"I'm leavin' today

Livin' it, leavin' it, to change

Slowly driftin' into a peaceful breeze

Tongue-tied and twisted are all my memories

Celebrating a fantasy come true

Packin' all my bags, I'm finally on the move"

Song: "Cruz"-Christina Aguilera

 

*Thursday*

 

The last box was loaded into the moving van and the driver shut the door. "Ok Ms. Taylor, it's all loaded.  We're heading out to Los Angeles. We've got the directions to your place; we'll see you Sunday morning."

Allie nodded at them. "Thank you so much. I'll see you Sunday. Drive careful!" Allie thanked the movers and followed the truck with her eyes as it made its way down her street.

Turning her gaze back to her boyfriend, well, ex-boyfriend now, she grabbed his hand and placed it against her cheek. "You know, it doesn't have to be like this." He said caressing her cheek softly. "You could stay here and get a job. Music is just as good out here on the east coast as it is out there on the west coast."

Allie touched his hand, resting her cheek more firmly in his palm. She sighed. They had had this conversation before, many times. Things hadn't changed. Her heart still said to move to L.A. regardless of her love for him. If they were meant to be then they'd find each other again.

"You know it's not that easy Brad."

He took his hand away from her cheek. Even through the tears in her own eyes, she could tell that his too had welled up. "I know." He dropped his head and a single tear slid down his cheek. "It's just gonna be hard without you. You are everything to me. You're my soul Allie."

That did it. The tears that had been held a bay finally fell and she embraced him in her arms with a tight hug. "Hey, I'm just a phone call or a plane ride away. Yes it's across the entire continent but nonetheless. It's not like I'm disappearing hun."

He raised his head off her shoulder to look at her. "From my life you are. Allie, I'm sorry, I can't deal with this right now. Call me when you get into LAX. Don't forget, I love you, forever and ever." A last tear slid down both their cheeks before he leaned in for a final kiss.

This kiss was different from all the other ones they had ever shared in their 5 years together. It was...empty.

He parted from her, gave her one last look and then got into his red TransAm.

Even after his car had disappeared around the corner, she still stood gazing into space. Half questioning her decision to go, half questioning her reasons to stay.

"No! This is no time for regrets." She told herself picking up the last of her luggage and throwing it into her sisters' car. She was going to leave it at the airport for her sister to pick up later in the day.

"I made the right choice. I'll find that out for sure once I get settled in over there." With that she took one final look at her house and got in the car.  She pulled out of the driveway and made her way down the street, willing herself not to turn around. This was it, no turning back now...

"Guess who just got back today?

them wild eyed boys that'd been away.

Haven't changed, haven't much to say

but man I still think them cats are crazy...

The boys are back in town..."

Song: "The Boys Are Back In Town"-Thin Lizzy

 

*Monday-8:30a.m.*

"And this...is your office" the short woman said to her as she flipped the bright fluorescent lights on.

 

Allie blinked. "You're kidding me right?" she was in disbelief. This office was huge.

 

The woman chuckled light heartedly. "It's always the same reaction. Here at Jive we believe in treating our employee's right.  Especially our A&R department.  It's best to have a big, comfy office. We realize that you spend a lot of time in it, so why not have somewhere cozy to sit?" She smiled at Allie.

 

"Well I think I'll be utilizing this couch more than my chair." Allie said as she plopped down on it. "Seriously, I think I could fall asleep on this thing."

 

"Well I hope you're not in here that much that you need to use it for that reason.  All of your sign-on information is in the packet that's on your desk. If you have any questions I'm just down the hall and my extension is 5127." The woman headed for the door, but then turned around to say one last thing. "We're really excited to have you Ms. Taylor. We think you're going to be a great asset to this company." She smiled, and when she smiled the corners of her eyes crinkled up.

 

"Thank you so much Mrs. Donovan."

 

When she had left the room Allie got up from the couch and shut the door. She turned and looked around at her new office.  A large window took up most of the back wall. Her desk was made of maple wood and was shaped in an L with the longer part against the left wall. Shelves lined the walls above her desk and on the right side of the office were filing cabinets almost to the ceiling. On the entrance wall there was a tan suede couch and small maple coffee table in front of it with an assortment of magazines neatly fanned out.

 

Allie sighed. She couldn't believe it. She had finally realized her dream of working for a major label; she was in Cali, in this huge office that was hers alone-it was all a bit overwhelming.

 

Remembering the packet that Leslie had told her about on her desk she went and sat in the black leather chair. It squeaked under her weight, the leather still tight.  She flipped the folder open and placed the packet in front of her.  The front page had a welcome letter. Underneath was an invitation to a luncheon being held on Wednesday. Under that, a schedule of the weeks events. Venues she needed to go to, a few meetings she needed to attend and some people that she needed to meet with.

 

Looks like her "settling in days" had just filled up with lots of things to do. A few artists were coming into the building but none that had piqued her interest.  "Oh well" she thought; there'd be plenty of time for schmoozing with artists.

 

The next page was a list of contact information for people who worked in the building. It was a fairly large place. Six stories and who knows how many offices.  The last page was her sign-on information for the computer. She booted the computer up and when the sign-on to windows screen popped up she typed in Ataylor76 and the unique password given to her.  It prompted her to change her password so she changed it and hit enter. Windows loaded up and her desktop picture was a rotating Jive icon, silver in color, with a black background.

 

Microsoft outlook immediately started up. She already had three emails. One from Leslie the secretary for the A&R department whom had shown her the office. The second from Microsoft outlook thanking her for choosing them and the third from someone named Tatum, also in the A&R department. It read:

 

                Greetings Alexis! Welcome to Jive Records...you are in for a ride. My name's Tatum, or Tate, as most people call me. I'm also A&R and just wanted to say hello. I figured I'd let you get settled in your office before I just came and barged in. A few of us are going to lunch later on at Baja Fresh, just seeing if you wanted to join. We all know how it can be being the new person. We want to make it a little easier on you before you get fed to the sharks on Wednesday at the luncheon.  My office is just two doors down on the right. Feel free to stop in when you get a free moment. I hope you'll join us later!

 

~Tate~

 

Allie grinned. She locked her computer up and pushed back from her desk. She decided she'd meet people on her own. She ventured the few steps down the hall to Tate's door. It was closed so she knocked.

 

"Who is it?" A womanly voice answered. "Uhm, its Alexis, you said to stop by?"

 

"Oh! Sure, sure. Come on in!" she replied.

 

Even through the door Allie could tell she was smiling. Allie opened the door and walked in, looking at the girl sitting down on the couch, flipping through a magazine. Her office was set up fairly similar, just flip-flopped, and her couch was black leather.

 

"I just closed my door so that Leslie wouldn't bother me. The woman's a saint but I swear, sometimes she will talk your ear off." Tate sat up. Allie looked her over. She was a cute girl. Short brown hair, blazing green eyes, slender and fair skinned. 

 

"Where are my manners?" Tate stood up and extended her hand to Allie. "It's so nice to meet you Alexis! This whole floor has been a buzz about your arrival. Word is you're a genius at finding new talent."

 

Allie blushed. "You can call me Allie, actually. And I don't know about genius, but I've found a few people. I did a lot of freelance work when I got out of college. Most major labels won't take you unless you've got some experience under your belt."

 

"Oh pshh...didn't you find that hot new act ‘Breaking Point'?" Tate asked. "Yeah, but I had someone else with me who helped me out. So, I can't really take all the credit for it. I'm fairly new to doing this whole thing on my own."

 

"Not to worry, we are all here to help you out if you need anything." Allie smiled at her. "Thanks so much." Tate invited her to sit down with her on the couch so she did. "So how long have you worked here?"

 

"Not long. About two months I'd say.  Where'd you move from again? Florida?"

 

"Yeah, Orlando to be exact. I had to get out of there. It's not the right place for this kind of thing."

 

"I hear that. One of the other new girls here came from there too. You coming to lunch with us?" she asked.

 

Allie nodded. "Of course. I just got here on Friday night and did nothing all weekend except unpack and sleep. I need to meet some people."

 

"Trust me you'll be meeting so many in the next few days your head will be spinning with all the faces and names you have to remember." Allie's eyes got huge and Tate laughed lightly. "Most people react that way. It's not really that bad. You won't see them most of the time anyways. The people on this floor and the artist managers will be whom you see most often. And as for me and the other A&R people, we'll become your best friends. We're a close knit bunch up here." Allie was relieved to hear that.

 

"How many other A&R people are here?"

 

 Tate paused before answering. "Four, well, five now with you. There's you, Jessi, Trent, Alex, and me. Alex is the prized boy of the label so watch out for him and the kinds of things you say around him.  Other than that, he's a cool cat to be around. Very knowledgeable." Allie made a mental note of that.

 

"So...what is there to do around this town besides look for celebs?" Allie asked sarcastically. "It's Hollywood! Come on now!" Tate joked. "When the weekend comes you'll figure it out. Some of us go out on Friday's for drinks after work, and then the girls and I hit up some club. Friday's have become the highlight of my week, followed by very, very, late breakfasts on Saturday morning."

 

"Awesome. You can SO count me in. So do we get to cut in line and get VIP?"

 

Tate grinned. "You bet your ass we do! We're like key in the scene around here. Everyone knows us and everyone wants to be us. Live it up girl, this is the life right here."

 

Allie was excited. It was only Monday and she was already trying to figure out what she was going to wear out.  "Ok well, I guess I'm going to go look over my schedule for the week.  I think I've got a meeting with someone after lunch." Allie checked her watch. It was only 9:30 and her stomach was growling. "Hey where's the cafeteria in this place? I need some grub to tide me ‘til lunch."

 

"I'll walk you down there. I was thinking the same thing."

 

They made their way down the hallway to the elevator and took it up to the fifth floor.  The elevator doors opened up and dumped them in the cafeteria. 

 

Allie was expecting something large but this? It seriously covered the whole floor. It was like her high school lunchroom all over again.

 

"So what's your pleasure?"

 

Allie was scanning over the tables. It wasn't very busy but there were a few people in there. Her eyes stopped on one very curly head of hair and stayed there.

 

"Allie?" Tate asked, following Allie's eyes to what had her so fixated. Allie hadn't heard. She was entranced.

 

"Oh my god. Is that who I think it is?" She uttered quietly.

 

Tate's eyes finally saw who she was looking at. "Holy shit, it is." Apparently the two were equally surprised in who was sitting just a few feet away from them.

 

Allie's heart was racing. She wanted to squeal like a little girl and run over and ask him for his autograph.

