"Musician, actor and entrepreneur Justin Timberlake was spotted out and about with an unidentified female who is rumored to be his new girlfriend in Boston on Wednesday. Photo's have surfaced of Timberlake holding hands with the woman and trying to dodge the paparazzi going in and out of The Liberty Hotel, seen here behind me, Wednesday afternoon. Timberlake was then spotted entering Logan International Airport solo and boarded a plane to San Francisco where he performed last night before traveling back to LA to wrap up his Future Sex Love Show Tour with two shows, one tonight and one tomorrow night at the Staples Center. Calls to his reps about the unidentified woman haven't been returned. Who is this woman? We are all wondering, and how was she able to take America's Most Wanted Bachelor off the market? Maria Menunos live in Boston, back to you in the studio."

It was happening. The rumors were starting, the previews for Entertainment shows were all a buzz and I had at least 30 more people on my trail then normal. Getting back into the swing of things wasn't easy. As much as going to Boston was stressful and certainly wouldn't be considered a vacation, I was able to relax a little bit and not worry about the tour, interviews or photo shoots and it was really nice to be able to do that. The show last night in San Francisco went well, but being back on stage and doing the whole "tour day" thing again just made me realize all the more how much I really needed this tour to be over. I needed a break, maybe even a vacation. Marissa was still in Boston taking finals and handling the cameras and the press there better then I could have ever imagined. She says she doesn't care and it's not really bothering her but anyone who has ever spoken to her for more then 30 seconds knows that that's not true. She's dealing with it though, making sure someone is always with her when she walks to class, and staying in when she doesn't absolutely have to go out. I feel bad because she can't do some of the everyday things she use to, but at the same time she needs to be studying anyway so this will force her to do it. She has her last final today and then she's flying out tomorrow afternoon and will be here for the show tomorrow night. I'm excited to show her LA. She's been here before and she loves it, but she's done all the touristy things its time to show her the real LA.

I had finished my rehearsals and I was heading to the Ellen show to surprise a fan before I had to be back at the venue for tonight's show. Ellen was my favorite show to tape, it wasn't a hassle and I was never nervous. It was just fun. Ellen and I had become close friends over the years and I could always count on her to not ask me questions she knew I didn't want to answer. We pulled up to the lot around noon and got escorted in quickly so that I wouldn't be seen. Once I was safely in the green room everyone left, and I was alone for the first time in God only knows how long. I sat there listening to nothing and it was an amazing feeling. I put headphones in my ears and hit play on my IPod lying down on the couch and closing my eyes. I was about to fall asleep when my phone started to vibrate against my leg. Pulling it out a smile appears on my face when I see it's her calling. I had talked to her earlier and she was about to go take her last final, so this call means she's done and all mine for the next two weeks.

"Hey Ri..."

"Black or White? Quick," she cut me off.

"Uhhh...Black?"

"Good choice, I would have picked black even if you said white."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Couches...Beautiful, oversized, comfy couches. That's what I'm talking about."

"Furniture shopping huh? That must mean you're done with finals right?"

"Yes, done. Thank God! Luke and I drove down to Ikea to get a bedroom set and I think after these couches we're done with the whole house. So much for that one bedroom set thing, this place is amazing, not to mention you sir have an account set up here so I don't have to go through the whole shpeal with using your credit card and having to call Johnny and all that so it all works out."

"Good I'm glad, sounds like you're having fun. How's Luke?"

"He's good, right now he's jumping up and down on couches figuring out which ones have more spring in them. Between him and Trace I don't know who acts more immature sometimes. He leaves tomorrow though to go back to work, I'm kind of bummed it's been really nice having him around again."

"When will he be back again?"

"I don't know probably December the earliest. But at least I have you to keep me entertained until then."

"Oh is that all I'm good for?"

"Yes, that and the sex," she laughed, and I couldn't help but smile when I pictured her laughing reclined on a lazy boy, her ankles crossed, and her hand over her mouth so that she wouldn't be so loud. 

