Prologue

   She sat alone on the uncomfortable plastic chair, her right leg crossed over her left, her shoulder length blonde hair falling over her face as she leaned forward to dig in her bag. She pulled out a magazine and slowly flipped through it, taking in all the useless fashion advice and "is he right for you" quizzes that these people find important. She would rather be reading a novel, or even writing in her journal, but anything would do to pass the time. She was waiting.

    She flipped her slim wrist over to check her watch, her bright blue eyes instead falling on the ring she wore on the fourth finger of her left hand. The ring that meant the world to her. She closed her eyes and remembered the very moment that she was given that ring. She remembered the candles and the flowers, the soft music playing. She remembered the dinner and the conversation, the laughing. But most of all she remembered him. She remembered the dark blue shirt he was wearing that made his beautiful eyes shine. She remembered the way he smiled when he saw how surprised she was. How excited he was for her to see the dinner he had made. She remembered the way the flickering candlelight lit up his features as they were sitting at the table together, eating slowly and talking about their day. And she remembered when he got down on one knee and took her hands in his, held out that beautiful ring to her, and said the most wonderful four words in the English language.

    She opened her eyes and her memories slowly faded away and turned to annoyance. Where was he? She checked her watch again. She had come all this way to see him; the least he could do was be on time. He wasn�t usually late. In fact, he was the punctual one of his group, always scolding his four best friends for their own tardiness. She could just picture the look on his face when his friends were late to a meeting or a recording session or anything at all- a look of annoyance and yet one of dismissal. He knew nothing was going to change, and he knew that he should be used to this by now. She shook her head to rid it of the thoughts... she was in a public place, for Christ�s sake. She had to stop drifting away like that. People were going to think she was insane.

    In fact, she was trying to refrain from drifting away again when she heard the voice. A young, excited, squealing voice that she knew all too well. The voice of a teenage girl.

    "Oh my God, oh my God!" The girl was shrieking, and she and a friend were both screeching at each other. She bet that she could take a good guess as to why.

    "We met him! Oh my God! I can�t believe that we actually met JC! Ahhh!"

    She stood up, picked up her bags, and walked over to the girls slowly and calmly.

    "Excuse me? Did you say that JC Chasez was here?"

    The two girls stopped screaming and looked her up and down with their young eyes.

    "Who wants to know?" The taller one asked.

    She immediately disliked these girls. She was an adult, for goodness sake. Hadn�t they ever heard of respect? But she put on a fake smile that she was all too used to wearing, and stuck out her hand to shake the young girl�s.

    "I�m Mandi, and I�m looking for him. Could you please just tell me where he is?"

    The girl shook her hand but gave her a look of distaste.

    "Sure, you�re looking for him. Everyone is. Look, he wants his privacy. He doesn�t need stalker girls like you following him around."

    Mandi almost laughed out loud. These girls had no idea who she was, and they had no idea that they had pretty much just described themselves. She removed her dark sunglasses, praying that the girls would recognize her from the many pictures going around on the Internet.

    "I�m his fianc�, and he�s supposed to be picking me up here."

    The girl�s eyes got wide with recognition, and Mandi braced herself for the high pitched shriek that she knew was coming.

    "OH MY GOD! You�re JC�s fianc�! You�re Mandi! I saw you with him at the MTV Awards! Oh my God, can I have your autograph?"

    Autograph? That was a new one. She�d never been asked for her autograph before, and she wasn�t so sure why anyone would want it. But hey, what the hell.

    "Um, sure. What would you like me to sign for you?"

    The girl fumbled around in her backpack for a piece of paper and a pen, and she shoved them into Mandi�s hands with excitement. Mandi slowly and carefully wrote out her name, Mandi Kavanore, in perfect cursive letters, handed the paper back to the girl, and managed a smile.

    "Here you go. Could you tell me where he is now, please?"

    The girls were practically shaking with excitement, and Mandi was afraid that they were going to pee in their pants. They pointed her in the direction that they had seen JC, and went on their way, squealing to each other the whole time.

