No Strings Attached
“Sure!” Sammy hopped down from his bed on the luggage cart. “Where’re we goin’, Mister Chasez?”
JC inwardly winced at the Mister Chasez. In the last hours, knowing he’d fathered the boy, he’d come to think of himself as Sammy’s dad. He’d promised he’d wait and he had to prove to Spring he was worthy of her complete trust.
“Sammy,” Spring was glad her son was easily distracted from his mother kissing a stranger; still she needed to remind him of his manners, “is that any way to ask?”
“Uh... guess not. Mister Chasez, what are we having?” Sammy reworded his question with a lot less enthusiasm.
“I don’t know, dude.” JC reached out to set the boy in his lap so recently vacated by an embarrassed Spring. “What sounds good?”
Before answering, Sammy looked to his mother who nodded. “Bes’getti or pizza.”
Grinning, JC replied, “I love me a big plate of bes’getti.”
“JC, don’t encourage him,” Spring scolded. With a gentle smile, she said, “Sammy, you mean spaghetti.”
”Uh-huh and garlic bread and lotsa cheese and—”
“Whoa, dude!” JC laughed. “We gotta find out if they have it here.”
She guessed she couldn’t correct a grown man’s grammar in front of her son, so Spring was forced to keep quiet on that front. “I think pizza would be easier to locate.”
“Aww... Mom...” Sammy whined.
“Samuel Joshua,” Spring warned. “I’m sure Mister Chasez would not be inclined to dine with a whiner.”
JC wanted to assure Spring he’d go out in the snow and get the food if necessary. But then undermining her authority didn’t seem wise either. “We can probably get garlic bread with pizza,” JC offered a compromise.
Sammy brightened. “Okay and maybe someday you can come and have...” The boy spoke slowly to get the word correct. “Spaghetti with us. Mom makes the bestest!”
On the heels of the compliment, Spring let the grammar slide. “Mom opens a jar,” she remarked dryly.
“Better than me. I can’t cook. I order in.”
“Then you can’t smell it and get hungry,” Sammy said.
“It’s that or I starve.” JC set Sammy to his feet and rose. “Looks like I find us some pizza. What do you like, Sammy?”
“Pepperoni, mushrooms and lotsa cheese!”
“Sam the Man likes cheese, huh?”
“Yeah!” Pleased at the nickname, Sammy puffed up his chest proudly.
“Honey, what would you like?” JC asked Spring.
“By the time you’d get back it’d be cold.” The mother took a leap of faith. “I’m not really hungry. Why didn’t you two go on? Have a nice meal. Bring me back some breadsticks.”
Frankly JC was stunned. She was trusting Sammy to his care? “Are you sure, Spring?”
“Sure, I’m sure.”
They exchanged cellphone numbers in case their flights were called. Then JC took Sammy’s hand, reassuring the uneasy mother the boy would never leave his sight. With a promising to be good and to wash his hands before and after he ate, Sammy waved as he walked away with the man.
It was one of the hardest things Spring had ever had to do, entrusting her precious son to the man he didn’t know as his father.
The only thing harder she’d had done was walk away from the man she loved, Sammy’s father – JC Chasez the popstar – because she hadn’t belonged in his crazy life of touring, paparazzi, and parties.
* * *
Repeatedly Spring guaranteed JC she understood why he couldn’t take her to the after party to celebrate another successful Challenge for the Children. He was publicly dating someone else. It wouldn’t be in keeping with his boy next-door image to be cheating on Bobbie. Secretly it hurt, but she did understand. It was simple: Bobbie fit into the lifestyle. Spring didn’t. There was little use denying it.
JC had offered to have someone else take her. And exactly how fun would that have been? Watching the man she loved publicly claimed by another woman. Yippee...
So she stayed in his room, taking a long bath, washing her hair, preparing for her last night with JC. Then she sat down at the table to compose her good-bye note.
The tears wouldn’t stop dripping on the expensive hotel stationery from her wet cheeks. She didn’t want to go. Even if he had asked her to stay, it would be nearly impossible in her current situation.
Tonight was all they had.
JC stumbled in around three AM to find a sleeping Spring. Damn, he knew he should have left the party earlier. It would be ungentlemanly to wake her to make love. He hadn’t meant to stay out so late, not while he knew she waited for him.
Stripping out of his clothes, he crawled into bed beside her.
