Deana woke up the next morning, the bed empty beside her.  I’m in HIS place, so he can’t go TOO far, and his party is tonight… she thought.  She put her tank top and shorts on, and silently padded down the hall.  The smell of pancakes came down the hall, and she smiled.  She followed the scent to the kitchen. 

“Good morning, you’re finally up,” Justin said.

“What time is it?” she asked.

“11.  Good thing there’s still some hours left in the school day…”  

She wrapped an arm around his waist and gave him a kiss on the cheek.  “Well, I had a VERY exhausting night last night... How long have you been up?”

“Long enough to watch you sleep for a bit, take a shower, and get started on breakfast.”

“You really watched me sleep?”

“You’re cute when you sleep, I couldn’t help it,” he said with a smile.  “Have a seat, breakfast is just about ready.  I have tea going, nothing as cute as you have, but it’ll get the job done.”

“What do we do about my job?” she asked.

“I thought you said you might go down to part time…”

“You’re practically a regular at my store, how do we hide our relationship from them?”

“Why would we?  It might be something that endears people to you.  We fell in love at karaoke, and you gave me my coffee or tea any time I’d come in.  The press is gonna find out about us eventually.  Odds are there’s gonna be lots of pictures taken tonight for my party, so we might end up outing ourselves.  Again, why would we hide anything?”

“Because of what I look like…”

“Fuck em.  I love you, you love me, that’s all that matters.  Just you watch, tonight you’re gonna be blown away by how supportive people are.  I’ve told a lot of them about you, how happy you’ve made me.  They’ll be glad for that and happy that we’re happy.”

“I’m suddenly very nervous to meet Mama Lynn…”

“She’ll love you.  I told her at Christmas we were talking about marriage and kids, so hopefully she won’t say anything about that to you.”

“Shit…”

“What?”

“Marriage, kids…”

“You’re not freaking out now, are you?”

“Kinda, yeah.  But only that I’d be living out my teenage fangirl dream of becoming Mrs. Justin Timberlake…  I mean, pinch me, this CAN’T be real.”

“I assure you, it most definitely is real.  I still want it, down the line.”

“The kids part might have to come first, I dunno, I’m not getting any younger.  Not that I HAVE to have them now, but it’s been weighing on me that since I wasn’t even married by 35, that by the time having kids is an option, it might be too late, too risky.”

“Things are still new, we’ll get things figured out.  If it doesn’t happen, we’ll look at other options, but it doesn’t change that I see a real future with you, Deana.”

“See, this is what I love.  We help keep each other grounded in different ways.”

Justin put the stack of pancakes on the table, along with bacon cooked to varying degrees.  “This helps me see what you deem acceptable bacon doneness,” he laughed.

She picked up a couple strips on the lighter side of cooked, but used her fork to mark a line in the gradient of bacon.  They smiled at each other.

“So what did you have in mind for Ms. S.’s kids today?” she asked.

“My original idea was too over the top…”

“Being?”

“Come in dressed as Branch, earn some super brownie points for you…”

“Um, I’m pretty sure they all know you anyway.  They love to dance to that song.  GoNoodle partnered with DreamWorks to make a dance video to the song…”

“What’s GoNoodle?”

“It’s a website that has a lot of movement videos, fun songs and stuff to get kids moving that teachers can use in their classroom.  They have a thing with Kidz Bop with some songs, they have their own dance along video to “Bye Bye Bye”, but of course none of the moves are right.  It bothers the hell out of me.  The video for “Can’t Stop The Feeling” is nothing like your music video or the tour, but the kids LOVE it on rainy days and stuff…”

“So you bringing me in and doing that dance with them would be cool, right?”

“You really wanna do that?”

“Why not?  I like kids, and it gives me some ideas of stuff for once you have a class, coming in and surprising them from time to time, reading books or something like I did around Christmas.”

“Aren’t you just the sweetest?” she said, putting her hand on his arm.  

“I try.”

“I’ll text Ms. S., they should be going on lunch pretty soon, see when would be good.”

“I just got an idea…” she said. 

“What?”

“I can go into a bookstore, Target, whatever’s closest, see if they have a Trolls book.  I buy two copies, and call you, put you on speaker.  I read most of it, you read the Branch lines…”

“I like it.  I’ll even autograph the book and donate it to their class. I'm sure that’s gonna be the favorite for a long time.”

“Then after the story you come in, we dance to the video, and say goodbye.  After you get attacked by about 22 6 year olds…”

“I won’t need security, will I?” Justin laughed.  “No crazed fans…”

“Just the one you’re sleeping with,” Deana joked.

She got her phone and texted Ms. S. with their plan.  “Shit, I don’t have anything but what I wore to the concert last night…”

“Do you wanna take a quick shower at the very least?  That outfit is VERY cute on you…  I promise, I have some not so manly shower gel in there somewhere.  Lemme go look…”

“Let’s finish eating first.”

They finished eating, Justin ran to the guest bath and found some travel sized shower gels.  “I try to be a gracious host, have stuff just in case.  You can use my shower though, get used to it compared to yours.”

“Just a quick rinse, 5 minutes tops once the water warms up.”

