Margo’s cell phone went off with a text message. “Oh, shoot. Chase has a conference call, and Joanna won’t stop crying. I gotta go. Call me later, all right?”
As soon as Margo left, I sent Guadalupe an email asking if I could work from home for the rest of the afternoon due to a headache. She replied within seconds, telling me to take the rest of the day off, and to just rest.
God, I love her.
It would do me well to relax on the couch, order some pizza, and clear my mind.
I pulled into my reserved parking spot back at home, eager to get out of work clothes and into some shorts. As soon as I shut the car door, I turned to look toward Jorge’s penthouse. It had become a habit of mine ever since he had returned to Miami.
He wasn’t home.
Phew.
And just as I was about to walk inside, I saw his convertible pull into the parking lot.
Jorge had a woman next to him.
I quickly ducked behind my car until only my eyes were peering over it. They got out and headed into his building, and my jaw dropped as soon as I saw the woman. She wasn’t just beautiful. She was drop-dead gorgeous, and I had no doubt that it was Ria.
Once they were inside, I ran into my condo, slammed the door shut, and immediately called Eva.
“Hey, did you leave work early? I stopped by your office with some pastries that Guadalupe made, but it was locked, and your car wasn’t in the parking lot.”
“Jorge is having sex with Ria right this very second, Eva!”
“What? Wait, let me shut my office door. Calm down and tell me everything, Ginger.”
I paced back and forth in my living room, trying to calm my nerves when all I wanted to do was bang on his door. “He just got out of his car with this tall woman who looked straight out of a fashion magazine, or one of those social media influencers, and both of them went into his penthouse! I knew he would sleep with her again, Eva!”
“Relax, Ginger. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for why she’s at his place.”
I sat down on my couch, unable to control my legs from shaking. “No, you don’t understand, Eva. Jorge suspected Ria of embezzling from him, so he asked me to look over his books. Which, of course, I did, because everyone just loves to use me!”
“Ginger—”
“And I told him she had stolen almost a million dollars! But did he go to his lawyers? Of course not! He’s planning on buying her out, but that conniving woman is having sex with him right now! I just know it, Eva! He can’t stay away from her!”
I broke down sobbing on my couch, with nothing but images of them having sex running through my mind.
“Ginger, as someone who has been cheated on very recently, I guarantee that’s not what’s happening. He’s probably just going over things with her in person.”
I dried my eyes with a tissue, which only caused my mascara to smudge all over my face. “If Jorge wanted to go over things with Ria in person, he would have gone to a coffeehouse, a restaurant, or his office in downtown Miami. He wouldn’t have brought Ria back to his penthouse in the middle of the afternoon when he knew that I’d be at work!”
All I could do was sob uncontrollably as Eva listened, not knowing what to say to calm me down. And how could I blame her? The only thing that could have calmed me down was a logical explanation for Ria being at Jorge’s penthouse.
“Ginger, I’m so sorry. What can I do?”
I looked in the mirror while drying my eyes, not even bothering to clean up the mascara that was all over the place. “You can thank your lucky stars that you’re single, Eva, because men are nothing but trouble!”
10
Jorge
Miami International Airport was packed as usual, which meant there was too much of a risk of me being seen with Ria. But what other choice did I have? Her plane was due any minute, and if I hadn’t agreed to pick her up, then I could only imagine what she would have done. Knowing her, she would have figured out that I’d been sleeping with Ginger and approached her at Lavender Dreams Spa.
I winced while thinking about what a scene that would have been. Ria was a ruthless woman without a soul, although she’d make one hell of a private investigator.
I paced back and forth in front of my convertible, impatiently waiting for her to show up. She’d demanded that we discuss everything at my place, and I would have refused if it’d been later on that evening when Ginger would be home from work. The last thing I wanted was for her to even get one look at Ria. The sooner Ria was out of my life, the sooner I could focus on my relationship with Ginger.
