After a messy divorce, Joe Jonas finds himself lost within the inability to move on with his life. That is, until he unexpectedly starts to feel a love he never thought he'd experience again, let alone with a stranger.
First Installment of Trilogy
"I think we made some really great progress today," Mariana, my new therapist, optimistically stated, "Do you think so?"
"I agree, yeah," I lightly smiled, sneakily texting Joe off to the side out of the camera's view to let him know my session had come to an end.
"And just remember, you can always text me if you need an extra session before next week," she reminded me as she almost always did towards the end of our sessions.
"I really appreciate that," I responded, glancing up at the sound of the door opening, Joe walking in and putting his phone and hotel card on the table, "Thank you. Have a good rest of the week."
Closing out of the tab and sighing loudly, I glared at Joe as he came up and sat next to me on the couch. Naturally, I cuddled up to him as my legs rested atop of his, his warmth comforting me after delving deep into my trauma that unknowingly, yet not surprisingly, went as far back into my childhood.
"How'd it go?" he asked, noticing my blotchy pinkened cheeks.
"Rough" I answered truthfully, laying my head against him.
"Do you wanna talk about it?" he replied with such empathy and understanding, "Or is it one of those that you'd rather keep between you and your therapist?"
"One of those," I kept it short, "I just want to cherish this with you for a little bit longer before we leave to the venue."
He acknowledged the importance of the simple touch of one another in a comfortable, safe silence. Even if it were just for a short while.
"Hey, Babe?" he piped up, "If you're still stuck in your head tonight, just look at me. I'll always be looking right back."
I smiled at the softheartedness, "I already always look at you."
Gingerly, he placed his fingers underneath my chin, gesturing my head upwards to feel his soft lips connect with mine.
My hand moved to his cheek as I straddled him, tempting to take it further. My body wanted to, as did his, but my mind wasn't all the way there.
"Sorry," I pulled away after our kiss slowed down.
"Don't be," he shook his head, confused as to why I was even apologizing, "I'm not expecting anything, Babe. Just a kiss is more than good enough. Shit, even a text or phone call from you sends me over the moon."
I stared at him with a gentle grin, "You're cute, you know that?"
"Cute?" he jokingly replied as if I had offended him, "Damn. What about hot? Sexy? Beautiful? Undeniably handsome?"
I laughed, "You're all of those and more. I just can't have you get an ego bigger than Nick's."
"Shit, you're right. I guess I should be thanking you for keeping me grounded," he kept up with the roasting of his younger brother, "The next step would've been breaking the band up."
After everything they had gone through as brothers, it was relieving to hear Joe be able to joke about the trauma, although I remembered him telling me it took between six to seven years to get to that point.
Minutes turned into hours, laughing and talking about both big and small stuff within that time. Whatever was brought up, we didn't shy away from.
We met everyone else at the venue, taking our sweet time as we knew Nick would be late as expected anyways.
"Finally!" Liv ran up to us, "Joe, get dressed, now. We don't have that much time to take these pictures."
"Pictures?" he questioned.
"For your one-hundredth show?" she reminded him.
"Shit! I'm so sorry! I completely forgot," his words rushed out of his mouth, "Give me like, fifteen minutes?"
"Hurry!" she ushered him to his dressing room before he could say or do anything more, leaving me in the hallway alone.
I felt my phone vibrate in my back pocket. I knew exactly what it was. Although I was dreading to look at my notifications, I couldn't stop myself from doing so. More comments on my Instagram dedicated to my artwork. I tried to delete them faster than Joe could read them himself so he wouldn't worry with how much the hateful commentary was affecting me.
The truth was that it was. It felt like middle and high school all over again with the online bullying. This time, I didn't have my older sister to back me up. I had to fend for myself from a pack of hungry, horny wolves.
I quickly locked my phone and put it back in my pocket once I saw the crew emerge into the hallway, making their way to get in place on the stage. My eyes met Joe's instantly, a wave of security washing over me.
"Good luck, Babe," I stated, "Not that you need it."
"Thank you," he gave me a final kiss, "And remember what I said earlier, okay?"
I nodded before watching him duck under the stage with his brothers to get in place on their platforms, going our separate ways for right now.
"You know he knows, right?" Liv caught up and walked with me down to the exit door, the only thing separating me from a sea of screaming fans.
"What do you mean?" I asked, stopping in my tracks.
"Joe," she clarified, "He knows about the hate you've been getting."
"Wait, how do you know that?" I scrunched my eyebrows.
"Because he had to stop me from commenting back," she replied, "He said I'd make it worse, which, he wouldn't have been wrong."
I let out a big sigh, "Of course he did. I appreciate it, but please don't. It'll only bring more negative attention."
"It's the protective sister energy in me," she put her hand on my arm before running it down to squeeze my hand, "but now you also have someone else willing to protect you too. And speaking of, go on out there before it starts. You know he'll be looking for you."
Heading into the crowd to the reserved Jonas family section, I suddenly felt vulnerably unsettled in danger. The fans had their eyes and cameras on me, pictures I would soon be tagged or mentioned in.
So I did exactly what Joe told me to do. I watched him the whole time, always in my line of sight. And he did the same. He really was a man of his word.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
