Stepping out onto the small balcony, breathing in the morning air as the sun was just coming up over the nation’s capital. He dialed Max’s number, unsure what was going on.

“What the hell is this, JC?” he yelled into the phone.

“What the hell is what?” JC asked defensively, Max’s tone immediately putting him in a sour mood. “And good morning by the way.” This was not how he was used to being spoken to, especially not by Max, who had always been so nice, even in the most stressful situations.

“The rumors are true – he’s packing. *NSYNC’s JC Chasez’s lady friend tells all,” Max read out to him.

“What is that?” JC asked, feeling annoyed, angry, frustrated and confused.

“That is the front page of Us Weekly this morning.”

“That’s a bunch of bull shit, man.”

“Do you know an Erin Stark?”

“Yeah, she was the stylist at the photoshoot. Why?”

“That’s their source.”

“Oh shit,” JC said, massaging his temples as he felt a headache beginning.

“‘Oh shit,’ what? What did you do? What happened?”

JC just sighed. “Saturday, after the shoot, she handed me her card and asked me to call her.”

“And you did?” Max asked, cutting him off, able to fill in the rest of the story.

“And I did,” JC confirmed.

“Dammit man. This is not exactly how we expected promo for the record to start.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking with the right head. I’m usually smarter than that. I know better. I’ll figure it out.”

Stepping back inside, he started pacing in the apartment, almost looking like a wild animal on the prowl. He was wracking his brain for how he might be able to fix the situation. It wasn’t that he was dating someone – or even rumored to be – to where anyone could spin it to be “JC cheated,” but a one-night stand wasn’t a big step up when working so closely on and about to start promoting a charity album.

“Ugh, fuck,” he mumbled under his breath.

As he continued pacing, his eyes staring at the ground, fingers interlaced behind his head, trying to figure something out, Allyson had come out of her room into the shared space and was getting stuff together to make some coffee.

“Is everything OK?” she asked, thinking he had seen her.

“What?” JC asked, startled, snapping his head up to look at her.

“Sorry. I asked is everything OK.”

“No. In fact, it’s the opposite of OK. It’s pretty damn horrible.”

Allyson’s smile dropped as she started to wonder if someone had taken a photo of them at the zoo or something. “Oh no. What happened?” With no answer, she repeated with growing concern, “What’s going on?”

“Go to Us Weekly’s website,” he said, pointing to her laptop on the island.

Allyson’s eyes got wide. “Oh. Wow,” she said as the website loaded.

His fingers moved back to massage his temples again. “Yeah. What am I supposed to do about that?” he asked, gesturing to the computer.

“No one believes this stuff anyway,” Allyson said, trying to be supportive. “Just say it’s all made up.”

“But it’s not, and the damage has already been done anyway,” he said matter-of-factly.

“We’ll figure this out,” Allyson said, trying to stay calm and collected, while she was a mess on the inside. She was concerned about this man who had become her good friend. She was jealous of this Erin woman. And she was a little turned on to know some of the stories she heard over the last decade about JC were true.

After a quiet breakfast, Allyson moved over to the couch where JC had now sat down finally. “I know you’re upset, but aren’t you a little proud of her description?” she asked as she sat next to him, putting her hand on his knee, trying to help ease the tension.

JC let a very small, almost unnoticeable smile grace his lips as he let out a little puff of a barely-there laugh at the attempt. “More upset that she said anything.”

“Yeah,” Allyson said looking down before JC continued.

“This is exactly what I knew would happen. This is what I spent years avoiding. This is why I have a rule that I don’t get involved with fans, and why I freaked out when you had glasses with you when you stayed at my place.” JC jolted from the couch getting worked up again. “Well, ‘my place,’” he corrected himself with some air quotes.

“I know,” Allyson said. “I’m sorry that was a bad attempt at some humor to ease the tension.”

“You don’t need to apologize. I appreciate the effort, but I just really need to figure this out. Like now. Yesterday, preferably.”

Do you want some tea while we think about what to do?”

“Sure. Do you have any Earl Gray?”

“I do. But maybe chamomile for the time being.”

“Sure,” he said, already in his head again, not paying attention to the question.

JC had settled back into the couch, leaning back his legs spread apart as his hands went up to his face again, his head now resting on top of the back cushions of the couch.

“Here, maybe this will help. Tea helped the Doctor.”

JC laughed in appreciation for the sci-fi callback as he took a sip. “Mmmm this is great! Did you use vanilla?”

“Sweetened vanilla almond milk. Remember I am a barista,” she smiled as she sat down on the couch again, ready to develop a plan.

“OK, so go over it again. What happened?”

“What do you mean what happened? We had sex, and she ran to the press,” he said exasperated. “What else is there?”

“I’m only trying to see if there’s anything we can use to get her to back off or take it back or something.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” JC sighed. “I don’t know that there’s much that can be done. She got what she wanted. She’s getting her 15 minutes, and I’m sure she got a nice check in exchange for the story.”

