“Thank you so much for watching her,” Kali Vaughn said, once she get got back from the store.
“It was no problem,” Lance told her. “I’m glad I could help.”
“Capri, we need to start making dinner,” Kali said to her little sister, walking across the landing and unlocking the door.
“You’re making dinner, Kali?” Caprice groaned. “Do we have to eat burned food again?”
“So sorry I can’t cook,” Kali said. “I got something even I can’t screw up.”
“Kali, you screw up brownies. There probably isn’t anything you can’t mess up.”
“Hey, I can cook some thins.”
“Yeah, fast food.”
“We won’t be having any of that for sometime, so learn to live with my cooking.”
The door closed behind them then, and Lance couldn’t hear the rest of their conversation.
He closed the door and paced around the living room of his apartment. Being around a child brought back so many memories of Amaryllis. They wanted kids, at least three of them. They were planning on starting right after they got married.
Lance collapsed on the couch. It was so hard for him to not think about her. Amaryllis was just as much a part of his life as music.
~*~*~*~
“Oh god.” JC sat down on the sand, holding his head in his hands. “Oh god. Oh god.”
“JC... Josh?” Lorelie asked, kneeling down beside him. “Are you ok?” She placed an arm on his shoulder.
“What are you doing out here? We can’t have you getting cold or anything. Rest, yeah, that’s what you need. Do you have any cravings?”
“JC, I’m only two weeks pregnant. Nothing’s going to happen.”
“That doesn’t matter.” JC thought for a moment. “Do you feel ugly or fat or depressed or anything?”
Lorelie laughed. “JC, you don’t ask women things like that.”
“I’m just remembering all of the things I’ve heard about pregnant women, and one is that they feel fat and ugly.”
“I feel fine.” She kissed him. “I feel better than ever.”
“We can’t have sex anymore, I don’t want to do anything that would hurt the baby.”
“Joshua Scott Chasez, stop worrying so much. It won’t hurt the baby. Everything’s going to be fine.”
“Have you told your parents yet? We’ll have to tell mine ASAP. And what about everyone else? Circe and Calypso and the guys?”
“Circe and Calypso already know, I told them earlier. And we’ll tell the guys later.”
“We’re going to have start working on the nursery and buying clothes and toys and everything else-”
“JC, shut up,” Lorelie told him, kissing him again.
~*~*~*~
“It’s so strange to actually be shopping again,” Circe began, as she and Calypso walked around the grocery store. “I never thought I’d be in a grocery store again.”
“Me neither.” Calypso pushed the car into one of the lines. “It’s even fun to be looking at the tabloids again.” She looked at the racks holding the infamous tabloids and her face paled. “Oh shit,” she moaned. “Circe, look at them.”
“What?” Circe glanced at the papers. “Oh fuck.”
“Wife Snatcher: *NSYNC’s Justin Timberlake steals future wife from English Lord Richard Galbraith,” one read. Another screamed: “Famous singer and mistress: Justin Timberlake, Calypso Jordan, and her future husband, Lord Richard Galbraith.” A third proclaimed: “Justin Timberlake and Richard Galbraith: What a choice for heiress to Avalon Cruises and Shangri La Resorts Calypso Jordan.”
“Shit, this is terrible,” Calypso said. “What the hell are we going to do?”
“We’ll talk to Justin after we get out of here. And your parents. They’ll back you in this.”
Calypso gathered a copy of all of the tabloids. A few others said things like: “Prince Charming not so Charming? Justin Timberlake accused of stealing a man’s fiancee”, “Rumors of an arrangement between Justin Timberlake and Calypso Jordan true?”, and “Mama’s boy Justin Timberlake having an affair with another man’s wife”.
“That is just bullshit,” Calypso said. “I am not married to Galbraith.”
They were loading the grocery’s into their car when Calypso’s cell phone rang. It was Justin.
“Calypso, you need to come over to my house,” Justin told her. “We have a major problem.”
“I know. Circe and I were grocery shopping and we saw the tabloids.”
“Johnny’s coming over, so are all of the guys. I’d advise you to call your parents, too. We need to figure out what we’re going to do.”
“We’ll be there in a few. And I plan on calling my parents when we get to your house.”
~*~*~*~
“We’ll release the true story,” Justin said, looking around the room at everyone. “We don’t need Galbraith to take our fans and supporters because of this.”
“What we need to do is take a break,” JC said. “Lance needs to come to turns with... Amaryllis’ death; Lorelie is pregnant, I want to be there through everything; Justin, you and Joey need time with Calypso and Circe.”
“You can’t do this,” Johnny Wright, their manager said. “You’re at the height of your career.”
“Johnny, it won’t be for long,” Justin said. “Just so we have time to come to grips with everything.”
“I agree with JC and Justin,” Lance said. “We need some peace to get our lives settled.”
Johnny looked around at the guys. “Ok, we’ll release the true story about Calypso and Galbraith and the news about your break. How long will this be?”
“Say it’ll be for an unknown period of time,” Justin said.
~*~*~*~
“*NSYNC has released the true story behind Justin Timberlake’s relationship with Avalon Cruises and Shangri La Resorts heiress Calypso Jordan. Timberlake and Jordan dated last year for a few months, while Jordan was supposedly “missing” and then broke it off. Jordan was engaged to Richard Galbraith, an English lord, who, we are informed, beat Jordan. Timberlake found him strangling her. He then threatened Timberlake and Jordan, saying he would spill all of the details about their relationship to the press. On a further note, Johnny Wright, *NSYNC’s manager, has announced that the five members will be taking a break of unknown length. The guys, he told MTV, need time to recover from events that have gone on in the past month.” Kurt Loder looked at the camera. “This is Kurt Loder with MTV News.”