by Paula Kay
Honey, I decided to keep a meeting at the agency but I won’t make any decisions without discussing with you first, okay? Be home in an hour or so. Please don’t be mad. xo
She waited for the alert to come, wondering how upset he’d be about the meeting, when Anna came out to greet her. As she put her phone on silence she noticed the incoming text.
Okay - if you think this is what you need to do. I won’t stay mad for too long. ;) I love you.
Gigi smiled. She knew that Douglas would come around, and she felt much better going into the meeting with his blessing. She still wouldn’t make any decisions, though, without discussing it further with him. She owed him that.
Gigi tried to quiet her thoughts and focus on her conversation with Anna, who was leading her into her office.
“Gigi, it’s been a long time since we’ve seen you here,” Anna said. “I must admit that I was a bit surprised to see your meeting in my calendar.”
“Yes, it has been a long time. And thank you for working me into your schedule.”
“You know, we were all so sad to hear about the tragic loss of the Sinclairs—and then the daughter. God, that must have been so awful for you. I can’t even imagine.”
Gigi was nodding her head. The agency had sent beautiful flower arrangements for both memorial services, and Anna herself had called Gigi with her condolences.
“Yes, it really was the most awful time of my life—particularly losing Ari.” Gigi’s eyes filled with tears thinking about it, as was often the case no matter how much time had passed. “But you know. It’s true what they say about it getting easier. And Douglas has helped me with all of that.”
“Yes, we were all very pleased when we saw your wedding announcement in the papers. We agreed among the office that you two seemed the perfect fit for one another. Douglas sure does seem to be taking to marriage well.” Anna laughed.
Douglas and Anna knew each other from various social events, and he was the known bachelor among her and her friends. Gigi had known this when she and Douglas started seeing one another. At first it had felt awkward to her—back in the early days of the courtship, when she’d attended various events with him. But Anna and her friends were among the crowd that made it easier for her, being very accepting and inclusive.
“Thank you. That means a lot to me.” Gigi smiled.
“So what brings you in here today? I assume that you are looking for someone? Is everything going okay with Nathalie?”
“No, actually I came here to talk to you about possible positions for myself.”
Anna looked genuinely surprised as she sat up a bit straighter in her chair. “For you? Really, Gigi?”
“I know it probably sounds weird. I don’t need to tell you that it’s not about the money. I’m just looking for something to fill some of my time. And I do miss taking care of a family, if I’m being honest. As strange as that probably sounds.” Gigi laughed, trying to make her situation sound a little less serious than what it had become. She didn’t need to fill Anna in on all of the details or the frustrations between her and Douglas. She trusted her—but still, it was a small social circle, and she didn’t need it to get out there that she and Douglas were having any kind of marriage problems.
Anna looked at her intently for a moment before she got busy on the computer in front of her. “Okay, let’s see what I have available right now. I’ll just pull some of the listings. Do you have any specifics of what you are looking for?”
“I think ideally it would be something part-time; probably with weekends off would be best.”
She wanted to be sure that she could at least allocate long weekends with Douglas in case they wanted to go out of town. Even as she had the thought, her stomach lurched. Long weekends were not going to be enough for any of the travel that they’d talked about doing. No matter how much she tried to convince herself otherwise, Douglas was right about the fact that her having a job was going to interfere with any travel plans that might want to make.
“Okay.” Anna was peering at her computer screen. “I do have one job right now. It’s in Pacific Heights and they are looking for someone to come in around thirty hours per week. The times are negotiable and they said that the person could have weekends off if they were willing to work the occasional weekend dinner party. Does this sound interesting to you? Gigi?”
Gigi’s thoughts had turned back to Douglas and the argument that they’d had the other day about her working again.
“Sorry, Anna. Yes, that might be interesting to me.” She knew that her face was belying the interest she was trying to show—that she didn’t really feel about the position.
Anna seemed to be studying her for a minute before she spoke. “Tell you what. Why don’t you go home and think about this a bit more? If it feels like a fit to you, give me a call back and we’ll set up an interview. How does that sound?”
Gigi felt relieved, although she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Thank God she didn’t really have to fake her excitement about positions she was less than crazy about these days—gone were the times that she needed the income to survive. She just needed to be true to her own feelings about it. And she knew after being there, after talking to Anna, that getting a job was not the answer. She knew that it felt all wrong to her when she really considered it.
“That sounds good, Anna. Thank you. I’ll make a decision and call you within a day or two.” She didn’t want Anna to feel that she’d totally wasted her time, so she would think about it a bit more; but in her heart she knew that it wasn’t what she wanted.
Gigi said her goodbyes at the office and headed to her car, anxious to send a text off to Douglas that she was on her way home. Suddenly she wanted nothing more than to curl up in his arms and hear about his day.
On my way home, honey. I’ve decided it’s a no to a job. I’ll stop bothering you about that. ;) I’m cooking your favorite for dinner. Can’t wait to see you. Love you.
She waited a few minutes before starting the car and didn’t have to wait longer than that for his reply.
