Saturday, Nov 21, 2020
We'd checked into the Grand Hyatt the evening before, the Casita Suite, all paid for by Artistre Pictures. We wanted to bring Jodi and Jon, our two kids, but it was just the two of us, as the movie's premiere this night was for the crew, spouses, and the studio's special invitees only, primarily the media.
They took Dani away right after breakfast, and I was told she'd be busy until that evening, right before the showing. She was spending her day being pampered; hair, skin, massage, nails, virtually everything about her was being prepped for her big 'coming-out', her official entrance into a world that before a few months ago, we hadn't even imagined, her introduction to her, other than those introductory appearances a couple weeks ago, unsuspecting public.
The studio had wanted to have a gown designed just for her, but she'd declined, insisting she already knew what she was wearing. I had no idea what it was as she hadn't brought anything like that with her, only her normal clothes, as far as I knew. Although, to be honest, Dani's 'normal', was a far cry from what it had been a year ago, before my accident. It now consisted of leather, silk, satin... not that I was complaining, not by a long ways!
Except at home or on the farm, that is. There, Dani was the same Dani I'd married twenty-nine years ago. Almost, anyway, the big difference was our sex lives. I think I've already chronicled those little (maybe not so 'little') changes so won't do so here again. Today's story is about the movie's premiere, not a rehash of the last months.
We've both been growing more anxious over the last several days, Dani with no knowledge of which scenes have been included, cut, or how they'll be presented, other than the opening that we'd seen snippets of -- her race and their engagement; The ONLY thing she's said to me about any of the rest has been, 'Be prepared', strongly implying that they are steamy, the reason this movie has the 'R' rating.
But she doesn't know anything about any of the final scenes either, other than what was originally filmed. Virtually everyone at the studio has been excited, claiming that this may be the best work they've ever produced. And by all accounts, from Janet, Amanda, her agent, and so many others, Daniella Shore is the major impetus of that claim.
That's been the environment leading up to this moment. I was ready, wearing a brand-new set of clothes. The studio had wanted me in a tuxedo, but I politely declined, saying quite simply that, 'it just ain't gonna happen, not now, not ever'. They'd compromised with an Armani suit. I'd compromised with a new pair of slacks, shirt, and shoes, MY choice. Guess which I was wearing.
I'd put them on, slathered a little after-shave, something I never wear, took a deep breath, and was ready to meet my bride. She was in the Grand Presidential Suite, along with Janet, April, Amanda, and I don't know who else, all day, getting ready for her entrance to an entirely new world.
I had a catered dinner, served in my room at five-thirty, and the showing was scheduled at nine in the hotel's theater. I'm meeting Dani at the Suite at seven-thirty to go downstairs to a ballroom for her formal introduction. I wondered if this would be like those debutante balls with royalty you read about, if Dani would have a 'grand entrance'. I suspected that at seven-thirty, our rather simple existence as just more faces in the crowd would be coming to an end. Of course, in truth, it already had, months ago--when I awoke from that coma.
Alan Ryder, one of Dani's costars, her main 'lover' in the movie (and, most noticeably, the 'star' of my dreams with Dani) spent much of the day with me, just 'kickin' back'. I could see why Dani's been so taken with him (maybe that's an understatement?), he seemed like a down-to-earth, good guy, despite his successes. Maybe that's one of the big reasons for many of those successes. He's not as big a man as I'd expected, probably somewhere near two hundred pounds; fit, muscular, just a damned good-looking guy. It's no wonder, too, that they picked him for this movie, I could see women all over the country throwing themselves at his feet.
He'd asked me what I was wearing tonight. I told him just the slacks and shirt. "I'm jealous," he said, "they have me in a monkey suit." I laughed, telling him of my 'negotiations' with them. He laughed as well, saying, "Next time, I'll tell them you're my costume coordinator."
At the moment, though, I was alone in our room, pretty much a bit player, just an extra, in a much bigger production. I checked my watch: seven-eighteen, twelve minutes until I was supposed to be with Dani. I expected they probably had every minute choreographed for Dani from the time she left that suite.
My palms were getting sweaty, this was going to be an experience so outside my realm of comfort that it might as well be a space flight to Mars. Even those television appearances and New York Post interview paled in comparison.
I wondered if just a few minutes early would be a problem. I didn't see why it would. Hell, this wasn't a damned wedding with the bride hiding from the groom until the actual ceremony.
I strode out into the hall, down to the elevator, and up to the tenth floor, the top. A few seconds later, I was softly knocking on room 1001. Seven-twenty-two, eight minutes early. The door opened, and I was ushered in. I recognized Amanda, Dani's agent; Janet, the studio's publicist; a couple other faces that I couldn't put a name to, and no one else of the fifteen or so people in the room. Dani was nowhere in sight.
Janet came over to greet me, giving me a quick hug and introducing her husband, Jason, a nice-looking guy looking maybe a little older than Janet's thirty-two, as I'd learned. Janet and I had become close friends over the last months, my days-long interview with her, all the subsequent updates, and finally the interviews two weeks earlier, telling my 'coma' story, or at least parts of it, and explaining how Dani came to be in the movie. Janet's the only one I've been totally open with about the details of my dreams, other than Dani. Not even Jenny or Alan Ryder knew, ESPECIALLY not Alan Ryder! Janet had been there to direct the interviews, to step in and take over before things could get out of hand, even if she hadn't always succeeded.
I couldn't help but notice Janet. It was the first time I'd seen her dressed up, really dressed up. She was wearing a long dress, slit up one side, her hair down around her shoulders instead of the bun she's always worn it in. She reminded me of my dream, Betty, my store's bookkeeper, at the party the night I awoke, her always dowdy clothing at work, and how she'd looked so pretty that night. Janet has never dressed 'dowdy', but not like tonight. I'd never seen her with the kind of makeup she was wearing tonight, either. She was a damned nice-looking woman.
"Just a few touchups," she said, and then, with a smile, "you're going to be so amazed."
I already was, at Janet.
I had a hint of how Dani was going to look at least, I remembered a photo that I'd received from Dani in one of my dreams, the very first weekend she spent alone with Alan Ryder. I'd let her stay after that first night with him. They'd gone to a mall, clothing shopping, stopping at a beauty parlor, except it was so much more. She told me later she'd been there two-and-a-half hours, a complete make-over. The picture she'd sent me afterward, new clothes, the makeover, it was just holy-shit-hot! She'd looked more like a girl in her twenties or early thirties, a very beautiful twenties-thirties girl.
Granted, that was a dream in my coma, but I've learned since that what was in those dreams was nearly as good as real, sooner or later, it would be.
I also knew that April had the skills to transform Dani into a twenty-one-year-old, from what we'd seen in Calgary. I was sure, though, that that wouldn't be the intent tonight, they'd want the real Daniella for her public 'anointing'.
April. She'd been an enigma, one of the very few people who'd been a central figure of my dreams that simply hadn't materialized as a significant figure in real life. She's there, same name, same position--studio makeup artist. But in my dream, she'd been a close friend of Alan, the one who'd first introduced Dani to the studio, a major extra-curricular lover. None of it, except her name, position, appearance, had materialized, she hardly knew I existed, in fact, not much more than I'm Dani's husband.
Speaking of April, she peeked out from an adjoining room in the suite, probably the bedroom. "You all ready?" she asked no one in particular, looking around.
