"James, what do you mean you're the only guy without a chick for your shoot for your new single?"
"I don't have a girl for the video, didn't like any of the ones that auditioned. You should be my 'interest'," he hints, laughing.
"Because of the kiss back in 97?"
"On top of our comfort level. Duh!"
I roll my eyes and he chortles. The benefits of growing up knowing this nerd since I was in like second grade! I can cuddle to him and his girlfriends don't care. "What's the catch?"
"You have to dye your hair blonde and be at my side constantly."
"I do the second part already!"
"Dye your hair blonde, like when we met blonde," he persuades me.
"You're lucky I love your nerdy, geeky ass!"
"You'll do it?"
"Sure, let's go get my hair done," I sigh.
Off and on relationship hidden from my man's best friends and group mates is hard to ensure. James knows, it 'slipped'. I'm about to dye my dirty blonde locks sunshine blonde for a video shoot. "So what's your plans tonight?"
"Nothin'," I reply, my down home Mississippi drawl coming out.
James smiles. "You think of Justin and your down home accent pops up."
My cell rings. "Hey, love."
"I see this beautiful girl talking to one of my best friends in a salon that I happened to be passing and I swear it's my breath taking girlfriend," he tells me calmly.
I turn around, spotting him in half an instant. He walks over and plants a kiss on my lips. "We were talking about you."
"That explains my heart racing and my ears ringing," he teases. "What are you doing to your hair?"
"Bleachin it for your vid," I confess.
"You're going to be his 'interest', huh?"
"You better believe it, Timbs," I confirm, making a funny face at him to hear him laugh.
"We start shooting it next week," he informs me.
"What's the director's name again?" I wonder aloud.
"His name is Marc Klasfeld," James relinquishes the detail thoughtlessly.
"Have you told Josh?"
Justin is caught off guard. "He's known, we told him a couple years back."
I forgot about that. We pulled him aside and told him we had dated in 98-99. He saw us kiss a few days ago and clapped a hand to Justin's shoulder. Following these guys around would cause anyone that doesn't take notes to forget things like that. "Oh, yeah..."
He quietly laughs. "It's ok, babe. I forgot too. JC reminded me when I told him earlier today that we got back together."
"Next is Tennessee."
"I have to go home and tell my friends and family."
"I'll be right with you," I affirm, soothing over his nerves. 
He kisses me passionately and looks into my eyes. "I love you, Sam."
"I love you, Justin." He walks out of the salon, making sure to wave back to us.
"Time to rinse it out," the girl tells me. She rinses my hair and conditions it. I look at the color as it dries and I'm amazed at how it's the same color from before I hit puberty. "What do you think?" 
"Perfect," James says.
"It's good," I admit. "Thank goodness Thanksgiving is done with."
"My mom would have a conniption if she saw this."
"Darren would blow a proverbial gasket," I joke. "Think Justin's going to like it?"
"We can find out later."
~~~~~
December 6, 2001

Day one of filming, LA

"Baby, I'm so nervous."
"Baby J, you're fine," Justin tells me, complimenting and comforting me in one sentence.
"Timbs, we haven't even met the director and Wade isn't here yet."
"You haven't met Marc, we have and Wade is here," he tells me as the van pulls up on set.
"Jazz, you'll do fine as long as you be yourself," JC reassures me.
"You did fine on the 'It's Gonna Be Me' set," Chris reinforces.
"I visited the set for 'Bye, Bye, Bye'."
Joey chuckles, climbing out of the van. "Come meet Marc and relax."
I nod as I get out, nervous as fuck. Joey walks in front of me, Justin and James flank me, leaving Josh and Chris to bring up the rear and closing me in. My hands lace together with James and Justin's, a nervous habit. I've been on other sets before, but never had to be on camera for more than 45 seconds and had to be in attendance for each day they had to shoot. "This is it," Justin tells me, sitting on the hood of a car and pulling me to stand between his knees. "Breathe, baby. He's a cool guy."
"Is this Lance's interest for the video?" a man who looks alot like Josh with sandy brown hair and slightly shorter asks the guys. They greet him warmly and I simply nod with a gentle smile on my lips.
"Yes, and I'm dating her," Justin quips.
"Jazz, this is Marc. Marc, this is my childhood friend's baby cousin and very close friend of mine, Jazz. This is Justin and her second shot at a relationship."
