Roses Manor, Weston Chapter 30
The next morning, Gabriella was trying not to be mad at Meredith. James claimed he wasn’t. “It was going to happen,” he said, sitting on the couch with a sickly smile that wasn’t fooling her or Amelia. “She’s leaving in three weeks and it wasn’t going to be a long distance thing. So she said she’d rather just break it off now than draw it out until she leaves. And I told her I wouldn’t get possessive or creepy or anything when we started and I meant it. But I was kind of hoping to have a little more time. I had some ideas for the next few weeks that I thought would be sweet.”
“Did you have a plan in place?” Amelia asked as she handed him a cup of coffee. Right, he’d been on the overnight shift. Apparently getting dumped while stuck at work.
“Not really,” he said. “I got her a Christmas present, but that’s whatever. But we were going to spend the night in Boston together before she left. I mean, we booked a room. So I kind of assumed I’d drop her off at the airport and then go home and be depressed for a while.”
That certainly sounded like a discussion of an end date to Gabriella. She took his hand and squeezed it. He smiled at her, slightly less fake this time, but just as exhausted. “I’m fine, really,” he said. “It was nice. I really like her and I hope we can stay friends.”
“But you’re a little mad,” Amelia said.
He shrugged. “I’m not-”
“You’re allowed to be a little mad. Yeah, it was casual and there’s nothing wrong with her ending it, but she should have communicated better.”
“I ordered chocolates shaped like viruses.”
“That’s pretty weird, bud.”
“She would have found it sweet. I might still give them to her.”
“No!” Amelia and Gabriella exclaimed at the same time.
James looked from one to the other, startled. “She wants a clean break,” Gabriella said. “Just give her a clean break.”
“She said she wants to stay in touch though.”
“Later,” Amelia said. “Give it time. For you.”
Gabriella thought of the way she hadn’t heard Amelia and Rosa chatting in the living room in a while. She was tempted to ask and knew it wasn’t appropriate, but the curiosity didn’t go away. And then she was saved by James, who apparently had no such reservations. “Have you talked to Rosa?”
“No,” Amelia admitted. “But I didn’t follow my own advice at all. I stayed in touch, but realized after a while that I was the one doing all the contacting. And when I didn’t, she didn’t talk to me. So I just kind of…”
She trailed off and sighed. “We weren’t in a relationship.”
“Could have fooled me,” said James.
Amelia looked at Gabriella, who nodded, feeling a little bolder than she might have weeks ago. If what Amelia had felt was anything like she’d felt the other night, that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.
***
There was no morning meeting scheduled that day, but everyone kind of found themselves in the living room a few hours later, anyway.
“She texted me,” James said as Gabriella came back in after finishing her workout.
“Don’t answer,” Amelia said quickly from the computer bank.
“I’m not mad at her,” James argued. “She’s just making sure I’m okay.”
“Are you?” Gabriella asked.
“Yeah.”
“You’re sure of that?”
“I’m… Yeah, I’m just going to tell her I’m fine.”
He texted Meredith back before Amelia or Gabriella could stop him. Before they could argue about the decision, Graham and Madelyn were walking in from that morning’s case over in Leominster State Forest. “How are you feeling?” James asked Madelyn as she got to the top of the steps on her own, but leaning heavily on the railing.
She shook her head breathlessly, collapsing into the recliner. “I’m okay,” she said after a second. “Creature Containment is short-staffed, and it was just Ruby there today. So we stayed to help her load it up.”
“She didn’t have her boys?” James asked.
Ruby was the ancient, tiny lady who ran Creature Containment out of Barre. Normally she showed up flanked by two or three enormous young men. “Not today,” Graham said, standing beside Madelyn’s chair. “She said their hours were cut.”
“Great,” James muttered. “Thanks for helping her.”
“Of course,” Madelyn said, then winced as she shifted in the chair.
She’d obviously helped lift something heavy and, judging from the suspicious look on James’s face, he’d caught that too. Gabriella shook her head before he said anything and he nodded slightly in response. “So what was the thing that got Madelyn swearing like that on comms?” he asked instead.
A few minutes later, the sound of crutches on the carpet interrupted the conversation again just as James’s phone dinged. “Everything’s in,” Bradley announced as he came into the living room. “Every single goddamn form, tied up with a little bow on top. If they have any issues with the submission, they can get fucked.”
He sat down on the couch, on the opposite end from James. “What’s going on?”
“James isn’t texting Meredith back,” Gabriella said.
“She’s not a villain,” James protested. “It was always going to end, we knew it going in. I don’t have anything to be angry about.”
Gabriella wasn’t going to have that debate again. He could make his own choice. James glanced at his phone, then set it down without answering. “I want to hear about happier things,” he said. “Graham, where are you taking Madelyn tonight? I know you’re both off.”
“Nowhere,” Madelyn said. “We’re getting takeout and going to bed.”
“In that case, Amelia, you can stay over at my house tonight,” James said.
Madelyn laughed, but the sound was exhausted and James’s smile faded just slightly. “Gabs, what about you?” he asked.
“What about me?”
“What’s going on with you and the Ghost King?”
“Oh my God, are you all calling him that?”
Amelia shrugged. “It’s got a nice ring to it.”
“No it doesn’t, you guys just don’t like him.”
No one rushed to disagree with her. “He’s not a bad person,” Madelyn said finally.
“He joined the Foundation.”
“Lots of assholes do,” Bradley said.
