The interview went on for another couple of minutes, then they wrapped and Will approached me, his smile widening the closer he got.
When he put his arms around me, my first instinct was to stop him, there were reporters in the room, after all, but we were going to an official event tomorrow, so continuing to act platonic in public seemed pointless. I did keep a beady eye on the camera though, just in case the cameraman turned it on us. Not that we were doing anything wrong, but I just wasn’t comfortable being filmed.
Will gave a big sigh, just about the only sign of fatigue that he ever gave, and I held him tightly.
“I’m glad you came,” he said softly, and I made a concerted effort to look away from the interviewer, who was trying, and failing, to be subtle about watching us.
“Long day?” He’d been here for three hours now. And yes, it’s not exactly back-breaking labour, but neither is doing my self-assessment tax form, and that’s just as draining.
“Yeah.” He pulled back and smiled down at me. This was the smile that made it worth the trouble to travel with him. It wasn’t a big smile, neither wide nor toothy, but it was real and it said ‘I’m so glad you’re here’.
“How much longer?”
“About another hour. Can you stay?” His expression begged me to stay.
“If you want me to.” I smiled. “Then how about we see if we can't discover where the hot tub is?”
“I’d rather we went on a Will hunt.”
“You wanna chase some wabbits.” I teased
Chasing or hunting ‘wabbits’, and Will hunting, were our new codes for sexy times. I couldn’t give in too easily though.
“Tell you what. If you can sneak a word of my choosing into your next interview, I’ll let you get to first base.”
“Only first base?”
“You have an hour left which is what, three, four interviews?”
“Four,” Mandy answered. Although she was letting the next film crew in, she clearly heard everything we were saying, and I blushed as I wondered how much she understood. It’s not like our codes were hard to break; our tone of voice would give it away.
“Perfect,” I smiled. “Four bases, four words.”
“Deal,” he grinned. “What’s the first word?”
Now I had a decision to make, did I go for a big word, or did I go for a dirty word? Lots flashed through my head. Defenestrate. But he had thrown people out of windows for films, so he’d find a way to work that in. Bucolic? The house for Blood Moon was in the countryside, so he’d find a way to use that too. Flibbertigibbet? That might be fun to hear him say, if not a complicated word.
I went with hullaballoo, meaning a racket, whispering it to him so the film crew couldn’t overhear and make it easier for him. It was relatively easy to use, I just wanted to hear him say it. I’d think up some harder ones while he was being interviewed.
“Really?” he asked, smirking at my choice.
“Unless you think it’s too hard, of course.”
His look asked if I was serious. “I can do that in my sleep.”
“Good. Just remember that each round gets harder.”
“Will,” Mandy approached. “They’re ready for you.”
A quick kiss and he was off to do his duty, seeming even more enthusiastic than usual.
He easily slipped my word into conversation, “we made quite a hullaballoo that night,” he said of the Blood Moon after party, shooting me a challenging stare for a second.
All right, Mr Braxton, game on!
I thought of all the old fashioned, long or complicated words I could. I dismissed ones like antidisestablishmentarianism, which would surely give the game away, but there were a lot of other possibilities. Insouciance, conflate, woebegone, panacea, demesne, evanescent, vestigial, denouement, mellifluous, effluvium, panoply, ebullience, imbrication, peccadillo…
For the next interview, I went with panoply, which I thought he’d find trickier.
He didn’t, the bastard. When asked about the Shadow Watch franchise and the possibility of being in the third Sentinels film, he answered that he didn’t know if he would be in it, but would love to, and worked into the reply about how John Phelps, the writer and director has “a real panoply of knowledge about the films and the espionage industry in general, and is just a delight to work with”.
I wanted to slap the smug smile that he flashed me off his face. And when I say slap, I mean kiss.
Next I chose vestigial and I thought he wasn’t going to be able to use it, then towards the end he was asked about Dante again, and the conversation turned to whether or not he was truly evil.
“I think Dante does still have a heart, even if it is vestigial. I don’t know what it would take to reawaken his humanity, but that’s an avenue I wouldn’t mind exploring, maybe.”
Finally I picked demesne, sure that he wouldn’t be able to find a way to use it but this was even easier for him and when asked about the film, he explained-
“… he marries Maria’s character, Emma, and they return to his country house in Surrey and it’s demesne-”
“Demesne?” the interviewer interrupted.
I rolled my eyes thinking ‘You call yourself a journalist?’
“The land attached to the house,” Will explained before carrying on.
Oh well, once the interview was over, I gave in gracefully and let him have his wicked way with me. I’m such a saint like that.
***
The following evening was probably the most nervous I’ve been since I got my A’level results. Actually no, this was worse, I knew I’d probably done at least well enough to get into my first choice university, so this was actually worse, because I didn’t have a clue what to expect.
What if I tripped and fell? There would be journalists, TV cameras and photographers from literally all over the world there. Oh the shame!
Will got out of the car first and reached back for my hand to help me out, then he leaned down and kissed me softly, before too many people had noticed us. When he pulled back, he was smiling.
“Mandy will be with you the whole time and if in doubt, stand still and wait for one of us.”
