˚˚˚

CHAPTER ELEVEN

❝SUCCESS IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER.❞

˚˚˚

"Hell no!"

Iris huffed and rolled her eyes as her father and Jeremy began to argue again as she let her eyes fall on Justin who had his eyes squinted as he watched his father argue with Iris's.

"Okay, just stop!"

"Iris, honey, I will not let this bastard make a business deal with us!"

Justin stepped up. "That's my father you're talking about, watch it."

"Oh excuse me, hot shot."

"Hey, let's all calm down. . .you didn't even hear me out, daddy."

Iris's father huffed and looked over at Jeremy and saw his jaw clenched slightly as he stood at the edge of his desk side eyeing him.

"Go on, darling."

"Justin and I are dating. . .," Iris spoke out as she watched Jeremy and Mike's shocked expression making her hold her hands up for them to wait. "I know, but it would be great for business to go public."

"Are you serious?"

"Dad."

"Justin, be honest with yourself, okay? You and Iris aren't the fucking Kardashian's."

Iris sighed softly. "That's why that's the effect part of the idea."

"Well what's the cause?"

Iris pursed her lips and fiddled with her fingers as she met eyes with her father seeing him standing up with his arms crossed over his chest and his bushy dark brown eyebrows creased.

"You make a business deal with Mr. Bieber. . .together."

"Bullshit, why would I make a deal with the devil?"

Justin rolled his eyes and watched his father's facial expression — to his surprise, he was deep in thought and looking down at the floor making him walk over to him slowly as Iris continued talking to her father.

"Dad."

"Hm? Yeah."

"Penny for your thoughts?"

"Please, Justin, my ideas cost more than that."

Justin snickered. "Just an expression, dad."

Jeremy hummed in response and then slowly looked over to Iris and her father still talking to each other about the idea before slowly sighing and shaking his head as his eyes met Justin.

"Do you really like her, son?"

"Yes, why?"

"Well. . .if Mike doesn't mind. . .," Jeremy murmured slowly but then raised his voice a bit for Mike to hear making him look his way, as did Iris. "I'd like to partner up on this."

Iris squealed softly and smiled wide as she held her hands up to her lips as the room fell silent and everyone's eyes fell on Mike who was thinking out the idea.

"Ah, what the hell."

Iris squealed a bit louder and watched Mike and Jeremy let out a hearty laugh and meet halfway for a handshake as Justin and Iris met halfway for a kiss.

After a few seconds, the two pulled away and looked at their father's already talking about how they will start the plan.

Justin smiled down at Iris as her arm lie wrapped around his waist and his around hers with her head on his chest. "You know. . .maybe this is good."

"Yeah, you can help your dad, babe."

"Iris. . .I meant us."

Iris looked up at Justin and softly laughed. "What do you mean?"

"We can go public. . .I want to go public with you."

For a moment, Justin and Iris just stood there and looked into each other's eyes with a longing look that made Iris use her free hand to cup Justin's cheek and smile.

"Me too."

Justin smiled and leaned down to peck Iris's lips before the two walked toward the door of Mike's office and headed out to let him and Jeremy finish talking about the idea.

˚˚˚

Winnie danced around the kitchen to the sound of Taste by Tyga in the living room after she moved all the furniture back a bit and waited for Jade to come to the house.

Winnie couldn't help but groove to the best of the song, even though she didn't like Tyga, she thought the song was pretty good since it had Offest featured on it.

Just then, the sound of the doorbell made Winnie stop dancing and turn the music down and dash to the door and open it with a wide smile and see Jade — but her smile faded upon her appearance.

Jade was dressed in a tan oversized Yeezy hoodie, gray sweatpants, and tan huaraches with a white trim at the bottom with her curls hanging low to cover half of her face.

"What the hell, Jade?"

"I'm on my period. . .sorry to be a downer."

"Nah, I went out of my way to buy snacks and movies for this weekend, it's an all girls weekend."