"Good to know," I said trying to keep a normal tone and not laugh, "I feel the same way about you."

"Oh well I'm glad we're on the same page then," I let out a small laugh and looked up feeling eyes on me. Ellen was standing in the doorway waiting to do the pre-interview.

"Listen, I have to go, Ellen's here and we have to go over some stuff before the show."

"I'm still really jealous about the whole knowing Ellen thing, she's my favorite," she said in a singsong voice.

"Well maybe if you were in this for more then the entertainment and sex you'd get to meet her someday."

"Eh, not worth it," she laughed again before I joined in with her.

"I'll call you later, I love you."

"Love you too, and J..."

"Yeah babe?"

"I kind of miss you too"

"Just kind of?"

"It sucks being sex deprived."

"Oh my God...I love you goodbye," I hung up the phone with a huge smile on my face. That girl was too much, but I loved that we could joke around together and it wasn't so serious all the time. I stood up and pulled Ellen into a hug. I hadn't seen her in a really long time, since before tour started actually so I was glad she came in to catch up before the taping actually started.

"Sooooo...tell me all about her," Ellen said as she sat down next to me on the couch.

"All about who?"

"The new girl, don't think I haven't seen pictures and that I can't tell the difference between an I love you to your Mom and one to your girlfriend."

"I can't get anything by you now can I? She's awesome, amazing, incredible...she's every good adjective in the book."

"Mmmhmmm...and how long have you been dating?"

"Well Dr. Ellen, it's still new." She laughed hitting me on the shoulder.

"Still new but I love you's are being thrown around already?"

"Yes they are."

"Is she the one?"

"I think she's the one."

"Whoa! She's solved the mystery of how to win Justin Timberlake's heart. I have to meet this girl because I never thought this day would come."

"And she would love to meet you. Marissa loves you, if you come to the show tomorrow night she'll be there and you guys can meet and I'm sure she'll answer all of your questions, because you are just her fav-or-ite! She was just telling me on the phone how she's jealous that I'm here right now with you."

"Marissa huh? Good name, I like it she already has points with me. I'll be at the show tomorrow, we'll have our girl time and gush about you all night. Can we talk about her on the show?"

"I....don't know about that. She's still in school and stuff. She's already hounded and this is all new for her, I don't want to draw more attention to her."

"So we'll work around it to not "out" her?"

"Okay okay. And I only say okay to you because she'll have a heart attack when she finds out THE Ellen Degenerus was talking about her."

"Good," she said getting up, "Dinner tomorrow after the show? I feel like I haven't talked to you in forever."

"We're having a wrap party after the show, but please feel free to come I'd love to have you there."

"Well then I'll be there. See you out there, I have to get to hair and makeup."

"Thanks E."

***

The taping was off to a great start. I surprised a fan who was literally speechless and brought to tears. She was a 15-year-old girl who had just been told she was in remission. She had been battling leukemia for about three years and when I found out I automatically thought of Frankie and I knew I had to do this show.  She was such a strong girl emotion wise, but I could tell just from hugging her how frail she really was. I gave her tickets and backstage passes to my show for tomorrow night but since the show won't be airing until tomorrow we acted like they were for "today." We were about to go to commercial and I thought I was off the hook when I heard Ellen say, "We'll be right back with more Justin Timberlake." I immediately got nervous. I knew she wasn't going to dig but this was the first time I'd publicly be talking about Marissa and I probably should have checked with her first before I did it. People knew, it was obvious she was my girlfriend, but at the same time by not saying it out loud technically it was only speculation. I noticed that I was tapping my foot, a nervous habit of mine that hadn't made an appearance in a while, there was no getting out of this now.

"Go easy on me," I leaned over and whispered to Ellen while they were putting foundation on her face.

"Are you sweating Timberlake? I didn't even know it was possible for you to sweat."

"I'm a little nervous about this...just go easy."

"If you don't want to answer something just say so and I'll drop it I promise, but I can't say I won't try."

