Page 37 of The Matchmaker's Melody
The tinkling laughter sounded again. “Oh, I get it. You thought I’m in love with Jean-François. No, no, he’s a terrific person, and I’m glad we’re friends, but he’s not the one. I always thought there was something a little dodgy about him. He’s fun to hang around with, but I’d never want to be stuck with him. I have a much superior person in mind. Some people might think he’s too old for me, but stranger things have happened, right?”
Another man. A superior man. Too old.
Oh no. It couldn’t be.
“You mean…?” The world around Emma swirled and tilted some more.
“Gordon! Of course. How couldn’t you see it? You’re so good at this. You know everything. He’s just so kind and funny and considerate.”
She might as well have punched Emma in the stomach.
“And,” Emma swallowed at last, struggling to force out the words, “does… does he…? Does he like you too?”
Halli nodded confidently. “Yes. I think so. He’s said a few things, asked a few things, that make me sure he wants to know if I’m seeing someone or anything. I’m pretty sure he’s just waiting for after all these concerts. Oh, wait, I see my sister and mom. I’d better go. It’s been amazing this year, Emma. I can’t wait till the tour, and then next season.” She caught Emma in a hug, and then dashed off, all smiles and sparkling eyes and tinkling laughter.
Emma could hardly move. She fell against the wall, mouth agape, bones like jelly.
Halli and Gordon. All that time she’d been looking for Halli and Jean-François, she’d missed Halli chatting with Gordon. She’d promised not to ask, but had just assumed, and oh God, how wrong she’d been. So very wrong.
This was terrible.
Eyes brimming with tears, she turned away from the cheerful sounds of the ongoing party in the church hall, and slunk back, instead, to the green room where she picked up her tote bag and outside shoes.
Then, without saying goodbye to anybody, she found her car and, tears still leaving mascara-tinged streaks down her pale cheeks, drove herself home.
If Emma thought she’d been examining the state of her soul before, she now knew she was mistaken. If she’d believed she had plumbed the depths of her psyche, she’d misled herself terribly.
In the darkness of her lonely apartment, above the garage of her parents’ house, on this quiet neighbourhood street in the middle of a large city, Emma felt herself absolutely adrift. The stars had abandoned her. Her small claim on fame was an insignificant triviality. #JustAskEmma was a joke. Thoughts and ideas tormented her from all sides, taunting and teasing.
You thought you were so special. You thought you understood so much. You thought you knew it all.
Emma who understood the workings of the human heart, who’d matched Randall and Taylor so perfectly. Who’d misread Phil, who’d misunderstood Ashleigh, who had been so clueless about Jean-François, who had been painfully wrong about Halli and Gordon…
Emma the matchmaker.
Ha. Emma the idiot, more like.
Because of all the matches Emma had made in her head, she had missed the one that should have been absolutely, blindingly, glaringly obvious to her.
The reason that Halli’s confession of love for Gordon had thrown her for such a loop, had knocked the ground out from under her, was as plain and simple as anything she could imagine.
The reason that Halli couldn’t be in love with Gordon was because she,Emma, was in love with her best friend. She was hopelessly, desperately, in love with Gordon.
And it had taken this devastating revelation for her to realise it.
CHAPTER19
GORDON AGAIN
Gordon sat,collapsed in his armchair, staring into space. The place seemed so empty without Emma, the couch desolate without her sprawled across it. How was he going to live without her?
For all those weeks, after he had realised he loved her, he had watched her flirt with Jean-François and fall further and further in love with him. Those jokes and smiles at choir practice, those post-rehearsal dates at the pub, the flirting and the pointed looks, had all eaten away at his heart, and he had said nothing.
He had done nothing.
Because he loved Emma, and that meant wanting her to be happy. If being with Jean-François was what made her happy, then Gordon could live with it. As long as she and he could still be friends, he would mask his broken heart and pretend that nothing had changed.
But tonight, everything had changed.
