"Oh my God," Ginger said that evening, walking into Zac's apartment. "This is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. It's just like Charlotte's apartment on Sex and the City. Kris! It's like Charlotte's apartment!"
"It is!" Kris said, walking in. "I can't believe it! Zac, you're going to give us a tour, right?"
"Sure," Zac said. He was going through the mail as he walked into the apartment, putting his keys on the table. "You can put your things in one guest room, then debate between yourselves who's going to get what room after the tour." Zac led them to the nearest guest room and flicked on the light. Everyone put their things down on one side of the room. "Well, this is guest room number one. The only difference between this room and the other is the color scheme. Everything else is basically the same. Moving on�" Ginger followed Zac out with Jenny on her hip, while Kris and Taylor followed behind them. "I love that painting," Zac said, pointing to the painting hanging in the hallway.
"We used to have that painting at home," Taylor said. Zac shrugged.
"That's probably why I like it so much. Anyway, this is the other guest room," Zac said, opening the door. "It's basically the same, except the colors are different. It's a little bit bigger too."
"I call this room!" Ginger said.
"Dammit, Ginger," Kris muttered.
"No swearing around my baby," Ginger said, giving Kris a look. "I think Zac and I provide enough colorful language for her to hear anyway."
"Why me?" Zac asked, turning to Ginger.
"Oh, Zac," she said. "You swear like nobody's business." Zac rolled his eyes.
"Anyway�let's move on to my room," he said. "It's kind of empty at this point, but it'll get better once I get a chance to go shopping." He opened the door to his room and everyone filed inside.
"Man, Zac," Kris said. "This is, like, both of the guest rooms put together."
"Yeah, I know," Zac said. "It's really big. The entire place is big. Too big for just me to live here. Over there is my bathroom." Ginger ventured over to the bathroom while Kris and Taylor looked around the bedroom. Kris was telling Taylor that she wanted a room this size when they got married, and Taylor was shaking his head.
"Oh my God! Kris! Come in here!" Ginger yelled from the bathroom. Kris ran over.
"What?"
"Look at this bathtub!"
"Holy shit!" Zac laughed. That seemed to be a common reaction. "Zac, that's, like, a Jacuzzi! You could fit all four of us and Jenny in there."
"Remind me not to ever try that," Zac said, eyeing Taylor. "Sorry Tay."
"Don't worry," Taylor said. "Not for a million dollars." Zac grinned. That just didn't seem as much as it used to, especially since he'd just received a paycheck from the record company.
"Oh come on, Taylor," Ginger said. "A million dollars? I make more than that for one movie."
"Yeah, so do I," Kris said. "And I'm not even in the movie. I'm way down on the salary chain and I get more than that."
"Whatever," Taylor said. "A billion dollars." Taylor looked at Zac.
"What?"
"How much are you making off your new album?" Zac shook his head.
"No, I'm sorry, I'm not going to say."
"Oh come on," Ginger said. "I need to know how much I have to ask for child support."
"What?!"
"I'm just kidding," she said. "No, but honestly I'm very curious. I've heard all these rumors saying you were getting tons of money and that the record company was begging for you to sign with them."
"Who said that?" Zac asked.
"I don't know who started it," Ginger said. "That's just what I heard."
"I heard that too," Kris said.
"Me too," Taylor said. Zac looked at Taylor. "Kris told me."
"Let's just say I probably made more on that album than all three of you are making right now combined," Zac said.
"No way," Ginger said. "On one album?"
"Yeah."
"Well let's make sure," Ginger said. "I'm making twenty million off this movie."
"And I'm making two," Kris said. Zac looked at Taylor again.
"Are you even working right now?" Zac asked.
"No, I'm kind of sponging off Kris right now."
"So that's only twenty-two million right there," Zac said. "I make more than that." Ginger exchanged looks with Kris. "All right, all right, but don't think anything of it, okay? It's not about the money."
"Blah, blah, blah," Kris said, rolling her eyes. "How much?"
"Well," Zac said. "On this particular album, you can take what Ginger makes on her movie and add a zero. I'm going on to the next room." Zac ran out of the bathroom quickly. There was a brief pause then all of a sudden a loud uproar.
"Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa, you made two hundred million dollars on one album?" Taylor asked.
"Taylor, you need to see my music room�"
"How could they pay you that much?" Zac sighed.
"They wanted to," Zac said. "There were going to offer me a hundred an album, but I didn't want a record deal at the time so I said no and then they doubled it. I came home, thought about it, and reluctantly took it. I don't need that money. I was making six figures a week producing and that was more than enough for me. But I knew I needed to make music again, so I said yes."
"Do they really think you're going to be that successful?" Taylor asked.
"The single went number one across the board and it just came out this week. They think it's going to be massively successful," Zac said. "They play it on the radio all the fucking time, the video's on heavy rotation on MTV and there's been millions of pre-orders already."
"Me and Kris are two of them," Ginger said.
"Thanks," Zac said. "I'll take the two of you to dinner."
"Great."
"So can we continue the tour now?" Zac asked. "Now that everybody knows how much I make now."
"All right," Taylor said. "What's this music room you speak of?"
"That's later," Zac said. "Let's go to the living room first. Now the living room is my favorite room, being that it has the big TV and all�"
"Zac! Zac, wake up," Ginger said. It was the middle of the night and everyone had gone to sleep hours beforehand. Taylor and Kris ended up with the slightly smaller room because it had the slightly larger bed, and Ginger and Jenny slept in the other guest room. Zac slept by himself in his own massive king sized bed because he had no one else to sleep with. It was a terrible feeling to know that everyone else in the apartment had someone to sleep with and he didn't.
