“You aren’t married or anything like that are you?” I asked a little nervously.
Will laughed, “No, it’s nothing like that. I am not and never have been married. Don’t worry about what Gemma said. We’re fine, aren’t we?” He kissed me passionately convincing me that my answer had to be, “Yes.”
“Yes, I guess we are.” I held him tightly as he kissed me, with worry at the back of my mind that the happiness I felt with Will would be short-lived.
I had been to Sweeney’s once or twice before. It didn’t have the bands that Callaghan’s did, but was a little bigger and more open, had a pool table, and was a big hangout for the local rugby team.
As Colin, Gemma, Will and I entered the pub, I noticed that there were a lot of green polo shirts marked with the local Rugby Club logo on them. Clearly, it was game day and the pub was crowded with the men that had played rugby earlier in the day. As we passed by, a number of the men in the room were yelling their greetings over the music coming from the jukebox and either shaking hands with Colin and Will or slapping them on the back.
After a number of these brief stops, we ended up seated at a long table in the restaurant section of the establishment. The table had a bench along the wall and chairs on the opposite side. Stephen, Kate and two other athletic-looking guys I recognized from the concert the weekend before were waiting for us. I scooted in on the bench side with Will next to me and Colin and Gemma took the chairs facing us.
It didn’t take long for me to figure out that Colin and Will had played rugby with the club when they first arrived from England. They must have been two of the few Brits on the team because most of the guys who came up to the table to talk to us were from Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa.
At one point I asked Will, “Do you ever play anymore?”
Will responded, “When I first arrived here, I played a little, but I found it impossible with my schedule. It’s been a few years now since I last played. I make do with watching a match every now and then, and coming out and drinking with the team when I can. Colin played for a few years, but he hasn’t been able to play much this year due to work commitments.”
Dinner was soon ordered and served. The dinner conversation became animated as the two guys from the concert, whose names I learned were Chris and Rob, related how well the match against Back Bay had gone. After dinner, Will sat back and I leaned against him. He put his arm around my neck, kissing the side of my head every once in a while.
Our group eventually migrated to the bar area where there was more back-slapping over the result. Every time I turned around, I ended up with another full cider in my hand. It seemed like a normal evening with no hint that anything was amiss. No one was staring and I never felt like the conversation was being changed on purpose. I thought that maybe my earlier fears were unfounded.
I was not going to feel very good in the morning though. The salad at dinner was a little too light for all that drinking. There was one benefit, however, from the drinking in that Will and I were a little more adventurous in bed that night.
The next morning, I realized that I had been smart to take some aspirin and drink water before I went to sleep. Although I never felt really drunk last night, I did have a bit more than usual and could feel that, in the absence of the aspirin and water, I would have been hung-over. That would not have been good for all the studying I needed to do that day. I went to the bathroom with my usual routine of trying to clean myself up before Will saw me. Bed head, smeared mascara, and morning breath were not a fabulous combination. The longer I could put off the inevitable time when Will would see me in the morning in all my lack of glory, the better.
Will slept a bit longer than me so I was able to get a little over an hour of studying in before he awakened. Will always brushed his teeth almost immediately upon rising. He apparently was a little insecure about morning breath too.
“How are you feeling?” I asked tentatively, hoping that the water and aspirin had done him some good as well.
“I’m alright. I’m glad neither of us was driving last night though. I haven’t had that much to drink in a while.”
“Yes, thank God for Kate acting as our designated driver.”
Will crawled back into bed, helped me remove my nightgown and held me for a while, seeming to simply enjoy the feel of my body against his. After a while, I couldn’t help myself. For the first time since our first time, I initiated sex. It didn’t take long for Will to get on the same page.
While we were lying together afterward, I leaned up on my elbow and asked, “What do we have planned for today?”
“Today, we’ll continue to make it your choice.” He winked at me and smiled.
I thought about how we had already enjoyed my choice. “Really?”
He nodded in the affirmative.
I thought about it for a few minutes and decided that, since Will had spent the last two weekends feeding me, I would do something I almost never do – cook.
“I have an idea. You’ve been taking me out for the last two weekends. I think it’s my turn.”
“You don’t need to do anything for me other than what you already do.” He leaned forward and kissed me, and it was clear what he meant.
“Yes, I do, but I wasn’t thinking of taking you out. I was thinking of doing something here. Actually, I could do something for all of us, you, Stephen, Colin, Kate and Gemma.”
What I said seemed to make him happy and he asked, “What did you have in mind?”
“Well, believe it or not, I’d like to make dinner for everyone. I could break in your kitchen for you. It doesn’t look like it’s been used much.” I laughed.
“Very funny,” he said as he grimaced. “You don’t have to go to all that trouble.”
“It’s no trouble. It’ll be something different, and something I can do for you for a change.” Although I doubted there could be balance in our relationship in terms of what we did for each other while I was still a student, there would finally be something in my column. It was only a small thing, but it made me feel a little better.
“All right, you have me intrigued.”