We were in a group of five, me, Will, Mandy and Lee, our handlers, and Ken, Will’s bodyguard. I hoped Mandy didn’t leave me.
“You will be fine,” he smiled again, taking my hand as he turned and placing it on his elbow.
We walked the few paces to the end of the red carpet and paused to pose for a moment. Maria and Jessica, his co-stars in this film, had jokingly showed me a few basic poses, so I looked my best, but the most important thing to remember, they said, was to relax. Will slipped an arm around my waist and pulled me into his side, which certainly helped with the relaxing.
It was just a wall of flashes and after ten seconds, I began to wonder if I’d ever again see without big, purple blotches marring my vision.
Everyone was yelling “Will, over here!” “Will, look up!” “Will, to your left!” or some variation and it was so loud, it was a little bit frightening. Never have I been more grateful for barriers before.
We didn’t stay long, maybe sixty seconds, then Lee ushered us down the carpet. Will brought me with him while he signed and took pictures with the fans that he could, but there were seemingly hundreds here, and I felt a bit bad for those at the back, who had travelled, then waited and wouldn’t even get a scribbled signature to show for their troubles.
I stood about two paces behind him as he signed, looking around and taking everything in. Both Mandy and Lee were by my side, giving Will a little leeway, but Ken stayed close to him, just in case.
There were already a lot of familiar faces milling about, only some of which I could place, but I’d wished I’d had another glass of wine before we left, for Dutch courage. My calves were literally trembling and I was terrified that I might fall off my heels.
Will signed things for as long as he could, then Lee finally pulled him away so we could head onto the press region o
f the carpet.
Will re-joined me and put an arm around my shoulders.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Fine,” I smiled, putting a brave face on my feelings. I saw him glance at the death grip I had on my clutch bag though.
It wasn’t long before Will was pulled away for the interviews, and Mandy and I remained in the middle of the carpet, slowly walking down and watching what was going on around us. There were a lot of people posing and being interviewed that I didn’t even know, which briefly made me wonder about the nature of fame. I would easily walk past half these so-called stars on the street, not even realising they were supposed to be famous.
I was calming down now and starting to enjoy the people-watching aspect.
Obviously we made it down the red carpet much faster than Will did, and we waited to the side of some kind of posing area near the end and watched everyone else being photographed.
Of the ones I knew, there were a couple of Sentinels stars, the director, John Phelps, that guy from Castle (Nathan Fillion, Mandy helpfully reminded me), some faces from Glee (I think), the pop group Hanson (good job growing up guys!) and a couple of people from The Blacklist (I adore that show). There was also the guy who used to play Sean in Eastenders (it’s my guilty pleasure, shoot me) who was also in Pacific Rim now I think about it, and Ben Barnes. It’s a good job I wasn’t single, or poor Ben might have needed a restraining order.
Kidding. I hadn’t approached any of these people.
That changed when Jess reached us, and she insisted Mandy and I leave our self-imposed exile and mingle with the people here. I did my best to behave as if I belonged here and everyone was nice to me, some even seemed interested when I said I was an illustrator. The Sentinels people all remembered me from the press junket, even those I had tried to hide from, which I thought was nice of them.
I had my picture taken a few times, even having to pose if a photographer caught the attention of the person I was chatting with.
When the rest of the cast made it down, they posed for cast pictures in large and small groups then, finally, Will and I ventured inside.
“How was that?” Will asked, sounding so concerned that I was sorry to have worried him so much.
“It was good actually.” That was a teeny bit of a lie, it wasn’t how I’d choose to spend an evening, but neither was it the hellish experience I’d imagined it to be.
We entered the theatre and the film was amazing. Will hadn’t even shared the details with me, so I was as surprised as everyone else. It was a terrific film, tense and jumpy and I highly recommend it.
The after party was a blast too and I got drunk enough to stop worrying that everyone around me was famous. I even danced with a few of them.
Of course, I was suffering for it the next morning, and my hangover made our flight back to Europe even more horrendous than flying normally was. I slept mostly (thank you, first class!).
Will only had three more weeks of filming left, so when we got to England, I was going to stay there, which meant I had slightly more luggage than Will. I wasn’t taking it to Germany with me, it was being sent all on its own.
I had to admit, having ‘people’ made this travelling lark far nicer than it was for normal mortals.
The German premiere was also star studded, unfortunately I knew hardly any of the stars. Then we were off to Spain and finally, England.
I had to admit, I was a little sorry to be leaving Will, but not the travelling. In three months I had been to LA, Detroit and Hawaii, then in less than a week, LA, Germany, Spain and now England. And Will was going back to Hawaii after this.
No, I wouldn’t mind staying in one place for a while, but I was going to miss Will.
I enjoyed the UK premiere more than the others, I think because I knew who almost everyone on the red carpet was, from journalists to the celebrity guests. In other ways though, it felt more strange, to see my boyfriend chatting to people with the Sky News logo on their microphones.
I hadn’t drunk too much at the after party, so I was in fine spirits the next day, as was Will. He was leaving the next morning, so we had one last day together.
