“I’m sorry, Renee, but does he really have to be here?”

“Yes,” came the unanimous response from both Justin and Renee, although neither of them actually bothered to glance up from the papers they were perusing to look Marcia in the face when they were answering her.

“I only got him for a few more hours so he’s staying where he is,” the blonde told her assistant firmly, shifting slightly in her boyfriend’s lap to get more comfortable.

She understood that it was a business meeting, Marcia and Justin didn’t get along well anyway and that really he didn’t need to be there, but ever since that whole little episode in the hotel room he had been her hero. Her feelings towards the man were extremely unclear even by her usual indecisive standards but the whole thing had freaked her out and just highlighted even more how she didn’t have a single friend around her. Justin was the only person in this new life of hers that she knew didn’t have some agenda with her and that she knew cared – at least until she got to Florida next week to see her family and she was seriously counting the days until that.

Technically of course she wasn't the person he thought he was caring about and the whole relationship wasn't what he thought it was, but she was more than willing to let him carry on in that little charade if it meant she could have something stable. A castle built on sand was better than no castle at all. In the mean time he was sitting nonchalantly on the chair, snapping his gum, face hidden under a baseball cap and the arm he’d draped casually across her lap was a kind of comfort zone, in a very strange way.

“Fine.” Marcia sighed. “We’re nearly done anyway. Only thing left is the stuff you want us to start looking into for you for next time…” she rifled through a large looking folder stuffed full of various letters and e-mail print outs and copies of phone messages. “Okay. We’re very sketchy on the details for most of these but give me a definite yes, no, or a look into it and you’ll give it some thought.”

“Fire away.” She groaned, twirling her pen around her fingers.

“MTV are looking to do a Diary episode.”

“Uhh… I don’t know…” Renee panicked. She’d always thought those were really cool and everything, she’d watched a lot of them but she really didn’t think she could pull off this act with cameras following her that closely, she was barely keeping it together as it was. “I mean I don’t mind them following for promotional stuff but for Diary they cut into your free time too… no.”

“Okay…” Marcia scribbled in red pen on the top of the letter and placed it to one side. “I don’t know why I’m even bothering to ask but I might as well… Playboy is offering five million.”

“NO.” Renee didn’t even look up and Justin had a really hard time keeping the smirk off his face. He’d made no secret of the fact that he didn’t like the idea of her doing even topless never mind naked shoots. Instead he made a quiet show of approval with a sneaky kiss to her jaw.

“I thought so. Now this one’s a little more interesting… we’re in LA after Florida for the video shoot and you’ve had an offer from the Pussycat Dolls.”

“Wait, I know this… that burlesque show? Gwen Stefani did it?”

“Yeah, I’ve seen that.” Justin replied.

“Why am I not surprised?” Marcia muttered inaudibly before speaking at her usual volume. “It’s a small club setting and a Moulin Rouge kind of show with the outfits and the big band kind of numbers.”

“Umm… I don’t know…” She’d been about to ask if it was really her thing but considering that earlier she’d been looking at yet another round of provocative pictures, she was guessing it was at least in this life right up her alley.

“Hell I’d come watch.” He pinched her side playfully before resting his head on her shoulder, an action that she had come to realise meant that he was bored, disillusioned or fed up in some way.

“Put it on the maybe.”

“And last, Saturday Night Live is looking for you to host.”

“Oh you seriously gotta do that, baby, it’s a blast.”

“Hell it’s Saturday Night Live. I’ll do it.” Renee developed a sudden yet severe stutter, totally star struck.

“Okay then we’re done. You’re free until Timberlake’s people come to pick him up.” Marcia gathered up her things and strode out of the room with a slight air of superiority.

“You need to fire her.”

“I need a vacation. I thought being famous was supposed to be all glitz and glamour and some serious splurging in Dolce, nobody told me about all this crap.”

“You and me both.”

“Oh I think me a little more.” Renee mumbled. “What you wanna do?”

Justin shifted and brought his free arm off the table to wrap around her stomach. “I wanna go back to bed and pretend I’m not leaving you to get on a long ass flight to go do interviews and get asked the same damn questions all day. You’ll wanna get that baby.”

“What? Oh.” Renee realised that there was faint beeping coming from the bottom of her bag and she scrambled to reach her cell phone. “It’s Louise.”

