Marissa started in surprise as the phone rang. She wasn't expecting a call; Anika was studying for a test she had on Monday, and Clara was busy with lesson plans. She, of course, had nothing to do on a Friday night but watch movies. It rang again; she lazily reached over and picked it up, pausing the movie as she did so. "Hello?"
"Hi, Marissa. Got any plans this weekend?"
"Hi, Chris." She was even more surprised. "Not really, no. Why?"
"Well, I was hoping I could spend it with you."
Marissa sat up, looking around her apartment in dismay. "Sure, that'd be great!"
"I hoped you'd say that." He chuckled. "Um. I'm at the airport. Can you come pick me up?"
"Chris! You're here?!?" She threw her blankets off and scrambled for her shoes.
"Yeah. Um. Surprise?"
"Give me ten minutes, and go to the quick drop area, okay? I'll meet you there."
"Hurry. I'm getting weird looks from a couple of girls."
"No good deed goes unpunished. I'll see you soon." She hung up, grabbed her keys, and raced out the door.
When she got there, he got in quickly, throwing his bag in the back seat. "That was a near thing," he grinned at her.
"Whatever possessed you to do this?"
"I got sick of Orlando?" he asked, leaned over, and brushed her lips with his. Which was a good thing, she thought. He could certainly make her world turn upside down with one of his intense kisses, and she had to drive.
"You got sick of Orlando." She chuckled. "Right. You'll have to excuse my apartment. It's a mess."
"Ah, home," he grinned, and took her hand. "I missed you."
With a smile, she raised that hand to her lips and gently kissed it. "I missed you, too." He caressed her face, then his hand dropped back down to hold her's again.
She pulled into her parking place and turned to smile at him. "Well, I'm in the middle of a movie. Want to finish it with me?"
"What is it?"
"It's called "Shall we Dance?" And actually, you've got to start from the beginning with that one. We'll have to do something else." They got out, and she led him up the stairs to her apartment.
"What did you have in mind?" Chris asked.
"I don't know. I'm at a complete loss. This is a bit of a surprise. Well," she said, pausing to unlock her door. "There is that club where I met Joe the first time."
He perked up. "Really? We could go back there?"
She nodded. "Yep." The door opened, then the phone rang. "Just a sec." Marissa grabbed it. "Hello?"
"Where were you?" Anika demanded.
"Hi, Anika. Had to run to the airport." Chris slipped his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder.
"The airport? Why?"
"Hi, Anika," Chris said, grinning.
"Is that Chris?" she demanded.
"Actually, yes. That's why I had to go to the airport. We're going to the club. Want to come?"
"Yes. Very much. I'll be there in half an hour."
"Good. See you when you get here." She hung up and turned to Chris. "She's coming. Do you mind?"
He shook his head. "I don't mind at all."
"Good. I'm gonna change." She stepped back to break his grip, only to find that she couldn't.
"Just a minute," he murmured, and kissed her. Any and all resistance drained out of her and she leaned into him, enjoying the dizzying rush of emotion. Her hands fisted his shirt.
She wasn't entirely sure how long they'd stood there when he broke the kiss, looking down at her with unfocused eyes and a smile on his face. "I'm not sure you aren't a drug," he said softly.
"I want a new drug," she sang quietly, and he grinned.
"Huey Lewis had it right, that's for sure," he said.
She sighed. "You know what? If we aren't ready by the time Anika gets here, she's going to be mad. She's really stressed right now, and she wants to relax."
"I've been on a plane all day. Can I borrow your shower?"
"Of course. This way.... if you'll let go of me." She grinned as he let her go, then realized she had to let him go as well and released his shirt. She led him to where the bathroom was. He vanished inside with his bag, and she headed off for her bedroom.
Chris closed the bathroom door and leaned against it, trying to catch his breath. He was no longer quite so sure this had been a good idea. Well, he was committed for this weekend. He stripped and got into the shower, letting the water wash away his worries.
When he was dressed, he stepped out of the bathroom to find Anika standing in the hallway in front of Marissa's bedroom door. "Hi," she smiled. "Almost ready?"
"I'm ready." He set his bag down and leaned against the wall.
"Good." She turned and knocked on the door behind her. "Time, Riss. Let's go."
Marissa threw the door open. "How often have I told you not to call me that?" she demanded, and stared. "Wow. I forgot you clean up so nice," she said. Chris grinned to mask his reaction.
