The Best Picture winner was announced, the final speech was made, and everyone started to leave.
“Stay close,” Noah told me. For a second it seemed like he wanted to take my hand.
And for a second I almost let him.
But he put his hands in his pockets as I followed behind him. Thankfully he was tall and broad enough that it was easy to pick him out in the crowd. Everybody wanted to get his attention or touch him as he walked past. And these were his colleagues and employers. I could only imagine what it would be like if he were walking through a crowd of fans. They’d probably dismember him. By accident, but they’d all want a piece.
We went into a hallway, and he came to an abrupt stop. I nearly smacked into his back.
“And who is this?” the woman in front asked. She looked very confused. I saw her glance down at my sneakers, and I tried to hide them beneath the hem of my dress.
“This is Juliet. Juliet, this is Reina, my publicist; Morgan, her assistant; and Annie, my groomer.” I figured it was a mark in his pro column that his whole team was made up entirely of women. Both Reina and Morgan seemed on the shorter side, but that was probably only in comparison to Noah. Reina had beautiful, waist-length chestnut hair and Morgan sported a bright smile. Annie was taller, with a blonde pixie cut. All three women were dressed in black, just like me.
Reminding me that I was more like the help here and less like Noah’s actual date.
“And where did you find Juliet?” Reina asked. It was a little disconcerting for her to be talking about me like I wasn’t there. She was very nice about it, but still. He hadn’t found me. I wasn’t a lost wallet.
“Juliet and I are friends, and she’s coming with me to the party.”
That seemed to be good enough for everyone. Reina nodded and said she would take care of it. “The car is this way.”
“Party?” I asked as we followed her. “I think I’ve mentioned it, but I hate parties.”
“Yeah, me too,” he agreed.
“Then why are we going to one?”
“It’s for work. We’ll stay for a little while, get some pictures and some food, and then I’ll have Ray drive you home.”
Ray? Was that his driver? And did that mean . . . he wasn’t coming with me? He was going to put me in a car and that would be that?
When we stepped out of the theater, it was like a sound bomb had been set off. There was an explosion of noise as a throng of fans screamed for Noah, calling his name. The bright flashes from all the photos were blinding, and I had to look down at the ground to regain my bearings.
This was his life. It was incomprehensible.
The car ended up being a limousine. Not one of those big stretch ones, but it was bigger than a regular sedan with enough seating for all of us.
There was a flurry of movement off to the right, and I turned to see a woman ducking under the rope and in between two security guards who were just a second too slow in grabbing her. I wasn’t sure what was happening and could only stand there and watch, my mouth hanging open. She pole-vaulted herself onto Noah, crying, screaming his name, telling him that she loved him as she clung to his back like a baby monkey. He tried disengaging her, but it was the four guards who ran over that successfully yanked her off, carrying her away.
It was terrifying.
Reina ushered everyone into the limo, including me. There was a second of stunned silence as we pulled away, and then there was a chorus of concern from everyone there, asking Noah if he was okay.
“I’m fine,” he reassured us. To my shock, he did look totally calm. Annoyed, but he often looked annoyed.
“How are you not more shaken up?” I asked. My heart was still drumming a staccato beat in my chest, and the fight-or-flight adrenaline inside me had just started to dissipate.
He shrugged one shoulder. “That’s not the first time that’s happened to me.”
“I think we should look into getting you a private security guard for these kinds of functions,” Reina told him. At the look on his face, she said, “I know. I know how much you want to live a normal life, but I think we’re