“Say hi to her for me.” Justin settled his head back against the chair and closed his eyes. A little surprised at his lack of concern or movement – most people she knew would have got annoyed she had a call or left to give her privacy or at the very least got out of the chair – she answered.

“Hey Lou.”

“Hey honey. Did I get you at a bad time?” That was another thing that pissed her off – her own family automatically asked if it was a bad time.

“Nope. I’m just chilling with Justin. He says hi by the way.”

“Back at him.” Louise replied. “You know sweetie, I have to say I’m kind of surprised the way you two seem to have been this week, after all that talking you were doing about breaking it off and the way you’ve been complaining about it since you guys got back together. Guess that little cheating scare gave you a kick up the ass, huh?”

This was probably about the time she was expected to answer but she was dumbfounded. She’d been talking about breaking up with him? How could she not have found that out before now? How come Justin didn’t seem to be showing any signs of there being trouble before she got there? Where the hell was Claire when she really needed her?

“Yeah. Just a little blip, was all, it’s cool.” Nicely lied, she thought.

“Well good because I like that one. Better than that deadbeat you brought back while you were on break but I just remembered J’s in the room with you so I’ll just shut up about that.”

So Mr Timberlake hadn’t been the only one exploring his options, then. Oh this was just great.

***

Drumming his fingers on the armrest, Justin settled back into the plush leather seat and shook his head with a polite thank you when he was offered a drink. He had his CD player ready in front of him fully loaded with Eminem, or he had a stack of newspapers and magazines he’d been given to have a look through – all chosen because they were commenting on his upcoming album or because there was VMA reviews and gossip.

He gave a rueful smile to himself as he realised that these days it all managed to come back to Justin Timberlake and Renee Anderson. The label had even scheduled the album releases so that hers would come out just as he started to do promotion for his, so their biggest artists wouldn’t be competing. Sometimes he didn’t even feel like an individual entity any more.

That had been playing on his mind for a while – ever since they’d gone on that horrible, heart-wrenching break – but lately it took more of a different spin. He’d felt her pulling away from him… well, not so much pulling away but maintaining her distance after they’d made up. He was sure she had just been still processing her feelings and a little afraid of going through it again, she seemed fine now. Yet somehow… it felt different. She felt different.

For one thing she hadn’t been all over him like she usually was; he was extremely worried that he was turning into a woman but Justin had actually kind of liked that. Sure he liked getting his – and now he thought about it he hadn’t in a while which was kind of annoying – but he liked that she was just happy with his company. Sure she seemed to have gone nuts for a minute or two back there but lately she’d looked a lot more like the Renee he had first met.

That was partially the clothes… for some reason she wasn't flaunting it like usual… but mostly it was just her attitude. She’d left the celebrity face off for once and while he was still kind of concerned that she wasn't being her usual self and was being a little nervy, he was taking the whole thing as a positive.

Staring at a review of their performance but not really registering the words, he wondered if she was going to be okay. If she’d been nervy before, that whole hotel experience had completely freaked her out.

She hadn’t been the only one. He’d at least waited until she’d left that morning but once she had gone he’d had his own minor moment of losing it, although he’d done one better than her and managed to keep from throwing up. Funny how you could be fine in the face of some psycho nutcase yet lose it when you were safe and sound again. He’d been scared, the way he got scared when the two of them got mobbed: an experience he never relished and had found coming far too often lately. He felt claustrophobic and like he couldn’t breathe and all the time he was afraid somebody would break his grip on Renee - it was funny how that feeling could be multiplied so exponentially when it was just one man in a spacious hotel suite.

Running a finger over one of the pictures of her, he stared at the familiar set of eyes. As a couple they were difficult and they were complicated – she was a very complicated woman, especially of late – but for whatever reason he loved her and if that meant dealing with her weird mood swings and her constant oscillating between the sweet little Pittsburgh girl and the superstar attitude, then he’d just have to do it.

***

It was the first time Renee had ever watched Claire materialise in front of her. Previously she’d always done it behind her back or whatever and actually she’d preferred it that way. A dark cloud of black smoke started creeping up from the floor and it got bigger and denser until it started taking shape, gaining colour and becoming her dead best friend. She’d always imagined more of a twinkling lights kind of appearance; the black looked ominous and it gave her the creeps.

