Let That Be Enough:  Twenty-Six

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[Two days later]

"Goodnight sweetie," JC said with a soft voice. He smiled thinking of her almost asleep somewhere in his house in Florida. He imagined that she was in the living room or in the guestbedroom, but he couldn't be sure. He hadn't asked. He hadn't wanted to be picturing her lying there the whole two hours they'd been on the phone.

"Goodnight Josh," she replied in a very sleepy voice. He could hear her smile. He didn't have to see her to know the change in her tone of voice. "I'll talk to you tomorrow."

JC stretched one last time. "I'll call you when I have flight plans."

"Ok. Night."

"Night."

It had been a long night of chatting with her, something he hadn't had in a while. He hadn't been compleltely open with her yet, he'd skirted around a few issues and had blantantly changed sujects, but he was becoming more and more comfortable with her. He wasn't about to admit that he missed her like crazy. It wasn't to that point, but he did know that he was getting closer and closer to figuring out how he felt about her.

His almost empty notebook had been sitting by his side for hours that day, but he finally found enough courage to pick up his pen. He rolled onto his stomach and began to write.

*****

Hours later JC picked up his cellphone and slid on his running pants. He dialed Alex's number. His eyes slid over the lyrics in front of him and he coughed once trying to half sing the song that was before him. Part of it still wasn't right, but with Alex's help it could be fixed.

"Hello?"

JC's heart rate skyrocketed and he almost dropped the phone. "Alex. Get up."

There was a grumbling noise, a swear and a soft crash. "Who is this?"

"It's JC," His voice came out loud and clear this time, "Alex. Get up. I need you in the studio in a half hour." His eyes moved to the lyrics that were on the bed again.

"What's going on? What time is it?"

"Alex." He took a deep breath and tried not to get pissed. It was late. He knew it was, but he knew that he needed to get this done now before he lost the inspiration he'd somehow gotten. "It's JC. I just wrote a song and I want to make a demo tonight."

"What?"

"Get up and get down to the studio. I'll be over in about ten minutes. I need to record this tonight."

"Tonight?" he asked, "What the hell time is it?"

JC pulled the phone from his ear and looked at the time then put the phone back to his ear. "It's three in the morning Alex. Come on. I need to record this right now before I loose it."

"Fine. Fine," Alex said, "I'll be down there in a second. Come through the garage."

"Make coffee."

"I got'cha," Alex said finally sounding half awake.

*****

Three hours, and three latte's later, they had the instrumental part of the song was programmed in and JC was pushing his chair to get up and go into the soundbooth. He'd been at the piano for most of the time, playing in his barefeet while Alex sat in the outer room in pajama bottoms and a sweatshirt, looking half dead while he mixed the track. They'd spent almost an hour piecing together the music to get the background sounding correct.

Alex sipped his coffee and scratched his head. "Are you sure you want to this?"

"Yes," JC stated and moved around into the tiny booth. "Give me a minute and then we'll do it."

"Ok," he said, "I'll cue up the background."

JC nodded and put on his headphones. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths. A moment later piano music blared through his headphones. He pushed the headphones off and glared at Alex through the glass. "What the fuck?"

"Sorry," Alex said raising his glass. "I got it fixed now. I'm ready when you are."

"Ok," JC leaned and picked up the headphones and put them back on before going to the microphone. He took a deep breath and cued Alex then opened his mouth.

I'm in love for the first time

His voice cut off at the end of the line and he looked at Alex. Panic set it and he pulled the headphones off again and threw them to the ground.

"That's my shit!"

JC began to pace. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"What the hell Chasez. You pull me out of bed at three am and now you're not gonna sing?"

"Give me a minute," he said. He walked back into the control room and grabbed up his phone from the table and dialed it.

"What are you doing?"

"Give me a minute."

"If you say so. I'm going to get a refill," Alex held up his mug and walked out of the room.

JC flopped down on the couch and listened to the phone ring again. When the answering machine came on at home he listened to his own voice for a moment then left his message. "Farzana. It's JC. I just called to ask you something, but it's not important. I'll talk to you in awhile." He smiled, "I bet you're asleep." A picture formed in his mind. Farzana curled up and looking peaceful. "I hope your day is good. I'll talk to you later. Bye."

It wasn't long before he put down the phone and went back into the other side of the studio. He took the lyrics in his hand and stared at them then took a deep breath, put his hand to his ear and began again.

I'm in love for the first time
Don't you know it's gonna last
It's a love that lasts forever
It's a love that had no past

His voice this time faded away instead of disappearing.

"Jesus JC," Alex said from behind him. He frowned at him. "I thought I was producing this. You tell me you can't sing then I leave and you sing. Maybe I should go get some more coffee."

"No," JC said and picked up the headphones, "Cue it up. I'm ready."

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The next morning Farzana stepped out of the shower and took a deep breath and smiled. She loved the smell of his apartment. Even though he wasn't there it still smelled that manly smell of aftershave. She'd used his soap, Irish Spring and stood for a moment staring in the mirror as she thought of his hands and that soap running over her body. He might have been three thousand miles away, but she could almost feel his skin on hers. It caused her to shiver, which was the sign for her to get dressed. She couldn't stay all day staring in the mirror. After wrapping her hair up in a towel and taking another one to use as a make shift dress she walked back in the bedroom to find her clothes.

