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His girlfriend? Marie thought. She wracked her brain. Nope, a girlfriend DEFINATLY hadn't been mentioned in the past month.
The doorbell ringing interrupted her thoughts. "I'll get that," she said. "You two obviously have some catching up to do." Marie turned and left the room, an action that brought a smile to Caitlyn's face.
"Now where were we?" she said, turning to the man still in bed. She leaned down to kiss him again, but JC backed away.
"Caitlyn, I repeat: WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" he demanded, glad he was wearing a t-shirt. She was practically undressing him with her eyes.
"Can't a girl surprise the man she loves with a visit?"
"A girl can, but YOU can't. YOU have to 'fit me in.' You don't do things that aren't planned. What do you want?" She stepped back with a put that made her look like a five year old.
"I travel two thousand miles to see you and you're acting like I'm dirt. Is this what I get for sticking it out with through everything for the past eight months?" JC crawled out of bed and walked over to her.
"Look, baby, I'm sorry. You just caught me off guard. I asked you not to come out until Marie and I got settled here and you didn't do what you agreed to. Marie and I need to become friends so we can pull this off and right now we're not much more than acquaintances."
"So, you want me leave?" she asked, softly. She reached out and ran her fingers down his arm while her other hand reached under his shirt and felt over the hills and valleys of his stomach muscles. He had to swallow hard to keep his composure.
"Y-You don't have to leave. We just can't be seen together. Marie and I have to be attached at the hip in public."
"What happens when we aren't in public? Are those events negotiable?"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"He has a GIRLFRIEND? How convenient to leave out that little tidbit of information. Of COURSE, it's nothing I would want to know. It's nothing IMPORTANT," Marie grumbled as she thumped down the stairs. The doorbell was ringing incessantly now. She flung the front door open. "What do you want?"
"To wish my big sister a happy birthday."
The fire in Marie's eyes cleared and blinked a couple of times. Sure enough, Kat was standing there, her arms crossed and a wide smile on her face.
"Kat! What are you doing here?" Marie exclaimed, throwing her arms around the girl. Kat hugged her back just as tightly.
"JC flew me out as your birthday surprise," she said.
"You're kidding me. I thought he didn't even know it was my birthday until I yelled at him last night."
"Did you two fight?" Immediate concern crossed Kat's face. Marie didn't like fighting with anyone.
"A little. Come in. How long are you staying?"
"They gave us a four day weekend to study. I leave Sunday afternoon." Marie shut the door behind them. "Where's the groom?"
"Probably upstairs getting freaky with his girlfriend."
"Eww...Wait a minute. GIRLFRIEND?" Kat's eyes widened. "He never mentioned a girlfriend."
"Yeah. That's why I'm freaking out. This is too weird now."
"Is she pretty?" The two were now in the kitchen and Marie was making a pot of coffee.
"If you like the anorexic, Barbie doll look."
"No substance?"
"Probably no intelligence at all. A brick is probably smarter." The two giggled. JC strolled into the kitchen in the middle of the sisters' laughter, causing them to stop. He went for the coffeepot and poured himself a cup while Marie shot daggers at his back.
"Hey, Kat. How's...Oh, shit!" he exclaimed, turning to face the two. "I forgot to pick you up."
"I'm glad Justin was visiting his mother and up so early. You didn't even give me the address," Kat told him dryly.
"I'm sorry. It totally slipped my mind."
"Just like it did when you forgot to mention you had a girlfriend?"
"Did you tell her about Caitlyn?" JC asked, locking eyes with Marie.
"I don't keep secrets from her," Marie replied, dryly. Another woman entered the room.
"Hello, Marie. Pleasure meeting you again," Caitlyn greeted, her voice dripping with false sincerity. Kat got a full meaning of what Marie had told her: The girl DID look like a Barbie doll. With her tight red halter top and jeans that hugged every inch of her legs, Caitlyn looked more like a hooker than a regular person. Even her teased auburn hair gave her that rumpled look. The sisters couldn't help hoping that it was because of a brush and not the other possibility.
"Could you leave and try that again? It might be a little more convincing the second time around," Kat told her. Caitlyn looked at her with distaste.
"And you would be..."
"JC's sister-in-law." Kat's words made the woman glared harder. "Oh, I'm sorry. I guess you don't like to be reminded that he's a married man now. Sorry. You're fun is over."
"What the hell do you know?"
