“You think you know but you have no idea.  This is the diary of Aliesa Montaine…”

“Your last name is Neville now.”

“Ritchie…you’re ruining the intro.”

“Well then say it again.”

“Everyone out there watching this, see what I mean about having no idea?  You probably thought he’d be more considerate didn’t you?”  Aliesa turned her head and elbowed the man next to her.  “You sell a couple of million records and have a bunch of screaming girls at your feet, and suddenly you start to believe that doing things like that are charming,” she complained playfully rolling her eyes as Ritchie winked at the camera.  “So as I was saying…You think you know but you have no idea.  This is the diary of Aliesa Montaine-”

“Neville,” Ritchie piped up.

Aliesa raised an eyebrow at the second interruption.  He grinned mischievously at the screen before leaning in and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek.   She laughed.

“You’re ruining this dramatic moment you know,” she cracked, still facing the camera.

“Come on Ali…You think you know but you have no idea…” Ritchie prompted.

“This is the diary of Aliesa Mon--,” she began before abruptly stopping in mid-word as Ritchie grabbed her around the waist and pulled her closer to him so she fell back into his arms.  He clasped his hands around her stomach.  Aliesa lifted her eyes to meet his.  “…taine Neville,” she corrected as he beamed down at her.

“Now was that so hard?”

Aliesa disrupted into a fit of giggles  “Ritchie you didn’t say your part.”

“That’s because everyone at home already knows who I am.”

Aliesa turned her attention back to the camera.  “I’m telling you.  Huge ego’s these pop superstars!  I mean look…” She was silenced by Ritchie’s hand over her mouth.

“And Ritchie Neville.” Ritchie finished staring at the camera seriously as Aliesa tried to pry his hand from her mouth.  He looked down at her and then back at the camera, adding a classic grin before the screen faded into black.

Abs nodded grinning and patted a blushing Ritchie on the back.  “Our boy Ritchie here thinks Aliesa’s BEA-UTI-FUL.”

“She takes Ritchie’s breath away,” Scott chimed in.

“Aw guys!  Come on!” Ritchie stammered. 

“So you don’t think she’s beautiful?” Carson asked amused.

“No.  I mean yes.  I mean… the guys just like embarrassing me!””

J chuckled.  “Forgive him everyone.  He’s just hot and bothered.  Been thinking too much about Aliesa.”

“Bryan McFayden here on the red carpet with the as always gorgeous Aliesa Montaine.”

“Aw!  What a sweet thing to say!  Thanks so much. A girl can’t get enough compliments. You’re looking mighty good yourself Bryan.”

“I’m almost positive not as good as you, but thanks Aliesa.”

Aliesa smiled.

“Looking forward to any performances tonight?”

“Definitely am.  I’m really hyped about seeing Five.  I’ve never seen them perform live and I’m such a fan.”

“Got a particular favorite?   Most girls do.”

“Why do I have a feeling my answer is going to show up on MTV for a couple of days?”

Bryan chuckled.  “It probably will. Want to make it a good answer so you end up on the news with Kurt?”

Aliesa grinned.  “Good point.  Well.  I really don’t have any favorites, got to like them all because you need them all to be a group.  But I will admit that I’m hoping to catch up with Ritchie.  I have things to discuss with him.  According to my 13 year old cousin I'm going to be in his wedding..."

“I know you guys don’t like going too much into your personal lives, love lives especially.  But I’m going to have to throw this one out there since everyone seems to be in such frenzy over it.  I’m sure you all have been aware of all the rumors floating around.  Here at MTV we’ve been getting calls for days asking for details.  So, I’m sure that I’m not just speaking for myself, but also on behalf of your fans… Ritchie is it true that you and Aliesa Montaine are married?”

“Yes…Yes it is.”

     They’re still surprised that it happened.  The two of us married.  It was huge news for a while.  I guess it still is a little.  I don’t know how many times we’ve explained our relationship to the media.  Us.  We.  We never lied about the two of us.  I mean when he said he didn’t have a girlfriend, he didn’t.  When I said I didn’t have a boyfriend, I didn’t.  We were dating, but we hadn’t come into that classification yet you know?  And then when we finally did get exclusive, people weren’t really asking about him specifically or me.  So that’s why we never talked about it.  It never was brought up directly and we weren’t going to publicize it.  It was a decision we made at the beginning, when we realized that we wanted to be together, that we were going to keep it quiet.  We just didn’t know where it was going.  We didn’t need the publicity, and we definitely didn’t need it if we woke up one day and decided that this wasn’t what we wanted.  We’d been through public relationships before, and we didn’t want to make the same mistakes.  I can understand why everyone was shocked.  I was a little too.  I don’t think we went into this thinking we were going to get married.  But something happened between the two of us, and we just took the plunge.  People tend to forget sometimes that even though we’re in the spotlight we’re not different.  Aliesa looks away, her voice softer.  We’re human.  We have feelings like everyone else.  And so in some ways this shouldn’t be surprising.  Because when two people love each other that’s what the end result is. 

