| Chapter Twenty Nine |
| She ducked into her office, finally feeling safe, she had made it to her office without running into JC. "De ja vu." She shut the door, hoping nobody would bother her until she had at least one cup of coffee. Luckily, she was on her third before Justin made his way to her office, then to her desk. "Good morning." "Morning, how was your night?" She kept her eyes on her work, deathly afraid Justin would read them if she even glanced up for a second. "Good, yours?" "Fine." Her eyes refused to meet him, like an opposite day staring contest. "I already talked to JC." He informed, telling her she could look up as well as tell him her side of the story. "That's good, you talk to any of the other guys?" She persisted, she wasn't going to talk about this, she wasn't going to think about this. "Yeah, but JC is the only one that concerns you." Her father would definitely be proud now, he thought. "I don't see why." She dismissed the claim with a wave of her hand, still working on keeping her eyes from Justin. He didn't need to know they were red and had bags under them from the sleepless night before. "Yes you do, Bri. I have to go now, but you are going to talk to me." Then he was gone, she sighed with relief when the door shut with a click. "That's what you think." She quickly ducked out of the office and down the hall for another cup of coffee. Well, not exactly down the hall, more of a circle to avoid walking by the studio. When she was safely seated back in her office she fought off thinking about JC for a few hours before finally giving into the thoughts and sleep. JC found her, head on desk, asleep when he came to ask her to speak with him over lunch. "Bri, wake up." He put a hand to her shoulder, shaking her awake. "Shit!" She jumped, sending her chair flying, then landed on the floor. Not her most graceful moment. "Are you okay?" JC stared down at her once again helpless figure, fighting off the urge to pull her into a hug. "Fine, what can I do for you?" She retrieved her chair from where it had landed, then regained her composure as best she could. "I was hoping we could have lunch, and talk things over." "Sorry, I'm busy for lunch." She kept her eyes from him also, not wanting him to see what she had hidden from Justin. "I'm sure Justin.." "Not with Justin." "Oh, then who?" He couldn't take this a second longer, he was sure of it. "A stack of papers." She put her hand to the stack to prove her point, not taking her eyes off the sheet in front of her. "Then maybe we could order in?" "No, I'm afraid I wouldn't get any work done." "Fine, how about dinner?" He was going to talk to her, it didn't matter when, it was going to happen. "No sorry." She didn't sound the least bit apologetic, and she hadn't meant to. "Tomorrow? Breakfast? Lunch? Dinner? Brunch?" He threw his hands in the air in frustration, but bit his tongue, he was going to be nice. "No Josh. Do you ever give up? I don't want to talk to you about this, go back to work." She insisted although she was sure he would do nothing of the sort. "Bri, we have to talk about this." "Fine." Her eyes finally rose to meet his almost identical one's. "I just have one question." "Yeah?" His eyes dropped to his lap, he couldn't look at hers knowing he had caused them to look as they did. "Did you see her this weekend?" "Yeah." "That's all I needed to know. Thank you." Her hand landed on her desk, bouncing a few times before finally resting there. "Do I get a turn? One question?" "Go ahead." It was her turn to drop her eyes to her lap, not sure she was ready to hear what he had to say. "Please, give me two minutes of your time." He stood, leaning over her desk, inches from her face. "That wasn't a question, more of a request." She met his eyes, hers almost crossing because they were so close. "But, you can have two minutes, that's it." "Brianne, I saw her at first because....I don't know. I just needed to, you know?" She nodded to show she knew exactly what he was saying, then he continued after a lengthy pause. "And I'm sorry. I just felt it was something I had to do before I threw myself into another relationship." "Well, that's two minutes, and unfortunately I already knew that." Her hand waved toward the door, telling him to leave. "Brianne, I need more than two minutes." "That's all you asked for though." She shook her head at him, almost showing her disappointment that she felt the need to dismiss him. "Damnit Brianne, listen to me." He stood, his hands meeting the desk with so much force papers flew into the air then floated to the ground. "Josh, don't yell at me, and don't you ever hit my desk like that again." She stood, then bent to recover the lost papers. "Will you listen to me then?" He took his hands back to his side quickly, shoving them into his pockets to keep them from the desk. "No I will not." "Please, just let me explain." He bent at the hips, his face almost touching hers. "Please leave." "Not until you agree to talk to me." "Fine, as long as you don't mind staying here for a while." She returned to her work, and he took a seat, rubbing a hand across his face. "Are you always so difficult?" "I think so, but I'm going to have to ask you to stay quiet so I can work." Her pen began to run across the page and JC quieted, watching her intently. "Come to lunch with me?" He spoke up nearly twenty minutes later, not sure he'd be able to sit there watching her much longer. "No." "You have to eat." He insisted. "I'll have a big dinner." "Fine." He left the room, hoping she would at least order in if he was gone. |