"Pop
Life"
Chapter 82
"Sasha's what?" I ask with my hands on my hips.
"She's opening for you," Tony says, matter of factly.
"For me? Uh, I think you guys are confused...she can headline her own tour, she doesn't need to be opening."
We're in a makeshift dressing room while I wait to do a quick press conference regarding Pepsi being my sponsors.
"Well we asked her and she agreed to do it," Uncle Lance shrugs.
I see the twinkle in his eye and slowly I start to laugh.
"Oh that was a good one, you actually had me going for a second," I say waggling my finger.
Tony looks back and forth between the two of us with a confused look on his face. A slow smile spreads across Uncle Lance's face.
"I'll get you back for that one...you had me scared for a second," I say.
"Wait, you knew we were kidding?" Tony asks. "I was even almost convinced."
We all laugh.
"I'd never do that to you," Uncle Lance says as he pulls me into a quick hug and kisses my cheek.
"Thanks for coming with me," I say to him as we start walking toward the set.
"No problem. I like to support my artists...and my favorite nieces."
I look around the set and smile.
"This is going to be cool. I wish mama could be here...I think that would be neat, don't you?"
Uncle Lance nods. "Almost like passing the torch."
"Yeah."
"When is Tammy getting here?" Justin asks JC.
"She should be here. We'd hear the buzzer if she drove up to the gate outside..."
"Yeah. I'll go check."
Justin got up from the soundboard and ran up the stairs. Just as he reaches the top the buzzer rang. He smiles and walks to the intercom.
"Hey Tammy, come on in," he says.
He walks outside and waits for her car to pull up. Tammy is in her early thirties and in her hey day she was on the top of the charts singing rock ballads. Now she is getting ready to record an album and thought it would be a good opportunity to get her name back out there if she did this multi-artist Christmas CD that was a sure fire hit.
"Thanks...how have you been Justin?" she asks as they quickly kiss each other's cheek.
"Good. What about you?" he asks as he lets her walk in the door first.
"Things are good. I can't wait to get back in the studio."
"I hear ya."
She looks around. "Is Britney here? I'd love to say hi to her."
Justin shakes his head. "No, she and the other two kids didn't come out with me this time, she's..."
"Justin!?" JC yells from the studio.
"We're coming man," Justin yells back and laughs.
"You and the guys going to record again soon?" Tammy asks as he leads her down to the studio.
"We're thinking early next year. Right now this is wetting at least JC and my appetites," he says.
"Tammmyyyy," JC says as he stands up and gives her a quick hug.
"Hey Jayce, looking good."
"I'm a married man, how many times do I have to tell you," he kids her.
She laughs. "Too many, I'm afraid."
"Okay you two. Tammy do you need to go over the song at all?" Justin asks as he looks at the sheet music.
"No, I looked over what you sent and I'm just ready to dive into it," she says putting her bag down on the couch.
"Okay, go for it," JC says.
Tammy is a pro in the studio and they get a couple of really good takes right off of the bat so Justin and JC decide to have her do the background vocals for the song too.
A few hours later JC is upstairs on his phone to Kristen and Tammy is sitting in JC's chair down in the booth, next to Justin. He's fiddling with a few buttons and listening to the recording Tammy just did.
"I like that," she says. She closes her eyes and moves with the music.
Justin turns a couple more knobs and then catches her movement out of the corner of his eye and watches her. She opens her eyes and sees him watching her. She smiles at him and leans in a little bit. Justin turns back to the board and slides another button. She keeps leaning into him and he subtly scoots his chair away from her. He notices a glitch in the recording and scoots back over to the board to replay that part of the song and as he's leaning over Tammy starts to rub his leg but he's too busy worrying about the song to realize what she's doing.
"There...got it," he says.
"Mmmmm, gooood," Tammy says seductively.
Justin turns to look at her.
"I'm home," Britney says quietly.
This surprises both Justin and Tammy.
He stands up quickly and walks over to his wife, engulfing her in his arms.
"Hey baby...when did you get in?" he asks before he kisses her cheek. She tenses up.
"We just got here. Ashleigh and Cody are upstairs with JC."
"I wasn't expecting you until tonight," he says rubbing her back. She still feels tense under his touch.
"We decided to fly out earlier."
"Hi Britney," Tammy says, standing up and holding out her hand.
Britney looks at it before she shakes it. "Good to see you again Tammy," she says coldly.
"Well...now that you're family is home, I'm sure you want to spend time with them. There isn't anything else you need from me, is there?" she asks Justin.
"No, you did great on your vocals, Tammy...thanks."
"No thank you. I can't wait to hear how this turned out."
"We'll walk you out," he says, letting her walk through the door first. He tries to take Britney's hand but she pulls away and walks behind Tammy.
When they get upstairs, Tammy is saying goodbye to JC and Britney goes upstairs. Justin and JC see Tammy to the door.
"You gotta go right now, man?" Justin asks.
"No, I can stay a bit...why?"
Justin cringes. "Brit's pissed about something. I need to go see what."
"I'm cool. I'll be down in the studio."
"Okay."
He slaps JC on the back before he runs upstairs.
"Hey sweetie," he says walking into Ashleigh's room.
"Hey daddy," she says as she folds a pair of pants she had just taken out of her suitcase.
"No hug?" he asks as he squats down to her level.
She laughs and throws her arms around his neck. "I just saw you, though."
"Yeah, like a week ago...I missed you."
"I missed you too," she says squeezing harder.
"Hey dad," Justin hears from behind him.
"Hey Cody."
