What JC found when he returned to his hotel room at 6:45 made his heart melt. He had been afraid since he was so late, Adria would have left him behind and gone to the party without him. Instead, she was asleep in the middle of the big bed, curled up like a sweet little girl, wrapped in one of the hotel’s fluffy terry robes. She looked young and innocent – and far too tempting.
He sat on the bed and gently shook her shoulder. “Adria honey.”
Adria woke slowly, reluctant to leave the arms of Morpheus. She’d been awake late into the morning working on the website. Then leaving work early, she had come to JC’s hotel and was treated like royalty. The room was decadent. Feeling sinful, she soaked in the tub until all the bubbles melted. The bed called to her. Relaxed and pampered she decided on a brief nap. Stretching and purring like a cat, she opened her eyes to see JC beside her. She smiled sleepily. “Hello.”
JC smiled. “Hi, honey.”
“What time is it?” she asked on a yawn.
“Almost seven.” He expected her to fly into a fury and swear. Her reaction was pleasantly unexpected. She giggled.
“We are going to be fashionably late. Harry will be wondering why.” She sat up and leisurely scooted off the bed.
Harry? As in first lover Harry? JC suddenly didn’t know if he wanted to go. “Harry?” He followed into the bathroom where she unconsciously dropped her robe and began pulling on her undergarments.
“Didn’t I tell you?” She frowned a little as she tried to recall their conversation. “I’m sorry. I thought I did.”
“I’m pretty sure I would’ve remembered.”
“I have to brush my teeth, flick on some mascara, slap on some lip gloss,” she said as she dropped a sundress over her head and let it fall in place. “What do you need to do?” He was wearing a dark blue polo shirt coupled with black slacks and boots – appropriate in her eyes. “You look ready.”
“Run a shaver over my beard, brush my teeth.”
She gave him a quick kiss. “Thank you. Scruff may look sexy but it is terrible on my skin.”
And he planned to get good and close later.
It was weird and strangely comfortable to share a bathroom to brush their teeth. While he shaved, she combed her hair, put on mascara and slicked on lip-gloss. It was intimate – very intimate.
“You know I thought you’d be high maintenance when we met,” JC stated wonderingly as she slipped on sandals.
“I’m not. Not really. I mean I have certain expectation like everyone else.” She shrugged. “But I’m pretty grounded. Nonna wouldn’t have had let me be any other way.” She turned to study him. “I thought you’d be different. I mean you’re JC Chasez. Girls used to throw their underwear at you. I expected you to be maybe stuck up or easy...”
“If you recall I was easy.” He laughed uncomfortably as she brushed past him and entered the bedroom.
“Not exactly. You were pretty shy.” She snatched up her handbag, grabbing her keys and the room keycard. “I expected to be a quick lay.”
Escorting her out the door, JC shook his head. “Honey, you know it wasn’t like that.”
Adria gave him an uncertain smile. “I know.”
That vulnerability drew him. He reached out his hands to smooth her hair in a tender gesture. He wanted to call it what it was: L-O-V-E. But he had huge doubts she’d accept it – and may have just sent her running. “Let’s go do this party.”
The house was a nicer older home in an older, well-kept neighborhood. Residents still tended small flower gardens and trimmed shrubs. It was old brick and well-maintained. Parking seemed to be at a premium, but Adria pulled her Prius behind the Volvo in the driveway.
Harry. JC was going to meet handsome Harry, the nerd who had learned how to make love to young Adria, who had set the standard for any man who followed.
As if reading his mind as she rang the doorbell, Adria murmured, “Think about it. Who am I sleeping with tonight?”
The old oak door opened to reveal their host. Harry was a devastatingly handsome man with bright blue eyes, wavy dark hair, and perfect teeth. “You’re late,” he announced before he hugged Adria warmly. “Dare I speculate as to why?” He smiled at JC and shook his hand. “Come on in.”
Despite his misgivings, Harry’s friendly manner and his obvious adoration for his wife, JC found himself liking the man he had thought of as his rival for Adria. There was no rivalry. Adria and Harry were old, dear friends. Nothing physical remained. In fact, Harry seemed pleased Adria had a man in her life who cared for her.
“She wants us to be just sex,” JC confessed to Harry when the man enlisted his ‘help’ in the kitchen and began to grill him.
“Adria is incapable of ‘just sex’, JC,” Harry assured him as the man dumped crackers on a platter for the cheese tray.
“It was her idea, not mine.”
“What you need to know is Adria, as smart and independent as she is, wants domesticity. She’s the home and hearth type.”
“I get the feeling she’d freak if I used the ‘L’ word.”
Harry smiled. “Probably. She has this list she made when her parents died. When the guy meets all the criteria, she’ll consider him as husband material.” He leaned against the counter and eyed JC. “She has abandonment issues. She had her nonna but they were nearly destitute at one point. She craves security. She craves intimacy.”
“If you know her so well, why didn’t you two stay together?”
“We love each other, but we were never ‘in love’. We weren’t each other’s grand passion. We were two misfits who seemed to fit together for a while.”
“I’m only number two. I’d like to be last.”
“Fulfill her list.”
Her list? Was it that simple? “What the hell’s on it?”
“I don’t know all of it. But her concern with you is you have no direction she can see.”
Adria came through the door with Giselle. “Harry, JC is my date, not your errand boy.” She put her arms around JC’s waist, resting her chin on his shoulder. “And I don’t need your giving him any ‘old boyfriend’ horror stories.”
Giselle snatched up the cheese tray. “Darling Adria, Harry has no horror stories when it comes to you. You were his angel.”
Harry winked at Adria. “Still are,” he said as he followed his wife from the kitchen.
