Save My Day (boyxboy)

13 The Greenroom

“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.”