“I like that one,” Melissa pointed out at the four rows of wedding dress pictures before glancing down at the clock in the corner of the computer screen. “You know JC's going to spaz if you aren't ready when he gets here, Joey!” she said loudly towards the rec room where she could hear Madden being played. There was no answer and she sighed, looking at Rachel. “The world could be ending and he'd never know it.”
Rachel nodded, saving the picture with some of the others as they scrolled down. Joey and Lance as well as the rest of NSYNC had an appearance and photo shoot to go to and would be busy, so the girls decided they would get together and hang out and look at wedding stuff. They looked a little bit more at a different site. “Do you even see anything you like?”
Melissa pointed out different elements of things she liked, but nothing in a whole dress yet. She heard the video game turn off and Joey's footfalls go to the hall bathroom.
“Bambina, where's my razor?”
“In the first drawer on the right of the sink,” Melissa called out, smiling when she saw a dress. “That looks like yours you wore to the AMA's. Only in white,” she observed.
Rachel clicked on the picture and then opened a new tab and typed in something. “Let's see if it is,” she told her friend, laughing when Joey asked another question about where something was. “He lives here, right?”
“He does, but after packing and unpacking a bag it's like playing hide and seek. I could make the upstairs bathroom into a hair care salon with all the stuff in it,” she chuckled. “And most of it is his,” she stage whispered as Joey came into the living room freshly shaven.
“What's mostly mine?” Joey asked, raising an eyebrow at his fiance before leaning over the back of the couch to kiss her. He'd trimmed up his goatee some and threw on some aftershave.
“Your John Freida hair care salon you're starting in the bathroom upstairs. Or is it Paul Mitchell?” Rachel teased him, earning a joking dirty look.
“Let's not talk about the shoes in the closet, shall we?” Joey said, snickering when Melissa turned a shade of red and stared at the computer screen. “What is it with women and shoes? You could have a hundred pairs and you still would go buy more.”
“It's just a woman thing,” Rachel pointed out, enlarging a picture. “Look at these two,” she told both of them. “Are they the same or not?”
Joey leaned over the couch, his arms across the back as his chin sat on Melissa's shoulder. “They look the same to me. I thought you didn't like that dress.”
Rachel rolled her eyes at Joey, letting out a small laugh. “I loved the dress, but it's just the situation that happened that made me hate it. Mel didn't tell you?” she looked questioningly at them as Joey shook his head. “Lance and I went to the party at the Ritz Carlton, the one you and Melissa skipped. Anyways, Lance had went to get us drinks and Will Ferrel came and hit on me. His eyes were glued to my breasts like he expected my top to magically slide off. I didn't like the douchebag before, so I really hate him now. So now whenever I look at my dress hanging in the closet I mentally shudder.”
Joey chuckled, nodding at her assessment. “What can I say? Men are stupid.” The look on his face clearly meant men other than him. He looked at the other page they had found and at Melissa as he stood up. “See a dress you like?” he asked, wondering if she was going to go all girly on him when they were getting married.
“I've seen some I like, but nothing in the 'I want to drag someone to the store and try one on' yet,” Melissa had been busy with work and school, trying to fit in now letting a photographer come take a few pictures of her and Joey for a piece to go on the group's official website, since the news had hit the week they'd gotten engaged. That had been a week and a half ago.
“Your appointment at the bridal store downtown is for this afternoon, so you better get to looking,” Rachel reminded Melissa, handing her the computer. Rachel had taken over the job of reminding her when stuff was, since she was more organized than her friend and the only thing Melissa and Joey had decided was that they were getting married between legs of the tour which was starting in a month. So there was roughly seven and a half months to plan a wedding.
“Don't look so stressed, bambina. You're marrying me,” Joey told her, planting a kiss to the side of her head when someone rang the doorbell. He went to answer it, letting JC inside before they both came back to where the girls were.
“In that case, I'm buying you a case of Aleve and a frying pan for a wedding present.” Rachel gave them both a big grin and shrugged before getting up to grab something to drink. Being around all of the guys brought out her sense of humor and as her eyes met JC's she figured it did something for her heart rate too. At least that's what she told herself, glad when her phone buzzed with a text from Lance. She smiled and replied, sending off the mushy sentiment. “What?” she asked Melissa who was sitting there with a silly grin on her face.
“Oh nothing. You just have a look on your face.”
“Shut up. I can't get the stupid one off yours. It's been on there so long I'll never come off. I think you have Joey-itis.”
JC caught on the tale end of the conversation and laughed. “So that's what that's called? I was wondering why she always has this drool on her chin,” he sat down beside Melissa and sideways hugged her.
“Very funny. I thought we had to go...” Joey looked at his watch and raised an eyebrow at JC.
