They met up, every few years. Whenever Lance dropped by New York. Sometimes if Joey went West, but that was rare. The kids had school, and he had auditions, shows. And their restaurant was in the city.

They always ate there -- Il Ristorante Italiano, which Joey had once complained meant it would have terrible food, like genuine New York delis in Florida.

It was delicious. Cozy, with real Italian chefs and decent wine that left a warm feeling in his stomach, and flickering candles and Lance.

He had loved Lance, once. Real, true, shout-it-from-the-rooftops love. Only they couldn't shout it, of course. They hid it. They loved each other behind locked doors, closed windows. In the company of others, they were only friends.

They were never alone together now.

Joey remembered watching Justin and Britney, the perfect couple, wishing he could love Lance like that. Out in the open, wanted by millions, knowing, somehow, the secret to it all. Balancing work and love and each other, and never worrying if someone could find them, if someone knew. Everyone knew, and everyone applauded.

They'd gotten married, when the band ended. Left show business, gotten married, and planned a family.

Everyone had laughed at them. Britney, a stay-at-home mom? Justin, alone with her forever? They'd be bored within days. Carson gave them fifteen hours.

Joey envied them. Even then, with *nsync done and gone, he and Lance weren't like that. Theirs was a private romance, and if they loved each other forever or fell apart in a blaze of glory, no kids, no cash, no marriage anymore, nobody cared. Nobody knew.

Their marriage had been the end of Justin and Britney, and both their careers. They couldn't go back, couldn't find what they'd once been, and still Joey envied them.

He had his family, now. His love that everyone knew about, his children, and he was happy.

Lance was happy, too. Joey knew, because Lance told him. He had his businesses, his parents and sister and boyfriend. And ever few years, in a dark corner of Il Ristorante Italiano, over a bottle of wine and a dish of pasta, he had Joey, too.