A week later

"I really wish everyone would just chill out? Why do everyone make a big deal out of things when it comes to me? It's ridiculous." Justin sat out on his back patio talking on his cell phone. "If this same situation happened to let's say...hmm Nick Lachey, they wouldn't be acting like this." he broke out laughing. "Damn, dude! You don't know who Nick Lachey is? From 98 degrees. The boy band." Justice stepped outside where Justin was located, holding a magazine in her hand.

"Curly?" he continued talking on the phone, ignoring her. He always did when she called him that. "Curly? Jay?" he finally looked up to meet her gaze. "Asshole. I know you heard me."

"Yeah, and you know I hate when you call me that. What do you want?" she fell in his lap, holding up the magazine for him to see. "Damn girl! That hurt."

"Get over it. Lookie." he gazed in on the magazine, recognizing a familiar face on the cover. It was Stacy sitting on a lounge chair with a bikini on. This immediately caught his attention. "Guess what? She's modeling now AND they have an interview in here with HER talking about the article." he quickly snatched the magazine from her. "Well damn!" she slid from off him, brushing her outfit down. "I'm gonna go upstairs and start packing." he didn't respond. Instead, he flipped through the pages until he came across the page with her.

"Damn." he mumbled, scrutinizing the beautiful woman in a black and silver bikini. The only thing his eyes paid attention to was the area between her legs but she did less help to conceal it being that she had her legs partially opened. "Hey, I'm gonna call you back. Yeah." he ended the call, never taking his eyes off the book.

Mike: What made you decide to wake up one day and write about your sexual relations with these celebrities?

Stacy: Well, It wasn't planned. I just decided to write about my first encounter because of the way I was treated. I felt like I was treated like a piece of meat and I know that I did nothing to disprove it. I was in a club and every guy that was in there couldn't stop looking at me. I was hit at by most of the guys there so when this celebrity came up to me...I won't say any names but you guys may have an idea any way since I wrote about it. But any way, this guy approached me and he couldn't keep his hands off me. I felt sort of used so instead of leaving and pretending like nothing happened, I went along with it. I published my first sexual encounter and I a lot of reviews. Ever since then I just couldn't stop. I guess I liked the attention, if you wanna put it that way.

Mike: Okay and your last encounter was Justin Timberlake, correct? Have you slept with any other celebrities since then?

Stacy: No, I haven't.

Mike: Do you feel weird about all of this? Like...

Stacy: I didn't at first but now I do. I really feel like I hurt a lot of people. All because of my need to be seen. I wanted fame and I felt that the only quick way to accomplish that is by selling sex. So that's what I did.

Mike: You were fired from THE LA TIMES, correct?

Stacy: Yes. I think that was the best thing that ever happened to me. If I wasn't fired, I think I would've continued on this route and I wouldn't have saw my mistakes. It took all of this to help me see what mistakes I was making.

Mike: Do you regret anything?

Stacy: Of coarse, of coarse. Every day. I just wanna say that I apologize to everyone I hurt. The families, fans, friends, victims...everyone. I really am sorry.

He looked up from the magazine, in deep thought. He was so confused and he didn't know what to do because for one, he was still a little upset about everything and two, he had feelings for her. He wanted to let go of this and move on but something was holding him back.

A month later

Stacy sat on the sofa watching The Late Night Show with Letterman and Justin Timberlake was a guest on the show. He was discussing the article that she wrote about him. "So you had no idea she was a journalist? Wow."

"No idea."

"Did you happen to read the article?" he could hear women whistling and screaming his name in the audience.

"It took me awhile to but I did, eventually." the women continued screaming and calling him. "Wow, um..." he laughed faintly. "I know every last one of you guys read it." he spoke, pointing at the audience.

"It's amazing how descriptive this woman was. What was her name?" David asked.

"Stacy."

"Are you still suing the company?" he was so hesitant to talk about this whole ordeal because it made him so edgy.

"Last time I checked with my lawyer, he said they were going to settle out of court. That was a few days ago. Um..."

"Did you see this Stacy girl after the incident? How did you go about that?" Stacy sat on the edge of her seat as she waited impatiently for him to answer the question. She was hoping he didn't bash her like all of his fans did. But she knew if he did, she deserved it and there was nothing she could do.

"Um, no. We didn't meet after that." her eyes lit up in shock because for one, she didn't think he would lie "I just went straight to my lawyer." she sat back, still in a daze. She couldn't get herself to believe that he actually lied but why? He hated her so why would he lie? If he wanted revenge, he would do anything to make her look bad. Especially on national television.

