My heart sank as I sat down in my office chair.
“I am now. What’s wrong?”
“I have to go to Africa.”
“What? Why the hell are you going to Africa?” I could hear the frustration in his voice as he explained everything to me.
“Before we went to Paris, the De Veers Diamond Group sent me an email that I foolishly ignored. The miners are demanding huge changes to their income and benefits, and because I didn’t respond within five days, they’re now on strike.”
I started pacing back and forth in my living room, my hands shaking with anger. “I don’t understand, Jorge. Everything is done remotely nowadays, so why the hell do you have to go down there?”
“It’s complicated, Ginger, and the worst part is that I don’t know how long I’ll be gone.”
I fought the tears as they started to buildup in my eyes.Don’t you dare cry over a guy!“So, you could be gone for a month? Or two months? Or a year? Is that what you’re telling me, Jorge?”
“Please don’t be so upset, Ginger, and I doubt it’ll be a year.”
“I hate to bethatwoman, but did you take me into consideration when you planned this trip?”
“Of course I did,” he explained into the phone. “But Ginger, I don’t have a choice. This would have been something that Ria handled, and now that she’s gone, I have to do it myself.”
“If Ria handled it, then why can’t you just hire someone else for her position and send them down to deal with the problems on the other side of the world?”
“Because after what she did to the company, I don’t know how I could trust anyone to do her job ever again, Ginger. Remember how we discussed having my secretary fill her position? She slipped up when I was out of the office, so now I don’t think that I can put this on her.”
I tried calming myself down, but it was no use. Jorge and I were being torn apart, yet again, and it still had to do with Ria.
“So every time something like this happens, you’ll just up and fly away for who knows how long? And I’ll be left behind like some chump?”
“Ginger, I love you so much, and I’m begging for your understanding. I have every intention of nipping this in the bud as soon as I get down there and then coming right back home. If there were any way of me getting out of this, believe me, I would. You are my only personal priority. But if I don’t go, then I could lose my entire business.”
I silently nodded while wiping away the tears streaming down my face.
How many times am I going to cry over this man?
“All right, well, I gotta go.”
And before he could say a word, I hung up and rested my head on my closed laptop. It was still warm from all of the internet searching I had just done. Feeling utterly defeated, I realized that I needed to move on with my life. It was not what I’d been expecting, but I refused to be put on hold anymore.
I booted the laptop back up, went to my bank’s first-time homebuyer’s savings account information, and slid the fake engagement ring off my finger.
22
Jorge
One Week Later
It had been one week since I had last spoken with Ginger, and she had yet to return any of my phone calls. I always saw her car in its usual parking spot every morning as I was leaving for work. She started later than me, so I didn’t think much of it. But I’d fought every urge not to pound on her door, begging for one more chance. If it had been any other woman ignoring me, no way would I have still been interested after a week of being ignored.
But Ginger was unlike any woman I’d ever dated before.
I hadn’t consumed anything other than numerous cups of coffee and a bunch of protein bars since we last spoke. Whatever I was feeling was horrible, and I could only assume that it was depression. It was a feeling of not being complete because someone had suddenly abandoned you.
If this is what women go through every time a guy ghosts them, then I have a lot of apologizing to do.
I was in my office downtown that morning, exchanging emails with my private pilot about getting me down to Africa. He told me that we should go as soon as possible since a major storm was due to hit the coast any day now. The longer we waited, the higher the possibility of us getting caught in the storm became.
De Veers had sent me another email demanding to know how much longer it would be until someone met with the miners in Africa. I knew they were anxious to resolve the issue, as was I, but I could only do so much while running the company by myself. I told De Veers that I had to tie up a few loose ends in Miami before heading down there, which was total bullshit.
