I’m awakened to an incessant ringing next to my head. I open my eyes and reach for the phone, picking it up, “Hello?”

“They know.”

I hate how people assume I know who they are. Don’t tell me, I’ll just play twenty questions, “Who is this?”

“Johnny Alana. What’s wrong with you? Put Justin on.”

I roll over, stretching and lightly tapping on his head, “It’s for you.”

Justin picks up the phone at his side, “Hello?”

Within seconds he shoots up from the bed and swears loudly, “You have got to be fucking kidding me. How did they find out?”

Justin gets up and starts to pace around the room, rubbing his hands up and down his head, “What would you like us to do? It’s not the end of the world you know. By now in my career they shouldn’t care.”

I sit up myself and try to piece everything together but since I’m only getting bits of the conversation it’s harder. Finally Justin hangs up and throws the phone onto the bed, sighing as he sinks down onto the mattress, “They know.”

“Who knows what?”

Justin smiles at me sympathetically, “The media. They know about us.”

“Okay…” I mutter, totally lost. If I could find out were dating from every website on the planet why would they be surprised about us?

“Listen, we are going to have to do some damage control on this one. I know how much you wanted to avoid this but we just have to do a few pictures, maybe an interview. On the bright side, you’re top news,” he says chuckling as he leans in and kisses me.

The second he’s in the bathroom I hope on the computer and gasp for air as the home page pops up with the headline, “Secret Marriage for Justin Timberlake. Justin and his longtime girlfriend and producer Alana have secretly tied the knot in a beach in Maui around last month. Reports have been confined by Timberlake’s reps who have no other comments than to say that the happy couple is doing fine.”

Oh hell no. I stand up and put a brown paper bag against my mouth, taking deep breathes at a time. I grab onto my chest, “Damien!”

A familiar tune plays and I frown as I turn around to see Damien and “here comes the bride” playing from a music box, “Do you think you are funny?”

Damien shuts the box and chuckles, “A little.”

“Married?”

“You need a bag for that?”

I toss the bag to the side, “It’s not funny. I am not married.”

“I beg to differ.”

“I cannot be married. I don’t know the person I’m married to.”

“Neither do people who get married in Vegas. They wake up to a total surprise.”

I glare at him, “You are not funny. What kind of sense of humor do you have anyway?”

Damien starts to laugh hard and I can’t help but roll my eyes, “Seriously, you don’t think that this is something you should have told me?”

“No.”

“Then you are as stupid as you look,” I mumble.

“I heard that,” he adds, spinning me around to face the mirror. He waves his hand at the mirror and I’m looking at myself and Justin on a beach with some people, a few I recognize like Piper and Justin. I’m in a white dress and bare feet as I walk over to Justin.

I can hear us recite our vows and I quickly turn around, “I don’t want to watch.”

“Why not?”

I just shake my head, “I don’t want to.”

“So how does it feel to be a married woman?”

“Like it felt to be dumped here. I want out.”

“Can’t do that.”

I pull my hair up into a bun and put my hands on my hips, “You can do anything you want and all I’m asking is to go back. I’m sleeping next to a guy I don’t know, meeting people who feel like they live here and now I find out I’m married.”

Damien picks up the picture he brought me, “Like your parents?” he asks, holding it up. I used to lay by my mother’s old dresser and fantasize about wearing a white dress like the one my mother was wearing. I would play with her perfume bottles and pretend it was me. That I was just as glamorous as my mother looked in that photo.

I snatch the picture away from him, “My mother walked out on me.”

“Like you walked out on your dad?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“You might want to rethink some of your opinions young lady. After all, celibacy in a marriage is always in bad taste.”

I throw a pillow at him, “Talk about a dirty mouth.”

Damien just smirks, “I’m not interested in your sex life believe me. I’m just trying to lighten your mood. It’s always hard in situations like these.”

I lean on my elbows, looking up at him, “How many people have you done this to?”

Damien shrugs, “Enough to make a difference.”

“So what happens after I figure out what I have to find out?”

“Everything will go back to the way it was before I interrupted your life.”

“So all I have to do is figure this whole thing out and I can go home?”

Damien nods and I sigh, “I don’t suppose I could get a hint?”

“Nope.”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Depends on what it is.”

"Can't you read my mind?"

"Don't be a smart ass. I just like you to actaully form the words."

I smile, “Why didn’t we just tell everyone we got married and I wouldn’t be hyperventilating here now?”

Damien flashes his hands over the mirror and I see news networks in every corner, reporting the news, “Because it would have been a media frenzy. The other thing was it was a spur of the moment thing. Some of his friends didn't know, that's why he didn't say anything at the party.”