“Exhibit A,” Amelia said, nodding toward Bradley, who ignored her.
“We decided not to,” Gabriella admitted. “No, I’m sorry. He decided not to. He told me so the other night after I got home from Roses Manor.”
“Are you serious?” Madelyn demanded. “When you got home? What happened?”
“He said it was because of our schedules,” Gabriella said, feeling unexpectedly lighter as she let this out. “But he wasn’t happy that I was alone in the summoning room the other night, even though I’m a professional and Graham was right outside burning the manor down. But also he’s insecure because you don’t like him.”
Bradley didn’t bother hiding his laughter and she couldn’t even get mad at him for it because she would do the same thing if someone didn’t want to date him because she didn’t like them.
“I don’t know,” Gabriella said. “He’s confusing. I’m fine too. Working with the Hillsborough branch already sucks, that’s not going to change because of this.”
“I’m sorry, Gabs,” James said.
“I’m fine,” she said, though her throat was a little tighter than she wanted to admit. “I want to hear good news too.”
“Then speaking of keeping it in the Foundation,” James said, turning to Amelia.
“Fuck off,” she said with a laugh.
“She’s on Connie Evers’ team, right? Youngest team in the Foundation. I’m not sure anyone is over, like, twenty-eight.”
“They’re almost all women, too,” Amelia said.
“How about that?” James said. “But it’s good?”
“Yeah,” she said with a smile. “It’s good.”
She looked over at Bradley. “What ever happened with that guy, Dylan? He wasn’t Foundation, right?”
Bradley glared at her while James immediately looked interested. “He only told me because I ran into them at the Mercantile,” Amelia explained.
“You’re seeing someone?” James asked.
“No,” Bradley said quickly.
“He was cute,” Amelia added.
“Sure.”
“Lucky guy,” James said. “Are you still seeing him?”
“No,” Bradley said. “I don’t really date.”
“Nah,” Amelia started. “What about-”
“It’s fine,” Bradley interrupted. “I’m not good at relationships, it’s not in me. I’ve known that for a long time and I don’t care. Can we please just move on to actual important things?”
“Yeah, I guess we can,” James said, suddenly looking serious. “Actually, can I talk to you in my office real quick?”
“Is it the budget?” Bradley asked. “I emailed you.“
“Oh shit. Yeah, it’s the budget too, I guess.”
Bradley frowned at him and James ran a nervous hand over his hair. “Hey, listen,” he said. “I said something pretty fucked up to you right before you got nailed by that Hyundai. I didn’t mean it. Like, even as I was saying it, I didn’t mean it.”
So just like the actual fight, apparently the resolution of it wasn’t going into James’s office either. Bradley shrugged. “I didn’t either.”
Was this really their version of an apology? Either way, James smiled at him and stood up. “Alright,” he said, passing Bradley his crutches. “Come show me where I messed up the budget.”
***
A few hours later, Gabriella’s phone buzzed as she was working on her report for the Fitchburg Bad Vibes House. She was back at the computer bank in the living room, surrounded by notes, with Madelyn nearby watching videos for her course.
UNKNOWN
The princess might be gone, but there’s more where that came from
“Huh.”
Madelyn looked up from a surprisingly violent video for a technology course. “What’s up?”
Gabriella handed over her phone, and Madelyn looked at the message. “Try unsubscribing.”
GABRIELLA
UNSUBSCRIBE
“If it’s a mailing list to drum up excitement for something new, that takes care of that,” Madelyn said, going back to her work. “And if it’s them, they’re going to be desperate to impress you.”
Immediately, Gabriella’s phone rang. Madelyn looked triumphant as Gabriella answered.
“You’re good,” Daniel Ford said as she picked up. “Gabriella, how would you feel about trying something new?”
“Nah, I’m good,” she said, doodling a ghost in the margin of her notebook. “I’m not a big video game person.”
“No, not the game. You saw through the game, more than any other player we ever had. I mean the real thing. Do you want to know more about the world than anyone else?”
“Not particularly.”
James walked out of his office and stood in the doorway, watching. Madelyn, too, had abandoned her coursework for the moment. Gabriella brushed some dust off of her computer station.
“No? You’re not the least bit curious about the princess?” Daniel Ford asked. “Or any others like her? You’re smart, Gabriella. We know who you work for and I’m impressed you could keep that from us. I know you know there’s a world beyond what we can see, but not beyond our power to harness. And we could really use your skills for our next game.”
“Is this a job offer?”
James looked over in alarm, and she winked at him. “I wouldn’t call it that,” Daniel said. “Think of it as a partnership.”
So an unpaid internship, then. “I’m good.”
“You’re good? Even with so many unanswered questions? You’re not even curious where the princess is from?”
He was trying to bait her and she had to admit, yeah, she was curious. There were too many questions remaining about this case. But no, not with these guys. That wasn’t how she was going to get her answers.
“Bye Daniel.”
She hung up and blocked the number. “God, he’s probably got eight or nine numbers I’ll have to block,” she muttered to Madelyn.
“Want a job that is not at all video game related?” James asked, with too big of a smile on his face.
“Yes?” Gabriella answered cautiously.
He slid a list across the desk at her. “Tomorrow’s cases. Pick whichever one you want.”
Gabriella looked at the list of locations, which contained Market Basket, the library, and a historical site two towns over. “Give me a minute,” she said, biting her lip as she considered her options. “I need to decide.”
END
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