“Was reality really so bad? The last few months with you have been the happiest of my life.”
“They were the happiest of mine too, but things will be different when we get home. I’ll be working full-time and you’ll be off soon to shoot Midnight 4. We won’t be able to be together like we’ve been the last few days and my first week in London. I’ve had you all to myself. I’m spoiled now and I don’t want to go back to any other way.”
“I promise there will be other trips like this one and that they’ll be frequent. Does that help?”
“Yes, it does. Thank you. I love you.”
“And I love you.”
We returned to Will’s flat to find a few paparazzi hanging around out front. I thought it strange since they weren’t there when I returned from Europe. I realized that this meant that someone had seen us at the airport. I could anticipate more tabloid photos of us kissing at the airport.
We parked the car and tried to walk quickly through the paparazzi. It was useless to look down at this point since they had already published a number of photos of us. Will was holding my left hand and I had my ring tilted in toward Will’s body and I hoped that it wouldn’t show, but it was awfully large. If the paparazzi pointed the cameras that way and zoomed in, they wouldn’t miss it. I should have thought to take it off although I didn’t want to take it off ever.
We made it into the flat finally after numerous clicks of the cameras as we moved slowly with the photographers in front of us, asking questions we refused to answer.
Once inside, we relaxed on the sofa.
“They must have caught us at the airport and realized you came back,” Will said matter-of-factly.
“That’s what I was thinking. I should have taken off my ring. I’m sorry. I hope they didn’t see it.”
“I don’t want you to take off your ring. We just need to do a better job of hiding it in the future assuming they didn’t catch it today. You can’t just turn the ring around into the inside of your hand. It’ll just look like a wedding band so that doesn’t help. You can put your hand in your pocket maybe or I can cover it with my hand.”
“We’ll have another opportunity to do a better job of hiding it tonight when we leave for the All Castles Are Grey wrap party.”
“Yes, I guess we will. Well, we have a little while alone before we have to get ready. Do you want to see what you’re wearing tonight?”
“Another dress?”
“Of course. You’re my fiancée now so I can officially lavish all these things on you. What’s mine is yours.”
“You know, most regular people wear things more than once. And it’s not like I didn’t bring a few things with me.”
“I know, but since I was getting you two dresses already, it was just too easy to get three.”
I grimaced. “Okay. Show it to me.” I was curious as to whether we were going to go with my third color choice of green or whether we would repeat black or blue.
Emma had chosen another black dress for me that was black chiffon, above the knee, and had a lot of detail around the bust line. It was shaped to flow out at the legs so that it would move with me. A pair of strappy and sparkly evening shoes and matching purse came with the dress.
“I gather we have another more formal affair?” I asked after appraising the dress.
“Well, it’s that sort of crowd.” He looked sheepish.
“What happened to us going to casual places?”
“We will again when we get back to L.A.”
“Promise?”
“Yes. My next wrap party will be for Midnight 4 and the cast and crew for that is younger. It will be more casual, I promise.”
“So when do we need to leave?”
“A few hours.”
“What will we do until then?”
“I have a few ideas,” he said, giving me a look that let me know exactly what he meant.
The dress and shoes managed to fit again and the dress was a hit with Will. When we left the flat, Will covered my ring with his hand so that the photographers wouldn’t see it.
We drove to the outskirts of London to a very large home with well-manicured grounds.
“Where are we?” I asked as I looked wide-eyed at my surroundings.
Will responded that we were at the home of a well-known and long-respected Academy Award-winning actor.
“Seriously? I didn’t know he was in this with you.”
“You didn’t ask.”
“Well, you make me feel like you don’t want to talk about it, so I don’t ask.”
“That’s not exactly true. I know that it makes you uncomfortable so I don’t volunteer the information, but I don’t mind talking to you about it. I want to share my life with you and this is part of it.” I could tell that he was a little hurt that I hadn’t made the effort of asking him about his work.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel that you couldn’t share this part of your life with me. You can, you know.”
“I do now.”
Will handed his keys to the valet attendant at the base of a long staircase that led to the grand entrance of the stately home. Will kissed me before leading me through the large open doors.
I leaned over to ask as we walked inside, “Out of curiosity, why is the wrap party here?”
“I think he likes to show off his house.”
Our host was standing in the foyer with his elegant wife, greeting the arriving guests with a nod since he had a cigar in one hand and a drink in the other. As we approached him, he made a particular effort to speak to Will.
“Well done, Will. Well done,” he said. He put his cigar in his mouth and pulled out another one to hand to Will.
“Thanks,” Will said, a little embarrassed, and I was curious as to why.
When Will introduced me, our host and then his wife kissed me on both cheeks.
As we walked away, I whispered in Will’s ear, “He seems to really like you.”
“I guess so.”
“What was he saying ‘well done’ about then?”
“You.”
“What?”
“I made the mistake of telling someone about my plans for us. It got around pretty quickly.”
