“Of course.” He said as he kissed the top of her head.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Story Tags: boyfriendjc jc justin hospital tabloids joey chris lance solojc
