I'm so excited. After tonight and this one last after party (complete with Access Hollywood and Entertainment Tonight, oh deep joy), the tour is over. This is the last night I'm spending in a hotel room for a while - tomorrow, I get my bed back.

Justin and I were talking about it earlier, both entirely too thrilled at the prospect of home. That said, in one breath he was saying he never wanted to leave his house again and the next that we should go to Vegas for a long weekend, but he's just contradictory like that. I have big plans for to slob out in my bed and Kennedy has already been invited for the sleepover. I did also promise Sophie that we'd 'do lunch,' but there's no date on that so I can put that off until I can be bothered. I love her, but I never want to leave my apartment again right now.

On the bright side of still getting through this one last day, he gave me nothing to do except pick Rachael (his cousin and his real PA) up from the airport. She won't be staying long, she's just visiting, but it'll be nice to get to know her since I've only seen her in passing before. As a result of this, I went with Hannah to pick her up but once we got her all three of us decided we'd rather go shopping. There was some real whining about that from Justin given that she's allegedly come to visit him, but did any of us care? Not even. We're now back at the hotel chilling in my room - the shopping trip kind of took three hours - and she STILL hasn't seen JT because he's off doing more interviews. He sent whiny text messages to that effect and I sent one back telling him to shut it.

I'm so much more abusive to him than I am to Sophie, mostly because I know he'll take it.

"Okay, is this just too slutty?" Rachael holds a black and yellow bra and thong set up from one of her bags. I swear I didn't see her buy that.

"It's really cute but it is dangerously small," I say honestly. "Is this for general wear or for seduction?"

"Which is less slutty?"

I pretend to think this over really carefully, tapping my finger to my mouth and making Hannah giggle. "Oddly less slutty if you are trying to seduce somebody. Only a hooker wears underwear that small as general wear. Why, is it for seduction?" I nudge her with an elbow and she just grins in response.

"Maybe. So what did you get when we were in there?"

'There,' by the way, is this really cute little lingerie boutique where they do all these really cool one off designs. The owner there says she makes two in each size of a design and that's it, except for occasionally when she might make the same one in different colours. I like the idea that I'm not wearing the same Secrets underwear a hundred thousand other girls are, so that's cool. I'll have to remember the place to show Kennedy and Sophie; Sophie in particular is an underwear fiend, I think she has more bras than shirts to wear them under.

"I bought that blue one with the little flowers on it, and…" I pause for effect while fishing my other purchase out of my bag. It's an entirely too sexy pair of black silk PJ shorts and a black polka dot camisole. It's really sexy in a coquettish way and an absolutely pointless purchase because nobody's going to be seeing it. Still, I know I look cute in it so that's enough, right?

"Oh, I like," Hannah says as she fingers the material.

"I thought you said you were single, this is guy nightwear!" Rachael always seems to have this cheeky gleam in her eye, and I like that about her. I can see why Justin gushes about her so; she's a lot of fun.

"Wishful thinking. And you're one to talk - those jeans are way too tight for anything except showing your ass off."

"Speaking of, ladies, what are we wearing tonight?" Hannah asks. It makes me groan - I'm expected to make an effort since the TV crews will be out in force at the after party and I really don't want to. Rachael looks a little more excited by the prospect, and begins bouncing in her seat.

"I'm gonna wear my jeans that are too tight for anything except showing my ass," she punctuates with a raspberry in my direction, "and that little corset you found for me. Did I mention you rock?"

A perk of being a Hollywood PA is shopping with stylists. They cannot help themselves; even though you don't employ them and they're supposed to concentrate on their client they will still give you advice anyway. Hannah's particularly unable to stop herself, and it has made this whole shopping trip a breeze for me and Rachael because she's just picked out everything. She's been around both me and Rachael long enough to know her personal styles so she just whips through the racks and before you know it she's thrown five different outfits at you and is ordering you to a changing room.

"Very good," she nods in approval before turning to me. "And?"

"What, I have to like get wardrobe approval?"

"Yes."

"That answers that question."

"So…?" She asks before I groan out loud and flop back on the bed.

"But I don't want to," I whine. "I want to slob out in my hoodie and my jeans. Why do I have to get dressed up? Whatever happened to comfortable?"

Hannah pokes me in the rib (which is very painful, can I say) and shakes her head at me with a tut. "Silly girl. Do you learn nothing from the Dolls?"

"Huh? What do PCD have to do with this?"

"The trick is to sex up the comfy stuff so much nobody notices you're in jeans," she winks. "Let me at your closet for five minutes and I'll swear I'll have it."