"Deal." I sat back in the chair looking out into the audience. The studio wasn't really that big, but bigger then a lot of other daytime talk show studios. Suddenly I felt all eyes on me as I was about to break this news to the world. The stage lights came back on and everyone started clapping. I looked at Ellen with pleading eyes and she patted my knee before looking into the camera and continuing with the interview.

"We're back with Justin Timberlake who is wrapping up his tour tonight at the Staples Center. Now Justin you've been in the headlines recently because of a mystery girl you were spotted with earlier this week in Boston."

"Really? I had no idea Ellen," I looked at her with a confused look in hopes of some comic relief more for myself then anyone else.

"Yes really, there was a girl you were spotted holding hands with. She's quite the mystery and people have been trying to figure out who she is exactly."

"You know what Ellen, so am I. I still don't know who she is exactly."

"Well does she have a name?"

"She does have a name..."

"Do you care to share it with us?"

"I don't," I said with a smile shaking my head and laughing nervously.

"Do you care to share anything about her with us?"

"Do I care to share anything about her with you? Good question."

"One that you might answer? I didn't think it would this hard to get something out of you!"

"Here is what I can tell you about her. She's pretty freakin' awesome, and she's managed to change my perspective on life fairly quickly. I think we all take life for granted sometimes and we don't realize what we have and appreciate it until it's too late. She's made me step back and actually look at what I have, and appreciate it and be grateful for it. She's made me a better person, and for that I'm forever indebted to her. She's strong and intelligent and funny. She's a great person that I hold very close to my heart. And I've said too much already..."

"Your ear to ear smile makes me believe that she makes you pretty happy."

"I am happy...the happiest I've been in a really long time Ellen. I mean look everyone knows I don't like to talk about my personal life. My relationships are private and I like to keep it that way, and my relationship with her is something really special and something that I cherish a lot, so I'm not about to all of a sudden be Mr. Open and talk about it so my mouth is zipped shut from here on out. It's an Ellen exclusive."

"Well thank you for that exclusive! Moving on now to your tour, you're wrapping it up how does it feel?"

"I've been on the road for over a year now, and as much as I've enjoyed traveling city to city and performing every night, it's exhausting and I'm definitely ready for a break."

"Will you be recording during your break?"

"Maybe. I'm taking a couple months off to just relax and wake up in the morning with no set plan but you never know. In order for me to record an album or even write a song I need inspiration so once I get some you'll see me recording."

"So no inspiration from the new lady in your life?" I threw my head back and put my hand over my face.

"You never know Ellen, you never know."

"Well I heard a little bit about her before the show and I heard that she was a fan of the show so I wanted you to bring her back a little something from me," she reached behind her and pulled out a box from behind her chair putting it in my lap. I pulled the top off and pulled out a pair of black panties. I immediately threw them back in the box and I could feel my face turning beat red and a nervous laugh erupted. "Hold them up tell the people what she's won."

"Oh Ellen...why do you do this to me?" I held them up and read the front out loud, "I love Justin."

"And now turn them around..."

"But I love Ellen more...she is going to die over these!" I leaned over and gave her a hug thanking her and telling her I was going to kill her at the same time.

"Justin Timberlake wraps up his show tonight so get there before it's too late," she said into the camera, "Thanks to Justin and all of our guests today, tune in tomorrow when we'll be sitting down with Jon and Kate Gosslin and Jake Gyllenhal. Bye everyone!"

I stood up giving Ellen another hug and walked over to the audience with her. I signed autographs and took pictures for about an hour before I had to leave to get to the venue. I think the interview went as well as expected. I didn't give too much away but I didn't outright deny anything. This was a step, one that I didn't like that much but it came along with my job. I just hope that Marissa wouldn't be too upset about it. I called her before the show and told her that Ellen  gave me something for her and she screamed so loud I thought I may be deaf after she stopped. She couldn't believe I actually talked to Ellen about her, this whole friends with famous people thing will never sink in with her I've concluded but it gave me all the more reason to not tell her that she'd be meeting her tomorrow. I couldn't wait for her to land tomorrow, and I couldn't believe how much I actually missed her after such a short period of time. She sounded happy, and I could tell that she was smiling when she talked to me. I was excited to have a happy Marissa come visit me tomorrow, it seemed like she was taking what I said to her about being happy and running with it and I was so glad she was because she really did deserve to be happy.

