Away From the Spotlight (40 page)

We held hands as we
leisurely walked
to a very
old
English-looking building
tucked away on one of the side streets.  There wasn’t a crowd outside, but we could hear the noise from within
when we got close
.
 
As we approached the door,
Will
turned to kiss me and
led me into the pub behind him.

The pub was packed and loud.  It was very traditional looking inside and a little worn around the edges.  The square bar was in the center of the room,
with its dark wood
visible through the gaps in the bodies as we made our way toward the
booths and tables at the
back of the room.  We joined
a group of three men
our age at one of the tables th
at was surrounded by benches.

Will
greeted
each of
the men
and introduced me as we sat down together on one of the benches facing to the side of the pub. “Shannon, these are good friends of mine.  That’s Da
mon, Niall and this is Pete.”

I waved
since
I was already seate
d and said, “Nice to meet you.”

They were all pretty good-looking and I was surprised that there were no women with them.  Damon was
of
medium height, fair-haired and
athletic-looking like a runner
.  Pete was tall, thin and with very close-cut brown hair.  Niall had the dark hair and Irish good looks you would expect of a person with that name.  They were all fairly casually dress
ed in jeans and soccer jerseys.

After introduction
s, Damon, seated to my right, indicated that he would fetch
us drinks and refill his own.
He looked at
me and asked what I would like.

“Cider?” I answered.

“
Right-ee-oh
.  Be back.”

“It’s about time you got here.  We’ve been here for
over an
hour.”  Pete sat to Will’s left and had leaned over to say
that
to Will privately, but I
overheard it
.

I heard Will’s quiet response as well, “I’m sure it was
a chore
for you to have to sit her
e drinking beer all that time.”

I interrupted
loudly over the din
, trying to start conversation and to learn a little more about Will.  “H
ow do you all know each other?”

It was Niall who answered
even more loudly
from across the table, in a London accent that didn’t match his very Irish looks.
  “We were in school together.”

“You’re from Shepp
erton?”

Niall was the one who responded again.  “You’ve been there?”  He looked surprised as if Will hadn’t indicated
to
Niall
that our relationship was serious enough for
Will to have introduced me to his
parents
.  I looked at Pete.  He didn’t look surpr
ised.

I nodded in the affirmative.

Niall checked himself and responded, “Yes.  We’ve all known each other since we were
in primary school
.  I could tell you stories.”

Will
shot him a hard look
.  “But you won’t.”

Niall looked at me, smiled mischievously and winked.  “Maybe later.
”  He then turned his gaze to Will.
 
“
Y
ou didn’t mention she had ginger hair.  I might
’
ve known.”

“What do you mean?” I asked curiously and looked at Will, who looked embarrass
ed.  Will then glared at Niall.

“I promised I’d be good.  I’ll just say that he’s had a thin
g for it for a very long time.”

I could tell that Will was
becoming
uncomfortable as he started to fidget.  I p
laced
my left hand underneath the table, squeezed his
hand,
and continued to hold
it
.

Damon’s return to the table with drinks effectively changed the subject.

Pete started to talk to Niall and Will. 
I had trouble hearing him. 
At
about
that time, Damon leaned i
n
toward me.

Damon must have heard the tail end of
the
conversation with Niall. 
“Ignore Niall. 
We
always do.  He’s
not a bad lad
though he can be quite obnoxious at times.  He likes to give Will a
hard
time.  He’s probably envious.”

“Why?”  Of course, I knew the answer.  Will was a
celebrity and very successful.

“Well, first, Will’s famous and living in America
, a
nd, seco
ndly, probably because of you.”

“Me?” I couldn’t fig
ure how that could be the case.

“Will’s not the only one who has a thing for
ginger hair
.”

“Oh,” I said sheepishly.  I turned back to the group and
,
sure enough
,
found Niall staring at me.  I smiled at him,
despite being
a little uncomfortable after
Damon’s comments
.

When it was clear that
Niall
did
n
’
t intend to
embarrass Will
any
further, Will relaxed and we all
enjoyed ourselves
. 
I met a
few of Will’s
other
friends
as they stopped by to say
“
hello
”
to Will over the course of the evening
, but it was hard to catch names over the noise
of the crowd.

As
Will and I
walked home
alone
arm-in-
arm afterward, I asked Will, “What did Niall mean about you and
redhead
s?”

“You caught that, huh?”
He
wouldn’t
look at me as if he was embarrassed.

