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“She’s took off and left everyone in Atlanta.”
A thousand questions ran through Amelia’s mind. “Where did she go? Is she okay? What’s going on with the show?”
“Postponed for now. The rest of the family went back to their island home in Puerto Rico.”
“And the crew?” The pause on the other end of the line indicated trouble. Amelia let out a whistle. While MET paid their employees well, a lot of bonuses were given to the camera crew if they were able to catch a scandalous conversation or an outrageous act from one of the family members. The camera loved Natalia, but the female public loved her brother Nicholas and often tried to get him in precarious situations. Twitter had been his downfall. Nicholas’s bad habit of wanting to let everyone know where he was going often led to a swarm of women waiting to throw themselves at him. The Nicholas crew earned bonuses for every half-naked woman they caught sneaking out of his hotel room.
Amelia imagined Rory shaking her head back and forth. “Nope, you know Christopher does not want you to think about work while you’re on leave. Are you ready to come back to work?”
Considering Grandmamma was getting better, Amelia could go back to work, but the image of Nate’s face flashed in her mind. He wasn’t out of her system.
“Your hesitation tells me you want to extend your stay,” said Rory. “We’ve got an assistant producer on standby in case Natalia shows up, so you’re free to continue your leave.”
“How mad would Mr. Kelly be?”
Rory sighed on the other end of the line. “He’s fine with however much time you want to take. Jesus, girl, you haven’t taken a break since you started here. Chris didn’t think four weeks was going to be enough. Wait until I tell him.”
“Don’t tell him everything,” Amelia said, panicked.
“I’ll tell him—” Rory faked a cough into the receiver “—you’re sick or something.”
Laughing, Amelia shook her head. “You’re supposed to be a professional at a multibillion-dollar company.”
“Yes, but I’m your friend first. Take as much time as you need.”
“It’s not like I’m never coming back.” Amelia chewed on her bottom lip; her mind wondered what Natalia was up to. First she’d had a secret meeting with an old friend and now this disappearing act. Her fingers itched to call up Natalia.
“Famous last words,” Rory
sang before she ended the call.
After hanging up with her friend, Amelia stepped out of her grandmother’s Nissan and pulled up the elastic of her black yoga pants before she headed inside the convenience store. Amelia had turned in her rental yesterday afternoon with Pastor Rivers, who volunteered to give her a ride back to the house. It seems since he was the one who found Grandmamma, he’d driven her car to the hospital and had hung on to it until Grandmamma was better.
Amelia let out a sigh with the relief of the pressure of her waistband. All this eating out was putting a damper on her figure. Amelia folded her arms over her faded green, over-washed Florida A&M T-shirt and stood in front of the rack filled with tabloids and glossy magazines with celebrities on the covers. With her forced break from work, she had somewhat lost touch with life in the reality TV world. Two weeks ago, the coverage of the Ruiz family had been crazy. The family had been featured in every magazine. There was no such thing as bad publicity. Rather than every tabloid magazine featuring Natalia and her family, just every other magazine did. However, instead of catching Natalia in some risqué pose or gown, a question mark covered her face. Have you seen her? captioned the photos.
Amelia grabbed three magazines and a bag of ice and headed to the register. To avoid her name being recognized by the cashier—a man she remembered being in detention a lot during high school—Amelia paid for her purchases with cash and headed for a quick exit. The sliding glass doors dinged her departure. A group of teenagers skateboarded off the curb of the walkway in front of the convenience store. Despite the temperatures spiking into triple digits, some of the boys wore knit caps over their heads. She shook her head and chuckled, biting back the irony of the boys’ flip-flops.
“I’d be careful of smiling like that.”
“What?” Amelia’s attention was drawn to the hot guy leaning against the hood of her grandmother’s car. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight of Nate in a pair of black basketball shorts, a T-shirt and a pair of athletic slides covering his bare feet. With his arms folded across his chest, she got a peek at the tattoo peeping out from the V of his shirt. She pressed her lips together to keep from smiling too hard.
“Your smile is capable of melting your bag of ice.” Nate pushed away from her car to meet her. He took the bag from her hand, letting his thumb stroke across her wrist. Her heart raced. “Let me get this.”
“Are you stalking me?” Amelia teased. She tucked the magazines under her arm for fear of being ridiculed.
“If I am?” He took her keys from her other hand and walked toward the trunk.
Amelia cocked her head to the side and enjoyed the view. “I’m not complaining.”
“So I’ve caught you in a good mood?”
“You’re the second person to point out my demeanor. Am I normally a grouch?”
Nate winked. “I’m not answering the question on grounds I’m planning on kissing you later.”
With a playful groan, Amelia rolled her eyes. “I’m in a good mood because I’m out of the house.”
“Did your grandmother find evidence of me being there and threaten to ground you?” Nate opened and shut the trunk and joined Amelia as she leaned against the door of the driver’s side of her vehicle. Nate had parked his SUV next to hers and stood with his back to his passenger door and his feet stretched toward hers.