***

I woke up Friday morning, the day of my last show of the tour. We made schedule changes so that I was able to finish up a day early, and make up the shows I missed the beginning of the new year. It was 5am and I had a day full of press to do and a photo shoot for People Magazine around noon. The one bad thing about doing a show in LA is that the day is always packed because so much is located here, magazines, TV Show, Satellite Radio etc...I headed out early to do a taping of Good Day LA, then to the Craig Ferguson Show, Jay Leno, and I wrapped up with an interview with Ryan Secrest for E! News and for his radio show. Everyone asked questions about me and Marissa and I said the same thing to all of them, my personal life is private and I won't be discussing it during interviews. I headed over to the photo shoot and I was already drained. The shoot went pretty well, and quickly which I was pleased about and about half way through Rachel told me that Marissa's flight got delayed due to high winds in Boston. She insisted that she at least buy her ticket to LA and I agreed which meant that she was flying coach on Jet Blue and now I was regretting letting her do it. If she just let me get a plane for her this wouldn't be happening and now she might not make it for my last show. I had no time at all to talk to her today, and when I got out of the shoot at 4:00 her phone went straight to voicemail which I was hoping meant she was in the air. If she had just taken off she wouldn't make it for the show, so I was praying she hadn't left much later then a couple of hours ago.

I got to the Staples Center for sound check a little late and was already aggravated with how my day was going. We did a show here last night and we had some major technical difficulties that at first didn't bother me so much but once they continued made me really pissed off. I work so hard to put on shows that are the best for my fans and when they go wrong and it's not my fault and it's something preventable it really aggravates me. So today I made sure I had extra time for sound check, and fixed problems during it myself. By the time 8:00 rolled around Pink was on stage and Marissa still wasn't here. I had a headache and was in a foul mood but it was my last show and I knew I had to go out with a bang. My parents were here, a bunch of my friends were here, and I knew that Marissa wanted to be here and the fact that she's not was out of her control. Rachel came into my dressing room just as I put on my first outfit and was warming up my voice to let me know that Marissa had landed and she was just waiting for her luggage. She'd be late, but she was going to make it and that put me in a much better mood. They called me to the stage at 9:15 and I was a totally different person then I was an hour ago. I was ready for this, I was excited, and I was happy. Happy to be doing what I loved to do and at the same time happy it would be over in two and a half hours.

I looked over to where she should have been during My Love and she wasn't there, but I saw about 30 other people including my family and friends and that kept me going. I went backstage to change my shirt after the song expecting to see Melinda behind the curtain but when I turned around to close it and I felt someone grab me by my waist and turn me around I knew it wasn't her. Her lips crashed onto mine and she wrapped her legs around my waist. She jumped off of me after a solid two minutes and unbuttoned my shirt taking it off not saying a word. She threw a clean shirt at me and I put it on not taking my eyes off of her.

"You made it," I said not able to wipe the smile off my face.

"Did you think I'd miss it? I wouldn't miss this for the world." She kissed me again biting my bottom lip before she pulled away. "Get back out there Timberlake, thirty thousand people are screaming your name."

"See you out there?" She nodded her head.

"See you out there."

"Screaming my name?"

"Yeah, in bed tonight."

"I've missed you so much."

"Me too...now go do what you do best. I love you." I kissed her quickly and ran back to the stage and the next time I looked out she was there with my family and friends, with our family and friends. My mother had her scooped up in a hug and Trace had his hand on her back. She was smiling, a big ear-to-ear smile and that was all I needed to see. I made eye contact with he and she blew me a kiss and I went back to being a 12-year-old boy with butterflies in my stomach and a smile on my face. The rest of the show was perfect and as I sat at the piano during the last song thanking the crowd, it hit me that after the 3 shows I have to make up in January, this was it. All the work, all the planning, the promoting everything was over and it made me a little emotional. Singing the song I locked eyes with her every time the piano spun her way, just like I did the first day I met her. This tour meant so much to me, it was like my child but not only that, it brought me to her and I will be forever grateful for it.

