“Oh, Jorge. Something tells me that I have more money than you do. I just don’t feel the need to prove it to everyone that I meet. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to work.”
“No, Ria! Don’t you dare hang up this phone! I want you to go on back to Antwerp; do you hear me? Go back to your friends and family and enjoy being retired for a while! Go back and forget about me.”
Her long nails started drumming against a hard surface, which was a sound that I was beginning to despise. “If you really wanted me out of your life, Jorge, then you wouldn’t be calling me. You wouldn’t have gone through all of this just to prove to me that you’re engaged. You would have gone straight to your lawyers because you’re not really concerned about me ruining your reputation in the diamond community…right?”
Ria hung up the phone, and I punched the “end call” button so hard on mine that it nearly cracked the screen. My mind was racing a mile a minute as I tried to figure out a plan. Ria had officially gone off of the deep end, that was for damn sure. Realizing that I’d need some outside help, I called Gavin, who was in town filming a movie.
“You have to stop with these early morning wake-up calls, man.”
“Ria’s bat-shit crazy, Gavin, and I’m really starting to freak out. I can’t believe that I ever got involved with her in the first place.”
The sound of him shuffling out of bed filled the phone, and I pictured him heading toward his coffee machine.
“If I had a dollar for every time I said ‘I told you so’ about Ria, I’d be up to my ears in singles. Anyway, what the hell did she do now?”
“She insisted on meeting my fiancée, but after meeting Ginger and me for drinks and seeing her engagement ring, Ria’s still not convinced!”
“Whoa, you’re engaged?”
My heart started beating even faster, but this time with excitement. I suddenly pictured Ginger walking down the aisle in a wedding gown, smiling at me while holding onto a bouquet.
Calm down, Jorge.
“No, of course not. We just started dating. But I had Ginger wear a ring for emphasis. Anyway, Ria’s refusing to leave the company! What do I do?”
“Well, that depends. What else did Ria say, man?”
“She said that I’m not the marrying type and that she refuses to go back into the dating pool after ‘wasting’ the best years of her life on me.”
Gavin sat in silence for a few minutes, which only added to my irritation. “So, Ria’s looking to become your wife?”
“Yep.”
“I might be drowsy as hell, Jorge, but it’s pretty obvious what you need to do: have an actual wedding ceremony.”
I nearly passed out in my home office. “What the hell are you talking about, Gavin?”
“Until Ria sees you and Ginger exchange vows, she’s not going to leave you alone.”
I slowly sat down in my seat, realizing that he was one hundred percent right. “Holy shit, Gavin. That makes total sense. Oh, God. This is a nightmare.”
“Tell Ginger to hold onto that engagement ring, and that it’s time to start looking for a wedding dress.”
15
Ginger
Iwas a little sad not to see Jorge laying next to me in bed that morning, but his note on my dresser put a smile on my face. I was also thrilled that we’d finally gotten rid of Ria, once and for all. As I slipped into a peach-silk dress and studied myself in the mirror, my eyes immediately gravitated to the engagement ring. It would have been fun wearing it to work all day, but Guadalupe would demand to know all of the details. And I just wasn’t in the mood to explain the fake-fiancée storyline.
There’s no harm in wearing it while driving into work, though.
I decided to take the long way to the spa that day, intentionally resting my left hand on the edge of my window at every red light. Even though I never looked to see the people in the cars next to me, I caught several women in my peripheral vision eyeing my engagement ring.
Maybe I’ll wear it at work, after all.
By the time I slid into my chair and booted up my computer, though, the ring was tucked firmly away in my purse. If I weren’t afraid of Guadalupe popping her head into my office, I might have worked an hour or so with it on. But she loved to make her morning rounds to everyone in the spa, checking in to make sure we were all in a good mood. And if we weren’t, then she’d shove one of her miniature cakes into our mouths.
And just when I thought about wearing it for another few minutes, Guadalupe stuck her motherly head in to say hello.
