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"Yourself? You mean, you weren't with someone?"
Gemma smiled. "Well. I was on my own for most of the time," she admitted. "But I'm not saying anything more, for now," she said over the sound of Natalie's screaming from the other end of the line.
"It was him, wasn't it?" Natalie demanded to know.
"I made a promise, Natalie. And I'm not ready to break it."
"What do you mean?"
"Just what I say. I have some thinking to do," Gemma explained.
Natalie made a sound that told Gemma her friend was now intrigued. But she wouldn't give Natalie any more details.
Not until she'd made the decision which she'd been mulling over during the drive back to the city.
That decision might possibly be life-changing. She smiled wryly. As if what had happened up there, in the desert, hadn't been life changing enough, she told herself.
"I see you haven't posted online anything since you got back," Natalie said.
"I'm still thinking about what I want to tell everyone."
Natalie snorted. "You do know you're driving me nuts with all this mystery, don't you," she exclaimed. "And everyone is still talking about you and..." Natalie paused a moment, then added, "the other person," Natalie said, avoiding any mention of Ahmed.
Gemma was relieved that Natalie hadn't mentioned Ahmed by name. That would have opened another line of questioning, and she definitely didn't want to go down that route.
Not until she'd made sense of everything.
"I'm not trying to drive you or anybody else crazy," Gemma replied. She thought for a moment. "I've been doing enough of that to myself recently," she muttered.
"What's that supposed to mean?" her friend asked.
"Nothing," Gemma replied. "Forget I said it."
"Sounds like you've got stuff to think about. Like, serious stuff?"
Gemma nodded. "You could say that. I thought by going away for a while, I'd make things easier for myself. Instead, I seem to have made things more complicated."
Natalie sighed heavily. "I'm going to hang up any minute," she stated. "Any more of this teasing of yours, and I'll have to go online myself and tell everyone you're back." Natalie paused dramatically. "But behaving very strangely," she drawled.
Gemma knew Natalie was probably only joking. Natalie wouldn't do anything like that. They'd been the best of friends for too long for that to happen.
"I'm sorry, Nat," Gemma said. "Just give me a little time."
"Okay," Natalie agreed.
Gemma felt relief when she heard her best friend agree to keeping her secret for just a little while longer.
"I just wanted you to know I'm safe," Gemma said. "You know I love you," she added.
Natalie paused and Gemma was sure she could hear a little snuffling sound at the other end of the phone.
"And I love you too, Gemma," Natalie replied, her voice cracking slightly.
"I gotta go," Gemma announced.
"Call me later, okay," Natalie said.
And that was that, Gemma told herself. The first person she'd wanted to speak to since coming back had been Natalie. And she'd done it. She didn't want Natalie worrying any more.