Rachael looks sceptical. "Twenty bucks says you can't do it."

"On."

"Hey!" I protest. "Can we not make wagers over how crappy I may or may not look?"

Hannah has ignored me and has already grabbed my shopping bags and marched over to the closet and my half unpacked suitcase. "Half of it's in the make up anyway: lots of mascara and eyeliner. Smoky eyes sex up everything."

"So anyway," Rachael rolls her eyes and pulls a face at me, making me giggle. "We still going for sushi before the show?"

"Oh yeah, Trace was insisting," I tell her. "You, me, him and Justin, Marty and Eddie and Tasha are booked in." Hannah's not coming as she had prep to do for the show first.

"Oh, can I add one or would that be a pain?" She asks as she takes a bite of a Hershey bar.

"It's just a phone call," I wave a hand dismissively. "Who you bringing?"

"Oh, my friend Laura is in town trying to set up some meetings at Paramount and she's like, so insanely busy tonight is all the time she has. She can't even stop for the show."

"Paramount?" I ask interestedly.

"Yeah, she's just set up her own production company and they have a couple of movies to pitch. She says she fully expects them to turn her down but she wants to get her face known as much as anything," she says with her mouth full.

"Wow," I say. "I'd love to do that at some point. That's kinda of what I did for my degree, I majored in film and business with a view to producing one day."

"Well hey you should totally talk to her," Rachael nods emphatically through the chocolate as Hannah yanks to me to my feet and has no qualms about stripping me like I was Justin in the quick change. Thankfully I wore presentable underwear today. "She's been in the business a while and she knows a ton of people. Plus she's always looking for staff."

My stomach churns a little to hear that. It's weird how sometimes I get more nervous at the prospect of furthering my ambitions than at the ideas that I never will. I guess you can get too comfortable… plus there's always that looming fear of failure. Will never liked the idea of me setting up my own company, said it was silly to risk my own money when I had all these Hollywood bigwigs I could work for: risk theirs instead. I guess in a weird way he had a point, but it wasn't the most encouraging thing in the world. Still, can't hurt to talk to her. It's not like anything will come of it and I'll be seeing Sophie tonight anyway.

"There," Hannah says as she's finished dressing me before I've even really taken stock of what she's done. When I look in the mirror, I immediately see that she was right - I'm in a pair of skinny jeans which when teamed with some stilettos will look killer, and she's pulled out a stretchy black shirt that clings to me and makes me look like my waist has been cinched in. It sits artfully off my shoulders, hinting at skin… but I am remarkably comfortable. With the right shoes and some teased hair it'll look like I made a huge effort when I really didn't.

"Damn it," Rachael mutters as she fishes for a twenty.

***

"Oh my God, girlfriend," Kennedy clinks her Cosmo against my daiquiri in a toast as we lean over the rail, waiting for Justin to come on. The fans are all in but the show's not going to start for another twenty minutes (it was due to start half an hour ago) and the VIP balcony still has a few more to be even fashionably later than the first fashionably late arrivals.

"I know! How freaking cool was that?"

I wore my PCD hoodie over the top of my outfit (just as a jacket, really), and I haven't taken it off yet. So thirty seconds ago Nicole frickin' Scherzinger walks past, she meets my eye and then realises what I'm wearing. She kind of touches my sleeve and then smiles at me and says I have great taste in shirts before walking off to talk to Timbaland (he of the funny sentences is back for one night only). Do you have any idea how awesome that is, Nicole damn Scherzinger? Would it be really unprofessional of me to go bug her for a picture? I mean, I knew she was on the guest list but I didn't think she'd actually be here, this is so cool! I can't believe it! I am acting like such a teenage fan girl right now, somebody stop me!

"I don't know why you're acting like that when you sent her the damn tickets," Trace chuckles as he tosses an arm around my shoulders. I reciprocate with one around his waist, though I do take the opportunity to pinch him a little for that comment.

"What, I can't be a fan as well as a PA? It's not like it's Justin I'm going gooey over."

Trace gets a funny look on his face that immediately tells me that he knows about me having some Timberlake 'sexy time,' as he and Justin were referring to sex at dinner. Apparently if I'd seen Borat I would get the reference, I just think it sounds kind of dumb. I mean, call a spade a spade. Whatever, I hope Justin hasn't been blabbing that little piece of gossip to too many people. Trace is one thing, but I really don't think anybody needs this to be public knowledge and some people just can't keep their mouths shut.

"So does that mean you're not a fan of Sophie, either?"

"I'm certainly not," Kennedy mutters. I so heard that.

