Page 54 of Turning Up the Heat

“What the hell?” He said the words aloud in his empty office, completely shocked that she hadn’t taken his call. He pushed redial. Again, it rang only once and then went to her voice mail.

“Hi, this is Gemma. I’m not around, or I’m screening, so leave a message.”

“Hi, Gem. Sorry I missed you.” He started rolling his eyes, annoyed that she hadn’t answered, knowing that she was ignoring his call. “Um, I’m not entirely happy with how our last phone call went. And I’ve got something important I need to talk to you about. So please call me back. I don’t care when. Even if it’s late. I love you.”

He’d done what he could. He couldn’t stop them, but he needed to warn her before the ads mocking her went public. He’d skipped his Miami trip to deal with this and try to wrap his head around what he wanted for his future—the company or Gemma. But now going down there was his only option. He’d have to tell her face-to-face.

The campaign would be live by morning. Hopefully she wouldn’t see it until he saw her.

Two hours later Gemma was seated at a high-top table drinking sangria with Lila, Celia opted for water. Her mood had improved considerably, and she had managed to forget the disappointment she’d felt earlier—at Tom, at herself.

“Are you okay?” Celia asked her.

It was the second time she’d been asked that. Maybe she hadn’t done quite as good a job at hiding her feelings as she’d thought. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Liar,” Lila told her. “What’s going on?”

She sighed. “It’s stupid,” she said rolling her eyes. “Tom was supposed to visit this weekend, but he isn’t going to make it.”

“Is there something else?”

“No. That’s what he said. But he didn’t really explain. Just said he didn’t want to talk about it.”

“Wait, he said that?”

“Yeah, and I think that’s what’s bothering me the most. Like, we don’t have to spend every weekend together, but I feel like I deserve a little more information than I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Yeah, that’s definitely weird.”

“But the weirdest thing is that isn’t what I’m upset about.”

“So what is it?”

“I hate that somehow I’ve become this woman who cares what this guy is doing. I shouldn’t care that he doesn’t want to get a flight to another state. It’s not even a big deal. I’m going to New York next weekend.” Gemma dramatically put her head on the table. When she looked up again, she saw that Lila and Celia were watching her, both of them looked amused by her current predicament. “What?”

“That’s what happens when you’re in love.” Lila said. “You’re supposed to care. You’re supposed to be irritated when he flakes.”

“I don’t know,” Celia added. “It sounds like he was being shady—not telling you why he couldn’t make it.”

“Exactly,” Gemma agreed. “I just don’t know what’s up. I feel bad if he’s going through some heavy personal thing, and doesn’t want to share, but we’ve already shared so much. He knows he can be honest with me. No matter what it is.” She drained her glass of every drop of sangria. The way she felt, she could use another pitcher of the stuff. “This is ridiculous,” she muttered to herself. She waved to the waiter and ordered more sangria. “I’m just going to forget him for tonight. If he doesn’t want to be here, that’s his loss.”

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