7. Gavin
Gavin
When Dani and I get back with coffee, I leave her with Alexa in the editing suite.
I keep my promise, and don’t bring up her relationship with Sam again.
But the thought of them together is eating me up inside.
Not because she’s with someone. I’m not stupid.
Of course she found someone after all this time.
But why does it have to be him? He’s an arrogant jackass, and if she knew half the stuff he pulled while we were together, she wouldn’t look at him again.
Or me.
I go back into my office and slam the door. “Fuck!” I scream, reaching my hands up in my hair and grabbing the roots in frustration. I really hope no one outside my door heard that. Right on cue, I hear a light knock on my door.
“Come in,” I force out in a calm tone.
The door slightly opens and a mousy-looking woman I vaguely remember meeting yesterday sticks her head in.
“Everything alright in here?” she says cautiously. “We heard you yell.”
“Yes, sorry. Everything is fine. Just banged my knee.”
“Do I need to get the first aid kit?” Her lips pull into a small smile, but her expression still holds genuine concern.
“No, no. It’s already feeling better. Just the initial impact caught me off guard. I appreciate the concern though. Go ahead and get back to whatever you were doing… I’m so sorry, please remind me your name again?”
“Jenny.”
“Jenny. Thank you, Jenny. I promise to remember that.” I return her smile with one of my own to show my gratitude.
“Okay then. If you’re sure.” She closes the door, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
I can’t let my personal feelings impact my job. I can’t have another outburst like that happen. No matter what I say, Dani isn’t going to listen.
Even if I did tell her what Sam is really like, the truth of what I learned about him all those years ago, she would never believe me. And even if she did… well, I don’t even want to think about that. It’s not worth risking everything both of us have worked for all these years.
I pull out my phone and decide there’s only one person I can talk to about this. I scroll through my contacts until I find who I’m looking for and hit the video call button. I make myself comfortable in my chair when I hear “Hey, dickwad” from my phone’s speaker.
I laugh. “Good to see you too, bro.”
Emmett is my fraternal twin brother, and my best friend. If you looked at us, you’d never guess we were related. I got Dad’s dark blond hair and blue eyes, while he takes after Mom with his brown hair and steel-gray eyes. He also makes my six-one frame look short, towering over me at six-five.
After our parents died, it felt like our worlds were empty, and all we had left were each other. We became each other’s anchors.
When I decided to go into journalism, he took over the repair business so our regular customers wouldn’t lose someone they could rely on.
I’ll never forget that. How he put my dreams above his own plans.
Turns out, it was the best thing that could have happened.
Business has been booming for years, and he’s even been able to hire a whole team to help with the load.
“Shouldn’t you be telling people to go hide in their homes from a natural disaster or to go outside because the weather is really pretty?” Emmett quips.
“Ha. Ha. You’re so funny.” I hold up my middle finger to the screen.
“But seriously, what’s up?” His tone drops. “You never call me in the middle of the day unless it’s serious.”
I take a deep breath. “So, guess who runs my afternoon shows?”
“Uh. Anderson Cooper.”
“Very funny.”
“You know I don’t know people in news unless they’re like super famous. How the hell would I know?”
“Think about it. Who’s the last person on the planet I should be around?”
Emmett scrunches his face like he’s really thinking about it. Suddenly, his forehead relaxes, and his eyes widen, sending his eyebrows to his hairline. “No!”
I nod.
“Dani is there?” He stutters, “But… how… I thought… What?” His jaw falls.
“Do you need a moment to process, or can I talk to you about this like I need to?”
“Sorry, dude, but holy shit. I mean this is Dani. How’re you holding up?”
“How do you think?” I sink in my chair. “The minute I saw her, it was like no time had passed. She’s still as incredible as the last time I saw her.
She still has the fire and passion that first drew me towards her, and I didn’t think it was even possible for her to be even more gorgeous than before.
All I wanted to do was scoop her up in my arms and tell her what an idiot I was all those years ago.
Hell, I wanted to do that the minute I made that stupid phone call.
And then I found out I beat her for this job. ”
“You what?”
“Yeah. Just to make matters worse, I found out it was between her and me for this job. And obviously we know how that turned out.”
“Oh, she must love that,” he chuckles.
“It was a rough first day. We had some disagreements that led to a tense moment in the story pitch meeting, which led to an even worse lunch. Feelings were had.”
