Away From the Spotlight (34 page)

We drove up into the Hollywood Hills to the party and I started to feel a little sick to my stomach with nerves.  I must have looked a little green because Will grabbed my hand and squeeze
d it, saying, “You’ll be fine.”

“I don’t feel fine.”

When we got out of the car, Will pulled me aside and kissed me, obviously trying to
counteract
my nervousness.  It worked until we walked inside the beautiful 1920’s Spanish-style two-story home to find among the fifty or so guests a number of people I recognized, but had never me
t.  Will held my hand tightly.

I
first
met Taylor’s girlfriend, Irina, as
she greet
ed
us at
the door.
Irina looked very Nordic or Russian, with exotic facial features and platinum blond hair.  Despite her beauty, she was rail thin with no figure whatsoever, almost like a young girl.  Seeing her actually made me feel a little better.  Considering Will’s appreciation of my curves, I realized that he would not have foun
d her the least bit attractive.

Irina informed
the crowd
that a friend was going to blindfold Taylor and bring him home after
taking him
out for a birthday drink.  She would let everyone know when he was on his way home.

After Irina’s speech,
Katherine walked across the large
living
room to greet us.  Mark stayed where he was to finish the conversation in which he was engaged. 
Katherine
kissed Will on the cheek and hugged
me.

“It’s so nice to see you again.  I’m glad you’re here.  Let’s go get you
both
something to drink.”

Katherine led us to a makeshift bar set up in the kitchen
.  A
s we
made our way
there, I thought I heard whispers along the lines of, “That’s Will’s new girlfriend,” “I hear they’re living together now,” and “I hear she’s a lawyer.” 
I really didn’t want to be the
topic of conversation tonight.

Katherine must have noticed it too.  She looked at me and said, “Don’t worry.  Once you meet e
veryone, the gossip will stop.”

“I hope so.”  I looked
down, embarrassed and nervous.

Will looked at me sympathetically
when I looked up
,
and squeezed my hand.  He seemed to have no intention of letting go of me, using only one hand to pour both of us glasses of wine.  I looked at the food on
a nearby
table and
chuckled under my breath
when I noticed that there
were some fattening items along with the
low carb
and
low calorie choices, thinking about w
hat Stephen had suggested I do.

When we returned to the living room where most of the party guests
had
congregated, Mark joined us.

“You look beautiful,”
he said to me as he greeted me.

“Doesn’t she?” Katherine added. “You sure you don’t want to be an actress?  You
probably could if you wanted.”

“No.  I don’t think I could.  I don’t have the talent and
I
wouldn’t like having to get up in
front of people to do that.”

“Won’t you have to get up in front of people and do a littl
e acting when you go to trial?”

“That’s different.”

“How?”

“I don’t have to pretend to be someone or something I’m not.  I ju
st have to believe in my case.”

“But sometimes you won’t
believe in your client, right?”

“Well, I
’
ll
do defense work mostly.  In my
limited
experience so far, even when
c
lients have done something technically wrong, they deserve a good defense. 
P
laintiffs
can sometimes be
greedy and try to take advantage of the situation.  If that weren’t
s
o
,
more
cases would settle before litigation really gets going.  So
I’ll still believe in my case.”

“Interesting.  I w
ould like
to see you in court
sometime
.  Can I?”

“It will be at least a few months, but sure.  You’ll have to come in disguise though.  The
judge
wouldn’t be happy if your prese
nce disrupted the proceedings.”

“No problem.  W
hen I need to, I can blend in.”

I find that hard to believ
e
.

Kayla Roberts joined us next.  I had seen her from the corner of my eye and thought I saw her struggling with whether or not she should come over and say
,
“H
ello
,” before she finally did.
She looked wistful as she kissed Will on the cheek.  Katherine introduced me, but did not expressly state that I was Will’s girlfriend.  I guessed that she was trying to be kind to Kayla.  Kayla look
ed
down and notice
d
that Will was holding my hand.

“It’s nice to meet you finally.  I’ve heard a lot about you,” sh
e said as she eyed me intently.

Will fidgeted a little as if that made him uncomfortable. 
I had been
told before that he had tried not to talk openly about me in front of her to spare her feelings.  I assumed he realized that it was to no avail as everyone had been gossiping behind his back.  He probably didn’t li
ke that.

Although there appeared
to be
no resemblance at all between Kayla and me whatsoever either physically or in terms of personality, I knew what Will had seen in her.  She seemed very bubbly and open
,
and I could see that she must have cheered him when he was at a low point in his life.  She had kind of a rasp in her voice though, like someone who smoked often, an
d probably not just cigarettes.

I had no idea what to say to her, so I just replied, “It’s nice
to
meet you
too
.”

