They woke up the following morning to the sunlight streaming in through the windows. Getting into pajamas and jackets, they sat on the porch having tea. No talking, just enjoying the quiet of the morning before to busyness the rest of the day would bring. 

They had the leftovers Justin had made the morning before, just as good as if he’d made it fresh. 

“I don’t have to be at the arena for a few more hours for sound check and things, what do you want to do?” he asked. 

“I just want to be with you. Last night was amazing, I just want us snuggled up on the couch. Being able to be present, in the moment with each other, was so wonderful and intimate on a much deeper level.”

“We’re gonna be that old couple still so deeply in love with each other, aren’t we?” Justin laughed lightly. 

“I certainly hope so. It’s been so freeing not to check my phone and social media these last few days.”

“I have someone that helps with that stuff on my end, you’ll actually get to meet her I think. Usually I send pictures to post or she’ll ask me for something specific to post. Sometimes I do it myself, other times she’s the one posting and running my account. That way I’m not focusing on the negative stuff that comes up, which it definitely does.  But I get what you mean, we’ve really connected more these last few days.”

“It made me almost forget you’re this big celebrity, just being Justin. Like when you were Bruce.”

“I told you, he was that other part of me. That side doesn’t come out often, so I’m extra thankful for you, helping me be able to slow down, helping me be present.  I’m trying to find a balance between the two. That’s why I really wanted you on tour, to help me not get stuck in celebrity mode. It’ll definitely come through still, but to have you help keep me grounded.”

They took a quiet walk around the area surrounding the cabin, focusing on the sounds of nature, relaxing as much as they could while being together. They came back to the cabin and sat curled up on the couch, his arm wrapped around her, pulling her close. They sat for a while, sometimes talking, other times just being still.

Soon it was time for Justin to head for the arena. Deana grabbed her dress bag, along with stuff for hair and makeup. 

“You’ll need to be ready early so you can get a spot where you want. Once the fans get on the floor, you won’t be able to get up close.”

“Some nights I may want to step back a bit, as long as I get to still see you up on that stage.  I’ll text you where I am just so you can keep an eye on me throughout the show.  Tonight, I wanna be up close.” 

“I’ll have security near you. Not necessarily right beside you, but close enough in case anything happens.”

They headed to the arena, going into a back entry to get backstage. Justin stood by the door to good dressing room. “Want to open the door, get your first look at a dressing room for your celebrity boyfriend?”

Deana slowly opened the door, unsure what to expect. She saw a stocked bar, a couch, and a table that had flowers. The flowers were a bouquet of lilies and tulips, with a card. 

“It has MY name on it…” she said in amazement. 

“Well, I ordered them for you, so I certainly hope so…”

She opened the card. Happy real Valentines Day to the most wonderful woman I know. I love you more each day. Justin

“You spoiled me enough yesterday,” she said. 

“I told you, I’ll spoil you every day if I can, at least a little.  It’s actual Valentine’s Day today, I wasn’t gonna let it slip by without doing SOMETHING…” he smiled. 

“Thank you, baby. Sorry, I’m still getting used to all this. It feels like a lot to me, but I know you’re used to it and probably don’t even blink at how much something costs.”

“I’m not wasteful with my money, but it definitely is easy to pick up something and not worry about how much it costs.  It was hard once I actually started making money through the group and getting big amounts of money. That first check, to someone as young as I was, seemed like a lot. Now, that kind of money doesn’t phase me as being a lot. I’ve got investments and things as well, so there’s stuff to fall back on. Royalty checks from streaming sites will be there forever.  You’ll get used to it. If nothing else, it shows people you aren’t interested in my money.”

“Is there somewhere I can plug in my laptop to do school stuff?  I’ve been slacking off this week.”

“Shit, I’d completely forgotten about that. Baby, I’m so sorry, I should’ve made sure you had time to do this…”

“It’s fine. We needed this time, just us.  But now that this is my new normal, I need to be more on the ball. Everything I need is on my laptop or online. I need to start looking for credential programs; hopefully I can find one that’s online so I can travel with you without problems.”

“Now that you mention it, do you wanna stay with work once you finish? You said this is your last semester, right?  You could substitute while doing your credential program, get some experience in the classroom under your belt, gives you a flexible schedule.”

