“What the hell is this?” My manager pushes a couple magazines into my hands.
On the front covers of a couple there are picture of me from the night of the premiere. The headlights vary in wording, but all pretty much say the same thing; secret wedding, unknown bride, private location.
“At first,” he starts to explain as I flip through the first one, “I thought that maybe it was some kind of stunt. That maybe, you mentioned something in your interview Friday that they distorted. Then, I log online to see that it’s all over the place and was sourced from someone who had a video clip on their phone of your conversation with the cashier at Lombardi’s!” His voice starts to rise at ‘video clip’ and by the time he says the name of our favorite pizza place he’s practically screaming.
I open my mouth to speak, but Johnny doesn’t let me. His tone becomes dangerous, “So, I check New York’s public records to see if it was true. I felt a little better when I couldn’t find anything. But do you think that feeling lasted, Damon?”
My eyebrows shoot up to my hairline and I shake my head.
“You’re right,” he continues. “It didn’t because I thought, ‘Hey, maybe I should check Connecticut just in case. It’s not too far away.’ And I was FUCKING RIGHT!”
I, decidedly, don’t like this side of my manager.
Opening my mouth again, he holds up his hand to stop me, “Apparently, they fast tracked the filing of your wedding. You two idiots got married. I knew you were best friends and I knew that you, Topher,” he looks over at my doe-eyed husband, “like to piss Linda off. But, this is more than just skipping ahead on the red carpet. This could mean your careers!”
“Listen, Johnny,” I chance while he’s taking a breath. “I realize that it was wrong of us to do it, but-”
“No, buts,” the short round man shakes his head at me. “There is no taking it back, you did it. You got married to Topher Ashton.”
“Okay, I get it. But what I was going to say was that we are going to-”
Again, he cuts me off before I can tell him about the annulment, “What you’re going to do is go over there and get it fixed before anyone finds out it’s him! I already talked to Linda this morning,” his voice becomes darker. “We are going to say that you got married to your secret long-time girlfriend who lives back in England.”
Logically, it sounds like a good plan. It sounds sensible in that fact that I would want to keep someone I cared about out of this lifestyle. It’s even rational that no one knows who it is because she’s not in America.
But for some reason, my brain switches from rationally sensible logic to goo, because I get angry, “Who do you think you are?”
“Excuse me?” Johnny’s voice gets lower.
Topher takes a step up beside me as I throw the magazines randomly to the side. He puts a hand on my arm to keep me in place as I take a step forward, “You think you can barge into MY flat and tell me who I am and am not allowed to be married to? You think you are going to dictate MY relationships and MY life?”
His eyes narrow as he stares back, but he doesn’t say anything.
“You come into MY space to tell me about MY lifestyle? Topher is my husband and I’ll be damned if you think you’re just going to try to replace him with some girl that agrees to be my secret. I would advise you to shut your fucking mouth before I find myself a new manager,” my whole body feels tense. At any moment, it feels like I’ll snap and bring Johnny down with me.
My best friend pulls me toward him once my breathing becomes less labored. My hand comes up to pinch the bridge of my nose as Toph turns me to face him, “Calm down, Day. We’ll figure everything out. We can get the annulment as soon as we get back from England.”
“That’s not the point,” I drop my hand as I feel his cup my face.
He gently pulls my face up to look at him, “It doesn’t matter. We already talked about it. Don’t let him influence you.”
“They want to replace you,” I can feel the water building up in my eyes.
For some reason, the idea or Toph being interchanged by just anyone of someone else’s choosing makes me furious. I tell myself it’s because he’s my best friend and means a lot to me. But, in all reality, I’m just pushing the actual reason away from my mind.
My jaw stays firm and I blink a couple of time. I refuse to let any tears shed.
He chuckles lightly as he lets go of my face and wraps his arms around my waist, “They can’t replace me. I’ll still be here.”
My forehead leans into his chest even as my arms are still slack by my sides, “You’re really messing with my head.”