"Uh�what?" He opened his eyes and Ginger was standing there in her pajamas with Jenny. "Hey, what's going on?"
"Can we stay in here? Jenny wants to be by you," she said.
"Really?" Zac asked. "Did she say that all by herself?"
"I kind of want to be by you too," Ginger said, looking down.
"Come on in," he said. He pulled back the covers and Ginger climbed in. She put Jenny in between her and Zac. Jenny had already fallen asleep during her short trip from the guest room over to Zac's bed. Zac turned to face Jenny and couldn't help but smile at the sight of her.
"She's beautiful, isn't she?" Ginger asked. Zac nodded.
"Yeah, she is," Zac said. "Just like you."
"Zac�"
"No, I mean she looks just like you."
"I have to admit I'm glad you asked us to stay here," she said. "My biggest fear is that once you found out you were just going to walk away."
"I would never do that, Ging, and you know that," he told her. "You mean too much to me."
"It doesn't seem like it."
"I was just mad. I didn't want to think about it. But just because I didn't want to doesn't mean I didn't actually do it all the time," he said. "Did that make sense?"
"Yeah."
"I thought about you all the time."
"So did I. But I had a reason. Every step of the way I was thinking about you�" Ginger sighed. "I don't think we should be talking like this."
"You're probably right," Zac said. "You know, because if we did get back together, and something happened�"
"That wouldn't be good."
"No, it wouldn't."
On that note, they both went to sleep. Zac was awake longer than Ginger, and couldn't resist the temptation to watch her sleep, quietly with an arm protectively around her little girl. They looked so perfect together. He was never able to imagine Ginger as a mother, but here she was, enjoying every minute of it. Ginger, although still absolutely breathtaking, seemed years older than she actually was. She was only nineteen and she had a daughter to take care of. Zac was only eighteen and had a child to take care of. It was hard to believe.
He awoke in the morning before Ginger. Glancing at the clock, he realized why. It was only six-thirty. He still hadn't broken his habit of waking up to go to the studio. He was almost tempted to just turn around and go back to sleep, but instead he decided to get up. With a kiss on the forehead to his daughter, he got up and walked into the bathroom. After a shower and a change of clothes, he headed out to the kitchen. He wasn't surprised to see Taylor there.
"Good morning," Zac said.
"Morning," Taylor said. "Who buys your coffee?"
"Gwen did," Zac said. "She bought everything."
"Well she has the worst taste in coffee I've ever known," Taylor said. "This stuff is terrible." He took another sip. Zac shook his head. If Taylor knew anything, it was his music and his coffee. "I'm buying your coffee from now on."
"Go right ahead." Zac opened the cabinet and took out his mug. He poured himself a cup and sat next to Taylor at the counter. "Did you sleep okay?"
"As okay as I ever do," he said. "I don't sleep well."
"You never did."
"Where did Ginger go? I heard her walking around, although that isn't exactly unusual with Jenny and all."
"She came into my room."
"Did she?" Taylor asked, looking over.
"Yeah," Zac said. "Her and Jenny. Nothing happened. We decided we're not going to get back together."
"Does she want to?" he asked.
"You would know better than I would." Taylor shrugged. "Did she ever talk about me?"
"Only about every day," Taylor said. "But, usually it wasn't in a nice manner, especially when she was pregnant."
"Great�"
"She still loves you, Zac," Taylor said. Zac nodded. "Not wanting to get back together is bullshit. You love her and you should do it for Jenny's sake. If you're not together when this movie is over, and when you're off with the new album, then it's just going to fizzle and I know neither of you want that." A loud cry from Zac's bedroom caught Zac's attention. "Ginger's in there, and in three seconds Kris will be in there too," Taylor said. "Don't worry." Kris ran out of the bedroom and into Ginger's room.
"She's in my room, Kris," Zac said. Kris ran to Zac's room.
"Well," Taylor said. "Looks like the girls are up."
"I have to go to work," Zac said, standing up.
"Work?"
"Yeah, I have to make sure those bastards down at the studio start on time," Zac said. "They told me I was executive producer on this kid's album but it's more like I'm the executive supervisor. They never start on time if I'm not there. And I don't think they get any work done when I'm not there either. Whatever, I didn't sign him. I'm just getting paid for it."
"Like you need any more money," Taylor said.
"Shut up. Where are my keys?"
"You put them on the table by the front door when you came in last night," he said. Zac nodded.
"Do you want to come with me? I can show you how I earn my millions. With me gone promoting the album they may need another good producer."
"Eh," Taylor said, "I might as well. Let me make sure the girls are okay staying here for a while." Taylor got up and walked into the bedroom. Zac put on his shoes and walked to the bedroom. Ginger was sitting up in bed breastfeeding while Kris stood next to her. Taylor was by the door, keeping his distance. "�I don't know how long we're going to be gone."
"If we just make a routine trip, we should be back by ten thirty," Zac said.
"So until ten thirty."
"That's fine," Ginger said. "We'll be here. I have to go into work this afternoon, though."
"We'll be back in time for that," Taylor explained. She nodded and Taylor turned to Zac. "All right, you ready?"
"Yeah." They turned to leave.
"Zac!" He turned around.
"What?"
"You don't just leave like that." He looked confused. "Come over here and say goodbye. You may just be leaving for a few hours but we're still your family so come over here and give me and Jenny a kiss." He did what he was told but gave Kris a confused look while he did it.
"Hormones," she said. Zac nodded. That was going to be a trip.