"But—"

"I can't hear you!"

Winnie shouted as she went back over to the tall stereo next to the television and turned the volume button back up and let out a squeal as Bad and Boujee by Migos blasted.

"I'm not in the mood, Winnie—"

"Sorry! Can't hear ya!"

"Winnie! I am not in the mood!"

Winnie sighed softly and paused the music. "Look, I know you're on your period, but I bought all your favorites."

Jade huffed and felt a piece of her blonde curls move from her breath hitting it as Winnie hummed and made her way to the kitchen with Jade on her trail.

Once inside, she walked up to the grocery bags on the kitchen counter and turned around to see Jade's arms crossed over her chest making her roll her eyes playfully and take her phone out.

She then searched the kitchen a bit and found her speaker still by the toaster and connected it with her phone as Jade sighed heavily. "What're you doing?"

"One moment, ma'am."

Jade smacked her teeth and shook her head as she watched Winnie smirk and sit her phone down as the sound of Bad and Boujee playing again.

"Winnie, I'm going to murder you."

Before Jade could speak again, the song blasted and the sound of the chorus started making Winnie squeal and twist her hips once the beat dropped.

Jade pursed her lips and watched Winnie milly rock in her spot before making her way over to Jade and somehow making her giggle and shake her head at her.

Fuckin on your bitch, she a thot thot.

Winnie continued to dance around Jade and was praying in her head that she'd dance with her or at least move from her current position.

Make her move, Winnie thought.

Winnie glided over to Jade and took her hands into her hold and started to swing them in the air making her dance as Winnie started to move her feet as well. "Winnie, chill!"

"Dance, girl!"

Jade couldn't help but giggle at Winnie's attempt to get her to dance, she finally shook her head and gave in, she started to move her hips as soon as she heard Quavo's part start.

Introduce me your bitch ass wifey and we know she sluttin'

Broke a brick down, nutty buddy, now that nigga duckin'

Jade twisted her hips some more alongside with Winnie as she clapped to the beat, releasing Jade's hands as the two started to do their own thing.

Once the song finished, Winnie and Jade were both a bit tired and grabbed a water from the fridge as Get Up 10 by Cardi B came on.

Winnie and Jade both started laughing at themselves, breathing heavy from dancing, Winnie paused and then slowly moved closer to Jade and gave her a hug making her crease her eyebrows.

"What's with you?"

"You're a great friend, Jade. . .honest."

Jade smiled down at Winnie and then slowly wrapped her arms around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug as the two stood there for a moment.

Once they broke away, Winnie finished up drinking her water and looked over at Jade with a raised eyebrow. "Let's watch some movies, yeah?"

"Netflix?"

"Yes."

Jade giggled and watched Winnie turn around and open the bags and take out all the snacks, she examined through it all and saw she had pulled out two tubs of Ben and Jerry's cookie dough ice cream, a family size bag of barbeque chips, two king size Kit Kat bars, and two king size Hershey's cookies n creme bars.

"We're about to be so lit."

Winnie smiled wide and tossed Jade the bag of barbecue chips as she took the ice cream. "Can you start Netflix?"

Jade nodded and headed out of the kitchen and made her way into the living room to get Netflix ready as Winnie went over to the drawer to get some spoons.

Once Winnie opened up the drawer, she grabbed two large spoons and hummed a tune as she shut the drawer back.

Winnie took her phone off the kitchen island and made her way to the living room and saw Jade not on Netflix, but she was looking at the news making Winnie crease her eyebrows and walk around the couch.

"Jade?"

"Um. . .you might want to sit down, Winnie."

"Why?"

Jade didn't speak, she just simply pointed at the television with the remote making Winnie slowly sit down on the couch next to her and watch her rewind it.

Winnie felt her chest tighten when she saw it was Justin and Iris standing outside of a mansion, which Winnie figured was hers as their father's stood by their sides.

"T-Turn it up, please?"

