Page 33 of Just for the Holidays
Eighteen
“Come in,” Perla called when she heard a soft knock on her bedroom door. Well, bedroom didn’t exactly do the space justice; it was more like a luxury suite. Her sister and her fiancé had purchased this villa in Punta Cana a year ago and it was magnificent. It was a ten-thousand-square-foot home done in a minimalist design. Glass and metal covered the facade of the house, so that you could take in the majestic Caribbean Sea from wherever you were standing. Perla’s room was done in white and corals, and everything seemed to blend in with the views.
“You’re up,” her sister, Esmeralda, said as she stepped into the room. It was barely 7 a.m. but Perla hadn’t been able to get a lot of sleep.
“Only just.” Perla smiled instinctively as she saw her sister. “I was admiring the view. I can’t believe the curtains are able to block all this sunlight,” Perla said as she looked at the swaying palm trees beyond her balcony.
“There are pocket doors in the wall that slide out when you hit the button for the blackout curtains. It cost a fortune,” she laughed as she came over to the bed and put her arm around Perla’s shoulder. “But you know Rodrigo. He wanted the best. And the best was a house where you could see the ocean from every room.” Her sister turned to look at Perla, her eyes brimming with a kindness that almost broke her. “How are youreallydoing?”
“I’m not fully sure yet,” Perla sighed and closed her eyes as she tried to gather her thoughts. The past eighteen hours had been terrible, but she at least had landed in a place where everyone welcomed her with open arms. She’d left Gael’s apartment and gone to the parking garage where they’d left her car and sat in it for what felt like hours. And then she started driving. She’d ended up at JFK. She’d bought a first-class ticket on the next flight to Punta Cana and sat in the airport for four hours, waiting. Gael had attempted to call her, leaving her multiple messages begging her to talk to him. He’d told her in those messages that he was sorry for what Manolo had said. That it was not how he felt. He pleaded with her to let him come to her.
But she hadn’t responded to a single one. Eventually, after she got ahold of Esmeralda and told her she’d arrive late in the evening instead of the next morning, she powered off her phone. She’d kept it off until she opened her eyes a few minutes before Esmeralda had knocked on her door, but there had been no more calls from Gael. Maybe he realized his uncle was right and decided she was still a liability, after all.
“I’m not sure if Gael will be doing the Rios project anymore,” she confessed. “I’m sorry, Esmeralda. It’s all my fault.”
Perla braced herself for her sister’s reaction. Esmeralda had never been anything but supportive of her, but this was a major fumble. And it was all because Perla had not been able to keep her feelings out of the situation. She’d lied to herself about faking the relationship with Gael. She hadn’t been pretending for a second. From the moment she’d seen him he’d gotten right under her skin. Like he always did. And now she’d messed up in her first big project for the studio.
“First of all, nothing is your fault,” Esmeralda assured Perla. Her sister’s eyes were so kind. There wasn’t a semblance of anger or even slight frustration as she spoke. “Second, there’s no problem. Jimena in legal texted this morning to say that Gael’s new manager emailed last night saying they were reviewing and would send the contract back promptly.”
“Hisnewmanager?” Perla asked, surprised.
“Yes,” Esme said brightly as she gave Perla another squeeze. “Looks like his sister, Gabriela, is in that role now. As far as Jimena was concerned, Mr. Montez seems very committed to everything related to this project and whatever he promised you.” Perla’s head snapped up to look at her sister. Something in the way Esmeralda said the last part made her heart kick up in her chest.
“Did they say why they were still interested? As far as I know this was not financially as good an offer as the other he was considering,” Perla said in a subdued tone.
“I didn’t get a lot of details, but Gael is no dummy, and from what Jimena told me, neither is his sister. But they have not even hinted at pulling out.”
Perla’s head felt like it was spinning. She was certain that Gael would come back to his place, find her gone and decide it was all for the best. That he’d side with Manolo and go with the project that would make him more money. But he...hadn’t.
“I didn’t think he’d take it,” she told Esmeralda, her gaze on the cerulean waters in the distance.
“Can I ask you something?”
Perla rolled her eyes at her sister’s question, then nodded.
“Would you take a second chance on him?”
There was no point in even asking who thehimwas. There had only ever been onehimwhere she was concerned. And she wished that the answer to that question took her longer to figure out. That was a door she should never again want to see open. The agony of losing him the first time should have made her hesitate, and yet the only word on her tongue wasyes.
“Gael is too much of a professional to back out of a commitment, but that doesn’t mean he has any intention of carrying on with me.” And even saying that felt like a betrayal, because he’d told her he did. She’d had to leave, there was no way she could stay in that apartment with Manolo, after the things he’d said, but she couldn’t deny that she wondered if she should’ve picked up the phone when Gael called, heard him out.
Her sister looked at her and shook her head sadly. “You know what was the biggest lesson I learned last year when Rodrigo and I were at each other’s throats for the CEO position?”
“That my mother and brother are horrible people?” Esme clicked her tongue at that and reached for her hand.
“I learned that when life gives you a path forward you have two choices: get on it with all your old baggage dragging you down, or you can leave that stuff behind and walk into your fresh start with a lighter load. And you know what’s the best part of shedding some of that deadweight?”
“What?” Perla asked, even if she suspected she knew the answer.
“That you’ll have room for a companion.” Before she could even fully let Esme’s words sink in, a clear image of her walking hand in hand with Gael appeared in her mind like a memory.
“You know what?” Esme asked, breaking Perla out of her thoughts. “I think we should do a sleepover on the yacht. Just the two of us.”
“You do?” Perla wasn’t exactly surprised; the yacht had been a wedding present Rodrigo and Esme had gotten each other. They would spend their honeymoon on it a few months from now. Even if Perla wasn’t in the mood, Esmeralda’s excitement was infectious, and she could use a day or two focusing on something other than her mixed-up emotions.
“Let’s do it,” she said with as much enthusiasm as she could manage, which admittedly was not a whole lot.
“Excellent.” Esme clapped in excitement. “We’ll head over there before dinner. My mom has plans for a beach day and would kill me if I steal you from her and the tias.”