    Mandi picked up her bags and started walking. As she walked, she looked at all the people waiting for their airplanes. Elderly couples, and young children, all together as one. Even if they were just waiting for an airplane. In her eyes, it was beautiful. She rounded a corner and heard shrieks of young girls; similar to the two she had just encountered. She followed the sound until she found him. He was surrounded by the girls, all waving pens and paper at him and yelling his name. She had to laugh when she saw his attempt to disguise himself. Dark sunglasses, much like her own and a baseball cap to hide the face, a huge baggy sweatshirt and baggy jeans to hide the body. She shook her head and sighed as she tried to make her way over to him, muttering under her breath, "Oh Joshua, Joshua, Joshua... what am I going to do with you?!"

    Mandi looked around and realized she was completely surrounded by teenage girls, and JC had no idea she was there. She watched him for a few minutes with a slight smile on her face. She could read him like a book, even if all the other girls here couldn�t. She knew him. She saw the grateful expression on his face as he talked to his fans, but she could see through it. She saw how utterly exhausted he was. She saw that he was exasperated, that he wanted to get on with his way. She cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled out at him.

    "Hey you, with the status!"

    JC looked around, and his eyes landed on his fiance�s grinning face. Feeling a grin starting to make it�s way across his own face, he slowly started making his way over to her, leaving the girls around him in shock and astonishment that a call like that would get his attention. He dismissed them with a brief smile, looked back over to Mandi, and started laughing out loud.

    She had grabbed a magazine with his face plastered on the cover from one of the girls, and was waving it around yelling that she was his number one fan. When he reached her, she dropped the magazine, and placed a hand over her heart.

    "Oh my God, it�s, like, JC Chasez! Can you, like, sign my telephone book?"

    JC laughed and pulled her into his arms for a big bear hug. Mandi was shocked that he would show such blatant affection in the airport, an incredibly public place. Surrounded by fans, none the less. But she wasn�t complaining. It had been far too long since he�d held her this way and she didn�t care if he was holding her in a tank full of sharks right now. She almost laughed when that thought passed through her head. They weren�t surrounded by sharks, but rabid teenage *NSYNC fans... not much of a difference, in her opinion. She felt flashes going off in her face, and she knew there would no doubt be pictures of this very moment on all the websites by tomorrow morning. She didn�t care right now. She didn�t care about anything. She closed her eyes and blocked out everything and everyone that was surrounding them, only focusing on him.

    She was getting lost in the magic of the moment, but at the same time, she couldn�t let herself fully enjoy it. She knew what was coming. She felt herself being pulled back, and JC being pulled away from her. She whirled around to face the person she knew she would be facing. She stood there staring at the large African American man holding a cell phone and grinning at her, and put her hands on her hips.

    "Mike, you know I told you that next time you touched me I would beat you down."

    Mike laughed at the picture she made. He had known this girl for as long as he�d been JC Chasez�s bodyguard, which was almost 5 years. He had watched her grow up, and he had watched them grow up. Together, as a couple. She was a handful, she was stubborn, and she hated having to let him know where she was going. She had always been like that, and as he looked at her now, all 5 feet 1 inch of her up in his face, her hands on her slim hips, glaring up at him with angry blue eyes, he could perfectly remember a day when she had looked that exact same way. He was thinking back five years ago. She was 17 years old, and she had flown out to see her 20-year-old boyfriend at his first official concert with his four best friends. She had glared up at him in that exact same way when she was informed that she would have to have a bodyguard with her. Now as he looked down on her at 22 years old, he felt the sense of pride that a father would have, as he looked at his daughter, all grown up.

    "I�m shaking in my sneakers, little girl. Now let�s go before you and your man turn this into another love fest for the kiddies."

    Mandi rolled her eyes and followed Mike out of the crowd, which was now being held back by what she called "Mike�s bodyguard buddies." She felt like she should be used to this by now. She and JC would have a passionate reunion in the middle of the airport, they would be pulled apart by Mike, JC would be escorted back to the car, she would be escorted after him, they would hug and kiss some more, then they would be given the lecture about showing public affection by Harold Thomas, the personal relations director. They would nod and apologize, and do the exact same thing next time.

    They would go out to dinner tonight to celebrate being together again, they would go back to the hotel and watch a movie or just talk, catch up with each other. They would wake up before the sun the next day and she would go with JC and the guys to whatever they had to do that day. Interviews, recording sessions, or performances- it didn�t matter, she would be there. They would run around like crazy trying to get everything done, and the guys would be exhausted by the end of the day. They would go to sleep after midnight and do it all over again the next day. This was her life, and she was happy with it. Sometimes. Well, a little of the time. Fine, almost never.