 

But then she came back to reality and realized where she was. At work. At Jive records. Where they were signed. She should have prepared for this. With the recent statement made to the media that sent little girls and older women's hearts a flutter all over the U.S. she should have thought about it. They were making a comeback. It was only natural that some of them would be around the studios. Duh! She resisted the urge to smack herself in the forehead for being so stupid. 

 

"Should've known they'd be coming around here." Tate said to Allie.

 

"Yeah, no kidding. Even I was excited about their announcement when I heard. I was going to be one of the first people in line when the new album came out. Now here I am, and I'll get to preview the damn thing before it even hits stores. This job is getting better by the minute."

 

They grinned at each other and started walking towards the line. Allie grabbed a bagel with some peanut butter and Tate grabbed a blueberry muffin. As they were waiting to pay for their items they were both staring at the table.

 

"So which one was your favourite?" Allie asked. "Lance, all the way. Those green eyes. Oooh baby." They laughed. "What about you?"

 

With her eyes Allie said all she needed to say. "Ahh, I see. So that was the reason for the enchantment, eh?"  Allie could feel herself blushing. "Guilty. He is beautiful. And I must say, I'm SO glad he's rockin' the curls again." She started fanning herself.

 

 At that moment one of the other guys sat down at the table. "We have three of the five. If the other two show up I might faint." Allie snickered. "I'm right there with you. There's a table open by them. Quick! Go sit!" They picked up their drinks and a few napkins and tried to make it look like they weren't in a hurry to get to the table next to the boys. They sat down just as the remaining two Nsyncers joined the table next to them. 

 

"I don't even believe this." Allie whispered. "I know..." she was cut off mid sentence by a deep voice.

 

"Sorry to interrupt you ladies but can we sit down? There's no room for us over there."

 

Tate looked up and her eyes slammed into the same green eyes she had been swooning over minutes before. "Uhm...uhh...you sure can." Tate stuttered. Allie tried to cover up her laugh at Tate's reaction.

 

"Why don't you just push the tables together?" One suggested. "Yah, good idea Joe." Green eyes replied.

 

The girls got up and pulled their chairs out so that the boys could push the tables together.  Giving excited looks back and forth at each other they sat down again, this time with all the Nsync boys. "Hi, I'm Joey." He said, extending a hand to them. "Allie."

 

"Tate."

 

"Nice to meet you." He winked. "And these other guys here are Justin, Chris, JC, and Lance."

 

"Yah, we know." Allie smiled. "Hey guys!" She smiled, locking eyes with Justin.

 

"So, what do you guys do here?" Joey asked, breaking the silence. "We're both in the A&R department." Tate replied.

 

"Sweet. How long have you worked here? I don't think I've seen either one of you before?" Lance asked. "I've been here about two months, and Allie here, this is her first day."

 

Allie started to blush when all eyes were on her. "Aww. So you're the new baby of the company. Welcome girl!" Justin said, flashing a grin towards her. "Yah, I guess so.  What're you guys doing here today?" Allie asked.

 

"Just came in to visit Johnny, Wright that is."

 

"Oh cool. When are you guys starting recording? I heard the announcement a couple months back. That's pretty exciting. I think you'll make QUITE the comeback."

 

"We've actually been recording a lot of stuff up in New York but decided we wanted a change of scenery so we came out here," JC replied. "...and thanks for the compliment."

 

Tate sat and watched in awe at how Allie was handling herself. No wonder she made it up the ranks so quickly at such a young age. She could sure hold her own.

 

"Of course. We should really be getting back to work though. We'll see you guys around I'm sure." Allie said, standing up and grabbing her bagel.

 

"Most definitely. We'll stop in and say what's up." Chris said, getting up to throw his trash away. "OK. Bye guys!" Tate and Allie said in unison.

 

They walked the few steps to the elevator and wished they had a bag to put over their heads. They could feel the eyes of all five guys boring holes into the back of them, watching with curiosity as they walked away. Allie punched the down button a few times frustratedly. "God please just get me out of here."

 

The elevator doors finally opened and they rushed inside, pressing the button for the second floor. They waved to the five guys as the doors shut and then sighed with relief when they could no longer see them.

 

"Ok seriously, I wish I would have been warned that they were going to be here. I looked at my list of artists who were supposed to be in the studio this week and DEFINITELY didn't see their names on there. I SO would have dressed cuter!" Allie stated. Tate laughed because Allie had kept her cool the entire time they were at the table. It was funny to see her break down like this.

 

"Allie, I think we're going to be seeing a whole hell of a lot of them around here. It might be a good idea to dress cute every day." The girls laughed.

 

The doors opened up in front of them and waiting for the elevator was a stocky, young man, about 26 or 27 years of age. "Tatum! You disappeared on me again. I thought we were meeting each other to go out on that errand together...oh...hello...you must be Alexis, the new girl. I'm Trent." He extended a hand towards Allie and shook it firmly. "Nice to meet you." Allie replied.

 

He looked back and forth between the two. "Cafeteria run?" Tate nodded. "Yep, you know my daily."

 

"Oh, so I can expect a breakfast buddy in the morning?" Allie asked. Tate looked at her and smiled. "Of course."

 

Trent stood staring death eyes into Tate. "Ok Trent. We can go...jeez. We got held up by someone." The three of them made their way down the hall to Tate's office. "A few someone's." Allie grinned as she stopped in front of her office.

 

"Someone's? Who?" Trent asked.

 

"The boys of Nsync." 

 

His jaw dropped. "No freaking way! Are they still here?" Allie couldn't tell if he was actually serious or was just being sarcastic. Tate nodded. "Yep, upstairs. They said they'd be around a lot lately, with the recording of their new album and stuff. They had been up in New York recording but I guess there are some things out here that they need to take care of."

 

Trent began fanning himself. "I can die a happy man once I see Joey's fine ass around here." Allie cracked a smile at him as Tate laughed loudly at his antics.

 

"Well, we're out of here. We should be back before lunch, but if not, Jessi can give you directions to Baja Fresh. You can get my cell number from Mrs. Donovan if you need to get a hold of me for any reason." Tate said as the three walked down the hall towards Allie's office.

 

"Thanks so much, Tate! See you guys later!" Allie smiled at them warmly before she disappeared into her office to get settled in.

*A few weeks later

She tried to get comfortable in her chair. This meeting was taking forever and all she kept thinking about was going out with Miki and Tate that night. They were trying out a new club, Ivy or something like that, and she was hoping that a certain popstar was going to make an appearance. The guys of Nsync had been going out with them the past couple Fridays but other than that they hadn't seen much of them. They were all busy recording.

 

 Almost a month had gone by and the whole CD was almost ready to be mixed and mastered and sent out for reproduction. "Johnny asked a big favour of us. He would like to have an A&R person out on the road when the guys start touring. I know it's not necessarily in the job description of an A&R person but it would really help him out. We'd give it to Alex but his plate is already pretty full. Trent and Miki just aren't ready for it. So that leaves you two."

 

Allie swivelled in the leather chair and bumped her knee against Tate's.

 

"Well in my opinion Mr. Williams, Allie should get it. She's had experience being on a tour before. I'm not sure I like the idea of living out of a suitcase."

 

Allie was shocked. She was fully anticipating Tate to say she wanted the job. "I'd love to take it but...what would I be doing?"

 

Mr. Williams responded, "Well you'd be more of an assistant road manager rather than an A&R person. This tour is going to get pretty hectic just because everyone is anticipating the album and the tour. It's going to blow the roof off of the stadiums it plays in. It's gonna be bigger than Pop Odyssey. We all feel that the boys need a proper ushering back into the spotlight."

 

Allie nodded. It sounded interesting; crazy, but definitely interesting. Tour management was something she had always had an interest in. Here was a chance to try it out.

 

"Sign me up." She had gone on tour with Natural back when she was still in college getting her degree. But that was for a brief period of about two weeks. She had had fun though, so she could only imagine what this would be like.

 

"When is the tour set to start?"

 

"Much like Pop Odyssey, the guys are going to start the tour and then release the CD during it. They'll be in postproduction on the CD in about 2 weeks and during that time they'll start rehearsals. This tour has been in the works since they started recording so much of the layout of the stage and lighting has already been figured out. They just need the choreography and then the rehearsals on the stage with the crew and they'll be set to go."

 

It didn't sound like much but in reality they probably wouldn't be going on tour for about a month and a half. "When are you releasing the tour dates to the fans?"

 

"Advertisements to radio, TV, and the web will be going out next Wednesday. The guys will be doing interviews on TRL, Good Morning America, The Today Show, and many radio stations nationwide...to get the word out to more people. Their single is set to release around the country on the 1st of May. It's April 16th now and the tour is starting the beginning of June. That soon enough for you?" finished Mr. Williams.

 

Allie was hurriedly jotting all of this down to remember it for later so she could put it on her calendar. "How many shows are they going to do?"

 

"It's still in talks but the estimate is about 48-56 cities."

 

Allie's eyes widened. They really were going all out. Just hope that the fan base was still as large as it once was and still as eager to hear something new from the guys. "Whew. The guys are going to be busy." Tate stated.

 

"Yes they are. So you can see why Johnny has asked for help as he's not going to be able to be there all the time." Both the girls nodded. "Well I think that's about all I've got for you two right now. I'll call you if I think of anything else."

 

All three left the conference room and Mr. Williams went one way while the girls went the other. "Wait ‘til the guys hear about this one." Tate laughed. "I know. They'll get a kick of it for sure. You think they're coming out with us tonight?"

 

"I doubt it. From what Michael said, they're going to be pretty tied up for the next month and a half with preparing for this thing. Their schedules are going to be monstrous. I'd hate to be their planner. Sounds like he's going to have his hands full too."

 

"No kidding. I'm pulling my hair out already and it hasn't even started."

 

Allie checked her watch. 3:30. She had to finish up her review on this new kid Tyler before she left the office for the day. "Tate I'll meet you guys at the Blue Martini after work. I might be a bit late. I've got to finish up this thing on Tyler."

 

"Yeah that's ok. I think Miki's going to be late too. I'll just chill there with the guys." Allie went to open her door and Tate said "oh yah Allie, you're welcome. I practically handed that job to you."

 

"I know Tate, thank you SO much. I owe you one."

 

"Yeah, yeah. You don't owe me much. I hate tour buses." Tate laughed as she opened her office door. "I'll see you later tonight?"

 

"Count on it." With that Allie closed her door behind her and flopped down on the couch. As soon as she sat down she heard the IM on her computer. She got up and went to sit down in her black leather chair.

