No longer waiting for a response, JC turned and headed in the house. “Hey!” Colleen smiled as he entered then quickly read the expression on his face. “What’s going on?”

“We need to go,” he said bluntly, heading for the front door.

“And now the fighting portion of the evening has begun,” Michael sighed. “Ok boys, let’s save our game and get ready for bed.”

“JC, where are you going?” Colleen quickly scrambled off the couch. “You can’t drive.”

“Fine, here,” JC didn’t argue, tossing Colleen the keys and opening the door.

“JC, don’t,” Justin came running in from the backyard. “You’ve got it wrong, man.”

“Let’s go,” JC said forcefully to Colleen, ignoring Justin’s plea.

“No,” Colleen said firmly. “First of all, I can’t drive either. Second of all, you two clearly need to sort something out.”

“I’ll call an Uber,” JC said as he began to exit.

“Joshua Scott, you get your ass back in here right now!” Colleen yelled. JC turned back, shocked Colleen hadn’t simply come along.

“Not the middle name,” Silas whispered, quickly saving the game and running up the stairs, knowing whatever Uncle JC had done had to be bad. Nash quickly followed and Michael walked behind, keeping an eye on the drama unfolding.

“I’m gonna give you all some space,” Karly said, moving to go up the stairs as well to help Michael put the boys to bed.

“Colleen, I want to go,” JC tried to say calmly.

“And I want to know what happened,” she replied.

“Can I please just explain it to you in the car?” JC nearly pleaded, not wanting to have a fight with his girlfriend as well.

Colleen looked to Justin then outside, where the rest of the group quickly pretended to not be watching what was happening. “Justin, go back outside. JC, find a spare bedroom to cool off. You two can hash it out in the morning when everyone is sober.”

“We aren’t staying here,” JC informed her.

“Yes, we are,” she said simply. “Justin owes us one for when he crashed at your place plus you guys have to start recording tomorrow night. It’s not getting ruined because you two had a blow up.”

“She’s right, C,” Justin added. JC whipped his head towards Justin, warning the younger man with his eyes to not even reference his girlfriend at the moment.

“Honey, just take a breather, ok?” she said softly to JC. She walked over to Justin and turned him around, leading him back out to the yard. “Come on, let’s give him some space.”

“No!” JC yelled, his voice shaking slightly as he watched his girlfriend walk off with one of his best friends and leaving him alone. Both turned back and Justin instantly pulled out of Colleen’s grasp, knowing that’s what was setting JC off again. JC had just enough sense not to verbalize what was going on in his mind. “I’ll go back out.”

Colleen instantly walked over to JC, putting her hands on either side of his face. “Baby, it’s ok. Whatever it is, it’s ok. We’re just trying to give you a few moments to gather yourself.”

“Don’t leave me,” JC sputtered out, on the verge of tears.

“Ok,” Colleen replied softly, not registering all that JC meant by his statement. “Let’s go for a walk.” Colleen wrapped an arm around JC’s waist and led him out the front door. Justin just stood there and watched them go, unsure what else to do.

JC and Colleen walked silently down the long driveway to the gates at the entranceway. He kept replaying the conversation in his head of what had happened. Did Justin really think he was gonna fuck things up with Colleen or was he just angry at Joey for voicing what they all had been thinking? Was he really concerned Justin might have a thing for Colleen or was he just being defensive? All he knew for sure was he was drunker than he’d realized and imagined that was probably the case for everyone else.

“Do you want to talk?” Colleen gently asked.

“I’m not sure where to start,” JC said, trying to decide what he wanted to share. “Justin wanted to know if he made a mistake marrying Jess and it all kind of devolved from there.”

“Karly and I debated going back out once Phin fell asleep but you guys seemed to be fine when we came back down so we let you all be. They warned me this might happen, especially once the alcohol gets flowing.”

“No matter how old I get, I’m still in my early 20s when I’m around them. They’re my brothers in every sense of the word except biologically. I’d take a bullet for them but they also know where to drive the knife the deepest.”

“So Justin pushed a button, I take it?”

“Yeah…I…we’ve all been drinking. He was getting heat from all of us and I was just an easy target, I guess.”

“Super mature, Timberlake,” Colleen rolled her eyes.

“He’s always going to be my bratty, pain in the ass, younger brother. I love him but I was always closest with him so he knows best of all how to set me off and vice versa.”

“Can I ask what he said?”

JC bit his lip, not wanting Colleen to get upset either. “He’s obviously going through a lot and he’s kind of looking at us and thinking we have it perfect.”