*** 

The wrap party was out of control. I rented out a club in LA and it was packed. Marissa got to meet everyone, and I mean literally everyone. She'd see someone famous and have a hissy fit and then when I'd introduce her she'd act like it was nothing. They'd walk away and she'd flip out again, sometimes she was just too cute to handle. Her hand was in mine the entire time and it felt so good to introduce her to everyone as my girlfriend. She was standing next to me at 3:00 in the morning when I stood up on a table in the middle of the room to make a toast.

"This tour and everyone that made it possible has meant so much to me these past three years starting from the first day we all sat down around a conference table and decided we were going to make it happen. We've had our ups and a few downs but we've had each other to lean on the entire time. I don't know how I'm going to make it through life without seeing you guys everyday, or how I'm going to find someone else to bend over so that I can air hump them on a nightly basis. All of you are family to me because every single person in this room made this tour the success that it was. Dancers, backup singers, musicians, promoters, friends, my parents. I will forever be thankful to each and every one of you. This tour brought me so much happiness. It was the first tour I ever had any say in never mind made final decisions on and to have it be as successful as it was, was like watching my own child graduate from college and you all helped me make that possible. So thank you to each and every one of you for everything that you have done for me personally, for this tour, and for my fans. This tour helped me find this girl standing next to me, and for that alone it was a success in my eyes. So thank you for welcoming her into our close knit family and dealing with all the chaos that comes along with me having a girlfriend. Thank you all for everything. So one last time, let's raise our glasses to the Future Sex Love Show Tour, thank you everyone and congratulations!" I threw back my 6th shot of tequila that night and wrapped my arms around my beautiful girlfriend who was as drunk if not more drunk then I was.

The night ended a few hours later and after saying goodbye to a couple hundred people Marissa and I were alone in a stretch limo on our way to my house which I haven't stepped foot in in a few months.

"Where's my present from Ellen?" she asked me in between kisses, slurring her words

"In my luggage that should be at my house by now."

"I watched you on there today you know...you were smokin' hot."

"You are smokin' drunk right now."

"So are you...and you like it Mr. Timberlake. I have to tell you a secret."

"Tell me...I love secrets."

"Secrets don't make friends Justin," she said very seriously narrowing her eyes at me.

"You were the one telling me a secret why are you getting mad at me?"

"I'm not mad I'm just stating facts. But I really do have to tell you a secret...last night after I talked to you on the phone after your show, I couldn't fall asleep because I was wicked horny," I laughed at the fact that she just said wicked and then she leaned in right next to my ear and whispered, "and I...well you know...did something about it while I watched your DVD." My eyes popped out of my head and I was erect within seconds just picturing it in my head. She started laughing uncontrollably. This was something she would have never told me if she wasn't so shitfaced.

"Are you horny right now?" I asked kissing her neck. She threw her head back and moaned biting her bottom lip and nodding her head.

"Are you going to take advantage of me in this limousine?"

"Of course not, I'm going to make you wait until we get to my house and then I'm going to take advantage of you until the sun comes up."

"That's not very nice Mr. Timberlake."

"Well not letting me watch you last night wasn't very nice Miss. Mitchell."

"You are dirty...and I like it."

"I like you, especially when you're drunk and have no sensor."

"Well I like you all the time because you take all the bad stuff away and make me happy again," she leaned down and kissed my mouth her eyes squeezed shut, her hands playing with the curls on my head, "you taste like tequila, that makes me like you even more."

"I knew you were perfect for me the minute you ordered that tequila sunrise." I felt the car stop and I looked out the window and saw my house in front of us, I opened the door and stood up with her still in my arms, her legs wrapped around my waist. "Come on, let's go christen my house."