 

FatWonBlackberry: Congrats!

AllieAR: Wow. Good news travels fast?

FatWonBlackberry: Yeah! Mr. Williams came down to the studio a few minutes ago and told Johnny. Chris overheard them talking.

AllieAR: Now why doesn't that surprise me?

FatWonBlackberry: Because it's Chris.

AllieAR: lol

FatWonBlackberry: the blonde one is pouting because we can't go out tonight

AllieAR: pouting?

FatWonBlackberry: yes, pouting. Even at 27 he still pouts

AllieAR: aww how cute. We'll get a chance to go out before the tour gets started I'm sure.

FatWonBlackberry: of course! The sound nazi (aka JC) is calling us back. Talk to you soon girl!

 

Allie closed out the IM and shook her head. She leaned her head back on the chair and sighed. What had she just gotten herself into?

 

*Two weeks later, April 30th

 It was only Monday and already her plate was full for the week. When she arrived back to work on Monday there was a huge pile of mail on her desk. She was constantly busy with all the press kits she kept receiving. In reality it wasn't hard to weed out the good from the bad, and the amazing from the good. 

 And this Tyler kid she was working on? Oh he was really good. Played his own guitar, played piano, had the most amazing voice, not to mention he wasn't bad on the eyes. Oh yes, he was a record labels dream. If only she could find a hook for him. That wasn't her job, but she needed to be able to sell him to the label before she could even talk to him about possibly coming for an audition.

 It didn't seem like she would get the chance at the moment because as soon as she pulled up his file on her computer, there was a knock on her door. "Come in."

 She was surprised to see Mr. Williams standing there.

 "Hey Mr. Williams. What can I do for you? Please, sit down." She motioned to her couch.

 "Thanks. I have a proposition for you."

 "And what's that?" she asked, closing the windows on her computer. "Are you working on anyone right now, Alexis?"

 She nodded at him. "Yes, I'm working on this guy Tyler. I need a bit more time with his information and stuff before I give you guys the presentation.... He's an amazing..."

 "Stop right there. Who in this department could do the best job on it?" he asked, taking a magazine from the coffee table. She shrugged. "I don't know. I'd have to run it by each of them and see what they think. If I had to say right now, probably Tate. This guy is right up her ally. Why?"

 He sighed before continuing. "Alexis, how would you feel if we started pushing you more as a tour manager?" Her eyes widened. "Why would you want to do that?"

 "We feel that you would be excellent at it. Being that you are an assistant on the Nsync tour, it would kind of be like a trial period. See how you do with it." He cleared his throat. "In particular, Johnny thinks you'd be amazing for it."

 He noticed the deer-in-the-headlights look on her face and chuckled. "We know you rock at A&R, but there's a lot of potential for you here."

 Allie swallowed. "I uh...don't know what to say.  I guess that me going on tour with the guys will be a good trial run. I mean, being a road manager is definitely something I had an interest in doing, the A&R thing just happened first."

 "Great! Meet with Tate about passing this Tyler guy on to her, talk to her about your vision for him and give her the necessary contact info for all the people in his team, I have no doubt that she'll do this.  The single is being sent to radio as we speak and is set to premier around the country tomorrow. They'll be doing an interview on TRL on Wednesday, and are set to do a radio interview in the morning on Z100 Thursday, and an afternoon interview with KISS FM in Chicago on the same day. Friday it's back up to New York for their first live performance on Good Morning America and then it's back out here for the taping of the MTV movie awards."

 Allie was frantically writing this all down, fully forgetting that this schedule would be given to her in the meeting she had scheduled with Johnny this afternoon.

 "They're not performing right?"

 He shook his head. "No, we weren't sure of the singles release date when MTV asked us to do a performance for them." She nodded to say she understood.

 He could tell she was getting overwhelmed.  "Alexis, we wouldn't throw you in the middle of this crazy media storm if we didn't think you could handle it."

 "I realize that. Do I have to be with them during these appearances and what not?"

 He stood up. "Well, normally no. However, Johnny can't be with them. He's got something back in Orlando to attend to with one of his other artists and he's flying back tonight. Can you fly out tomorrow with them to New York?"

 Her jaw almost hit the floor.

 Fly...on a plane...with the boys...across the country.  "Of course! I'll see if I can get together with Tate tonight to discuss my project with her."

 Her computer flashed a reminder up at her. ‘Meeting with Tyler in 10 minutes.' Crap! I haven't even gotten his papers together. And I need to call Tate to see if she can sit in on this lunch with me.

 "I really hate to cut you off Mr. Williams but I've actually got a lunch meeting with Tyler, the artist I was telling you about. I have to meet him in 10 minutes. Is it possible I can give you a buzz when I get back from lunch before my meeting with Johnny?"

 "Yes of course! I don't know where my head went. Johnny was supposed to talk to you about all this later anyways. I just wanted to give you a heads up. I'll speak with you later!" He rose from the couch and went to the door. "Have a good lunch, Alexis!" he stated on his way out.

 Immediately after, Tate walked in.

 "Ahh, just the girlie I was about to call. Would you maybe go to lunch with me?  I have to meet with Tyler but I kind of have a few things to run by the both of you. I've got BIG news!"

 Tate raised an eyebrow. "Sure thing--lemme get my purse and we can head out."

 

*in the car*

 "So let me get this straight..." Tate started as she began to put her short hair up into a loose ponytail. "Road manager? Jeez, what am I doing wrong?"

 Allie laughed. "Seriously, I don't even know what they're thinking. I understood it for the purpose of the Nsync tour because of how huge it was going to be. But as a full time thing?? I was floored when he asked me. Which is why I need to ask you something??"

 Tate flipped her sunglasses down on her nose as Allie put the top down on her Solstice and pulled out onto the street from the parking garage. "You know you're racking up your IOU's over here."

 "Don't I know it. You remember Tyler right?" Tate nodded. "Well, I think he might be right up your alley to maybe take over from me?"

 "You've got to be kidding me?!"

 "Don't snap at me. Go talk to Williams about that shit. He was the one who told me I needed to hand my projects off to you guys. Tyler won't take much work. He's a packaged deal already. You'll see. And plus I trust you. I know you'll be able to take him where I want it to go.  And since I trust you, he will too."

 Tate sighed. "I was just messing. So I'm guessing that we're going to meet him?"

 "Sure are. Baja Fresh?" She grabbed at a stray piece of hair that whipped her in the face. 

 "You know I'm always game to go there. So you're jetting across the country, with 5 of the hottest guys in music. How's it feel???" Tate asked.

 "Honestly, I haven't had much time to wrap my brain around that." She looked over her shoulder to get into the right turn lane to grab a parking spot on the street. "I have so much to do between now and tomorrow morning.  I don't even know where to start. What are you doing tonight? Think you could come and help me??"

 Tate looked the other way. "Yes or no?" Still no response. "Tate...what's up?"

 "I...can't."

 "Why not? It's a Monday. You never do anything on Monday's but catch up on shows you missed over the weekend." Allie laughed a little.

 "I know...but I can't. Just trust me on this."

 "You know I'm not going to take that answer." Allie shut off the car and took off her seatbelt to square herself to Tate. Tate huffed. "Ok fine. I kind of have a date." Allie's eyes widened as she looked to make sure no one was coming down the street before she opened up her door. "With who????"

 "Uhh...he's got green eyes?"

 Grabbing her purse from behind her chair she pushed her glasses up on top of her head and glared across the car at her friend. "No freaking way!!!" Allie shrieked.

 "I'm not kidding. And I wanted to tell you earlier but he said not to. He wanted to evade the teasing that you'd most likely inflict on him when you guys were together. Just don't say anything to him until I give you the go ahead?"

 "Of course. Oh man...this could make for some interesting office gossip though."

 "Allie you wouldn't! That'd be so mean."

 Allie pulled open the door to Baja Fresh and walked inside, scanning around for her undiscovered superstar. He was in a corner booth with papers strewn out in front of him and a scowl on his face. He didn't look to be in a good mood. Great, this is going to go over well.

 "As interesting as this conversation is, we must go meet a soon to be popstar over there. We'll continue this later. C'mon!" Allie grabbed Tates' hand and pulled her over to the table. Just as they walked up Tyler raised his head and grinned brightly. Or maybe he's not in a bad mood. "Hey sweetheart!" He stood and hugged Allie tightly.

 "Hey babe." She kissed his cheek. "I brought a co-worker along...well my friend Tate. She's in the A&R at Jive too."

 "Hey! Great to meet you." He leaned across the table to hug her as well.

"Likewise." Tate whispered. "You order yet?"

 "Nah. I thought I'd be nice and wait on you. Know what you want?" They both nodded. "Alright, let's go order so we can get down to business..."

 "...so you're pawning me off???" Tyler's eyebrows rose up.

 "Tyler, I'm not pawning you off. I'd love to be the one to get you signed with Jive; however with the job that I've been given right now, it wouldn't be fair to you at all. I wouldn't have enough time to focus on you as much as you need to be. I'll still be around to call and what not if Tate has questions..." Allie directed her gaze to Tate who hadn't' been saying much, and Tate looked up and smiled. "...but Tate's awesome. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't think she could handle it. Trust me--she'll take care of you."

 "Sure will. Tyler I promise there isn't anything to worry about. You are what we call a label's dream. There isn't much we have to say to sell you to them, you sell yourself on your own."

 "Is that a blush??" Allie cracked as she saw the color rise on Tyler's cheeks. "No." He put his cheeks in his hands to hide it.

 "So, are you cool with this babe?" He nodded at her. "Of course. I trust you Allie. I know you know what you're doing. That was never a question for me.  You will come celebrate with me when I get signed though right??"

 Both Allie and Tate laughed. "Counting your chickens before they hatch, eh?" Tate asked. "No, just confident. It's good to be that anyways right?"

 "Tyler, that wasn't confident, that was cocky!"

 "Hey!" He picked up a chip that had fallen on the table and threw it playfully at Allie for her remark. They were all laughing. "I kid, I kid." She joked. "But you are right babe; it's good to be confident. That'll help you out in the long run."

 Just at that moment there was a loud commotion at the door as five very recognizable guys tried to stumble through the door all at once. "Dammit Chris! Get the hell off of me!" said the first one through the door.

 "I don't care what you say J, that old lady was looking at me like she wanted to take a chunk out of me!"A higher pitched voice answered back.

 And then a lower, very masculine voice chimed in, "well with all those pounds your packing on lately, I would too." The whole group laughed except for the one they were making fun of.