“Well, nobody has it perfect, but I think we do ok,” Colleen smiled at JC and squeezed his hand.

“Yeah, we do,” JC said back, “but, um, he may have made a bit of a point.”

“Which is?”

“You…I…” JC breathed deep. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“If I was a regular guy, no fame, nothing, and we met the same way we did, would we still be where we are now?”

Colleen thought back to their initial meeting in her office, her shaking rage at Raina, her subsequent decision to contact JC… “I can’t tell you with one hundred percent certainty but I hope I would have made the same decisions, even the one where I threw you out of my office. I think my motives may have been a little different but I think we’d still be together.”

“What do you mean by your motives?”

“If you weren’t my life long crush, I wouldn’t have forced myself to text you when Raina gave me your number. That said, I think curiosity still would have led me to do it, just maybe not the same day.”

“So, normal guy…you’d still be ok with me being with Raina?”

“If the only difference in this scenario is just your level of notoriety, then yes. The same rules would apply that we set forth from the beginning.”

“What about marriage, kids, that kind of stuff?”

Colleen sighed and walked a few feet away from JC, glad they were having the conversation but wishing he didn’t want to have it tonight. She turned back and addressed him honestly. “My view on kids doesn’t change but marriage…yeah, I think it would be different.”

“Why?”

“Because I’ve actually watched your relationships over the years, at least the major ones. I know the troubles you’ve had, the times you got cheated on…the times you’ve cheated. You’ve dated a lot of women and that’s not a bad thing, just…it gives me some grounding on where I stand. A regular guy with the history you have…I think it would have scared me off.”

“You said before you let me get away with stuff involving my past, I didn’t realize that was affecting your expectations of me.”

“I wouldn’t say expectations. It’s a super unique situation having watched you go through all this, even from afar verses being told the experiences first hand. I think it makes me a bit more empathetic to why you are reluctant about getting married.”

“And if I was a regular guy telling you all this, you wouldn’t have been so understanding?”

“I don’t think I would have been,” Colleen admitted to him and to herself as she wiped a growing tear away. “It would have been a big red flag about having a future together but that said, you would still be the caring, talented, funny, creative, sexy man I have fallen in love with. You’re the love of my life, JC and I might have missed out on that if this had gone any other way.”

JC stared down at the ground, taking in everything Colleen had said. “I…I don’t think I can give you what you want,” he looked up.

“What I want is you,” Colleen reassured him, walking back over and clasping his hands.

“You’re settling for me,” JC told her.

“How in the hell is this settling?!” Colleen asked him.

“All the fancy parties and *NSYNC get togethers don’t matter at the end of the day. This is about you and me and what we want…”

“Right,” Colleen cut him off. “All those things are nice perks, I won’t lie about that but I’m not dating you because of them. Watching you idiots fight doesn’t make me happy; you make me happy.”

JC couldn’t help letting a small smile escape at that. “I don’t know that I’ll ever be ready to get married. It’s my hang up, I know that, I just need you to know I might not ever get there and that doesn’t mean I love you any less.”

“Do you feel like I’ve been pressuring you about getting married?”

“No, but I feel like everyone else is,” JC made a low chuckle. 

“What did you just say? That this is about us and what we want. What we have is working and if we ever want to change it, we’ll address it with each other. No one else, including your closest friends, get to dictate anything about our relationship.”

JC tried to shake the feeling he had but just couldn’t. He knew deep inside him Colleen wouldn’t have put up with him if he was just some regular guy and now she had confirmed it. It hurt and he didn’t know what he could do about it. He’d been trying for years to disappear from the limelight yet he knew he’d never fully be able to. Hell, he was even courting it again by getting back with the guys. 

“I want to just be a regular guy when it comes to you, to us. I don’t know how that can work though because I’m not, not to you at least. I think my family is literally it anymore who can see me that way. I don’t want to be Justin and Jess.”

“I’m not sure what you mean by that.”

“Justin got upset because we feel like maybe Jess is more in love with being Justin Timberlake’s wife and mother of his children than with Justin, to simplify it,” JC told her. “I don’t want that for us. Promise me you won’t stick around just because I once was something.”

“Jesus,” Colleen breathed and threw her arms around JC’s neck, squeezing him tight. “You never stopped being something. You are a loving son, a loyal brother, a generous friend, an extremely talented musician and a caring and compassionate boyfriend. Being famous changes literally none of these things.”

JC put his head on Colleen’s shoulder, wanting so hard to believe her. “I can’t make you see me any differently, Colleen. That’s not…there’s nothing you can do about that and I’m not mad just…sad. No one will ever know me before I became famous.”