“Yes.”

“Niall and I both had a long-standing crush on a
ginger-haired girl in school.”

“And you won out I suppose?”

“Actually, no.  She
was a year ahead of us and
would have neither of us.  I think that, when I showed up with you tonight,
Niall
may have
felt like I had won after all.”

“
Why
’s that?”  I was confused.

“Because that girl from school couldn’t hold a candle to you.”
He turned and kissed me.

“I
swear
you need contacts.”

“I have
perfect
vision.”

“Hmmm.”

It was my cell phone that woke
me
up fairly early the next morning.  Pam called, sounding very excited
about
something.  It took
me
a second to wake up enoug
h to catch what she was saying.

“
You need to go get the papers.”

“What do you mean?

“You’re o
n the front page.”

“What? 
Me
?”

“Yes.  You and Will together.”

“Oh crap
!
  Let me
look into it
.  I’ll call you back later.”

I
leapt back into bed to
w
a
ke Will and t
ell
him about the call.  He
rose quickly
and
peeked outside
through the bedroom window.  S
ure enough
,
there was a
crowd of photographers waiting.

“Let me see if I can get some papers from one of my neighbors.  I’ll be right back.
  Don’t go near the windows.
”

Will
dressed
quickly
and
practically ran
out the door.  He returned about
ten
minutes later with a couple of th
e morning tabloid newspapers.

As Pam had said, t
he
tabloids
each
had a picture inset in the front page with
similar
headline
s
to the tune of “Will MacKenzie’s Girlfriend Arrives from America.”  The picture was
fairly small
since
it was not the main photo on the front page.  It also was
a little grainy and colorless, like it had been taken with a telephoto lens from
quite
a distance.  You couldn’t really see my face or tell that my hair was red.  You could see Will with his arms around me kissing me
near the car at the airport.

I grabbed one of the papers and
opened to the page with the accompanying article
.  Inside
, there were two pictures
:
the first one
was
a larger version of
that shown on the front page and the second
was
a picture of Will walking around the car to get inside.  Taken together, it was clear that Will was the one in the first photo
kissing me.  The article read:

Will MacKenzie, star of
“
Midnight
”
and other popular films and one of the most sought after young actors today, was spotted last Friday at London Heathrow Airport in the company of his striking new American girlfriend.  Fans recently were disheartened to hear on an American
c
hat
s
how that Will, once a fixture in the Hollywood
p
arty
s
cene, has settled down with his new lady love.  Sources close to the actor tell us that the relationship is serious.  Are there wedding bells
in Will’s future?  Stay tuned.

“At least you can’t tell it was me
,
” I said t
rying to make things sound more positive
to Will, who was staring at the page I was reading
in
horror.

“Yes, but the p
aparazzi
now
will be
determined
to get a picture of your face.  You
should see the crowd outside.”

“How bad?”

“Bad.”  He had his left hand at his temple and looked like he was trying to think.  “I don’t want you to be trapped inside my flat the whole time you’re here.  We have things to do. 
Y
ou’re leaving Thursday for Ireland.  Let’s get moving and hopefully I’ll think of so
mething to get us out of here.”

“What’s on the agenda for today?”
I asked
,
wondering if we would actually get to do what was planned.

“I thought
I would take you sightseeing.”

“I t
hink that’s going to be tough.”

“I
know
.”

I dragged
Will
in
to
the shower with me, hoping that it would relax him and take his mind off of things.  Whatever stress relief was
had
was short-lived as he was nervously pacing around o
nce we got out and got dressed.

Will
finally sat down and looked at me with a pained expression.  “We can’t win, you know.  Sooner or later they’re going to find us.  When they do, and they find out who you are,
they’re going to make your life miserable
.  I’m
so
sorry.  I wish I could have spared you this.”
  He put his head in his hands.

I leaned down to look at him through his fingers.  “I’ll be fine.  I can handle anything as long as I’m with you
.”

He looked up and I kissed him.

We decided to
exit through
the back door of the building
.  I
t didn’t look like anyone was there and Will’s car was closer th
at
way
since
we had parked around the corner from the flat the day before.  We were
clear
until we hit the cross-street where the car was parked.  A photographer peered around the corner and saw us.  Will had my hand and we ran away from the photographer toward the car, jumped in quickly and drove away.  We laughed as we sped away.  We had won
“R
ound
O
ne
”
with the paparazzi.