“Yours, or hers?”
“Both.” I wince.
“Gavin, maybe this is a sign. I know how you believe in all that mumbo jumbo. Geez, you both do. Maybe it’s time to really tell her what happened. I’m sure enough time has passed. There’s no way—”
“Yeah, I thought that too. Until I found out who she’s dating.”
Emmett freezes, his mind catching up to what I just said. Suddenly, the phone slips from his hand, and I hear him shout off-screen, “That motherfucker!”
“Oh sure. That you put together at the speed of light but not the Dani thing?”
The image shakes as Emmett grabs the phone again. His face snapping back into frame.
“How are you not in jail for assault right now? Or worse?” Emmett says, trying to calm himself down.
“Every ounce of willpower.”
“Gavin, you have to tell her.”
I drop my head. “Dani can’t know. You know what Sam will do. This is my way of protecting her, even if it means she’s dating him. I’m planning to keep an eye on her. The minute I see anything I don’t like, I’ll handle it.”
“You know I trust you. You always protect everyone around you. It’s who you are. But…” I can see he’s trying to collect his thoughts. “I saw you after you guys broke up. You were not okay. It scared me, Gavin. I don’t want to see you go back to that place.”
“I promise, Emmett, I won’t go there again. You know that.” I smile. “I’m in a better place now. I have you. I have my career. I’m good.”
“I’m always here if you need me,” he says softly. “Love you, brother.”
“Love you back. I have to get to work. Call you this weekend?”
“You better, or I’m flying out there to do a welfare check.”
I bring the back of my hand up to my forehead and pretend to faint. “Oh, the horror. My baby brother coming to visit me.”
“Hey! I’m only three minutes younger! And don’t forget who’s taller.”
“Yeah, yeah. Bye!”
I click the end button and drop the phone on my desk.
We’ve talked about Emmett eventually moving out here, so we aren’t alone in our respective cities, but I don’t know if it will ever happen without me giving him a kick in the pants.
Even though he has the business, there’s nothing else tying him down back in Pennsylvania.
He’s never been one for a committed relationship, and honestly, now that he has employees, he mainly runs things from behind a desk anyway.
He could technically do that from anywhere.
I make a mental note to bring it up to him during our call this weekend.
I decide to check in on Dani’s fill-in for the afternoon shows and see how they’re looking for air.
After discussing a few changes, I’m satisfied with what we’ve come up with and make my way towards the area that houses the editing suites.
Down the hall, I hear the faint sounds of Dani and Alexa’s voices filling the space.
I find them in one of the darkened enclosed spaces, with the sliding door cracked.
Alexa is staring intently at the dual monitors, with her interview in one, and old footage of Tate from City Council meetings in the other.
Dani has her head down, scribbling notes onto a pad.
I quietly knock, careful not to interrupt their flow too much.
“Come in,” Alexa says without turning around.
“Just came by to see how it’s going,” I say cheerfully.
“We have the outline figured out.” Alexa turns towards me. “Now we’re deciding on the exact sound bites to use. Once that’s done, it will be easy to cover it with the different pieces of video.”
I see Dani checking time codes on the computer and writing them on her pad. Even though she hasn’t turned around, I see a scowl on her face.
“She okay over there?” I ask Alexa, pointing towards Dani.
“Oh, this is normal for her when on a deadline for a big project. She gets hyper focused and it’s kind of hard to break her out of it. Don’t take it personally.”
“I also just don’t feel like talking to you right now,” Dani mutters.
“Oh right. And there’s that.” Alexa shrugs.
She’s pissed. I get it. But this attitude can only last for so long. We need to be professional. I let it go for now.
“I will take that as my cue to let you ladies work. I’m here if you need me. And if you want to order dinner, let me know and I’ll put it on the company card.”
“Well in that case, we’ll take steak and lobster please,” Alexa says.
“Nice try.” I smile. “Come by my office in a few hours and let me know what you want.”
As I’m leaving the room, I hear Alexa say, “Thanks, Gavin.”
I mouth, you’re welcome back to her on my way out, but Dani still refuses to turn around.
Her deliberate avoidance hits me harder than I expect.
I try to shake off the sharp twist in my gut, willing myself not to care.
I have too much work to do, too much at stake, to let Dani’s silent tantrum derail this.
Still, a part of me hurts at the dismissal, and it continues to nag me as I make my way back to my office.