“JC...” Spring murmured as his arms went around her.
“Go back to sleep, baby.” He nuzzled her hair. He’d fucked up, but he had the rest of their lives.
Just before dawn, Spring woke JC with seductive kisses and talented hands. As they made love, she silently said good-bye Like the song he had written, her love came with no strings attached. It simply was.
JC slowly woke that morning. His body fully sated, heavy with contentment. His mind was full of half-formed schemes. His heart full of love and hope.
Sure, Spring would have to stay in the background for a while. Joey’s girlfriend had managed to stay on the down low, so he looked like a flirting player. JC was certain Spring would do the same for him; she didn’t have a glaring need for publicity Bobbie had. She knew the thing with Bobbie was a public façade or she wouldn’t have come to him. Bobbie was an obligation to be met – and maybe if he chafed enough, it could be bought off. He’d find Spring some job on the tour so he could keep her with him.
Reaching out, he found nothing. His eyes blinked open and he smiled. If Spring was in the shower they could replay the shower tryst. Upon listening, he heard no shower – and her pillow was cold.
“Spring!” he called out in a panic, bolting upright in bed. “Spring!” His eyes skittered across the bedroom. Her bag was gone. Her clothes were gone. If it weren’t for the sex-scented sheets it would look as if she’s never existed.
Then his eyes fell on a folded piece of hotel stationary next to his watch on the bedside chest along with the cellphone he’d given her. JC stared at it, not wanting to read the words she used to leave him. Dread filled him with its dark chill. He thought they shared something rare and real. He’d been nothing but a celebrity fuck if she could leave him like this...
With trembling fingers, he reached out for the paper. He held it, not opening it, for some time before he finally unfolded it.
Dearest JC,
I know right now you might hate me. I accept that. I’ve hurt you. I am leaving for your own good. I don’t want you to get into trouble because of me, as I’m sure you probably would. You have so much ahead for you. You don’t need a small-town nobody like a stone around your neck.
Know that in these last days and nights I have loved you with all my heat and soul – like I will never love again.
I wish you success, love and happiness for all of your life.
I love you,
Spring
The tear-stained smudges and streaks on the expensive vellum spoke of her pain. The words practically vibrated with it.
“Dammit, Spring!” he grumbled thickly.
She thought she was being selfless and noble.
JC’s tears splashed on the words, blurring the ink. “You didn’t help me; you broke my heart.” She left him alone in celebrity he had no way of escaping. “I love you, too,” he choked out on his own tears. “I don’t know how to find you again.” He could only hope she would seek him.
* * *
When JC and Sammy returned, they had brought more than breadsticks. Sammy had informed the man his mother’s love of brownies. To that end, JC had stopped and got an assortment of the chocolate confection for her.
Chatting enthusiastically about the great pizza, Sammy told his mother about some girls bothering them while they ate. The giggly, verbally stumbling dumb girls had asked Mister Chasez for his autograph. JC had been nice and signed the presented napkins. It was only when they hinted about who Sammy was did JC shut them down. He reminded them he was a private citizen and entitled to eat in peace like every one else. The girls went away all huffy. Who did they think Mister Chasez was? Sammy questioned, a rock star or something?
JC apologized to Spring about the incident.
Well, she supposed it was bound to happen. Anyone seeing pictures of JC in his youth was bound to see the boy was the image of his sire. She didn’t like it, but there was nothing to be done about it.
Sammy wound down quickly, his head drooping to Spring’s shoulder as he cuddled in her lap.
JC glanced over at his sleeping son. It had been quite a day for all of them.
Much later, JC glanced over at Sammy, sleeping now in his mother’s lap, amazed at what that love had created. He didn’t know he felt about either of them, but here was an obligation he’d never been made to carry, as a man should.
Obligation, hell! One look at the kid and his own mother would give him a lecture on the ‘right thing to do’. Sammy looked exactly like JC’s grade school pictures – except the updating of hair and clothes. Where was Spring in the boy?
Spring shifted in her sleep, trying to get comfortable against the wall. JC lifted his arm around her, bringing her head to his shoulder. He smiled as she snuggled closer, nudging her nose against his neck.
“Mmm... JC...” she purred softly in her sleep.
His smile deepened. Even in her sleep she knew him still. Resting his cheek on her silky hair, he allowed himself the luxury of sleeping with Spring for the first time in more than seven years.