“I understand fame can change a person but that’s not always the case and I think with you, with all of you guys actually, you stayed grounded and humble. Fame gave you access to luxuries and opportunities, money and women, and sure, you all indulged from time to time, can’t blame you for that. At your core though, you never let it affect the person you were. Josh didn’t change because JC was famous.”

“I keep searching for the balance between the two and I still…this doesn’t make sense, I know but I wish I could be just Josh with you. That setup for your birthday…it was almost unnerving how easy it was to be that guy again. Because that guy is me.”

“It’s a part of you. Am I a lawyer when I get home? No, but that attitude is a part of me that comes out when it needs to.”

“Like when you yelled at me earlier for trying to leave?” JC smiled slightly.

“Oh God, I think I scared poor Silas and Nash. I’ll make them pancakes in the morning,” Colleen laughed. “You get the point though. All of it makes up the beautiful enigma that is you and I love every single part of it.” Colleen leaned over and gave JC a brief kiss then had an idea. “Would it help you if I started calling you Josh?”

“Doesn’t that go against the whole “reconcile the two halves of yourself” thing you keep saying?”

“You wanna go by JoshC then?” Colleen joked.

“I’m just saying, you’ve known me forever as JC. You don’t have to go changing it just because I have an identity crisis.”

“You said you wanted to be a regular guy around me and you associate Josh with that mentality. I have to admit, it does feel a bit more intimate than JC but I’m not trying to force you to change anything, it’s just a suggestion.”

JC looked at Colleen curiously. “You’d do that for me?”

“I’d be calling you by the name on your birth certificate, not giving you a kidney,” Colleen told him. “There’s very little I wouldn’t do for you.”

“Like what?” JC smiled.

“Camping. There was an unfortunate incident at Girl Scout camp where a very large spider decided to crawl onto my sleeping bag and that was the last time I ever slept outdoors.”

“Well good thing you said something so I have time to cancel the weekend anniversary trip up to Pinnacles,” JC grinned, unable to keep a straight face. Colleen shot him a look calling his bluff. JC let his grin fade as he looked sincerely at his girlfriend. “I think I’d like to try that. The Josh thing, not the camping.”

“Ok Josh,” Colleen smiled brightly at him. “Let’s see how it goes.” Colleen finally let go of his neck and intertwined her fingers with his. “Think you’re ready to go back in?”

Josh took a deep breath in then exhaled. “Yeah, I’m good,” he squeezed her hand as they headed back to the house.

“Hey, welcome back to the party!” Chris sarcastically exclaimed as JC and Colleen reappeared. “You’re just in time for the retelling of when Joey farted in Justin’s face.” Karly, who was now perched in Chris’s lap, gave him a playful smack in the arm.

“Which time? There were so many,” JC gave a small smile.

“The one from five minutes ago,” Joey said proudly as he turned his backside toward Justin. “Why retell when I can probably do a replay if you give me a minute?”

“No!” Everyone yelled as Justin took off running, Joey starting after him then giving up quickly as it wasn’t worth the effort.

“How you doing?” Lance asked JC as he cuddled with Michael on a lounge chair.

“I’m alright. Just needed a breather,” JC reassured him.

“Hey,” Justin addressed JC as he jogged back. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” Justin paused when he saw Colleen there, unsure what JC had said to her.

“Ah, the public apology. This is my favorite part,” Michael stretched and put his hands behind his head.

“Justin’s had lots of practice with them lately,” Joey teased. “Pretty sure his Notes app just writes them for him at this point.”

Justin walked past Joey and put his hand on his face to shove him away. Colleen let go of JC’s hand as Justin approached. “Look man, we both said some shit that…”

“I shouldn’t have gotten defensive and attacked you.” Justin interrupted. “It was…it was uncalled for and I’m sorry. I asked you all for your honest feedback and you gave it to me and I didn’t take it well.”

“You never take it well,” JC smiled softly.

“I don’t know when I took over the hot-headed trait from Chris,” Justin joked. Chris smiled and gave Justin the middle finger. “You’re right, JC. I’m jealous. You two have what I thought I did, what I lost somewhere along the way, or maybe it wasn’t real to begin with.”

“Justin…” JC started.

“My point is,” Justin continued, “you didn’t deserve your past thrown back in your face like that. Joey’s kind of right; I’ve asked people to let me show them that I’ve grown so I need to afford you the same courtesy. I just want you to be happy, JC.”

