The great, big, blundering buffoon. It was typical Russo behavior, jump in, attack and think later. How could he humiliate her like that?
She pushed the door hard, with more force than she had intended and it slammed with a loud, hard THUMP, matching her anger perfectly.
Why did he pick a fight with Nico of all people? Why? Why? Why?
And not once did he ask about her mother’s health, not once. It was exactly what she had feared. Christian Russo was a big-headed, selfish, hulking beast of a man whose entire world centered around himself.
She should have trusted her instincts. She should have been extra cautious around him instead of falling for that soft and caring side to him that had made her throw caution to the wind and risk her heart. That side of him, that mask, was something he had obviously put on just for her.
She understood perfectly why he had come here in the first place. He had been preempting the trip to Rome and had sneakily tried to find if she was considering going. She fisted her hands together, and tried to swallow but her throat muscles didn’t seem to be working properly. Her mouth was parched dry. Was this what a panic attack felt like? She had never felt so out of control. It wasn’t her time of the month either. She couldn’t work out what was going on. Why she wasn’t handling things the way she usually did?
There was a knock at the door and she pulled it wide open to find Ines on the other side. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Gina rubbed her forehead and let Ines in.
“What’s going on?” Ines asked, softly. She peered at Gina as if she were a sick patient in the hospital.
“I don’t know how I’m going to face Nico.”
“What about?”
“What about?” Gina repeated, her voice was shrill. Could nobody understand how mortified she felt? This was the first time she had ever spoken of her love life to Nico and Ava and her boyfriend turned up at her work place and behaved like this, insulting her boss and embarrassing her.
“Why?” Ines looked surprised. “What happened? I only caught the tail end.”
At least that was one small thing to be relieved about, that Ines hadn’t witnessed the entire debacle. It would have killed her to know she’d had an audience for the entire performance.
Not that she had heard all of it, but she had heard enough. “Christian said a few stupid things to Nico.”
“Like what?”
She sighed loudly as she sat. “I didn’t hear everything.”
“Then maybe you got the wrong end of the stick.”
“I don’t think so. I know what I heard. He told Nico that I felt as though I owed Nico everything.”
“What’s wrong with that?” Ines asked, her eyebrows arching. “It doesn’t sound too bad, Gina.”
“Doesn’t sound too bad!” What was wrong with the woman? “It doesn’t sound too good either.”
Ines cleared her throat. “You know how sometimes things seem worse to you than they really do to other people? That’s what this is, Gina. Half the time people don’t even notice these things.”
“It was the way in which he said it. He sounded really aggressive, as if Nico had pissed him off. Trust me, it didn’t sound like a friendly conversation. Nico noticed it. I know he did and I don’t think he was impressed by Christian at all.”
“Christian doesn’t need to impress Nico. He needs to impress you.”
“And he failed miserably on that account,” she said, gloomily. “As far as I’m concerned, he went and made a total ass of himself in front of Nico. That’s my boss, for goodness sake.”
“I think you’re over-exaggerating,” Ines insisted.
“You weren’t there, Ines.” Gina got out of her chair and folded her arms as she paced around the room.
“It’s not the end of the world, Gina. You have so much to deal with right now, and you’re here, and at the hospital, your mother’s not well and with Christian showing up, it might have tipped the balance. You’re blowing everything out of proportion but it’s understandable given the current level of stress in your life.”
It annoyed her that Ines seemed to have trouble grasping her anger. “Why are you siding with him again?”
Ines stopped and stared at her. “He seems…nice. And I happen to see his side of things. I can understand how the way Nico treats you, might come across to others in a way that feels threatening to them.” Ines put her hand out as if to stop the onslaught of denial that Gina was about to hurl at her. “Hear me out, please,” she pleaded.
“I work hard.” Gina folded her arms and pursed her lips.
“No one said you didn’t. Demetrio resented the authority Nico gave you but he was an idiot. He expected the same level of trust and responsibility even though he hadn’t earned it. But Christian, he’s seeing things from a different angle. It’s nothing to do with your worth at work, maybe he just feels threatened because you hold such a light to Nico—for purely professional reasons, of course—but still, Christian’s a strong guy, I mean,” Ines’s cheeks seem to redden slightly. Gina peered closer. “And…and maybe you’ve sided with Nico one time too many.”
“Nico has never let me down.”
“And Christian has?” Ines asked her. “When, knowingly, did he really let you down?”
Gina was silent.
“He’s taken the time out to come and see you. He works in Milan, or so you told me, and he’s come all this way to see. That says a lot about him and the way he feels about you.”
“He wants to get in my good books because of his friend’s party in Rome this weekend.”
“Ahhh, yes,” said Ines, dreamily, “Your romantic break.”
“To which I’m no longer going.”
“Why not? You said this morning you were.”
“Mimi had convinced me to go, but I honestly don’t want to. I don’t feel as if he’s been there for me.”
“Have you let him be there for you?”
She jerked her head up and looked at Ines. You too? It wouldn’t surprise her if Ines also found Christian hot. Most women did and it was a fact she was now resigned to. “What do you mean, have I let him be there for me?”
“You don’t let people in, Gina. You keep things to yourself and you soldier on alone. It’s one thing if other people need your help, you’re there, but the other way, letting people be there for you, that way doesn’t come easily to you. You push people away more than you let them in.”
“I don’t see how.” And she was too tired to nitpick Ines’s argument.
Ines stood up and faced her. “You’re getting angry, I can tell. You’re more stressed out than you realize. Let’s drop it,” she said, softly. “How’s your mother?”
“My mother?” She asked, still too revved up to think. “She’s getting better but they’ve still not discharged her.”
“It happens. People get well, then have a little turn for the worse, then pick up again. It’s the body learning to fight the infection by itself. They’re probably weaning your mother off the antibiotics.”
“Once she comes home, it will be one less thing to worry about.”
Ines was right. She was more worried than she let on. When all of this was over, when her mother was back at home and things had settled down at work, she would book herself a long weekend at the new spa hotel and indulge herself in every single treatment going.