20 Gemma
T hankfully, Celeste manages to distract the girls with Plants vs. Zombies , and I power through the rest of the questions by keeping my own emotions at bay. We finish the interview without any other incident.
Before the family leaves, Celeste asks the couple if they’d like her to take a picture of them.
“We don’t have to share it publicly if you don’t want us to, but I would love to take a picture of your beautiful family and give it to you as a keepsake,” she says. “Consider it a token of appreciation and gratitude for coming out here when you probably have a million things going on right now.”
“That’s incredibly kind of you,” Maria says with a smile. “That would be lovely. Thank you so much!”
The girls crawl into their parents’ laps, and the resulting portrait is so adorable that I for sure want to include it in the interview spread for the magazine if the Amatos are okay with it.
When I ask, the couple nods at each other.
“Feel free,” Joey says. “I think the family picture would be a nice thing to have on there. After all, love isn’t just romantic.”
I’m taken aback by Joey’s words and how right they are. I think of my parents, who have always loved me and are constantly worrying about me in their little home in Irvine. I think about Val and Kiara, who immediately offered up their place when I needed somewhere to stay and never pressured me to pay rent or contribute in any way.
I may have hilariously tragic luck when it comes to romance, but for other kinds of love, I hit the jackpot.
On their way out, I apologize to the Amatos for earlier, telling them I’m going through a lot in terms of my personal life.
“It happens,” Maria graciously says. “I hope things get better for you soon.”
“Thank you.”
Soon enough, it’s just Celeste and me in the studio again. I’m entirely spent, emotionally and physically. It’s been one of those days that feels like a whole month. Celeste must have also been exhausted, because she doesn’t say anything as we get ready to go home.
“I’ll see you for the next interview,” I say before I leave. “Safe travels next week.”
“See you,” she replies. “You, too.”
Like all holidays, Christmas comes and goes way too fast. Aside from doing typical holiday things with my parents, I manage to finally find a promising listing for a shared apartment in Chinatown, only a ten-minute bus ride from our office.
When I’m back in town the next Monday, I work out the contract terms with my new landlady, Ms. Chang, who runs a Chinese gift shop with her husband. Since I don’t want to commit to anything long term after the last couple of wildcard months I had, I end up signing a month-to-month lease. Luckily, Ms. Chang is flexible, since she’s just renting out her spare room to make some extra money after her kid moved out to start school as a spring admit at USC.
We set my move-in date for January 15, which will be perfect timing since that’ll be after the holidays and after Celeste and I—hopefully—finish all the work we need to do for the project.
Looking forward to the New Year already, I walk into our office, in time to hear one of my coworkers exclaim, “Apparently there’s going to be a chocolate fountain this year! I’m so excited.”
“They could lock us up in a bare concrete room for all I care,” replies another. “As long as the bartender is as good as the one from last year.”
The company party. With how busy things have been, I didn’t even get a chance to ask Celeste if she wants to go with me. Since it’s now the thirtieth, it’s probably too short notice. Besides, the last thing I want to do is ring in the New Year while watching James and Daphne work the room together. Maybe it’s best if we don’t go.
Luckily, as far as company events go, our New Year’s party is the most optional, since a lot of people are usually out of town during this time of year. Kiara and Val aren’t going, either, since they’re on a spontaneous trip to Seattle this week and won’t be back until after New Year’s Eve.
Evelyn will be disappointed if I choose not to go, especially since Celeste and I will miss out on the networking opportunity. But there’s also a good chance that I’m overthinking, and she won’t even say anything about it afterward. Or at least I hope she won’t.
I’m pretty set on not going when, later that day, James stops by my desk.
“Hey,” he says.
It takes me a few seconds to even process he’s actually there, talking to me face-to-face after over a month of pretending I don’t exist.
Maybe he just needs to talk to me about a work-related thing.
“Yes?” I ask.
“Just making sure, you’re not coming to the party tomorrow, right?”
I immediately bristle. “Why?”
“I’m bringing Daphne. And it’d be awkward if you were there, too, since we used to go to the party together.”
I can hardly believe my ears. Granted, I’d wanted to avoid the awkwardness, too. But the way James has the nerve to tell me what to do, after everything he’s done to me… When we were still dating, whenever James asked me to do something, I either told him yes or said “I’ll think about it” when I actually meant “no.” Today, though, I snap.
“Let me get this straight. You want me to not go to the office party, the one that’s open to all employees, so things won’t be awkward for you and your new girlfriend?”
James blinks and shrugs like a malfunctioning robot, obviously taken aback. “Yeah? I don’t get why that’s a big deal. You hate parties, anyway.”
I hate parties? Anger washes over me like a giant wave, crashing and raging inside my chest. My first instinct is to tell James off and yell at him to go away.
But then, I get a better idea.
“For your information,” I say. “I love parties. I stopped going to them because of you . And I’m already planning on attending tomorrow. With a date.”
James’s eyes narrow with skepticism. “A date?”
I lift up my chin. “Yup.”
It’s so last minute, I doubt Celeste will agree to go. I’m not even completely sure if she’s back from LA yet, since we haven’t said a word to each other after the day we interviewed the Amatos. But James doesn’t need to know that.
“Well, okay,” he says, taking a step back with a huff. “Guess it can’t be helped, then.”
For the first time since we broke up, he looks pissed . Which both surprises and amuses me to no end. Celeste will probably say no, but at this point, I don’t care. Because the deep satisfaction I get at James’s expression is plenty enough revenge.