Chapter 30
Garnet was glad Brady was in the States. He hadn’t come home yet, but he would be heading her way in the next day or so. She couldn’t wait to see him. She’d woken up this morning to dreams of him kissing her. That had been different.
She was glad Ansley was teaching her class, or she would have seen how red her face was. Anytime she blushed, it was like a fire going off under her epidermis. She thought she looked like a clown when she blushed with her red hair and cheeks so pink that it looked like she had overused her makeup.
Garnet planned to put together a gift basket for Ansley.
She would add coffee pods, lotion, and some soaps.
She wanted to thank her for her hospitality.
She didn’t have a car, so she wasn’t driving to the store.
Otherwise, she would have picked up groceries for Ansley.
She was thankful her friend wasn’t making a big deal out of the grocery thing.
When she’d first shown up, she’d been too tired to think clearly and offer money. Bringing it up now would be weird.
Ansley came out of her office, and Garnet turned to face her, seeing her friend’s big smile.
“Good morning,” Ansley said.
“Good morning.” Garnet had an idea. “Hey, how about I order us pizza or Asian food tonight for dinner?”
Ansley tilted her head to the side. “How about Asian? There’s that place not too far from here.”
“Sure. We can figure out what we want, and I’ll place the order close to five.”
“That’s very nice of you. But you don’t have to do that.”
“Trust me, your hospitality is amazing. I want to thank you.”
“You don’t have to, and I know you’d do the same for me if I were in a similar situation.”
“I would. I absolutely would have you stay at my place if you needed help.”
Garnet grabbed her coffee and took a sip. “I’ve never really had close friends. I think I’m a little too analytical to just hang out and have fun.”
Ansley snorted a laugh. “In the military, we got all types. You had to learn that not everyone is the same. There were women who got angry when people didn’t act in certain ways.
It’s one reason I moved up in ranks and got good assignments.
I was willing to be kind to people who were different, and that meant they worked hard for me. ”
“That’s awesome. My job doesn’t really put me working with others often. Like, I don’t really know my coworkers. There are a few I know better than others, but I would never really have a relationship outside work with them.”
“I get that. At the job I’m at now, I don’t really spend time with the other people who teach. We have a weekly meeting, but we’re all over the world, so it means we haven’t met face to face yet.”
“That’s kind of cool. I mean, you’re teaching English to people. They’ll remember that for a long time.”
Ansley nodded. “It is good. I’m glad I get to help them.”
Garnet checked her watch and sighed. “I guess I need to work a little today.”
They both laughed. She had her coffee mug and was about to grab her computer when her phone rang. She glanced at the screen, seeing it was one of her colleagues. “Oh, this is someone I work with. I guess I have to take it.”
“Sure. I’ll text you in a bit with what I want for dinner.”
“Thank you.” Garnet grabbed her phone and answered. “Hey, Mr. Pearson, what can I do for you?”
“Garnet, you can call me Jack.”
She never got familiar with the people she worked with. She thought it gave the wrong impression. “Um, okay. So what can I do for you?”
“I need to meet and discuss a new project we’re putting together. I can come to you.”
“Oh, um, well, I’m not in DC right now.”
“This project is a bit of a crush. We need to figure it out now. So I can hop on a plane and come to you.”
She felt very weird telling Jack Pearson where she was hiding. Maybe she could head to DC. That might be better.
“Listen,” Jack said. “I know what happened in Beirut shook you up, but you have to move past it. You’re here in the US. That was something that happens over there, not here.”
His mentioning Beirut made her feel weird. She guessed everyone she worked with knew what happened. People talked, and being taken by terrorists had been very traumatic. She’d been abducted from her hotel. Jack may not know the reason, but he had to know it had been hard on her.
“Listen, why don’t we do a video call. That would be better.”
He didn’t say anything for a long moment, and to her it felt like he was angry.
She hated the idea that she might disappoint him, but she had few options.
He was going to be disappointed in her because she didn’t want him to come and see her, and now she was thinking there was no way she would go see him.
She absolutely wouldn’t say where she was staying.
“I know you’re near Fayetteville. I can just come down there. We can meet at a coffee shop or something.”
Panic slid through her. How did he know she was in North Carolina? She hadn’t said anything about being close to Fayetteville. If she didn’t work with Jack, she would have hung up and blocked his number.
“No one knows where I am.”
He had the audacity to laugh. “You should know it’s not that hard to find someone.”
“Don’t come here. We can have a video meeting if we need to meet. I won’t be coming to any office for a while.”
She ended the call, knowing it was rude, but she couldn’t stay on the line any longer without saying something that would get her in trouble. Fear slid through her, leaving her stuck in a pattern of indecision.