I reach my hand out and he shakes my hand. "You're the infamous Jazzy!" he says, oddly excited. "These guys and their security detail couldn't stop talking about you. It's a pleasure to meet you."
I blush and look at the guys. "Pleasure to meet you too." I say as he releases my hand. "What do I need to do?"
"Be yourself and make it believable. I want to see how you two act."
"I have video of that," Joey concedes, tape in hand.
The director takes it to a tape player and watches it, taking note, pointing out the behaviors he'd like to happen on set. He hands the tape back to Joey and we head to make up. Wardrobe hands me a jean jacket, blue jeans, a tee and sneakers. I wore my usually wavy hair pin straight. "We should shoot the dance sequence first," Marc suggests. 
"Although I'm going to suffer a heart attack every time the roofs of the cars dip, right?"
He laughs and the guys roll their eyes. "How did you guys get her to go bungee jumping again?"
"Blindfolded!" the six of us shout together.
"They blindfolded me and wouldn't tell me where or what we were doing. All I knew was that Justin and Chris set everything up, so it was either going to be a barrel of laughs or scare the shit out of me. It was a barrel of laughs for them once Justin and I were hooked up together and his arms were holding me close to his body. I asked what was going on and Chris pulled the blindfold off, revealing the jump site. Justin immediately leaned back and I screamed no. As soon as our feet left the platform, I screamed bloody murder and grabbed fistfuls of Justin's sweatshirt. When I got my feet unhooked, I punched Justin and Chris before spending the rest of the time in the corner, my knees drawn to my chest as I shook with fear and crying. Justin, James and Josh had taken turns comforting me, rather attempting it."
"Why were you so scared?"
"I've had a huge fear of heights since Darren and a couple of my other cousins held me by my ankles over the side of the upstairs banister when I was really little."
"We have to coax her onto a plane when we have to fly, preoccupy her or help her fall asleep," Josh blabs.
"Y'all wonder why in the fuck I don't tell him shit?" The guys and Marc laugh while JC looks at me and folds his arms over his chest, annoyed. "I'm just pickin," I tell him as I hug him.
"Yeah, yeah," he says, enclosing my shoulders with his arms as he hugs me back.
"You must be very close to these guys," Marc comments.
"I am. Every time they come home or I'm around them, I tend to cook and make what they want."
"You should taste her Italian cooking!" Joey groans.
"Her southern cuisine is to kill for!" Justin confesses, pretending to wipe drool from his lips.
"Thank you, Timbs." He kisses me and wiggles his eyebrows at me playfully, eliciting a laugh from me.
"I try to kill Justin for the last piece of fried chicken," James tells Marc, shrugging.
"You wonder I don't have knives at the table on that night."
"She makes some of the best Chinese food around!" Josh brags. "I'd eat that for the rest of my natural life, no problems and no questions asked."
"Everyone knows not to touch six inches around my plate when we have pizza and tacos and she made em," Chris admits. "I'll stab you with a baby spoon," he randomly blurts out.
"Chris, you've stabbed Nick with a spoon over the last piece of pizza two and a half years ago."
"I warned him the last piece was mine!" he defends.
"Thank goodness it was a spoon."
Marc is dying laughing. "We should get set up."
"Before you die of laughter," I kid.
They set up for the dance sequence and like I had promised, I got scared every time a car roof dipped. He directs James and I to get settled in a car to shoot our scenes. James sings with the playback and we goof off, laughing and talking. He puts his shades over my eyes and I laugh, calling him a nerd. "That's a wrap for today!" Marc calls over the bull horn.
"What's being shot tomorrow?" I inquire.
"The race scene with Justin and the 'party' scene with everyone."
"Cool. See you tomorrow!" I say as Justin scoops me up in his arms, running for the van.
"Told you that you'd do fine, baby," Justin coos.
"Yeah, like you better do fine tonight and when you shoot your race scene tomorrow."
"I'll do more than fine tonight and it's a short track, a drag race," he informs me. He does more than unbelievably fine tonight, if you know what I mean.
~~~~~
December 7, 2001

