“Are we entirely sure that this is a good idea?” Renee asked sceptically as she stepped out of the car and surreptitiously pulled her trucker hat lower over her face.

She had worn more caps and hats and sunglasses in the last few days than she ever had before in her life. She now knew and understood why celebrities considered them such vital accessories. She got recognised enough when they were on - when they were off even for a few seconds all hell had the potential to break loose. It had: pictures of the traffic stopping moment had got to the national media and suddenly they all knew that Renee Anderson was mysteriously hanging in Florida for some reason, having blown off a bunch of commitments.

They couldn’t, however, figure out where she was hiding; her mom and sister’s address was kept unlisted, the move had been kept very quiet. If Renee wasn't in some fancy hotel or at Justin’s Orlando residence, then they had no idea where she was hanging her hat - but all it took was one reporter to recognise her and follow her home.

Worst of all, Marcia had found her. Louise had tried to lie, say Renee had only stopped over for one night, but Marcia was just not that stupid. As a result, she’d had to listen to her personal assistant reaming her out over the phone. Renee had particularly resented that - after all, wasn't she supposed to be the employer and Marcia the assistant? It was good for her she supposed to have somebody checking up on her and giving her a kick up the ass if necessary, but the Fascist routine was getting very old very fast. This was one thing she would certainly not miss if she eventually decided to go home.

“It’s Donna, she’s known you since you were eleven; she’s not going to rat you out, and nobody’s followed us. Come on, it’ll be fun. We haven’t taken a dance class together since…”

“Forever,” Renee finished, but still glanced over her shoulder uneasily as she walked into the building. “But she’s your friend, not mine. And since when did you get into dance?” They had both started dance and music classes together but Louise had given up long before her little sister had, even in the world where Renee was Jane Doe and not national singing sensation.

“Since she offered to let me in free of charge and I saw how nice and flat your stomach looks all the damn time. Lucky bitch.”

“Hey, you wanna trade in the stomach for not getting crushed to death by a mob every time I walk out the door? I’ll take that deal.” Renee strode through the reception.

“For those abs, I will make the sacrifice. It’s studio two, Ren.”

Following her sister’s instructions, Renee walked through the door only to become incredibly embarrassed. Donna was certainly there; the hair was a very interesting shade of red that it had never been naturally but she still recognised the face. There was also a line of eleven to thirteen year olds (or so she would estimate) doing a hip hop routine to the song she’d sung at the VMAs. Flushing crimson, she mouthed a ‘sorry’ at Donna for the interruption and turned to go before Louise pushed her back in and headed over to a spot at the side of the room by Donna’s stuff; obviously she did this a lot and it was expected she’d arrive early.

“And hold it there.” Donna, looking like an archetypical dancer in a cropped sports vest and tearaway exercise pants, stopped the music - much to Renee’s relief. “Looks great girls. And Michael.” She added as though this was something they often went through with only one boy in the class and she expected him to protest any second. “We’ll go through the routine one more time and then y’all can go find your folks.”

“Hi Louise.” One of the youngest looking kids waved at her sister.

“Hi Alyssa.” She waggled her fingers at the little girl and Renee tried to keep her face at an angle where she wasn’t so noticeable.

“Alright girls, we got an audience so let’s impress, okay?”

“Who’s your friend?” Another of the girls asked.

“Oh, this is my sister.” Louise replied and collective shock went around the room, gasps being heard and Renee caught the ‘oh my god it’s a pop star’ stare on many faces.

“You told them?” She was smiling at the kids but out of the corner of her mouth she was muttering in a very unpleasant tone to her sibling.

“I didn’t. I guess Donna must’ve mentioned you were my sister one time or something, I know she didn’t tell them you’d be here.” Louise muttered back.

“But we can’t do it while Renee’s here.” One little girl turned to Donna and sounded practically on the verge of tears and she felt even worse.

“Sure you can honey.” All the kids were gaping as though the word of God had been spoken. “Y’all looked fantastic before. It’s only me, that doesn’t make a difference.”

“Yeah.” Louise piped up with a sideways glance at Renee who finally gave up on the trucker hat. “Honestly, you guys are way better than her. TV makes her look good but really she’s a terrible dancer.”

Renee elbowed Louise in the ribs before continuing. “You guys looked good; I wanna see the whole thing. Please, for me?”

