After being home for a few days, JC got an email from his manager. The photos were ready to review, and they were developing a promotional tour schedule in multiple major markets, splitting the work among the featured artists.

Carrie and Tim would take Nashville and St. Louis. Ne-Yo and John Legend were going to handle Atlanta and Los Angeles based on their schedules. Pat Monahan was going to run through the Chicago circuit. Fergie was beginning her tour, so she was going to be doing interviews at a few of her tour stops throughout the country. Beyoncé was given the Texas tour with her ties to Houston, so she would be going to Dallas, Austin, Houston and hop over to New Orleans for a weekend. JC then would fly out and take the New York appearances.

JC’s plan of giving an autograph in exchange for a CD purchase and a copy of Us Weekly to recycle was up on MySpace and Facebook while everyone was talking about it, and word was spreading quickly.

A few weeks later as mid-April approached, JC was preparing for his round of the promotion tour to begin, and the label put out a reminder about the offer, specifying it was only valid at the locations where JC would be appearing and that he would only be signing the CD single, no other merchandise.

JC set up at Virgin Megastore in Union Square. It was not the madhouse that he had experienced with *NSYNC, but there was a nice sized crowd. They knew this particular stop would be one of the most popular due to its location and that it was on a weekend.

For about three hours, JC greeted people, shook hands and signed autographs. Then, someone caught his eye in the far corner of the room: Erin. He felt his hands getting sweaty as he quickly motioned for Eric and whispered in his ear.

Signing the last autograph, they guessed they sold about 250 more CDs than they anticipated, much of that thanks to the promotion push. As JC gathered his belongings and thanked everyone at the store who helped put on the event, he was mentally preparing himself for his first time seeing Erin since lying next to her on his hotel bed.

“We need to talk,” he said sternly, looking down at her squarely in the eyes. He had told Eric to keep Erin there, by whatever means possible. Luckily she did not shy away from confrontation.

Erin knew it was a mistake to go to the signing, but she wanted to see him again.

“Look, I know you’re probably mad at me,” she said, sitting down on a bench in the nearby park.

“Damn right I’m mad,” he said, his jaw clenched tightly. “I know it was just a one-night stand, but that was known from the start. When I called you and invited you to my room, I trusted you. Stupid me to think I could. When I woke up the next morning and saw you had already left, I thought it was a nice change to end it without having to have the conversation about what it was.”

“I know,” Erin said, her head sinking a little. “I normally wouldn’t do something like that, but I was talking to a friend afterward, and, well, I’m trying to establish myself as a celebrity stylist, so she suggested I take the story of our night to a tabloid to try to get my name out there. Plus, the money they were willing to pay for it helped too.”

“Do you expect me to have sympathy for you? You used me to try to get your 15 minutes of fame.”

“Isn’t that what this industry is all about?” she asked. “But it didn’t even work. Arthur fired me, and celebrity agents aren’t taking my calls.”

“Yeah because you’ve shown them they can’t trust you. This might be a tough business to be in, but you still have to have people’s respect. We shared a great night, and it could have been just that, but you had to go try to use it to cheat your way up.” He just shook his head. “I don’t have anything else to say to you. Are we done here?”

Erin looked down ashamed and nodded her head. She knew he was right. JC left, leaving Erin sitting alone on the park bench.

Not 30 seconds after leaving the bench, JC whipped out his phone, pulling up Allyson’s contact.

“Hey! How did the signing go? Did the promo work?” she asked as soon as she picked up.

“Yeah it did,” JC felt a smile creep onto his face just from hearing her voice. “About 250 more than projected and my hand has a nice cramp in it.”

“Oh good!”

“But you’ll never guess who showed her face.”

“Oh no.”

“Oh yes. I don’t know how I kept it together. I saw her in the corner while I was signing, and I had Eric do whatever he needed to do basically to keep her there until I could talk to her. I was not about to call her, but if she’s going to show up, she’s going to hear what I have to say.”

“And? Did you talk to her?”

“Yeah, and she got an earful. I hope that’s the end of it. And I’m glad to say she didn’t see the response she hoped from the story. She wanted her 15 minutes, but she got fired instead and essentially blacklisted. You reap what you sow.”

“You’re right. Well, and are you OK?”

“Yeah, I will be. I’m still pretty riled up, but I’m glad she heard me. And it does help a little to know at least she’s not getting a TV show or something from it,” he said with a laugh.

“Yeah, yeah. Well, I have the next few days off work. I can come up to New York if you want. You can show me the Big Apple.”

“I’ll gladly take the company if you want to spend your days off here. I do prefer you to Eric,” he chuckled.

“Oh I’m moving up the ladder,” Allyson joked.

“No, you passed Eric when you helped me figure out this plan,” he said, hearing commotion in the background on the other end of the line. “I’m sorry, I’ll let you get back to things. But let me know if you want to come up, and I’ll get you a ticket. Just let me know your schedule.”

“You don’t need to do that.”

“I am not going to let you waste your money on me. I have the ability. Just look at the schedule and let me know when you want to leave, and I’ll make the arrangements.”

“OK,” Allyson laughed.