Emma vs. The Tech Guy (16 page)

I put one arm around his neck and checked back to see if Dana was still watching. She shook her head and walked off toward the exit. Guy pulled me close and we began to dance. My pride and good-deed aura quickly dissipated, and I suddenly felt very uncomfortable. I was dancing with Guy!
How do I get out of this one
? I tossed various scenarios around in my head. Maybe I could sneeze and then excuse myself to the restroom? Or, I could slip on my heel and need to sit down. But none of those ideas sounded right to me, and eventually, for an unknown reason, I didn’t want an excuse. I closed my eyes and let myself sink into his embrace. I knew it was wrong, but it felt just the opposite. Then Guy tilted his head toward my ear and whispered, “She’s gone, let’s go outside.”

I told myself I was relieved because I noticed no one else was dancing slow to that song. The city lights greeted us, and we leaned up against a railing.

“You didn’t have to do that,” he said, turning to me. His eyes searched mine, looking for a reason.

“I know. So what’s the story with her?” I knew the gist of it, but was looking for a few juicy details.

“Dana, my ex.” He gestured with his head. “She cheated on me with my roommate.”

“Ouch. Sorry to hear that.”

“Definitely a low point in my life.”

“I can imagine.”

“You know, what really hurt the most was losing my best friend. I thought I was in love with Dana. But when it was over, it was Nathan who I really missed.”

“That was your roommate?”

“Yeah. Actually he’d been my best friend for years. Haven’t talked to him since.”

“That stinks.”

“I’m over it.” He shrugged. “Or at least I thought I was until I saw her just now.”

I didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t know I lacked the skills to deal with these types of situations, but I didn’t want to flail around for the right words. So, I sighed and nodded.

Guy took my hand, stared down at it, and then brushed his thumb across the top of it. “Well … thank you,” he said.

He gazed back up at me, and my breath quickened. I was only trying to help, and now he had to break out the innocently earnest eyes?

“It was a nice thing to do.”

The heat outside was getting to me, and I felt some sweat bead up on my forehead. I began to feel nauseated. I pulled my hand away and smoothed back my hair.

“What are friends for? Listen, I, uh. I’m kind of tired. I think I’ll head back to my room.”

“Oh, are you sure?” He seemed disappointed.

He’d be fine. Maybe catch up with Adam later. “Yeah, let’s touch base in the morning.” I turned to leave before he spoke, but I felt him trailing me back inside. The air wasn’t cooling me off fast enough. It was the alcohol, right? I walked faster, passing our table. “Feel free to have my beer. See you later.”

“Have a good night, Emma,” Guy said as I sprinted for the door.

Chapter 17

The clock read three forty-eight when I awoke to pounding on my door. It took only a few seconds for the panic to jolt me awake. Knocking in the middle of the night could never be good. I whipped off the covers and stumbled out of bed. The curtains in Vegas hotel rooms were so freaking thick it was like the inside of a black hole. I felt my way over to the wall adjacent to the front door and flipped on the light. Then I checked the peep hole to see who was there. Guy stood on the other side swiping his head from side to side. I opened the door.

“Guy, what’s wrong?”

“Can I come in?”

“Sure.”

As he passed, he gave my body the once over, reminding me I hadn’t bothered to cover up. I was wearing baby blue, cotton short shorts and a matching tank. I trailed him to the seating area, noticing a slight sway in step. He collapsed on the couch and pulled out his phone.

“Have you heard from Adam?” he asked, holding his phone up.

“No, why?”

“I’ve left him three messages, and he hasn’t come back to the room yet.”

I joined him on the couch, sat down, and proceeded to inhale the smell of a brewery and stale cigarette smoke. He’d definitely been at the casino.

“I’m sure he’s fine, Guy. Adam’s a big boy.”

He leaned back, hands on his thighs spread wide. His eyes turned to the ceiling and then closed. He was not falling asleep on my couch!

“Guy.” I nudged his knee and his eyes popped open. “Have a few drinks after I left?”

“Yeah, but I’m good.” He sat up straight, ran his fingers through his hair. “I played some blackjack for a few hours. Free drinks, you know.” He showed a boyishly sweet grin and then his chin fell, leaving his eyes pointed at my chest.

