Away From the Spotlight (13 page)

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
la
y
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 stay
ed up late holding each other.

Will
had to get up even earlier than
me
to make an eight a.m. flight. 
I
got u
p for class just as
Will
was leaving and
he
kiss
ed
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 w
ould
only be gone a short time, I would miss him terribly.

Between classes, I s
a
t 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, i
t beeped t
elling me I had a text message.

“Call u
2
ni
te
.  Miss u.”

I responded in kind, “I’ll b w
8
ing.  Miss u
2.”

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
sad
ness
at the pr
ospect 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
a
bout
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. 
I
n 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
Crim
inal
Pro
cedure
des
pite 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
D
owntown 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 the
se movies and the books upon which they were based
, but had never seen the
movies or read the books.  From these posters, it was c
lear
that
Will and
the girl from the photo in
the
mag
azine
were
the
star
s
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
.  T
hey were looking lovingly at each other and not all appeared to be movie p
ublicity 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
. 
H
e looked craz
y about her.  I started to cry.

There was a brief knock on my door and John walked in without waiting for my answer.  I
stop
ped
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.”

“T
hat’s his girlfriend,” I said
,
barely holding
back
my sobs.

“Really?
Are you sure?”

“Ye
ah
.  P
retty sure.” 
W
ith 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 t
o 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 ju
st 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 Da
niel
, 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 comforti
ng 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, a
nd 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 A
shley 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
.  W
e have our problems.”

“Could’ve
foole
d 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.

John’s food was served as well as my tea.  The hot tea was st
rong 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.

“Hmm
m
,” I responded aut
omatically.

John reached across the table
,
grabbed my hand and let go quickly.  “I know something that will take your mind of
f
things.  I’ve got
Dodger
s
’
tickets tonight.  I was
planning on
bring
ing
Ashley, Da
n
,
and
Max
.  I know that Ashley
is
n’t really wild about coming so I
’
ll see if she
’
ll bow out
.  W
hy don’t you come with us instead? 
Dodger Dog
s and beer should be just what the
d
octor ordered.
”

I didn’t take much convincing
. 
I realized that I did
n’
t want to be alone with my thoughts t
hat n
ight and I definitely didn’t want
to be around when Will called.

At the game
, th
e guys did manage to take my mind off things for the most part.  John appeared to have prepped
Max
and Da
niel
and so
they were trying to be goofier than usual
to raise my spirits
.  John and
Max
flanked me in our seats
i
n the
loge
level just beyond
first
base.  Da
niel
left on a mission
for beers and
Dodger Dog
s
.  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.