We were sharing a full English breakfast (yes, I know how fattening it is, but we’d earned it… and Will makes a fantastic one)… Anyway, where was I? Oh, right, my friend, Laurie, texted in the middle to say ‘OMG! YOU WERE ON SKY NEWS THIS MORNING, IN THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS SECTION!!! AFTER TELLING RON’S SISTER’ THAT WE WENT TO SCHOOL TOGETHER, I AM NOW THE COOLEST POTENTIAL SISTER-IN-LAW ON THE PLANET!’
I laughed and told Will, before texting back, ‘Glad I could help.’
We spent the day doing nothing much (I’d go home and unpack once he left) but the next morning, Will surprised me.
He was packing the few bits he’d brought with him while I watched from the bed as I refused to leave it a second earlier than I had to.
He has a driver to take him to the airport, which I thought was rubbish because loved ones should always see you off and collect you, but it’s not like we could really have a proper goodbye there, not without it appearing all over the internet, so I didn’t press to take him.
“I can't believe I have to go home and unpack,” I grumbled. Three month’s of stuff takes some unpacking, and I’d added to my wardrobe while we were away.
“Why don’t you unpack here?” he said, which, if I hadn’t been lying down, might have felled me.
“What?”
“Why don’t you move in? When we’re not away, we’re together 90% of the time anyway, so it makes sense. Then we’d only need one car to take us to the airport and drop us off.”
“We’ve only been dating since the end of January. That’s…” I had to stop and think, maths is not my strong suit. “Eight and a half months.”
Will shrugged. “Is that all?” he sounded surprised.
It wasn’t exactly the romantic proposal I’d been hoping for when someone asked me to move in, and my lack of enthusiasm must have shown.
“Okay, I know that was a little graceless for a living together proposal and I promise that when I propose marriage, I’ll go all out-”
Whoa! Marriage? How had we gone from living together to marriage? I wasn’t ready for that!
“-but we’ve practically been living together while we were away anyway,” he blithely carried on, unaware of my inner monologue. “And I don’t know about you, but I’ve enjoyed it.”
I didn’t reply and Will stopped his packing and lay down beside me on the bed.
“That was tactless, I’m sorry.” He dug around in the covers until he found my hand, then entwined our fingers.
“Have you been thinking about it then?” I wanted to know.
“Not specifically, it just seemed to make sense and I said it without thinking it through, but I’ve enjoyed having you around. I don’t think we cramp each other’s style too much, do you?”
We didn’t. We spent a lot of our free time together, but I’d also gone out with the girls a couple of times, and he with the guys. I don’t think either of us felt put out to be left for a night, and he didn’t object to me wanting to come back to the UK a little early either.
But moving in together was a real commitment. Were we ready for that?
“Just think about it,” Will urged, taking my hand and kissing my knuckles. “We can put a second desk in the sunroom, like his and her’s, facing each other, and I do live pretty conveniently, central and near the tube lines. And I’m open to extortion offers too, such as making you breakfast every day.”
“I don’t feel very well fed this morning,” I teased, trying to lighten the mood.
“Aah, that’s because you haven’t agreed to move in yet. Yesterday was temptation and no more until you agree to live in sin with me.”
I didn’t know how to reply to that.
“You’re not refusing for religious reasons, are you?” he suddenly asked, looking worried.
“Will, if you have to ask that, maybe it’s a sign we d
on’t know each other well enough to do this yet.”
“You have no religion as far as I know, but you also look as if I’d suggested taking a swim with hungry piranhas, so I’m just trying to work out what has you so upset.”
“I’m not upset, just… cautious.”
“Caution is good, but we’re good together, and you know it.”
“We are,” I agreed.
Things were a little stilted after that but I did my best to give him a good send off, before preparing to go home.
Still wearing his dressing gown, I wandered around his house, imagining what it would be like to call this my home.
If I’m honest with myself, and I always try to be, my biggest worry was that Will’s life would eclipse mine. His life was just so huge and jet-set. Not all the time, and the man himself certainly wasn’t a pretentious type, but his job and everything that went with it, was so much larger than me.
Would my career taper off, dying in the shadow of his? It wasn’t impossible to work while we travelled, but it did make my life more difficult. For example, I hadn’t checked anything but my personal email (something I’d had to get because I was receiving too much Will-related spam on my work one) for almost a week now.
How much work had I missed out on by not checking it?
He hadn’t mentioned moving in with me, and I supposed I could see why, his place was far bigger, more private and he had a garden, but he hadn’t even considered my apartment.
What about my friendships and relationships? It was hard to keep in contact only over the internet and text. Not impossible, but what if I was away for something stupid, like nine months of the year or something? Given Will’s career, that wasn’t out of the question.
And would he always expect me to follow him around the world? Would the rest of my life be spent following Will while he pursued his dreams? What room did that leave for my dreams? And what about a family?
I hadn’t allowed myself to think about that last option yet because I wasn’t ready for children but if it did happen, would I be a single mother in all but name, communicating with Will via Skype? Would our kids know Will more from his movies than in person?
Making Love (Destiny Book 1) Page 12
