Chapter 51
CHAPTER 51
I t was after the soup course that Gemma excused herself to go to the bathroom, taking her handbag with her. Once there, she placed her hands on the marble sink, looked at her reflection, and shook her head in disbelief.
“What are you doing?” she said to herself.
Kent was the owner of the Waterfront Café. If he wanted to put something like this on as a monthly event, she couldn’t stop him. So why did he want to bring her there for the evening, and why, every time she met his eyes did she feel that fluttering just beneath her rib cage, a fluttering she sensed that he felt it too? They had been there for less than an hour, but her cheeks already ached from the smiling, and she had lost count of the number of times she’d laughed. It was sending her head into a spiral. She didn’t laugh with Kent. Not normally. But she couldn’t remember the last time she felt so relaxed around a man. Maybe it was just because it had been such a long time since she’d been on a decent date with one. Not that this was a date. She had told him as much, and he’d agreed. It was for work and work only. As that thought settled, so did a sense of disappointment. Did she want this to be a date with Kent? Surely not. How could she like him in that way after everything they had been through? She couldn’t, could she?
No sooner was she asking herself the question than she had picked up her phone, desperate to talk to someone. Her first instinct was to call Sophie. After all, Sophie knew them both and was aware of everything that had gone on between them. But Sophie couldn’t keep secrets. If Gemma had read the situation wrong, and Kent wasn’t feeling the same way she was, and Sophie knew how she felt, work would quickly become very awkward. And so instead, she hit dial on Nina’s name.
“Hey, I thought you were out with Kent tonight,” Nina said when she answered.
Gemma didn’t bother with pleasantries. She had already spent too long in the bathroom as it was.
“Hypothetical question. If I find myself attracted to my boss, what should I do?”
“This is on the business-only meeting, right?” Nina said, sarcasm dripping from her voice.
Gemma let out a long groan in response. “This is wrong, right? It’s just because I haven’t dated anybody in so long, right? That’s all it is.”
“If you say so,” Nina said. “I mean, from what Sophie says, he is incredibly into you, but what would I know?”
“Sophie said that?” Gemma’s stomach did a double somersault before landing substantially lower than it had been. “What did she say?”
“Just that he talks about you a lot and she thinks he has a crush on you.”
Gemma groaned again. “Sophie thinks everybody has a crush on everybody else,” she said. “Ignore me. It’s just the champagne. I need to get back to the meal.”
“You’re drinking champagne?” Nina said, “I thought you were driving?”
Gemma didn’t want to get into the gorgeous Magdalen and her rooms at the yacht club. Not when Nina would undoubtedly have more questions she didn’t want to answer. Besides, she needed to get back to the table before Kent sent out a search party.
“I’ll explain when I get home tomorrow. Speak soon and wish me luck.”
“Good luck, though I’m not sure why you need it.”
A moment later, Gemma hung up the phone. Whatever was going on with her and Kent, it was almost certainly in her head. A reflex reaction to having been given some attention for the first time in years. But it was work-based attention, and she needed to remember that. Drawing a deep breath in, she looked at her reflection and pushed her shoulders back. She was going to go back up to the restaurant and be as professional as possible. That was what she was there to do. What they were both there to do.