Her cell phone woke her out of her thoughts. She quickly grabbed the device from off the table and pressed the talk button, placing it beside her ear. "Hello?" she sat back on the sofa, scooping up a portion of cookie dough ice cream and stuffing it in her mouth.

"Hey, it's me. Justin." she nearly choked off the ice cream going down her throat.

"I'm sorry." she covered her mouth, coughing dramatically.

"Hello? You okay?"

"Um..." she cleared her throat. "Yeah, I just..." she coughed once more. "I'm sorry. Ice cream went down too fast." there was a slight pause. "How did you get my number?"

"I have my connections." for some reason, she was so happy to hear from him that she tried so hard not to sound like it. "What are you doing? Are you busy?"

"No. I was just..." she didn't want to admit that she was watching the late show with him on it. "I was watching a movie." a soft chuckle escaped his lips.

"Can you come outside?" she immediately gazed at her door in skeptic. Was this some kind of joke he was playing or was he actually outside?

"Are you serious? You're outside?" she stood up, quickly ambling towards the door. "You're not fucking with me, are you?"

"Open the door and see." she unlocked the door and pulled it open. Her eyes scanned the front porch for a sign of him but he was nowhere around. "Take a few more steps outside." he instructed, watching her take baby steps outside on her porch. "Hey." she hastily looked away to gaze at Justin who was sitting on her swing porch with a smirk on his face.

"Jesus..." she held her hand to her chest. "You startled me." she bit her lip, concealing her blushing. "What are you doing here?" she walked over to where he was located.

"I was in the neighborhood. Just came back from taping the late show." she took a seat beside him, his eyes never peeling from off her. "You look beautiful."

"Thank you." she smiled, slowly looking away to gaze at him. For some reason, he looked even hotter than before and she didn't know what it was. Maybe it was just her hormones. Whenever she was around him all she felt like doing was jumping his bones. "You don't look too bad yourself." she spoke, watching him reach in his pocket for something.

"I got something for you." he pulled out a folded up sheet of paper and unfolded it. "Here." she hesitantly accepted the paper from him.

"What's this?"

"I dropped the case." she scrutinized the paper carefully, realizing it was information regarding the lawsuit. "I don't know. I guess I did some thinking and..." she looked up to gaze in his eyes, never feeling so happy in her life.

"I don't understand. I thought they settled out of court."

"I lied. They don't need to know what's going on between us. Besides, I think it was meant for this to happen. Everything between us."

"I don't get what you're saying."

"Us meeting at the club. It was meant to be and it also taught me a lesson and made me realize that it was time for me to stop playing around with my life. I gotta start thinking about my future. I'm not getting any younger." she looked away, trying to fight back the tears begging to pour.

"You don't know how much this means to me. Dropping the case and forgiving me." she held her head down, preventing from him seeing the tears in her eyes.

"I think you made me even more popular by writing that article so..." he smiled warmly. "...I gotta thank you for that." a soft chuckle escaped her lips.

"Yeah. Any way..." she sniffled inaudibly. "Thank you. I really do appreciate..." she trailed off as she watched him grab her hand, skimming it soothingly with the tip of his thumb. She slowly looked up to meet eyes with his. He sat there, his face inching closer to hers. Seconds later, they were locking lips--kissing passionately. "Mmm we shouldn't." she broke away, licking her lips afterwards. "I don't feel right about this. I know you dropped the case but I still know what I did."

"And so do I but I don't care anymore." he slid closer to her. "I was worrying about the wrong thing. I realize it now and all I SEE is me and you...together." she bit her trembling lip, fighting so hard not to get emotional. She wasn't good at this. What she was used to was something less serious. Something less serious than a relationship. "I'm not asking for a commitment. Maybe we can start off slow by being friends then hopefully we can work our way up to something more than that." she peered in his eyes, realizing how stern he was.

"You really wanna be friends?" a smile slowly formed across his lips.

"Sure. I don't see why not." he carefully watched as a tear rolled down her face. "Come here." he pulled her in a warm hug, skimming her back soothingly. "I didn't know you felt like you were being treated like a piece of meat." she lifted her head to gaze at him. "I read the interview in last months issue."

"Oh." she sat up, brushing her hair from out of her face. "Yeah. I guess I deserved it. If I wasn't wearing the skimpy outfits then maybe I would've had some respect."

"That's true but we men love it when women wear skimpy outfits. It gives us dirty thoughts, if you know what I mean." she rolled her eyes playfully. "Ha-Ha. I dunno, honestly...I think even if you wore less revealing clothes, you would still look beautiful." she met his gaze, her smile slowly fading. "You're just that attractive. You don't need make up or flashy clothes to make you look that way. It comes natural for you." he bit his lip, giving her an intimate look. This begin to make her a little nervous so she broke the eye contact. If she continued looking at him, she knew within seconds, she would be all over him.