He laughs again then kisses the top of my head, “I’m just repaying the favor.”
Tucking my arms between us, I turn my head to the side and close my eyes, “Can we order Chinese and be lazy for the rest of the day?”
“No,” Johnny’s voice pulls me out of our embrace. I, reluctantly, take a step back as Topher drops his arms, “You have an interview in about two hours. We have to leave now.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I tell him flatly.
“Actually,” he looks bored as he puts two fingers to his temple, “you will be getting in the car that’s waiting for us and we will be going to the Brikk Walford Late Night set and you are giving an interview to clear all this up.”
“I’m not telling them that I married some girl,” I arch an eyebrow at him.
He sighs and gestures the hand that’s not holding his head toward us, “Obviously.”
“What’s that mean?” Toph questions with irritation in his voice.
My manager lets out a huge sigh and drops his hands, “I didn’t realize that you guys were so in love.” It looks like it was painfully annoying for him to say that, “I need to make a few phone calls. We need to start heading to the studio. Let’s go.”
When he realizes I’m not following, he turns to face me, “What’s the problem now?”
“If I’m going, Christopher is coming with me,” I state boldly.
Rolling his eyes and breathing in heavily, he gestures toward the door, “Come on, Topher. Apparently, we are taking a family vacation. I was lucky to get this spot; you’re not ruining it.”
-----
Turns out by ‘car’, Johnny meant limo. He decided to sit up front with the driver, and close the sound proof window, to make the phone calls he spoke of.
“Who do you think he’s phoning?” I ask Toph as we sit side-by-side in the back. We’re both leaned back so that our heads are rested on the top of the seat, staring at the ceiling.
I feel, more than see, his shoulders raise and drop, “Linda for sure. Other than that, it could be anyone’s guess.”
I move my head to rest on his shoulder and lace my fingers through his, “This is a lot of trouble. You really want to go through this?”
“If it’s for you, I do,” he tells me as he lays his cheek on top of my head.
“What if we ruin our careers?”
“You have a couple movies coming up that you’re already contracted into, right?”
“Yea, but they can break those.”
He chuckles, “They won’t because they would have to pay you a ridiculous amount of money as a severance. Plus, have to hire another actor for what they were going to be paying you. Most producers won’t want to take a budget cut that big.”
“What about you?”
“I have a savings account that I’ve kept since I started making movies twenty-one years ago. I should say my dad started, I was only three,” he kisses my head. “There’s enough money in it now to sustain three middle class families for their entire lives. And my regular account is pretty heavy too.”
I chuckle, “Must be nice.”
“It is what it is,” he shrugs a little and replaces his cheek on my head. “We won’t have to work for the rest of our lives if that’s what you want to do. And I’m sure if you wanted to just get out of the house, Aunt Ruth would give you some shifts.”
We both laugh at that until I close my eyes.
I’m starting to doze off as I hear the window separating us from Johnny start to descend. Peeking open my lids, I see my manager facing us. This time I don’t move my position; I stay comfortable touching my husband.
“We’re almost there,” he tells us.
I raise a brow, “Alright?”
“I talked to Linda and we think that we can somehow make this work,” he sighs and shakes his head as if he doesn’t believe what he’s saying. “I also called the producers at Brikk Walford Late Night and they expanded your time slot. They had to kick off Kristen Stewart and cut the cooking with kids, but you’re going to be the main interview tonight.”
“Alright,” I still don’t move.
“Topher, you’re going to make a special appearance as well,” he looks at my husband.
This grabs my full attention. Picking my head up, I give Johnny a questioning look, “What do you mean?”
“Instead of telling everyone who you married,” he rubs down his face once before continuing, “you’re going to show them.”
-----
“Mr. Jacobs, you’re on in five minutes. Can we get you to move to the greenroom?” some kind of set worker with a clipboard asks as he peeks into my dressing room. “You’ll be entering after Brikk says your name and the band starts playing.”
I nod, “Yea, sure, I’ll be there in a second.”
