Diamonds Are Forever (2 page)

“Okay,” Gemma said, rolling her eyes. 
But not everyone has the time for that
.  She stood up, slipping her feet back into her sandals and making her way towards the kitchenette.

After their introduction, Gemma had learned that Corey was as friendly and kind-hearted as his mother.  Theirs dates came infrequently, seeing each other only about once or twice a month between their busy schedules.  Gemma had finally begun working on her own designs outside of Armand’s line and Corey was busy applying for law school.  It felt more like the beginnings of a friendship rather than the beginnings of a romance.  The only things that made their relationship distinctive was that they ended their nights with a kiss rather than a hug goodbye, and the fact that Corey looked the way he did – like that classically handsome, stable guy that every girl would want to marry.

But a semester into law school, Corey decided he had no idea what he wanted to do with his life – he just knew he no longer wanted to be a lawyer.  Dropping out meant a lot more time for Gemma, and it was then that their relationship began to look more like an actual relationship.  But just four months in, Gemma realized she had learned just about everything there was to learn about Corey.  He was a surprisingly simple man, which she had thought would be perfect for her, considering all the complicated relationships she had in the past.  Instead, she was just constantly bored in his presence.

“Hey girl!” Leah said, throwing her arms up in the air as Gemma entered the kitchen.  She was sitting on the counter, swinging her tan legs as she held some colorful cocktail that Mitchell had probably mixed.  To Gemma’s surprise, Leah was sitting there alone.

“Where are the other two?” Gemma asked.

“They’re probably boning,” Leah whispered, though not exactly quietly.

“Really?” Gemma laughed.  “As adorable as Kate is, I didn’t think you’d lose this type of battle to her.”

“I didn’t,” Leah shrugged, sipping on her cocktail.  “They just had more chemistry together.  I know when to step down.”

“How big of you,” Gemma replied, meaning her words despite the amusement in her voice.

“And I have all these multi-colored alcoholic drink mixes to make me feel better about being the fifth wheel on this trip of indeterminate length,” Leah sighed.  She frowned, swigging down the rest of her cocktail in one long gulp.

“How long have you been sitting here alone?” Gemma asked, giving her friend a supportive squeeze on the shoulder.  “You could’ve joined us out front.”

“Nah, I didn’t want to get in the way.  Corey seemed to really want his alone time with you.”

“He wouldn’t have invited you guys if that were the case.”

“He only invited us to get
you
on the boat, you know that,” Leah laughed.  She hopped off the counter, pausing for a moment to regain her balance before striding into the next room.  Gemma followed, watching as Leah plopped herself onto the leather sectional that filled the space.  She sat herself next to Leah’s stretched out body, forgetting about her ginger ale.

“Are you okay?” Gemma asked, looking at Leah’s slightly drunken frown.

“Yeah.  Just single, is all,” Leah replied.

“There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“There is for me.”  Leah draped an arm over her eyes.

“Okay, you just had a little too much to drink,” Gemma laughed.  “Because the Leah I know has really loved being single all these years.”

“Has she, though?” she sighed.

“
You
have,
” Gemma insisted.  “And once you’re sober, you’ll be fine again.  Not everyone can say they’re the heartbreaker that you are.”  She tried to recall the names of all of Leah’s romantic conquests in just the past year.  Leah hadn’t dated anyone for longer than a month, finding some sort of flaw in each cute guy before “letting them go,” as if they were unsatisfactory employees.

“I’m not a heartbreaker,” Leah pouted.  “I just didn’t really like any of them.  It’s not my fault
they
liked me so much.”

“Alright,” Gemma laughed, patting Leah on the head.  “You’re not a heartbreaker.”

“Besides, we don’t all meet the type of men you meet,” Leah said, pulling her arm from her eyes.  “Had I been in a relationship with a Damian or a Lucas or a
Tyler Fucking Chase,
I’m not sure I would have let any of them go.”

“
Leah,
” Gemma said, her smile dropping.

“I know, I know,” Leah slurred, sitting herself up.  “I’m sorry.  I know why all those relationships ended, I didn’t mean it like that.  Not that it matters anyway, because you’re dating Prince Corey.”

“Yep,” Gemma shrugged, unenthusiastically.

“That,” Leah said, pointing an accusing finger as she cocked her head.  “Is the attitude I’m talking about.  That whole, ‘oh, I casually bagged me a super eligible bachelor and I’m not that into him’ thing you do.”

“Well, I only do that because,” Gemma lowered her voice into a whisper.  “
I’m not that into him.”

“Girl, how?” Leah yelled, killing any hopes of a quiet conversation.

“I don’t know!” Gemma yelled back.  “I know it’s crazy, but can we not talk about that here? This may very well be the least appropriate place to be on this topic.”