“Yeah, I’d been thinking about that.  I need to ask HR how that works, since I’m on leave, and they paid for the semester…”

“I can pay it back if that’s what’s needed. I meant it a month ago, I still mean it now.”

“I… Ok. We’ll look into things, ok?  I won’t fight you on this, I know you just want what’s best for me. It still seems like a lot to offer, but it’s also who you are. To me, this feels like a big gesture, but I don’t even know what a big gesture would be like from someone like you.”

“Trust me, you’ll know,” he said softly.  He led her out onto the arena floor, letting her see what the sound check looked like.  He figured if she saw it on the first stop, she knew what to expect and could spend that time the rest of the tour focusing on school stuff.  

She got back to the dressing room, opening up her laptop, and turning on her phone for the first time in what felt like forever.  She’d brought her charger just in case, especially since she had a few hours to charge it before the show to get pictures.

She saw a stream of texts from Danielle, starting to worry as she saw the amount of notifications.  She unlocked her phone, scrolled down the thread to start at the beginning of the trip, and prepared for the worst.  

Hey, just checking in, missing you.  Hope you’re having a great time.  Love you.

There were messages like this every day, just in case Deana had her phone on.  There was one that caught her eye, different from the rest, which started a small thread of texts.

That Instagram post you and Justin posted, the one holding hands, it has BLOWN UP!  So many great responses from fans that he’s happy.  Some haters, of course, but know that most of the fans responding are supporting you guys.  Your personal page is getting lots of love, too.  No hate on there since we locked down your account, but hopefully this is a good step in you being in the public eye.  Know that we’re on your side, no matter what, D.  We set a date, February 15, 2020, so tell your boyfriend he better not have anything planned that weekend to keep you away from our special day.

The post is VIRAL!  Everyone I know is sharing it in some form or another, articles are floating around using the pictures from before your trip, the fans have taken the reins from the media and now the media is loving you two!

Deana had a smile on her face.  “They like me,” she said quietly.  Justin looked at her from across the room.

“Dani said your post from last week that we posted is viral.  I guess the fans kinda took it and ran, happy that you found someone.  I guess there are articles floating around, all kinds of stuff that is positive this time around.”

“I can’t believe I’ve had my phone off since getting here,” he said.  “Hopefully my team sees it the same way, but I can’t imagine Danielle would mislead you on something like that.  If it’s true, this is great.  They may not know who you are, but they like how happy you’re making me.  My exes haven’t always gotten so lucky with my fans.”

“Yeah, I was always kinda straddling that line between your happiness and wishing it was me.  Now that it is, I feel that pressure a bit more all of a sudden.”

“Don’t.  We’re together for no one but ourselves.  The rest of the world could hate you and I still wouldn’t love you any less.  I’ve meant everything I’ve told you on where I see this heading…”

“Honestly, I thought you were gonna propose last night.  The things you said, then the small jewelry box.  I knew it wasn’t a ring box, but it could’ve been to throw me off.”

“Trust me, you won’t see it coming.  I have it all planned out, more or less.  I just hope you’ll say yes.”

“Um, do you really think I’d say no?”

“I dunno, clearly what’s his face needed convincing that you would…”

“Well, he was an idiot…”

“I don’t know that there’s a word for someone stupid enough to let you go,” Justin said.

“It all worked out in the end for both of us, that’s what matters.”

Justin looked at his phone.  He scrolled through texts, different notifications that popped up.  “Yeah, we’re viral.  Congratulations, your hand is now famous.  I texted my social media person to check in on things, see what their take on things is.  She wanted some stuff earlier this week, I guess people are wanting more of us.  If I can get away with it, I don’t want more pictures of you out until after the tour is over, so you aren’t getting mobbed by fans in one way or another at shows.  I want you to be out there if that’s what you want, not hiding backstage.  I might be able to get a suite at each show if needed, especially for your safety.  But that’s not the same thing as being out with the fans, being one of them, and I wouldn’t be able to see you as well.  The more we post, but keep your face out of things, the fans get to see me happy, but keep your identity a secret.”

“I feel like we’ve switched now.  Before, YOU were hiding your identity.  Now, it’s my turn.”

“All out of an abundance of caution.  But yeah, the roles have been switched, for sure.”

There was a knock at the dressing room door.  “Come in,” Justin said.

