Married In The Morning

“We worked together for six years. We’ve known each other twelve.”

She shook her head. “You don’t really know the people you work with.”

“Are you telling me you’re hiding some deep, dark secret?”

“I’m telling you we made a mistake and I don’t want to continue it. I want out.” She combed her fingers through her thick brown hair, then shook her head in disgust. “I’ve got problems enough with my dad and I don’t have the mental energy to argue with you. I don’t even have time to be as diplomatic as I probably should be. And you don’t, either. You’ve got a new job to go to.”

“That’s funny. Last week you were insisting only I

could stay behind to run the company in your father’s absence. Now you want me to leave?”

“You need to leave. You need to get on with the rest of your life and I need to get on with mine.”

“I see,” Gerrick said coolly and rose from his chair. Where had his wonderful Gina gone? Where was the sweet passionate woman who tormented him by fingering all the red and black lace bras in the hotel store? Where was the woman who made love with passion and abandon? Where was the woman who had asked him to marry her? “I guess I should head for home, then.”

She nodded.

“I’ll just say goodbye to your father.”

She nodded again. “I’ll be in in a minute.”

Gerrick took no comfort in the fact that Gina appeared to need to collect herself before returning to her father’s room. Heeding doctor’s orders, Gerrick also didn’t tell Hilton that Gina had basically asked him to leave the company. He never lost his smile, his friendly demeanor, or even the spring in his step until he was boarding the commuter at Johnstown’s airport, then he felt as if his entire world was crumbling around him.

He had loved her for months. Before he got the job offer in Maine he had been building up to asking her out by talking with her every chance he got. True, he hadn’t told her about his family, but she knew as much as anybody knew about him personally. And he knew absolutely everything about her. Most of her growing-up years had been documented in the company’s annual statement because it was a family-owned business. He knew her. He knew he loved her. And he knew that without her, his life would have almost no meaning.

His heart actually hurt, and he considered not leaving, waiting around until she came back and then trying to talk to her again. But Gina had made her wishes clear. She wouldn’t be receptive to his staying. She wouldn’t see his refusal to go as tenacity born of love. She would fight him tooth and nail, if only on principle. But more than that, if she didn’t believe she knew him, if she had missed that he had been flirting with her for months, then she hadn’t been paying any attention to him and she was right. She didn’t know him.

So she could not love him.

No matter how many times she had said it on their wedding night, she didn’t love him.

The realization hurt so much he stopped his thoughts. He wouldn’t let himself go any further down that road. He knew better. He knew exactly what happened when a person let grief overwhelm him. He might have been in elementary school when his father left, but he had grieved. He had spent Christmas day on a chair by the window, watching it snow, waiting for his father to return, and when he didn’t six-year-old Gerrick had fallen apart.

Then, when he was twelve his mother took him to spend his summer vacation with her sister, Gerrick’s aunt, and simply never returned. She didn’t give a word of explanation to him or his aunt. She just never came to pick him up. Only one day beyond her scheduled arrival, Gerrick knew what had happened and this time when he fell apart it wasn’t the fear-based agony of a child, but the true grief of a boy on the brink of manhood. No one wanted him, and he knew it.

Anger and rebellion marked the next four years of his life, but on his sixteenth birthday everything changed. He suddenly realized the only person he could count on was himself, but he also saw that wasn’t such a bad thing since he could control what he did. His life took a miraculous upturn. He got a job so he could begin to pay his own way. He made peace with his aunt and uncle and cautiously made friends at school. He didn’t spend his life avoiding relationships, but he was careful and wise beyond his years.

Which was why he was amazed he had rolled the dice with Gina. He let his emotions overrule his common sense and now he was hurting almost as much as he had when he was twelve.

Except this time he had chosen his fate. This time he had a plan, but he hadn’t followed it. When she proposed to him, he tossed his plan and his common sense out the window.

In some ways that made the hurt worse, because he knew this pain was his own fault.

He kept a tight hold on his control through the entire flight to Atlanta and on Sunday occupied himself with writing notes about his job for Josh Anderson, so he did not have time to think about Gina. He didn’t want to be reminded of the things she’d said to him, their marriage or how stupid he had been to panic and marry her before she had a chance to catch up to his level of feelings. If he did, he knew he would crumble, or, worse, do something foolish.

On Monday morning he called Josh Anderson and Ethan McKenzie into Hilton Martin’s office, which he had been using in Hilton’s absence.

“Good morning, Josh, Ethan,” Gerrick said with a nod to Ethan indicating he should close the office door. To look at him, no one would know the suffering of his soul. Gerrick held his emotions so tightly to his chest that even he didn’t fully comprehend the extent of his pain.