Jade rose an eyebrow, but she didn't want to question Winnie right now, she simply did as she asked and watched her eyes glue to the television as the volume blasted.

"Mr. Bieber, is it true you're dating your father's rival business' daughter?"

Justin chuckled as the cameras began to flash and he held onto Iris's waist a bit tighter as she smiled up at him.

"Yes, I know it seems like a cliché version of Romeo and Juliet. . .but Iris is very important to me and I see no differences between us, I want to be with her, regardless of the past."

"Romeo and Juliet. . .more like—"

"Shh. . ."

Winnie turned back around to the television as Jade rose an eyebrow and then slumped her shoulders and went to open the bag of chips and start to eat.

"Mr. Bieber, do you have a comment on your son and business partner's new relationship? I mean, this seems like a relationship that's going to raise a lot of flags."

"Actually, Mike and I have set aside our differences. All that crap we fought over 20 years for was complete nonsense. . .in fact, we'll be starting a new project together soon."

Jeremy smiled wide at the cameras as chatter began to start again through the press as he patted Mike's back and heard him laugh.

"Correct, and with the help of our COO's here, well, as my mother used to say. . .success is in the eye of the beholder."

The crowd went wild again and just when Winnie thought it was over, it wasn't, the cameras had zoomed in on Iris and Justin as the two shared a long kiss making even more cameras go off.

Once the two broke away Justin smiled and kissed the top of her head and wrapped his arm around her shoulders and guided them back into the mansion as the bodyguards started to back the crew up.

Just then, Jade turned the television off and slowed down her chewing and rose up from the couch and sat at the edge with Winnie seeing her still looking at the black screen.

"Winnie?"

"You know, I don't feel so good, excuse me."

Without another thought, Winnie dropped the ice cream and spoons onto the floor making Jade gasp softly as she watched Winnie dash out of the living room and head upstairs to her bedroom.

Fuck, Jade thought.

˚˚˚

Justin shut the door behind him and locked it as his free hand undid his tie around his neck, once he turned around he saw Jade leaning against the wall.

Justin jumped. "Fuck, Jade, what—"

"Cut the shit, don't speak, I'm speaking."

Justin gulped and stood in his spot with his hands at his sides as he waited for Jade to speak, but she momentarily squinted her eyes at him.

"Do you realize what you did? I hope you're fucking happy with that witch of yours, in fact, if she runs your business in the ground then so be it. . .next time you need to think about how your actions will affect the ones around you."

"What are you talking about?"

"I saw the news."

"I. . .did Winnie see?"

Jade crossed her arms over her chest. "No, gladly."

Justin let out a breath of relief and scratched the back of his neck making Jade tilt her head and crease her eyebrows by brush it off.

"Winnie's asleep, I'm going to check on her."

Justin opened his mouth to speak, but he couldn't find the words to say as Jade started up the staircase. But then again, what would he say? He wasn't aloud to speak to her.

Justin simply huffed and shook his head as he headed to the kitchen to get something to drink, once he got inside, he went to the cabinet and grabbed a glass and went to the sink to get some water.

Justin then left out of the kitchen and headed upstairs to his bedroom and made it to the door, but he stopped himself when he heard voices coming from Winnie's bedroom.

Even though he wasn't aloud to talk to Winnie, it kind of made him curious as to what her and Jade were talking about, he simply creeped over to her door and placed his ear on the door softly to hear.

"I did this, Jade. . .I did this."

Justin creased his eyebrows and thought about Winnie was talking about but nothing was coming to mind, he slowly backed away from the door and walked back over to his and went inside.

Once he was in his room, he stripped out of his clothes down to his boxers and slipped into bed and sat his glass of water down onto the nightstand.

Turning the lamp off, Justin got comfortable in the bed and looked up at the ceiling thinking about what Winnie said.

What did she mean? Justin thought.

And that night, Justin went to sleep with Winnie on his mind.

˚˚˚

✨

✨💫

✨