“Long time no see Aliesana,” Abs greeted merrily as she walked up to him in the recording studio. 

“Aliesana?”

“Hey that’s the name right?”

Aliesa rolled her eyes.  “What is with you guys and nicknames?”

“A nickame is a sign of endearment baby.  You know how many women would love to have me give them a nickname?”

“Nope.  But I’m sure you’re going to tell me,” Aliesa replied stealing a quick drink of his soda.

“Hey!  Ms. Greedy!  Get your own,” he said swatting her hand away playfully.

 “Where’s your man?  He needs to buy you your own drink.  You know…” He leaned in.  “If you were my girl you’d never be thirsty and I’d never leave you alone.”

Aliesa cracked up.

“You think I’m funny?”

“If you drink from the can of Abs that means you’ve got to give the man some loving.”

“You’d be so lucky Abs.”

“I’m always lucky.”

“Does your girlfriend know you act like this when she’s not around?”

“How do you think she got me in the first place?”

Aliesa’s nose crinkled. “Oh you’re bad!”  

“To the bone babe.  To the bone.”

“Ritchie!”  Aliesa cried out across the studio.  “Abs is flirting with me!” 

Abs groaned.  “Why do you always have to get me in trouble!”

Aliesa leaned in.  “Because I think it’s SEXY to see you squirm,” she whispered seductively.

Abs chocked on his soda. 

“Abs you trying to steal my girl?” 

The two of them watched Ritchie jump up from his position by the soundboard and saunter over to them.

“You’re evil,” Abs mouthed shaking his finger at Aliesa.

Aliesa winked as Ritchie wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her head.  She leaned back into him. 

“Pure babe.  Pure,” she laughed.

“Bad timing Shan.  Tom Holanden is on his way.  YES.  THE TOM HOLANDEN.  To take the pictures for Rolling Stone!  I know… I  know!  I can’t believe we were able to rearrange our schedules like that,” Aliesa talked animatedly on the phone. 

Ritchie motioned for her to say hi for him. 

“I know Shan…wait Ritchie is trying to get my attention. He says hi… Yeah.  Ritchie is standing right here being distracting.”  Aliesa grinned at Ritchie.  “He’s too cute,” Aliesa brushed a stray hair away from his forehead.  “Now he’s rolling his eyes at me.  Of course I’m too excited.  This is unbelievable.”  Her eyes darted to the door where Jeanne stood waving her over. “I’ve got to go.  Jeanne is saying its time.  Hug LA for me.” 

“BYE SHANNON.”

“Yeah that was Ritchie.  She says bye back,” Aliesa relayed to Ritchie before continuing her conversation.  “Don’t stress.  It’s fine… Everything is working out…Right…right…I will… Bye.” 

“Tom’s shooting here so we can take pictures in our element,” Ritchie explained making quotation marks with his fingers as he said “element.” 

“In the house?”

“He wants us in our everyday.”

Aliesa laughed.  “Who would pay to see that?”

“They want to start in the kitchen,” Jeanne directed as they walked down the stairs.  “And then he’s going to do living room shots, maybe some in the bedroom, outside…”

   My brain is on overload.
    I’ve been practicing for the tour for about two months now. Routines are killing me. You learn one thing, and tomorrow it could all change because one thing isn’t right.  And then you have to re-learn lyrics, because you haven’t sang something since recording it.  Or you have to rework a different re-mix because you don’t want to do the same thing over and over.  It’s mind-boggling having to think about what goes into an hour and a half show.   It’s overwhelming, all the decisions that need to be made before we can kick off.  I don’t even think I’ve begun to cope with the realization that this is going to be my life for a couple of months. 

“Did we miss the flight?”

“I think we have about five minutes to make it to the Gate.”

Ritchie pulled his baseball cap lower on his head as they rushed through the airport, bodyguards trailing them.  Aliesa bit her lip, and walked briskly beside him. 

“Guys we’re going to have to route you through a different area, too many people this way.”

“Will we still make it in time Chris?” Aliesa piped up to the bodyguard as she hitched her shoulder bag higher up.

“If we move it.  We don’t have time for you two to stop for any pictures or autographs.”

Ritchie grabbed Aliesa’s hand, and tugged her along as they headed off into a different direction.

