Page 30 of Blind Date

Almost as an automatic reaction, I grab my cell phone and call Gemma just to hear the sound of her phone cutting me off. My number must be blocked because I don’t even get a ringing sound these days. She is too filled with hatred for me. Still. She isn’t backing down when it comes to that emotion.

Only this time, I don’t want to back down either, so I look up her company online and I call her office. I might be able to get her to her to talk to me on her cell phone, but the company phone…

“Hello, Dove Corporation?” a friendly sounding receptionist answers. It’s a voice that I don’t recognize which is almost funny. How can I not know the people in Gemma’s life when we have been through so much?

“Hi, I’m wondering if I could speak to Gemma, please?” I remain professional so no one suspects that it’s me. Not that I’m sure anyone else would have any idea who I am at her company. Plus, if they are going through a similar thing to what we are here then they must be used to strangers contacting them by now.

“And what media out let are you calling from?” Her tone becomes cold. “Because I’m pretty sure that I have told all of you by now to stop calling because she doesn’t want to speak to any of you.”

“No, I am a… friend,” Shit, that sounded like a lie. “It’s erm… actually Daniel Wilson.”

I cringe at the sound of my own name, knowing that I must be hated by everyone there, but the woman remains professional and acts like she doesn’t have a clue who I am. “Hold on for a moment, please.”

I tap my fingers on the desk and end up pacing up and down the office while I wait for the answer. The more that time passes, the more my heart sinks. I almost know that this isn’t going to end well for me. I can just imagine that Gemma is scoffing at the idea of me, making disparaging comments to anyone who will listen about me, talking about me in ways that I would never want to be spoken about by her.

“Sorry.” Yep, I’m right. The woman sounds immediately regretful as she talks once more. “Gemma isn’t able to come to the phone right now. Her schedule is very full as I’m sure you can imagine…”

“Right, so she doesn’t want to talk to me.” I might as well be honest. “Thank you anyway.”

I hang up the phone and fall back in to my chair feeling defeated. I don’t know if I can handle this anymore. I really do feel like I’m losing grip of my life here, like everything is falling apart. I don’t know who I am anymore and what I want to do. I want to solve everything that’s happening, but I can’t. I’m hopeless, useless, stuck and I don’t see a way out. I don’t know how I can make my way out of here, how I can dig my way out of this hole. I need someone to talk to, someone who will give me advice, someone to tell me straight to stop fucking around and to just sort it out and right now there is only one person who I can imagine speaking to…

I grab my cell phone and call my brother. I have been speaking to Tim on and off about this the whole time anyway, so I won’t have to fill him in on all the details as we talk which is useful. I just want to get on with it and have his advice. Tim has always been honest to a fault with me, which I need right now.

“Hey there, Daniel,” he answers with a sunny voice. “How are things with you?”

“I take it that means you haven’t seen any of the news about me?” I reply wryly. “Living off grid, huh?”

“Something like that. You know that I am out and about all the time. I don’t have time for keeping up on social media and things like that. What’s going on? Are you married or something?” He laughs.

“Not exactly no.” I hope the grimness of my tone shows him that this is serious. “It’s been much more negative than that. A sex tape of me and Gemma from a networking event was leaked on the Internet.”

“Oh my God, I really have missed a lot!” Tim doesn’t sound horror struck, just a little stunned. “What the hell? How did that happen? I mean, that is just sheer craziness, isn’t it?”

“Tell me about it. It was CCTV from the elevator. Anyway, it’s fucked things up as I’m sure you can imagine. When it comes to my business, I am struggling and losing clients. But more importantly, I have lost Gemma with it all. She seems to think that I did it to hurt her company, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Now she won’t speak to me and I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to get out of this.”

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