Day 2, still in LA

We've been on set for an hour and the last extra for the drag race scene just showed up, so we're setting up for it. Justin's leaning back on the car, holding me close to him. We kiss every now and again, calm and relaxed. "I love you, Sam."
"I love you, Justin." 
He climbs in the car and we shoot his scene. It's a quick few minutes long. We move onto the 'block party' scene. I dance with each of the guys, grinding James and Justin. This scene goes fast as well, even though it took a couple hours to shoot. We all head home and get some sleep because we, more like the guys, have to shoot scenes with Nelly during the day tomorrow.
~~~~~
Day 3

December 8, 2001

We pull up just as Nelly does and Justin hugs him. "You remember my girl," he says, wrapping his body around mine from behind me.
"Sam, how have you been?"
"I've been good, Cor. Still the St. Louis sweetie, I see."
He laughs. "Yes, I am. I see you're still the beautiful southern raised couple." He looks at my hair, reaching out to put his fingers through it. "What happened?"
"I portray James' interest in this vid and he said dye it blonde."
"I like it, but she looks better as a dark dirty blonde," Justin confirms.
"I'm dying it back when this is wrapped for good," I agree.
"Thank you, hon. You just don't look right as a blonde," Cor reinforces.
"It's my natural color, but I know I don't look right with it anymore." We head over to the shoot and we knock out the scenes with Cornell, leaving after hugging him good bye and agreeing to stay in close contact.
~~~~~
A few days later

"Here's the final product!" Josh comes running in, a tape in hand. He pops it into the tape player and we watch both versions. "I'm glad Jazz is back to normal."
"Thank goodness the same girl dyed my hair back to what it was before!"
"Back to being my beautiful girl," Justin coos.
"Thank you, baby. I like the remix version with Cornell better. When do we release them?"
"The original album version is a week before your birthday, January 3, and the remix drops March 12," James informs us. 
~~~~~

June 24, 2011

I was there for both video releases and the remix was a bigger hit than the album version. Since then, Justin has had two successful albums, some great acting roles (my fave being 'Ronnie' in 'Black Snake Moan'), and is crazy busy with William Rast and his restaurants, among other things. We got engaged on March 16, 2011 and set a date for July 9. Just a couple weeks to go.
Josh has had mediocre success with his first album and his second didn't do so great. He's had minor acting roles. He's been on ABDC for six seasons and he's doing better. He prefers to produce and it makes him happy.
James, Joey and Chris have been keeping themselves busy with their various shows and charities.
We make time to hang out and are still very close. Buckley and Brennen are great dogs, but Justin's about to be surprised. I told his mom and she's excited. "Why'd you call this BBQ tonight?" Josh asks.
I sit on Justin's lap. "I know it's early for me to give you a wedding present," I say, grabbing his hands and placing them on my belly. "We're pregnant," I coo.
The other four cheer and Justin is just amazed. "Thank you," he whispers.
"You're welcome."
~~~~~

July 9, 2011

Our wedding is beautiful and I'm five weeks along. I have on a beautiful white dress with baby blue details. My hair is held up by bobby pins and small clips in a loose bun with a few strands of my wavy locks out of place. No make up other than lip gloss and foundation. "Momma, I'm so nervous."
Lynn smiles at my reflection in the full length mirror in Justin's master bedroom at his Memphis estate. "You're beautiful, Sam. He loves you. You two have been together for so long, it's about time."
"Aunt Lynn?" Rach comes in.
"He's nervous?"
"He's asking to hurry it along," she tells us, hugging me. "I can't believe you have the next Timberlake growing in here already," she comments as she rubs my slowly expanding abdomen.
"Me either."
 We rush to the altar and I stand before my almost husband, recite the vows I had written and we head for our honeymoon.
~~~~~
 
February 28, 2012

We have our little girl, Rosealynni Jade and she has the most adorable blue eyes, her daddy's curls, and our blonde tresses. She has her daddy's nose, my chin and she weighs 7 lbs 9 oz. Josh, James, Joey (and clan), and Chris have come to see us. Momma and Daddy are staying at Justin's for the next two weeks. Wish us luck!