“We can hang for a few more minutes,” JC told him, peering at the computer screen. “Ewww...wedding stuff. Have fun with that.”
“Thanks, Mister Buzzkill,” Rachel chided, “you're not getting married. All you have to do is show up and be happy for Joey and Mel and save me a dance.” Rachel gave JC a small smile and then went back to looking at the computer.
Melissa looked from Rachel over to JC who was watching Rachel intently as she clicked on stuff, not really staring at her, but just thinking.
“It's not the showing up part or anything like that. It's just...forget I said anything. I am stoked that Joey's taking the plunge. He's got more cajones than the rest of us.”
“Don't mind him,” Joey told Rachel, “he has relationship issues. 12 year olds keep getting his number and texting him asking if he'll marry them. He's changed his number about three times.”
“If you'd quit giving it out, I wouldn't have that problem,” JC ground out, glaring at Joey.
“Even had someone's mom call and ask if I'd come to the girl's birthday party. Then stay for a 'party' later with her.”
The girls burst out laughing and Melissa patted JC's face. “Poor baby..all you want is to be left alone.”
“Basically covers it. I want to be the un-Celebrity. I like doing my own thing with what little time I get. We all do,” JC said as Joey nodded in agreement.
The conversation continued until JC's phone rang and he got up, tugging Joey's shirt.
“I guess we're going now,” Joey said, getting up and pulling Mel up as well. “Have fun today,” he told her, knowing she wouldn't like going to try on dresses, but hoping she'd enjoy spending time with Rachel and their families that were going to be there, women on both sides.
“I'll try. Maybe we can go to dinner if you get done in time?” she suggested. “Some Chinese sounds good.”
“You know me too well. I was gonna ask if you wanted to go see Mr. Chow.” Joey kissed her lips and grinned. “Love you, Melly.”
“Love you too, Fatoney. You and Chris behave.”
Joey clutched his chest dramatically, giving her a wink. “We'll try. I'll call you later.”
"That ain't gonna happen," JC rolled his eyes at Joey's back. He gave the girls a smile and a wave, his eyes lingering on Rachel a moment before walking toward the door.
*^*^*^*^*^*
“This tour's gonna be a beast,” Melissa said to Rachel as they came to a stop light, on their way to meet Melissa's mother and grandmothers, along with Joey's mother and sister. “I'm sure the guys will be so much fun to live with the two weeks before the tour starts. That's when you never see them and they come home snapping and acting like assholes,” she rolled her eyes. “It's better once the tour starts, but I just stay out of the way when it gets close. At least we have a little while before that happens.”
“Yeah, and you'll be Mrs. Fatone,” Rachel pointed out, giving her best friend a huge smile. “You know you love hearing that,” she said laughing at the silly giggle Melissa gave. “Are you even going to hyphenate your name at all?”
Melissa cut her eyes to her best friend and pursed her lips into a 'yeah right' expression. “The
'Fatone' is gonna be bigger than my first name,” Melissa laughed as she dug out a piece of paper and a pen, quickly signing her name with Joey's last name.
“Your 'F” is backwards,” Rachel pointed out, shaking her head as Melissa snapped a picture of it. “If you were any weirder, I'd be calling you Joey. You're acting practically giddy...” Rachel smiled, excited for her friend to be so happy. “Now just act that way when we go to try on dresses.” She sent off a text to Lance. 'Your sister is already practicing her new signature. Save me!'
Melissa stuck her tongue out at Rachel as they pulled into the parking lot, “Thanks for doing all this Rach. And for being my best friend.”
“You're welcome. Now I just expect to hear no whining if you try on more than five dresses,” Rachel told her, looping her arm through Melissa's as the two girls went in to start the dress search. Rachel paused a moment when her phone buzzed, laughing at Lance's reply. 'Welcome to my world.'
*^*^*^*^*^*^*
“So, one of you is engaged, is that right?” The DJ asked NSYNC as they all chuckled and pointed at Joey. “Congrats, man...tell me about this girl.”
Joey smiled, “Ah well, her name is Melissa and we've been best friends for three-”
“Four,” Justin interrupted.
“Five,” Lance interjected, trying not to laugh.
“Years,” Joey finished. “We've known each other for five, best friends for three. And I realized that I'd been in love with her for awhile and we've been dating a few months. I figured why wait any longer to pop the question.”
“Did any of you know about it?” the DJ was clearly enjoying the interaction between the guys, watching Chris grin big.
“I knew about it, but I had to keep it a secret.”
“That's the only time you can keep a secret,” JC told Chris, listening to him sputter as they all started trading jabs.
“Joey's my best friend and Mel's my sister and I didn't even know anything. They're together all the time and it's just awesome to see them both so happy,” Lance said, garnering 'aww's' from the other four.
“I love you, man!” Joey said, pretending to get emotional and hugged Lance.