"It's getting late. Maybe I should go back inside..." she stood up, unsuspectingly feeling a hand grab her arm.

"Can I stop by tomorrow? Maybe I can treat you for breakfast. Or lunch." he stood to his feet.

"I..." he reached out, brushing her cheek nimbly. This immediately sent chills down her spine because she had never seen him like this. He seemed like a different person. "Okay. I guess we can go to lunch." he smiled instantly.

"Cool. I'll stop by around twelve-ish." she giggled faintly.

"Okay." he leisurely leaned in, placing a kiss on her cheek. She shut her eyes, enjoying all of his compassion.

"Goodnight." she fluttered her eyes open, watching as he turned and headed towards his car.

"Goodnight." she replied, taking a few steps back towards her front door. When she entered the house, she shut the door and leaned up against it. What was this she was feeling? She had never felt this way before. It felt like she was in love.

The following afternoon (12:01pm)

Justin stepped up on the familiar porch and knocked four times on the door. Moments later, the door flew open--revealing an attractive woman. She smiled, quickly stepping outside. "Hey." for some reason, he felt star struck. He didn't remember her looking so beautiful and less sluttish.

"Wow, you...look amazing." she blushed massively.

"Thank you." he couldn't keep his eyes off her and it wasn't like he never saw a beautiful woman before. It was just something about her that drawn him completely to her. "So, where are we going?"

"Um...I wanted to take you to Rocco's Inn a few miles from here." she flashed him an interesting look.

"Why does that sound like a hotel?" he broke out laughing. "Seriously, you're not perhaps taking me to a hotel, are you?"

"Hell no. I mean...not that I wouldn't want to." she slapped him on the arm playfully. "What? I'm just being honest." she followed him towards his car. "Seriously, I am taking you out for lunch okay? Nothing more. Not unless you...ask for more." she sat in on the passengers side.

"You would love that, wouldn't you?" he pulled out of the drive way, not bothering to respond to her answer because he knew the truth and he knew what he wanted.

"No comment. Ha-Ha." she laughed faintly. After driving for thirty minutes, they finally made it to the restaurant. They went in and took a seat at a table near the window.

"This is a really nice place, Justin. Do you always come here?" he intertwined his fingers together, trying so hard not to look at her cleavage. The last thing he wanted was for her to feel uncomfortable.

"Uh, no." he looked away, scratching his forehead in thought. "I don't even remember the last time coming here." she looked around, realizing a few people looking at them.

"Justin, why are people looking at us?" he gazed around the room to notice what she was referring to.

"Did you forget you're with a celebrity?" he bragged. "And you're becoming one yourself. You looked hot in that magazine. Do you still have that bikini you wore?" she grinned at him and he on the other hand held an hilarious look on his face.

"Don't even start that."

"Ahaha seriously..." he cleared his throat, getting her attention. "How long is it going to take for me to get the key to your heart?"

"Excuse me?" she had a confused look on her face.

"Your necklace..." he pointed. She looked down to gaze at her silver necklace with a heart and key attached to it. "Are you trying to throw me a hint?" she bit her lip, keeping her head down to prevent from looking in his eyes. "Like I told you before, you know you have me right where you want me." she finally looked up to peer in his serious eyes. "How long is it gonna take?"

"I don't..." she hesitated, having no idea what to say. "I don't know. I..." she bit her bottom lip in thought. "I'm afraid of getting hurt." he remained quiet, putting all of his focus on her. "Every relationship I've been in was nothing but fighting and arguing. I was cheated on. I've been physically abused."

"Hey." he reached out, grasping her hand in his. "I promise you, you don't have to worry about that with me. I would never lay a hand on you. Ever." there she was, on the verge of shedding tears. She just hated when this came up because she wasn't good with emotions and the relationship topic. She was too used to one night stands--No strings attached. "You know that deep down. I've had many of chances of hitting you. When I came to your office that day..." he reminded. She knew he had a point because that's exactly what she thought he was going to do.

"Hi, there." they both looked away to gaze at the waitress standing next to their table. "I'm Susie. Are you guys ready to order?" she was relieved that the waitress interrupted them because the last thing she wanted to do was talk about a relationship. She knew she really liked him but she was afraid of expressing her feelings for him. She just wanted to keep things simple and the only way to do that is by refusing to talk about it.

Well at least for now.