I generally lived on anything that can be microwaved, restaurant take-out, and fast food. Whenever I am asked if I can cook, I usually say that I burn water, but that’s not exactly true. My mother taught me to make two things: spaghetti and lasagna. Lasagna requires a lot of time to prepare so I settled on spaghetti.
I called my mom to obtain the recipe specifics and then headed to the local grocery store alone to pick up the necessary ingredients. Will offered to accompany me, but I wanted to do this myself. At the store, I located the items needed for the salad and spaghetti, selected two bottles of wine, and decided on sorbet and fancy cookies for dessert. I also purchased a light lunch to ensure that everyone’s appetite was intact that evening.
As I waited in line at the checkout counter, uncharacteristically, I succumbed to the temptation to pick up a tabloid magazine to read during my brief break between classes the following day. I was getting sick of reading only textbooks. I threw the grocery bags in the trunk of my car and pulled out the magazine to leave it in the car so I would remember to throw it in my book bag.
After a few hours of studying in Will’s room while he read, it was time to start dinner.
As I got up, Will asked, “Can I help?”
“No. This is something I want to do myself for you.”
When I entered the kitchen, I realized that I didn’t know whether the boys had any pots and pans. As it turned out, I needn’t have worried. I was able to assemble enough pots, pans and utensils to get the job done. Despite the fact that the boys had these things, they did not appear to have been used much, if at all.
I would take breaks with Will in his room every so often while I waited for something to boil or cook, and we would kiss for a little while. I could tell that Will wasn’t happy when I would have to return to the kitchen, but he didn’t say anything. When it was time for everythi
ng to simmer for a while, I returned to Will’s room and let him know that I had a little time to spend with him. I had underestimated how much he hadn’t wanted me to leave earlier as he practically attacked me. I laughed, thinking that I didn’t care at that moment if dinner burned to a crisp.
We all ate dinner out on the patio around sunset. Everyone looked at my meal strangely at first for some reason I couldn’t understand, but then it seemed that everyone liked it. There wasn’t much, if any, left when we were finished. I smiled in delight as I could tell that my dinner was a success.
After everyone helped clean up, Will and I returned to his room to be alone since we would be apart for the next few days. I had an early class the next morning and Will had an early flight. We wouldn’t see each other until Will got home on Tuesday night. Hopefully, school, work and the fear of my impending finals would distract me enough to get through it.
As we lay in bed curled up in each other, Will said, “I promise I’ll ring you when I’m finished with my business tomorrow night. Then, I should be home around ten on Tuesday night. I know it’s late and a school night for you, but could you meet me here then? We would at least have a little time to spend together.”
I was sad that he would be gone, but knowing that there was a plan in place for me to talk to him on Monday and see him on Tuesday made me feel better. I agreed happily.
Neither of us slept much that night as we stayed up late holding each other.
Will had to get up even earlier than me to make an eight a.m. flight. I got up for class just as Will was leaving and he kissed me goodbye. My eyes started to tear up a little and I looked down, hoping that he wouldn’t notice. After he left, I let the tears fall down my face. Even though he would only be gone a short time, I would miss him terribly.
Chapter Eight
Between classes, I sat on the couches at the back of the first floor of the law school to close my eyes for a few minutes. I checked my phone that I had turned off for class. Once on, it beeped telling me I had a text message.
“Call u 2nite. Miss u.”
I responded in kind, “I’ll b w8ing. Miss u2.”
I really wasn’t in the mood to socialize or study, and still had about forty-five minutes to go before my next class so I pulled out the magazine I had bought at the grocery store. Maybe looking at all the red carpet dresses would distract me from my sadness at the prospect of being alone tonight.
I hadn’t gone ten pages into the magazine when I saw it. My eyes must have gone wide as I stared at the photo of Will with his arm around a beautiful girl about twenty-one years-old with long and shiny medium brown hair and beautiful green eyes ringed by long eyelashes. She was probably a few inches shorter than me and very slender. In the picture, they looked happy together. Both were in formal attire as the photo was taken at a charity event that took place only a few days before Will and I met. I felt sick.
It was very hard to pay attention during Criminal Procedure despite the antics of my comical professor. I could think of nothing but the photograph. I was in shock and felt completely hollow inside, but for my stomach, which churned. I mechanically took notes during the lecture, anxious to get to work and search the internet to see if my worst fears would be confirmed. I could have done this right after class at the Law Center, but was afraid of attracting an audience. I needed to be alone.
I practically ran to my car and headed Downtown without stopping to grab lunch. I ran into my office without so much as saying “hello” to anyone and closed my door.
I turned on the computer without even putting my purse away. I googled “Will MacKenzie” and came up with pages upon pages of hits. The first thing I opened was the image results. Some of the images included what looked like posters for the Midnight series of movies. I had heard of these movies and the books upon which they were based, but had never seen the movies or read the books. From these posters, it was clear that Will and the girl from the photo in the magazine were the stars of this very popular franchise.
I glanced quickly at the first few pages of image results. In addition to the movie posters, a number of the photos of Will included the girl. They were looking lovingly at each other and not all appeared to be movie publicity shots. My heart sank.