He stands up and gives him a quick hug.
"Everything go okay while I was gone?"
Cody hooks his thumbs in his belt loops and nods.
"Yep, just fine."
Justin smiles and ruffles his son's hair. "Good. You guys go bother Uncle JC in the studio..."
"Don't have to tell me twice," Cody says before running downstairs.
Ashleigh gives Justin a curious look and then leaves the room.
Justin walks to his bedroom. The door's locked so he finds the key, takes a deep breath and lets himself inside the room.
Britney's sitting on the bed, wiping her face with her hands.
"What did I do?" he asks, walking toward her.
She shakes her head as a fresh batch of tears start to fall.
"Nothing really. Well yeah, you got me pregnant..."
He sits down next to her and rubs his forehead. "What?" he asks, confused by that statement.
"I saw what Tammy was doing to you..."
"Doing to me? Okay, you have to quit talking pregnant lady talk right now. I'm not getting you."
She looks down at her hands. "I was standing there for about a minute before I let you know I was there. I saw her rubbing your leg and you didn't even notice...then you looked at her..." She started to cry a little bit harder.
"Because I realized what she was doing and I was going to tell her to stop...Brit you aren't really thinking I..."
"No, I don't," she cut him off. "I know you wouldn't do anything...it's just my hormones and she's this pretty skinny little thing, who's younger and it just got to me..."
He put his arm around her and kissed her temple.
"I love you. You You You. Britney Jean Spears Timberlake. The mother of my three children...soon to be four," he says rubbing her stomach.
She places her hand over his and smiles through her tears.
"I know you do...and I love you too. Like I said, it's just these wacky hormones. I just needed to let it out."
"She's not that pretty anyway," he nudges her, which makes Britney laugh.
He takes her face in his hands and wipes away the rest of her tears with his thumbs and slowly lowers his mouth to hers for a gentle kiss.
"Thanks," she says. "I needed that reassurance."
"Anytime. By the way...I missed you."
He still held her face in his hands.
"I missed you too," she whispers.
They kiss again. Justin tastes her mouth with his tongue. She tastes like chocolate. He smiles.
"Did you save any for me?" he asks when he pulls away. Their foreheads are still touching.
She giggles. "Save what?"
"Chocolate."
She looks into his eyes and shakes her head. "Are you kidding me?"
"Well, it doesn't hurt to ask."
She rubs her stomach. "I'm bigger this time. I'm about sixteen weeks along and I never showed this much with the other three until I was at least twenty weeks."
"That just means he is healthy...that little thunderbolt." He bends down and quickly kisses her hand that's on her stomach.
She laughs. She always loves the nick names he comes up with.
"Speaking of he...or she...I have a doctor's appointment when we get back."
Justin stands up and holds out his hand to help her up. She takes it and he pulls her up and then wraps his arms around her waist.
"Uh huh."
"We should be able to tell if it's a boy or a girl. We decided to find out this time, right?"
He slowly nods. "The kids want to know."
"Yeah, but do we? I mean we were surprised with the others..."
"So let's be different this time."
"Okay," she says hesitantly.
"Awww, come on," he says shaking her in his arms a little bit. "We'll get to pick out a name and decorate the nursery the right way..."
"You mean we decorated the wrong way before?" she asks, scrunching up her nose.
He kisses the tip of her nose. "No baby. That's not what I meant. Come on, let's go downstairs."
When they reach the studio they see Adriana and Ashleigh in the studio singing Jingle Bells really loudly. JC is showing Cody how to adjust the settings on the soundboard.
Justin and Britney watch their children and laugh. Britney hides her laugh behind her hand.
JC hears them and turns his head. "Your children," he laughs and shakes his head.
I see mama and daddy step into the other room and watch Ashleigh and I making fools of ourselves. They start laughing, which only makes me laugh as we finish singing the song.
"There...did you get that? Do we need to do it again?" I tease Cody, up in the sound booth.
"No, we got in on one...thanks girls," he kids.
Ashleigh and I breakup laughing.
We walk into the room and I hug mama. I pull back and look into her eyes, which are a little swollen and red.
"You okay?" I ask.
She smiles and nods. "Yep, I'm perfect. So, tell me all about rehearsals."
She takes my hand and we walk upstairs together. Ashleigh follows us.
"Code, why don't you go on upstairs and get ready to go out to dinner. Uncle JC and I need to wrap up real quick."
"Okay," he says as he starts to go up the steps.
"Cody...good job," JC gives him two thumbs up.
Cody laughs. "Thanks."
He goes upstairs and Justin stares at JC for a second.
"What?" he asks as he rewinds a tape.
"Tammy came on to me."
"What?" He stops and looks up at his friend.
"Yeah. I mean it's been awhile but I think that's what she was doing."
JC shook his head. "You know, Kristen was just warning me about her. She said she's heard stories about her."
"With married men..." Justin confirms as he nods.
"Yep. What happened?"
"I was scooting away from her and gonna tell her to back off when Britney came down."
"Ohhhh."
"Yeah, oh."
"So, that's why the sudden trip upstairs? I thought you just wanted to get a quickie with her," JC kids.
"Ha ha. No, I had to see what was wrong. She's okay...she's a little emotional right now."
JC rolls his eyes. "Man, you don't have to tell me about that."
Justin laughs and slaps JC on his shoulder. "I know. You're going through it too."
JC shakes his head. "No, I don't think you understand. I'm going through it with a hormonal Psychiatrist. I think that's the worst thing ever."
Justin stares at JC for a second before the both start to laugh.
"I feel for you," Justin says.