Away From the Spotlight (26 page)

“When I see you, I feel some
parts
more than others.”

“Are you feeling them now?” he asked
,
leering at me.

“Yes.”

“Then follow me.”

It was like time was on fast-forward and
,
before we knew it, it was time for Will to get going
to meet his flight to Chicago.

As he gathered up his things to leave, he said, “I’m home briefly tomorrow night before a few interviews on Tuesday and then
my
half-
five
Tuesday
night
flight
to London.  Will you meet me
at my place after your class?”

“Are you
kidding me?  You have to ask?”

“Yes.  I hate that you have to react to my schedule when I know you have a lot going on in your life right now.  It’s no
t fair of me.”

“You don’t need to worry.  I wou
ld do anything to be with you.”

“Anything
? 
I
may have t
o hold you to that.  It may be
difficult when I come back to keep us under wraps.
”

“We
’ll
worry ab
out that when the time comes.”

I
then
kissed him goodbye tentatively
,
worried
that I would
tear up again.

Will
gazed into my sad eyes. 
“You don’t have to worry.  I’ll
see you tomorrow.  I love you.”

“I love you.  Tomorrow.”

Will
kissed me far less tentatively than I had
kissed him
and walked out
the door
with his carry
-
on bag.  I remained
in the suite
so that we wouldn’t be spotted together by any paparazzi
who
may have followed him.

I
could have stayed in the room for as long as I wanted
since
it was booked for the night, but it would have depressed me to be there without Will.  Since I needed to wait a
little
while
before I could
leave, I decided to take advantage of the spa tub
.

Sunday night and Monday passed painfully slowly for me as did my
Bar review
class.  My Crim
inal
Pro
cedure
professor
from
USC
was on tap this week for the live lecture series.  Even his jokes and his entertaining manner couldn’t
take
my focus off my watch all evening.  When class was over, I
quickly
said goodbye to
Carrie
and practically ran to my car.  When I got there, I checked m
y phone.  I had a text message.

“We have a problem.  Ppzzi prkd in front of house.  Call me when u get this
.  We’ll figure something out.”

My heart sank.  I knew that Will would forego seeing me rather than have me
harassed
by photographers or take the chance that the tabloids would get
wind of our relationship.
 
I p
laced
my Bluetooth earpiece on
my ear
, and called him.  I decided to head off in the direction of
the
Palisades so as not to create any delay in see
ing him, whatever the plan was.

“Shannon, I have an idea.  Meet Colin at the
Royalist
.  He’ll drive you over here.  You can l
ay
down in his back seat when you get close.  He’ll park in the garage.  The photographers won’t see anything. 
T
hese
blokes
don’t seem too aggressive anyway.  I let them take p
hotos
when I
arrived
and I later went outside and tried to be friendly.  They got a few more shots and I told them I was leaving tomorrow for London.  It’s just that
they didn’t leave after that.”

“Why don’
t we meet somewhere else then?”

“They’ll just follow me and
,
if I don’t stay at my house, they’ll smell blood.  My admission last week on TV about seeing someone has stirred
everything up
.  I
was
really grilled on the
chat
show today in Chicago.  You would have sworn that the talk
show host was a
b
arrister and I was
i
n the
witness box
.  Katherine helped me dodge the questions
,
b
ut it was tough.  I am sure the tabloids are no doubt dying to find out who my girlfriend is.  I imagine the first lucky photographer to catch
us
together stands to make
a bit of cash.”

“Are you sure it will be
okay
?”

“Yes.  I
need
to see you.”

“I feel the same way.  I’ll be at the
Royalist
in about ten minutes.”

“Colin s
hould already be there by now.”

“See you soon.”

“Be careful.  I lo
ve you.  I’m sorry about this.”

“No need
to be sorry.  I love you too.”

Will had made
everything
sound far more
low key
than it
actually
was.  Before I ducked down on the floor of the backseat of the Jeep as we entered the street, I
caught a glimpse of
the scene.  There were a couple of cars and motorcycles parked across the street from Will’s house and about six photographers standing in the middle of the street, likely because they could claim it was public property.  There was also a group of girls, maybe ten or so, standing in the street with them.  There were a couple of bulky bouncer types standing at the edge of the yard standing guard to keep the paparazzi and the fans
off of Will’s private property.

