Five Years of Fame [COMPLETE]

31. Kelly's Birthday Party

Fall, Year 3, Month 9

"Do I have to go?"

"You look great!"

Reeve waved away Noah's compliment.

"I'm serious. Do we really have to go?"

Noah seemed on the verge of laughing.

"You mean do we have to attend your assistant's thirtieth birthday party, that was coordinated by your best friend, that your sister help set up? Uh, yeah. I think we have to go."

"We could just hang out here! Or maybe you go and I'll stay home."

Noah leaned forward and shut Reeve's front door behind her so she had to step outside.

"Okay. How about I'll go and tell all of your friends that you couldn't make it because you didn't want to come."

Reeve gave a huff of frustration and started down her front steps. His argument was air-tight. She had to go. Noah was chuckling to himself as he followed her down the steps and opened the passenger door of her car.

"You do look beautiful, by the way."

Reeve smiled. She was wearing something other than a t-shirt and old jeans. And her hair was down. She had put in the minimal amount of effort and her boyfriend thought her beautiful. Reeve silently thanked her old stylist that had given her the designer jeans and blouse, one of the few remaining pieces of evidence from her LA days.

"Thank you."

They both ducked inside the car and Noah leaned back to place a bag carefully on the back seat.

"What did Ruby make?" Reeve asked.

"Chocolate chip cookies. And for the record, I helped"

"You did the dishes?"

"It counts." Reeve laughed as she pulled the car into traffic and headed towards the studio.

"I don't see you bringing anything. The invitation said pot luck."

"I'm providing the studio."

Noah was silent for a second to her excellent reply. It was her studio and it had taken some serious persuasion on Anton's side to get her to let them use it for the party.

"Okay. But that's not food."

"I might have also ordered a large carrot cake from Kelly's favorite bakery."

"That's what I thought."

Noah had to pull Reeve up the stairs when she wouldn't enter the building willingly. It took all of Reeve's strength not to pull her hand from his when they entered the transformed studio and were met with a mingling party of over thirty people. The thought of the look of dejection on Noah's face kept her hand in place and they entered their first party together as a couple. They had been together for almost three months. It was time.

The air outside was still warm but the nights were cooling down. It had been months since the first photos of them together had gotten released but Reeve had made sure there were few opportunities for further evidence of their relationship to pop up online. They spent most of their time together inside and with their new group of friends.

Now they were walking into a crowd of which she only knew a small handful of people. But no one was bothering to look their way. A few had glanced at them as they entered but quickly resumed their conversations as if she was no one special.

Anton soon materialized out of the crowd and greeted them with enthusiastic cheers and hugs as if he hadn't seen them only a few hours before when he had kicked Reeve out of the studio. Looking around, Reeve was impressed with the transformation he had been able to pull off with Dani and Gage's help.