Away From the Spotlight (15 page)

“You mean you like
d
me
because
I didn’t know who you were?”

“
No
,
I
. . .
like you because of who you are and still would have even if you
did
know what I did for a living.  But it was nice to know you liked me for
me
and not the movie star.”

“That’s
really
why you didn’t t
ell me?” I asked incredulously.

He looked down. 
“
For the most part
.  I
also
didn’t want you to have to dea
l with the bad part of my job.”

“The bad part?”
  I couldn’t imagine what he meant.

“Yes.  Well, you saw the results of some of it.  The paparazzi follow me around from time-to-time and the tabloids make up stuff all the time.  At one point, the paparazzi even followed Kate and Gemma around, thinking they were my girlfriends.  Once the
paparazzi
figured out they weren’t and they weren’t going to get any juicy pictures, the
y
went away
,
but not before the girls’ pictures
were published
along with articles saying
I was ch
eating on Katherine with them.

“
I try to minimize the impa
ct by not hanging out at ‘
Hollywood’
sort
of places anymore unless Katherine and I are doing it for publicity.
I was going to tell you about me soon though because, when my new movie gets released before Memorial Day
W
eekend, the p
hotographers
will start stalking me again.  As much as I would love to show you off to the whole world, I don’t think you w
ould
a
ppreciate the lack of privacy.”

“So you were going to continue to lie to me until you had no choice?”

“I’m sorry, yes.”  He looked down
,
realizing that I wouldn
’
t like the answer.
 
“I wanted you to get to know the real me and for us to be a normal couple for as long as possible.  I know you’re angry with me but
,
if you can forgive me, you will understand soon why I
did what
I did.”

“
So
that’s all of it
-
all
of your reasons?”
I was still
s
keptical
.

“Yes.  Will you
please
forgive me?” he asked
as he
put his hand on my lef
t leg and leaned in for a kiss.

Everything he had said had made sense and I couldn’t resist him when he touched me.  I responded,
“I guess, but you have a lot of making up to do.”
I then let him kiss me.

There’s nothing like makeup sex.  I think it’s the relief from not being in a fight anymore and the
high after such a huge low that
makes it more powerful
.
 
As we were spooning afterward, I heard him say very quietly
in my ear
with a little bit of fear in his voice, “I love you.”

I was surprised by his declaration.  I thought my heart had stopped beating and I’m sure I stopped breathing.  At that moment, I realized with certainty why I had been so upset and why I had been so invested in the relationship so fast.  I was in love with him too. 
I turned around to face him and
looked deeply
into his eyes.  “I love you.”

We just
lay
there facing each other for a while
and
star
ed
at each other, probably both in shock
over
what we had just said to each other.

If there was ever a day that I wished I could blow off class,
this
was th
e
one.  But I had to go since
there was only a little over two weeks of
school and work before finals.

I tried desperately not to wake Will as I got ready. 
Will
told me that he hadn’t slept at all the
prior
night, first worried when he didn’t hear from me and then upset over my unwillingness to take his calls and
his
inability to
come see
me
right away
to
straighten things out
.  Then
,
he
had
a
magazine
photo shoot th
at
next
day before getting on a plane home and coming directly to my place from the airport.

I left him a note asking him to call me at work after
my classes ended at
n
oon and a key to lock up when he left.

Between classes, I checked to see if I
received
a text message.  There were two messages
.
The first said, “
Meet u at SC at 12.  Miss u.”
 
The second one was even better
:
  “IL
Y
.”

I replied, “IL
Y
2.  Can’t w
8
2 c u.”

I
exited
my
Crim
inal
Pro
cedure
classroom
to find Will
leaning
against the wall across from the doors. 
A
s always,
I sat
in the back of the class so I was one of the first out the door. 
M
y
professor was popular and the
class was large
so
the
numerous
students
stared as they came out the door to see
Will greet me
with a
long
kiss.
 
I was embarrassed because
I
knew that
I
was going to hear about
it the next day
at school.  I imagined that the news would spread like wildfire through the law school
and would be the major topic of conversation within the hour.  I winced.  I
really
didn’t like being the focus of attention.