 "Hey now! Just because I have muscle" and he flexed his arms for show, "doesn't mean that I'm packing on pounds. At least I don't look like I'd break in half if someone squeezed me too tight!" He defended. 

 One of the larger bodyguards with them laughed and added "Why don't you come here and I'll try to break you in half." The group continued to laugh as Chris ran from the much larger bodyguard, Mike.

 Upon the commotion, Allie, Tyler and Tate had stopped their conversation to look at what was causing it. "Can they go ANYWHERE without making a scene??" Allie laughed before sliding out to toss her garbage away. "No, and for some reason, I don't think it bothers them either that they attract the attention, although it just shows what fans are REALLY screaming for." Tate added.

 Tyler just looked between the group who was making its way to the ordering counter and the two girls who were more than entranced with the group of men who had just walked in. "And are YOU fans?" Tyler asked.

 "Us???" Allie asked, wiping her hand on a napkin before throwing it in the trash. "I was way back in the day. You know--when having curls was cool and that having a hobby such as ‘sleeping' was the thing to do." She laughed. She knew who was right behind her so she had to get a few digs in. It was their thing to make fun of each other. She had smelled both Justin and JC walk up behind her before she saw them, they had a distinct smell of...dance studio...on them.

 She turned around quickly to spot Justin before he smashed a tortilla chip in her hair.

 "Hey boys. I didn't notice you come in!  What with all the ruckus and loud noises you made. You just love making an entrance don't you?"

 "Only way to do it!" Joey chimed in, kissing Allie on her cheek. "Yes well, I have GREAT news for you. I'm joining you boys on your little promo tour this week. Johnny had to fly back to Orlando and wants me to go in his place. Do me a favour, make it easy on me. Please?"

 "No way! Johnny put you with us? He must be getting careless in his old age if he put you with us. You'll just help us wreak havoc wherever we go." JC interjected.

 "I'm offended by that! I know when to do my job and when it's playtime. It's just a little of both this week, huh? I think I can handle that."

 "You do know who you're going on this trip with right?" Tate asked, making eyes at Lance as she said it. "These guys are all about having fun; no work is serious around them." She continued. Lance winked at her when no one was looking and she swooned. 

 "You'll be fine, I'm sure. I'll take care of you." Justin smiled, sliding up next to her. Tate looked back and forth between the two of them and grinned at the redness in Allie's cheeks.

 "Ok guys, I'd love to stay and chat and ignore my duties for the rest of the day, but I've got a meeting with your manager in a bit. I'll see you all early tomorrow morning. Guys-don't be late!"

 They all said their goodbyes and Tyler, Tate, and Allie walked out the door.

 "Now remember Tyler, you can call me at any time if you need something, but I'm sure that Tate will take great care of you! Take care sweetie!" Allie hugged him tightly and said good bye and watched him walk to his Honda.

 "He's going to make little girls hearts pity-pat all over the world in a few months." Tate stated. "Don't I know it." Allie agreed, flipping her sunglasses down onto her nose.

 

*********

Allie surveyed the piles of clothes she had all over her bed and the mess of clothes that was strewn about the floor and tossed Tate a stressed look. "OH MY GOD! I'm packing for like...a month here! And I'll only be gone for a few days. What don't I need?"

 Tate just laughed and picked up a black leather corset and held it up to her. "This is cute...you should wear it out one night...but...you're working here Allie, not going clubbing with them. You have to look at least semi-professional. As hot as this leather thing is, and as much as I think that it'd get J's attention, I don't think you'll need it." They both laughed as Tate tossed the corset into the discard pile, which wasn't getting any bigger.

 "Tate, thank you so much for coming over here so late, even though I know you'll be tired as all get out tomorrow at work. And I should probably thank you for taking Tyler on. If you need any help or whatever, just make the blackberry buzz." She tossed a stray hair behind her ear and walked into the closet to drag out her suitcase.

 Tate smiled. "So, I'm probably going to kick myself later for even bringing it up, but aren't you curious about what Lance and I did tonight? Or even have any questions for me? I know that inquisitive mind of yours probably went into overdrive when I spilled the gossip to you earlier."

 "You know me too well already, that's scary." Allie called out from the closet, emerging a few seconds later with her black suitcase. "But I'm saving most of the questions for Lance when I can get him around all the other guys and make him blush. I just have two. The first one," she started as she lugged it up onto the bed, "is how long has it been going on? And the second is he as good of a kisser as I think he is?" Allie began stuffing tanks and underwear into the suitcase and glanced up just in time to see Tate's face redden.

 "If you must know, it's only been going on for a few weeks, and the second is that he's an ok kisser." Tate cast her eyes downward to avoid Allie's intruding gaze.

 "BULLSHIT." Allie called her bluff.

 "Ok. You're right. Oh my god, he's amazing. He makes my toes curl up, that's how good he is." Tate gushed as she fell back onto a pile of Allie's jeans.

 "Yeah, I thought so. I haven't had the pleasure with Justin yet. Not sure I'll ever be able to now with my new job and all."

 Tates' eyebrow raised in question. "Do you really think that'll stop TimberFro? If he wants you girl, he will have you, regardless of what position you hold." For effect Tate winked and Allie snickered.

 "Oh, you are bad." She threw a pair of rolled up socks at Tate. "You're not helping me here. Run down a list in your head of stuff, just to make sure I have it all."

 As Tate recited everything that Allie would need and Allie checked her bag to make sure it was all accounted for, her phone began to buzz on the nightstand next to the window. She checked her watch. "Who on EARTH is calling me at 12:30?" She walked over and looked at the caller ID to see who it was and her breath caught in her throat.

 It was Brad. She hadn't talked to him in weeks. Swore she wouldn't after he broke her down to tears the last time with his begging and pleading and then finally making fun of her for thinking she could do it on her own out here. That was before she had been offered the position with NSync on the tour. She wasn't sure if she wanted to tell him what she would be doing now, for fear of him making fun of her again. She just didn't want the stress right now, nevertheless, she picked up.

 "Brad! Hi!"

 "Allieeeee...I misssss euuuuuwwww"

 Obviously drunk, she thought. "Brad, I really don't have time for this right now. I'm packing."

 "Are youuuu packing to come hommeee??"

 "No. I'm going on a promotional tour with a group for a few days."

 "Ohhh...hey...I still love you Al. Hope I didn't ‘set you the otter night wit what I said."

 "You did, but it's been forgotten and I've moved on. Have a good night Brad. Please drive careful." And with that she hung up.

 "Oh my GOD I hate ex boyfriends!" She yelled. Tate had only been sitting there, silently putting clothes into Allie's suitcase.

 "Drunk?" Allie nodded and threw the phone onto the blue chair next to her window.

"He ‘still loves me'. GOD! What a way to put me in a bad mood."

 Tate walked around to her friend and hugged her gently. "Don't let it bother you. He's an idiot. If he loved you at all he wouldn't have said the things he said to you a few weeks ago and he would support you in this, not try to tear you down. You don't need someone like that in your life."

 "You know what, you're completely right. Screw him. This is a great opportunity! I'm going to have a good time these next couple days."

 "Damn right you are. You think you're ok over here? Or do you need me still?"

 Allie shrugged. "No, I think I'm ok. I'll call you tomorrow when we get into JFK." Allie stated as the two made their way down the steps. When they reached the bottom they were greeted by Allie's two Yorkies, Bella and Tonka.

 "Hi Guys!" Tate laughed as they barked up at the two. "You need someone to take care of them while you're gone?" Tate asked. "I COMPLETELY forgot. Could you?"

 Tate laughed loudly and the dogs barked more. "Keep on racking up the points over here."

 "Yes, I know I owe you HUGE! Let me grab you the spare keys. Dog foods out in the garage, along with their cages if you feel the need to take them back to your place."

 "Shouldn't be a problem. It's not like we live far from each other. You finish packing and get some sleep, if I have any questions about it, I'll give you a call tomorrow." Tate said as they walked to the front door.

 "Ok! Tate seriously, you are amazing. I'm so glad that I met you. I'll keep you posted on what all is going on!" Allie opened the door, putting her foot in the way to keep the puppies at bay.

 "Sounds great! Have a good trip girl!" Tate turned and smiled at her friend before making her way down the pathway to her Audi. When Allie closed the door, she turned and rested her back against it. What on EARTH was she getting herself into?

"You are my Manhattan from the sky
You look so neat and tidy when I'm way up high,
But I know your streets are lined with a fine mess inside
And I wanna come down and walk around your mind..."Song & Lyrics: "Manhattan From The Sky"-Kate Voegele  

The scene at Jive the next morning was crazy as all five of the guys, plus their bodyguards, stylists and a few other people essential to their promo tour were loaded into vans to get them to the airport. The tour Allie had been on a few years ago was nothing compared to this, and this was just a promotional thing for a few days. She could only imagine what the tour was going to be like when it pulled out of California the first day. It was something that she was definitely looking forward to, and something she was a little afraid of as well. Her life was about to get crazy hectic.

When she had pulled into her space at work she was greeted by all five of the guys and a few of their bodyguards, who grabbed her luggage and took off with it to put it into a van. "Hey guys!" She smiled, pushing her white Dior sunglasses up on top of her head.

"Hey Allie!" Each one gave her a huge hug and smiled in return. "Leave your keys with Leslie. She said she'd have your car taken back to your house for you."  Lance stated, always the one with his head on straight and in business mode. "Thanks Lance. I've actually got to run up to my office and pick up a few things I left. I'll just be a minute."

"I'll go with you." Justin volunteered, his blue eyes shining into hers.  

"Oh...k."

With that the two of them took off to the elevator to head upstairs. When the elevator doors closed Allie sighed heavily. "Long  night?" Justin asked, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest, a relaxed look on his face. "You have no idea. I had no clue what to pack, so I packed too much, and the ex called around 12:30 drunk off his ass and probably wanting to push me into another fight."

"Another one? Hopefully you didn't take the bait."

"Not at all. I told him that I was over it and hung up." She shrugged, just as the doors opened. Leslie was standing there, her finger poised to push the down button. "Well hello there!" She chirped. "I was just about to come down there to get your keys and deliver these papers for you."

"Oh! That's what I was coming up to do. Thank you so much Leslie. You rock!" Leslie laughed and grabbed Allie's keys in exchange for the papers she was holding. "Schedule's in there, along with hotel arrangements and what not. If you start getting lost, the boys have been around Johnny long enough that they can help you out. They know the schedule as well, so it should be a piece of cake. And Justin-I'm sure that Johnny briefed you all on how to behave with her. Don't you all go giving her any trouble. She's been kind of thrust into this position with not a lot of time to get used to it."

