It’d been three years since that day in my mother’s hat shop, when I was just a college student paying her way through college with a part time job. When Justin Timberlake decided to tumble in on my life.

Now I had graduated, and was living as far away from that shop as I could go, actually it was very far. I was living in LA with my fiancée of five years Jay Ferguson and a best friend called Justin Timberlake.

I had graduated with a degree in dance, and was very unsure of where to go with my new degree. But thankfully for me Justin had saved the day. He’d asked me to come along and try out as a dancer for his new video. He said something about me putting my talents to good use.

"You’ll do great Tiff," he said with a big warm Justin smile as he placed his hands on my shoulders and gave them a reassuring squeeze. I was sweating my knees off, because I wasn’t usually into the kind of music Justin did, I had trained in Jazz and ballet so I didn’t know what he expected.

I smiled softly at him and gave a nod. Justin grinned back, and hugged me before walking back into the room where the tryouts were taking place. I took a deep breath in as I watched him leave, then shaking off my nerves I began to warm up.

Maybe he wanted to see a little bit of change? I sighed and closed my eyes, trying to calm myself down before I was called in.

At first I didn’t hear my name being called on the loud speaker, and after it was repeated a few times I pulled myself together and walked into the room. I was ready to give it my best shot.

I made it! I was one of the finalists! I was ecstatic and let myself into the apartment, wanting to tell Jay everything about it. I smiled to myself, because I knew that I just didn’t get the position because Justin was there.

I kicked off my running shoes and walked down the hallway and padded bare foot into the kitchen, calling out Jay’s name as I did so.

"Jay?" I asked, but was met with eerie silence. "Jay are you back yet?" Still there was silence. I sighed and creaked my neck as I reached into the fridge for a bottle of Evian, as I did so the phone rang. "Hello?"

"Hey Ballerina," Justin’s voice greeted from the other end. I smiled at the sound of his voice, and walked over to the table and sat down.

"Hey," I replied and uncapped my bottle of water. "What’s up?"

"I heard a rumour that you’ll be in my new video," he replied and I laughed.

"Really? And where did you hear that?" I asked taking a sip of water and relaxing finally.

"Marty told me," he answered and I heard a smirk in his words, "Seeing as I walked out when your turn came along. I didn’t want to bias anything."

"Uh, huh," I nodded and raised an eyebrow. "Your phone rang just as I was going to begin my routine."

"And that," he smiled and laughed as I caught him out, "Besides it was my mamma on the phone." I sighed and nodded.

"Okay I forgive you, on one condition," I said with a smile and Justin chuckled.

"What’s that?" he asked with amusement.

"That I get to be the main dancer in the video," I replied with a grin.

"Now Tiff, you know I can’t…" he began to protest but I cut him off.

"I knew you would see it my way Timberlake," I laughed, "Now I’ll see you tomorrow at rehearsals, it’s been a long day. Bye, and don’t do anything stupid."

"Like what?" he asked with a laugh and I shrugged.

"Like smoking weed all night with Trace, you know I hate it when you do that shit," I answered, "Good bye Justin."

"I know, I’ll make sure we don’t do anything too stupid. Bye Ballerina," he answered and we hung up.

I sighed and leaned my head back, taking in a long sip of my drink. I sat there for a few moments taking in my achievement for the day and running through the steps I danced in my mind before the sound of running feet interrupted my thoughts. I opened my eyes and looked in front of me, then gasped.

"Who the hell are you?" I asked the blonde woman standing in front of me with her hair all over the place and her blouse half unbuttoned.

"I.. I’m…" she stuttered for the words, I slowly got up and crossed me arms across my chest.

"Well?" I asked and glared at her. What was this strange woman doing in my house?

"Jay.." she called out and looked behind her, I followed her gaze to see my fiancée standing in the door way with no shirt on.

"Fuck," he muttered and ran a shaky hand through his hair. "Tiff, this isn’t what it looks like…" I shook my head and glared at him, and before I knew what I was doing I was running out of the door, slamming it behind me in the process.

"Okay people take five!" Marty, Justin’s choreographer, yelled at everyone. I tried to sniffle a yawn and roughly tied my hair back into a bun as the music stopped and we were given a minute to rest as Marty talked off to the side with Justin.

I tried not to let my eyes drift close as I performed my stretches against the wall. I hadn’t been able to sleep in days and my body seriously needed sleep. But I was afraid every time to close my eyes and see Jay smiling back at me.

"Hey Ballerina." I snapped my eyes open and looked ahead of me, where Justin was standing looking at me with a lopsided grin.

"Hey," I mumbled and looked around the room as I pushed myself off the wall. Marty was still talking to a few of the other dancers.

"You were doing good out there," Justin noted nodding towards the floor and suppressing a yawn himself.

"I did okay," I shrugged knowing that my work was not as good as it should have been if I’d been sleeping well.

"No you did great," he assured me and we stood in silence for a while. "So how’s Jay?" He lifted his arms above his head and stretched them. Why was he so interested all of a sudden?

"Why? It’s not like you have a great love for him or something," I snapped, his question taking me off guard.

Justin had always been partial to Jay, in fact from the day I met him Justin had never liked Jay and I never understood why, until now that is.

"I just wanted to know that’s all. Can’t I ask about my best friend’s life?" he inquired with a raised eyebrow and I shrugged. He could but I didn’t want to divulge the details.

"Okay people break over! Let’s get this over with so we can all go home!" Marty called waving his arms around to signal us to get back on the floor. I let out a sigh of relief and nodded.

"Better get back to work," I smiled at Justin and headed back out on to the floor knowing this would be another long day without sleep.

"Hey." I jumped out of my trance and realized I had been staring out into space for the past few minutes. I turned and faced Justin with a weary smile.

"Hi," I muttered and looked own at my feet, pushing my hair behind my ears.

"So, um, are you okay?" he asked and placed a finger under my chin and made me look at him. "You’ve been kindda distant lately." I nodded and tried to look away from him.

"Yeah I’ve just not been getting any sleep lately," I replied and tried to pull away from him.

"You’ve not been concentrating today," he told me, going off into his boss mode, which is what he usually did when we were working and in some ways it bugged me because as much as I knew he was my boss I also thought of him as a friend and those lines couldn’t mix here. "Is everything okay at home?"

"Yeah it is," I answered finally getting away from him and backing up into my position on the floor.

"Okay, but if it’s nothing don’t let this get into a habit," he said with a smile and I knew he was just looking out for me. I rolled my eyes and nodded.

"Don’t worry I won’t," I lied and stretched my arms above my head as I looked around the room hoping Marty would call us back for rehearsals.

"Tiff, I’m just worried about you," Justin tried walking up to my and taking my elbow gently.

"I know, and there’s nothing to be worried about," I told him firmly and looked at his hand gripping my elbow. "I promise."

"But if there was you’d tell me right?" he wanted to know and I nodded.

"Yeah I would," I fibbed and smiled fakely at him. He smiled back and pulled me into a quick hug before Marty called our attention to him.

"Okay guys! Let’s get back to work; we’ve been slacking off to much!" Marty called throwing his arms over his head. "Video’s next week and at this rate we’ll never get there! Now get to it!" Before Justin could say another word the music was turned on, and as his voice boomed over the speakers. He moved to the front of the room and we began to dance, and for that moment I forgot all my problems.