“What’s up?” Josh asked, taking a seat across the desk from Gerrick. “I heard you went to Pennsylvania over the weekend. How was Hilton?”

“Weak but recovering,” Gerrick said, as Ethan closed the door and took the second seat across the desk from Gerrick. “And because he’s recovering so quickly and so well, we have some more important things to talk about. First of all, I never told anyone but…”

“But there’s something between you and Gina,” Ethan speculated, his dark eyes bright with merriment.

Josh grinned in agreement. “Olivia told me you got in to see Hilton the day of his heart attack, when none of us was allowed in because we’re not in his immediate family. Olivia guessed…”

Gerrick held up his hands to stop Josh. “Don’t guess. There’s nothing happening between Gina and me. We went to Vegas that weekend to celebrate the fact that I had a new job.…”

“A new job?” Ethan said, sounding confused and reluctant.

Gerrick nodded. “This week is supposed to be the final week of my notice, but I’m going early. Today will be my last day. Hilton has known all along. He supported me during the interview process. He recommended me.”

Josh swiped his hand across the back of his neck. “You can’t be telling us you’re leaving.”

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” Gerrick said, rising from his seat to pace. He normally wasn’t a fidgety person, but keeping such a tight rein on his emotions filled him with impulses and urges he almost couldn’t control. But he did. He turned and smiled at the men in front of Hilton’s desk. “One of you is going to have to take over.”

“You’re a more logical choice than I am,” Ethan said to Josh. “If only because you have to know more about the stores to promote them, but, frankly, Gerrick, I’m shocked that you’re leaving. I’m shocked that you would leave us in a lurch when Hilton is so sick.”

“My new job is as CEO of a grocery store chain in Maine. Their stock just went public. It’s through the roof. The man who started the business is retiring, and everything is set up for this company to explode. I’m on the ground floor. A chance like this comes along once in a lifetime.”

“And Hilton Martin has only really needed us once in a lifetime.”

“Guys, he’s been encouraging me to go.”

Josh peered up. “And what does Gina say?”

Gerrick smiled at the irony. “She’s emphatic that I go. She’s also emphatic that you can handle this without me.”

Ethan slapped his palm on the leather arm of his chair. “Then I guess you go,” he said, but he didn’t sound happy or encouraging.

“And we’ll handle it,” Josh said, as he rose.

The two men walked out of the office without another word and Gerrick rubbed his hands down his face. He had just lost two friends. First, he married Gina and thoroughly pushed her from his life. Then, to accommodate Gina, he had to leave Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods, which alienated his friends. The only person he hadn’t run off was Hilton and Gerrick suspected that if he ever found out about the secret Vegas wedding, Hilton wouldn’t be his supporter anymore, either.

He remembered the old saw: be careful what you wish for because you may get it, and knew it was right. He had wished Gina would notice him, wished he could marry her before he moved to Maine, and both had happened.

And it had not only cost him any chance with her. It also cost his two best friends.

After settling her father in at the hospital in Atlanta, Gina arrived home the following Wednesday, exhausted but satisfied that her dad would eventually be back to normal. She joyfully paid the taxi driver and gave him a healthy tip because he lugged her assorted bags, boxes and mismatched suitcases into the foyer of the Martin mansion.

The first thing she saw after she turned away from the door was a note propped up against a vase on the small mahogany table beneath the large mirror. The envelope bore her name, so she reached for it and ripped it open.

She read it and tears unexpectedly filled her eyes. It said only,

I’m sorry,

Gerrick

P.S. By the way, I did love you. I might always love you.

Overcome, Gina dropped to sit on the bottom step of the stairway that spiraled to the second floor. The funny part of it was, she believed Gerrick really did love her. Or at least he loved the woman she had been in Vegas. Gina didn’t know who that woman was but she did know she was gone for good. Particularly since she had more than a sneaking suspicion her father would begin to train her to take over the company once he returned to work, and her time would be taken up with facts, figures and negotiating strategies. So Gerrick was better off this way. The real Gina Martin wasn’t the kind to fly to Vegas on the spur of the moment, to deliberately buy shimmering lace panties and bras because she knew the man shopping with her was attracted to her and she wanted to tease him.

The real Gina didn’t tease people. The real Gina had thrown away the red bra and thong. The real Gina had invested the money she won playing blackjack.

Gerrick was much better off without her.

She pressed her lips together to stop their trembling, but couldn’t stop the flood of tears that rolled down her cheeks. Though she didn’t remember a big part of it—the most important part—that weekend in Vegas had been the best, most fun weekend of her entire life. But now she had to get back to her real world.