"It's hard to go gooey over somebody when you book their gynaecologist appointments."

"Eww!" Trace looks appalled, which is good because that's exactly the reaction I wanted. Maybe now he'll shut up about it.

Either way, it is kind of nice to just be standing around like this and chatting. We're just chilling out with some drinks in our hands and the whole vibe up in VIP right now is just really indolent and calm. It won't stay that way once JT starts doing his thing on stage or once we get to the after party, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts. It's nice to just chill with Trace and Kennedy like this (it was also Rachael earlier, but she's now too busy telling Lynn some story about what's been going on in Shelby Forest).

"So you seemed really into it with that Laura girl earlier," Trace asks. "She give you anything useful?"

"Like what?" I ask.

"Her business card?" I give him a teasing elbow, but he looks serious. "If she's looking for staff you might want to jump in there, Chels. It's always a lot easier to get the fledglings to take you on with less experience than the major players since they need the bodies, it's a great short cut.

"You know I hadn't thought of it like that but you actually have a point."

"Do you have to sound quite so surprised?"

"It's surprising." Kennedy winks at him before tossing back the last dregs of her Cosmo.

"Some things aren't so surprising. Look at Sophie, I can't believe she brought him after all that," I say darkly as I spot her walking through the door, later than most. I seem to distinctly recall telling her not to bring Marco here. For one thing it's Justin's show and he pretty much tried to kill the dude, and for another I warned her that I was bringing Kennedy and she wouldn't appreciate being in a room with the guy. More to the point, neither do I - my nose just twitched in fear, I swear. It hasn't forgotten its last near break.

"Well I keep telling you she's a selfish wench but do you listen?"

"Not now, Ken."

"You want me to get him thrown out?" Trace asks. He's utterly serious too; I can feel the way his arm just tightened around me. Apparently the memory of our little ER trip hasn't left him behind, either.

"No," I say reluctantly. "It'll make a scene, it'll be all over the gossip rags and she'll get pissed at me like it's me who did something wrong. It's not worth it."

"Chelsea!" Sophie has scurried around here as fast as her boots will let her go, practically knocking Trace out of the way to fling her arms around me and leaving Marco Bastardo in the dust behind her. "Long time no see, amiga! This all looks great, how long have you been here?"

I look at her and she looks so happy and chipper, like she always does. She's beaming at me, looking all pretty and princess like in a flowing mini dress, probably Marc Jacobs or somebody like that. She looks so genuinely pleased to see me, and so clueless about the dreadful cloud her boyfriend's arrival has just pulled over proceedings.

"What is he doing here?" I say in a low voice between gritted teeth. To her credit, a mildly annoyed look passes over her face, if only for an instant.

"Ugh. He insisted. I did tell him not to." For a moment she looks like she's about to say something more disparaging, but then the perky veneer comes back on. "Never mind, we'll have a great time anyway. God I missed you! We totally need to book into the spa and catch up, if Justin can spare you a day. Speaking of, I really need to talk to my father about when I can get you back. I don't want to leave him in the lurch but he can't keep you forever, I need you!" She laughs gaily, blowing a joking kiss to some guy in the crowd of fans who just yelled 'will you marry me' up at her.

I blink rapidly. I'd almost forgotten what a force of nature she can be sometimes; she just kind of sweeps into a room in all her outgoing splendour and before you can draw breath everyone has been dazzled. It's amazing how quickly I've become so un-acclimatised. Is that a word, un-acclimatised? Well, whatever, it's startling how quickly I've got used to being just kind of out there by myself rather than with her as I was so used to.

What? Why's Kevin coming out so early? Are they starting already? I was going to go get another drink first…

***

I'm really glad that Rachael's here to pick up my slack, because Sophie's got me trailing after her on this red carpet like I'm still on active duty as her PA. Justin keeps glancing over and looking really annoyed about it, and I keep trying to catch his eye so I can mouth a 'sorry' over at him. This is, however, hard to do when Sophie has dragged me in front of a camera, holding my hand in friendly fashion. She does that a lot on red carpets; she says it keeps her calm. It does have the added perk of allowing me to give her subtle hand signals - we long ago worked out a code for when we need to leave or when I think she needs to watch what she's saying.

"… I mean what can you say, the show was amazing and it's been really great for me to see this side of what he does as well as obviously seeing how good he is on set and acting," Sophie nods at her interviewer with a smile.

"When's the movie due out?"

"Uhh… help me out here?" She laughs at me, flashing a pearly smile.