“Hey.” Claire looked perfectly groomed, as she always had in life - she’d always been fussy about her make up and her nails and everything even from a young age - but she looked stressed. Renee felt kind of guilty; the poor girl should have been resting in peace.

“Hey. Are you allowed to be here this time?”

“Yep. So you wanna know what I found out about you going back?”

“Yeah.”

“I was right. They did a straight swap between you and this reality’s Renee. She’s living your life. But yeah, so it’s possible to put you back after all. I didn’t think it could be done but turns out the bastards misled me about the whole rearranging the universe deal. It’s actually pretty easy.”

“How easy?” Renee asked, not sure she really wanted to know the answer. Apart from anything else she was being picked up in fifteen minutes to do a small performance at a club.

“Find the necklace.”

“There’s a necklace here too?”

“Yep. Shame you won’t have as easy a time finding it as she did, you swapped bodies so she was still sleeping next to the damn thing.”

“How come she hasn’t wished us back? Doesn’t she want all her money and stuff back? And how do you hear this stuff?”

“Heavenly grapevine. And she did try to wish you back once her guide told her the deal.” Claire said grimly. “But it was your wish so you control the whole deal. If anybody’s putting it all back it’s you. Besides, after all that bitching she did, now she seems to be having plenty…”

Renee narrowed her eyes as the brunette inexplicably clamped up. “Plenty of what, Clara? What’s she doing with my life?”

Claire sighed, cursing herself for letting it slip. “She had a few diva moments when she realised she was broke and without her entourage but she’s now kinda loving the freedom. She’s quite the party girl on campus; she’s got every guy in the place after her.”

“If I went back would it be back to when I made the wish or back after everything she’s done?” Renee thought in horror, terrified that after all she’d found out today the other Renee was turning her into a wench.

“Yeah, after everything.” Claire nodded. “But if you want that to happen you have to find the necklace and fast. I don’t know what lame ass moron made it up but some weird cosmic rule says you only have three weeks to switch it back or the necklace won’t reverse the wish. And you already lost a week.”

“Crap.” Renee sat down on the bed and put her head in her hands. She’d probably smudged her make up but then she was sure some make up artist would attack her again before she got to the venue. “God I…”

“Do you want to go back?” Claire asked.

“I don’t know, I mean it’s not just me it’s my family and my college friends and… Justin.” Her face really did drain of all blood this time. “Shit, Justin.”

“What?” Claire asked.

“Your cosmic grapevine didn’t tell you that Renee cheated on him during their break and that she’s been threatening to break up to him to her… my…. whatever, Louise, big sister.” She finished the sentence badly, once again unable to deal with the grammatical problems of talking about herself yet not herself. “And if she’s been having all this fun whoring herself around in my world, she’s not gonna… she’ll break up with him if she comes back here.”

“Well yeah, I guess if she’s been…” Damn it all, none of her spirit guide knowledge had prepared her for this - and she’d been told a lot of useful stuff, learnt a ton of secrets of the universe to get this gig. It was so unfair, this was her best friend and she had no idea how to help. “But that wouldn’t be your problem.”

“It’d break his heart… but I don’t wanna leave her running around screwing up my old life… fuck what I am supposed to do?”

“I don’t know Ren, it’s your decision sweetie.”

She really did wish she could say something more useful but one thing she had been told was that she was not to unduly influence, free choice and all that. It had been a long and annoying lecturing session by her boss – he seemed fond of doing that.

“But if I were you… I’d track down that necklace as fast as you can. If you can’t find it you won’t even have a choice.”

“This is like the plot of a really bad fantasy novel.” Renee grouched.

“I know but that’s the breaks. I gotta run; you need anything else?”

“Not really. Can you get me a quiet life?”

Claire smiled sadly, and yet again did that weird thing where she’d reach out to touch her living friend yet neither of them could really feel it. In a bizarre way it was a comfort to them both and in another it was a stark reminder of the unsettling nature of their meeting.

“Look at what you’ve done sweetie. Look at what this Renee’s done. If there’s one thing you should be learning it’s that you were never destined for a quiet life.”

Claire faded silently from sight as Renee yet again buried her head in her hands and wondered how the hell she was even supposed to begin to make a decision of this magnitude.