He leans over and touches my head as I close my eyes and see myself and Justin on the beach together, laughing as Justin looks at me, “Why don’t we just get married?”

A stunned look on my face appears, “Are you insane?”

Justin leans down and kisses me, “I love you. We’ve been together so long I know I won’t ever be without you. Let’s get married.”

What surprises me is the look of fear on my face as I say yes. I look unsure, somewhat similar to the look I had on my face minutes ago as I tried to breathe, “I look nervous.”

“You were.”

“Was it the right thing to do?”

Damien puts his hand on my shoulder and I open my eyes, “Only you can figure that out.”

I plop down on the bed, “I can’t believe this is happening to me.”

He stand up and starts to glow a little, “I have to go now.”

“You’re going to leave me? Can’t you just stay for a little while?”

“Alana, you’re going to do fine. Don’t worry.”

Damien disappears just as Justin comes out of the bathroom. He removes his towel and I turn around quickly. My cheeks burn and I hide my face in my hands. Damn.

“You know, we can finally get you that ring you wanted now that everybody knows.”

I just nod along as he talks. Justin must have closed the dresser because I jump at the noise of it shutting. I carefully turn around to see him getting his shirt on, “You want to go out for lunch?”

“Go out for lunch?”

“Yeah, just you and me.”

“Sure, I guess. If you want to.”

“Cool. Get dressed and we’ll go out.”

I reluctantly nod and wait until he leaves to get ready. I put some jeans and a sweater on and head downstairs to see Justin ready with the keys, “Let’s go.”

I follow him out to the car and get in, letting him drive to wherever we are going. I lean my head on the window and watch the cars go by. I feel his hand slide onto my knee and inwardly pretend it’s not there.

When Justin pulls over to this dirt parking lot I wonder what his idea of going out is. I get out of the car and follow him to this little trailer that sells hotdogs and hamburgers with some picnic tables near it and a lake down a little further. He orders us two hotdogs and some French fries, handing me mine and walking down closer to the water. Since it’s winter it’s a little chilly but in LA there is no snow. At least not in this part of California.

“Crazy way to start the day huh?”

I nod, “You have no idea.”

He turns to me, “Look Ally, I know this isn’t what you had in mind when I asked you to marry me and I know you weren’t sure about getting married especially when I was on tour for it but now I’m home. We can be the kind of married couple my grandparents were you know?”

“That’s what you want?” I ask quietly.

“Yeah. I mean my parents didn’t work out and I know you weren’t too thrilled about the whole marriage thing. I don’t pretend not to be totally unaware that’s the reason you’re a little on guard lately. But we can make it work.”

Right. We have a whole one in two shot at it, “It takes real work.”

“I know, but I’m willing to do that Ally. I’m home so we can make this thing stick. It’s you and me Al.”

The thought has a way of making me even more queasy than this morning, “Well that’s certainly something.”

He pulls out a box from his pocket and hands me it, “This is for you. I know I promised you a ring so I picked these out for you a while ago.”

I open the box to see two beautiful rings. I slip them on my finger, flashing back and remembering how my mother could slide them off her finger so easily and put them in my father’s hand, “There beautiful.”

“Just like you,” he adds, “Piper helped picked them out.”

I take another bite of my hotdog, chewing slowly, “She’s sweet like that.”

“Trace said to get something bigger but I thought I knew you well enough to get those. You used to say that-”

“I never wanted anything that would get caught in my hair,” I remember suddenly.

“Right,” he says smiling, “nothing that would be too big. You know, that was the thing that always struck me about you. You completely ignored me the first time you met me, remember?”

“Yeah,” I say, remembering him coming into the room, shaking my hands. I recollect a more smug grin on his face and wanting to knock him on his ass.

“You were just what I needed Ally. You always have been, you keep me grounded.”

I bite my lip, “Why do you love me?”

Justin laughs a little, “Where do I start? I love the way you smile, the way your incessant need to clean makes me laugh, the way you just love me no matter what. I just do.”

“And you think that’s enough to make something like this last?”

“Look, I know what your mother put you and your dad through, but we are not your parents. You are not your mother. You’re a completely different person.”

“It used to scare me that I would turn into her.”

Justin kisses my neck, “You don’t have anything in common with her except her looks. And thank God for that.”

I elbow him playfully and realize for the first time it’s not so uncomfortable, “Lunch was a good idea.”

He smiles, “I figured something out of the way before the media frenzy sets in might be a good idea.”

I pull my jacket around my arms to keep the chill out but he’s too quick, wrapping himself around me. I look up as he rests comfortably on me and realize that maybe being here isn’t the worst thing in the world. Married. I guess this is going to be one hell of a ride.