That’s good news, love. I can’t wait to see you. Love you too, beautiful.
Gigi smiled as she pulled out of the parking lot to head towards home. They were going to be okay. She and Douglas. That she was sure of.
Chapter 5
Gigi dished Douglas up a second helping of his favorite pasta dish and refilled his wine glass as she listened to him talk about his day. Most often, she loved the normal times like this at the end of the day. No matter how bad or strange she’d been feeling, she was sure that her life was better for having Douglas in it. She loved taking care of him, spending these quiet moments with him, no matter how else she might be feeling on a particular day. Her life might have started to seem a bit boring to her, but it wasn’t her husband that she was bored with. That she was sure of.
“Thank you, honey. Dinner is delicious, as always.” He was grinning at her, teasing her in a way, because they both knew that more often than not the meals were take-out. But Gigi had learned to cook a few dishes and Douglas had seemed to enjoy them, so she was determined to expand her horizons in the kitchen.
A cooking class. Maybe that was something she should look into. She mentally put it on her to-do list of things to check out.
“You’re so welcome. You are easy to please. Thank God.”
They both laughed at her comment.
“So tell me about your day, love—about what happened at the agency.”
Gigi guessed that he’d been holding back from questioning her about it since she returned home, but they needed to have the conversation; they needed to put some closure on the issue of her getting a job.
“Well, first of all, I had a great chat with Lia finally today. We’ve been playing phone tag a lot lately, so it was nice to connect with her.”
“How are she and Antonio doing? Did she invite you to come stay with her?” Douglas winked because he knew that the two of them were always planning a next visit together, something that G
igi knew that he would always encourage—especially now, she thought.
“They’re doing great and she sends her love. Yes, we did talk briefly about a visit soon. Would you like to go? I told her that I thought you might like to spend some time with Antonio at the vineyard. I know it’s something that interests you, yes?”
Douglas was nodding his head. “Yes, we can go there whenever you like. I’m up for anything, and if you think its something you want to do, I can call the travel agency tomorrow.”
“Well, I told her that I was going to hold off for just a bit.” Gigi looked down at her plate, feeling slightly ashamed to tell Douglas her reasons for wanting to wait.
“Really? What’s wrong, Gigi?”
She was trying to hold back her tears, but it couldn’t be helped. Her emotions were all over the place these days and she couldn’t hold them back now.
“Oh, I don’t know. And I told Lia as much. I did share with her how I’ve been feeling. This feeling in the pit of my stomach about what it is I’m supposed to be doing—how I’ve been feeling so confused lately about this stage of my life.” She looked up at him and saw the hurt in his eyes. “It’s not you, honey. I promise you that. And I’m sorry to put you through this. I know it’s not been easy for you lately—that I’ve not been easy lately.”
Douglas reached across the table to grab her hand. “Darling, you don’t need to apologize to me for anything. I only want you to be happy. Really. I wish that I could make you happier—that I knew what to do to help you fix whatever it is that you’re feeling. And I do understand—about the job. If it’s what you want—what you need—I’ll be fine with that. I promise.”
“You know, while I was at the agency, talking to Anna, I decided that it wasn’t what I really wanted after all. She did have a part-time job to tell me about but as she was telling me about the position, it just didn’t feel right to me. And I think that you have a good point about that type of commitment interfering with our travels, with our time together.”
Douglas was nodding his head and seemed to be listening intently to her as she expressed her thoughts about it.
“I don’t want anything to interfere with the time that I have with you. I worked too hard to finally get you to stop working, to let you have a moment of regret about doing so.” Gigi laughed but there was certainly a hint of truth to the statement, as they both knew how difficult it had been for Douglas to cut down on his work as a lawyer.
“Honey, just in case you ever doubt it, I have no regrets about leaving my job to spend more time with you. You’re the best thing to happen to me in a long time.” He brought her hand up to his lips, a gesture that Gigi never tired of.
“Well, then I think we are on the same page, in that whatever we figure out for me to do around here, it’s not going to be something that keeps us from spending more time together.”
“Agreed.” He smiled widely. “Now, back to your meeting with Anna. We’ll be seeing her at the charity event next week. You have that on your calendar, yes?”
“I do, yes. In fact, that’s one reason that Blu and everyone are coming this weekend. She’s been working on a dress for me.” Gigi winked.
“Now that I can’t wait to see.”
Douglas never tired of Gigi’s buying new things for herself, and he was always very generous with his compliments to her, no matter what she was wearing. Being married to Douglas was the best thing she could have done for her self-esteem. Douglas made her feel young and beautiful all the time. And she knew how lucky she was to be married to such a romantic man.
“Oh, speaking of the charity event—there’s something I wanted to show you.” Douglas crossed the room to his briefcase, returned, and placed a magazine in front of Gigi on the table.
Gigi read the headline out loud. “A Story of Hope in Guatemala.”
“It’s actually the second time this week that the organization has come to my attention. Greg—you know, my golfing buddy?” Gigi nodded. “His grandson joined us the other day. Their class is collecting money for the orphanage. I told him that I wanted to find out a little more about it, but that we’d get back to him. Then just today I saw this article.”