“Ready to blow this party,” Adria asked JC.
“We got here late—” JC reminded her.
“I’ve had a shitty couple of days at work. I don’t feel like socializing.”
His arms went about her. “Tired, honey? You want to just drop me at the hotel—”
“No. I want you to take me to your swanky hotel and ‘relax’ me.”
“You did seem to unwind after we made love.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Harry will know.”
“So? He can ‘relax’ Giselle later.”
Kissing her lingeringly, JC said, “Let’s thank our hosts and get outta here.”
“So what time do you need to be up to get to work tomorrow?” JC asked as they entered his hotel room. He didn’t want to be the cause of any early morning rush. He’d already lucked out when she didn’t let him have it for being late for the party. He’d make sure they’d get a timely wake up call.
Adria leaned against the door watching him move to the bedside telephone. All she wanted was to get him naked into bed and he was thinking about getting out of it! What was wrong with this picture?
“Adria?” JC questioned, wondering why she was looking at him in amusement.
“Never.”
“Uh, honey, that would be cool with me, but what about your coworkers.”
“Screw ‘em.” She pushed away from the door to go to the bathroom. Sleeping with make-up on was always a bad idea.
“Adria?” JC entered to see her taking off her mascara and washing her face.
“My plan for tomorrow is to be with my long-distance lover – unless you have other plans.”
He did have plans but to be with Adria a day, he’d change them. “I’m all yours.”
She smiled as their eyes met in the huge mirror over the vanity. “Promise?”
“Promise. Since the day our eyes met across the room that afternoon,” he assured her.
“I’m a complication.”
“I don’t mind.”
“I’m told I expect too much and I am a difficult bitch.”
“Those people don’t know you.”
“And you do?”
“I want to.”
That vulnerability again. A girlish sweetness. A child’s hope. “Adria, what’s on your list?” he asked softly as he came up behind her, his arms closing about her.
“My list? You’ve been talking to Harry.”
“He wants you happy as he is.”
“At the party you passed the first hurdle.”
“How was that? Harry?”
“No. You didn’t look at one other female with interest.”
“Why would I? I want to be with you.”
“Some men aren’t so circumspect.”
“Honey, if we say we are exclusive, that’s it. I’m not an arrogant tomcat. Monogamy works for me.”
“Even long distance?”
“Adria, it can be managed if we both want it.”
“Do you?” she asked in a soft whisper.
“You’re more than a body and sex to me. Who knows were this could lead if we trust each other.”
“I don’t trust well.”
“Then you need a teacher.”
With a tired sigh, she rubbed her cheek against his knit clad shoulder. “Learn me?”
He wasn’t used to being a teacher. Normally he was the one who followed. “I can learn you, honey,” he told her as he brushed his lips along the nape of her neck left bared. The sexy vixen who had told him to get a room all those weeks ago was nowhere to be seen. Of course, she had wanted to fuck a girlhood crush. Adria, if Harry was to be believed, wanted love, wanted that elusive forever.
“I think you need to get on your night gown. You seemed wiped out,” JC noted as he released her.
“I’ve got no gown. I didn’t expect to need one. I thought we’d be getting naked and sweaty...”
“If I don’t miss my guess you’ve gotten very little sleep in the last few days. That hacker kept you working ‘round the clock.”
“Well, yes...”
“You get some sleep, Adria. We can get naked and sweaty tomorrow.” Going to his bag, he handed her a plain white teeshirt. “This should work.”
Frankly, Adria was surprised. She’d felt the hardening of his body as he held her close – and he had come to Chicago as a fuck buddy, hadn’t he?
Noticing her eyes drifting south of his belt, JC chuckled. “Ask Harry. It’s a survivable condition, honey.”
“But—”
“No buts.” Going to the bedroom, he turned down the bed in preparation for sleep, letting Adria finish her bathroom duties.
Tentatively she came out a few minutes later, still uncertain what to expect.
With a soft kiss, JC pointed her towards the big bed. “Left or right side. I’m not picky.” With a pat on her teeshirt-clad rump, he went into the bathroom.
Only moments later, he came out in loose cotton pants and climbed in next to her. He smiled when she snuggled close. With a free arm, he shut off the light.
“JC?”
“Hmm...”
“This is a pretty fancy place.”
“Glad you like it.”
“Nonna would say it was swanky or ritzy.”
Obviously Adria felt the need to talk before sleeping. Maybe she was tired but she was also wound up.
“What’s on your list, honey?” Couldn’t hurt to ask, could it? And maybe it would give him something to strive for in the future.
“Faithfulness... Loyalty... Secure future... A dog... Kids...”
“The first three I have.”
“Do you? How can you?”
“You’re talking the money part, right? If I never work another day, I’d be good.”
“I’m not comfortable with rootlessness.”
“Roots are family.”
She shook her head. “It’s also knowing who you are and where you want to be.”
“I want to be with you.”
And Adria wanted to be with him, but who was JC Chasez now – and who would he be in another year? Two years? Ten years?
“I am going to be more behind the scenes, writing and producing music. I dabble in acting. But as far as money, I’m set for life.”
“I love your music.”
“Who says you still can’t?” He could make a CD the world may never hear just for Adria. “As for the dog and kids. A dog would have to wait until after the election when you go back to your regular life.”
She didn’t tell him she would still be heavily involved in Obama’s website should he win.
“And kids... Call me old fashioned but I like the idea of totally committed parents. I would prefer married parents. Plus as long as I am using a condom, you’re not getting pregnant. Anything else?”
“The rest is for me.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Kissing her cheek, JC murmured. “Good night, Adria.” Closing his eyes, he let himself drift off.
Could a long-distance fuck buddy be husband material? Adria had her doubts.