Exposure by Caia Fox Page B

parties, Suzanne was in her
element, getting dressed up, flirting with all the guys, and she was asked out
a lot. Just as I expected, she enjoyed those functions much more than I did.
    It was great to see her happy again.
     
    ***
     
    Even if I found the showbiz events a trial,
the rest of my life was good.
    Nathan and I started looking for a house in
Oxford, our first place together.
    “I love this house. Do you like it?” I
asked when we found the kind of place I’d always dreamed of—a Georgian town
house spread over four floors with stone steps up to the front door and down to
the basement below, black wrought iron railings, and a big brass knocker in the
shape of a lion’s head on the front door.
    “It needs a lot of work, but I like it,” he
said.
    “Can we afford it?”
    He laughed. “We can afford a much bigger
place, but if you like this one we’ll get it.”
    “I like this one.”
    “Then it’s yours. We’ll get an architect in
to sort it out. It might take a few months.”
    “I don’t care. I want it.” Fame had some
advantages. Nathan had been paid well for the first movie, even better for the
second and was getting some mind-blowing offers for future projects.
    Everything else was falling into place too.
I loved teaching as much as ever, and I loved my time with Nathan. And I loved
planning the wedding. That was just as well because Nathan was a typical
bridegroom and all the planning fell on me once the venue was booked. I asked
his opinion sometimes, but it really wasn’t his thing.
    “Have whatever you want. Bridesmaids in
pink, blue or black with orange polka dots. The bridesmaids can dance around
naked, for all I care, as long as we get married and everyone enjoys the day.
That’s all that counts.”
    “You’d love the bridesmaids to be naked,
wouldn’t you?”
    “Well, yes, but I’d only have eyes for
you.”
    “Liar,” I said and laughed.
    “Are you disrespecting me, Miss Hamilton,
because you know what that does to me…”
    “You turn into the Hulk with twitchy palms?
Promises, promises…” I challenged him.
    “Right then,” he said. “You asked for it,”
and he pulled me over his lap.
    These were heady days and nights. Sometimes
I had to pinch myself to realize how happy I was.
     
    ***
     
    The wedding was going to be a relatively
small affair—just family, close friends, and partners, about ninety guests. I
had been afraid we would end up with five hundred people from the movie world
so I was happy about that, but there would be many I hadn’t met, including all
of Nathan’s family. A whole group of them would be flying in from the States.
    I hated meeting new people about as much as
I hated everyone looking at me, but, I didn’t think I would feel too
self-conscious—no more than any other bride on her wedding day.
    Emma had helped me pick out the perfect
wedding gown. It was a simple design with a long flowing skirt in ivory silk
embellished with embroidery on the tightly-fitting bodice and tiny
fabric-covered buttons down the back.
    “You can have anything you want,” Nathan
had said when I talked about how expensive weddings were. “Nothing but the
best.”
    But I didn’t go too crazy. It wasn’t me to
have anything too ostentatious. I was having just two bridesmaids, my friend
Hannah and my sister Suzanne. Hannah was bringing her boyfriend Ben. She’d been
going out with him since college. Suzanne had just brought her new guy home to
meet my parents and I’d popped in for ten minutes on my way to a parents’
evening at the school. Kyle was a stunner she’d met at one of the charity
functions we attended. I was happy for her. I hoped this one would work out. I
liked him, from what little I’d seen of him.
    I could have had more bridesmaids, but it
was almost a case of invite all my friends or none for fear of offending any of
them. Everyone knew I had been friends with Hannah since we were five so they
were okay with that.
    “Only two bridesmaids.