“I want the same for you, J,” JC responded as the boys embraced to a chorus of “awwws” and applause.

Justin held JC tight and whispered in his ear. “I’m trying to save my marriage, not take your girl. I like her as a person and I like her for you. I swear to you, that’s it.”

“I know,” JC slapped Justin’s back a few times. “I just wanted to hurt you back. I’m sorry, that was a dick move on my part.”

“It’s ok,” Justin said, pulling back. “I think we’ve both made pretty good assholes of ourselves tonight.” Justin looked JC right in the eye. “I love you, C. I hope you know that.”

“I do. I love you too, Justin,” JC smiled back.

“Make out already!” Chris shouted.

“No,” Justin and JC said in unison.

“Why does that never seem to work?” Chris wondered.

“Cuz I’m the only one who’s actually gay in the group and I don’t want to make out with any of you idiots,” Lance offered.

“That’s only because you and JC never fight,” Joey stated.

“So is this really how it goes whenever you guys get together? Good until someone hits a nerve then all hell breaks loose but eventually cooler heads prevail and you’re fine again?” Colleen asked.

“Not every time but, yeah, pretty accurate,” Joey surmised. “The alcohol doesn’t help.”

“Maybe…don’t drink?” Colleen threw out there.

Joey laughed, “Hell no. I said it didn’t help, not that it caused it.”

“Chris and Lance got into it before Coachella,” JC told her. “We weren’t drinking before the show but we got hammered on the ride back and they were fine by then.”

“Honestly surprised you didn’t kick Chris’s ass,” Colleen said to Michael.

“Oh, Lance can handle his friends. It’s stupid internet trolls that want to attack Lance because they just want to spread hate instead of read facts that I wipe the floor with,” Michael smiled.

“I need you on my social media team,” Justin told him.

“I see the fans out there defending you. They got your back,” Michael responded.

“Yeah, I see it too. It’s pretty cool, I guess, I just wish people could get over teenage drama, especially people who weren’t even alive when it happened,” Justin lamented.

“Or, you know, not involved in it,” Lance said.

“I wasn’t involved but I still wanted all the details,” Chris reminded them.

“Well, you’re my friend and you had to hear me cry about it so you were involved on some level,” Justin explained.

“You milked it just to get your own room, we all know it,” Chris winked.

“Alright, before another fight breaks out, I’m the lucky boy who gets to take two *NSYNC members home,” Michael declared, standing up.

“Yeah, but it’s Lance and Joey. Not exactly a win there,” Chris said.

“At least take the pretty one,” Justin told him, pushing JC toward Michael. “You don’t mind sharing, do you?” Justin asked Colleen.

“If we add any more, we’d need to declare ourselves a commune,” Colleen quipped back, making JC’s band mates howl with laughter.

“I always thought you should look into a harem,” Joey got out at JC. “Easy to trade women in and out, give them a break now and then…I mean, he’s gotta be hard to keep up with, right?” he then addressed Colleen.

“Well, if I’m doing it right, it’s definitely hard,” Colleen responded with a grin. 

“Ok, no offense, but I don’t need that mental image,” Lance chuckled and stood up to join Michael.

“Is it because Colleen has boobs or that you aren’t the one getting JC hard?” Joey asked with a smirk. JC covered his face with his hands.

“Ah, the group balance has been restored,” Chris said as he took a swig of beer.

“I’m leaving you here,” Lance told Joey and laughed. “You’re a lot even for you right now.”

“But who will I cuddle tonight?” Joey asked, then turned to Justin with puppy dog eyes.

“Get out of my house,” Justin laughed and gave Joey a hug. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.” He then turned to Michael. “You ok to drive?”

“Absolutely. I stopped drinking at dinner. Unofficial rule that I drive when you guys get together.”

“Good idea,” Colleen said. “I’ll remember that for next time.”

“You two staying?” Justin asked JC, trying to hide the hopefulness in his voice that them staying really meant things were ok.

“Yeah, probably for the best,” JC said, looking over at Colleen and smiling.

Everyone said their good nights and goodbyes as Lance, Michael and Joey headed home while Karly and Chris went to bed. Justin showed Colleen and JC to a guest bedroom then headed to bed as well.

Justin lay in his king size bed by himself and tried to gather his thoughts. No Jess to share the bed with…not that it really mattered, they hadn’t shared a bed together in weeks. No ridiculous friends to keep him company. At this point, he probably would have welcomed Joey to have crashed with him. He hated feeling this alone.