I opened some of the other web pages, consisting mostly of magazine articles and websites dedicated to the Midnight movies. Others were dedicated to Will personally. I realized at that moment that I didn’t know Will MacKenzie at all. My eyes started to tear up. What kind of sick joke was this?
I read a few articles that mentioned a rumored long-time romance with costar Katherine Sullivan, the girl from the magazine photo. That’s when the pieces seemed to fit together. Will lied because he didn’t want me to know he had a girlfriend. I thought about it further and realized that this was probably what Will’s conversation with Gemma I overheard was all about. Maybe Will and Katherine were in a fight. Maybe she was just out of town the past few weeks. All I could see from what I read was that they were together – a lot. He looked crazy about her. I started to cry.
There was a brief knock on my door and John walked in without waiting for my answer. I stopped sobbing, but it was still pretty obvious that I had been crying.
John walked around my desk toward me and stood there with a look of concern. “What happened? What’s wrong?”
I pointed to one of the internet articles I was reading with a big picture of Will and Katherine with their arms around each other.
“Oh, wow! I thought he looked familiar.”
“That’s his girlfriend,” I said, barely holding back my sobs.
“Really? Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Pretty sure.” With that, I started to cry again.
John took me by the hand, picked me up out of my chair and hugged me tight, running his right hand down my hair. When it appeared that I wasn’t going to stop crying anytime soon, he said, “Come on. It’s lunchtime. Why don’t we get you something to eat? You don’t look like you’re going to get any work done right now.”
I let go and looked at his face, full of concern. Seeing that, I couldn’t help but reply, “Okay, but I’m not hungry. I’ll just sit with you while you eat.”
“We’ll see about that.”
We headed over to a nearby sports bar and restaurant, and climbed into one of the gold leather booths along the window facing the street. John was facing me, and watching me.
The nice thing about John was that he didn’t feel like he had to fill up every pause in a conversation. Had I been here with Max or Daniel, they would have talked nonstop. I was glad that I didn’t have to concentrate on keeping up a conversation at that moment and it was probably better that I wasn’t alone in my office either.
When John realized that I wouldn’t pick up my menu, he finally said, “Come on, you have to eat something.”
“No, it’ll just make me sick.”
The waitress came and John ordered himself a club sandwich and some hot tea for me.
“At least drink that. Something warm and comforting might make you feel better.”
“I appreciate that you’re trying to make me feel better, but I just don’t think that’s possible right now. I really liked him, John, and it’s been a long time since I felt that way. I know it’s not the same because you’ve been together so long, but imagine if you found out that Ashley was seeing someone else.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” John then changed the subject, “But, you know, my relationship with Ashley isn’t so perfect. We have our problems.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
Ordinarily, I would have continued with this conversation, but I didn’t have the energy.
After a few minutes, John said unconvincingly, “Maybe it’s not what you think.”
“Will’s lied to me about everything. At this point, I don’t know that I would believe a word he said. If I see him or talk to him again, I’ll just feel worse afterward and it won’t change anything.” I felt hopeless.
&
nbsp; John’s food was served as well as my tea. The hot tea was strong and even diluting it with milk didn’t help. Since it made my stomach hurt even more, I grabbed a piece of bread out of the basket at the table.
“See, I knew I’d get you to eat something.” John looked pleased with himself.
“Hmmm,” I responded automatically.
John reached across the table, grabbed my hand and let go quickly. “I know something that will take your mind off things. I’ve got Dodgers’ tickets tonight. I was planning on bringing Ashley, Dan, and Max. I know that Ashley isn’t really wild about coming so I’ll see if she’ll bow out. Why don’t you come with us instead? Dodger Dogs and beer should be just what the doctor ordered.”
I didn’t take much convincing. I realized that I didn’t want to be alone with my thoughts that night and I definitely didn’t want to be around when Will called.
At the game, the guys did manage to take my mind off things for the most part. John appeared to have prepped Max and Daniel and so they were trying to be goofier than usual to raise my spirits. John and Max flanked me in our seats in the loge level just beyond first base. Daniel left on a mission for beers and Dodger Dogs. At one point, when I appeared to be staring off into space sadly, John grabbed my hand and squeezed it. He didn’t let go. When Max saw this, he put his arm around me and squeezed me as well, but he let go fairly quickly.
When Daniel returned, he passed out the Dodger Dogs and beers. It was then that I realized that John was still holding my hand. I let go to grab my beer and likely blushed a little. John didn’t look at me.
After Daniel sat down, I thought I heard him say to Max, “What does John think he’s doing?”
Unlike most times that I had gone to games where we left early to beat the traffic, we stayed for the entire game to watch the Dodgers win. I therefore didn’t get home until late, around 11:30. My sister was, surprisingly, not asleep and caught me as I walked in the door. I quickly learned why.
“Will called while you were out at about eight o’clock and, again, fifteen minutes ago. You probably want to call him. He sounded a little worried.”
Away From the Spotlight Page 6