There was a scrambling to get back to their places and Donna smirked in the sisters’ direction before continuing with the class.

“You’re signing twenty autographs now, you know that?” Louise whispered in her ear, giggling.

“Oh yeah.”

***

“It’s been a while since I was here. The place looks great, Faith.”

Justin and Renee had long ago got over calling each other’s moms by ‘Mrs’ and were on first name basis now. The only slight difference was that Renee was on a first name basis with both his father and his stepfather; Justin would never dare call Nathan Anderson by anything less than his full name or ‘sir’. Her father really didn’t like him, and as Justin peered at the numerous pictures on the wall in the living room he noticed the lack of Mr Anderson’s presence although grandparents, cousins and of course the two sisters were all over the place.

Most of it looked like any family room but one set of shelving was like a shrine to Renee: her first talent shows, a picture of her with her freshly signed record deal, in the studio, awards ceremonies, her first covers for Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone, framed album reviews, even a few of her award statuettes.

“God, last time you were here it was a wonder we had flooring.” She chuckled as she returned from the kitchen with soda for both of them. “Here you go honey.”

“Thank you,” he replied politely as he accepted it. “So what have you gals been up to the past few days?”

“As little as possible,” Faith said, sitting down on the armchair opposite. “Honestly that girl looks burned out. She’s always so busy and I know she’s been worrying about security after that nasty business in the hotel.”

“Yeah.” Justin grimaced as he remembered. “My security got doubled after that: like I didn’t have enough big black dudes following me around before. Oh well, best thing for her is to be back home with Momma looking after her.”

“Are you kidding? I’ve barely seen those girls since she got here.” Faith laughed, taking a sip of lemonade. “It was shopping for Ben’s birthday and then it was the movies and now it’s a dance class with Lou’s friend… I keep telling her that you’re meant to relax on vacation. That was what she skipped work for after all.”

“I just couldn’t believe she skipped out,” Justin said casually, trying to remain nonchalant. “It’s real unlike her.”

“I think it was long overdue. Between all the pressure she was under for the album and all the fighting between her and the label over songs and then that nasty fight you two had…” She patted his arm. “I’m amazed this didn’t happen sooner. I think it’s been good for her, she seems so much more like her old self.”

“Quieter.” He nodded as if he was agreeing when in actual fact it was more of a question.

“I prefer it this way,” Faith told him. “Much as I don’t like to see worry lines on a face that young, at least she’s facing up to it instead of plastering a smile on like usual.”

“It was a big turn around.” He made a bolder venture. “Kind of overnight, almost.”

“I suppose it was.” A frown passed over the older woman’s face. “Well now you put it that way…” She was interrupted by the sound of a key in the front door and the thought apparently evaporated. Justin cursed inwardly to himself; he’d planned to do much more digging than that.

“Mom! We’re home! And we brought dinner!” Louise called in from the kitchen where she and Renee were opening various cartons of Thai food and squabbling over who was getting what from their usual order.

“Hope you brought enough for four!” She called back.

“Four? Who makes four?” Renee asked as she grabbed another plate. It was lucky they always got far more than they ended up eating - although sadly this time they would not be following their tradition of leftovers for lunch the next day.

“It’s rude to yell, come in here and greet our guest properly, Renee.” Faith winked at Justin.

“Yes mother.” She sounded polite yet rolled her eyes as she exited the room and traipsed down the hall to the next room.

Walking in, she was about to play her polite little daughter routine until she actually clapped eyes on the lean figure reclining on the sofa. A slightly surprised noise escaped from her as Justin raised himself to his feet. Automatically she stepped towards him and initiated a hug. She couldn’t help but take a sniff, just to see if he was wearing any cologne. He wasn't but he’d apparently showered recently because he smelt good.

“God, J, what are you doing here? I thought you were in LA.” She gave him a squeeze and a quick peck on the lips, a genuine smile on her face.

“They rearranged my next round of promotion to be here.” He shrugged, kissing her back. It wasn't the usual passion fuelled make out session they’d normally have if they hadn’t seen each other in forever (as they’d had meeting up at VMA rehearsals), but her mother was after all in the room. “So I thought I’d stop by and steal you.”

“Okay, you said nothing about stealing my daughter,” Faith jokingly scolded.

“Not until after dinner, I promise.”

“You’re stealing her daughter and eating her food, which makes it worse not better Justin.” Louise entered the room with a stack of plates (take out was not a table kind of food in the Anderson house) and with her free hand smacked Justin upside his head lightly.