“Oh wow, we are feeling the love in here today as we hang out with NSYNC. Introduce the next song guys.”
“We're NSYNC,” the all said in unison, “and this next song is 'This I Promise You'.”
The song played as the guys talked to the DJ and amongst themselves. When the song was done, they went back on the air.
“So, all the fans want to know how you proposed Joey. Was it just the two of you or what happened? What kind of ring did you get your fiance?”
Joey ran a hand through his hair and smiled. “The ring was one my grandmother Nona gave me to give her. It was her first one from my Grandpa, it's from Italy so it's got a lot of sentimental value. And we were all over at Chris' house playing Pictionary in teams.”
“Joey can't draw worth a crap,” Justin said, “so we stuck him on a team with Chris and Mel.”
“Look who's talking, Vincent van Gogh,” Joey shot back, as they laughed. “Anyway, so when it was Melissa's turn, she grabbed the card I'd had made to look like the others that said 'Will You Marry Me?' as the subject. Chris and I guessed all sorts of stuff...”
“She was getting mad at the end,” Chris said, smiling. “We were throwing out stupid answers and Joey pulled out the ring box.”
“What did you guys think?”
“I thought Joey'd been abducted by aliens,” Justin interjected, punching Joey in the arm.
“It was great. Chris was videoing it and the look on Mel's face...She cried. Joey said some sentimental crap and she cried more,” JC told the DJ.
“It wasn't crap! I was being serious. If she's listening, she's gonna kick your butt, Josh.”
'Oooooo' came the chorus of the other three.
“So Lance, how will it be having Joey as a brother in law?”
“Well,” Lance smiled at Joey, affection in his voice for his friend, “it won't be much different other than my sister will get to move the rest of her stuff out of my house. Yay!” he cheered lightly as Joey shook his head.
“Okay so this last question is for all of you. Who's getting married next?”
The five of them all looked at one another before finger pointing started and jabs were being thrown, a real answer lost as they all started yelling.
The DJ laughed, not sure how to take them. “Well, you heard it here first on WROK the Rock. We've been talking to NSYNC. Tell them who plays the most NSYNC in the Orlando area.”
“WROK, the Rock of Orlando,” the all answered in unison before the mics were turned off, and they shuffled out towards the photo shoot.
“That went well,” Lance told Joey as they signed a few autographs for fans that had come to the back where they were going out, the security keeping them moving and things not too crazy.
“Let's just hope your sister's finding a dress,” Joey told him, scribbling his name and pulling a girl in so her Mom could take a picture.
“She'll have fun with it,” Lance tried to sound sure of his answer, but laughed at Joey's raised eyebrow. “Okay, Rachel will have fun making her try on stuff.”
“I'm surprised she hasn't called screaming yet that we're eloping,” Joey joked as they climbed into the van.
“She ain't gonna elope, man. Mel might hang out with us jackasses and act like a dork with Joey, but she's still a girl. She wants the dress and cake and shit. I bet she'll surprise ya dawg,” Justin told them, having heard what Joey said.
“And that was another installment of philosophy by Justin,” Chris said in his best tv personality voice as they all laughed, the van pulling away from the curb. “How did you get so smart?”
“I majored in women at the University of Timberlake,” Justin said smoothly, slipping his sunglasses on and smirking.
“Now I've heard it all,” Lance said, fiddling with his phone, listening to the conversations around him. He did hope his sister was having a good time and he fired off a message to Rachel. 'Hope it's going well, off to our photo shoot.'
*^*^*^*^*^
“I like this one,” Melissa said as she looked in the mirror at herself and then at Rachel as the sales lady, Ava, fluffed out the skirt and helped get everything looking just right.
“It's the first one, of course you'd like it. You'd say that just so you wouldn't have to try on anything else. I told you no whining,” Rachel grabbed the heels she'd found and thrust them at Mel. “Try on the shoes. You can wear them long enough to walk down the aisle.”
“No, I'll wear them long enough to break my neck and then I won't have to worry about walking down anything. Knowing my luck I'll get married in an ambulance on the way to the hospital as my bone is sticking out of my leg.”
“Very funny,” Rachel narrowed her eyes and shooed her towards the room where the other women were waiting.
They could hear talking and Melissa broke out into almost a run when she heard a particular voice. “That can't be...it sounds like,” she muttered to herself, stopping when she got to the room.
Sofia Fatone, all of a hundred pounds soaking wet, was sitting between Phyllis and Linda, talking to everyone and telling a story. She was dressed simply, in a sweater and slacks, with a bit of jewelry and didn't look like she was in her 80s. “Ah, bambina, you look bellisima.” Sofia got up and went to hug the younger girl, kissing her on both cheeks. “I told my grandson he could not tell you I was coming as a surprise.”