"I think later in the year once they got the post production out of the way, maybe December, but it's not finalised yet," I tell him. That's a point, will Justin have finished with me by then or will I still be 'his' PA once they're doing that round of publicity together? I have images of running double duty going through my head and it makes me want to run far, far away.

"So how different has it been working for Justin than for Sophie?"

"Well Justin hasn't asked me to give him any pedicures yet…" Sophie bursts into peals of oddly attractive giggles. There's a very sing-song quality to her voice without it sounding babyish or silly, I think it really helps her in interviews. "I mean, no, it's a totally different industry but they're both very professional and very nice people so they're both pretty good to work for."

"Hah, she still loves me more!"

"So not true - you're just jealous she likes me better than you!" Justin yells from behind us and it sets Sophie off into even more laughter. I can just see this being the clip they all play… oh goody. I'm glad Hannah did my make up, never hurts to be professionally styled if you get yanked in front of TV crews against your will.

"It's so tough to be popular," I breathe out with a grin that I can't quite help as Sophie gives me a playful kiss on the cheek.

Finally we appear to be done, and we stride through the door of the club. My eyes immediately sweep the room for Kennedy, but Sophie's been kind of monopolising me and I have a feeling she's got the huff with me for it. My life would be so much easier if these two could get on. This club is pretty hot - it's brand new and it's all been styled as 1930s Art Deco, lots of funky angles and very clean lines. My grandparents' house was like this before my grandfather died and my grandma moved into a retirement village; as weird as it is for a club to remind me of home, it makes me finger Grandpa's dog tags which are currently hanging around my neck.

Sophie holds my hand as she leads us through the crowd to the bar, and subtly she leans into my ear and whispers. "How do you think I should get rid of Marco?"

Oh thank God - she's dumping the bastard. Let's hope it sticks this time. "Just do it once you get back to your place. You don't want to make a scene here. And no I'm not doing it for you," I tell her as she gets that look on her face. If there's one thing she's not good at, it's confrontation with boyfriends. Anybody else she's great at putting her foot down or standing up for herself, men she sucks at telling no."

"I don't know why I got back together with him," she tells me as we halt by the steps. "He's so possessive. He asks me why I didn't spend time with him on such and such a noche and half the time it was a night he told me no because he was working!"

I swallow the impulse to tell her that there were far bigger reasons not to get back together with him. Thankfully I can see Justin beckoning, so I have an excuse to get out of this conversation.

"Sorry, Soph, Justin's calling me. Duty calls!" I chirp.

She glances sideways at him. "So you never did tell me what his deal was."

"Huh?" I look at her blankly.

"You know… that thing I asked you to keep me updated on."

Oh no. NO. You have GOT to be kidding me. NOW? She ditched the idea of getting anything going with Justin to get back together with the asshole and yet suddenly now she changes her mind? What the hell? I mean, God, I thought she'd moved on from it. There's no point in her running after him anyway. Clearly he's not that interested since in the meantime he's hooked up with somebody el…

Oh God, ME. He hooked up with somebody else and it was ME. Oh shit - she's still interested in him and I've slept with him. Oh SHIT. She'll kill me. She'll fire me. I'm not even sure which she'd do first, oh fuck…

"Back in ten," I say as Justin begins to look ever more impatient. I practically sprint over there, glad that it's dark and the red flush in my cheeks will be invisible.

I reach the table where he's holding court, surveying his partygoers, and he drapes an arm around my shoulders. "Hey you."

"Hey yourself." Believe it or not, this is the first time I've actually spoken to him since this morning. "Great show, looked good."

"Looking good yourself." He tips his beer in deference to me and then takes a swig. "Has she forgotten that you're mine right now?"

Oh shit, and to top it all off he's pissed too. "I'm sorry, she just…"

"I know, it's cool," he gives me a squeeze. "Why the hell is he here though?"

"Apparently she tried to tell him not to come but he insisted." I know without asking that he means Marco.

"The only reason Tiny hasn't kicked his ass out is those camera crews."

"I know, I'm so sorry," I whimper pathetically. This is really embarrassing, all this drama on my account.

"Don't worry, doll. I ain't blaming you."

"So you are blaming someone?"

He doesn't answer me, but instead turns to introduce me to a bunch of his friends from Shelby Forest who only just got the chance to come out to the show. I'm shaking hands with everybody and making the small talk as I should, but I can't help noticing that he hasn't answered my question. This is great - Sophie's back after him and in the time since she was last interested I've managed to turn Justin against her and sleep with him myself.

Maybe my life would be easier if I just called that Laura friend of Rachael's and begged her for a job.