“Then why the hell did she fly to Miami? Was I not good enough for you? Was the sex too lackluster or something?”
Jorge took my hand, grabbed my purse off the ground, and walked me over to a nearby bench. I reluctantly sat down and snatched my bag from his hand.
“She flew back to Miami to discuss the accounting errors that you found. The only reason I brought her to my place was that I didn’t want to be seen with her in public. She’s staying at her place, and I haven’t seen her since she left that day in a huff.”
My heart rate started to slow down as I took in what he was saying. “Why did she leave in a huff?”
“Because I told her that I never had feelings for her, Ginger, and I never have.”
A few people walking into the restaurant stopped to look at us, but I didn’t care.
“So, you really didn’t sleep with her? You were just trying to get her to leave the business?”
He nodded while rubbing his fingers over my hand. “Look, Ginger, yes, she does want me back, and she actually thought that one day I’d propose to her. Needless to say, that won’t be happening, and now she knows.”
It felt like a cloud had been lifted from over me. “I– I’m so sorry! I had no idea. I just assumed when I saw her get out… I should have trusted you.”
Jorge kissed me, causing my knees to go weak. “You have nothing to be sorry about, Ginger. I’m the one who should be apologizing.”
“So, how are you going to get her to go back to Belgium?”
“Well, I think she finally believes that I’m in love with another woman. After a few choice words, which I’ll spare you from hearing, she seems to understand our relationship was really only a matter of convenience… for both of us.”
I leaned back and looked into his eyes, confused. “Wait, you’re in love with another woman?”
Jorge chuckled while shaking his head at me. “Ginger, the other woman isyou. I’m in love with you.”
“Oh, Jorge, I’m in love with you, too. I’m so sorry about not trusting you.” We embraced on the bench, wrapping our arms around each other as people looked on from inside the restaurant. I didn’t care, though.
I was finally back with Jorge. Chase and Eva walked outside as soon as we stopped kissing several minutes later, both of them visibly relieved the drama was over.
Chase shook his head while slow clapping. “Have you two finally worked things out yet?”
“Yeah,” Eva said while smiling, “are you guys all right now?”
Jorge nodded while kissing me again, then squeezing my hand. “We’re fine, but there’s just one more thing that I might need you to do for me.”
I gazed into his eyes while smiling. “Anything for you, Jorge.”
He tilted his head and grinned. “Can you be my fake fiancée for a day?”
12
Jorge
After everything I’d gone through with Ria and Ginger, I took full advantage of working from home. There was nothing better than sliding out of bed and shuffling into my office, where I could get work done without any interference from my employees. But that morning, as I signed onto my laptop, with a coffee in hand, I saw yet another email from the De Veers Diamond Group.
Before I opened it, I knew it had to do with the wages of our workers in Africa and the union was calling for a strike.
I waited for the coffee to finish brewing before reading it. I needed to be fully caffeinated before dealing with this fiasco, which Ria should have taken care of back when it first came up. She was holding out on purpose. Ria was fully aware that I was far too busy to deal with this part of the business, which was pretty much all she was in charge of. She knew what the going rates were for diamond-mine workers and what their unions were like. I didn’t even know what the working conditions were like down in Africa.
I read it while downing my first coffee cup, and sure enough, they wanted more money. I hadn’t heard anything from Ria ever since she had stormed out of my penthouse, but she was signing in to work every day and still doing her job. I decided to give her some time to come to her senses because the last thing I wanted to do was get my lawyers involved. Watching her leave so upset had been the icing on the cake because I knew I’d finally gotten through to her.
But now that I had another situation on my hands, I needed Ria to do her job.
She had all of the files regarding our employees in Africa. I simply couldn’t authorize anything more without going over them in detail, and I knew she wouldn’t give them over to me. It’d be a huge red flag that I was, whether she liked it or not, axing her from the company.
I thought about what to do as my fingers hovered over the mouse. Realizing I had no other choice, I forwarded it to Ria.
