Away From the Spotlight (72 page)

Our
wedding
reception in Los Angeles
took place
the Saturday after the shower
at
a private club at the top of one of the towers up on Bunker Hill in Downtown L
.A
. 
To some degree, it was similar to that held in London.  The theme was less art deco t
hough and the colors were gold and
white with touches of red and black, rather than the silver and white of the London party.  One of the rooms we used for the
cocktail hour
beforehand was triangular in shape and
the guests
had a view of Los Angeles to the east and to the west at twilight.

It was an odd pairing of the guests in that we had a fairly large Hollywood contingent balanced by my family and friends from work and school. 
We were
fortunate
th
at a lot of people were in town for
the Golden Globes
, scheduled
to take place two days later. 
We had some overlap in guests
from the London reception
in that Will’s family
and mine were there
as
were
Pete, Damon and Niall.  Of course, Katherine, Mark, Pam and our roommates from the Palisades were
present
as well
.

I wore a
flowing
white dress
fitted at the bust with
thin gold spaghetti straps
and gold accents
.
 
Gemma acted as my wardrobe consultant
for
this
reception
and
her
choice was perfect.

The meal and the dancing afterward were held in the room adjacent to the triangular room facing to the east.  The lights of Los Angeles
were visible
as far as the eye could see.  The O’Neills, as promised, returned for a repeat performance for the Los Angeles crowd.  I got the impression that they were glad they came
not only for us, but also because they got to meet more
of Will’s Hollywood friends, some of whom were quite renowned.

I rarely spent more than a few minutes away from Will’s side the entire night, other than to dance with o
ur
guests.  Even then,
Will and I remained
only a few feet apart.

I worried a little about th
e L.A.
reception because there were
certain
invited guests
that were not too happy about our marriage and all three accepted their invitations.  Will’s
manager
, Kayla Roberts and John were all planning to attend.  I wondered if there were other ex-girlfriends of Will’s
who
would be there, but
I
didn
’
t have the courage to ask.  Frankly
, I didn’t really want to know.

We spoke briefly to Will’s
manager
, Sam Steinberg, Kayla and John
as
we made the
rounds to greet our guests, but there wasn’t a lot of time for much conversation at that time.

Later
in the evening
, I danced with Sam.  I had never met him
previously
and
I had
the
distinct
impression that Will purpos
ely
prevented u
s from meeting
until that evening
.  I decided to address th
e
issue directly.

“Will told me when we first got engaged that you weren’t happy about it.”

Sam took my
comment
in stride.  I guess he would have to
be able to
take everything in stride considering his profession.  “Yes, at first.”

“Why?”

“Because a lot of
Will’s
fans from
Midnight
dream that they could marry him someday, that he is attainable. 
Your marriage
takes that away
and those fans may move on to someone else who is single
.  Plus
,
being married
makes him seem older.  He’s only
twenty-six
and can still play much younger if he wants
to
.  A
nd
we’ll lose all the teen magazine publicity
and
the publicity speculating about his love life.”

“These reasons seem pretty valid
s
o w
hy did you say, ‘at first.’”

“Because I saw him when you were broken up and it was terrible. 
H
e started drinking heavily and going out all the time.  That would have been
worse
for his image.  We can deal with his being married.  He’s been around and successful long enough that he
’
ll be fine.  Besides, I
’
m better off with a happy client than an unhappy one.  We’ve become friends over the years too and I hated to see him
so
miserable.  So I congratulate you and hope that we will be seeing a lot of each other.”

“I’m sure we will.  Thank you for being honest with me.”

“It’s funny.  Being honest is not always in my
best interest or that of
my client in my line of work
, b
ut I don’t think I would get away with less with you, would I?”

“Probably not.”

Will cut in at that point and shook Sam’s hand before taking me in his arms to dance. 

“What was that all about?” he asked.

“I like your
manager
.”

Will’s eyes reflected his surprise. 
“I thought you wouldn’t after I told you he didn’t approve of our engagement.”

“Is that why you kept him away from me?”

“Yes.”
  He looked at the floor briefly as he replied.

“Well, don’t worry about it.  I understand where he was coming from.  Besides, he seems pretty happy about us now.”

