Epilogue
Will
“I can’t believe it’s actually happening tonight,” she half-grumbled, half-muttered to herself as she tried to put in the pair of earrings I’d purchased her for the night. She jabbed herself in the lobe a couple of time before she managed to get them through the hole, and I couldn’t help but grin at how grumpy she was. She always got like this before a big event – it seemed like it was her way of venting nerves or excitement, even if it seemed kind of counterintuitive.
“Me neither,” I stepped towards her and put my arms around her waist, pulling her close; she half-turned her head to acknowledge me and I planted a kiss on her cheek.
“It’s going to be okay, you know,” I reminded her gently. “Really. I know you’re nervous-”
“Hey, maybe I’m just excited that my amazing work is finally going to get an airing to the general public,” she shot back playfully, stepping away from me to grab her lipstick. We were getting ready at my apartment, and there was something really charming about seeing all the stuff she’d dumped here over the six months that we’d been together – her make-up, hair stuff, clothes, everything she needed to stop by at the last minute and spend the evening eating takeout with me. Amongst other things, of course. Those were my favorite nights, the ones we spent all curled up together, nothing but each other for company.
Well, it wasn’t like we’d had a lot of choice before tonight. Dina had been dead set on taking the relationship super slow, and part of that meant not outing ourselves to the press before she was ready. I had never been with a woman who was so against our relationship getting out before – at first, I felt a little affronted by it, but soon enough I realized that it had nothing to do with her feelings towards me and everything to do with holding on to her privacy as things ramped up. She didn’t want to be nothing more than the girlfriend of some movie star. She wanted to be her own person, exist in her own right, and I would never try to take that away from her.
Still, I had to admit, there was something fateful about our first time coming out as a couple coinciding with the premiere of the movie’s release. It had been months since we wrapped on Nation, and part of me felt as though it was so long ago that I was already halfway into the next project – but I was so proud of this that I couldn’t wait to see it come to fruition. It was going to be amazing. I’d watched the final cut and I knew we had managed to make something pretty special, something that I was so proud off I thought it might bust out the front of my chest.
And I was looking forward to finally being able to talk about my girlfriend as opposed to ducking questions about the sudden cessation of my bachelor lifestyle. I hadn’t realized quite how big that part of my bran that had become until it stopped, with a few people assuming that I must have been hit by a car or something to have vanished from the dating scene so suddenly.
I would have been pissed had it not been for Dina’s influence. She made me so utterly, endlessly happy that I couldn’t find it in myself to get pissed at the little minutiae of celebrity-hood anymore. I knew it had been a gamble when we had gotten together, and I was more than prepared for it to go wrong the way the rest of my relationships had, but so far it was just so…easy. I had even met her parents, and though they had been stunned when I walked through the door, it seemed like I made a good impression and soon enough I was pretty sure I was part of the fold.
“You look amazing,” I remarked as she quickly ran a brush through her hair and glanced over at me and pulled a face.
“You think?”
“Always,” I agreed. “But especially tonight.”
It was true – she was wearing a deep green dress that flared out over her knees and hugged her torso to show off that perfect curve where her waist met her breasts. She glanced over her shoulder at me coyly and grinned.
“How much time do we have?” she asked, and I glanced at my watch.
“Not long enough for me to fuck you over this table,” I replied regretfully, and she pulled a faux-grief-stricken face.
“When we get back?”
“Obviously,” I agreed, and I heard the buzzer on my apartment go.
“That’ll be my driver,” I sighed. “We should get going.”
“Oh shit, I don’t know if I’m ready for this,” she ran her hands through her hair and stared at herself in the mirror, her eyes suddenly full of nerves. “Do we have to?”
“We don’t have to do anything,” I assured her. “We can go separately if you want.”
Her eyes travelled over to meet mine, and I saw her chest deflate as she let out a long breath.
“I want to do this,” she assured me, taking a step forward and placing a hand on my chest. “I’m just…nervous, that’s all. I’ve never been a movie star’s girlfriend before.”
“You have, just not in public,” I pointed out. “You’ve been doing it pretty damn successfully for the last six months, if I’m not very much mistaken.”
Her eyes met mine, and I knew what I was going to say at once. It was something we’d held back on till then, but something that was obviously true for the two of us. Without hesitation, I spoke.
“I love you.”
The words hovered between us for a moment, and her eyes widened – but a few seconds later, a grin broke out over her face and she leaned up to kiss me again.
“I love you too,” she replied, almost a little breathless. It was the perfect moment to say it, and it had never been truer than in that moment, because every second that passed I felt as though I loved her more deeply than before. I pressed my forehead to hers and both of us shut our eyes for a second, lost in the moment, until the door buzzed again and ripped us from our little reverie.
“Come on,” she took my head and stepped into her heels, using me as balance. “Let’s get out of here.”
We headed for the elevator, smiling at each other dizzily as we waited for it to arrive. I let her step in first, and she caught my eye in the mirror and knew damn well that I was taking the opportunity to get a look at her perfect ass. I joined her, standing at her side as the door slid shut, and we looked to each other and swapped a nervous, excited grin – I had no idea how this was going to go, but I couldn’t wait to try. Every second with Dina felt like a perfect movie moment.
The End