“You too, Mr. Ashton,” he looks down at his clipboard, letting go of the door. “You’re cue will be when Brikk says ‘I hear you brought that special someone with you’. You will enter stage right.”
“Thanks,” Toph smiles at him.
The guy - who looks like he just started college - nods and exits shutting the door behind him.
As soon as we are alone again, my husband stands and pulls me up with him, “Are you sure you want to do this?”
I nod and take his hand in mine, “Yea, it’s too late now.
He kisses the back of my hand as we walk out of the room toward the greenroom on the side of the stage.
Once we get in, Topher turns toward me and smiles, “You look nervous.”
“Are you kidding? I’m terrified,” I look at him like he’s crazy.
He chuckles and leans in to peck me on the lips. Pulling away, he straightens my black bowtie, “You look amazing.”
“That’s all rubbish if this ruins us,” I give him a sincerely worried look.
He pulls my black suit lapels roughly so that I bump into his white suit covered chest. His mouth stops fractions of a centimeter from mine, “You’ll be great. You don’t have anything to worry about.”
“You promise,” I mumble in a bit of a haze from his closeness.
His eyes shift from mine to my lips and he breaths, “Yea.”
Before I know it, our lips are smashed together, tongues fighting for dominance, hands roaming and moans coming from the both of us.
The only thing that makes us pull apart is someone clearing their throat and saying, “Mr. Jacobs that was your cue. They’re waiting on you.”
“Oh shit,” I chuckling as I rub my hand across mouth. I take a quick look at Toph to see him smirking and pointing to his own hair raising an eyebrow.
I run a hand through my hair as I peck him on the lips, fix his white suit jacket, and slip out of the room onto the stage.
“There you are,” Brikk laughs as the band picks up and the audience starts to hoot and holler. I kiss Ellen Page on the cheek as I walk passed her toward my seat. I shake Brikk’s large hand as I sit down, “We were starting to get worried you flaked out on us.”
“I would never,” I chuckle with a genuine smile and light blush on my face as I ruffle the hair at the top of my neck. “No I just got a bit preoccupied in the greenroom.”
“Uh oh,” he raises an eyebrow playfully. “Are we going to have to get the cleaning crew in there?”
Laughing with the crowd, I shake my head, “No, no, I was just… talking.”
“You’re hair looks like you were just talking,” Ellen points out.
“Right, well,” I straighten my shoulders and tug at my black lapels, “it was a very hands-on talk.”
Everyone laughs and Brikk tries to get my attention, “I presume this talk was with the person you just married or you will be in a lot of trouble when you get home.”
I laugh and relax a bit, “Is that your subtle way of asking if the rumors are true?”
“Did you get married this weekend?” the large man nods.
Brikk is a big guy; slightly older, but in good shape. He’s well-known for getting the first scoop on most things. This time is no exception.
I smile with a brisk nod, “I did.”
“Congratulations,” he stands to shake my hand as the crowd applauds.
As I turn back to my seat, Ellen gives me a hug, “Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” I nod at each of them, then hold my hands out to the crowd, “Thank you guys too. I’m very happy.”
“I hear you brought that special someone with you,” Brikk smiles wickedly as he holds his hand out toward stage right and the band starts playing. We all stand and clap as the spectators applaud politely not expecting anyone else tonight.
I nod and feel butterflies take off in my stomach as Toph steps onto the stage.
The audience goes mad as they realize who is walking toward us. He catches my eye and winks just before he gets to Ellen. Her kisses her on the cheek just as I did and moves passed me for a second to shake Brikk’s hand.
Before we sit, he turns to me and adjusts a piece of hair with a smirk. He winks again, right before he leans down and plants a peck on my lips.
The crowd goes quiet for a beat, but as he takes my hand and we sit down the once clapping and hooting becomes loud cheering and whistling.
My smile increases with the noise, but Toph doesn’t take his eyes off me until Brikk calls our attention, “Welcome to the show, Topher Ashton.”
