It wasn’t until that moment that she realized how beautiful he was. The way his long hair bounced on his head when he laughed. And the way he looked so peaceful caressing her daughter’s hair. He almost looked like he could…Salina shook her head of the ridiculous thoughts and turned to his file.
“Is all of this information correct?” She asked and flipped the file around so that he could see it.
“Yep. It’s all right.”
“Good. Because once I get your schedule together I want to e-mail it to you…”
“Uh…I don’t really ever check my e-mail.”
“Don’t worry.” She said as she kept typing. “I’ll email it, fax it and snail mail it to you.” JC’s mouth dropped open. “And then I’ll call you the day before each event in case you forgot.”
JC was about to make a comment to Vanessa about her mother being super organized when he noticed that the baby had fallen asleep. He slowly got up and laid her on the blanket that was on the other side of the room. After straightening he looked at the wall where there was a picture of Salina with a young man. “Is this your husband?”
Salina’s head whipped around to see what he was referring to. She frowned. “Oh….no, that’s my brother Juan.”
“Oh. If you don’t mind my asking…are you married?”
“Nope.” She said still focusing on her computer before she wrote down a few names and numbers.
JC stared at her for a minute before looking at the rest of the pictures. “Are all of these guys your brothers?” He asked in hopes of finding out if she was in any way attached.
“Yep.” She answered.
“What are their names?”
Salina sighed before walking over to the picture of all 5 of them and pointing to them individually. “Mario, Juan, Robert and Tony.”
“Are you the baby?”
“Yep, that’s me. Mario’s the oldest, then Tony, then
Robert and then my best friend in the whole wide world Juan.” She smiled at the picture with her brothers. “What about you…the baby?”
“Naw…I’m the oldest. I have a sister, Heather, and a little brother, Tyler. What about Vanessa? Does she have any brothers or sisters?”
“Please, I can barely handle her.” She said and realized that JC was standing rather close in front of her. “Uh…so, I’m gonna call around and see if I can’t get you some interviews and then I will send you a list of them and if you have any problems then you can just give me a call, ok?”
JC smiled. “Sounds good.” He held out his hand. “Nice meeting you, Salina.”
She shook it. “Nice to meet you too, Josh.”
It had been two weeks since Salina had started her job with NSync and she had quickly learned that while she was supposed to be working primarily with JC a lot of her time was devoted to keeping the press away from Justin. A hard task for her considering she hadn’t met him and he wasn’t returning any of her calls. US Weekly had printed a cover story apparently on the week that Justin spent with his new girlfriend, Cameron Diaz, in Hawaii, complete with pictures of them flipping off the press and kissing on their surfboards.
Personally, Salina thought it was rather funny and while she knew the press had no business following Justin to Hawaii and interrupting his vacation, she also knew that him going around flipping off every photographer that comes by wasn’t the thing to do either.
So after that whole fiasco was finished she was back to focusing on getting JC some exposure. She was in the copy room Xeroxing calendars for all of the guys with Vanessa placed on her hip when JC arrived at the doorway without being seen by her. He didn’t, however, go unnoticed by Vanessa. JC had been spending a lot of time around the office since Salina had arrived and had even stopped by her apartment a few times to hang with her and Vanessa.
“Bye bye, mama!” She squealed.
“I know, mi hija, we’re almost done in here.”
“Bye bye!”
“I know, calm down.” She looked at her daughter and noticed the smile on her face which confused her. “Wait…what are you saying?”
“Bye bye!”
JC took that opportunity to walk into the room. “She’s saying bye bye. As in bye, bye, bye”
He sang. “She knows our songs.”
She smirked at him as she got the papers she needed and went to leave the room. “And when did you learn baby talk?”
“I took it in high school.” She turned to look at him and he shrugged. “She said it the first time we met. It was a very magical moment. Here’s the things I don’t want to do.”
Salina groaned as she took it and walked away from him. “Joshua, I sent this to you almost two weeks ago and you’re just now giving it back? Why do you NSync men like to ruin my life?”