Gigi and Douglas had become very involved in numerous charities and organizations. They knew that between the two of them—with Douglas’s very large nest egg and investments from his career as a lawyer, and the enormous inheritance that Gigi had been given by Arianna—they had more than enough money to live lavishly the rest of their lives. But that wasn’t to say that they just threw their money at things without thought. Gigi really appreciated that about Douglas, and it was something that he had taught her—because being able to give so generously was a rather foreign thing for Gigi, who had worked hard all of her life just to be able to support herself.
Gigi had quickly skimmed the article and was now folding the page over to show it to Douglas. “Oh, Douglas. Their little faces.” She felt the tears forming in her eyes for having read about the lives of so many of these children and then seeing picture upon picture of their big brown eyes filled with hope—smiles on their faces, seemingly oblivious of the fact that anything was wrong in their world. Well, of course one couldn’t tell that from an article and a few pictures, but she thought that they looked happy despite their rough start in life.
“I know. The pictures got to me too, I must say. And Matt, Greg’s grandson, had a lot more material with more pictures of the kids and the place where they are living. What do you think? Shall I write him a check and send it over tomorrow?”
“Hmm.”
“What’s hmm, darling?”
“Did you read this whole article? The part about their huge volunteer department and what all of their needs are? This is quite a thing they are doing. And the part about the American couple. It’s very interesting. Very commendable, I’d say—to give up so much of their lives for these kids.”
“Yes. It’s an incredible story. Do you agree with me then? About a donation?”
“Oh yes, a hundred times yes. I can’t think of anything right now that I’d rather see our money go to.”
And Gigi felt the hint of something stirring within her. It wasn’t something she’d be able to put into words just then, but somehow the pictures of those children had touched her, and looking at Douglas across from her now with the checkbook he’d retrieved from his briefcase—she knew that it had touched him too.
Chapter 6
Gigi sucked in her stomach, trying to be discreet about it while at the same time barely containing her laughter.
“Gigi, stop.” Blu laughed as she attempted to put pins in the appropriate spots of Gigi’s new gown without sticking her. “You don’t need to do that. Your figure is gorgeous.”
“Oh, you are way too kind.”
“No, I’m serious, and you know that I fit a lot of women. You’ve done a great job keeping yourself in shape. You should be proud. And I know how much Douglas appreciates your curves.” Blu winked.
“Well, Douglas is very good for my ego. This is true.” Gigi laughed. “I really love the dress, by the way. You’ve outdone yourself, and you must let me treat you to something while you’re here.”
“Don’t be silly. I love designing for you, and just getting away for a few days is treat enough for me—for all of us. Chase has been working a lot of hours lately and I’ve been pretty busy with the new line—and the girls, of course.”
They both looked over at eighteen-month-old Kylie, who seemed to be sleeping peacefully in the playpen that Gigi had set up for her in the corner of the room.
“She really is so gorgeous, Blu. I’m guessing that Chase is as happy with fatherhood as you seem to be with the newest addition to your family.”
“Ya know, he really is a great dad. I knew that he would be.” Blu smiled widely, and Gigi was reminded of everything that she’d seen the young girl go through since she’d known her.
She’d liked Blu since the first day Arianna had brought her and her daughter Jemma
to the house for dinner. Arianna had been just nineteen then and it was a rough time between her and her parents. Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair hadn’t really approved of any of Arianna’s friends and Gigi had sensed their quick judgment of Blu, with her punky hair, tattoos, and young daughter.
But Gigi had a different sense about the girl. A sense that had been right on as she saw the intense love and loyalty for Arianna that would come to pass over the years ahead. Blu was there for Arianna like no one else had been, and Gigi would always be extremely grateful for that.
Blu was nudging her playfully. “Penny for your thoughts.”
“Oh, sorry. What were you saying?”
“I was just mentioning how excited Jemma had been when she found out we were coming up. She really does adore you and Douglas. Even though I know she can be a bit of a pain sometimes.”
“Well, I haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary so far. She’s always pretty polite to us; but I have seen her throw some serious attitude your way, so I think I have an idea what you are talking about. I guess maybe it’s her age?”
Jemma had just turned eleven, which Gigi could hardly believe. She’d known the young girl since she was three and definitely seen her go through some significant changes in her life. In her opinion, it was bound to be challenging for the child—going from a life in San Francisco, where Blu had worked three jobs to earn a decent living for them, to the beach house in La Jolla, where Blu had developed her very successful career as one of America’s finest clothing designers. Gigi knew that Jemma now had more of the things that wealth brought, but it also meant sharing the attention of Blu.
“Yes, I’m sure it does have to do with her age—this whole pre-teen period I keep hearing about.” Blu’s words interrupted Gigi’s own thoughts about the child. “And I have been keeping an eye on her—ya know, to see how she’s doing with all of the changes. First there was the adjustment of having my mom move in with us, then before you knew it she had a new sister to share the limelight with, and after all that, the wedding. I suppose it’s a lot for a child to deal with, really.”