"Don't worry ma'am. We'll all take good care of her." He grinned, throwing his arm around Allie's shoulders. She smiled at Leslie as well before adding. "Thanks again Leslie. I'll see you when I get back! If I make it back alive!"

"Have fun, Alexis!"

When the doors closed in front of them again, Justin's arm was still around Allie's shoulder. He looked down at her for a second, and when he saw she was looking at him, he straightened and tugged on the sleeves of his blue button up. They both laughed, a little embarrassed.

"So you ready for this?" He questioned her, stepping out of the elevator and heading towards the van that would take them to the airport. "Ready as I'll ever be. Why do I have the feeling that ya'll are going to drive me up a wall over the next few days."

"Probably because I have the same feeling. Don't worry. I'll keep you sane." He winked at her and smiled devilishly. "Now, why does that make me worry more, Justin?"

He just laughed and opened the van's door for her, before climbing inside behind her. Chris was already stretched out in the middle seat and Mike was up in the front, so that put the two of them in the back. "I have NO idea. Hey Chris, Allie here seems to think that we're going to drive her crazy." Chris sat up and turned to face them. "No!" He said disbelievingly, and up in the front Mike just chuckled to himself. "You are certainly in for a ride, Ms. Taylor, a ride indeed."

**************

She wasn't sure how they had all managed to make it onto the plane safely and with all of their luggage, but it had happened pretty smoothly, save for the few hundreds of fans that had somehow gotten wind of the boys leaving town. When the screams erupted as the entourage entered LAX, she had to fight the urge to join in with them.

A few years ago in Nsync's true glory days she had been just like them, knowing exactly where the boys would be so that she could be there, to try and get even the slightest glimpse of them. Or more importantly, one curly headed boybander; one that was sitting right behind her at this particular moment.

Even with the extra leg room offered in first class, she could feel his leg bouncing against the back of her chair. Unbuckling her seatbelt she huffed loudly as she peered over her chair at him. "Justin! Stop with the foot tapping." When he made no move to answer her, she reached over and tugged the headphones out of his ears. His eyes opened and turned up to meet hers at the movement. "OH! Hey Allie. Did you need something?" He asked innocently, blue eyes glimmering up at her.

"MMmm...it'd be a MUCH more enjoyable plane ride for me...if you would kindly STOP bouncing your damn leg." Beside her JC snickered and across the aisle Chris laughed loudly, then covered his mouth with his hand. Allie turned her eyes on him when she heard. "Chris! Something you need to say over there??" His brown eyes looked worried as he met her gaze. "No, not at all."

Lance punched the back of Chris' chair and added. "Liar. You know damn well what you're laughing about." Chris only punched the volume button on his iPOD to turn it up louder, trying to ignore what was about to happen.

"Lance, what do you mean?" Allie asked, turning her green eyes to meet his equally green ones. "Umm...that's why you got stuck over there Allie. And that's why Justin's sitting alone...because he always bounces his leg and drums his fingers and taps any surface that he can when he listens to music and it annoys all of us."

Justin shrunk back into the seat just a bit. "Aww you guys, that's so mean. Don't single out the kid." Allie laughed, and then looked down to Justin, who had a pout on his face, poking his lower lip out. "I am NOT a kid anymore." His eyebrows slanted together as he glared at her. "Well you're acting like it now." Allie kidded.  "I'll just move back there. No big deal." Joey finally chimed into the conversation. "Trust me Allie, it's just as bad." At that everyone started laughing.

"Well I am SO glad that you guys decided to make things easy on the new girl." She stuck her tongue out at them.  She picked up her laptop and bent down so she wouldn't hit her head on the top and climbed over JC's long legs to get to the aisle.

"Ok, I'm gonna hit the bathroom, be back." She stated, putting her stuff on the seat next to Justin's. "Thanks for the update there, Allie." Chris stated, eyeing her as she walked to the bathrooms in the back of the plane.

A few second later, Justin got up out of his seat and followed. Chris' eyebrow raised in question and he kicked his leg across the aisle at JC, who was probably sleeping. "Dude...did you catch that?"

"Catch what Chris?" Joey poked his head over the seat and Lance leaned around to voice his thoughts. "Yeah, I saw. Anyone want to up the bet that he'll make his move on this trip?" JC turned to his left to face them all. "What bet?" The three of them stared at him in confusion. "What do you mean ‘what bet'? The one we've all got going that J's going to make a move on her." Chris answered.

"Oh...How come I didn't know about this?" JC asked.

"You did, you just said that Allie would stay professional now that she's actually working FOR us. You change your mind yet?" Lance asked.

"Nah, I still think that she won't give in...not this quickly at least. Although you might all be on to something...there has been some heavy flirting between them recently."

"It'll happen this trip if I have anything to do about it." Chris grinned, pulling his headphones out of his ears.

"Chris! Do NOT do anything to push them. Trust me, Justin can do it on his own." Joey interjected.

"Justin can do what on his own?" Apparently they had all been too wrapped up in their conversation to realize that Allie had come back, sans Justin. "Where's Justin? Did you lock the baby up in the bathroom?" Chris asked, bouncing up and down in his seat excitedly.

"Mmm no. Didn't even know he had come back there." Allie scooted into the window seat and sat down; sinking into the warmth that Justin had left.  She closed her eyes and leaned her head against the window and let her thoughts drift. If someone had told her ten years ago, back when she was in high school that she would be working with the five guys whose faces covered her bedroom walls, she would have laughed in their face, but now look at her and where her dreams had gotten her.

When she finally relaxed enough to fall asleep, she dreamt of just how much further those dreams of hers would take her.

 

"What did you think I'd do?

It felt so good waking up beside you..."

Song & Lyrics: "Just Friends"-Jason Reeves

      

*Later that night at the hotel

Allie was unpacking a few of her things into the drawers of the dresser in the hotel room. True they'd only be there until Thursday morning but she hated having to dig through her suitcase every time she wanted to find something. She was doing just that when there was a knock on her door and she hastily threw the clothes she had in her hands onto the bed. "Who is it?" She called.

"J...open up. I have something of yours...umm...I think?" he answered back.

Her heart leapt up into her throat and she glanced down at her attire. She had changed into her Juicy sweat suit upon arrival at the hotel after they had dinner at some greasy spoon diner on Broadway that Joey claimed was the best. Her hair was thrown up into a ponytail as well. "Grr...I look awful." She thought to herself. "Oh well. He'll see me like this sooner or later after we're on tour."

She unlatched the chain and turned the knob to open the door. Her stomach churned when she saw him. Dressed in a pair of low slung basketball shorts and a tight black wife beater, and smelling like he just stepped out of the shower, he was definitely dangerous when he was like this.

"Hey J. Come on in." She swallowed. Hard, and stepped aside to let him by her, not meeting his gorgeous blue eyes.

"Umm yah...I think this might belong to you." He stated, pulling her pink iPOD out of the back of his shorts. "Damn, how'd you end up with that?" she questioned him, raising her green eyes to meet his.

 "Considering that it's pink? I have NO idea." He laughed lightly, coming further into the room and surveying the area. "Damn girl. You've been in here what, an hour or so? It already looks like a bomb went off." She just laughed. "Yah well...gotta make it feel like home, right?"

He just nodded back. Pushing aside the few pieces of clothing that were on the bed, he sat down and scooted himself back against the pillows and headboard. She walked over to the bed and grabbed up a tank top that he had just pushed aside. "Anything else I can help you with Timberlake?" she asked, folding it and putting it into the drawer in front of her.

"Actually yes. Call me nosey, but I started browsing through the songs on your iPOD...interesting collection you have on there."

 She gulped and felt the heat rising on her cheeks. "Really? What was interesting about it?" She didn't dare turn around.

"The fact that you claimed to have not been a huge fan of ours, yet there's some songs on there that even I didn't know were available to download."

She covered her face with a hand and turned around to peek at him through her fingers. "Guilty."

 A huge grin broke out across his face and he started to laugh quietly to himself, and then it turned into a full on cackle. "You have...you have...oh god I can't even say it...you have LANCE singing the POO FOO song...are you serious?"

She cursed the day that she downloaded that clip just for laughs. It had been downloaded a long time ago, long before MP3 players and iTUNES, but it had made its way, embarrassing in all its glory, onto her iPOD. "Justin...not FUNNY."

When he saw the serious look on her face, he straightened, somewhat. "Ok you're right. It's not. But...POO FOO??? SERIOUSLY?"

Allie walked over and punched his shoulder. "Justin...do yourself a favour and quit while you're ahead."

"Ouch." He pouted and rubbed the spot where she hit him. "You deserved it." She stated playfully and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Ok ok. You're right. But how come you didn't just tell us, or me, or any of the guys for that matter. I mean, not that it's a big deal but...you bruised my ego when you said you weren't into ‘boybanders'." Allie fought the urge not to laugh before she grabbed the last pair of pants sitting on the bed and folded them in half to put away.

"Just didn't think it was important information. You guys would have teased the hell out of me if I told you the REAL truth." She could feel her face start to redden again so she decided to walk over to the bathroom to start brushing her teeth.

"Don't you walk away. This could get juicy. Hey...your butt looks good in those pants by the way." He called out to her as she disappeared into the bathroom.

She was glad she wasn't facing him when he said that because if it were possible, her face got even redder. "I've got to get ready for bed, J." she yelled, not expecting to look over and see him leaning against the door frame.

"Sleep can wait, you'll have plenty of time to sleep tomorrow after we get done taping TRL." Allie grabbed her toothbrush and began to brush her teeth furiously, trying to avoid the gaze that Justin's eyes was starting to bore into her.

When she finished and he was still standing there she crossed her arms over her chest and looked at him defiantly. "I really don't know why you're still hanging around. You won't get an answer out of me." He pouted and pulled on her hands. "Fine, can we just hang out though? I can't fall asleep this early." He said, tugging her out of the bathroom and over to the bed. She cursed whoever booked hotel rooms for giving her the one with only one bed.

*Meanwhile in one of the other rooms

"Dude seriously, switching out their iPODS was genius, Chris." Joey guffawed. Chris blew on his fingernails and rubbed them against his shirt. "I know. I am a master Joey. You just haven't been around me enough lately to realize the true talent that I have, matchmaking. I will get those two together. If they aren't making babies by the end of our tour then I should just be shot."

This time Lance chimed in. "Hey, I was the one who actually switched them out though." Chris rolled his eyes. "Yes Lance...you get some credit in this too."