“Who else is?”
”Justin, who won’t return my phone calls.” She said as she put on her glasses and began to read the paper.
JC took the opportunity to play with Vanessa as he flew her through the air. “That’s because you don’t have the right phone number.”
She looked at him. “You have to do this Jay Leno one.”
“You said I could choose.”
“I said that?”
“Yep.” He said breathless as he threw the baby up in the air and caught her.
“I lied. Don’t do that with her.”
“She’s fine.” He argued.
Salina sighed. “What do you mean I don’t have the right phone number?”
“Do you know how many times that boy has had to change his phone number?”
“So are you going to give me the right one?”
“Sure. Grab a pen.”
“Okay, go ahead.” She said pen-ready.
“It’s (549) 678-0943.”
“Thank you. You’re the best.”
“Do I still have to do Jay Leno?”
“Yes.” She answered as she picked up her phone and dialed the number hoping he would finally pick up.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Justin, this is Salina Cortez, your new publicist.” She said somewhat intimidated.
“Oh, hey! How are you?”
“I’m good and you?”
“Great! So what’s up?”
“Well, I’ve been getting several calls lately about the article in US Weekly…”
“Oh, great….look, I’m really sorry about that.”
“No, it’s not a big deal. I just wanted to let you know that since I couldn’t get a hold of you that I just went ahead and released a statement saying that you don’t wish to comment on your personal life.”
“Sounds great to me.”
“Are you sure? Because I could always issue something else.”
”Naw…it’s not big deal. Thanks though.”
“That’s my job.”
“Hey, how’d you get this number anyway?”
“Oh, JC is here and he gave it to me.”
“Yo, C, is there? Can I talk to him?”
Salina looked at the man who was now playing with her daughter’s dolls. “Uh….sure…hold on.” She said before putting him on speakerphone. “JC, Justin wants to talk to you.”
“Yo, C, what up, man?”
“J, how are you doing?”
”Good. I heard Lance got an invite to the studio to hear your album and I’m waiting for my invite.”
“You can stop by my house anytime, man. I just put in this great studio in the basement.”
“Cool. Hey, are you going to Chris’ bar-be-que thing on Saturday?”
“Yeah. I’ll be there. Speaking of holding out on something, when do I get to meet Cameron?”
“You already know her, fool.”
“But I don’t know her as your girl.”
Justin laughed. “She’ll be there on Saturday I think. What about you Salina are you going?”
Salina blushed and looked over at JC. “Oh, Snap!” JC said. “I forgot that’s why I was really coming over here. Do you wanna go to Chris’ house for a bar-be-que on Saturday?”
“I can’t”“ She started looking at Vanessa.
“You could bring her.”
“Bring who?” Justin asked from the phone. “A girl? I wanna meet the girl?”
”Weren’t you guys just talking about your girlfriend?” Salina asked him.
“We have an understanding relationship.” Justin quipped making JC laugh.
“I was talking about her daughter, Vanessa.” JC answered him. “She is cute though. She’d win your heart easily, J.”
“Bring her! Bring her!” Justin exclaimed. “Hey, look you guys I gotta get going but JC, you’re job is to convince the publicist to come to the BBQ on Saturday.” He said before hanging up.
JC stood up and clicked the off button on the speakerphone. “You heard the man. Justin Timberlake wants you to go and what Justin wants, Justin usually gets.”
“JC, I can’t. I don’t even know these people.”
“All the more reason for you to come. So you can meet them. All of us guys will be there, our families, security, it’s the first step in becoming a member of the crew.”
Salina just looked at him and sighed.
“I’ll even pick you up and drive you.” Salina still didn’t move. “I’ll take you out for ice cream, right now? It’s your lunch break, right?”
Salina cracked a smile. “Okay, fine. I’ll go. But I want a really big ice cream.” She said standing up and grabbing her purse.
JC picked up Vanessa and the three of them were out the door to eat some ice cream in the middle of December.
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