"Oh, please. It's obvious that this whole thing has made you insecure."
"Whatever. Why should I be insecure of THAT?" Caitlyn turned her glare at Marie who was watching the scene play out with happiness. It was great watching Kat use her psycho babble on someone who would get lost at the first mentioning of analyzing.
"By the way you got all huffy like a poodle at me mentioning that they were together. Sorry, honey, but NOTHING you do is going to stop this thing. Marriage is eternal..."
"A year is hardly forever."
"I wasn't finished. Marriage is enternal and you obviously HATE the fact that you might have some competition."
"Yeah, right."
"I think that's enough," JC piped in, but it was too late. Kat had already implanted the seed of insecurity and the sisters knew that ANYONE would turn over words like those forever, trying to convince themselves to think differently.
Marie hid her smile in her coffee cup. It amused her beyond belief when Kat got angry. Her eyes would thin into small slits and she leaned forward into her opponent's personal space.
JC watched Caitlyn and Kat still glaring at each other. He sighed and took the first sip of his coffee. "Whoa! What's in this?" he asked after the taste of the liquid hit his senses.
"What's in what?" Marie asked, a questioning look on her face.
"The coffee. It tastes different."
"You don't like it?"
"No. I REALLY like it." He took another long gulp of the black liquid. "What's in it?"
"If she told you, she'd have to kill you," Kat replied. Caitlyn had finally broken their death gaze and the girl was happy over her win.
"Come on, Kat. We have stuff to talk about," Marie told her sister. The two marched past the couple, Marie shooting a glare at Caitlyn while Kat gave JC a death look.
"Now that they're gone," Caitlyn told JC, pushing him against the counter top. She played with the collar on his shirt. "When are we going to your parents' house?"
"Uh...WE'RE not going." She pulled away, the angry look that he was quickly becoming accustomed to crossing her face again.
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm taking Marie with me to Bowie."
"WHAT?!"
"We HAVE to go. My parents have been dying to meet her and I can't go without her. We're going to be in public."
"Tell the press she had a prior engagement and take me. I've been your 'friend' more times than I could count."
"I can't and I won't do that. I'm not sabotaging this thing like that."
"JC..."
"Caitlyn, you know how important this is to me."
"I don't trust her. I think she took advantage of the situation when she saw you were drunk."
"She was drunk too and Marie's not that type of person."
"How do you know? You said yourself that you didn't know her that well."
"What could she possibly gain?"
"Fame."
"Why are you being like this?"
"I'm just worried about us, okay?"
"You don't need to."
"But I do." She turned her face up to his, an innocent look on her features.
"Maybe you check into a hotel or something."
"You're kicking me out?"
"Marie and I really need to get to know each other. I need to do this for my career. If we can't at least become friends, this act will be useless. I have to be honest when I say I'm a little angry that you came out here even when I asked you not to."
"I didn't mean to upset you. I just wanted to give you a little surprise."
"I know, but I'd really appreciate it if I could have the two weeks I asked you for."
"Okay." She reached up and smoothed his shirt. "I'll go. Call me when you're ready okay?" She gave him a lingering kiss and walked away. JC sighed and ran his hand through his hair.
Marie stepped out of her room in time to see Caitlyn walking down the hall with her bag in hand.
"Going somewhere?" she asked, not in a mean way but somewhat surprised. She didn't expect the woman to be leaving so soon.
"Home, but I'm sure you're ecstatic."
"What are you talking about?"
"Oh, come on. I see the way you look at him. He's hot and you think that you might have a chance."
"Are you on drugs or something? I'm not interested in him. The only thing I'm interested in is having this year fly by so I can go back to my life. Don't worry. You won't find competition in me."
"I knew that, but I just wanted to make sure you know where we stand." With that, Caitlyn brushed past her and was gone.
"What'd Barbie want?" Kat asked, noticing Marie hadn't left the hallway.
"To strike the fear of God in me, I think."
"Come on. Take a shower and we'll go see what trouble we can find in Orlando."
"Kat, maybe we should give Caitlyn a chance. She might be kinda nice."
"You can do whatever you want, but I'm NOT going to try and be her best friend. I saw the look she gave you. I have a bad feeling she's going to want your head on a platter before this is done with." Marie shrugged and went to the bathroom. Kat walked to the window and watched Caitlyn get in her car.
"You're NOT going to hurt Marie. She deserves something nice in her life for once," Kat whispered as the car drove away.