Away From the Spotlight (68 page)

When Will finally
returned
, he lifted up and felt the fabric of my cream silk nightgown and said, “Nice.
This is from last night?”

I nodded.  “I did get one or two
normal things among the gifts.”

“You’ll have to show me the rest later.”  He lifted my new nightgown over my head and held me close.  “Now you wanted to try having a serious conversation when we were alone together.  W
hat do you want to talk about?”

“Is this just because you’re
too hung over to do anything?”

“I’m no
t.  You’ll notice in a minute.”

“Now you’re putting me on the spot.  I don’t know.
How about
we talk about
how
we
are going to manage t
hings when you’re off working?”

“I think we’ll have to deal with that on a case-by-case basis when the time co
mes.  We’ll work it out somehow.
I promise.”

“The
time is coming in a few weeks.”

“Yes, but I’ll be local for more than half the shoot, either in t
he studio or on location here.”

“But after that
?
”

“I’ve been gone before and we
’ve
managed.  You’ve been gone before and we
’ve
managed.  I will move heaven and earth to get to you
,
I promise.  I don’t want to be apart for weeks on end either.”

“I’m going to hold you to that, you know
.
”

“I know.  I love you.  Don’t worry.”  He kissed me, which started us on a pa
th that ended our conversation
- s
o much for our attempt at multitasking.

That
Monday, while I was at work, Will went to see the house.  I got a call mid-afternoon
from Will.  He sounded excited.

“You were right.  The
house is perfect.  It’s ours.”

“Really?”  I know I shouldn’t have been surpri
sed that it happened that fast.

“Well, there are some formalities first such as the inspection
, b
ut we ought to be able to close fairly quickly.  The owners haven’t lived there in a while and we don’t have to worry about a loan.  It’s just that the holidays will slow things down a little.  I imagine we can move in sometime in early-to-mid January
.”

It looked like we were settled then.  Will and I had only been back together a little over a week.  We had been married only slightly less than that time.  It was a little overwhelming.

Will and I left for England two days later, arriving on Christmas Eve.  A car picked us up at Heathrow and
delivered
us to Will’s house where we found Will’s parents, my parents,
Kelly
,
Matt
, Olivia and her family, and Emma and her boyfriend waiting for us.  Margaret had insisted that they, apart from Emma, who was local, stay with them
that night
. 
Will and I intended
to
stay in Hampstead.

None of them had seen us since we were married so there were a l
ot of hugs and congratulations.

We all had an early dinner to
gether
, and
Will and I
left soon after
ward since
those of us coming from the US were tired
from our respective journeys.

There were no paparazzi outside
Will’s flat in Hampstead
and we breathed a sigh of relief. 
Will ca
rried
me
over the threshold yet again. 
As I looked around, the memories from the summer washed over me.  I noticed the Bavarian beer stein and the Viking Ship from Oslo on the bookshelves and smiled.

Will, who had gone to the bedroom to deposit our luggage, rejoined me in the living room.  We
stretched out
on the sofa together.

“It’s nice to be back here with you,” I said as I stared into Will’s
bottomless green
eyes.

“I don’t think I could have come back to this place without you.”  There was a glimmer of sadness before Will smiled.

“It’s a good thing you didn’t have to then.”  I smiled in response.

“You didn’t bring any of your presents from your
hen party
with you by any chance?”  Will raised his eyebrows.

“A few, mostly the nicer ones.”

“How about we try one of the not so nice ones?”

“If you insist
.
”
I playfully grimaced.

“I do.”  Will leered
at me
.

The next
day
, Will and I spent the morning together before we had to
leave for
Will’s parents’ house to spend the remainder of Christmas
Day w
ith our families.

We exchanged Christmas gifts. 
Will handed me a velvet box that looked like it contained jewelry.  Inside
was the art deco bracelet that had been the “something borrowed” for our wedding ceremony. 
I stared at it for a moment in disbelief and then had Will help me p
lace it
on my right wrist.

“I can’t believe you did this
,
” I said although I probably
should
not have been surprised.

“After you wore it during our ceremony and I saw how much you liked it
,
I wanted you to have it.  I’m glad you didn’t notice the Wedding Planner give it back to me while we were wrapping things up after the ceremony.”

“Then it wasn’t something borrowed, was it?”

“It was until the ceremony was over.”

“It’s beautiful.  It will always remind me of that day.  I love it.  I love you.”  I kissed him. 
“Now it’s my turn.”

