by Tracy Tegan
He got up, grabbed my hand and went with me to the makeup department where I was prepared for my scene. I was just getting my hair done when the Entertainment Tonight host arrived and introduced herself.
“Hi, I’m Nancy O’Dell.” She stuck out her hand to shake mine.
“Hello. I’m …”
She cut me off. “You’re kidding right? Everyone knows who you are. I was more excited to come out here and talk to you than to get a behind-the-scenes look at this movie.”
She looked around to make sure nobody heard her. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that to come out like it sounded. Of course, I am happy to be here. I love Grayson Chase and I’ve heard nothing but great things about this movie.”
I just giggled.
After we got our hair and makeup done, a production assistant led us over to wardrobe where they dressed us for our scene. Her camera crew followed us the entire time, except of course when we were getting our clothes on.
For our parts in the movie, I was lounging around by the pool with Kendall Jenner in a very skimpy bikini. That part I wasn’t so happy about. We ordered a drink and Nancy O’Dell delivered them to us, pretending to be a waitress. But really, what she was doing was trying to overhear what we were talking about.
Hopefully, this particular scene would find its way to the cutting room floor. I didn’t look half as good as Kendall Jenner did in a bikini and that was freaking me out just a bit. I’m not normally so insecure about my looks, but compared to a model, you can’t help but look fat in a teeny tiny bikini.
After my part was over, I went back to Grayson’s trailer. Nancy O’Dell had more to film, so she was busy for the rest of the day, and so I didn’t have to deal with that. In fact, I got so caught up in my book I almost forgot Entertainment Tonight was there until Grayson informed me that we would be doing an interview with them before dinner.
I was relieved when they spent so much time talking to Grayson about the movie. I thought I would be off the hook, but no such luck. After they finished with him, the glare of the spotlight was on me. She bombarded me with questions about what it was like to work with Grayson, my upcoming book, the movie deal and of course our wedding. Did I pick the dress yet? Was I excited about the Food Network deal we had for the design of our wedding cake? How many bridesmaids would I have? What would the color scheme be? I could barely keep up.
I answered the questions the best I could, using the previously agreed upon answers Grayson and I had come up with. Still it was nerve-wracking.
I didn’t want my wedding to be like this. I didn’t want to share it with the world. I didn’t want a spectacle. I wanted my day to be special and I knew the only way that was going to happen was if I confessed my feelings to Grayson.
Before I did, though, I wanted to have a plan in place. I knew Grayson would be busy all through the next day, so I told him I was going to spend the day shopping. Of course, he made me bring Jax with me, but that was okay; I preferred that anyway. I learned my lesson about security and wouldn’t ever complain about his overprotectiveness again.
Jax and I took the jet to Brazil to find this resort Grayson had mentioned before. We made our way to the Casas da Vila and sat down with the manager. I explained my situation and what I wanted from him -- an intimate, breathtaking wedding ceremony for just Grayson and myself.
The Casas da Vila was a private resort with only nine rooms and nine suites. If we were to book them all we could have the entire place to ourselves. That wouldn’t be cheap but it would provide us with the privacy I wanted. The problem was, I didn’t want Grayson to have to spend that much money on our wedding. That wasn’t fair to him. No matter what he may say, it was his money and I just wasn’t comfortable with him spending that much of it on me.
“If you bring in your own wedding photographers you can still sell your photos to the magazine and use that money to pay Grayson back for the cost of the wedding,” Jax suggested.
Holy hell! That was a brilliant idea and that was exactly what I was going to do.
The hotel manager agreed to make some calls and get everything ready for us. The problem was availability. The first dates he had were in late January. I could get married on January 23, instead of March 21st. Then it hit me - that would be perfect. Instead of getting married on 3-2-1, I would be getting married on 1-2-3. It was as if it were a sign from the heavens.
I had the resort manager put a temporary hold on all the rooms, letting him know that I would confirm with him later that night after I spoke to Grayson about it.
Although we wouldn’t be having a huge affair, I still wanted a real wedding dress, so that was the only thing left I had to focus on. That was, if Grayson agreed to my plan to elope instead of having a real wedding.
I was nervous, and when Grayson stepped into his trailer he could tell.
“What’s wrong, baby? Is everything okay?”
“Yes. Everything is wonderful,” I assured him as I patted the seat on the couch next to me.
Grayson hesitantly sat down next to me and I jumped in his lap and began explaining myself and how upset I was over the whole wedding and what I really wanted.
“And you thought I wouldn’t love this idea?”
“I don’t know, Grayson. I thought maybe because of your family…they would be upset if they couldn’t be there.”
“Alison baby, they want me to be happy and they know how relentless the media can be. So if eloping helps relieve some of the stress from our lives, I’m confident they would support that.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
“Plus, we can always have a reception later with all of our friends and family when we get back from our honeymoon.”
I liked that idea. I don’t know why I didn’t think about that before. It would allow Grayson and I to have our intimate ceremony and still celebrate with our friends and family later on.
We talked about the date and what we would wear and then I made the call to the resort manager.
“Mr. Fernandez, this is Alison Crawford. I’m calling to confirm the dates we spoke about. Everything is exactly as we agreed upon this afternoon. Grayson and I would love to get married at your resort on January 23rd.”
With that call, I knew everything was exactly as it should be.
About the Author
At heart Tracy Tegan is a storyteller and has been making up stories in her head or for her five wonderful nieces for as long as she can remember. With the encouragement from her family she finally decided to give life to some of the voices in her head and put paper to pen.
After spending the last seventeen years as a dot com strategy consultant, and professional blogger about relationships, dating and issues pertaining to gender equality, Tracy Tegan decided to put her knowledge of internet marketing to good use and self-publish her first novel.
The response has been better than expected with critical reviews like "A unique romance", "Absolutely thrilling and adorable", "Enjoyed it! A truly lovable love story", "Absolutely Unforgivable is an absolute must read", "Tracy Tegan's `Absolutely Unforgivable' is one of those romance stories that will sweep you off your feet within the first few pages and will not let you go until the very last page", "It's compelling, sexy, and in the end, deeply satisfying", "This book was amazing, and you truly fall in love with all of the characters in the book", "This book had everything, hot guys, rock bands, suspense, drama, everything! Love, Love, Loved it".
While she admits she never expected to reach the New York Times best sellers list with her first book, she was more than thrilled with what she had accomplished in terms of sales and positive response to her writing and with that has already begun work on several new projects including a sequel to Absolutely Unforgivable which promises to shock and surprise readers by taking the story on a very unexpected twist and turn that fans of Billy Snow and Stacy Keller will never see coming.
You can find out more about Tracy Tegan by visiting her on the web at TracyTegan.com,
via email at [email protected], or by visiting her Facebook fan page at Facebook.com/TracyTegan, her Google+ page at google.com/+tracytegan or you can also follow her on twitter @TracyTegan.