“Okay. Well, why don’t you head back to your room?” I said to the top of his head.

“What about Adam?” he said to my boobs.

I reached out and lifted his chin, raised it up so he’d meet my gaze. “Listen, Adam is just Adam. He could pull an all-nighter and then rock an eight a.m. meeting. Don’t worry about it.”

He took hold of my wrist. “All right, Emma. But before I go, I wanna ask you something.”

“Go ahead.”

“Why did you do that tonight and then bolt out of there so fast?”

I wanted to know the answer to that myself. I also wondered why he was still holding my wrist.

“I don’t know. I guess I didn’t like the look on your face. Or hers. I know women like that.”

“Really?”

“Sure, why not?”

He took a deep breath and refocused on my face. “You know, since I started at the magazine, I got the feeling you didn’t like me very much.”

I didn’t know what to say. I shook my head no, wondering where he was going.

“But I’m starting to wonder if that’s just you,” he continued.

I pulled my wrist from his grip. “What’s that supposed to mean? That I’m a bitch?”

He laughed. Then he narrowed his eyes at me like he was about to explain a simple concept to a small child. “Emma, you’re a strong businesswoman. Very driven. But that’s not why you keep people at arms’ length.”

So, he’s suddenly sobering up and playing the shrink? Everyone didn’t have to be a people person like him. That didn’t mean there was something wrong with them. Besides, what did he know? I’ve been working hard to be close to Jayne.

“Who says I’m at arm’s length from anyone?”

“You don’t want to get close to people, and I’m not sure why. But you showed me tonight that you’re a very caring person.”

I looked away and let out a sigh. Why was he doing this to me? He knew how uncomfortable I was with compliments. If that’s what it was. I tried to think of something to say in my defense, but in defense of what?

Guy touched my cheek, turned my face to him. “And as much as you may not want to hear it, I like that about you.”

I felt flustered as his blue eyes with the gold flecks peered into mine and once again hypnotized me. Were they getting closer? I felt my heartbeat quicken, my skin warmed though goose bumps presented themselves. Then, as if time somehow skipped ahead a few seconds, Guy’s face was now an inch from mine. I felt his breath on my lips. I could think of nothing but his eyes and then his mouth as it brushed against mine. My stomach dropped forty floors at the feather-light touch of his lips.

“Shit!” Had I just said that out loud? We both pulled away, and Guy popped up from the sofa.

“Aww, fuck! Emma, I am sooo sorry.” He spun in a half circle, holding the sides of his head.

I was still on the couch, trying to catch my breath. I opened my mouth to say something unknown to me when Guy spoke again.

“I can’t believe I did that.” He started pacing the room. “That is so not me. You have to believe me,” he said, the words spilling out faster. “I’m not that guy. I’m not the type of guy to go after someone’s wife.” He stopped for a moment and stared at me, looking completely sobered and shocked. Then he started pacing again. “I know it’s no excuse, but I had so much to drink, and I was upset about Dana, and you were so nice to me, and you’re just so beautiful and—and I should really stop talking now.” He turned and flopped down in a chair diagonally from me.

Did he just say I was beautiful? I knew that wasn’t the point of his tirade, but it had caught my attention. He sat with his head buried in his hands. I couldn’t help but feel a little guilty myself.

I mean, nothing happened, but it wasn’t entirely his fault. Maybe I was sending a few of my own mixed signals. When he’s clear-headed later and thinks about this, he’ll probably realize that. And then he’ll start thinking that it was not how a respectable married woman should behave, and I didn’t want him to think of me otherwise.

But what was I supposed to do? Slap his face and yell, “How dare you?” Maybe not, but I didn’t exactly cut him off at the knees, either. See, I knew Guy would end up being bad news for me, I just didn’t think of this particular scenario. The only thing to do at this point was to play it off as no big deal. We both needed simply to move on and forget that it ever happened. But again, nothing happened!

“It’s okay,” I finally said. “Let’s just try to forget it happ—. I mean, nothing happened. It’s fine.” I knew the instant I said it that neither of us could do that. In fact, if I’d thought things were awkward before, this brought it to a new level.

“I’m gonna go,” he said. He stood and paced to the door. “Again, I’m really sorry.”