Chapter Three

Between monitoring Josh’s work as temporary head of Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods and overseeing the treatment of her sick father, Gina initially didn’t get much chance to think about Gerrick. When her thoughts did drift to him, she experienced the dull ache of missing him, but convinced herself that any thoughts she had of him were only the typical concern she would have for any co-worker who moved so far away. Particularly when weeks passed without so much as a phone call from him. The very fact that Gerrick never called—not even to check on her father—was proof any feelings he had for her were gone and any feelings she might have had for him were pointless.

At breakfast on the Monday of the fourth week after returning to Atlanta, Gina’s father told her he was coming into the office and wanted her to call an employee meeting in the company cafeteria for ten o’clock that morning. She argued that he wasn’t allowed to come in yet, though even she had to admit both his color and his energy were back. But he told her he had cleared this trip with his doctor and he was going in. Since he still had to get dressed, he told her to feel free to leave without him.

Gina drove to the corporate headquarters and she immediately wrote an e-mail instructing all department heads to have their employees in the cafeteria at ten. Assuming her father wanted everyone together to thank them for their cards, letters and phone calls, she had the maintenance department remove the tables from the room and arrange the chairs for theater seating, before they brought in the podium.

A good daughter and dutiful employee, at ten o’clock Gina was sitting on one of the folding chairs with her co-workers, when her father strode into the room and up to the podium. Wearing a navy-blue suit that complemented his very white hair and pale-blue eyes, Hilton Martin turned to face the assembled crowd. As the employees scrambled to their feet in thunderous applause, Gina also rose, clapping as loudly as everyone else. Her dad was the handsomest man on the face of the earth.

An image of Gerrick flashed in her mind contradicting that conclusion, but she shoved it aside. Not because Gerrick wasn’t attractive, but because he was gone. That was done. She might occasionally think about him and wonder how he was doing, but if Ethan or Josh had gone to Maine, she would have wondered about them, too. She certainly didn’t miss the man who had married her then never called her, and she didn’t long to see him. No matter if that thought did pop into her brain, she wouldn’t sanction it. He was gone. G-o-n-e.

“Sit. Sit,” Hilton said, waving aside their applause, though Gina could see he was pleased by the welcome he received. “You’re gonna make me feel like you missed me,” he teased and the employees laughed. He motioned with his hand that everyone should sit and the applause stopped. The room grew quiet.

“Okay. I know you’re wondering why I called you in this morning. Most of you are probably wondering why I’m even here.”

“Yeah, this was my week to use your executive washroom,” one of the employees called out, continuing the running joke the sales staff had about commandeering his washroom while he was recuperating.

“I’m having that place dusted for prints,” Hilton said, giving back as good as he got. “And the cleaning crew for that room will be made up of everybody whose prints I find.”

That brought another spurt of laughter, followed by another round of applause and Gina breathed a long sigh of relief. Her father looked a little tired, but he was essentially back to normal. At least as normal as he could be until he had his bypass surgery. In fact, she suspected his upcoming surgery was the reason he had returned prematurely. He probably wanted to clear up everything he could before he had to take off another long span of recovery time. Specifically, he had to officially appoint Josh as head of Operations and give him temporary power to run the company.

“Anyway, you’re here for two reasons. First, I want to thank you for the cards, flowers, gifts, fruit baskets, homemade cookies and phone calls.” His eyes misted and his throat sounded tight. “Thank you.”

The employees again applauded exuberantly, and Hilton took the opportunity to compose himself. When the commotion died down, he said, “The second reason I brought you here is to tell you that I have decided to retire.”

“What?”

Gina wasn’t the only person who had said that out loud. Beside her, Ethan McKenzie and Josh Anderson both said the same thing. It wasn’t unusual for her fun-loving father to dramatically make surprise announcements that even upper-echelon staff didn’t know about. But this wasn’t a surprise. It was a disaster. She, Ethan and Josh knew they weren’t ready to take over. They might have done well in the short-term, but they couldn’t run the company indefinitely.

“Now, hear me out. I didn’t mention to anyone that I was thinking about retiring,” he said, glancing apologetically at Gina, Josh and Ethan, “because I wanted to be sure the person I picked to replace me could take the job before I announced I was leaving. And I got a phone call early this morning indicating my replacement would be here today so I decided there was no reason to wait to make the transition.”

Everyone in the room appeared dumbfounded. Gina simply stared at her father realizing she, Ethan and Josh didn’t have to take over. Actually, the change wouldn’t affect Ethan and Josh at all. Ethan already headed his department and Josh had had no choice but to assume the leadership position in Operations when Gerrick left. Both of them were in place. But for Gina, her father’s leaving the company was staggering. It meant it would not be her dad who trained her to run the business. A stranger would show her the ropes, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about that.

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