Diamonds Are Forever (26 page)

He continued to clean the dining table, emptying their half eaten plates and glasses of wine.  Every motion felt like a stab in Gemma’s heart, as if he had made the decision for both of them that both the dinner and their night was now over.  Unsure of what else to do, she sat cross-legged in the grass, watching him helplessly.  She willed him to make eye contact with her, but he didn’t.  When he finished, he walked over to her, bending over to lift her to her feet.

Though it had been a mere five minutes of him not talking, not touching her, Gemma collapsed into his arms with relief the moment his hand met her body.  She leaned into him, holding him and inhaling the faint scent of his skin.  He put a gentle hand to her back, touching her lightly.

“I’m so sorry,” Gemma whispered.  She felt herself gripping the back of his t-shirt, balling the fabric in her fists.  Just as she had sensed her mistake the morning after Vegas, she had sensed she had just made another one.  She held onto him as tight as she could, feeling as if Damian were drifting away from her despite the way they clutched each other.

He was quiet.  Gemma could hear the faint sounds of cars passing on his small street, of families returning to their homes.  Everything sounded so strangely normal outside of his small backyard, as they stood there in what felt like the verge of something awful.  Still, Gemma hoped that something would turn and she’d be back in that comfortable place she had always been with him.  She watched as he turned from her, blinking into the distance.

“Would it be so bad…” he finally whispered, his voice sounding uncharacteristically shaky.  “If we didn’t…”

She pulled back quickly, looking up at Damian.  His eyes were wide as he watched her.  Gemma couldn’t pinpoint his expression.  He looked worried, scared, but perhaps hopeful.  His normally warm brown eyes were anxious, hard to read as they darted across her face, afraid to settle before she answered.

“If we didn’t what?” she managed to ask, though she knew the answer.  Gemma watched as his shaky stare stopped in its tracks.  He lowered them quickly before he turned back, allowing his gaze to settle on hers.  He took her hands in his, squeezing them before setting them down to her sides.  Damian nodded, biting his lip back as he stepped back to look at her.

“Okay,” he said, not bothering to finish his sentence.

BURKE FAUST SECURES TEAM FOR NEW PRODUCTION,
WATERWAY

The Pop Source

September 20
^th

There’s always buzz when Burke Faust comes out to make another movie, and this time, there’s no exception.  Faust is famous for his impeccable track record of critically-acclaimed blockbusters, which he is quoted as crediting to his ability to choose the right team.  Of course, that team is not too easy to break into.

While the majority of Faust’s crew are people that he has worked with for decades, he has reportedly hired Gemma Hunter to join the rest of them.  Faust had seen Hunter’s work after positive word of her designs at Fashion Week and felt it fit the aesthetic of his new project,
Waterway
.  His notoriously high-budget productions seem like the best place for Hunter’s designs to make their big-screen debut, considering many fashion critics had called her runway set, “bold and luxurious.”

Waterway
is set to start shooting in Los Angeles before moving its production to the beautiful Hawaiian island of Maui.

That’s it.  Like it never happened.

Just two days after that awful conversation at Damian’s house, Gemma had flown out to Los Angeles to begin preliminary designs for Burke Faust’s production.  She had gone without Armand or any members of The Court, arriving to the completely new faces that she would soon be calling her team.

The separation from Damian and New York was exactly what she needed to calm down about the whole thing.  For whatever reason, distance from Damian seemed to be the only thing that could get Gemma thinking straight about anything regarding him.  It was a strange sensation.  Instinct and muscle memory made her want to pick up the phone and call him to talk about everything that had happened, as if he weren’t the subject of the issue at hand.  She had done it a thousand times to him in the past when the subject was Lucas or Tyler.

Gemma cringed at the thought.  For years, she had subjected him to her relationship problems and now that he
was
her relationship problem, she had no idea who to talk to.  For some reason, she was embarrassed to broach the topic with Zoe now that she was together again with Gavin, though Gemma knew Zoe would never betray her trust and pass information along to her brother.  She thought about calling Azura, but knew that when it came down to things, she was Damian’s friend first.

In Los Angeles, Gemma’s days were packed with work.  Between creative meetings, measuring actors, and presenting designs, she had little time to think or worry about her incident with Damian.  But even so, throughout her work-packed days, she felt a persistent needling at her heart.  It was that feeling that made her write and delete a text message a dozen times before she could send it to him, even when it was a simple, “how are you?”

She didn’t like not knowing how to talk to Damian.  Even in their longest stretches without face-to-face contact, she had delighted in their occasional texts or calls.  But in the weeks that she had been in Los Angeles after that day at his house, those moments were obviously strained.  Damian never initiated a message unless it was to update on her the annulment proceedings.

Having some time between pre-production and production, Gemma decided to fly back to New York.  Thanksgiving and the winter holidays were coming up and with everyone back on the East Coast, there was little reason to stay in Los Angeles until shooting began.

But as soon as she touched down at JFK, she had gotten a text from Damian asking when she would be available for a conference call.  They were scheduled for a hearing with a Nevada judge – their paperwork had been processed.  Gemma opted to meet Damian at his lawyer’s office in order to get through the hearing together, sign whatever papers were necessary, and just get on with things already.

There, she found Damian already sitting at the conference table with his lawyer, waiting for the call.  Gemma sat beside him, slipping a hand over his.  She let their fingers intertwine as they waited their turn for the hearing.  Damian had given a her a stiff smile, glancing at her quickly before returning his eyes to the little conference call device sitting in the middle of the table.  It sat on three legs and was oddly shaped, looking kind of like a toy UFO.  Music played between the pre-recorded voice telling them to be patient as they waited for the judge to take their call.  It all felt kind of silly considering how serious the moment was for her.