He saw two women walk through the door.  “Deana, this is my assistant, you’ve already met her, and my social media expert.  So, what are we dealing with here?”

“There’s buzz even here about your new girlfriend.  There were reported sightings, but no real pictures to speak of.  Even then they were few and far between.  But it was still all positive, so hopefully this is turning around.”

“Can I post stuff on my page and tag him, without it sending up red flags and catching attention?”

“Technically yes, but there could be people you have that can share pictures and stuff and it would have your handle unless they edited it out.  At the worst, they have your IG handle and you’ll get a flood of follow requests.  Depending on how things go, we might need to make a separate account for you, one for fans, the other for your friends and family, keep certain things more private.”

“If I post pictures, but don’t tag him, that’s safest, right?  Especially if they’re pictures without anything that could firmly identify him?”

“That would be safest, but it’s also your personal page, if you want your family and friends to see you two unfiltered, as it were, you have every right to.”

“Maybe through the end of the tour, like you said,” she looked at Justin.

“It’s up to you.  The people closest to you know we’re together, you could still post without my face and they’d know it’s me.”

“Let’s do that then, once things settle down a bit we can be more open,” she decided.

“OK.  We’ll figure out posts and such with that in mind moving forward.  We’ll try to keep things more tour focused for now, adding in bits of you two as you’re comfortable.”

“Sounds great. Thanks for the update. I wanna make sure Deana has some time to do school stuff, so we can talk later on anything.”

“I’d say you have about 2 hours before you need to get ready and get out to where we can get you out on the floor,” his assistant said to Deana. “Let me know when you’re ready and I’ll help get you in place.”

Deana nodded before the two left the room. She put all her focus on her schoolwork, letting Justin work on other things before the show.   Before she knew it, time had flown by and she was mostly caught up for the week. 

She walked over to the couch Justin was sitting on, curling up next to him to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’m gonna start getting ready. I know this is a dressing room, but I’m gonna use the bathroom so you can’t see me until I’m ready.”

“Worth the wait,” he replied. 

She headed in, doing her best with what she had. She wished she had Danielle with her to look her best. She did her hair and makeup, then carefully got into her dress. 

She opened the door a crack. “Ready?”

“Always,” he answered with a soft chuckle. 

She opened the door. She had on a black dress. It had a thick neck, but deep shoulder slits going into a slight flutter sleeve that stopped at her elbows. It has a deep u neck cut, showing off her cleavage, clinging to her curves before stopping mid thigh. 

“That is a sexy dress, an even sexier, confident woman underneath it. You look great, Deana.”

Her hair was pinned back on top, the rest of her hair pulled back in a low ponytail. She did her now usual silver eye, wearing the jewelry Justin had bought for her. 

“Seriously, I think that deserves a selfie on social media. Show off this confidence you have,” Justin encouraged. 

She took a selfie a posted the picture with the caption “dressed up for a concert with the boyfriend” 

“Perfect. You get to show off how great you look, and flaunt being in a new relationship without it being a big deal. Now I feel like I should post something.”

“They already did ahead of the show tonight. I mean, you still could, it’s your account and all.”

“I have an idea. Your shoes just complete this outfit, I wanna post my shoe next to yours.”  He stood right next to her, his foot up against hers on the floor, taking a close up of their shoes. The caption read “girlfriend and I are killing it tonight. Shoe game is on point”

“My post didn’t show my shoes, so you can’t trace it, that works.”  They smiled at each other, his arm around her waist. 

A knock at the door ruined their moment, his assistant coming to get Deana to take out her to the floor. 

“I’ll text you where I am,” she said, holding her phone up. “See you out there, babe, you’re gonna be great.”

Deana took her place at the far end of the stage, knowing that’s where he’d be for “Man of the Woods”.  She sent him a picture of her spot on the floor, and got to talking to the other fans around her. She enjoyed being able to interact with the fans, it made her feel less alone in the crowd. She got to know them a little bit, comparing stories of previous concerts over the years. 

She danced with the other girls around her, they saved her spot when she needed to pee, thankful for the new group of short term friends she’d made for the night. They noticed his post on Instagram with the shoes, but didn’t think that she was any different than they were, much to her relief. 

The lights blacked out, she put her earplugs in, and once Justin came out on stage, it was like she was just another fan excited to see him perform.