“Thank you,” my husband replies to the brunette.
“It’s been a while since we have seen you,” the host smiles. “How have you been?”
My best friend lets out a bark of laughter as he rests his left foot on his right knee, “I’ve been great. Had a wonderful weekend,” he holds up our interlocked hands which earn him another standing ovation. “Other than that, life’s been pretty much the same.”
“Right after the break, we’ll be back to hear more about this dynamic duo,” the host looks into the camera as he smiles.
“And we’re out,” someone shouts from the side of the stage. Since the shows are pre-recorded someone rushes on stage to touch up everyone’s make-up. They disappear again as someone else counts us back in. “On in three, two…”
“So Damon,” Brikk turns his eyes to me after welcoming everyone back. “How did this happen? When did you guys start dating?”
I chuckle as I look at my new husband, “It just happened. We officially met about a year ago when we started filming ‘Save the Day’.”
“Which opens to the public on Valentine’s Day,” the host plugs our movie as I’m sure was some type of agreement. “I haven’t seen it yet, but the reviews are raving.”
“Everyone should go see it,” Topher flashes his heart-melting smirk.
Ellen waves her arms behind me, “Wait. Wait, can I ask something? I’m so sorry.”
“Of course,” Brikk agrees with a smile.
“Damon,” she looks at me seriously, “how in the world do you not crumble when you see that smirk? I mean,” everyone starts cheering again as Topher and I laugh, “If I was married to him, all he would have to do is smirk and I would do whatever he wanted.”
“It is a little bit distracting, yea?” I agree with her light-heartedly.
She shakes her head in disbelief, “He would give me one of those and I would be jelly at his feet.”
“He’s not as charming without the make-up and stage effects,” I raise a brow at him in challenge as he smiles and shakes his head.
“Really?” Brikk asks from behind his desk.
Shaking my head, I slump my shoulders, “No, he really is this charming all the time. It’s almost painful.”
Laughter and cheering again fill the studio.
“That figures,” the interviewer nods after we can hear him again. “So, Damon, you met on the set of ‘Save the Day’ and what? You instantly fell in love?”
“We clicked right away,” I tell him honestly. “Instant best friends and shortly thereafter, he brought me to meet his family.” I nudge Toph with my elbow and he chuckles.
“That’s actually true,” my husband nods. “He met part of my family just a week after we met.”
“You fell fast,” Brikk points out.
My best friend nods again, “For me, once we met I knew,” he looks into my eyes, “that I wasn’t going to let him out of my life.” There’s a round of awes as he leans in to kiss me quickly then turns back to the host, “I pretty much had to trick him into being with me, though.”
“Is that right?” the big man behind the desk asks. “He had to convince you?”
I chuckle again as Toph raises a brow to me, “That’s right. But soon he intoxicated me with his sparking personality and it’s all history from there.”
“After these commercials, these two will tell us about the wedding. Then He Is We will play,” Brikk says before they count us out.
A minute later, we’re counted back in and the host turns back to us, “So tell us about the ceremony.”
“It was very private,” I smile at him. “And it happened so quickly, it’s almost like it’s hard for me to remember.”
My husband laughs loudly, “It was just us and some close friends – seaside. We didn’t even have a reception; it was that small.”
“No, first dance?” Ellen asks from next to me.
Shaking my head, I answer her, “Nope.”
“Let’s get He Is We out here and see if they can change that,” Brikk announces as we stand for their applause. “Please welcome Rachel Taylor and Trevor Kelly.”
Rachel hugs Ellen as she passes then stops in front of us and puts her arms around both Topher and I at the same time, “I think what you guys are doing is great.” We hug her back before she walks passed us to kiss Brikk on the cheek.
Trevor walks closely behind her shaking everyone’s hand with a large knowing smile.
“Thanks for coming out sooner than expected, guys,” the host says after we all take our seats. “We were going to wait until you played, but there are special circumstances now.”
“We heard from the monitors in the back,” Rachel turns toward us. “You guys didn’t get your first dance!”
