“Do you need anything Mr. Campbell?”
I looked up at the air host’s voice.
“Would you like some noise-canceling headphones so you can rest?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No, thank you. I’m fine.”
“You know how to get my attention if you change your mind,” he said, tapping the call button before leaving.
I returned to thumbing back through my text messages. There, the text from Gem. I still hadn’t read it. I wanted to, but I didn’t want to get angry. I didn’t understand why I was angry. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair to her. But then again, she hadn’t been fair to me, springing her kid on me like that. That’s not what I expected. With her age, she had to have been a teen mother. What was I getting myself into?
Whenever I thought about Gem, her lips, her smell, and her warmth, none of that mattered. Because that was Gem. Her laugh was infectious, and her grin brought sunshine to the gloomiest days and considering the way the weather had been this winter, I needed her smile. I needed her smile more and more.
This was a long flight, and I would much rather think about the beautiful Gem, than reflect on the bullshit I had to deal with from John. There I was staring at my text messages, unread. And a day later according to the time stamp, there were two more.
I eased my chair back and put my feet up. At least I didn’t have to elbow my way into a comfortable position. Flying first class had its benefits.
With a deep sigh, I clicked on the text. I read through her first text twice. What kind of a family did she need to hide her child from? I couldn’t quite wrap my brain around that one. Gem was used to hiding her child. And then I remembered her saying something about not having as good Chinese takeout uptown.
Gem was an uptown girl. I thought about that. I thought about the way she dressed and the way she’d talked spending summers on Greek beaches.
Oh, that made sense. Gem’s family was well heeled, like mine. If she was as old as I thought she was, she would have had to hide that child for a few years. Until there was nothing they could do about it. At which point they had to either accept the child and welcome her back into the family fold or completely kick her out.
If she still lived uptown, which she did, then odds were good, they had accepted her and they had accepted her daughter.
She was right. I needed to meet the child before I made any decisions. I couldn’t focus because of Gem. What kind of an idiot would I be to let her go simply because she already had a baby? It’d be the same kind of egotistical idiot who she had to hide her kid from.
I didn’t want her to have that part of me. I didn’t like that part of me. She deserved a response. I checked the other messages before I did anything. I couldn’t move when the pictures loaded. They were in the snow, both so beautiful. Gem and her daughter, a tiny, little cherub, who looked like a miniature version of Gem. But with darker eyes. She looked familiar. And it wasn’t that she looked like her mother. There was something else there. Maybe it was the familiar look of that soft, doughy roundness that all babies had.
It looked like they were having a good time in the snow. They were clearly not in the city. Somewhere, upstate, maybe.
I needed to meet this kid. She was cute.
The next message said, “Sorry, that was an accident. I meant to send those pictures to my mom. I sent them to the last number I had texted and that was you. Please don’t think I was doing that on purpose.”
She may have thought she was sending those pictures to her mom. But those were pictures for me. She knew it was going to take that beautiful smile of her child to convince me that I was being an idiot.
I texted her back, “We need to talk. I’ll call you when I’m home.”
Putting the phone down, I eased myself back and figured the flight would go faster if I was asleep. I could dream of Gem and not have to think about any of the past week dealing with distribution partners who wanted to expand into Europe when we didn’t have a product ready to deliver that would work in the European market. I don’t know what John had been thinking about setting that up. Then again, ever since he got engaged, I’m pretty sure John stopped thinking.
A change in the cabin pressure woke me. The long flight was almost over. The plane would land at JFK soon and then I could be with Gem again. As soon as I am on the ground, I’d make arrangements for her to come over, since she never let me know where she lived.
I fished out my phone, intending to text her asking her to come over, telling her what time my flight was expected to arrive. But then my phone started buzzing. It was an incoming message from John.
I clicked the message. “Dinner. 8 PM. That Greek place by the office you like so much. You’re meeting…” The rest were names I didn’t recognize.
I would have to go straight to the restaurant from the airport. I wouldn’t get to go home. I wouldn’t get to put my luggage away. What the hell? Why was he scheduling everything so tightly? The man wasn’t using his brain.
I texted him back, “You handle it.”
As soon as I hit send his reply came in. “Can’t. Doing wedding stuff with Jennifer. If I miss cake tasting, she’ll kill me.”
I typed my message in. “I’ll speak at your funeral. Be dead.” I hit send.
My phone rang with John’s ringtone.
“You’re sending me on all of your errands. I don’t know who these people are. I don’t know what their expectations are. Why are you making meetings for me and not giving me an agenda?” I said as soon as I picked up.
“Chase, it’s finance. That’s your ballpark. You know that you know how to fake it with the best of them. This is a venture capitalist group. They’re only in town through tonight. We’re lucky they’re available to meet with us.”
“Fine,” I said with a heavy sigh. “I’ll do it this time, send me an agenda, email it to my phone. I’m not going into this blind, not like what you did to me in Europe. Why are you telling these people that we’re going to have a product for their market?”
“Because Europe is a logical expansion.” I could hear the misguided enthusiasm in his voice.
“I agree, it is. But it’s a long-term goal, not something we can make delivery on next week.” I spread my hand over my brow and squeezed my temples together, letting out a heavy breath. “Email me the presentation you want me to give. Send me everything you know on this group. And I’ve got”— I glanced at my watch— “maybe forty-five minutes before this bird touches down. So you’re going to send everything to me right?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll send everything to you,” he sounded like the petulant child I felt like I was talking to.
“And John, stop doing this to me. Take your own damn meetings. When I’m back in the office, you and I are going to have a real serious sit down over this.”
“Come on, man.”
“No, no John. You just sent me on a wild goose chase through Europe to talk about having our product in their market when we have no intention and no plans on expanding into a European market. Unless you’re making other plans, you’re not discussing with me.”
“Europe is the next logical thing,” he said.
“Long-term,” I reiterated. “John, I spent all week apologizing that we didn’t have a product ready to ship. You sent me out there thinking this was a meet and greet for potential partnering, investing for a European expansion. They were asking about deliverables. Their expectations were dramatically skewed. This should have been handled differently, and not by me. Europe would be nice, but are you planning on retooling all manufacturing so that we fit in the metric system? Not this week. You’re thinking with your dick, not with your head. I need you to get your head back in the game.”
“I know. I know,” he said. “As soon as the wedding is over, I’ll be able to focus again. I need to get through this.”
“There’s no reason why you cannot let Jennifer and her family take over the wedding planning. You do not have to be involved every step of the way.”
“Man, when you get married, you’ll understand,” he said with an I-told-you-so tone.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
“If and when I get married, I’m still going to be able to focus on work. That’s all I’m asking you to do. Focus on work when you are at work.”
He laughed, “That’s what you think. Just you wait.” He ended the call.
I immediately flipped to my email and waited for his assistant to send the agenda and the presentation. After five minutes, I navigated back to the text messages from Gem and scrolled through the pictures of her and her beautiful daughter. Yeah, if and when might be a hell of a lot sooner than I ever thought it would be.
