Page 122 of Break Point
“Because I’m fucking scared,” she admits. “Scared to find out he might not feel the same way I do. And if he does, I’m scared people will think he’s just into me to skip the line at my dad’s company. I don’t want to be the reason they start talking. And most of all, I’m terrified to lose you.”
The corners of her lips pull into the saddest face I’ve ever seen on Gemma. She chokes on a sob, and my weak heart can’t take it. I slide my arms around her and cry with her.
“There’s nothing you could ever do that would make me push you out of my life,” I say, feeling the hot, messy tears streaming down my face. “Even if you killed someone and I got called to the police station, I’d say:Well, she must’ve had a damn good reason to do it.”
She laughs and squeezes me harder.
“It’s safe to say that Robbie knows I’d always choose you over him any day of the week. So if anything,he’sthe one who’s probably scared shitless of losing me. Hisidol,” I joke.
Gemma sighs out a chuckle, and we break off the embrace. I sit up on the bed and pull her up with me.
“Robbie misses you,” I say. “That much I know. He doesn’t have to say it. I can see it on his face. On how sad he’s been since Australia. On how he keeps asking about you any chance he gets, like a golden retriever who wagged his tail for too long and finally gave up waiting.”
“Oh, not a golden retriever reference!”
I shrug. “It is what it is.”
She groans and wipes the tears off her face.
“God, I’m a mess.”
She grabs her bag, rushes to my bathroom to check herself in the mirror, and retouches her makeup. This is Gemma. She can’t go around looking anything beneath flawless.
I follow her.
“So now what?” I ask.
“My dad told me Robbie has been accepted into the summer internship program. He doesn’t know yet, but they will give him a call soon.”
Robbie is going to flip.
“I know how much he wants that internship, and I don’t want to get in the way. I think it’s best to keep my distance until these feelings fizzle out,” she adds. “I’m sure it’ll pass. Eventually. With time.”
I sigh.
“Just like mine for Henry, you mean?” I raise an eyebrow at her. Gemma knows more than God himself how tragically devoted I’ve been to him since the dawn of time. “You can’t just will yourself out of this one, Gemms. Believe me, I’ve tried.”
“This is different,” she says, her voice slipping back to intellectual Gemma mode. “It’s just an infatuation.”
“I get it.” I cross my arms and lean against the doorframe, watching her apply a few finishing touches to her face. She grabs a brush and a beautiful, rosy apricot compact blush.
“You shouldn’t waste your makeup on me,” I say, allowing her to dab my cheeks with color. “I’ll be drooling on the airplane in a few hours.”
“Who says you can’t drool and look great at the same time?”
She adds a little gloss, and I stare at myself in the mirror as she puts her stuff back in her bag. I give my long hair one last brush with my fingers.
“Ready to drool,” I quip, holding my hands under my chin for dramatic effect.
“Oh, I’d be drooling alright if I were you,” she says, adjusting her bag’s strap on her shoulder. “You know, travelingalonewith Henry to Mexico?”
“Oh, shut up.” I chuckle and walk back to my bedroom to grab my backpack. “You know it’s never going to happen. We’re never going to get past the friend zone.”
“Mmmhmm.”
“I mean it!” I let out an exasperated laugh. “I think it’s best to keep my distance until these feelings fizzle out.”
“Funny,” she says after I toss her previous words back to her. “I see how ridiculous that sounds now coming from you.”