“So they all know we’re engaged?”
“Yes.”
I really hoped that no one would make a big deal about it tonight. I didn’t want to be the focus of attention at all, particularly not in that august crowd.
To the left of the foyer of the great house was a large rectangular room that likely was originally meant to be a ballroom. There were paned doors at the far end of the room that opened onto a terrace. Beyond the terrace, there were massive tents over the grounds to the side of the house decorated with twinkling lights, white cloth-covered tables with floral center pieces, and ornate chairs surrounding the tables.
Everywhere you looked, there were people. Although I imagined that a film crew could be quite large, I was still amazed by the size of the crowd, even though I knew that it was multiplied by guests of the cast and crew.
As we headed through the crowd, I was amazed at how popular Will was. We stopped every few feet as we were greeted by both cast and crew. Will seemed to be on equal terms with everyone. That didn’t surprise me. There was a lot of backslapping and a few hugs when Will introduced me as his fiancée. I tried to pay attention, but there was no way I was going to remember all the names.
It took us quite a while to make it across the crowded ball room and out to the terrace. The terrace wasn’t as large as the one where we had gotten engaged, but I could tell that Will was reminded of that day as I was. Despite the crowd, we walked over to the railing overlooking the grounds and kissed almost like we had the day we were engaged. We leaned away from each other to find a lot of people staring and I blushed.
Although I felt a little shy and out-of-place, I enjoyed myself. I learned a little bit about All Castles Are Grey and it sounded like an Oscar-caliber film. Everyone talked about how excellent Wi
ll’s performance was and they appeared to mean it. When he would receive these compliments, he would respond, “I was inspired,” and would look at me.
Later, when we finally sat down at a table under the tents with others from the principal cast, I leaned over to Will and said, “So I inspire you to be a dork, huh?”
Will laughed. “I guess you could say that. Actually, you inspired me because I want you to be as proud of me as I am of you.”
“I am proud of you. I’m marrying you aren’t I?”
“Yes, and I couldn’t be happier.” He took my hand and squeezed it.
We stayed late that night at the party, slow dancing to the romantic music into the wee hours. It was our last night in England together and neither of us wanted it to end.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
I was sad and quiet on the morning that I was going to have to return to reality. I was pretty much packed and ready to go so there wasn't much I had to do before leaving. Although Will had packed somewhat before I returned to England, he had a few things to add. While he did that, I sat in the living room alone with my thoughts, savoring the memories of my time with Will.
We planned on dropping Will’s car off at his parents and having lunch there before we had to be at the airport for our four o'clock flight.
As we walked through the large crowd of paparazzi on our way to the car, we were asked questions about our engagement and when we planned on getting married. Either my attempts to hide my ring didn't work or the information somehow got out. I figured I would buy a paper at the airport and find out what happened. In any event, we didn't answer the questions as we slowly made our way to the car.
Will and I were both quiet in the car on the ride to Shepperton. I worried about what lay ahead for us. England had been too perfect. I knew I shouldn't borrow trouble, but I had always believed that this was all too good to be true. How will we survive the paparazzi in the U.S.? How will we survive what was likely to be a brutal work schedule for me as I had to prove myself at my firm? How were we going to survive the three-month separation for the Midnight 4 location shoot? When we mapped out our life together, would we find that we wanted the same things? These were the questions that were nagging at me on the ride to Shepperton.
Every once in a while during the drive, Will would grab my hand, look over, and smile at me in an attempt to cheer me. I tried to respond appropriately, but neither of us engaged in much conversation. I imagined that he was worried about the fact that our engagement was now public and what we had to look forward to upon our return to L.A.
When we arrived at Will's parents’ home, I tried to put up a cheerful front for them. I didn't want them to think that I was anything but blissfully happy at my engagement to their son. When Margaret greeted us, I smiled brightly as she gave me a very warm welcome. Iain joined us shortly thereafter with a similarly warm welcome. Margaret was very excited to show us something and asked us to be seated in the living room.
"I have an engagement present for you. It's not ready yet, but I am too excited not to tell you about it now. I have commissioned a local artist to create a painting of a photo I have of the Thames at Shepperton." She showed us the picture. It was very scenic. "I thought I would send it to you in California so that you would have a reminder of us here."
I realized at that moment that Margaret must have recognized that Will would not be returning to London to live permanently.
"It's beautiful. What a wonderful gift. Thank you." I loved the thoughtfulness and effort that went into the gift. It must have shown in my eyes because when I looked at Will, he looked like he couldn't be happier about the fact that it made me happy.
"Thank you, Mum." Will hugged his mother. I followed suit.
Margaret beamed when she realized how happy she had made us. "I don't imagine I will be able to send it to you for a while, but I wanted you to plan for it when you start looking for a place to live together in L.A.”
