Away From the Spotlight (21 page)

It was a Monday night at the
Royalist
so it wasn’t very crowded. 
However, i
t was a little
busier
than usual in that it was getting to be the start of
s
ummer when people went out a little more often
during the week
.

Prepared for our outing, I dressed up a little in a grey and black knit skirt and black fitted top with a
low-cut
neckline that Will had seemed to appreciate in the past. 
Carrie
dressed very casually as she always did in fairly unisex attire of non-d
esigner blue jeans and an olive-
green Henley shirt, tha
t showed off how tiny she was.

Carrie
and I
made it to the
Royalist
by about
ten-thirty
to find Will, Stephen, Kate, Colin and Gemma waiting
at one of the low tables adjacent to the darts section on the left-hand side of the pub
.
 
A
s we
joined Will and his friends,
I was having trouble rem
embering my life without Will. 
Had it only been two months since Will and I met here?
 
Although it seemed natural, it was scary to think how
serious we had become so fast.

I sat down in the wooden chair that Will
had
moved very close to his own, so close in fact, that my left side was flush against hi
m
when I sat down. 
He put his arm around me. 
Carrie
sat on the other side of me
,
next to Colin.

After introductions
, the ordering of drinks,
and some casual conversation about
Carrie
’s
and my summer plans to study for the Bar together, I informed Will of
Carrie
’s addiction to tabloids.

“I have to tell you, Will, that
Carrie
is an avid tabloid reader.  She has piles in our room.  She even reads the ones that talk about alien abductions.”

Will blushed, likely worried
about
what she might have read.

“All the stories are
one-hundred
percent true, of course,”
Carrie
said teasingly
.
“I’ve been reading about
you
for
years
.  It was all I could do to keep from warning Shannon
about you.”  She winked at him.

He blushed even more.
“I wouldn’t believe everything you read,” he sa
id quietly, still embarrassed.

I
was certain
he was wondering what she could have read.
All I could think was, “Was it really that bad?”
and t
hen I couldn’t stop myself from saying it out l
oud.

“No, just from reading that stuff, I would never have pictured you
two
together. I would have thought Shannon would be a little too straight and narrow for you,” she
said as she faced
Will, b
aiting him.

I
was sure
there must have been some concern
reflected
i
n my
face
.

“She’s actually perfect for me.  I was having a hard time adjusting
for a while
and a lot of that stuff
was way overblown
or made up
anyway.”

“I’m just winding you up,”
Carrie
said, with a broad smile, and winked.
  “It’s what I do.  Besides, S
hannon has told me
about you and how well you treat her
s
o I believe you.”

Will looked
relieved, but that changed when he looked
at me. 
I probably didn’t look too happy.

“What?” he asked
in my ear
as he tried to read my expression.

“Nothing.  I’m fine
,” I replied in his ear, not wanting
Carrie
to hear.

Colin
grabbed
Carrie
’s attention, no doubt
as a result of having seen
Will’s and my unhappy faces.

“Obviously, it’s not nothing
,
”
Will said openly now that
Carrie
wasn’t
listening
to us.

“
It’s just what
Carrie
said about not seeing us together.  You could have anyone you want.  Look at that woman over there staring at you and those
two
over there
,” I said as I nodded in the direction of the women
. 
“
I dislike feeling insecure
intensely
,
and seem to feel that way quite often these days.”

“
D
on’t.  I said that you were perfect for me and I meant it.  Anyway, you think I don’t feel that way too?”

“Why
would
you?”

“
Right
.  I keep forgetting ho
w clueless you are.  Let’s
both try to put our jealousy aside for now.  Just remember it goes both ways.”

“I’ll try.”

Will perked up after that and we all had a very good time. 
Carrie
,
silly
as always, was the source of much amusement.  Her goof
i
ness was
the perfect foil
for the English wit of Will and his friends.

Carrie
later
returned to
USC
alone
and Will drove me back to his place, planning on dropping me
back
at
my place
before
a
meeting in the morning.  Stephen, Colin and their girl
friends drove home separately.

On the way home, I noticed a change in Will’s mood.  He w
asn’t his usual talkative self.

“What’s wrong?  You
’re being
quiet.”

