Page 3 of A Lot Like Adiós
Gabe grabbed the phone, suddenly ravenous for a glimpse of Michelle after all these years.
Fabian stuck his hands on his hips, mouth agape. “You mean you haven’t Internet-stalked her?”
“Not... not in a long time.” He had in the past. But it had been too painful, and scrolling through her photos without commenting made Gabe feel like a creep. It had been more than five years since he’d last looked her up. And shit, Fabian was right. Mich was gorgeous.
She was pale, but there was a warmth to her skin, offset by her long dark hair. Her light brown eyes held that glint he remembered, like she knew a secret and didn’t you wish she’d tell you.
The photos in her feed were a collection of selfies, family pictures, a black cat, and Manhattan street photography. Gabe zeroed in on the selfies, which showed her giving the camera a range of looks that went from sultry to silly.
It was, in essence, Michelle. Just as he remembered her.
He’d always thought she was the most beautiful girl in the world, and age had only made her hotter.
“Stop it.” Fabian snatched the phone back. “You’re torturing yourself.”
“No, wait—” Gabe reached for the phone, but Fabian held it over his head.
“I’ll email her to apologize and say we found someone else,” Fabian went on. “No harm, no foul.”
Gabe was already pulling out his own phone to look her up through the gym’s Instagram account, taking care not to accidentally like one of her photos with an errant thumb tap. “Did you mention my name in the email?”
Fabian hesitated before answering. “I might have.”
Gabe sent him an exasperated look. “Is that yes or no?”
Fabian sighed. “It’s a yes, but let me handle this. For your own good.”
Gabe shook his head, suddenly filled with certainty, and... some light feeling he couldn’t name. “Nah, I gotta email her.”
“Son, listen to me. This is the one who got away. You’re not thinking clearly.”
Fabian was right, but it didn’t matter. “I have to,” Gabe said, getting to his feet. “The way I left things, and now this... I’ll be a total dick if I don’t even email her to explain.”
He’d already ghosted her as a friend. He wouldn’t add professional ghosting to the list of his sins where Michelle was concerned.
Had he really thought he could keep his old life separatefrom this expansion? He should have known better. It was only day one and a gigantic piece of his old baggage had already been dredged up. Now he had to address it.
Gabe grabbed the duffel bag he’d set beside the chair. “I’m gonna email her.”
“Let the record state that I think this is a terrible idea,” Fabian told him. “This is my fault. You should let me fix it.”
“You have enough work to do trying to manage everything from here so I spend as little time in New York as possible.” Gabe’s phone dinged with another fucking calendar alert.
“Conference call with the managers in ten minutes,” Fabian said, glancing at his computer screen.
“Yeah, yeah.” That meant Gabe had ten minutes to reply to Michelle. “Forward me the email you sent her.”
Fabian let out a soul-weary sigh and dropped into his desk chair. “Fine.”
Gabe left his partner’s office and headed to his own.
He dreaded returning to New York, dreaded facing Michelle. But somewhere deep inside, he also felt... glad. All the times she’d reached out to him over the years, he hadn’t known what to say... so he hadn’t said anything. Now he had a real reason to reply.
He was nervous as all hell, but also... he still missed her. After all this time, an ache still formed in his chest at the thought of her.
Mouth set in a grim line, Gabe sat at his own desk, which contained not a single piece of paper or sticky note, and pulled the ergonomic keyboard closer. Then he began to type.
Chapter 2