"Guys, I thought we weren't going to interfere and that we were going to just let this take its course. It's bound to happen, so just let it be." JC interjected, coming out of the doorway that led to the adjoining room, towelling his hair dry.

"Chris thought Justin needed a push." Joey stated, looking in Chris direction. He was staring out the door down to Allie's door, where Justin had disappeared to more than 15 minutes earlier. "He's been in there a while. What ya think is going on?" Chris asked excitedly.

"I bet he's just talking with her. J doesn't move unless he KNOWS he won't get turned down." JC said, coming up behind Chris.

"JC trust me, he KNOWS. That girl has it bad for him."

At that moment, Allie's door opened up and Justin walked out. "Shit! Get back inside!" Chris said quickly, pushing JC back and slamming the door. "Think he saw us?" he asked.

 "Probably so. Dude you're busted. Justin's not as naïve as he used to be. He's going to see through any lie you feed him Kirkpatrick." JC laughed, dropping the towel onto the ground.

"You spying on me, Chris?" Justin asked loudly, coming through the adjoining door.

"ME??" Chris asked in a high pitched voice. "Why would I spy, J?"

"Hmm...I don't know. Just because I know you, and I know something is up. Don't you worry little man; I'll figure it out soon enough. When I do...just know that your ass is TOAST, Chris. Toast!" They all knew Justin was just messing around by the grin that was on his face so they all laughed it off. "Hey Jayce...can I borrow a DVD of yours?"

"Sure. They're in my duffel bag by the window. You and Allie hanging out?" JC asked. Justin nodded back, disappearing into the other room again. "You have that one movie?" Justin called out. The guys all laughed. "Umm J, think you could be a bit more vague?" JC laughed, walking into the room to find Justin rummaging through his duffel bag. "Umm...Allie asked if you had the Holiday?"

"That's a chick flick. Why would I have a chick flick?" Justin just shrugged. "Dunno. Ask her. How bout Old School? I know you always have that one on you."

"Side pocket."

"Thanks. I've got my key. I'm sure I'll be back." Justin said over his shoulder as he walked out the door again.

*Back in Allie's room

"Ok, JC wanted to know why you thought that he would've had a chick flick...which he doesn't have that but I brought over..."Justin stopped mid sentence when he got all the way into the room and saw Allie bent over her bag, wearing much less than she had on before. The light pink boy shorts hugged her ass just right and the tank top she was wearing was halfway up her midriff.

"Justin...turn around for like...5 seconds while I throw these shorts on. I wasn't exactly expecting you to come back so soon." Her face was beat red. That was an impression to make on him...her being half naked when he came back.

Justin just grunted an ok and dropped the movie on the bed. "Old School ok?" He asked, sneaking another peak at her.

"Definitely. I love that movie. If I start to quote it though, just shut me up." She sounded muffled so he glanced at her to see her face hidden by the tshirt she was throwing on over her tank. With her eyes hidden he let his eyes wander over her stomach. Tanned and not too muscular but lean...and the skin looked soft enough that he wanted to reach out and touch it.

After she had pulled it over her head she grabbed the movie and inserted it into the DVD player and tossed the remote to Justin. "So how do I shut you up if you start quoting the movie too much?" Justin asked, eyeing her as she slinked her way over to the side of the bed that he wasn't occupying.

"You're a smart guy, I'm sure you'll think of something." She winked at him and smiled just as she turned out the light and hopped into bed with him.

 ********************

When Allie woke the next morning she felt like she had been drug behind a bus across the country. She had huge bags under her eyes and for some reason the whole right side of her body was asleep. She didn't figure out why until she tried to move and was weighted down by someone's very heavy arm slung across her waist. When she turned her head to the side, she wasn't really all that surprised to see Justin, mouth slightly open and his lashes fanning out against his cheeks sweetly. If only he looked that innocent when he was awake, she thought.

They had watched most of Old School but their talking quickly won out over the movie. They'd both seen it enough times to quote it without the sound being on anyways. So the two of them stayed up talking until the wee hours of the morning when they both had shifted so that they were laying down on the bed instead of sitting up against the headboard. Being that close to him had been nerve wracking to say the very least, not to mention that every one of her senses was well aware of how close he was.  

She didn't know at what point in their conversation that she or he had fallen asleep, but here they were, the next morning, cuddled up next to each other like two people who were more than just friends. The thought that waking up next to him every morning was something that she could get used to crossed her mind before she quickly brushed it off as being crazy talk. Although the idea had some merit, she reasoned, because he had been much more flirty lately, and pushing to be around her more. She'd have to run all of this by Tate later on in the day to see what she thought of it.

Glancing once more at Justin's sleeping form before she tried to wiggle her way out of his grasp; she figured that there would be a lot of questions asked when the two of them showed up at breakfast together. No big deal though, she could retaliate and start asking Lance questions about he and Tate.

 

"Allie, I suggest you stop moving against me like that, or your butt is going to feel a side of me I don't think it's ready to feel just yet." She heard Justin mumble into the back of her hair. "Well then why don't you unwind your body from me so I can get up?" She quipped back.

"You're warm, and you smell good. Feel good too." He breathed. When his grip on her waist tightened and pulled her back against him she gasped. "Justin...we need to get up. It's almost time for breakfast and Lonnie will have my head if you aren't down there on time." She wiggled again, trying to loosen his grip.

"Lonnie's a teddy bear. I'll fight him off for you. Just five more minutes...please?" With a plea like that she couldn't turn him down, so she turned around in his arms to face him and buried her nose in his neck. This was starting to feel too right to her, too good to be true.

She inhaled and smelled a scent that was purely Justin, a scent she had noticed on him from the first time they had been at the club together with everyone from the A&R department and the two were dancing together...

*one month earlier (one of the first times the boys had gone out with the group from A&R)

"...Hey sexy thang...can I join you?"

Allie felt the slide of a masculine hand run across her stomach and she turned around quickly to gaze up into the blue eyes of none other than Justin Timberlake himself. "Hey! Didn't think you guys would make it." She stated, getting lost in the ocean blue pools that were staring down at her.

"Yeah, us either but, surprise! How come you're not dancing with anyone?" He asked, putting a hand on her waist to bring her hips closer to him. "Too creepy for me. I swear that the next guy who comes up and hits on me and is old enough to be my dad is going to get kicked in the nuts. Seriously!"

Justin laughed at her expression of disgust and added "well, I'm not old enough to be your daddy, but...you can scream that later if you want." She pulled back in mock anger and punched his stomach playfully. "You...are...sick."

But the voice inside of her head was telling her that a million teenage girls couldn't be wrong about how sexy and...lethal he really was. Especially when phrases like that were falling from his perfect lips.

There had been a time that she was one of those teenage girls...but those thoughts had drifted away when Nsync had announced their hiatus and when Justin went solo and latched onto Cameron Diaz. She dismissed them as nothing more than teenage fantasies.

When he brought her arms up to latch around his neck and he dipped his hips down to meet hers, she thought she was going to faint, but when he spun her around so that her ass was to his stomach she thought she might need CPR. She was dancing with him...and oh god...he was EVERY bit of the dancer she always thought he would be. His hips when they thrust on stage to the choreographed dance moves were sexy but how they were moving now...was just downright illegal.

His arms came around her waist and pulled her tighter to grind against him and she raised her arms to throw them behind her head and around his neck to pull him closer to her. He buried his nose in her neck and she shivered with the feel of his breath there. She inhaled and smelled his scent...something so masculine and so...him...that she committed it to memory so that she would never forget it or what was going on between them right then...after that night at the club she doubted that anything would come of the two of them...

 

...but she was oh so wrong.

 

*******

"...so you two slept in the same bed last night?" Tate asked on the other end of the line. Allie flopped down onto the leather sofa in the green room of the MTV studios and leaned her head back.

"Not on purpose! It just happened. It was kind of nice." Tate laughed. "Of course it was. You've only crushed on him, like, your entire life." Allie twirled a stand of hair around her finger and switched legs to cross her right over her left. "True. We got some shit from the guys though when we came down to breakfast. Apparently Justin had told JC he'd be back, so when he didn't come back to the room last night, rumours started flying. Those boys gossip more than us!"

Joey poked a head into the room from the hallway and said "Don't give us juicy stuff to talk about and we won't gossip." Allie stuck her tongue out at him.

"Aww, was that Joe? Tell him hi!" Tate said excitedly. Allie yelled out to Joey that Tate said hello to all the guys and Joey responded with an "I'll be sure to tell Lance how much you miss him!" It must have been loud enough for Tate to hear because she shrieked. "Oh no you didn't!"

"Oh no I didn't, what?" Allie asked. "You said something?" Allie fought the urge not to crack up laughing. "No. Why would you think that?"

"You SO did! I can't believe you!"

"Tate, I had to! I had to get all the attention off of Justin and me." Allie defended. "Lance is going to KILL me when he gets back." Tate said. "You should have seen the blush on his cheeks Tate, it was hilarious."

"Yah, I'm sure it was. What'd you say to him?"

Before Allie could answer, one of the producers poked her head into the room and interrupted.  "Mr. Timberlake is requesting your services in his dressing room." The producer winked as if she knew something was up and retreated from the room just as quickly as she had come. On the line Tate was ‘oooohing' at her.

"Mr. Timberlake requesting your presence huh? Post show jitters?" Allie giggled nervously. "I have NO clue. That producer looked like she wanted to have my head on a platter though. I gotta go, Tate. Call you later?"

"Sure sure. I see how it's going to be now. Ms. Important Nsync roadie won't have enough time for me anymore."

"Tate..." Allie started. Tate laughed at her. "You know that I'm just kidding. Keep me updated girl!" With that they both clicked the phone off and Allie stood from the sofa, stuffing her phone into her pocket.

She slipped out of the room and walked across the hallway to the dressing room that she had seen Justin go into earlier. She poised her hand to knock but just as she did the door came open and Justin beamed a smile down at her that seemed just for her. "Hey! I need your help!" He said, grabbing her hand and dragging her into the small room, shutting the door behind them.

"What? I was on a very important phone call." She scoffed, coming to stand in front of him in his chair. "Black shirt or white button up with the suspenders hanging off?" She glanced over to where his clothes were hanging. "Up to you."

"Come on! You're supposed to be in charge of my image somewhat while Johnny's gone. That black one is more old Nsync days, that white one with the suspenders is more me when I was solo." Allie went over to the clothes rack and picked up a light blue button up and a black wife beater that had been tossed over the top. "I think this would look hot." She said turning to show it to him.

