Away From the Spotlight Read Online Free

as well as we thought we could together.  When I was offered the place in the Palisades through a work contact, we jumped at it. ”
    Seemingly worried that he was showing off a bit, he added, “It’s not as nice as it sounds though.  It is definitely a bachelor pad, very spartan, but with a big tel ly in the living room to watch football , I mean , soccer.   And you?  Where do you live?”
    “I ’ m a starving student, remember.  I live in an apartment in mid-Wilshire , Koreatown actually.  I share it with my sister .  S he’s an undergrad at U SC .  It’s not too far from school or work so it ’s good for now .  I won’t be living there much longer though.  When m y sister graduates, she ’ s moving to San Francisco to work for a CPA firm there.  I’m going to put my stuff in storage and move into USC housing for the summer with a friend from law school to study for the B ar.  I’ll have to find a more permanent residence when I get back from Europe. ”
    “Your parents must be pretty proud. A CPA is an accountant, yes?”
    I nodded.
    “A n attorney and an accountant.   Wow.  Do you have a ny other brothers or sisters?”
    I sho ok my head.  “N o. ”
    “I have two older sisters living in England,” he volunteered.  “I don’t see them as often as I’d like.”   Will frowned slightly.
    “That’s got to be hard, being so far away from family and friends.  My sister ’ s here, my parents are only an hour plane ride away in the Bay Area, and most of my friends are here.”
    “You do what you have to, I guess.  I ’ m fortunate in that I can travel back to England fairly often and I live with two good mates here.  And, over time, my circle of friends i n L.A. has grown .  Plus, I like it here.  T he weather is much better.”  He chuckled softly .
    I was waiting for a check that never came .  It was clear that dinner was over as the plates were cleared away, but we were still sitting there.  It was still fairly early, about nine o’clock , when Will asked, “Do you want to get out of here?”
    “What did you have in mind?”  I countered .
    “We could go back to my place .”
    Uh-Oh . T hi ngs w ere moving a bit too fast for me .
    Appearing to notice my fearful look, Will added, “Stephen and Colin will be there.  You ’ ll be able to talk to them and they will actually be able to hear you tonight.”
    “Okay,” I agreed a little nervously.
    We left my car in the parking lot across from the Royalist and took his.  It was a black, fairly new , Range Rover, with all the bells and whistles.  We cut down to PCH and turned up into the bluffs in Pacific Palisades .  We turned left somewhere toward the top of the hill and then pulled into the garage of one of the many white one-story houses, not particularly large, but whose backyard likely had a view of the ocean in the distance.   Considering the car, I was a little nervous a bou t seeing the house.
    As we entered the house through the garage, I realized that Will had been right about it being spartan.  The kitchen didn’ t look to have been used much. T here was a somewhat mismatched dining table and chairs in the dinette area .  Beyond that, the focal point of the family room was a large flat-screened TV hanging on the wall that was at least sixty inches with home theater system speakers surrounding it.  Facing it was a brown leather sofa, two matching leather recliners on either side of it and a big coffee table.  There were no end tables, no other tables in the room other than TV trays, and the only lighting was the track lighting inset in the ceiling.   Toward the front door was a living room and dining room with no furniture whatsoever.  On the other side of the family room was a hallway that appeared to lead to the bedrooms at the back of the house. It was quite the bachelor pad.
    Colin was sitting in one of the recliners.  Stephen and what appeared to be Stephen’s girlfriend , as he had his arm around