"I have that effect on people. You look stunning." She was in a knee length black skirt and a lavender short sleeved shirt. "I'm going to have to fight people off of you."
Getting in took a while, but they stood in line... well, quietly wouldn't be the word, Marissa decided later. Chris had everyone around them in stitches with his jokes and comments. But they enjoyed themselves, waiting, and little by little, Anika became less stressed.
By the time they got in, they all wanted something to drink, so they headed for the bar. Both Anika and Marissa ordered Root Beers, and after a curious look, Chris did the same. They found a place to sit and relaxed for a minute. And it was about that long before Anika popped back to her feet and went to dance. With a laugh, Chris took Marissa's drink from her hand and pulled her onto the floor after him.
The night passed quickly with occasional breaks. During one of those, Marissa leaned against the wall, one finger hooked through Chris' belt loop as he spoke animatedly with someone. She just watched him, enjoying the expressions that crossed his face as his hands gestured excitedly. She could watch him like that for only so long before she'd drag him off to the dance floor again.
"So, who's the hotty?" a voice asked next to her, and she turned to see an acquaintance of hers.
"Hi, Erin. This is Chris. He's visiting up from Orlando."
"You're pretty attached, I see." She regarded him for a minute, then turned to Marissa. "He looks awfully familiar," she said.
Marissa smiled. "He was here a few months ago, with some friends of his. You might have seen him then. One of them had bright red hair."
Erin nodded, her eyes on Chris' face again. Marissa smirked a little, and tugged gently on her boyfriend's (could she really call him that?) belt loop. After a minute, the person he was talking to walked away and he turned to smile at her. "What?" he asked in mock anger.
"Erin here is dying to meet you. Erin, this is Chris. Chris, Erin."
He offered his hand. "Good to meet you. Are you a friend of Marissa's?"
"Yes," Erin smiled. "We met here, and hang out if we're here alone."
Chris nodded. "Good plan." He unhooked Marissa's hand from his belt loop and pulled her closer for a quick kiss. "I'll be right back." He let her go and vanished into the crowd and the smoke.
"You met him here?" Erin demanded as Marissa leaned back up against the wall.
"Actually, I met his friend here, we kept in touch, and Chris started sending me email messages. Then he called at Thanksgiving, we saw them again when we went to Orlando, and it just sort of... clicked." She certainly didn't need to know all the confusing stuff in between.
"He looks really familiar," she mused. "You'd tell me if he was someone I should know, right? Like somebody famous?"
Marissa shrugged. "What are the chances of meeting someone like that in Portland? And in this club?"
Erin nodded. "That's true. How long is he here for?"
Marissa laughed. "I don't know. He called me three hours ago and asked if he could spend the weekend with me. When I said yes, he said I should come pick him up at the airport."
Erin gave her an incredulous look. "You're kidding."
Marissa shook her head. "I was surprised. I didn't know he did anything like that."
The incredulous look morphed into a seductive one. "So, what's the plan for after this?"
Marissa sighed and rolled her eyes. "One of us will take the couch, the other will sleep in my bed. I told you, nothing is going to happen until I'm married." No matter who he is, her thoughts added.
Erin shook her head. "I bet he's wonderful," she said scornfully, "and you won't even find out."
Marissa shrugged. "I intend to keep my promises, even those to myself." This subject always came up with Erin.
"So you deny yourself."
"Yes," she said flatly. "I deny myself an unwanted pregnancy, AIDS, HIV and every other STD in the book. And at least I know that I really love the person, and didn't do it just for the sex." Harsh, perhaps, but she really was sick of the conversation.
Chris reappeared and literally swooped in, catching her in a kiss that made her head spin. "You weren't gone that long," she gasped, when they parted again.
He smiled, oddly gratified by the startled look in her eyes and the death grip she had on his sleeve. "Have to catch you off guard a couple of times."
"This whole weekend has caught me off guard, Chris," she told him.
"And you expect me to stop now?" he teased gently, then reluctantly turned at a tap on his shoulder.
"Care to dance?" Erin asked. He looked at Marissa, who grinned and pushed herself away from the wall.
"Go ahead. I'll grab a drink. I'll meet you back here?"
Chris nodded and followed Erin onto the floor. He glanced back once, but Marissa was gone. It didn't make sense to him, why she'd given in so easily. With an uneasy shrug, he turned his attention to the woman with him.
By the end of the song, he knew why Marissa hadn't been nervous about letting him dance with her; Erin had been all over him. Marissa knew he didn't like that. He excused himself and went to find his girlfriend. She held her drink like a shield, and he took it from her before pulling her into a kiss again. "The woman is..."
