Gabriella

Iam such a coward.

What can I say? I panicked.

Final night time had been superb. So nice. And at nighttime, ensconced between Dominic and Carter, I’d begun to hope. To dream. I’d fantasized about issues like perpetually. And happily-ever-after.

However I’m not a princess with farm animal assistants, and life shouldn’t be an animated film. I can not maintain them.

This morning, I’d walked out into Dominic’s lounge with its magnificent views of the water. Carter had seemed up from his laptop computer and he’d smiled at me. Dominic provided me breakfast. It had all felt a little bit too home. It was every thing I needed, and nothing I may have.

Dominic would possibly have the ability to blur the boundaries between ‘just-sex’ and ‘relationship-material,’ and nonetheless preserve his bearings. I can’t do the identical factor. The extra I hang around with them, the extra I eat meals with them, the extra we chuckle and speak about our desires, our flaws, our likes and our dislikes, my coronary heart will get tangled in a thorny briar of hopeful what-ifs and if-onlys.

He invited me to remain for breakfast, and I’d blurted out the primary excuse I may consider. Ignoring the look of disappointment that flashed over his face, I informed him I needed to work. And positive, my inbox is overflowing and I’m positive my notifications are uncontrolled, however until there’s a disaster of some variety, I don’t usually work weekends.

Then I informed them I needed to go to New York. Did I’ve plans to drive to town? No, I didn’t.

So why did I say that? Why did I bolt out of there? Why am I in my automotive, about to embark on a two-hour drive? Why am I operating away?

You’re falling in love with them.

“Fuck,” I swear out loud. “No. Inform me you can’t be this silly.” It will possibly’t be love. It needs to be hormones or one thing. Perhaps I’m beginning my interval, or possibly that is the after-effects of actually good intercourse.

Positive. That sounds affordable. Not.

My telephone rings earlier than I can fall deeper into disaster. I look on the show. Blocked quantity. Rattling it. As tempted as I’m to swipe the decision to voicemail, quite a lot of my purchasers have personal numbers.

I choose up the decision. “Gabriella Alves,” I say. Thank heavens my mobile phone pairs with the rental automotive—merging on the Backyard State Parkway shouldn’t be a process I can do with a telephone glued to my ear.

“Gabriella, it’s Vittoria Vitale. From poker?”

Okay, that’s actually the final individual I anticipated to listen to from. “Hello, Vittoria.”

“You’re in all probability questioning why I referred to as.” She attracts in a breath. “Do you need to seize brunch tomorrow?”

I blink in confusion. What’s going on right here? Has Vittoria discovered I do know Carter and Dominic? “Umm—”

“You’re in all probability busy,” she cuts in. “By no means thoughts. This was a silly thought.”

Is she simply being pleasant? As a result of I can relate to that. I moved to New York with none buddies, and Bailey, Piper, Wendy, Katie, and Miki had welcomed me into their circle with open arms. Now they’re my finest buddies. It’s onerous to make buddies as an grownup, and I nonetheless bear in mind my first month within the metropolis, once I didn’t know anybody. I’d been so lonely and homesick I’d needed to fly again to London each weekend. The one factor that stored me from doing that was figuring out that if I did, my coworkers would perpetually solely see me as a spoiled wealthy woman.

Then I’d met Wendy at a bar, and I’d turn out to be a part of the Thursday Night time Ingesting Pack. They saved me from feeling alone in a metropolis stuffed with individuals, and I’ll love them perpetually.

“I’d like to do brunch—it’s one among my favourite meals,” I inform Vittoria. “Sadly, I’m heading to Manhattan for the weekend. How about subsequent Saturday?”

“Yeah, possibly.” She sounds a little bit disconsolate, after which her voice brightens. “Or I’ll see you on the subsequent recreation? There’s one on Thursday night time. I’ll get Bulldog to ship you the small print.”

“Umm, positive. I believe I could make that.” Carter stated final night time that he didn’t need me going to play at Denton Mitchell’s poker site any longer, however an innate sense of warning retains me from telling Vittoria that.

“You higher,” she quips. “You received some huge cash this week. Gotta give the home an opportunity to win it again.”

We change some small discuss, after which she hangs up. That’s bizarre, I believe to myself as I navigate the fools on the Backyard State Parkway. Vittoria sounded down this morning. I ponder why.

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