“But you do have a famous boyfriend,” was always his gripe. Whatever. I wasn’t ready to deal with it.
Honestly, the whole concept scared the shit out of me. I couldn’t believe that we’d even come this far. He was the guy I swore I’d never sleep with, and here we were mapping out our lives together. Besides, he could have been in New York screwing every woman he knew. I didn’t really have a way to tell, except for all the phone calls — it would be hard to squeeze a liaison in between those. So I decided to do as Gran had instructed and follow my heart.
I looked at the unopened letter that Gran had given Athena. It sat on the mantel just living its little unopened life. I wasn’t ready. I couldn’t face her death. It was better for me to think she was on vacation than gone, so I left it there unread, waiting for a day when I could finally swallow the truth.
Planning the party was fun. Tammy and I did the menu, and Ricky was in charge of the theme and decorations. We decided to go with a graffiti theme and slam poetry, so we painted paper cups and plates and wrote slam verses on them. I wanted the verses to be inspirational but cutting-edge.
It was so much fun getting ready for the party, which was totally my thing. It would also give me a chance to connect with friends I hadn’t seen in a long time. I’d invited coworkers from the art center and friends from my artist collective and the gallery. I wanted this to be a blowout so I invited everyone. The last person I invited was KP.
“Hey, are you busy?”
“I’m never too busy for you, love, what’s up?” He sounded busy, so I wanted to make this fast.
“I’m having a ‘yay, I got into art school’ party at the house this Saturday after we get back from seeing Wenton. I know it’s last minute, and Saturday is our night, but with school starting for everyone in the next few weeks, this was the best weekend for it. So, two things… will you come and are you mad?” I just threw it out there and waited for whatever he was going to throw back at me.
I’d had to try and help him get a handle on “let’s do everything my way” tendencies because they got on my nerves at times.
“But this is our first weekend…we haven’t even really had a weekend.” I heard him take a deep breath. “I mean… fine.”
I could tell he was really struggling with it, but he’d surprised me by agreeing. That was why I was falling in love with him. I kept expecting him to be awful and he wasn’t. He was wonderful.
“Wow, you agreed so quickly. Did I call the right number?” Teasing always worked for us.
“Trust me, agreement wasn’t my first reaction, but sure, if you want to celebrate, I would love to be there with you.”
He sounded sincere. Who was this guy?
“So, how do we handle the whole ‘I’m famous…blah diddy blah?’”
I wasn’t sure what to do. Just have him walk in? Send an email asking my friends to pretend they don’t notice him? Say nothing and watch him get attacked? Tough choices.
“Blah diddy blah?” he was laughing; that was a good sign.
“Well, do you want me to tell people, or…um put you in a gorilla suit?”
“Do you trust your friends?”
I’d been going for a laugh, but he was serious again.
“Mostly.” That was true. Some of the people I invited weren’t always the most trustworthy people; they’d blab it all on social media for sure. “Some of them might gossip though. Artists are, well… you know, dramatic, bitchy queens at times.”
“Okay, so maybe send out an email introducing me and give them a heads up that I’m there for you, not to find a new actor, writer, or filmmaker. That will hopefully discourage people from approaching me for work stuff. Say it’s a private thing for the two of us. That might deter the Twitter feeds from blowing up.” I hated that he had to deal with this all the time.
“That must be so annoying,” I commiserated.
“It’s my job. A party sounds like fun though. I’ll wear a baseball cap and try to blend in.”
“A floppy beanie and a hoodie would be better, but you couldn’t pull it off, so a baseball cap will work. I’ve seen you wear one of those, you don’t look too weird in it.”
He was so handsome, but he looked ridiculous in things that weren’t tailored to perfection.
“Thanks… I think. Okay, gotta go. I’m late for a meeting.”
“Talk to you later.”
Once we disconnected, I went back to prepping for the party and working on some drawings for the series I was tentatively calling “So, Now it’s X.”
The week went by pretty fast since I had so much to do. I only balled my eyes out two significant times. I felt like denial was really working for me. The decorations looked amazing, and the food was fun. To go with our graffiti theme, we chose a burger bar with all kinds of creative fixings, a salad bar, since most of my friends were health freaks, and an open bar with some artisan drinks Tammy’s boyfriend wanted to make. By Friday night, the party was all ready to go. I just had to put things out in their respective places and we would get our party on the next day. KP showed up at about midnight.
He was finishing up production on an edgy chick flick with a couple of aging stars and a hot newcomer that had “Oscar worthy” written all over it, so he was going the extra mile. Ugh. Entertainment industry lingo, what a snore. When he walked in, I could tell he was tired.
“Hi.” Even though I wanted to jump him, he looked way too tired for nighttime fun.
Where did my crazy libido come from? I’d never been this horny in my life. I’m sure I could have enticed KP to join me in some nocturnal calisthenics, but he looked totally exhausted.
“Hey, love,” he said as he walked in.
“I made you a snack. I thought you’d be hungry. Fruit skewers, Manchego, and Chardonnay.” I showed him the platter I’d arranged decoratively. I hoped he could see I made an effort, just for him.
“I love this.” He leaned in and kissed me.
We sat on the porch together while he ate and vented about production. I was glad to be his sounding board. I started to find his line of work really interesting, and I was quickly swept up. By the time he was done venting and eating, it was almost two in the morning. We had agreed to meet Wenton early for breakfast, which meant we probably had to call it a night.
It was wonderful falling asleep in KP’s arms. He felt so perfect and having him back at my house felt like he belonged here, and it actually seemed like he had always been here.