SUSAN MEIER - Married In The Morning

He pushed the elevator button and pulled her into his arms. She came willingly, resting her head on his shoulder. So, he pressed his luck and gave her a soft kiss before he stepped inside the car. She smiled briefly and waved as the doors closed.

But Gerrick wasn’t happy with the smile, or the wave. Just like in their hotel room that morning in Vegas, she hadn’t kissed him back.

Gina took only one of Gerrick’s calls in the days that followed. In that conversation, she explained that because of the severity of her father’s heart attack, Hilton’s cardiologist friend had agreed that a catheterization should be done in the cardiac facility at the Johnstown hospital rather than waiting until Hilton could be moved to Atlanta. Josh and his mother, Hilton’s sister, went to Pennsylvania to be with Gina during the procedure, which went very well. Josh returned to work Friday reporting Hilton’s prognosis was good. He would be transferred to Atlanta in about a week, but he would ultimately need bypass surgery.

With the news that Hilton was stable, Gerrick decided to fly to Johnstown for the weekend. He didn’t expect Gina to announce their marriage, and he didn’t plan to play the role of husband. He just wanted to see her. He wanted to be sure she was okay. He wanted to be sure Hilton was okay. He wanted to do whatever he could because these people were his family. He felt it as surely as if he and Gina had dated for years instead of hours. And he couldn’t stay away.

When he arrived in Hilton’s private room, he found Gina and Hilton’s friend, Dr. Brown, laughing and talking with a tired, but wide-awake Hilton Martin. His white hair was pillow-ruffled but his blue eyes were clear and bright.

“Gerrick, come in!” Hilton called as enthusiastically as an obviously weak man could. “Come in! What the devil possessed you to fly up here?”

“I came to see you,” Gerrick said, smiling broadly with relief at seeing Hilton looking like he was on the road to recovery.

“And I’m fine. How’s the company?”

“Uh-uh-uh…” Dr. Brown said, shaking his finger. “You don’t get to talk business until after the bypass.”

“Spoilsport!” Hilton said, but he laughed.

Gerrick’s gaze drifted to Gina. Wearing blue jeans and a loose-knit hunter-green sweater that intensified the hue of her dark-brown hair, she couldn’t have been prettier if she tried. Yet, something about her was off-kilter. She appeared pleased with her father’s recovery, but she was different.

“Hi, Gina,” Gerrick said, greeting her because he hadn’t done so when he walked in.

“Hi, Gerrick.”

Gerrick accepted her casual reply because of the circumstances and smiled, but Gina shifted her gaze away from him.

“Since Dr. Brown won’t let me talk business,” Hilton said, “I would feel much better, Gina, if you would go out into the hall and get the lowdown from Gerrick. So I’ll know at least one of us is staying on top of things.”

“There’s really nothing pressing happening,” Gerrick said, but Hilton waved him out. “You two go talk.”

Because Hilton hadn’t changed floors, only rooms, Gina and Gerrick returned to the corridor waiting area and the alcoves of chairs. They took seats in the first hideaway. It was private, but Gerrick nonetheless glanced around to see if he could do something as simple as take her hand.

Gina shook her head. “Don’t.”

“Don’t?”

“Don’t. I don’t want you holding my hand.”

“Gina, you don’t have to worry,” Gerrick said soothingly. “I’m not going to do anything to embarrass you or even announce our wedding. You’re safe.”

“I don’t think so,” Gina said, her voice barely a whisper. “Now that the worst is over and now that I’ve had time to think things through, I know I won’t feel safe until we talk about our marriage.”

“Okay. So, let’s talk.”

Gina straightened her shoulders and sat taller in her chair as if she were about to have a business discussion, not a personal one. She drew a long breath then said, “I had too much to drink the night we got married and I don’t remember it. I don’t remember if we consummated the marriage.” Without so much as a blink, she steadily held his gaze. “I assume we did. But whatever happened, I don’t remember and as far as I’m concerned that makes it a mistake.”

“I disagree,” Gerrick said calmly, though inside he was reeling. She didn’t remember. That would explain her hesitation when she awakened, and why she had second thoughts. But it didn’t explain why she kissed him at the airport in Atlanta. Or the fact that she didn’t want out of the marriage Sunday afternoon. Sunday afternoon she wanted to be his wife as much as he wanted to be her husband. Otherwise she wouldn’t have let him come to her house, because she had to know the only reason for them to go to her father’s home together was to tell him they were married.

“Gina, this just happened at a bad time. I’m willing to give you weeks or months to adjust if need be, but I don’t think we made a mistake.” He paused, took her hand. “I love you, Gina.”

“You don’t love me,” Gina said, yanking her hand from his and shifting away from him, though she remained coolly detached. “We had a really great weekend but we do not love each other. Gerrick, I barely know you.”

“We worked together for six years. We’ve known each other twelve.”

She shook her head. “You don’t really know the people you work with.”

“Are you telling me you’re hiding some deep, dark secret?”

“I’m telling you we made a mistake and I don’t want to continue it. I want out.” She combed her fingers through her thick brown hair, then shook her head in disgust. “I’ve got problems enough with my dad and I don’t have the mental energy to argue with you. I don’t even have time to be as diplomatic as I probably should be. And you don’t, either. You’ve got a new job to go to.”

“That’s funny. Last week you were insisting only I

could stay behind to run the company in your father’s absence. Now you want me to leave?”

“You need to leave. You need to get on with the rest of your life and I need to get on with mine.”

“I see,” Gerrick said coolly and rose from his chair. Where had his wonderful Gina gone? Where was the sweet passionate woman who tormented him by fingering all the red and black lace bras in the hotel store? Where was the woman who made love with passion and abandon? Where was the woman who had asked him to marry her? “I guess I should head for home, then.”

She nodded.

“I’ll just say goodbye to your father.”

She nodded again. “I’ll be in in a minute.”

Gerrick took no comfort in the fact that Gina appeared to need to collect herself before returning to her father’s room. Heeding doctor’s orders, Gerrick also didn’t tell Hilton that Gina had basically asked him to leave the company. He never lost his smile, his friendly demeanor, or even the spring in his step until he was boarding the commuter at Johnstown’s airport, then he felt as if his entire world was crumbling around him.

He had loved her for months. Before he got the job offer in Maine he had been building up to asking her out by talking with her every chance he got. True, he hadn’t told her about his family, but she knew as much as anybody knew about him personally. And he knew absolutely everything about her. Most of her growing-up years had been documented in the company’s annual statement because it was a family-owned business. He knew her. He knew he loved her. And he knew that without her, his life would have almost no meaning.

His heart actually hurt, and he considered not leaving, waiting around until she came back and then trying to talk to her again. But Gina had made her wishes clear. She wouldn’t be receptive to his staying. She wouldn’t see his refusal to go as tenacity born of love. She would fight him tooth and nail, if only on principle. But more than that, if she didn’t believe she knew him, if she had missed that he had been flirting with her for months, then she hadn’t been paying any attention to him and she was right. She didn’t know him.