"Ok. Looks good." He stood up and grabbed them both from her, throwing them onto the chair he was just sitting in. He stripped off the white t-shirt he had been wearing without even remembering that he had an audience. She gasped and turned around.

"Sorry, I'm used to changing in front of people. Should have warned you." He grinned, knowing exactly what he was doing to her.

"Umm yah, no problem." She cursed herself for wanting to scream like a teeny bopper at the site of his toned chest and stomach. He pulled on the black beater and instructed her that it was ok to turn back around. "You're not fair." She grinned at him, picking up the button up. "Why's that?" he asked, shrugging into a sleeve.

She bit her lip, looking at him. "Forget it." She stated, beginning to button the shirt up for him as he fixed a few spots in his hair. "You sure?" he questioned, making her raise her eyes to meet his. Being this close in proximity to him was starting to become a drug.

"60 seconds until Nsync." Said a voice over the loud speaker. "Dammit, I didn't realize we were this close to show time. You going to be out in the audience?" he asked as they both walked to the door. "Yah, I will probably sneak in on one of the commercials."

"Good, make sure you sit where I can see you."

He took her hand in his and kissed it lightly before jogging to join the other guys who were waiting patiently at the entrance to the TRL studio.

"Ow ow!" Chris called out to her. "Come on girl!" Joey said waving her over. "I'll be in on a commercial break." She called back. They all nodded and picked up the mics from the assistants just as Damien was introducing them into the audience. She meandered over to where the hallway became a mesh wall and peeked through it.

"It's been a long time coming, but they're back. And we are oh so glad. Ladies and gentleman please give a warm welcome, to Joey, Lance, Justin, Jc, and Chris of NSYNC."

The crowd in the studios screams were deafening as the guys descended the stairs to join Damien. Allie's heart swelled.

"Why don't you go over to the window and say hey to everyone down on the street?" The boys walked over and waved and the enormous crowd down in Times Square went into a frenzy--screaming and jumping up and down with signs of love and adoration for the long gone group. "We'll have more with Nsync after our number 8 song, here's MIMS with his latest."

 ************

The show on TRL went extremely well. They ended up having to close the blinds because the crowd in Times Square had been going nuts since they caught a glimpse of the five guys all together again. It seemed that a lot of the diehard NSync fans had made it out to see their first appearance together in years.

Herself included, she just had to play the ‘in the closet diehard NSync fan'.

As for the rest of the trip, things went pretty uneventful. They were too busy flying everywhere to have much time to do anything other than sleep and eat. As much as Allie had been yearning for the closeness that she and Justin had shared that first night in New York, she knew that times like those were going to be few and far between.

If any at all, she thought to herself.

She didn't want to get her hopes up about things and read more into the situation so she just left it alone and dove into her work.

When they arrived back in Los Angeles on Saturday for the MTV Movie Awards she was instructed that she didn't need to tag along to the event if she didn't want to, and so, being as tired as she was, she decided to call it a day when the van dropped her off at her place that afternoon. She said goodbye to all of the guys and grabbed her luggage from Lonnie and went into her house and crashed. She'd leave all of the unpacking for the next day.

She was glad to be back in her own bed.  Her sheets were the perfect temperature and she wrapped herself up in them, only pausing to wish Justin were with her for a few seconds before she dismissed the thought and dozed off.

The shrill noise of her phone going off awakened her. She wasn't sure what time it was but she knew it wasn't Sunday morning yet, it was still dark out. She swatted a hand out from under the blue sheets to grab at the phone and picked it up without looking at the caller ID. "Whoever this is better be dead." She groaned out.

"Well hello to you too." It was Brad.

"I'm sleeping. Leave me alone and call me back like, never."

"Al, how'd we get to this point?" he asked. "Easy, you became the asshole that didn't believe in me and made fun of my dreams." He strained to hear her quiet voice over the line. "I'm sorry. I was a jerk for saying all of those things."

She scoffed at him. "Like I said, I'm over it, Brad."

"I can tell. Those are some interesting pictures that were printed in US Weekly."

"What pictures?" she questioned, sitting up against the headboard. "You and Justin. I must say though, you two do make a pretty couple."

"Brad! What pictures?" she was getting angry. "There are a few pictures of you and him, the rest of the guys too, coming out of MTV studios and a couple more of you cheering them on from the sidelines of Good Morning America. Have we become the new band groupie?" he asked, sneering at her. Even though there were 3000+ miles between them she could see the look of contempt on his face.

"Wouldn't you like to know? Actually, I'm going on tour with them as their road manager."

"Sounds like another word for tour slut to me."

"Brad, you're treading on thin ice here. Either sweeten your tone or I'm hanging up." She warned. "Fine. Allie look, the purpose of my call was to actually inform you that I was planning on coming out there soon to see you. I was thinking about maybe moving out there."

Her heart froze. "I thought that with your job you couldn't move here. That you'd have to take all these other classes for building with the climate out here or something."

"Oh, yah. I would. But that's not a big deal. I'm just lonely without you here, I miss you. You're still a huge part of my heart."

"Could've fooled me." She said quietly, more to herself than to him. "Well, you don't seem in a very good mood. I'll call you sometime this week to tell you all the details of when I'll be flying in. Good night my love."

She ended the call without responding and tossed the phone onto the pillow next to her. ‘I'm thinking about moving out there.'  She wanted to scream. If he moved out there things would get all screwed up. It was going to be a long night.

When her phone rang again it was morning, and this time it was Tate. "Rise and shine sweets." Allie could tell she was smiling on the other end of the line. "What time is it?" she asked. "About 10. I wanted to see if you wanted to grab breakfast with all of us."

"All of who?"

"Me and the guys. Lance called me a little bit ago to see if we wanted to join. He said things were going to get hectic with all of them now that they were back because they were starting choreography this week. So, what do you say?" Allie rubbed at her eyes and rolled over to peer at the numbers on her clock. "I have a ton of stuff I need to do today before work tomorrow. I'm going to pass."

"I should have made myself clearer then, I meant to say that you ARE coming with us."

"Tate, I can't. I'd love to really, but not today." She sat up and found her slippers on the ground and slid her feet into them before padding down the stairs to go check on her puppies.

"Oh hell no!" Allie heard in the background, and then a male voice came over the line, a voice that she was slowly getting used to hearing. "You're coming girl. You bailed on me last night, so you're coming today. Don't make me bust out the lip on you. We'll be there in 10 minutes so be ready."

The line went dead so she knew that she didn't really have a say in the matter. Quickly feeding Tonka and Bella and letting them outside she ran back upstairs to jump in the shower quickly. She was just sliding on some lip gloss when her doorbell rang. She heard her puppies barking at it so she grabbed her black tank and threw it on before running down the stairs. The doorbell rang again.

"Ok! I'm coming!" she yelled, opening it quickly. The site of Justin at her door stunned her. "Hey gorgeous." He smiled, half of his mouth turning upwards. It was a smile that she had only seen him use with her. She blushed. "Hi there. Thanks for giving me fair warning." She slid her sunglasses down over her eyes before closing the door and locking it behind her. "No problem. I will say though, you look great for getting ready under pressure." He joked.

"Yah well, I've got to figure out a way to do it sometime. What with me going on tour with you guys. I'll be doing it like every morning...Hey guys!" she waved to everyone in Chris' SUV. Various ‘good mornings' were said as she and Justin got into the car, squeezing themselves in the back by Joey.

Chris began to back out and Allie felt a warm hand glide into her own and she looked over to see Justin grinning at her. She sighed inwardly. If this was how things were going to start between them she thought she could handle it, and screw Brad if he came and tried to mess things up.

 

"Love it when you kiss me,

Love it when our lips meet.

You intoxicate me, I can barely breathe

I love when you kiss me..."

Song: "Kiss Me"-Cassie

Lyrics: Knowles, Beyonce; Leslie, Ryan; Beyince, Angela; Davis, Vidal; Harris, Andre; Rowland, Kelendria; Williams, Michelle; Garrett, Sean

 

 

**Two weeks til the tour kickoff

 

The last two weeks had kind of gone by in a blur of meetings with schedulers and phone conferences with promoters in some of the different cities that Nsync would be visiting on their tour. The guys had been crazy busy and not around Jive much due to them having to learn choreography for an entire new album.

Allie had heard the new stuff and was really impressed. From the sound of it and the way that their single was doing on the charts, now in the Top 10 after only three weeks of radio airplay, this album was going to blow everyone away. Even their toughest critics were going to stand and take notice. The boys had grown up, and had a very grown up sound to go with it.

The guys were finally ready to start rehearsals with the stage so here she sat at the practice venue two weeks before the tour, chaos surrounding her daily, stress coming at her from all angles,  and she couldn't stop smiling. Things between her and Justin were amazing. They hadn't become an official couple yet, but, that would come in time; she was sure of it. They had been hanging out a lot, whenever neither one of them had somewhere to be or someone to meet up with. People around the office at Jive hadn't noticed, and if they did they didn't say anything about it.

Allie tossed aside the calendar in her lap and huffed. This management stuff was hard work. Her phone hadn't stopped ringing since Johnny gave her number out to everyone as an alternate contact. And since he was barely EVER around, she basically had the Nsync tour in her own hands. Scary as that thought was, it was also incredibly exhilarating. After years of hard work she was finally doing what she had dreamed of doing since she was little.

 When she looked up from her laptop to the stage she saw that all the guys had left except for Justin and he was just messing around with some of the band guys. When Kevin came in with the opening chords of Another Song (All Over Again) she wanted to faint. It was one of her favorite songs off of Justin's last solo CD. Deciding that listening to him sing this was more important than checking her update emails on Tyler's progress, she pushed her laptop to the side.

 "You've been alone, you've been afraid, I've been a fool, in so many ways...but I would change my life, if you thought you might try to love me..."  His eyes were closed and he looked absolutely gorgeous and all she could do was stare at him. When he opened his eyes they fell immediately upon her and he winked playfully. She felt the blush creep up her cheeks under his stare and she grinned back at him, unable to take her eyes from his.

Finally breaking their stare he turned around and told KTunes to move onto "LoveStoned" so he could run through it once. The intro came in, Justin turning swiftly on his heel to stand in front of the microphone stand, gripping the mic in his hand...

 

...She wanted to be the microphone. God, did he even KNOW how hot it was when he sang into it like that? Especially on this song, LoveStoned, when he put his lips up real close to it, his fingers caressing the stand and his hips lightly moving to the beat, making it look as if he were having sex with the damn thing.