“Okay, I was nice and helped you buy stuff for your boyfriend Lou so be nice to mine.” Renee hugged him around the waist again. “God it’s good to see you. Thai okay with you babe?”

“Great.” Justin squeezed her back before she extracted herself to run back into the kitchen for the food.

Now he was really confused. After the weird reticence he had been sensing from her lately, the hot and cold signals she had been giving him… she had seemed honestly pleased to see him. Certainly not like somebody who was bored and planning to dump him for some stud she’d bedded during the break.

Yep, now was definitely the winter of his discontent.

Faith hadn’t seemed that concerned about her strange change in personality. Now here was Renee being all buddy with her big sister - who he knew she got on well with but had never spent huge amounts of time with when she was home - and instead of being even the slightest bit off with him as he’d expected she was all hugs and smiles. He’d come here to play detective and find answers, not to get more confused than he had been already.

***

“Oww!” Renee giggled as she walked straight into Justin’s dresser. “So next time I get offered a shooter all I gotta do is just say no.”

That set her off into more stupid giggles. It had become the joke of the evening that Renee seemed perfectly able to handle her liquor except for the fact that she kept walking into things. She didn’t stumble, didn’t slur her speech, she could walk in a straight line, yet her depth perception seemed to have become non-existent.

“I told you Louise was trying to get you drunk.” Justin shrugged with an amiable smile on his face.

They’d had dinner and then called Louise’s boyfriend Ben to meet them at some jazz bar they both frequented, though neither Renee nor Justin had ever been there. It was one of those dimly lit, smoky places where you could be anonymous; you just sat in a corner, got drunk, listened to music and laughed. And they had laughed. He’d only met Ben two or three times before but he seemed cool enough, and Renee and Louise had been on top form.

That had confused him even more. For some reason, his girlfriend had flipped into reverse mode or something. Normally it was the business stuff that she excelled at and the skill of just hanging out that eluded her; she wasn’t anti-social but she lived for work. But over the last two weeks he had seen her completely space out on a dance routine, get snotty with Marcia (something she never did), and she’d even skipped out on work commitments. They hadn’t been big or important ones but it was out of character. Then tonight she’d been all smiles and happy and precisely the girl he’d fallen for.

This woman was going to make his head implode someday, he was sure of it.

“I think she succeeded. And come on, you had a ton of beers so don’t tell me you’re not buzzed.”

“Just a little.”

He grabbed her hand and spun her towards him in a very Fred Astaire move. It would have come off perfectly if she hadn’t stumbled half way through the turn, In her defence, that was because she’d tripped on a dirty shirt that was incongruously lying on the floor of his otherwise neat room, it wasn't a result of intoxication.

They’d come back to his house purely because it was closer - or at least she had. Justin purely wanted to spend as much time as possible with her, convince himself that he was being completely ridiculous about the whole thing. If he was honest, he was trying to somehow prove she wasn't cheating on him, though how bringing her home could do that he didn’t know.

“That was real slick until you tripped me up.”

“I did not trip you up.”

“Your shirt did.”

“Clothes do not make the man, baby.”

“Clothes are an expression of you.”

“Clothes are just an outward appearance that makes people jump to conclusions about you.” Justin countered, wondering how they were having this conversation but unable to help chuckling as she giggled. Neither of them found it particularly funny but the absurdity of it was amusing and then when they saw each other laughing…

“Wow. So clothes are bad things. Who knew?”

“We should rid the world of clothes.”

“And run around naked?”

“Sounds kind of fun,” Justin whispered dirtily into her ear as she broke into giggles (which unlike the tripping up were a result of alcohol) and latched her arms around his waist.

“Thought that was why you said you didn’t want me stripping for Playboy, ‘cause the world would see me nude.”

“Well maybe you could just strip for me.” Alcohol was not leaving Justin unaffected either - he had either completely forgotten about his issues with the woman in front of him or he had miraculously glossed over them. “You do still owe me a lap dance you know.”

“Well maybe…”

Renee trailed off when Justin’s lips met hers and the whole talking thing just seemed far less important just then. Had she not been drunk she might have noticed that it was the longest she had ever kissed him for and she probably would have noticed hands wandering up the back of her shirt.

She would have most definitely noticed that they’d hit the foot of the bed.