Roses Manor, Weston Chapter 28
As she pulled in outside her building, a text came through. She considered just ignoring whatever bullshit Sixteen Roses, LLC was sending her way, but pulled it out anyway. Just in case it was someone from the team.
ELLIOT
How did it go?
She wanted to call him and tell him every detail and she also wanted to just climb into bed and not deal with anymore irritating or confusing men – even when she liked Elliot so much. Because now she was just thinking about the men tonight sneering at her, even as they wanted her approval.
But he wasn’t Daniel Ford or Charlie Jackson. So maybe she wasn’t being fair comparing him to them.
GABRIELLA
Just got home. Mind if I call you?
His answer came through as she was unlocking her front door.
ELLIOT
Of course
She could wait to shower, but the dress needed to go. As she called, she peeled it off, tossed it on the floor, and wrapped herself in her fluffiest towel, which was still pretty worn out.
“Hey,” Elliot said as he picked up. “How was the case?”
“Intense,” she replied as she turned on her space heater, aiming it toward the side of her bed as she sat down.
She went through the entire case as he made occasional listening noises. But as she wrapped up her story, she realized he’d been silent for a little while. And remained so for a moment after.
“Are you there?” she asked after a beat, thinking maybe he’d gotten distracted by something at work.
“Yeah,” Elliot said. “Um, Gabriella, that’s incredibly dangerous.”
“I know that,” she said, wiggling her still-frozen toes towards the space heater. “But I’m a professional. It’s not the first time I’ve been on a risky case.”
“I know,” Elliot said quickly as she wrapped another towel over her shoulders. “But you were alone in there with no backup.”
“I had Graham,” Gabriella said. “He nearly set the place on fire to back me up, I told you that.”
“But why did it have to be you?”
“Excuse me?”
“I just mean…” Elliot sighed. “You know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t think I do,” Gabriella said, regretting not waiting to call until after her shower. “Please, enlighten me.”
“I just mean, couldn’t someone else on your team have taken that risk? Why couldn’t the guy you were with go in instead?”
“Because it was my case. Elliot, what is this about? I told you about this case. You helped me on it. Did you think I was just drinking champagne and talking it out with them tonight?”
“I didn’t know it would leave you alone in a room surrounded by men who would want to hurt you.”
Gabriella sighed now. “It was two men,” she said. “And it’s my job. Just like it’s yours. Sometimes it’s monsters, sometimes it’s men. I thought you…” She stopped herself. “I’m going to go, okay? I need to shower and go to bed.”
“Yeah, okay,” Elliot said softly. “We’ll talk tomorrow?”
Even though she was irritated, the relief was instant. “I’d like that.”
“Get some sleep,” he said.
“Right. You too.”
She hung up, hope and frustration still warring as she did so. But both were outweighed by exhaustion right now, so she wasn’t going to think about it anymore tonight. They’d talk tomorrow.
She was about to get up and shower, but picked up her phone again. The first ring wasn’t even complete yet when Madelyn picked up.
“So?”
“I was going to leave a voicemail,” Gabriella said, laughing as she immediately relaxed. “What has Graham told you already?”
“Most of it, he’s right here,” Madelyn said. “But tell me your side of it.”
***
The phone rang as she was coming out of the shower a little while later. It was Elliot again. Apparently whatever he had to say couldn’t wait until tomorrow after all. Maybe that was a good thing?
“Hey,” Gabriella said as she went to the cabinets to eat whatever she happened to find there. “What’s up?”
“I don’t think we should date right now.”
Never mind, not a good thing. This could definitely have waited until tomorrow.
“Yeah?” she asked around a breakfast biscuit, ignoring the possibility that her heart was breaking slightly.
“It’s not you,” Elliot said quickly, though she could hear the lie through the phone.
“Good to know.”
God, apparently she wasn’t quite done channeling her teammates tonight. Or maybe she wasn’t channeling anymore. “And it’s not just tonight,” he continued. “Though the idea of you being in danger like that…”
“So you’d want to date me if I wasn’t doing the exact same job you do? That I’ve been doing for longer than you?”
“No, that’s not what I mean,” Elliot said. “I mean, shit, no. I’m messing this up. Gabriella, I like you a lot. And I thought maybe we could make it work again, if you wanted to. But I kind of realized it when I was leaving the other night.”
“Realized what?”
Was he talking about leaving headquarters or leaving her house? Maybe she should have said something about the scam comment at that moment. If they were considering trying this again, then maybe she should be siding with him instead of with her team, no matter what he’d done to them.
Wait, there was no way in hell she was actually thinking like that right now.
“I’m too busy now,” Elliot said. “I thought maybe it’d be a good thing for us that we were both working for the Foundation. But our schedules don’t line up. And your team doesn’t like me, and-”
“Wait, your decision to date me or not rests on whether my coworkers like you?”
“I don’t know!” Elliot snapped. “But if I’m dating you…”
“That has nothing to do with how I do my job,” she said. “The schedule thing, yeah, that makes sense, I guess. But what am I supposed to do, mediate between you and them? I’m not the only one there that you hurt and whatever you choose to do about that has nothing to do with whether or not you’re dating me.”
“It’s more the schedule,” he lied.
She considered whether it was worth calling him out when it definitely wasn’t the schedule. He hadn’t mentioned the schedule once before now.
“It’s like every time we turn around, the other is working,” he continued. “And I like you so much, but I don’t want a relationship like that.”
“Honestly, me neither.”
“Seriously?”
“What, did you think I was pining after you while I was on this case?” She didn’t have to mention anything about the way a relationship with him had become more and more appealing and how this genuinely hurt underneath the fatigue and anger.
“No, I don’t think that,” Elliot said. “I’m sorry, I’m making a mess of this. I really like you. I just don’t think it’s a good idea. If you even wanted to, I mean.”
He sounded like he’d had a plan in place of what to say, but it had completely fallen apart. “I really like you too,” Gabriella said.
“Friends?”
“Friends.”
God, she folded too quickly. Why did she always cave? He let out a sigh of relief that was audible over the phone even as she cringed and felt worse.
“But I really do have to go,” she said, angrier with herself and knowing it was too late to take the forgiveness back. “I worked a double today with that case and I’m exhausted.”
“Oh my God, I didn’t even think of that.”
He didn’t even… She sighed. “Good night, Elliot,” Gabriella said instead of screaming.
She half heard his goodbye as she hung up. Gabriella thought she’d fall apart as soon as she put her phone down, but she didn’t. She should have expected this. And maybe she did without realizing it and that was why she wasn’t crying right now.
But now she also wasn’t going to be able to fall asleep just yet, so she was going to see if there were any takeout places still open.