She felt sweat break out over her top lip and she knew that it had NOTHING to do with the fact that she was damn near being suffocated against the circular stage for his FutureSex/LoveSounds tour; it had EVERYTHING to do with how utterly sexy and beautiful he was when he sang. His eyes had met hers once or twice during the night and she thought she might pass out from the sheer pleasure of it, but she couldn't miss a second of this.

She was lucky enough to have been working for XL 1067 when Justin had announced his tour dates and got her pick of free tickets to the show in Tampa.

Ahh the perks of the job she had thought to herself. Crissy, her boss, had told her that she could go to the show on the terms that she had to come back with a review of it to post on the website. That wouldn't have been hard, if she could only remember that it had to be read by people of all ages. With the way her mind was working right now it would be a smut fic for the 18 and over crowd. She chuckled at that. Just five minutes alone with him and oh the things she could imagine herself doing...

 

"...Hey, Allie! Earth to Allie?" A deep voice broke into her thoughts and she rolled her head to the right to meet Lance's eyes.

Her face visibly reddened and she brought her hands up to rub at her cheeks. "Uhh, hey Lance. What's up?"

He smirked at her. "Whatcha thinkin' bout?" he questioned, slouching down into the seat beside her.

She let a slow breath out before answering. "Just thinking about how busy I'm about to get. I thought the promo trip for that week was nuts, but this? It's going to be insane."

His laugh resonated deep in his chest and he reached his arm out to massage the back of her neck in a friendly gesture. "How come you're not up on stage, Lance?" She questioned.

"Me? Oh...Jayce is about to run through some stuff I guess. Frankly, I'm surprised you aren't attached to Justin's hip." He joked, standing up. She stood up with him and pushed him backwards playfully. "You're hilarious. We are not attached at the hip." She stated back.

"Are too." He replied, grinning.

"Where'd he get off to?" she asked, her eyes raking over the area for his curly head. "Last I saw him he was running through stuff on stage. I think he disappeared backstage after that."

She closed her laptop and scooped her phone up off the seat. "How'd I miss that? I never saw him leave the stage."

Lance gave her a knowing look. "He's been done for like twenty minutes." Her eyes widened. "I guess I kind of went off into my own little world there for a while."

"I noticed. Must've been something pretty hot for you to be all flushed like that." He smirked at her before turning to walk away. She eyed him as he started to walk away towards the backstage area of the practice arena. "What do you mean by that?" She asked, jogging a bit to catch up with him.

"What were you thinking about in that little head of yours to make you blush like that?" He teased. She flushed under his gaze, seemingly caught. The guys didn't really know how much of a fan she truly was back in the day, all except for Justin. Once he discovered her iPOD with all of the crazy downloads of those obscure songs, he had pushed and prodded her for answers until one night she had finally caved and told him.

 *****************

"So you were like, superfan? I can't believe I didn't see it sooner." Justin joked around, flopped down on his stomach across her couch in her living room. He tossed the pictures he was holding back into the memory box they had come from and grinned at her that Cheshire cat smile that to this day got girls hearts beating faster. Even hers, even though she was in a MUCH different situation than she had been in since the first time she had seen him smile like that.

"Yah, well, how good would that have gone over if I had just come out and said it to you guys the day we met. That would have been a nice first impression. ‘Hi, my names Allie. I went to 8 of your concerts, had your pictures as WALLPAPER in my bedroom, wrote very graphic stuff about what I'd do if I were alone with you and used to fantasize that I'd marry one of you.' You all would have gone running in the opposite direction from the word go." She laughed, pacing back and forth in front of him.

He let out a laugh that rang out through the house making Tonka and Bella bark from their place by the sliding glass doors that led out to the patio. "You're probably right about that. But it's not like we aren't used to fans you know." He softened; stretching his body in a way that made her stop in her tracks to stare at him.

"No. I had to keep things professional. Turning into a shrieking fan my first day on the job would have gotten me fired so quickly that my head would have spun." She eyed how his shirt had come up just enough so that she could see the tanned and very...hard...muscles on his stomach. She fought the urge not to groan. Damn he had really grown up into a gorgeous man.

He caught her staring at him and waited to say something until her green eyes had worked their way up his torso to land on his mischievous ones.  "See something you like?" he questioned, raising his eyebrow up at her playfully.

Allie blushed.

"So tell me Allie," he started, raising himself up off the couch slowly, a seductive look playing across his lips, "which one of us was your favourite? I think I already have an idea, but, I could be way off." He licked his lips and she could feel the intensity of his cerulean eyes boring holes into her body as he walked to her.

Holy hell, it was hot in the room all of the sudden.  "Umm..." she nervously pushed a piece of her blonde streaked hair behind her ear. When had he gotten so close to her? She questioned, feeling his heat radiating onto her.

"Cat got your tongue?" he teased, inching an arm around her waist to pull her against him. Her head and heart were racing. Was he really about to do this?

"Did you like the baby of the group, Allie? From the looks of it, your room had quite a few pictures of him. And I'm sure that those stories that you were talking about, those graphic visuals about doing naughty things with us? Won't even come close to what it will actually be like..." He trailed off. His lips were just a whisper away from her own and she could barely breathe, her heart was beating so fast, and if it weren't for his arm supporting her, she might have fallen down by now, he had made her knees so weak. "...when something finally happens between you and that person you fantasized about. I guarantee it'll blow them all out of the water."

 His eyes looked so dark this close up. "Justin, what're you..." she started, finally finding her voice.

His hand came up suddenly, cupping her check gently. "Tell me I'm wrong about the vibes I've been getting from you and I'll act like none of this ever happened."  She didn't respond. This, whatever it was, was something she had wanted since she was a teenager. Her eyes searched his face for any kind of sarcasm but found none, and they soon settled on his lips, still glistening from when he had last wet them with his tongue. 

His hand had been tracing lazy circles on the small of her back and the thumb that was on her cheek soon moved to sweep across her bottom lip, testing their texture. On instinct, her tongue poked out to lick at it and his whole body visibly shuddered. "We're going to be amazing together, you know that?" He questioned, taking both hands and running them through her hair to capture the back of her head in his hands.

His eyes, so lust filled this close up, were taking its toll on her body, so she gave in and closed her eyes, accepting whatever he was about to offer her. She felt his breath across her lips and inhaled deeply.

Any moment those lips of his would close over hers and she wasn't sure that she'd be able to stand up to the pleasure that it would invoke, so she finally found the strength to move and snaked her arms around his waist. He was solid muscle and heat under her hands.

A few seconds had gone by and he still hadn't kissed her, she was getting frustrated. "Justin..." she opened her eyes narrowly at him and saw his eyelashes flutter closed to rest on his cheek before he moved in and kissed her eyelid, frustratingly. Letting his lips linger there for a few short seconds before he moved over to kiss her other eyelid just the same.

Her breath caught in her throat at the contact. Thank god she was holding on or she would have collapsed to the ground at just him kissing her eyelids. He lightly kissed her nose before his lips once again came to hover over her own.

She inhaled the same time he did before his lips, finally, agonizingly slow, captured hers. He nibbled at her bottom lip sensuously, taking his time exploring how her lips felt against his. One of his hands stayed in her hair while the other one came down to cup her chin. He could feel her hands sliding up and down his back and her leg rubbing against his and he knew without a doubt that this was right. Stars had exploded behind his eyes at the first contact of his lips on hers and he almost needed to pull away to gain some of his breath back and he knew that she was feeling the same thing.

A low moan resonated in her throat as his chin lowered to deepen the pressure of the kiss. His tongue licked out across her bottom lip and she opened her mouth, snaking her tongue out to meet his timidly. That contact set off something inside of him because all of the sudden he had grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her up so that her legs were around his waist and then she felt something hard against her back.

Oh god, he had her pinned to the wall with his body holding her up. Allie's hands came up and went around his neck to dive into the short curls there and she gripped them tight, fighting the urge to moan again. He wasn't kidding; they were going to be amazing together.

When he felt he had her securely pinned against the wall he took one of his hands and tightened it in her hair again and tilted her head to the side to get a better angle. His lips pushed at hers, opening them wider against his own so that his tongue could explore more of her mouth. This time it was him who groaned and her fingers tightened in his hair and she squirmed against him, starting to lose oxygen with how dizzy his kisses were making her.

She could hardly breathe but she didn't want to stop kissing him, it felt too damn good. She had felt this coming since the promo trip, knew that it was inevitable with all of the winks and personal smiles and touching that he had been doing lately. His hand squeezed her ass and the hand that was in her hair tilted her head to the other side before his lips came away from hers and he buried his head in her neck, leaving hot searing kisses and bites along the length of it.

"Oh god." She breathed out, finally being able to get a breath in.

"I know." He hissed back, his forehead coming to rest against hers, his blues eyes seeking out her green ones. They both stood there for a few minutes, breathing hard, looking into one another's eyes.

Justin laughed quietly. "I uh...I think you can release the death grip on my curls, Allie." She hadn't even realized she had been doing it in the first place, but she took her hands out of his hair and just rest them on his shoulders. "That was..."

"Yeah..."Allie breathed, agreeing with him, knowing exactly what he was feeling.

"Wow." They both said at the same time, laughing.

Justin slowly eased her off of him so that she was now standing with both feet firmly planted on the ground. "You're up against a wall." He teased, resting a hand on the wall beside her head. She patted the wall with her hand and said "good to know its sturdy for things like...that..." and they both cracked up.

He reached a hand up to cup her cheek, his thumb rubbing it softly, his eyes intent on hers. Her heart was pounding in her chest. What did this mean for them? She wondered. She didn't have time to linger on the thought long though because he leaned in and captured her lips with his again, this kiss even more intense then the last...

 

The memory caused her heart to thunder against her ribcage. He had been right when he'd said that actually being with him was going to be better than any story she'd ever written.  True, they'd only kissed, but even that was better than her imagination could've ever thought. Thinking about what it would be like if and when they ever did connect on a more physical level caused her blood to run hot and she felt the tips of her ears turn red.

When she came to a fork in the hallway backstage she looked both ways before deciding to go right. If she remembered correctly, Justin's dressing room was that way. Coming up on it, she saw it was closed so she knocked, pushing out an unsteady breath as she waited for him.

He made her nervous. Made her head foggy when his eyes found hers in a room, rendering her incapable of thought. She wondered how long he would have that kind of effect on her.

The door swung open in front of her and when her eyes met his and took in his current state of undress, her insides quivering as he licked his lips seductively and pulled her into the room, she decided that she'd be ok if he always made her feel like that. It was an intoxicating feeling to have this man want her as badly as she wanted him.