Nashville

Her friends lay in the back of the van; haphazardly arranged sleeping arrangements had scattered couples, so that the girls slept on a fold-out and the guys lounged, sitting up, in the camper seat. She smiled, glad for them; then, taking another shot of Starbucks-Express Triple-Java Mocha Latte, realized she had quite a few miles left to run.

She had long envied the relationships around her. She had been the one to introduce Stephanie to Matt, thereby fulfilling Linda McMahon's dream of her daughter meeting a more mature man. Matt was, to be blunt, the man who clipped Stephanie's ego into a manageable portion. She seemed to adore his brain power, and the fact that he could debate with her without belittling or demeaning her. So Lita yearned to replicate within her own life their fiery rapport.

Molly and Christian had a quieter, sweeter relationship, brought on by a shared angle that should have wrecked it. They had a complimenting chemistry to the point of becoming the same person; that, if anything, disturbed Lita. But she envied their sweetness.

Stephanie had introduced Shane to Torrie in a desperate attempt to get him off of her back about dating Matt. Shane had once vowed to see his father's request through and protect Stephanie from the talent; he broke his own rule and promptly got involved with Torrie. The two of them shared little more than a physical relationship at this point, and Lita felt frank surprise that they hadn't managed to end up in one another's arms that night. She wanted their lust to become a part of her own relationship.

Whether Nashville could give her these things were debatable, but she, in this crazed panic that had absorbed her being, couldn't see doing anything other than marrying him.

Most people assumed that her life was easy; that she could land a date in five minutes. But the strange perversity of being a celebrity tainted everything she saw; Nashville had fallen in love with the real her, not just a picture of a person who didn't exist outside of the shiny paper world she yearned to break from.

Maybe that wedding gown she bought, however, was a bit over-the top.

Sunlight broke over the highway, as though blessing her decision. Maybe, just maybe, she was in the right and Nashville was the guy from her.

But as the sun rose, it lit a sign posted on a high arch, right in front of a series of security checkpoints.

She slammed the breaks on, feeling like the world's biggest idiot.

They were sitting on the Canadian boarder.

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