“I grabbed a little deodorant for you, too.  Figured you probably didn't bring one.”

“So thoughtful…  I’ll be right back.”  She kissed his cheek and went down the hall.

Justin’s phone buzzed.  Hey man, how was your night last night?

Trace, don’t even get started, man…

How did she take your big reveal?

I could be dirty about it, I really wanna, but it went well.  A little rough at first for her to process everything.  But my overall ‘plan’ for the night worked out.  We’re getting ready to surprise the class she volunteers with, then I figured maybe dinner with you and my folks before the party.  Let her get to meet you guys before the onslaught of everyone else at the party, ease her way in.  

I’m glad it went well.  Let me know about dinner and we’ll meet you.  Maybe she and Samantha can hang out at the party, have someone to talk to.

That’s actually really helpful, and better than sticking her with my mom all night.  That came out wrong, but you know what I meant…

See you later, man.  Enjoy the rest of your day.

Deana came out in the shirt and leggings, makeup washed off but her hair put back how she had it the night before.  

“You got your jacket back last night, right? I just realized we might need them.  Calling my driver now so we can pick up the books and head over.”

“Yeah, I have my jacket.  You ready?”

“Yeah, this’ll be fun.  I couldn’t really interact with the kids last time, so this will be fun.  And I’m a much more believable Branch than a Santa…”

“I dunno, you haven’t seemed very Branch-ish since I met you.”

“Well, you’re a good influence on me, like Poppy ended up being for Branch.”

“Ok, now you’re just getting cheesy, but I love it.  Let’s go.”

They headed down to the lobby and got into his car.  Deana went into Barnes and Noble and found a couple copies of one book.  She came back out to the car and headed to the school.  The first graders had gone in from lunch, but other classes were still outside.  Justin pulled up his jacket a bit to hide his face as they headed to the office to sign in.  He remembered the last time he was in, signing in as Bruce Wayne.  

“It feels nice to put my actual name this time…”

“Hi Deana, glad you’re… oh, my gosh… is that...?” the school secretary literally dropped what she was doing as she saw Justin.

“It is.  We’re here to surprise Ms. S.’s kids.”

“How... do you…?” she asked, still shocked.

“Well, I guess it starts now,” Deana said, looking at Justin.  “We’re dating,” she whispered. 

“Wow, WOW.  Great.  Go ahead and go on over, hopefully no one else figures it out before you get there…”

“We’ll be careful, thanks,” Deana assured her.

Justin pulled his jacket back up, and they got to the classroom.  Justin stood against the wall outside the classroom, his phone ready for her call.  Deana walked into the classroom, Justin out of sight, and was greeted by cheers from the kids.

“Miss Deana, we missed you!!”

“Well, I’m here today with a very special story for you.  A friend of mine wanted to help me read it to you.  Can we sit on the carpet and be very quiet so my friend can help me read the story?”

The kids ran to their spots on the carpet.  Deana got out her phone and called Justin.  “Alright, my friend, I’m ready to start our story, and the kids are ready to listen.  Remember, friends, we have to be REALLY quiet and listen to the story…”

She started the story, Justin waiting for his cue to read.  He noticed how she was a great reader, the inflection and voices she gave the other characters, he was just as interested in the story as the kids were.  They got to his first line of dialogue.  He read, and he heard the kids gasp. 

“It’s Branch!!” they yelled.  Deana quieted them down to continue the story.  They went back and forth reading the story, the kids now thoroughly immersed in the story.  At the end, Deana told them how great they did being quiet.

“As a surprise, I have another special surprise for you.  Is it ok if we have a little dance party with my friend?”

Deana got the video up and ready for them, and went to the door.  She opened it a crack, peeking out into the hall.  “You ready?”

“OK, friends, here’s our special surprise!”  Justin slowly opened the door and walked in.  

The kids gasped and screamed as they recognized him.  “It’s him, it’s really him!”

Ms. S. stood in the back while they danced with the kids to the video.  Deana could tell Justin was fighting the urge to go into his routine compared to what was up on the screen.  He could easily follow along, but sometimes he went on auto pilot.  The song ended, and the kids all rushed to give him a group hug, nearly making him fall over.

“Since when do you know Justin Timberlake?” Ms. S. asked.

“He’s a regular at my store, but it turns out he’s actually Bruce.  It’s complicated, but the guy I met at karaoke, who came and brought the hot cocoa, paid for our dinner that one night, it was all Justin.  He’d been keeping low with his vocal rest, and we fell in love along the way.”

“I thought he looked familiar in the pictures you showed me, but I couldn’t quite place it.  I’m glad he makes you happy, that’s what matters.  It could’ve been Justin, it could’ve been anyone, I’m glad that you’re happy.  You deserve it, Deana.”

They said goodbye, the kids not wanting him to leave.  Deana explained they had to leave before all the moms and dads came to pick up kids, because it would just be too many people around all at once.  Justin signed the book before they left, giving it to Ms. S.  

“Thank you, and I hope we see you around again soon.  Thank you for being so good to Deana.  She means a lot to us.”

“She means a lot to me, too,” he smiled.