When the judge finally took their case, the process was rather swift.  Damian had done all the talking and Gemma soon realized there was little reason for her to be there at all.  They had cited “lack of understanding” due to intoxication and just like that, the judge had granted their annulment.  The hearing took less time than their wait for it.

“That’s it,” Damian’s lawyer had said, hanging up their call by pressing a button on the conference call device.  “Like it never happened.”

In the elevator to the lobby, Gemma tried to hold Damian’s hand.  He let her despite seeming almost reluctant to touch her.  He leaned against the back of the elevator, looking at her.  She tried to read him the way he had always seemed to so easily read her.  She tried to figure out what was the best thing to say, now that it was all over and they could continue their lives.

“So,” her voice cracked at the simple word.  It felt like she had used all her energy to say it.  “We can do this right this time.”  Damian didn’t speak, nodding as he turned away from her.  She dared to step in closer, pulling her body into his.  “Do you want to go somewhere, maybe? Do something together? I have the day off… are you free?”

“I have to get some rest.  You know.  Now that the season has started,” he said, his voice sounding strangely foreign to her.  The elevator door opened to the vast, empty lobby.  A single doorman nodded in their direction.  Damian held the door open for her, letting her out.  She looked over her shoulder, holding her hand out to him.  He didn’t take it.

Damian stepped backwards, back into the lobby, looking cold as he watched her.  Gemma stepped back inside, trying to get closer to him.

“Is there something you want to say to me?” Gemma asked, fearing the answer.  Her whispered voice echoed back at her.  Damian stood silent for a moment before he nodded his head.

“So, the annulment,” he started, lowering his eyes.  Gemma stepped in, hoping to meet them.  He looked away again.  “It’s like none of this ever happened.”

“Yes,” Gemma said.  “So let’s make this a clean slate.  Let’s take it from that day at my office when you caught me with the paint in my hair.”

“Or,” he continued.  “Let’s take it back further.”

“Okay,” Gemma agreed, nodding her head as she grasped at his hands.  “Just tell me when.”

“I’d like to forget as far back as it started to hurt,” Damian said, finally looking back into her eyes.  Gemma felt her throat tighten as she watched him.  She could tell he was pained – that much she could sense – but she struggled to find any familiarity in his face, his tone, his stance.

“When was that?” she asked, fearing this answer even more.  His eyes looked wet, faraway – but a small smile crept up on Damian’s lips as he looked off to the side again, out of the dark lobby and towards the sun streaked sidewalks of midtown.

“To the beach house, the night of prom,” he said.  “To just being in the ocean with you, holding you, but knowing we were about to say goodbye.”

“What are you saying?” Gemma felt her voice shake.  She felt panicked, realizing she hadn’t thought that this was a possibility.  She realized that they had started out rough.  She realized they had made bad moves and she had perhaps said hurtful things.  She realized it would take some work before they were back into their normal groove once they made the decision to annul the marriage and start over, but she didn’t realize that Damian was considering something else entirely.

“I just don’t think I can do this anymore…”

“We’ve barely even
started
Damian, we have to give this a real try before we just give up, right?”

“No, Gemma,
you’ve
barely even started,” Damian said, laughing sadly.  He covered his mouth with his hands as he looked at her.  “I’ve been doing this for years.  And now, for my sanity and for the sake of everyone around me, it’s time for me to stop.  And start over.”

KNICKS GET IT RIGHT FOR ONCE – DAMIAN EVANS DELIVERS

The Big Assist

October 30
^th

How’s this stat line for a debut with the Orange and Blue? 28 points, 11 assists, 4 rebounds, 3 steals in 37 minutes.

Feel that breeze? That’s New York’s collective sigh of relief.  Sure, it’s only the first game of the season but don’t mind if we get a little excited about the fact that the Knicks actually look bound together under the leadership of superstar point guard, Damian Evans.  What looked like a motley crew of mismatched players last season suddenly looks like a well-oiled machine with Evans calling the plays.  Knicks shooting guard Marc Outlaw agrees.  Said Outlaw after the Knicks’ 101-89 victory over the Celtics:

“It feels different out there.  Damian sees the court, he sees open guys and he knows how to make plays.  He’s talking to us during timeouts and he’s bringing us together.  I couldn’t be more grateful to have him as a teammate.”

So, go ahead, New York.  Enjoy the city’s new big guy.  It looks like he’s the real deal.

“Look, Gemma! Look at that car’s plate!” Zoe exclaimed, pointing out the window at a novelty license plate that said something vaguely dirty.  “Isn’t that funny?” She laughed, nudging Gemma slightly as she acted a bit too interested in the car in front of them.  They were on their way back to Beauford for Thanksgiving, all too aware that Gemma and Damian were over before they even really began.  Gavin was driving with a growler of beer and a tin foil wrapped ham strapped in the passenger seat that Zoe had opted not to take.

Gemma felt a bit guilty as Zoe sat in the backseat with her, holding her hand and pointing out every silly thing she could find on the road.  She was also actively fighting a case of carsickness, apparently not used to extended car trips while sitting in the back.  She looked at Gemma, her eyebrows raised with a big smile on her face, her nausea still detectable through her efforts.

“Funny, right?” Zoe asked again.  Gemma forced a smile, nodding.

“I missed it.  What did it say?” Gavin asked.

“Doesn’t matter,” Zoe frowned in defeat before collapsing back in her seat, actually prompting Gemma to laugh for the first time since they got in the car.  Her eyebrows raised again as she turned at the sound.  “You like it when I’m mean to Gavin? Because I can keep doing that if it makes you smile.”