Page 52 of Lakesides and Longing

“You okay?” Ida asked.

“What? Yeah, I’m fine. I just thought Blake would be here is all.”

Ida dropped her off at her house, and she set her bags by the door and immediately dialed Jessica.

“Hey, Paige. What’s up?.”

“Listen, um, Blake told me to call you. He got summoned or something, and I was on a plane, and so all he did was leave me a voicemail.”

Jessica chuckled. “Yep. I remember that well. He got a call one time when he was staying with us in Dubai, and a helicopter showed up like ten minutes later. We didn’t hear from him for another ten days when the helicopter dropped him back off.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t really know. I do know he and Debbie made up on the last trip. But Blake never talked about the work side of things.”

Debbie. The ex-girlfriend. The love of his life.

“Thanks, Jessica. I guess all I can do is wait at this point, right?”

“Yeah. Sorry. You want us to come stay with you? Blake said you don’t like being alone.”

“I’ll be okay. I have Tria.”

“Okay. Well if you need anything, you call.”

“I will.”

Paige put down the phone and then grabbed her laptop off the counter. She pulled up Facebook and did a quick search of Blake’s friends. From the looks of it, Blake hadn’t been on Facebook in ages. She found Debbie easily.

She was a pretty, sophisticated blonde woman. Practically the opposite of Paige. Her page was public, so Paige could see all of her posts. The last one was posted just a few hours ago with no picture. “Going offline for work. See you suckers on the other side.”

Jealousy rose up in Paige’s chest. So she and Blake would be together. No. Blake wouldn’t cheat on Paige. He was one of the good guys. But everyone, including Blake, acted like Debbie was his Achilles heel. Paige wondered if Debbie still had a hold on him or if Paige had managed to break that.

Paige scoffed. She and Blake hadn’t been together long enough for her to have that kind of influence. But Debbie was happily married so hopefully that would keep them all from doing anything stupid.

Paige’s curiosity got the better of her, so she continued scrolling. Debbie’s page was mostly pictures of herself at fancy events. She thought quite highly of herself. In all of the pictures she was alone or with girlfriends.

Debbie was one of those women who was very open about everything on her social media page: political beliefs, rants against companies she hated, and raves about her favorite restaurants. But she also posted some uncomfortable personal stuff as well. There were a handful of posts about a fight with her sister and one that called her boss out for being unfair.

She was exactly the kind of person that Paige would never be comfortable around.

Paige scrolled farther and found a post that made her freeze. There was a picture of Debbie with puffy eyes and black streaks down her cheeks.

This has got to be the shortest marriage on record. This afternoon I went for a massage but found out it had been canceled. When I got back to my hotel room, do you know what I found? My brand spanking new husband naked in bed with the housekeeper. Who cheats on their wife during the honeymoon?

A weight settled in her chest. Debbie wasn’t happily married.

Paige clicked over to the pictures and scrolled until she found pictures of Debbie with Blake. They looked like they belonged together. Both dressed up with champagne glasses in their hands. In all of the pictures, Blake wore button-down shirts and had his hair slicked back. Here, he always wore t-shirts and shorts, and his hair was never done. But she liked messy Blake. He fit in her world.

This polished version of him did not.

She clicked off of her computer. She might as well get used to sleeping alone. Those two were made for each other. He was made for that life. Maybe he’d been living some fantasy here, and now he’d figure out what he really wanted.

He’d probably told Paige all those things about being over Debbie just so she didn’t worry. He knew she didn’t have a lot of relationship experience. Blake would go back to Debbie, and their shiny world and she would be stuck here, all alone.

CHAPTER38

Blake dropped his bag next to his bunk. As long as they were here, he wouldn’t get more than a few hours of sleep at a time. This was an emergency, and they would work round the clock until it was fixed. He wasn’t the first to arrive, and Debbie wasn’t here yet either.

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