Page 73 of Fractured (Not Quite a Billionaire)
“No” had meant “no.” The question was…what was “yes” going to mean?
Hope
By the time Hemi got to the table, Nathan was on his feet, pulled there, it seemed, by whatever force it was that Hemi exerted.
Hemi looked at him, unsmiling, and said, “Hello again.”
“Hi,” Nathan said, and, no, he wasn’t exactly coming off as the Alpha Dog in this encounter. I hoped Gabrielle didn’t mind, because Nathanwasa wonderful guy. He just wasn’t Hemi.
Hemi looked at Gabrielle, then, said, “Hi. How are you?” and actually smiled, too, like a regular person. He managed to act, in other words, like somebody who could sit down and have a drink with other people without scaring them half to death.
Maybe not tonight, though, because after that, he asked me, “Are you ready to go, sweetheart, or do you need a few more minutes? If you’d like to stay, I’ll phone the restaurant.”
“Please,” Nathan said, “join us.” Points for social grace, but then, Nathan had plenty of that. And Hemi had called me “sweetheart” in front of other people, which was a first. He looked like he didn’t realize he’d done it, either. It seemed to have just slipped out from under his self-control, and wasn’t that a cheering little thought?
“No, thanks,” I said, standing up and gathering my things. “We were just finishing up.” Nathan and Gabrielle would rather be alone, I was fairly sure. Besides, I’d probably pushed Hemi enough for one day, and itwasexactly seven, and hehadlet me leave without a fuss this afternoon and had showed up in exactly the time and place we’d planned, and acted casual about it, too. I wanted to tell him how I felt about all that.
You’re thinking I wanted to see howhefelt about it. That could have been part of it as well.
Hemi said, “We’ll be off, then. Nice to see you both.”
“Bye,” Nathan said. “You two kids have fun.” Which got him a sharp look from Hemi and a choked-back laugh from Gabrielle, for whose benefit, I was sure, he’d said it.
I said, “Oh,” fumbled in my bag, pulled out a twenty, and handed it to Nathan.
“I’ve got it,” he said.
“Nope. You’ve spotted me so many times, and I’m not broke anymore.”
“Hey. Friends let friends pay.”
“Ha waka eke noa,”Hemi said. “A canoe we are all in with no exception,” he explained to a very surprised-looking Nathan. “Maori saying. We’re all in the same boat, so you’ve got to paddle it together, lend a mate a hand.”
“Well, uh, yeah,” Nathan said. “That’s it. Good saying.”
Hemi nodded in farewell, then turned and shepherded me through the crowded bar with his hand on my lower back.
So many firsts today, so many changes, but being walked out by him, destination unknown, his hand practically burning through my dress, was a statement, too, and a promise that one thing between the two of us wasn’t going to change.
I wanted that promise. I was full of mixed messages, even to myself. I knew it.
We stepped from the dark air-conditioned bar into the still sticky-warm July evening, and instantly, the big black car glided smoothly up into the loading zone and Charles climbed out and opened the rear door. When Hemi and I were safely behind the smoked-glass partition and the car had pulled out into traffic again, though, I told him, “I half expected you to take me back up into the conference room so you could make your long-delayed point where it would have the most impact.”
“Did you?” he asked, his face at its most inscrutable. He didn’t say anything else for a long minute, and I started to get nervous. Had I misinterpreted everything? Was he actually furious with me after all? Finally, he said, “Maybe I want to make my point a bit more imaginatively than that.”
Oh, boy.
“You bought a new dress, eh,” he said, throwing me again.
“Uh…yes. I did. Do you like it?”
“Shoes as well.”
“Yes.” I went on, when he didn’t say anything, “You said I should shop, that I should use the cards. Am I supposed to only do it when you tell me, though, or buy what you tell me? If I’m only free to spend what I earned myself, and everything else is a…a present, tell me so. I didn’t have to buy these. I can be independent. I’d been doing it for years.”
I was getting wound up all over again, and his eyes had lightened, as if he were trying to smile but wasn’t letting himself. “Now, did I say that? I don’t think so. I signed an agreement, remember? As I recall, it said that what’s mine is yours, but maybe we should pull it out and have a wee look. I remember you signing one, too, saying you were quite happy to have me tell you what to do under certain circumstances. And what I want you to do right now is to open the front of that dress and show me what else you bought.”
My heart had started beating harder the moment I’d seen him headed across the bar to me. Now, it picked up the pace.