"I know." She smiled as she got her balance back. "I'm sorry, but I've learned that the best thing to do is let her get her way. Once that happens, she'll leave you alone. And me. She was really interested in you. She's trying to figure out why she recognizes you."
There was something in her eyes, but before he could determine what it was, she recaptured her drink and took a sip of it. "Ready to dance some more?" he asked.
Marissa grinned and offered him the root beer. "Help me finish, then we'll go."
They didn't leave until the club closed. Anika looked utterly exhausted, but there was a gleam in her eyes. "Thanks so much for coming with me. Or letting me come with you, whichever it is," she said.
"You're very welcome," Marissa grinned as they climbed out of her car. "I'll see you later. Call me, okay?"
"I will." They waved as she drove off, then Marissa turned to Chris.
"I'm dead."
"I can see that." He smiled slightly as they started walking up the stairs.
"Oh! Before I forget! Remind me we have to go to "Everyday Music" tomorrow. Have you been there?"
He paused, then shook his head. "No, I don't think so."
Her smile as she unlocked the door was charming. "Oh, goody. I can't wait to take you to this place. You're going to love it."
She was watching his face when they walked into the used CD store, and the way his eyes lit up was a treasure. "They have records... They have new records here!" He turned to look at her, grinning like a child in a candy story, then pulled her close and kissed her. She realized, after he'd let her go, that she'd fisted his shirt again. "You are amazing. Thank you."
"Go play. I'll be around," she said, and wandered off.
She joined him about half an hour later; he was looking intensely through the records, and had only made about half way through the bins. The basket by his feet was half full of LPs. "Find something you like?" she teased, leaning her shoulder against his.
"How am I gonna get these home without breaking them?" he asked plaintively, turning to look at her. "I can't believe all the treasures in my life lately have been up here! It's not fair!"
Marissa laughed. "Chris, luv, life is not fair."
He looked at her sharply, then drew himself up. "You did not just toss my own words back at me."
She paused, opening her mouth, then closed it again and grinned. "Sure I did. What else would I do with words you threw in my face but throw them back in yours?"
He scowled slightly. "Treasure them in your heart?" he asked.
Marissa burst into laughter, tried to say something, and just laughed more at the astonished expression on his face. She wound up sitting by the bins, leaning against his legs, breathless with laughter and completely unable to stop. Finally she got control, and felt him move. "You okay?" he asked, placing his hands on her shoulders.
She didn't dare look at him. That would be the biggest mistake of her life, if she wanted to keep control of herself right now, and she knew it. She also knew that he knew it. "I'm fine," she gasped, her eyes fixed on her knees. "Give me a minute to catch my breath, and I'll stand up again."
"People are staring at you."
"Me, or you?" she asked, and climbed to her feet. He helped her up and smiled into her eyes.
"You. I'm not the one sitting on the floor laughing my face off."
"No. You're the one with two platinum or diamond or whatever albums, and the third on the way, doofus. You are much more recognizable than I am."
"I'm not making a fool of myself."
"No, you're making a fool of me. When I don't like it, I promise to hit you." She stood on her tiptoes and brushed his lips with hers. "Ready, or are you gonna buy out the whole store?"
He paused with a contemplative look, then shrugged. "This will be fine for now. Can we come back before I go home?"
Marissa laughed. "Yes, Psycho, we can come back before you go home."
"How's it going with Candy?" she asked softly the next morning after breakfast, leaning against him on the couch. He laughed.
"She's going crazy."
"What are you doing?"
"What am I doing, or what are they doing to me?"
She chuckled. "Well, that, too," she said.
"Hm. There was the time I started a whipped-cream fight, and we accidentally got into wardrobe."
"Accidentally?" Marissa asked.
"Oh, definitely," he said, and grinned.
"What else?"
"The best one," he said with a laugh, "almost pushed her over the edge. It started when I put some frosted flakes in Justin's bunk."
Marissa's brows drew together. "What did that do?"
"No. I emptied the box in his bed. Made for a very uncomfortable and very loud bed time. Apparently, it kept JC up, too." Chris chuckled. "So, they conferred, and came up with a rather good plan." There was humor and something close to awe in his voice.
Marissa snuggled closer, grinning. "Do tell."