He got back up and paced the room a bit. What the guys had said was really bothering him. He brought it on himself but that didn’t make their words sting any less. Had he really been so blind or were they just projecting theories? If she was so interested in being his wife, even as a status symbol, wouldn’t she be trying harder to do that? Justin sighed and headed to the bathroom. “Guess that’s something to unpack with Charlotte next week,” he thought to himself.

Justin’s marriage counseling sessions were going so so but his therapy with Charlotte was really helping. If anything, he felt calmer and more ready to face the next tough discussion when they were done each time. They hadn’t really dived into anything deep thus far but just working on his anxiety was a tremendous help.

After taking a piss, Justin opted for a quick shower before trying to sleep again to get the smell of the grill off his skin. He started the shower then cursed, realizing all his things were in the bathroom off the bedroom he had been sleeping in recently. He shut the water off and threw on a t shirt as he padded down the hallway toward where Colleen and JC were staying.

He didn’t want to bother them so he quietly entered from the hallway door. The door from the bathroom to their room was slightly ajar so Justin kept the light off as not to disturb them. He gathered up his hair products and soap and began to head back when he heard movement coming from the bedroom.

“Mmmmm, Josh,” Justin heard Colleen’s soft moan. Justin quickly put the containers he was carrying down on the sink counter and peered into the room. He couldn’t see Josh’s body or face, only his hands as they ran over Colleen’s naked body as she slowly rode him.

“Say it again,” he heard JC say.

“Josh,” Colleen breathed.

Justin was damn near shocked to hear Colleen use JC’s real name. The only people who called him Josh were his parents. He’d never known another woman to ever call him that. Maybe he really was getting serious about her.

“I love you,” Josh told his girlfriend.

“I love you too,” she responded. Justin watched as Colleen’s breasts bounced slightly with her movements, JC’s hands moving up to caress them. This looked intimate…not just because they were having sex but because it was slow and meaningful. It was nothing like how Justin imagined their sex life was like, nothing like how he’d seen Colleen before. He never really thought their sex could be so…versatile.

Colleen moved her hands up her body into her hair, arching her back and giving JC a bit of a show. Justin could only see from the side and knew the full on view had to be amazing. He heard JC moan and Colleen’s body started to bounce more as Justin could now see JC’s knees come up to thrust into her harder.

“Jesus, I can’t watch this,” Justin finally came to his senses, gathering his things once more as he slipped out of the bathroom and returned to his own. He hopped in the shower once he got the water temperature right and began to scrub his body. He let out a soft moan as his hand found his semi hard cock. He tried to remember the last time Jess had given him a show like that. Justin finally found the memory but the face looking back at him was younger than present. It had been far too long.

His anger started to rise so he switched his brain to think of someone else. The problem with being a celebrity was anyone you tried to fantasize about to get you off, you probably knew. Justin’s mental rolodex was running out of names so he tried to create someone out of his mind. A fan, someone that would worship his cock the way he needed.

Justin couldn’t settle his brain on someone to look at. He tried to remember the sensation of getting a blow job but his hand wasn’t cutting it. He thought about something rougher yet couldn’t focus on anything specific he wanted. He looked down and saw his cock hadn’t gotten much harder from when he started so he gave up with a frustrated grunt and continued his shower.

When Justin was finished, he went back to the bedroom and pulled on a fresh pair of underwear. A question popped in his head as he pulled open Jess’s underwear drawer. While he found a few pairs of Hanes cotton briefs, he still saw plenty of thongs or sexy see through panties, bras of different colors and styles that left little to the imagination. She hadn’t given up on being a sexy woman, just in showing Justin she still was.

Justin sighed and went to bed, filing his discovery away to talk out at therapy. He prided himself on never trying to be too pompous. He’d gone through a phase when he was younger and his interviews back then were cringy as hell to watch. Tonight, however, he found himself wondering how he, Justin Timberlake, could be in bed alone. That didn’t make sense with his public image yet here he lay. “At least Joey’s sleeping alone too,” Justin told himself, finding small comfort in the misery loves company mindset.

“Joey, we’re gonna get caught,” Sara whispered as Joey quietly opened Lance and Michael’s front door. “I thought you said we had to lay off once you stopped staying at the hotel.”

“I did but I’m being greedy,” Joey grinned as he led Sara back to the guest room he was staying in. “Besides, I couldn’t resist one last romp before heading back to Florida.”

“What happened to this not being serious?” she asked as Joey pulled her into his arms as soon as the bedroom door was shut.

“I said I wasn’t up for doing long distance dating again right now. Lucky for us both, I’m still in L.A.,” Joey smirked then kissed Sara passionately.