Melissa was touched that Sofia would come from New York just to be a part of the process of dress shopping. “I'm glad you're here,” she told her after giving her another hug, standing up on the pedestal that had three mirrors to show off the dress. It was a one shoulder strap dress that had a very gathered waist and flowed. It had a train, but it wasn't a very long one; one of Melissa's requirements. She wanted simple but something that could be embellished a bit. They'd found a sash that was covered in crystals and a few real diamonds, giving the dress a little more sparkle. “What do you think?” she asked, biting her lip as she turned to them.
“I give it a thumbs up,” Rachel said, taking a couple pictures. She didn't miss the look on her friend's face. That was the dress they were going to get, but she was going to make sure that they did look.
“Close your eyes,” Phyllis told Melissa, giving her a smile. “Now think of Joey and walking down the aisle towards him.”
Beside her, Linda sniffled and then Janine did. “I think that smile says it all,” Louise piped up when Melissa smiled and wiped tears quickly, handing out kleenex to all of them. “I think you could be wearing a paper bag and that boy would like it.”
Melissa let herself get lead back to the changing room to try on another dress, fingering the one she'd just tried on. “I want that one, Rach.”
“I know..just humor us and try on a few more. What fun is it if you don't try on dresses? I have to make you try on shit you by anywhere else. Now you have people waiting on you. Enjoy it...What's wrong?” Rachel noticed the panicked look on Melissa's face.
“What if Joey doesn't like it?”
“Holy hell, Melissa Nicole,” Rachel said, rolling her eyes. “He'd love you if you turned into Fiona from Shrek. Quit worrying and try on dresses.”
Five dresses later, Melissa found herself slipping the first one back on. She let Ava add a headpiece, but no veil and wiped a tear. “This is the dress I'm gonna wear to become Mrs. Joey Fatone,” she said quietly, sticking her tongue out at Rachel, who was wiping her eyes. “Who knew you were a sap, Rach?”
“I cry at movies and shit. Shut up,” Rachel told her, smiling. “Now that this is over, we can go look at stuff for the honeymoon.”
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Joey grabbed his phone and chuckled at the picture. He bumped JC and showed him the signature. “So it begins,” he said, laughing when JC handed it off to Lance.
“I think she signs better than you do,” Lance told him and handed it off to Justin who was sitting there with his hand out.
“Yo dawg, her F is backward. She ain't even gonna sign Bass to nothin...gonna find Fatone spray painted on the yard.”
“She'll get it tattooed on her body,” Chris said as he looked then handed the phone back to Joey. “What are you gonna dance to for your first song?”
“Dunno, we haven't talked about it,” Joey told them. “Something classic I guess.”
“'Baby Got Back' is not classic,” Chris informed him as they all laughed, the discussion turning towards songs and weddings.
“Ya know, I don't think you've ever sang to my sister...I mean, you've sang to her while in the group, but never just to her in public,” Lance pointed out.
“I sing to her all the time,” Joey defended, blushing a little when the other guys asked. “It's private.”
“He has to serenade her to get some,” Justin teased, giving him a cheesy grin. “I don't see nothin wrong...with a little bump and grind..”
Joey laughed, shaking his head. “I don't care if she is Lance's sister, you aren't getting any details.”
“The thought of you naked is something I never ever hope to think about. What's all this talk about wedding songs, dawg?” Justin slid his arm around Joey. “We want to know about the bachelor party.”
“We want fun. We demand fun!” Chris told him, jumping on Joey's back playfully.
Ideas were tossed around from all of them, leaving Joey laughing hard. Strippers were out of the question, since he only wanted to see one girl naked, but he'd find something for them all to do. He had a bit of time to plan it out, firing off a text back to Melissa from her picture. 'Nice new last name, I think it's mine.' Joey laughed at the next message he got, one apparently from Rachel. It was all of the ladies on the couch giving him a thumbs up. 'Found THE dress.' It made him smile to see their families together, all of them happy. That was the plan.
“Okay guys, they're ready for you again,” one of the assistants called out, cutting off the conversation as they all got up.
Joey did as the photographer asked, crouching down beside Justin as Lance leaned down over behind him. “This shit needs to hurry up,” he muttered loud enough for Lance to hear.
“Why? You got a hot date?” Lance asked through his teeth, still smiling.
“Damn skippy.” Joey smiled and waited for the flash before moving. His mind wasn't on work. It was far from it, on a certain blonde. He let them fix his hair and change part of his clothes, getting individual shots of him and the rest of the guys. “Finally,” he muttered, getting in the car with JC, “take me home, Josh. As fast as you can.”
“Man, I hope when I find my soulmate, I don't act as mushy and whipped as you.”
Joey smirked as he looked over at JC, “I hope you act worse, Chasez. Cause it's the best fucking feeling in the world.”
Story Tags: joey
