Page 68 of Embracing Love

Chapter 28

She felt wretched walking away from him. All she had wanted to do was to stay and talk. To find out how they were, to find out how things stood.

But it wasn’t possible with everyone around, and she had to be careful.

She walked into the breakfast area and looked around for a familiar face. Michael and Dorothy were deep in conversation at one end, and with relief she saw Ethan and Nadine at the other.

She still had a little time before Michael’s final wrap-up meeting. Nadine waved her over and she waved back, pointing to the buffet table, and prayed that Gabriel wouldn’t follow suit so quickly.

It was all so new, raw, yet-to-be-analyzed and she wasn’t sure she wanted anyone, least of all Nadine, to read any signs that something between them had taken place.

Gabriel reached the buffet table soon after and Tanya managed to nod to him as casually as she could, before heading towards Ethan and Nadine.

“Someone’s hungry,” commented Nadine, eyeing Tanya’s fully stacked plate of fruit. “I didn’t eat much at the barbeque,” murmured Tanya, sitting down beside them.

“You missed a great evening,” said Ethan.

“Really?” she tried to look disappointed. “What time did it end?”

“I have no idea. We went up at two,” said Nadine, “but we could hear the noise from outside our bedroom window. Didn’t you hear it?” They were a few doors down from her.

“I must have been totally wiped out.” She told them, before devouring her pineapple slices.

“I thought I’d go to the gym for one last time,” Ethan said to Nadine, “while you’re in your meeting.”

She nodded. “Go ahead. We should be done within the hour. I’ll wait for you here.”

Ethan looked around. “I’ll ask Gabriel if he wants to join me.”

“I think he said he’s going back to San Francisco with Russell,” said Tanya.

“Yeah? Let me go ask him anyway.” He wandered over to where Gabriel sat.

With Ethan out of earshot, Nadine asked her. “How is he?”

“Who?” Tanya asked, again as vaguely as she could.

“The Dalai Lama.”

Tanya frowned. “How would I know how Gabriel is?”

“Did you two get to talk, or clear the air?”

“We didn’t really find the time.”

“That’s too bad. It’s a shame you’re not staying on a while. He’s here for a week, you know.”

“Oh, really?”

Nadine eyed her suspiciously and Tanya had a sneaky feeling she’d gone overboard with her vagueness but she wasn’t yet ready to divulge anything when she herself didn’t know how things between her and Gabriel stood.

“Hurry,” said Nadine, glancing at her watch. “You’ve got five minutes.”

Tanya wolfed down her food as fast as she could, relieved that Nadine hadn’t asked too many questions.

~ ~

It was late afternoon when Tanya returned to her hotel room. Most of the Europeans were enjoying the hotel amenities and lounged around outside by the pool. The US staff had slowly begun to make their way back to San Francisco and she had just said goodbye to Ethan, Nadine and Melissa.

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