The guards
must have
moved the crowd out of the way as Colin pulled into the driveway.  I couldn’t see anyone around the car windows so I guessed that we were safe.  We quickly entered the garage
and the door closed behind us
with a thump
.

“That went well
.
”
Colin breathed a sigh of relief.

“Has it ever
not
gone
well?”

“Yes. 
I’ve had Will’s fans get in front of my car.  That can be scary.  I almost
hit someone once.”

“Yikes. 
This is just so bizarre to me.”

“You get used to it. 
I
t’s not all the time
as you have seen. 
It’s
usually
j
ust around the time big movies of his are
r
eleased.”

Will
ran up
to me as I walked in the door, worry written all o
ver his face.

Before he could say a thing, I informed him,
“I’m okay.  No one saw me
.
”
H
e kissed me
and must have felt that I was
still a little shaken
from the ordeal
.

“Thanks, Colin, for taking care of her.”  He patted Colin on the shoulder
.

“No problem.  I’ll just need to add this to my resume now
:  B
odyguard to
Girlfriends of the S
tars.  You think
I
’ll get m
ore work that way?”  Colin laughed.

“Nice.  Like you need more work anyway.  You’re a
pretty popular guy these days.”

“Not as popular as
you
.”
Colin entered
the
family
room to have a seat in one of the recliners and Gemma joined him.

“Well,
why don’t we ignore what’s going on out there and have a nice, normal evening, okay?  I’m sure our neighbors will make sure that LAPD gets here eventually to clear the crowd.  Shannon, can I get you a glass of wine or a beer?  I think Gemma ma
y even have bought some cider.”

“Cider
,
if you have it.”

As Will grabbed one of the bottles of
c
ider from
a
six pack and opened it, I asked him, “What do your neighbo
rs have to say about all this?”

“It’s fine.  We know a lot of them.  Sometimes it can be a nuisance and they don’t like it
.  B
ut
,
mostly, they’re friends and they f
eel a little protective of us.”

Stephen continued where Will left off.  “Yeah, they really like Will.  He buys lots of Girl Scout Cookies, magazines, wrapping
paper, and donates to all the
school auctions.  He’s a big sucker when it comes to the kids.  The parents appreciate that.  Plus, you know, they get to say they live near a famou
s person.”

“
I
t’s not like I’m the on
ly actor that lives around here,
”
Will
said, attempting
to downplay things.

“A few minor TV stars, maybe, but no one at
your
level.”

“
Please.
”

“Most people who are as successful as you liv
e behind gates and you know it,” Stephen argued.

“I
like
it here.”

Colin responded this time.  “We know and Stephen and I appreciate that you do
, b
ut times like this would be
easier for you if you didn’t.”

“It’s not that bad.”

“Yet.”  Colin lo
oked wary.  Will glared at him.

“What do you mean
‘
yet
’
?”  I asked.

“We’ve had people wandering around our backyard and once we even had some girl get into the house,” Stephen
answered
.

“Oh my God, really?”
  I
gave
Stephen a look of disbelief.

“Yeah. 
W
e’ll have some private security for a while until the storm passes.  We know these guys from some of the films we
’
ve all worked on so it’s actually k
ind of fun having them around.”

W
hen everyone had been served a drink, w
e
all
settled down and decided to watch the latest
blockbuster
on cable.  I sat in Will’s lap in one of the recliners, Colin and Gemma sat in the other recliner, and Stephen and Kate
spread out
on the sofa.

“Are you sure you’re comfortable?  I’m not
a little person like Gemma is.”

“I am
more
than comfortable. 
I can
n
ever get close enough to you and I certainly don’t want to let go of you.  Tonight, you’re
mine
,” he whispered in my ear.

During the course of the film, the boys
engaged in
some running color commentary. 
S
tephen
would
comment on some of the shots being a little over the top, Colin commented on the lighting, and Will
would occasionally
comment on
the acting and the stunts.

“That guy was probably in pain for a week after that,” he me
ntioned during one fight scene.

“What do you mean?” I asked.  “It’s not like they
’re really hitting each other.”

“No, the punches aren’t real
or at least really hard
, but for all those shots of him being knocked across the room, he’s in a harness and those harnesses can be painful
.  T
hey dig into
you.”

“But is that the actor being thrown
across the room or a stuntman?”

“Probably both.  They need to get reaction shots from the actor.  They just don’t pull the harness as hard on the actor.  But I’m sure both the actor and the stuntman were in pa
in after that day of shooting.”