“We didn’t,” I confirm as Toph’s hand laces in mine again.
She turns to her male counterpart, “I think we should give them one.”
“As our wedding present, we’ll be giving you a first dance,” he tells us before turning back to the interviewer.
Brikk turns to the cameras, “Right after these messages.”
The break last a little longer as He Is We sets up their stools and acoustic guitar to the side of the stage.
“Would you like me to lead or did you want to?” Toph looks at me with so many emotions in his eyes it makes me blush.
I give him a quick peck on the lips before saying, “You probably should. It would look a little funny if I did since you’re taller.”
“I don’t care about that,” he squeezes my hand lightly. “It’s whatever you want, Day.”
Shrugging, I say, “You should lead.”
“And we’re back,” Brikk says from next to us. He puts a hand on my husband’s shoulder, “I just wanted to say before you guys dance, I’ve never had anyone come on here as genuinely affectionate as you two. To be honest, I thought at first that this was some kind of publicity stunt, but,” he turns toward the camera with a uncharacteristic serious face, “even when we’re at break or when the cameras are away from them, they are staring into each other’s eyes or whispering happily. Anyone witnessing this in person would be foolish not to believe it.”
“It’s a crazy little thing called love,” Toph chuckles to lighten the mood. It works.
“We got our asses handed to us when our managers found out,” I add with a laugh. “It definitely wasn’t planned on their end.”
Everyone claps again as Brikk introduces He Is We.
Rachel smiles behind her microphone, “We were going to play ‘Happily Ever After’ because it’s one of my favorites. But in the light of our new situation, it’s going to be ‘All About Us’.” She cups her hand and waves us over, “We won’t start until you’re up and over here.”
We stand together and walk hand-in-hand to a clear spot next to their stools. Toph takes my left hand with his right, positioning it lightly so mine is on top, and put his left arm around my waist. I add my right arm to his neck as Trevor starts to strum.
The dance isn’t extravagant. There are no dips or spins. Rachel sings as we sway back and forth together. We get caught up in each other’s eyes and steal small kisses. I’m still not sure if I believe in love, but the feeling I get as we sway to the music is something I really don’t want to give up.
Eventually, I lay my forehead against the side of my husband’s neck and close my eyes. He doesn’t break the tempo of our movement as he kisses the side of my head or pulls me closer.
“I don’t want an annulment,” he whispers as we dance.
Breathing in Topher’s scent, I nod.
“I don’t want you to leave me either,” he repeats my words from earlier.
Picking up my head, I look into my best friend’s eyes, “I won’t.”
We stop moving as our eyes lock. I swallow loudly and see worry in his eyes. He removes his hands from our dancing position and quickly brings them to my face. He breathes in deeply as our lips collide. Our kiss moves in sync as I wrap my arms around his waist, but no tongue is added. This kiss is purely about emotions not anything sexual.
Loud applause startles me as I realize where we are. Chuckling lightly, I pull away and give him another small peck.
“I guess we know what really held you up in the greenroom,” Brikk walks over to us and pats my back as we all turn to face the camera.
Everyone laughs as he quickly thanks us and the audience before signing the show off the air.
“Thanks for the exclusive, guys,” the host tells us after the cameras are off. “I didn’t believe it until I saw it and even without the exclusive, I’m glad I got to witness that.”
“You guys are doing something a lot of people are afraid to do,” Trevor tells us as he hands off his guitar. “I wish you all the best.”
“Thank you,” I say to him as I grab my husband’s hand. “We must be off. He has an early morning tomorrow and I’m very tired. Thank you for having us on your show,” I shake Brikk’s hand.
“Anytime either of you wants to come back, contact my people. You’re always welcome,” he tells us.
“Ready to go home?” my husband asks as we walk backstage.
Nodding, I let out a yawn, “I am. Can we order Chinese and stay in bed now?”
“We sure can,” he laughs and he puts his arm around my shoulder, guiding me back.