“He said that?”

“Yes.
  I suspect he believes our marriage is the lesser of two evils plus he’s your friend and wants you to be happy.”

“Lesser of two evils?”

“He doesn’t like your Mr. Hyde either.  That is more threatening to your career than losing the teen idol image.”

“I see.”  Will
fidgeted as if embarrassed at the memory
.

I changed the subject to another unpleasant topic.  “I saw you were dancing with Kayla.  How did that go?”

“Fine, I guess.  She wished me well.”

“It wasn’t awkward?”

“You keep forgetting that it’s been years now.  She looks pretty happy with her date tonight anyway.  How would you feel dancing with an old boyfriend from
university
?”

“Fine, I guess.”

“Exactly.”

A few dances later, John
asked me
to dance.
 
It was a slow dance, but h
e held me with no improper closeness or touching. 
My shoulders relaxed in
relie
f
.

“Thank you for inviting me,” John said
quietly
to start
off the
conversation.

I noticed Will
watching
us intently while dancing with an actress friend of his.
  I
scanned
the crowd
surrounding
the dance floor and saw
Max
and Daniel staring intently at us
as well
.

“You’re welcome.  I am glad you’re here.  You and I
were good
friends and I’
m so sorry for how I
’
ve treated you
.
  You
don’t know
how horrible I feel about it.
”

“
I can’t be angry with you.  I know you feel guilty about our time together, but I was happy to know what it was like to be with
you even if only for a few days
,
s
o don’t worry about it.  I love you and I want you to be happy.  If Will makes you happy, then I
’
ll have to live with it.”

“You’re being a lot nicer to me than I deserve.”

“Maybe.  Maybe not.  But I want you in my life and I want our foursome at work to go back to the way it was.
  We had a lot of fun together.”

“Yes
,
we did.”

“That’s settled then.  No more weirdness.”

“
Deal
.”
  I smiled, happy that we might be able to be friends after all.

“So, can I ask you a favor?”

“Anything.”

“You think you could ask Will to introduce me to
her
?”

I followed his gaze to a striking brunette that was, I think, a
publicist named Callie.
  “Nothing would make him happier I
’
m sure.”  I smiled.

After Will made the appropriate introduction
s
, casually, of course
,
John and Callie
started dancing
together
. 
Will returned to me
, smiling triumphantly.

“Does that make you feel better?” I asked.

“You have
no idea
.”
  He made a show of breathing a sigh of relief.

“I noticed you watching us.  What did you think we were going to do?  Run off together?”

“No, but I can’t help it.  Seeing him with you always scares me.  I won’t feel better until he has a serious girlfriend.  Hopefully, Callie will like him.”

“Should I tell him you want to continue to play matchmaker for him if he and Callie don’t hit it off?”

“No, but that doesn’t mean I
won
’t keep trying.”

I shook my head and laughed.

Before the night ended,
I along with
a number of my
girlfriends, including
Rachael
,
Carrie
, Pam and
Annie
ended up
dancing together
in a big, loud
,
drunken circle
.  I had a ball being surro
unded by so many good friends.

As was the case in London,
our reception
ended
up
being
a perfect evening.

The day after our reception, we moved into our new house, leaving
Stephen and Colin to remain in our former house, only now Kate and Gemma
would
move in
officially
.

W
ill and I
were happy to have held our wedding
and
the
two
receptions
,
and to have moved behind gates before word of our marriage
spread
.

T
he news of our marriage
became public the day after our move when
we appeared together at the Golden Globes
.  W
ill was tapped as a presenter
.
  I had never
attended
anything like it and
I
was terrified.  I
wore
a midnight blue designer gown
, which
Gemma
helped me select,
and
I received
jewels
on loan
for the occasion. 
Thanks to Kate, my hair and makeup were
flawless.

As Will and I walked down the red carpet, I
had to concentrate as hard as I could to erase the deer in headlights look I
’
m certain would have been present, but for
my
constant effort
s
to remove it.
 
Will
proceeded to
introduce me as his wife to startled interviewers. 
A few of them
recognized me from
earlier
press reports, but were still surprised in light of the reports of our breakup and the lack of reporting
about
ou
r reconciliation and marriage.