Although he hadn't given her permission to do so, she'd been sleeping in JC's room. That morning she'd forgotten to make the bed, something that the morning before had made her paranoid, but now she found it comforting to come and sit down on the cool sheets in her towel while she figured out what to wear that day. It had been hot the last two days and even though she'd only been out to go grocery shopping once in his car she had barely touched his things, but today she planned to play as if this was her home and that she was his girlfriend, at least until he flew back.

The ringing of the phone startled her from her little day dream. She held a hand to her little towel dress and crawled across the bed to answer the phone as it rang for a second then a third time. "Hello?" she said into the reciever as she reached up to balance the towel turban on her head.

"This is Melinda, I was calling--"

"JC isn't here." Horror filled her as Farzana moved the phone to the other ear. She felt as if someone had heard her thoughts about playing house and was calling to ruin them for her. "I'm not sure when he's coming back. I talked to him last night, but didn't find out when he's coming home." Farzana started to explain fearing that Melinda was going to report back to someone about her being there with JC not being in town. "He had to fly out to LA."

"I know," Melinda explained, "He actually asked me to call you. He tried a while ago, but I guess you were out or something. His plans got changed and he doesn't know when he's going to be home. He got inspired or something and pulled Alex into the studio since they were both there. Funny how that works. Alex was supposed to come here and JC ended up there."

"He's in the studio?" Farzana asked with shock. She had to wonder what had brought on his sudden need to record. He'd said that he'd seen Bobbie the other day, but when she'd asked about what had happened he'd changed the subject and just had told her that things had been worked out between them. She'd thought that had meant that she and he had been fighting, but maybe it had meant that they'd made up and he'd finally gotten back to normal and had begun to sing again.

"Yeah," Melinda said, "It could be two hours or two days, but he should be home in a day or so I'd think. I was surprised to hear that he was in there. He mentioned that he'd been having writers block."

Farzana let out a tired sigh and pulled the towel from her head and moved her hair around a bit so that it fell against her shoulders. "I guess that Bobbie helped him fix that."

"Yeah I guess bitching her out and finally seeing her for the witch that she is, helped."

"Excuse me?"

Melinda let out a little laugh, "I'm pissed because I didn't get to see it, but I guess they had it out right in the airport. She had called him and lied about Tyler being out there and being in trouble. Tyler was there, but there was no fight. She just wanted to get back with him."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Melinda explained, "He got pissed and even thought he could have come back to Florida right away he decided to take a few days and try to write. I guess whatever vacation he had made an impact." She laughed a little, "I think you made a difference."

"Me?" Farzana asked, "What do I have to do with this?"

"I saw you guys the other day--"

Farzana froze then stuttered out the next part, "JC and I only went up to Johnny's office--"

"Farzana," Melinda said sternly, "I know that things might have gone on between you and him. That's not really any of my business...I meant that I saw you in the studio...or well I heard you anyway. You wanted him to sing...hell almost forced him to. No one has ever done that with him. Usually girls pull him away from work. Not make him do it. That's something special you guys have there."

"Something special we have?" she said.

"Don't deny it," Melinda said, "I'm not trying to pry. I just know that you're good together."

"I don't know that you know what you're talking about. JC and I have a professional relationship."

"Farzana. I saw him on the steps when he came down to answer the phone. I saw that his shirt was off--"

"Melinda!"

"I also saw the pain in his eyes. He was upset about having to deal with Bobbie I think because he had to be away from you."

Farzana didn't want to admit it. She didn't want to tell everyone that she was in love with him. It would make it too easy for him to burn her in the end if he really knew how she felt. She had to keep something from him. He already had her lyrics and those emotions. He didn't need the rest of her. "That doesn't mean anything."

"Come on Farzana. I'm not sure why you aren't being real with me on this, but that boy really likes you."

"What about you and him?" she asked remembering the way that they'd easily falling into hugging one another.

"Me and him?" Melinda laughed, "Me and JC? Eeewwweee. That would be like kissing my brother or something. Besides, my boyfriend probably wouldn't like it."

"Boyfriend?" she asked.

"Yeah," Melinda said, "Duncan plays for the NBA and I don't see him a lot, but we're in a committed relationship the last time I checked."

"What about all that in the studio?" Farzana asked.

"Awwee," Melinda said, "You like him back."

"There isn't anything going on between us," she said.

"No," Melinda said, "I can't see you but I bet you're green with envy."

"Whatever," Farzana moved from where she was sitting and began to pace. "I like Josh. I mean he's a great guy, but I don't like him like him."

"Josh?" she asked.

"Yeah," Farzana stated, "That's his name."

"You know he doesn't let anyone call him that."

"What?"

"Awweee," Melinda gushed at her, "You're sooo cute about this. Just tell me that you like him and I'll leave you alone. Hell I'll even help you find a way to date him."

Farzana sighed.

"Come on," Melinda said, "I know you haven't been gossiping about your boy. Don't you want to know more about him? I'm the one who knows him the best."

Farzana thought about JC and about the way they'd been together and laughed. He sure was still a mystery to her. "There are some things I might want to know about him."

"Just say it."

"Fine," Farzana sighed, "I like him. Hell I think I love him, but I don't know what to do about it. He says that he doesn't want to date anyone. Or at least he did. I don't know now."

"Finally!" Melinda yelled, "Ding Ding Ding. We have a winner!" She laughed, "Are you decent? I was going to go and grab lunch, but I think a gossip session between you and I is in order."

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