     The flight to LA was insanity.  I mean just trying to get on the plane was stress in itself.  We were running around trying to get to the airport in time.  And then when we get there we find out that they changed gates.  So we’re trying to find our way.  It’s chaos because some fans find out that Ritchie and I are flying out, and the bodyguards are trying to get us from Point A to Point B by literally pushing people aside.  Planes don’t wait for anybody.  It doesn’t matter who you are.  They aren’t holding it for you.  Trying to catch it was like a mission.  We were literally booking it.  I seriously didn’t think we were going to make it.  I mean that alone should have told me this trip was not going to go well. 
     Our flight ended up delayed and we missed everything we were supposed to do when we got there and they had to reschedule so much that I don’t think we’ll be seeing much of LA except through tinted windows of a van that’s shuttling us everywhere.  The schedule was bad enough before but now management is telling us they have to add-on things and that we’re not going where we thought we were going and basically I want to scream.  I get so tired of it sometimes you know? 

“Do you mind if we discuss this later?”

“Why not now?”

“Because!”

“Aliesa will you just listen for a second.”

“Ritchie I have been listening and I don’t want to anymore.”

And of course those are the times when I’m probably the most difficult. 
     I get so cranky.  And God help the person that gets in my way when I get in my moods.  Ritchie and I argued because he’s being him and I’m being me.   We were both stressed trying to regroup our plans and trying to fit in life.  Aliesa sighs.  I hate when we fight.  Because we get so childish…I end up not speaking to him and he just gets that look on his face like he’s disappointed.  And I get more upset because he doesn’t understand.  And we end up ignoring each other instead of dealing with whatever.  But then when we make up… Aliesa gives the camera a small smile.  I just wonder why we were fighting at all because he’s the most wonderful thing…and it’s the most comforting thing….because out of everyone in this world he is the one person who does understand what I’m going through.

“Thanks you two.  That’s a wrap.”

Aliesa fingered the small microphone on her shirt collar.

“I got it.”  Ritchie unclipped the microphone and placed it in her hand. 

She smiled gratefully.  “Thanks.”

He squeezed her hand.  “What do you say we get out of here?”  Ritchie helped her up from the black couch they were sitting on. 

Aliesa adjusted the headphones.  “I’m so sorry that I couldn’t make it in yesterday Jojo.  But I thought of a way I could make it up to everyone.  I brought in a bribe so I wouldn’t get in too much trouble.

“Well from where I’m sitting I’d predict definite forgiveness,” Jojo commented as
Aliesa turned and smiled at Ritchie sitting beside her.

He leaned into the microphone.  “Hey LA.” 

The switchboard lit up like a Christmas tree.

“I think the listeners know what that bribe is.  The lights are all blinking here.  It looks like we got tons of calls coming through let me go ahead and answer at least one of them…Hey you’re on the air!”

“OH MY GOD!  OH MY GOD!  AM I REALLY ON?”

“You’re definitely on sweetie,” Aliesa answered amused at the girl’s excitement.

“OH MY GOD ALIESA?”

“That would be her name.  What’s yours darling?” Jojo chuckled as the caller continued rambling

“It’s Melissa…I can’t believe I got through…JOJO I listen to the show all the time...”

“So glad somebody is!  You want to take a guess who Aliesa brought with her?”

“Aliesa OH MY GOD is RITCHIE there with you?”

Aliesa took a sip of her water in front of her, biting back a laugh as Ritchie covered her microphone with his hand and spoke into his.  “I hope so,” he said.

The scream was deafening.

“Whoa.  Someone’s excited.  Want to ask him something Melissa?” Jojo teased. 

“Yeah, yeah umm…What are you doing in LA?”

“Following around my woman.”

Aliesa snickered at the comment.  Ritchie nudged her with his elbow.  “Ali and I have promotions and meetings this week.  Unfortunately I’m not here to relax.  I’m working,” he finished.

Melissa giggled and Jo-Jo cut in.  “Hang on the line Melissa we’re going to hook you up with some free stuff okay.”  He smiled at the two popstars in front of him as he cut off the call.  “If you didn’t catch on with all that commotion folks I’ve got a two-for-one interview today.  I’m here with pop’s power couple, Ritchie Neville and Aliesa Montaine, and I am forced to ask can life get any better for you two?  Ritchie’s got a new album coming out with his group.  Aliesa you’ve got a headline tour coming up.  You guys are all love and happiness.”

“Well when you put it that way it almost seems like it can’t!” Ritchie noted. 

Aliesa laughed. “Honestly.”

“Seriously now you guys!  I mean Ritchie my man you have got the career and the girl.  I’m jealous here.  I mean this is Aliesa Montaine we’re talking about.”