What killed me was that the look on his face was as bad, if not worse, than when he was talking to Dana in the bar. And yes, I was partially responsible for that.

“Just get some sleep.”

Guy’s phone beeped as he stalled in the doorway. He looked down at it, shook his head, and let out a breathy laugh.

“It’s a text from Adam. He’s at the room and wants to know where the hell I am.”

***

We practically had to sprint through the airport to make our flight. The bag swinging at my side may have knocked a kid’s teddy bear right out of his hands. Our morning session had run over and then Adam went AWOL saying good bye to Sheila.

As I’d predicted, Adam showed up for the workshop as ready as the Energizer bunny, while Guy looked like a truck hit him. Make that a tank. Turned out that Adam and Sheila ended up at some VIP party with a live band. His cousin who lives in Primm knew someone who knew someone—or something like that. Adam’s life was like six degrees of Kevin Bacon. Anyway, he couldn’t hear his phone and didn’t bother to check it for hours. His reply to Guy when he finally got home was typical Adam. “My bad. You missed a hell of a party, though, man.”

The other thing I’d not only expected, but downright dreaded was worse than I had imagined. Awkwardness didn’t just hang in the air between Guy and me, we were drowning in it. The final workshop was a hands-on lesson involving one laptop for the three of us to huddle around. Guy and I barely said two words to each other. But whenever our eyes met, we seemed to be holding a pretty in-depth conversation. His end of it was apologetic, regretful. Mine was more like
stop this crap and move on
. I wanted to pretend that his lips hadn’t brushed against mine ever so slightly. That his touch hadn’t caused an electrical surge to shoot through my whole body, boomeranging at every turn like the metal ball in a pinball machine. That I couldn’t even be near him without feeling guilty and agitated and scared and … sad.

Once we’d finally made it onto the plane, I convinced myself that when we got back home it wouldn’t be an issue. We would be so wrapped up with the launch and the party that all this would simply fade away. Guy had explained the reasons for his actions. And I was simply feeling lonely as I often did when I was away from home, away from Pop and Howard. I’d remembered the dream I had of Howard marrying Kelly and my fear of being alone. It was a perfectly normal reaction for someone who’d lost both of her parents at a young age, wasn’t it?

Adam and Guy trailed me down the narrow aisle of the overstuffed plane. A number of single seats were available here and there, but I continued to search for two together for Adam and me. I’d kick someone’s ass out if I had to. I was not in the mood, and I wasn’t about to let Adam be alone. At last, I spotted two together; a window seat and one in the middle. A chubby, collegiate type took up space on the aisle seat.

“Right here,” I said to Adam. Then to the kid I said, “These taken?”

I’d just noticed he had ear buds in place with the wires trailing to the pockets of his sweatshirt. But he seemed to know what I was saying and got up to let me by. There was no way I was getting by him otherwise. Along with his surplus of body fat, he was also tall. Big Boy took a step down the aisle to let Adam in, but to my dismay Adam hooked a turn to the opposite aisle and sat in a single.

“Adam?” I said.

“It’s cool, Emma. You and Guy take those.” He winked and nodded. “I got this.”

“Are you sure, man?” Guy said.

I pictured myself leaping across Guy and Big Boy to come to Adam’s rescue when he realized fears like that didn’t just disappear. I knew from experience.

“I need to,” Adam said. “Besides, I’ve slept two hours in the last twenty four. I’m going to be out.”

Big Boy stared at his iPod while we finished our therapy session. A flight attendant came from the back with a school marm look on her face.

“All right,” I said under pressure and shimmied over to the window seat. I probably should have asked Guy if he wanted it, but then I’d have to look at his pathetic face. I planned to spend the flight staring out the window and making a mental to-do list for the days ahead.

Ten minutes into the flight, Guy and I still hadn’t said a word to each other. On the other hand, he and Big Boy had a lively conversation about life at UNLV where Big Boy majored in hotel management.

Boredom began to set in, but I didn’t want my mind to wonder. I couldn’t replay those moments with Guy again. My only option was that ridiculous magazine in the pouch in front of me. The one where you can order an awesome cast iron toilet paper holder in the shape of a giraffe, or a remote-controlled kitty condo. Out of desperation, I reached forward to grab the magazine. The plane bumped up and down, slamming my wrist into the seat in front of me.