He chuckled. "Anna never told me how they set it up. In fact, I'm fairly sure she was an innocent accomplice. Mostly because Justin assured me she had nothing to do with it." He settled a little better. "When I showed up for make up, one of our last shows, Anna looked utterly flustered. She told me that Joey wasn't done yet, and that I should go get into costume and come back. She told me to tell Candy she promised to be extremely careful, so I went down to wardrobe.
"There was a ladder outside the room, but it had been there all day, so I didn't even notice it. I went in, relayed the message to Candy, who about threatened me and Anna, and got dressed. I left to go back to make up, and didn't even see the bucket of water that was dumped on my head."
Marissa burst into laughter. "They didn't!"
"And when Candy opened the door, she about had a cow."
"Not a herd of them?"
"Litter or two of kittens. You would have thought that outfit was the whole reason for her existence. I gave her my patented innocent look. She demanded to know what I'd done."
"And you said that you had stepped out the door?"
He chuckled. "Something like that. And she demanded to know what I'd done to make them do that to me, all over her outfit."
"Her outfit?" Marissa asked.
"Exactly," he said triumphantly. "Exactly. And of course, JC and Justin explained exactly what I had done - but not how they set it up. Anna was not particularly happy to see me that night." His face twisted comically. "Which is what makes me think that she was not involved at all."
Marissa couldn't help it; she just laughed.
They found themselves at the airport in a side room that evening, waiting for his flight to be called. The Portland airport was too small for a VIP lounge, so security had had to come up with something different. "We never did get back to Everyday Music," Marissa murmured.
Chris chuckled. "That was a good thing, actually. It means I have two reasons to come back here."
Marissa grinned. "Good grief, I'll have to keep my house clean," she muttered, and he kissed her gently.
"Not on my account," he whispered into her hair.
"I don't have any other famous people coming to visit," she said with a grin. "Of course on your account."
He stiffened, and she closed her eyes in frustration. She shouldn't have said that. "Oh, really?" he teased after a while. "You don't have any other celebrities knocking down your door?"
She chuckled. "I don't even have any non-celebrities knocking down my door. I think I intimidate most guys my age."
He pulled back to look her in the eyes. "You don't intimidate me."
"I can't imagine a lot of people intimidate you," she grinned. "I bet they never could."
He grinned at her. "Only on occasion, and I get over it quick."
She chuckled. The call for his plane came over the speakers of the lounge, and he sighed. "They told me to wait until the final boarding call so I don't create problems."
Marissa laughed. "You? Create problems?" she scoffed.
Chris shook his head. "At least I don't have to worry about getting a big head with you around."
"That's a good thing, right?" she asked.
He lifted an eyebrow at her, then pulled her against him and kissed her, deeply. All thoughts fled.
"I have to go," he said gently against her lips, and her eyes fluttered open.
"Sure?" she whispered. His thumb brushed along her cheek.
"Yes. Thanks for letting me disrupt your weekend."
"Thanks for disrupting my weekend," she said softly. "Call me when you get in."
He chuckled and stepped back. "I will." He brushed her lips with his, then grabbed his bag and was gone.
Marissa took a deep breath and followed him, a little slower, turning to head out of the airport. She drove home almost in a daze, and stood almost blankly, staring around the apartment. It was almost painfully empty. Finally, she called Anika, who answered. "Hey, Anika, are you busy?"
There was a pause at the other end. "Not really, why?"
"Chris just left. Can I come over there?"
"Yes. I'll see you when you get here." Anika hung up and stared contemplatively at the phone, then picked it up and dialed.
"Hello?"
"Oh, you're home! Good. Hey, JC, this is Anika." She opened her freezer and pulled out a large frozen pizza, set aside for a study break. She'd get another one tomorrow; this was more important. She started the oven up.
JC laughed. "Hi, Anika."
"I don't have much time, but would you do me a favor? Check on Chris when he gets back? I don't know when that will be, but Marissa called me to say he'd just left. She sounds pretty disturbed."
"Yeah, okay. I will. What are you going to do?"
"Heat up a pizza and watch a movie of some sort. Hopefully it will help her feel better." She looked up at a knock on the door. "That's her. I'll talk to you later, okay?"
"Definitely. Bye."
She hung up and opened the door. Marissa smiled tremulously at her. "Hi. Um. Can I take up space on your couch?"
Anika grinned. "Come in. The oven's warming up for the pizza, and I have a whole list of movies you'll like, so find one while I grab a couple of sodas."
Marissa gave her a grateful look and slipped her shoes off on her way to the video cabinet.
Go on to Next Chapter | Chance