Away From the Spotlight (71 page)

“Well, I have another surprise for you in a while.”
  He looked at me.

“Really?”  I was like a
star
-
struck
fan. 
Funny how I married an actor, but
am
never star
-
struck by actors.  M
usicians on the other hand . . .

“Thanks, Sean.  Glad you’re back home and could be here.”
  Will rescued me.

“Wouldn’t miss it
,
”
he said and smiled.

We then approached Katherine and Mark.  “I
’
m so glad everything worked out for you,” Katherine said as she hugged me.  “
As I said last night, h
e was like the living dead during the entire
Midnight 4
shoot.  I was really worried, but knew that, once he got home, he would figure out that he was being a complete idiot.  Not that I didn’t tell him that every day.”

“Thanks for being in my corner.  I appreciate it.”

“He’s like my brother.  I want what’s best for him.”

We continued on
among
the tables
,
including the family table that included my sister and Will’s sisters.

“
Thank you for the dress.  It’s beautiful,” I gushed to Emma.  I feel like Audrey Hepburn.  I never thought I could wear something like this.  I would have thought I had a little too much going on up here to get away with it.”  I
pointed in
a circle around my chest as I spoke.

“You’re stunning.  Be glad you have something to hold
up
the dress.”

The last table we
visited
was that of Pete, Damon,
and their girlfriends,
Niall, Pam and
Jane
along with Stephen, Kate, Colin and Gemma.
 
Two
extra chair
s
w
ere
added to
make a larger
table of t
welve
so that Jane
and her date
could sit with Pam.  Margaret clearly had thought of everything.

We first talked to Pete, Damon
,
Niall
, Pam and
Jane
.
 
We
then
did somewhat of a group hug with Stephen, Colin, Kate and Gemma and I said, “I’m so glad you could be here,” as we did so.

By the time we got back to our table, the main course had been sitting there a while.  We both tried to eat.  It was hard for me
because
I was too excited and nervous.  The evening seemed to be going along in a blur.  It wasn’t long before it was time for the cake.  Will was kind and it didn’t get too messy.  The cake was good
and
tasted like it had rum in it.

Next was the start of the dancing and here’s where my surprise from the O’Neills came into play.  They performed the first few songs at the reception,
with
Jack
singing and
Sean
on
an acoustic
guitar.  My
first
dance with Will was a slowed down acoustic version of my favorite song of theirs.  They also played
another favorite of mine f
or the
family dance
.  They played
their final song for everyone.

When the O’Neills were finished
and nodded to the audience as they cheered
, I rushed up to them and thanked them.  “Other than Will himself, I think that was my best present
ever
,” I gushed.  I hugged them and kissed them both quickly on the mouth before I realized what I had done.

Sean smirked and said to Will, “I hear you’re having another one of these in Los Angeles.  If that’s going to be the reaction, I’
ll be
happy to come out there and repeat the performance.”

“I’ll come too,” Jack chimed in.

“She can be enthusiastic at times.”  Will looked at me
and chuckled
.

I looked sheepish.

“Lucky you,” Jack said and raised his
thick
eyebrows
.

A
DJ
then
played a mix of music
al genres
so that everyone would dance.  For the first
several
dances, Will and I slow danced, even though most of the songs were not slow.
  We started to kiss as if no one else w
as
in the room.  We heard throat clearing next to us.  Stephen and Kate, and Colin and Gemma were
all
dancing close to us.  It was then that we realized that we had an audience.

“Remember,
it’s not just us here this time,
” Colin said and grinned.

“We weren’t being
that bad
,” I
responded defensively.

“We’ve seen you worse,
of course,
but you were getting a little
, uh,
involved.”

Will
then
whispered in my ear, “Meet me outside.”  He walked away.

I
first headed toward
Jane
, who was s
tanding
with her date at the edge of the dance floor
, to say hello
.  I then feigned having to go to the bathroom and
exited the ballroom
.

Will
came up behind me and
pulled me into a small unused room, locked the door, and started to kiss me urgently.

“We’ve got guests waiting for us and I don’t think this is going to be easy in this dress.”

“I don’t care.  I want you. 
Now
.”

I didn’t take much convincing as he continued to kiss and touch me
intimately
.

We emerged from the
small
room a little while later unseen.  I excused myself to go to the restroom and clean myself up
. 
Pam
came into
the restroom
not long after
me and
laughed when she
took in my disheveled appearance
.  Considering her reaction, I was glad
that
no one else had seen me.
  I looked in the mirror.  My dress was askew, my face was red, my lipstick that had managed to stay on most of the night was gone, and my hair was mussed.