When he leaned
away
from the kiss, he said, still holding me,
“I’ve never been here before.  It’s nice.  Doesn’t seem like
we’re
near
D
owntown. 
W
here can we
have lunch here
?”

“Are you sure you want to?  It’s a pretty big school
.  T
here
’
ll be a lot of people out
and about
at
n
oon.”
  I wasn’t sure whether he had shied away from crowds in the past because he didn’t like them or only because he was trying to hide his profession from me.

“It won’t bother me if it doesn’t bother you.  I don’t have to worry about you finding out anymore and I don’t think paparazzi hang out here so I think we’re good.”

“But what about fans?”

“It’s okay.  It’s L.A. and most people are pretty c
ool
.  If they even notice me and recognize me, they just stare mostly. 
Sometimes
I get asked for an autograph or
a
photo, but that’s okay
so
long as it’s not aggressive.”

I was glad.  It would be nice to spend time with
Will
on my turf.

Will clearly had gone home to change as he was dressed down like
the
other students.  Other than his stunning good looks, he managed
to blend in for the most part.

I
decided to take
Will to
the Campus Center for
lunch
.  Will looked around him at the red-bricked buildings, perfect landscaping and beautiful fountains on the way.
Will smiled as if impressed as he took in his surroundings.

As we
continued to
walk through campus
hand-in-hand
, I realized that Will had been right. 
Most people just walked right by us
,
not paying any attention to us or
even
their surroundings for that matter.  For those who noticed Will, there were some stares and a few girls with camera phones.  We made it to the C
ampus Center
with a minimum of fuss.
 
We grabbed some lunch and a table
at
the very
end
of the room
with Will facing away from the crowd
.
  It was private enough for me to get answers to some of my burning questions.

“So
now you have to answer the questions you
’
ve avoided since we met.  First,
you have to tell me what you
’
ve been doing these past few weeks when we’ve been apart.
  A
lso,
what’s with Stephen and Colin
?  Y
ou dodged questions about them too.”

It took a moment for Will to answer. 
“I’ll go with your second question first
.  I
t’s easier to answer.  Stephen and Colin both work in my industry.  Stephen is a
Second
AD – Assistant Director – and Colin is a Gaffer
, b
asically,
the head electrician responsible for the lighting
.  I met Stephen on the first
Midnight
film and I met Colin
on a smaller film soon after
.  We dodged your questions because I didn’t want to get into the subject of the movie industry.  I wanted to be
normal
.

“Your first question is harder to answer because I did various things.  I don’t have a regular nine-to-five existence and
, although
I
’
m on a break between films, there are still other things I have to do.  I’ve started to do interviews and photo shoots for magazines that will be published around the time
Midnight 3
is released.  That’s why I was in New York.  I had an interview on Monday night and the photo shoot for the article was Tuesday.
The Wednesday before that
, I
attended
a movie premiere with Katherine to start generating buzz for the movie and provide red carpet photos for the
various
magazines.  I’ve also had to meet
with my agent about future projects and
with the publicist to get ready for our upcoming
Midnight 3
pr
omotional
tour.
”

“Pr
omotional
tour?”

“Yes.  At the end of May, I’ll be doing marathon interviews, attending the premieres in L.A. and New York and doing
chat
shows, some
alone
and some with the cast.  Then
we
do the same in the UK, Europe, Australia and Japan. 
I’m lucky that this time it’s not that long – about three weeks.  The promotional tour for the first film took months.

“
Midnight
has
become quite
a
franchise. 
Midnight 1
made multiples of what they thought it would, almost as much as the big action blockbusters, more than
many
in fact.  With
Midnight 2
and
3,
they’ve added merchandising and then there are the book sales as well.  So there is a lot of money at stake
, n
ot to mention that we start shooting
Midnight 4
in
September
.

“
Midnight
has dominated my life for the better part of the last four years.  I’ve managed to do
a few other things
,
smaller parts in big movies a
s well as
a few smaller films, but it has been hard to do
a lot
other than
Midnight
.”