I
actually spent a lot of money, all things considered.  It was my money I spent
so
it was a good thing my money wouldn’t be needed to pay our expenses.  I handed Will a little blue box from Tiffany’s.

“I know you have awards season starting soon
and
I thought I would give you something for that, although I imagine you can be loaned anything you want.”

He opened the box to find a pair of round white gold cufflinks with little diamonds inset in them.

“I’d rather wear
these because they’re from you, a
nd they’re mine, just like you.”

He leaned over and kissed me.

“Merry Christmas,” I said, using
the American phrasing of Christmas wishes.

“Happy Christmas,” he replied in the British manner.

After our private Christmas celebration, we headed off
to Will’s parents
’
home
so that
the two now-
merg
ed families were able to spend Christmas
together.

Everyone was dressed in some form of red and green.  I went with a forest green blazer over black pants and blouse.  Will matched me to some degree in a dark green silk shirt and black slacks.  I found it funny that both my father and Will’s father had on s
illy Christmas-themed sweaters.

Gifts were exchanged and
they were
overkill on almost everyone’
s part, with little Emily particularly happy with her spoils.
 
It was a happy day for all as both families
seemed to mesh very well.

When I
a
woke
the next
morning
back in Hampstead
, Will was already awake and watching me.  I got up as had been my custom and got my appearance togethe
r before returning to bed. 
Of course, he already had a look at the hair and smeared eye makeup before I woke up
.
 
But at least I c
an
brush my teeth.

As I climbed back into bed, Will
smiled and
said, “We’ll be leaving later today for the place where our recep
tion will be held.”

“Are you g
oing to tell me where that is?”

“I think I can now.
”  He told me the name of a famous hotel
in London I had he
ard of, but had never visited.

“Overboard, as usual.”

“My mother did it.”

“I know where you g
e
t it from then.”

“We wanted to stay in London to ensure that everyone could come on such short notice without having to tr
avel.  I think you’ll like it.”

When we arrived at the hotel, I marveled at the art deco surroundings.  I imagined, at that moment, that our reception would be spe
ctacular considering the venue.

We were booked into one of the penthouse suites for the next two nights.  The suite was enormous,
constructed and furnished in the
art deco
style
like the rest of the hotel,
and
had a spectacular terrace.  It would have been nice to
spend time
out
side
when
heavy coats weren’t require
d.

“We’re having an impromptu party a little later t
his evening here in the suite.”

“We are?  Who’s coming?”

“Not a large group.  Stephen
,
Kate,
C
olin
,
Gemma, Emma
,
James,
Kelly
,
Matt
, Pete
,
Susan, Damon and his girlfriend, Niall
,
Pam, Katherine and Mar
k.  I think that’s everyone.”

“Ar
e we going to see our parents?”

“Tomorrow, for lunch.”

“Is tonight a casual affair?”

“Very.  I thought it would be nice to get some of the people I thought would have been
in the wedding party together.”

“Sounds like fun.  What
are we going to do until then?”

“Wha
t we always do in a new place.”

“Good plan.”  I kissed him
and we were off to it.

Since there were going to be so many of us, we ordered heavy hors d’oeuvres, figuring that everyone could pick at dinner over time since
the
dining table
in our suite only
seated
four
.

Our guests started arriving in groups, the first of which was
Kelly
and
Matt
, likely because they were staying in the hot
el and didn’t have far to come.

“Nice room,”
Kelly
said as she entered, a little awes
tru
ck by the size and splendor.  Many
apartments weren’t as large as our suite.

“
How’s yours?”

“Not quite as big as this, but big.  So’s Mom and Dad’s.  Y
ou didn’t have to do all that.”

“Don’t blame me.  Blame him.”  I pointed to Will as he w
alked into the living room.

“
Blame me for what?”

“Th
eir room is on the large side.”

“If this isn’t the occasion to do
something like that, when is?”

I shook my head.

Next in the door were S
tephen, Kate, Colin and Gemma.
Stephen and Kate were staying with Stephen’s family and Colin and Gemma were staying with Colin’s family.  I was
certain that
Will
had
tried to twist their arms into allowing him to put them up as well, but they
appeared to have
resisted, citing family obligations
.

After that, Emma and
James arrived.

“My dress fits perfectly,” I said as Emma walked in the door.  “Thank you so much.  From what I can tell, it
’s
perfectly
in keeping
with the décor here.”

Emma smiled broadly. 
“You’re very welcome.
You’ll be beautiful tomorrow.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,
but the dress will be anyway.”