No Matter, You Don't Have to Wait for Me novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Gemma Brings Pastry

On Friday at lunch the front desk called me to say there was a woman in the waiting room with a pastry box.

I knew who it was before I looked.

Gemma sat on the small plastic chair by the fish tank, her knees up near her chin, holding the box with both hands.

She stood the moment she saw me.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I know I shouldn't come here. I didn't know where else you'd let me find you."

"Come in the back," I said.

We went to the staff kitchen, which had a microwave and a calendar with a cartoon owl.

Gemma put the box on the table and opened it.

Six small cakes, each one cut in a different shape.

"Lemon," she said. "Not too sweet. You hate too sweet, right?"

"I do."

"Dario said you love the sweet ones. I never believed him."

I sat down across from her.

"Why are you here, Gemma?"

She took a breath that shook a little on the way in.

"Because on Saturday I held your face wash up in front of everybody, and I didn't even know what it was."

"You asked if anyone wanted it."

"That's worse," she said. "I asked, and everyone said no, and nobody thought to look at you."

I did not say anything.

"I have been thinking about it all week," she said. "About everything, actually. The seating chart. The fish."

"You didn't pick the fish."

"I did not pick the fish!" Her voice broke, and she laughed, and then covered her mouth. "I hate that fish. I like the soup. I told Dario to stop changing it, and he said it was easier if I just went along."

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