Aliesa leaned into the microphone, opening her mouth to speak but Ritchie beat her to it.  “I know what can I say?  She’s definitely a keeper.”

Jojo chuckled.  “And with that confession right there we’re going to go to a quick break and then we’ll be back with more music and more with the lucky Ritchie Neville and Aliesa Montaine.  Keep it locked here.”

"You okay?" 

Aliesa turned from her gaze out the window and sighed before resting her head on Ritchie's shoulder.

He kissed her forehead.  "Crazy huh?"

"A little."

"We'll be home before you know it."

She nuzzled against Ritchie’s neck seeking comfort.  "I know." 

“What popstars do on their down time...ooh primo parking spot up front Ritchie…get it…See that MTV…” Aliesa pointed to the grocery store in front of her.  “We live an exciting life.  We’re going grocery shopping,” she explained as Ritchie and she headed towards the bright lights of the store.  “And I’m sad to say that it’s something we haven’t done in a while.”

“Because we’re lazy…” Ritchie said as he grabbed a shopping cart.

“But now we’re out of food so we’re forced too, and you lucky people at home get to partake in our errands.”

“We should just head to the frozen food section,” Ritchie remarked as they weaved into the aisle.

“Fine dining.  You become a multi-platinum recording artist and you too can buy frozen,” Aliesa joked as Ritchie dropped something into the cart.  “Baby I thought we were buying real food.”

“Popsicles are real food.”

You know the best parts of my life are spent doing what most people would take for granted.  The times where you can just sit at home or go to a movie.  Aliesa and I are like that you know?  We’re just normal, nothing that flashy.  We’re…Ali…Ritchie looks straight into the camera.  We’re real. 

“Best feature?  Oh gosh.”  Aliesa turned to face Ritchie.  “That’s a good question…Ummm…”

“You like how she’s taking a LONG time to answer this one,” Ritchie said pointedly, chastising Aliesa for her inability to answer.

Aliesa laughed.  “But there are just so many great things about you sweetie,” she defended.

“So name one already so I don’t feel all inadequate and pathetic because my wife can’t name one,” Ritchie whined playfully. 

“Well…he has a nice smile.”

Ritchie groaned. “Ali.  All that time and that’s the best you can come up with?  That’s it?”

“What do you mean that’s it?  The smile should be rendered illegal Ritchie.”  Aliesa turned to the camera.  “You all agree right?  The boy is like walking charm.  I swear it.  He flashes a smile and suddenly people are just letting him get away with everything.”  She turned back to Ritchie, letting out a squeal when Ritchie kissed the top of her nose. 

“I like your nose.”

“Now who’s the one coming up with lame answers?” Aliesa remarked.

“It’s cute.”

“It’s cute?  I had a better explanation than it’s cute.”

“You’re cute.”  Ritchie smiled at her. 

Aliesa fell back against the sofa dramatically.  “See what I mean about that smile?”  She lifted herself back up.  “Now I’m going to believe that the statement was the best compliment I ever heard in my entire life.”  She grinned and turned to Ritchie.  “So I’m cute huh?”

“Very,” Ritchie clarified.

Aliesa traced his nose with her finger.  “I’m not taking back my answer.  I still like your smile best,” she said, her finger landing on his lips.  He kissed it.

“Or maybe I like your lips…” Aliesa trailed off.

“Because I’m a good kisser,” Ritchie taunted.

Aliesa’s jaw dropped.  “I can’t believe you just said that!”

“Admit it Ali.”

She gave him a look and then faced frontward.   “Secrets revealed only on MTV.  Ritchie Neville is the BEST kisser in the whole wide world,” she said dryly  “And I’d just like to point out that this proves he really does have a big ego,” she added smirking.  She stared up over the cameras.  “He’s giving me that look isn’t he?” she asked.

Voices in the background affirmed the obvious. 

Ritchie started tickling her.  “Ritchie…we’re not going to finish…if you keep doing that,” she said in between giggles. “Then take that one back Mrs. Neville,” he said stopping. 

Aliesa didn’t bat an eyelash.  “Okay fine.  Mr. Neville, you’re not the best kisser in the whole wide world.”

“Do you see what I have to put up with?” Ritchie cracked jokingly, and pointed to the woman beside him.

She planted a kiss on his cheek.  “You can’t hate me Ritchie.  You LOVE me.  Me and my cute nose.”

He smiled.  “That so?”

“You love me…” Aliesa sing-songed.

Ritchie leaned over and gave her a quick peck on the lips.  She pressed her forehead against his for a moment, and then she turned and smiled at the cameras. 

“Alright I admit it. Nobody kisses like Ritchie Neville.” 

And with that said the screen faded to black.

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