I hadn't thought about that. What are we going to do when we get back to L.A.? Will we continue to live in the Palisades with Stephen and Colin? Do I get my own place until we get married? These added to all the other questions I had been contemplating of on the way to Shepperton. I was a planner. It went against the grain not to have dealt with these details. I knew I had to relax though. I had only been engaged a few days. I pushed aside these thoughts as we got up to have lunch.
Over lunch, Margaret started to venture into wedding planning territory and I wasn't ready for that yet. Will saved me on a number of occasions by changing the subject. Margaret was tenacious though and kept returning to the subject. The discussion was finally interrupted when the car arrived to take us on the short journey to Heathrow.
In the end, all I could agree to was that we would do something both in California and in London. Margaret seemed happy with a partial victory for now.
Arriving at the airport, Will and I met up with Pam at the airline check-in counter and then made our way together through security toward the First Class Lounge.
I excused myself from Will and Pam for a moment and ventured into one of the shops in the terminal with the excuse that I wanted mints. I actually went to look at the papers and, sure enough, a picture of Will and me was on the front cover of a tabloid under the caption, “Will MacKenzie Engaged.” I didn’t open it or buy it, but, in keeping with my alibi, I bought a roll of mints. I didn’t mention to Will what I had seen.
Will found out sooner rather than later as copies of the tabloid in question were sitting on a few empty seats in the lounge and were hard to miss. I couldn’t help but notice the defeated look in Will’s eyes after he saw our picture and the caption. He must have decided that he would not let it get to him for my sake because I could see the effort he made to change his expression to a happy one.
Will and I sat in the two seats in the back of first class that were the closest together with Pam across the aisle to my left. Although Will held my hand after we were settled in our seats, he became lost in thought and his expression was serious. I thought that he might be worrying about the reception we had awaiting us in L.A. since the word of our engagement clearly was out now.
Will’s mood completely distracted me from the questions I had been pondering earlier in the day. I tried to cheer him up from time-to-time and he would appear content for a while, but he, eventually, would sink back into his serious thought. I even invited him to join me in the mile-high club, which got his attention, but once inside the bathroom, we found it too gross and uncomfortable so we just kissed. Of course, the expression on Pam’s face when we returned to our seats was priceless and I was glad Will didn’t see it for I was quite embarrassed.
On my previous trips, the plane ride home from Europe had seemed shorter than the ride over because there wasn’t the impatience and anticipation of starting a vacation. On this trip, Will’s moodiness was getting to me and so the time dragged. We were engaged and should have been the happiest people in the world. Will’s expression and my reaction to his mood made clear that we certainly were not the happiest people in the world at that moment. Finally, when I noticed that Pam was watching a movie and couldn’t hear us, I started to argue with Will.
“Why are you acting this way? You’re spoiling things again.”
“I’m not trying to spoil things,” he said and his monotone voice belied his words.
“Well, you are. This should be the happiest time for us. Why are you letting things we have no control over make you miserable and, therefore, make me miserable?”
“I’m sorry. I’m just thinking about what it’s going to be like for us for a while. This is the part of my life that I absolutely hate and don’t want to have to share with you. I wish it could be different.”
“Well, it can’t. I knew what I was getting into and I would put up with anything to be with you so let’s not worry about it. We’ll just deal with it as it comes - together.”
“Okay, for now, but when I leave for Midnight 4 . . .”
“Okay.” He looked grim and then smiled. “I love you, you know.”
“I know and I love you.”
The plane ride speeded up after that as we talked about some of the things we would do together when we got home. As we talked about what would be the good parts of our lives together over the next few weeks, we both began to think that maybe things would be all right after all.
Reality hit us hard as we exited the terminal. We found paparazzi there waiting for us - a lot of paparazzi. We said goodbye to Pam and walked out toward the waiting hordes. It took a great deal of effort to get to the car that was waiting for us.
In addition to the paparazzi standing outside, there were cars as well as a few motorcycles waiting to follow us. To add to this, there was a mob scene in front of the house when we got home. Unfortunately, we couldn’t just park in the garage this time and we had to get out of the car in front of the masses to get inside the house. The security guards were waiting for us and helped keep the crowd away from the driveway.
When we got inside, we breathed a sigh of relief and found Stephen, Colin, Kate and Gemma waiting for us. They all gave us hugs and welcomed us home. They asked that we get settled and meet them on the patio.
Once in Will’s room, Will held me and stroked my hair. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. See, I survived the experience. No big deal.”
Will leaned up, kissed me, and tried to smile. I don’t know that he believed me.
We then left the room hand-in-hand to join the gang on the patio.
Colin had apparently been at it again as the backyard was covered in lights. There were candles on the patio table along with a cake, champagne and champagne glasses. Stephen, Kate, Colin and Gemma stood around the table waiting for us.
As we approached them, they all smiled and congratulated us.
The first thing Kate and Gemma wanted to do was see the ring up close. They were impressed, although not surprised considering how well they knew Will.
Away From the Spotlight Page 27
