Chapter 22 #2
“I like him. A lot. I didn’t want to leave him to come here. Not sure if that equates to being gone over him, but there you have it.”
“Dude, you can’t even do a rebound right.”
“I haven’t had much experience, don’t forget.”
“Trust me, I know.” Gigi pulled up to the gate at Jordan’s home and punched in the code. The gates opened, and Gigi drove in, made sure the gate closed behind them and parked by the kitchen door.
“Home sweet home.” After she’d spent a few weeks on Gansett Island, the massive house no longer felt like home. Another thought hit her, rendering her paralyzed with fear. “You don’t think he’s here, do you?”
Gigi shocked the shit out of Jordan when she opened the glove box, removed a small handgun and slammed the box closed. “I’ll check. Stay here.”
Gigi let herself into the house with her key. Ten minutes after she went in, Gigi came to the door and waved for Jordan to go in.
She got out of the car, retrieved her suitcase from the backseat and went inside. The place smelled stale, as if it had been closed off. Her cleaning lady had come every other week while she was gone, but it was apparent no one had lived there in a while.
“Where in the hell did you get a gun?”
Gigi tucked the gun into the back of her pants in a maneuver that seemed well practiced.
“Never mind where I got it. If he’d been in here, you would’ve been damned glad I had it.”
Jordan couldn’t argue with that.
Gigi went to the fridge and took out an unopened bottle of sparkling water and poured glasses for both of them. “Back to what we were talking about before.”
“What were we talking about?”
“Rebounds.”
“Oh, right.”
“Listen, I know your dad did a number on you and Nik. I get why you steered clear of boys and dating and all the bullshit that goes with it until you met dickwad and lost your mind over him. But you’re not going to spend the rest of your life with the second guy you ever slept with!
That doesn’t happen. You’re supposed to play the field, date all the guys, have all the sex, and in two to three years, if you find someone who does it for you, then maybe you start having visions of sugarplums.”
“What the fuck are sugarplums, anyway?”
“That’s not the point! Did you hear anything else I said?”
“I heard you. I think they heard you in Sacramento.”
“This is important shit, J. You need time to heal and figure out your life. It’s not the time to be falling in love with some random dude on that ridiculous island you and your sister love so much.”
“He’s not a random dude. His name is Mason, and he saved my life.”
“For which we will always be grateful, but you can take gratitude too far. You had a fun time with him. You had some hot sex that you badly needed after limp dick disappointed you for as long as you’ve known him.
That’s all it needs to be. You can’t fall for every guy you sleep with.
” She rolled her eyes to high heaven. “Where in the hell did I go wrong with you?”
Jordan was trying not to laugh, which wasn’t easy when Gigi was around.
Even though the things her friend had said hurt to hear, it didn’t change how Jordan felt about Mason.
She understood and even agreed with what Gigi was saying, but her friend hadn’t spent time with Mason or seen how it was with him.
“Can we talk about the show?”
“Yes,” Gigi said emphatically. “Please. Let’s talk about the show.”
“Would you consider doing it on Gansett Island?”
Gigi’s face lost all expression. And then she busted up laughing. She laughed so hard, she nearly hyperventilated. When she finally recovered, she took a deep breath and released it. “I forgot how fucking hysterical you can be.”
“I’m not joking.”
“You have to be, because that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Hear me out.”
“No, J, I’m not going to hear you out. The network wants another season of the show we do here.
You remember what goes on here, right? Nightlife and parties and cool stores and amazing houses and beautiful people.
If you go in there tomorrow and tell them you want to move the show—and all the people who work on it—to some remote-ass island in the middle of nowhere Rhode Island, you’re almost asking them to sue you. ”
“The show is you and me being you and me. Who says we can’t do that somewhere other than here?”
“I say. That’s who. I don’t want to live in Bumfuck, Rhode Island. My whole life is here.”
“You’ve never even been there. How do you know you wouldn’t like it?”
Gigi stared at her as if she was insane or certifiable or from another planet. “Are you listening to yourself right now? Have you met me? I can assure you with one hundred percent certainty that I would not like it there.”
Jordan’s heart sank at Gigi’s emphatic dismissal of her plan. It had been the hope she’d clung to on the long flight. “Do you know how to change the code to the gate and the door?”
“No, but Nik does. I’ll text her.”
With info she got from Nikki, Gigi took care of changing the codes at the gate and on the back door, which made Jordan feel safer about being there alone.
“I’ll stay if you want me to,” Gigi said. “I’m happy to.”
“No need. As long as the codes are changed, I’m fine here.”
“I’ll meet you in town at noon tomorrow?”
“I’ll be there.”
Gigi put her hands on Jordan’s shoulders and looked directly into Jordan’s eyes.
“I know your head is all fucked after the last few months, but it’s time to get back to normal around here.
Come into that meeting with your head on straight.
Whether we like it or not, the show has become big business.
They’re not going to let you out of the contract without a protracted and expensive legal fight that we don’t need right now. ”
“I hear you. I’ll see you tomorrow. Thanks for the pickup and everything else you’ve been doing for me.”
Gigi planted a noisy kiss on Jordan’s forehead. “Anything for you, kid. See you tomorrow. Call me if you need anything.” She lived at the beach but would come running if Jordan needed her. She had no doubt about that. They’d had each other’s backs for years, and that would never change.
After Gigi left, Jordan wandered around the big, open, airy house she’d once been so in love with.
She looked out at the pool that had been cared for in her absence by the company that came weekly to clean it.
Everything was just as she’d left it, but she felt out of place here.
And it wasn’t because of Brendan. He’d been on the road so much of the time that this had never felt like their home.
It’d been hers and Nik’s before her sister decamped for Gansett.