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“Hello?” She sounds sleepy.
“Did I wake you?”
“Blake? No, but I’ve been up since the crack of dawn, managing a crisis, so I was about to tuck in early.” Yeah, in New York they’re two hours ahead. “What’s up? Are you still at the Billy?”
“Not exactly.” I take a deep breath and try to give her the briefest account of everything that’s happened in the past few days. When I’m done, I repeat the same question to her I was asking myself, “Did I overreact?”
“Honey, no, the guy sort of threw a curve ball at you. There’s no right or wrong reaction. But I don’t think the situation is all black or white, either.”
“What do you mean?”
“He seems to be really into you and, to be fair, he had realized his mistake and called off the whole thing.”
“But isn’t it a little crazy that he’d planned a fake disaster to trap me here?”
“Shall we say overzealous? And love makes you do the craziest things; my sister once dragged me out of bed to go stalk her then-boyfriend in the middle of the night, and she’s mostly a normal person.”
“How old was she at the time?”
“Twenty, but it doesn’t matter. What I’m saying is, do you like Gabriel? Do you think he deserves a second chance?”
“I like him.” I clutch the phone at my admission. “Maybe too much. And I don’t want to wake up someday and find out I’m in a relationship with a control freak who’s trying to make decisions for me.”
“Then double-check he understands that and take things slow. Make sure you can really trust him before you jump into anything serious.”
“Is that what you’d do if you were me? You’d just give him a free pass for a kidnapping attempt?”
“You won’t like my answer.”
“Why not?”
“Because I have so many responsibilities in my job, so many decisions that I have to make daily that I like when a man takes control in a relationship.”
“We’re not talking a Christian Grey scenario, are we?”
“Gosh, no, I didn’t mean any of that domineering stuff. Just that I like to be led a little. And to me, being whisked away to a beautiful, romantic cottage in the woods by a man I like wouldn’t be the worst thing.”
“Even if he lied to you about the circumstances.”
“He lied about the scavenger hunt as well, but I didn’t hear you complain about the picnic. I find the fact that he would go to such lengths just to have dinner with you kind of romantic.”
“And not controlling?”
“I don’t know, he seems very respectful of your boundaries in any way that matters. Even if he’d trapped you there for a few hours, nothing would’ve happened that you didn’t want as well.” Pause. “Is the problem that you fear what you want? How much you want it? Are you taking this as your excuse to bail and run for the hills?”
My heart flutters because it knows how much it wants Gabriel, and my best friend just nailed me. Two against one, I can’t win. “Gosh, I hate you. And just, FYI, I’m trapped here for the next few days. I can’t go anywhere.”
“So use your time as a captive of the Beast wisely. Find out if he isn’t really a beautiful prince. At least he didn’t literally imprison you.”
“Hilarious.”
“So are you going to let him stew in the west wing all night?”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
“All right, hon, I’m really exhausted. No matter how much I enjoy discussing your romantic captivity, I have to sleep.”
“There will come a day when you’ll be having men trouble, and then it’ll be my turn to laugh.”