“Ugh,” he groaned after they both sat for a few minutes thinking. “At least she didn’t claim I was the father of her child.”

“Wait! What?” Allyson asked, turning her head so quickly, she almost gave herself whiplash. “Is ‘Until Yesterday’ based on a real thing?”

“Well, kind of,” he said. “We were together, and I used protection every time because, well, yes. – Oh my God! I can’t believe he does that in real life, Allyson thought hearing the phrase she first heard when the group was on Leno. – Well, she tried to say I owed her however much money, but her timing didn’t match up for when we were together. Then, a paternity test proved the kid belonged to another guy.”

“Oof,” Allyson said. “Who helped you through that? Maybe we can call them again.”

“Honestly the person I talked to most about that was Justin,” JC said. “But he’s in Louisiana and Texas filming his new movie.” He sat for a few seconds thinking about anyone else he talked to much about that situation. “Well, I did talk to Tony a bit also, I guess.”

“Tonyyy… Lucca?” Allyson asked.

“Yeah,” he said, not realizing that he was just talking about Allyson’s other MMC crush.

“Well, then, let’s try him. It’s 9:30 there now. Is that too early?

“No, he’ll be up. He’s got a kid, so I’m sure he’s up.”

“OK, well then let’s try.”

JC pulled out his phone dialing the number he had for his longtime friend.

“Hey man, how’s it going?” JC asked into the phone

“Hey, C! What’s up? Good to hear from you.”

“Well, I was actually hoping I could get some advice on something.”

“Sure. I mean, I’ll try,” Tony said with a chuckle.

JC relayed the dilemma, reminding him of the “Until Yesterday” story.

“Dude, that’s messed up, man,” Tony said after hearing the situation JC found himself in.

“I know, and I don’t know what to do. I’m supposed to be promoting this charity record as soon as next week, and this is the first thing you see when you search my name. I need to do damage control, but I haven’t come up with anything that would work.”

“It’s already published?”

“Yeah. It’s on Us Weekly this morning.”

“Damn, man. Hmmm. There has to be a way to take control of the situation. Hey, what if you acknowledge it and do something that will raise money for what the record’s supporting?”

“That’s an interesting idea. What’re you thinking?”

“Well, like if you’re promoting somewhere, say anyone who buys the record and brings in a copy of that magazine to be recycled can get an autograph.”

“Oh that has some serious potential. Let me run it past Max and the label to make sure I don’t get myself into even more shit, and I might call you back to brainstorm some more.”

“Yeah, I’ll be here. It’s Liam’s school’s spring break, so all we’ve got going on is Little League.”

“Cool, man. Thanks again. I’ll call you later.”

“Bye.”

“That sounded promising,” Allyson said as JC hung up the phone.

“Not just promising, but might be the answer. He said to just take the story on the chin – I mean, it is true,” he said with a smirk, “and then offer that anyone who buys the CD on the promo tour can get an autograph if they bring in a copy of that Us Weekly to recycle.”

“Oh that’s a great idea!”

“Yeah. I’m gonna run it by Max and the label real quick. Mind if I use your room to call?”

With a nod from Allyson, JC disappeared behind Allyson’s bedroom door.

Allyson was busy preparing notes for her Tuesday night class when JC reentered the living room. He went straight to the couch and fell into it, letting out a groan that sounded more relieved than it had before.

“So, what’s the verdict?” she asked.

“They liked the idea,” he said, turning his head to look over at her. “Ugh, thank God we have a plan now.”

“And it’s a good plan.”

“Yeah. Let’s hope it works.”

“So, that’s not the reason I came to D.C.,” JC said after a few minutes of decompressing. “I did not schedule in extra days to do damage control and sit on your couch. What else did you have in mind for us to do?”

“Well, I know you already looked around the National Mall when you were here in the fall, but are there any monuments you didn’t see or that you want to go back to?”

Thinking, he ultimately shook his head. “No, I think I got to all of them.”

“OK, well then there’s National Geographic. They have a Titanic exhibit that just opened a couple weeks ago.”

“Let’s do it. That sounds interesting.”

Allyson changed into a comfortable pair of jeans and a light pink Hollister polo shirt with her worn pair of tan Sperry’s. Their first stop was JC’s, so he could change his clothes also that still had a faint zoo smell to them.

Promising to only be a few minutes, JC went upstairs as Allyson offered to wait in the lobby. The last thing they needed was for someone to see the two of them getting into an elevator together at JC’s hotel.

A little more than five minutes later, JC stepped out of the elevator, in a pair of large-cuffed jeans and a graphic tee featuring Linus from the Peanuts comics, proclaiming “Happiness is a sad song.”

“You ready?” he asked, stepping up beside the chair Allyson had chosen.

“Yep, sad songwriter,” she said with a laugh.

“You’d be surprised how accurate this is.” He smiled pulling at his shirt.