“Nothing
. 
It’s just that I’m
sometimes
afraid that
,
if you have
to deal with me
as
a
movie star
, you won’t like me anymore.”

I never ceased to be amazed that he
wa
s insecure about
my
feelings for
him
.

I rolled my eyes as I said,
“I don’t just like you.  I love you.  I told you that
I don’t care about that stuff.”

“You may change your mind.  It hasn’t really affected you much yet.  The pr
omotional
tour starts on Wednes
day.  The madness begins then.”

“What do you mean
‘
madness
’
?”

“Screaming girls, people following me around, losing complete control over my schedule
. 
I won’t be able to see you much for a while
, a
nd then the tabloid articles will follow, many of them making stuff up ab
out me.  It won’t be pleasant.”

“I’m telling you it doesn’t matter. 
Nothing
will ch
ange the way I feel about you.”

We pulled up into the garage and the door closed behind the car.  Before we got out of the car, he said quietly, but
a little forlorn, “I hope so.”

I decided to treat studying for the Bar like a job.  I started around
nine
in the morning after coming home from Will’s. 
Carrie
and I sat together with our
laptops and
ext
ra-long
Bar review
b
ooks at the
dining table just to the side of our small living room, furnished in
basic b
rown furniture.  We had a big pile of highlighter pens in front of us in multiple colors.  I don’t know if the highlighters made a whole lot of difference as I
seemed to
highlight
almost every word as I read.

We goofed around a little at first
.  I
t was hard to read
just to studying again.

I took a shower at lunchtime to take a break from studying and ate my microwaved lunch in front of
Carrie
’s miniscule TV.  She liked cartoons
,
child that she was
,
so we watched cartoons.

We then studied some more until about 4 p.m. when we left to
pick up
some
fast
-
food
for dinner on our way to class.

Upon exiting class into the
postage stamp-sized
parking lot, I found Will waiting for me.  My classmates stared as I rushed up to him to give him a big kiss.  He grabbed my book bag and my overnight bag and walked me to his car parked a few blocks away.
We
entered
his house and I found
that we were completely alone.

“Where are Colin and Stephen?” I asked.

“
Working
. 
Night shoots.  Anyway,
I wanted to be completely alone with you since
I can’t count on when we’
ll be ab
le to be together for a while.”

Will
put my bags down in the dining room and led me to the patio that was all lit up with
tiny
lights
.  S
oft music was playing
. 
It was still warm outside, cooler than it had been during the day, but not unpleasant.  The usual
late-Spring
fog didn’t look like
it was coming in this evening.

“
Wow.  It’s beautiful out here.”

“The benefit of having a
lighting expert as a roommate.”

He lit candles on the table up on the deck.  He went inside to grab a bottle of wine and two wine glasses and returned to the patio,
to find me
staring out into the darkness.

“You look sad,” he said as he held his hands holding the full wineglasses to each side so he
could lean forward and kiss me.

I grabbed one
of the glasses and took a sip.

“I am.  I don’t like not seeing you for a whole day, much less what probably
wi
ll
be weeks.”

“I promise
that, i
f I can get away to
see
you, I will.  I just don’t want you to
get
caught up in the storm, particularly when you have to concentrate on studying for the Bar.  My schedule is ugly.  I’ve got a
syndicated radio
show tomorrow
morning
, the L.A.
p
remiere tomorrow night, a
chat
show Thursday morning
, another in the afternoon,
and
a nighttime talk show
on Thursday
evening
.

“Then I take a red eye to New York
to make it to a
chat
show Friday morning, a late night show Friday
evening
,
some newspaper and pre-tapings of radio interviews during the day on Saturday,
and
the
p
remiere there
Saturday
night. 
I
fly to Chicago on Sunday for another chat show
there
on Monday.

“
If the plans remain firm,
I fly home Monday night and leave
almost immediately
for the British and European premieres, interviews and talk shows the following week.  I go
from there
to Sydney and Tokyo for the final round.  So that’s three weeks, assuming I
can’t find a break to see you.

“I won’t even get to see my parents
when I’m in England
other than at the London
p
remiere itself
,
and that’s if I can pull myself away from the publicists, press and fans long enough to say
‘
hello.
’
”