We
then
were interrupted by Irina, who
informed
everyone that Taylor would
arrive
in about five minutes.  I was relieved
that the
awkward
conversation with
Kayla
wouldn’t continue
.

When
Taylor
arrived, he appeared
genuinely
surprised. 
It was cl
ear
, though, that
he had not been out for one
birthday drink, but a number of them
.  He
consequently
was
a little goofy when I was introduced.  He slapped Will on the back and said not
so quietly in his ear, “Nice.”

I pretended not to hear.

Will and I
wandered around and I met a number of his other
cast-mate
s and their dates or significant others.  Seemingly no longer worried about sparing Kayla’s feelings as she was no doubt fully aware of the extent of our relationship, he became more openly affectionate
, just
as he was when we were with other friends li
ke Stephen and Colin.

Will clearly was familiar with Taylor’s home because, at one point, he pulled me into a downstairs study and closed the door so tha
t he could kiss me in private.

“I’ve wanted to do this all evening.  I take that back.  I want to do this all the time, but I have been particularly
dying to do this all evening.”

Before it got too involved, we stopped so that we could return to the party.  We walked out of the study and almost ran into Taylor, who chuckled, and said ag
ain, “Nice,” as he stumbled by.

We both laughed in response and rejoined the party
. 
I left
again
almost immediately in search of a
restroom.

Katherine corner
ed me on the way, “Having fun?”

“Yes.  It’s nice to meet some of the
people I’ve only heard about.”

“They’ve been anxious to meet you too, I think.  You’re all Will talked about when we were on the
road for
Midnight 3
-
well, except when Kayla was within hearing range.  He had pictures on his laptop, his phone, and he kept leaving us to call or text you.  So, of course, they wanted to see tonight what all the fuss was about
-
who could have made Will fall head over heels in love.  You d
o
n’t disappoint.  You
two seem
perfectly matched.  I’m happy for you.  Just make sure
I get to come to the wedding.”

I am sure my eyes got as big as saucers when she said that.  “We’ve
only been dating a few months.”

“I know
, b
ut you’re done for, both of you.  It won’t be long now before you end up engaged.
I know him well.  I can tell.”

I stammered, “You’ll have to excus
e me. I have to go to the rest
room now.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes.  Just
a little
stunned and I have to go to the bathroom any
way.”

“Don’t tell Will what I said.  He would k
ill me if he knew I upset you.”

“You didn’t upset me.  I just hadn’t t
hought about that, that’s all.”

I walked away, a little unsteady on my feet
,
entered
the bathroom and splashed a little cool water on my face. 
Married
.
  I was
twenty-four
and had just gotten out of school.  I hadn’t even started my career yet.  It’s not that I hadn’t thought about marrying Will.  I had.  I just saw it as something that might happen in the
far
distant future.
K
atherine was talking like it would occur in the
very
near future.

I then realized that Will was too much of a planner like me.  He wouldn’t just spring something like a proposal on me.  That thought made me feel better as there had been no indication that he was planning anything like that.  I finally calmed dow
n enough to leave the bathroom.

I returned to the living room to find Will surrounded by women. 
And he g
ives
me a hard time about men surrounding me!
  I had not met everyone at the party, but knew that there were a number of friends of Taylor and Irina’s here that were single a
nd
a number that were not in the film industry.  I could tell from Will’s expression that th
ese
women were fans and had been fawning over him.  His expression was a patient, but embarrassed, look that was obvious to me, but probably not to others.  Will saw me enter the room
, politely excused himself,
strode up to me and kissed me as if to tell those women that he was taken.  He held me tightly
for
the rest of the
evening.

Toward the end of the evening, we sat
together on the sofa.  I was
pressed up against his side
and his arm was around me
.  People came to us to talk from that point forward.  I looked around and found it interesting that there were three stars here around which everyone else orbited
: 
Taylor, and probably only because it was his party
;
then Katherine
;
and
,
finally
,
Will.  It reminded me in a way of my workplace.  Everyone tended to orbit around the senior partners of my firm, even in social settings.  In Will’s line of work, he and Katherine, as the leads, were the equiv
alents of the senior partners.

I was enjoying people-
watching.  I
was able to see
how people behaved toward Will and how he trea
ted others in this setting.  I observed
that even those in his own industry fawned over him a little, though not nearly to the extent that fans did.  I
also
noticed
that Will, in response, was very self-effacing, trying to show that he was nothing special and
to
make everyone
feel
comfortable around him.  It was part of what made him special.  He was such a big star and there wasn’t an egotistical bone in his body.  Before this night, I didn’t think I could love him more.  I was wrong because, before tonight, I rea
lly didn’t know him completely.