Epilogue
She wasn’t use to this yet. The people, the parties, the SoCal accents
telling her how fabulous she was, the inability to truly believe what they
said, the questions, the interest, hell, the clothes: it was all overwhelming. He had tried to prep her, told her that the
rush of media, public, and industry attention would be mind boggling, but his
words, kind and helpful as they were, didn’t prepare her for this.
“Oh my God, is that Hugh
Grant?”
She turned her eyes from where she
had been searching the crowd over to her agent, who had been acting like a five
year old at the zoo, pointing out famous faces and gasping at anything slightly
interesting. But she didn’t care if Hugh
Grant was there, or if the president walked in, or anything outrageous and
exciting happened at the after party.
She was searching for a familiar pair of blue eyes, and she hoped they
were searching for hers as well.
The premiere had gone well, really
well. After spending a day being
pampered and having her hair pulled in every direction and makeup piled onto
her face, so much so that she called up Olivia and asked her if she would make
an emergency stop at her condo, she had gone to the premiere, stepped out of
her limo onto the short red carpet and answered lots and lots and lots of
questions, the same ones she had been asked the week before in the press
junket. Thankfully some of those
interviews during the junket were done with Justin and he had kept her
entertained and interested. They tried
to keep their flirting down to a minimum and while she had a harder time
keeping her hands to herself and refraining from her little habits, like
touching his arm or holding it, or poking him in the butt like he hated, he on
the other hand was a complete professional and treated her like a co-worker or
a friend. The only thing that gave away
anything about them was the few looks he passed her way in between interviews.
They had kept their relationship
to themselves. Neither of them wanted
tabloid headlines or questions about romance to overshadow the work they had
put into the movie, but now that it was over, now that the release had been
done and only a week of press was left, they were ready to let the world
know. They weren’t going to announce it,
but they weren’t going to hide it like they had been trying to do.
Early on they decided to keep
things quiet on set. Most people knew
and speculated, but Justin and Susan kept to themselves and didn’t publicly
show affection. Once the movie wrapped
he swept her away and she was willing to follow. They spent three weeks in some remote
She had made friends through work
and through Justin. Her life was looking
up, way up.
That wasn’t to say that her and
Justin were perfect or didn’t have problems.
She found out quickly after their first day together that he could annoy
the shit out of her. She found out that
he could be smothering and then snap, turn around and need to be alone. But he never pushed her away and she had
found an art in telling him to back off without hurting his feelings. They fit.
They fit together really, really well.
She had met his family on a trip
to
So far the great thing and the
worst thing about the press for this movie was that most of it had been with
him. And while it was great to be with
him a lot of the time and work with him, it was hard to keep the fact that they
were together under wraps. All the photo
shoots, the questions, even that night, taking pictures with him on the carpet,
sitting beside him in the theatre, it was all hard to keep herself from holding
on to his hand, to sneaking a kiss.
At least not without a towel.
“There he is.”
She turned to Brenda and followed
with her eyes where she was looking and pointing. And she was right. There he was.
He was in the center of a group of people, laughing and talking. He had a beer in his hand, shirt sleeves
rolled up. His parents were nearby, each
with a glass of wine in their hands.
Trace was there, talking and laughing with Justin. She sighed, said a silent “yes” and grabbed
Brenda’s arm. “Come on.”
“No no, you go ahead. I’m going to see if I can mingle with Mr.
Grant.”
Susan laughed and started to make
her way down to the lower portion of the floor from her perch up on the upper
balcony of the club. The trip took much
longer than she hoped. People kept stopping her, telling her how amazing she
was, how awesome the movie was. It was
all very flattering, and she agreed, the movie was phenomenal and she was proud
to be a part of it. But she had had
enough ego-feeding and was ready to find her man.
“Susan!” She whipped around at the familiar yell of
her name in a particularly English tone.
“There you are darling, I just saw Justin, he told me to tell you he was
looking for you.”
She smiled. “Thanks Richard, I spotted him.”
“Alright, see you later. Fun, right?”
He half hugged her and kissed her cheek.
Richard remained a hard ass with her for much of the shoot, but she soon
realized he was trying to toughen her up and by the close of the filming she
realized he respected her, trusted her, and believed in her more than most of
the other people on the set. He just had
a strange way of showing it.
She continued to push her way pass
people, now deciding to pretend she didn’t hear the “Hey Susan!”, “Suze, great
job!” “Come here girl!” and other
phrases yelled her way. She made a bee
line to Justin and soon found herself standing behind him, no one looking and
him not noticing her. So she smiled to
herself, moved her hand down and poked him with her finger. He hated that more than anything. He hated being poked and she liked his cute
little ass so much she always poked him in one of the cheeks to annoy him.
He jumped a little but didn’t
turn.
“No pokers aloud.”
“Guess I’ll just go find Hugh
Grant with Brenda…”
She turned with a smile just in
time to see him look over his shoulder.
She felt a hand grip her upper arm and pull her back, whispering against
her ear “Hell no, sexy.”