“I saw you on the dance floor.  I figured that’s where you went when you seemed to have disappeared.”

I was horrified, “You think everyone else knows?”

“Probably.  Let me help you put yourself back together.”

I was a little flush
ed
still as we got ready to leave the restroom and Pam watched me as I noticed this.

“There’s no getting around that.  Even if you weren’t a little red, you’d still be glowing.  What happened to the girl who didn’t get embarrassed by this kind of thing?”

“It’s one thing in front of friends and quite another in front of my parents and his parents.”

“They’re grown-ups.  You’re married.  They’ll deal.”

As I walked into the room, I could feel all eyes on me.  I took a breath and tried not to think about the fact that they all
likely
knew where I had been
and what I had been doing
.  I had taken only a handful of steps into the room before Will joined me and took my hand.  We
returned to
the dance floor where we danced a slow dance
.

Will
whispered in my ear, “I enjoyed that very much.”

I whispered back, “I did too.”

“I could tell.”

“Oh
,
no
!
  Y
ou don’t think
anyone
heard me, do you?”

“Not in here.  Anyone out in the hallway, maybe.”

I was mortified.  “What about our parents?”

“I think they’ve been in here the whole time.”

I breathed a sigh of relief.

We then
let our guests start to cut in on us.

Niall cut in at one point and called me out.  “I saw you come back into the room.  You looked guilty and embarrassed.  What happened to the girl who shocked me at her engagement party?”

“Pam said the same thing.  As I told her, I don’t care about our friends, but our parents are here.  It’s a little awkward.”

“Well, if it makes you feel
any
better, I don’t think they noticed.  They were too busy talking to each other, no doubt planning their grandchildren.  Had they noticed, they probably would have been happy you were getting a head start.”  He winked at me.

Grandchildren.
  Being married really sunk in at that point.  I didn’t even think about children.  At
twenty-five
, I still felt like
a child
myself.
I hoped that our parents would be
very
, very
patient.

By the end of the evening, I believe I had danced with practically every male guest and Will had danced with every female guest, including his little niece.  We, along with our parents, were the last to leave.

“Thank you for this, Margaret,” I said as I hugged her
good night
.  “Tonight was perfect.”

“I’m so glad.  I enjoyed myself.  I wanted to make you and Will happy.”

“You succeeded.”

We returned to our room, exhausted from the party, but not
so
exhausted
that we
went
right to sleep.

The next day
, we returned to our
flat
in Hampstead and spent the remainder of the
week sightseeing with my family, visiting with Will’s family, and trying to have a honeymoon of sorts when we had alone time in Hampstead.

On New Year’s Eve, we h
osted a party at Will’s flat consisting of
most of
the group we had the night before our reception with the additions of some of our other younger wedding guests
,
including
Will’s
friends from school,
university
and
his
early acting days.  The party
ran
very late and
we ended up sleeping away most of our last day in England as a result.

We arrived
back in L.A.
to find that there was still no word of our reconciliation or marriage.  No paparazzi met us at the airport or at the house.

During the week of my return from England,
my office threw
a wedding shower for me in one of our office conference rooms. 
Marie
had a ball planning it and we
played
silly games like
“
toilet-paper bride
”
and
my co-workers
answered
a quiz
regarding
how well
they
knew the bride.  Of course, Rachael won the quiz to no one’s surprise.
  Will stopped by during the latter part of the party to say hello and give his thanks.  The women in my office
apart from
Rachael were star-struck.  I hoped that they would get used to Will being around and eventually act normal around him.  The men in attendance, including Max and Daniel, congratulated him.  Of course, John didn’t attend and I couldn’t blame him.  He was working from home that day, likely
in order
to avoid
having to witness
all th
e festivities
.

The Sunday after my return from England,
Carrie
, Annie, Kate and Gemma hosted another wedding shower for my friends and family at Annie’s apartment in Santa Monica. 
It couldn’t be
h
e
ld it at a public place
due to the r
isk
of
expos
ing
my
marriage.
  Annie had food brought in from my favorite Chinese restaurant in Brentwood and I was happy to have my favorite spicy peanut noodles.
  We didn’t play games this time, but they did create a bouquet from the ribbons and bows from my gifts and ma
d
e up a story about my wedding night based upon my comments while opening my presents.  The task of compiling my comments and making up the story
was assigned
to Rachael
and
so, of course, it was raunchy and hilarious.  She didn’t hold back one little bit despite the fact that my mother
was
in the room.  I would have
refrained from making
comments
including
such phrases as “big package,” and “I didn’t know it came in that size,” had I known what they were
planning
to do.