She loved that. She loved how after all this time he could
still do some small thing or say a few little words to get her going. She joined their circle and talked with them,
nudging Justin only once to receive a smile.
His hand made his way to her lower back, touching her skin where her
back was exposed by the design of the dress.
She was quiet during the conversation, unable to get a word in and
concentrating on the small circles his fingers rubbed against her skin. It had been a long day, a long week, and she
was ready to go home with him, fall asleep and do nothing all day until her
Leno appearance and then officially call it quits for a few days.
Her eyes widened a bit, having
stood there for several minutes rather quiet, when his fingers started to do
their thing. It was his little signal
that he wanted her bad. She could feel
his fingers walking down and down over her back, over the material of her dress
and down to her ass. She quickly pulled
away a bit and looked up at him. “Wanna go sit?”
He just grinned.
They easily found a corner
table. It was getting late and people
were starting to leave or either were so drunk they were dancing. She slid into the booth and was thankful for the
dark lighting.
He put his arm around her and
slouched down into his seat. “I’m ready
to blow this place, girl.”
She laughed and looked over at
him. “We’re supposed to mingle and smile
and promote.”
He bit his lip and stared at her.
“We’re supposed to be getting naked and taking a relaxing swim in my pool.”
“That requires effort.”
He kissed her cheek and then her
said in her ear. “So does sex.”
She sat up and pushed him away
with a laugh. “Is that all you think
about?”
“No…” He took a swig of the beer in his hand and
looked at the label. “This is good beer,
too.”
She scoffed and pushed him again.
“You’re an ass.”
“Hey!” He pulled her back against him and smiled at
her. “You’re the one that was poking
me.”
“Welcome to my world, usually
you’re the one poking through.”
“Ha ha…” His smile dropped and he
pulled her tight against him with both his arms around her. “Shut up…” She knew
they were being risky with this type of affection in public but he had had a
little too much to drink and the champagne she had been nursing was starting to
get to her head as well. It felt good to
be against him and to be semi secluded.
She wouldn’t mind going home with him and going for a swim, but she knew
that that they had an obligation to be at this party. Even though much of the crowd was starting to
leave, it was well after
But as he started to kiss her neck
she thought less and less about what she should do and gave into her
wants. “Justin…”
He sighed and pulled away a
little. “I’m a little drunk so I’m just
gonna ask you.”
A certain fear ran over her, and
excitement. She stared at him. His eyes gave nothing away. “Ask me what?”
“Wanna move in together?”
“What…” She thought he was joking. She wasn’t expecting that. She didn’t know what she had been expecting. Maybe something bigger, or smaller, but
whatever it was, now that it was out in the open, moving in together seemed
right, and she didn’t know why they hadn’t done it sooner. Hell, she stayed with him almost every night
or vice versa. It was only rational to
take that next step.
But it was a big step, moving in
together was taking a leap not just a step.
It was going forward, sprinting forward to a type of life that screamed
commitment. And she knew that type of
commitment could lead to a certain ceremony and a shiny ring. The more she thought about it, she realized
that wasn’t such a bad thing.
“I’ve been thinking about it for
the past few weeks but I’ve been chickening out ‘cause I figured you’d turn me
down cause I know you love your little condo.
But, well…I’ve had 4 beers and some champagne and Trace made me drink a
whiskey sour with him and…yeah.”
“I…”
He cut her off and rubbed his face
with a hand. “I’m an idiot aren’t I? I
even asked Brenda what she thought you would say.”
She laughed, “And what did she
say?”
He smiled at her in return and
leaned down close to her face. “That you’d say yes.”
She was quiet and stared at him
for a moment before looking at the table.
She thought for only a few seconds and then it came to her what her
answer should be. “Ok.”
“Ok what?”
She smiled and leaned up to kiss
him on the lips, not caring if anyone saw. “Yes, I’d like that.”
“That’s it… “He stared at her
hard. “Yes, you want to?”
She giggled. “You don’t believe
me?”
“No, I just, didn’t think it’d be
that easy.”
She put her arms around him and
hugged him. “I really want to.” He hugged her back and told her he loved her
and she felt at ease. It was a simple
answer. She wanted to live with him, she
wanted to go that path and find out if they could make it. And she felt deep in her heart that they
could. They weren’t perfect and their
relationship had its bumps and its problems.
They had work to do but she knew they’d be ok. Their love wasn’t complicated and it wasn’t
difficult. She had to work at their
relationship, like most people, but she didn’t have to work to love him. That was easy, that was natural.
“Great…” He pulled away, kissed
her quick and grabbed her hand. “Lets get out of here and go home. Ok?”
She nodded, smiled and knew then
that whether it was her condo, or his mansion, his mother’s house in Memphis or
the bungalow in Thailand, the movie set, his trailer, wherever he was that was
her home and she was happy, so happy to be with him.
She had found him, loved him and
knew she’d never give up her dreams, never be lonely, and that she’d never,
ever be homesick again.