“I seriously hate you sometimes.”

“I know you do.”

“You suck so badly, you know that?”

“I know.”

“You know how many girls would kill to be in your shoes?”

“I know,
I know
,” Gemma shook her head, burying her face in her hands.  She stayed there for a moment, shutting her eyes and feeling the slight rocking of the boat.  Gemma felt Leah scoot up beside her, putting an arm around her shoulders.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.  I’m just drunk.”

“You didn’t make me feel any worse than I do on my own.”

“That’s not good.”

“I know.”

“You… should probably end things with him.”

“I know.”

“Well if you
know
everything
,
genius, why don’t you do something about it?” Leah asked.

“Well, right now, because we’re on this boat,” Gemma replied.  “For an indeterminate amount of time.”  She laughed, realizing that she had avoided Corey’s repeated invitations to go yachting because she didn’t like the idea of not being able to leave him whenever she wanted or needed.

“Well, fuck,” Leah said.  They exchanged a quick glance, laughing as they realized that Gemma had come to this conclusion too early in their weekend trip.

“At least you’re here,” Gemma said.  “We can still have fun.  And if we don’t, we can consider this our support of Kate and Mitchell becoming a thing.  I’m not sure where that leaves Corey, though.”

“I believe that leaves him completely oblivious to the fact that his ass is about to be dumped.”

“Whose ass is about to be dumped?” Corey asked, stepping into the room.

“Aren’t you supposed to be driving this damn thing we’re on?” Leah yelled, forcing a smile and flashing Gemma a quick look of regret.

“My brother,” Gemma blurted out.  “Gavin.  Um.  Leah was recounting when she used to go out with Gavin.  And she dumped him unexpectedly.”  Gemma turned to Leah, making a face. 
Where did that come from?
Gemma laughed, inwardly.  The two girls exchanged a glance, as if to acknowledge that their half-lie-half-memory had served as a good save.

“Oh, okay,” Corey shrugged.  “Mitchell is taking over for a bit.  He and Kate are up there for the rest of the trip so I can take care of my seasick girlfriend over here.”  He sat down beside Gemma, pulling her in by the waist.  Leah pressed a hand to her mouth to suppress a potentially rude reaction.

“I’m fine, don’t worry,” Gemma shook her head.  Corey stroked her hair, leaning her head into the crook of his shoulder.  He removed his watch and took Gemma’s hand.

“Those anti-nausea bracelet things you were talking about, they’re mostly just a placebo effect,” he explained.  He strapped his watch on as snugly as he could onto her wrist.  “So let’s pretend my watch is one of those bracelets, okay?” He gave her wrist a quick squeeze and kissed the top of her head.  Gemma bit her lip at the sweet gesture, feeling bad for what she had been saying just moments before.  She peered up at Leah, whose face had softened as well.

“Thank you,” Gemma whispered.

“You know what I hear also helps?” Corey asked, massaging her shoulder.  “They say that the ones that get seasick are the people who are resisting the motion of the water.  If you just let your body follow the movement of the boat you’re in instead of fighting it, you’ll feel better.”

~

The weekend turned out to be far more enjoyable than she expected, and while it helped to have Leah and Kate around, Gemma legitimately enjoyed Corey’s presence as well.  It was possible she had forced herself to, feeling guilty for agreeing to the trip when she had felt so tepidly towards him in recent days.  Gemma
did
recognize that Corey was just about perfect, but there was something missing about him that she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

After bringing Kate into the conversation, Gemma concluded that her feelings of ending things were premature.  After all, they had only seen each other regularly for about four months – perhaps something hadn’t had the time to click yet.  But she also knew it was possible that Kate was driving her towards Corey just so they could potentially double date in the future.

When Corey’s driver pulled up in front of Gemma’s building after dropping off everyone else at home, she considered asking him to come upstairs with her.  She had yet to invite him to her place, but then again, she had yet to invite
anyone
to her place.  Despite having bought and lived in her Chelsea apartment for close to three years now, she had never bothered to decorate or furnish it properly.  She spent most of her days at Armand’s studio or her own boutique and both those places felt more like home than her own apartment.

“When do I see you next?” Corey asked as he opened her door for her.  She took his hand, stepping out of the car and letting him lead her to the lobby door.

“I don’t know, maybe next week?”

“I was thinking, actually,” Corey started.  “There’s a new lounge opening on Thursday in the Lower East Side.  It’s called Greyta, I think you probably got an invitation.”

“I did.”  Gemma had never actually seen an invitation, but she knew her Aunt Mira’s firm was hired to handle publicity for the launch and that Gavin and Zoe had mentioned it before as well.  She wouldn’t need an invitation to go and the people there would be more
her
peers than his.  It was funny to be around Corey sometimes.  He had a tendency to forget that Gemma was once Queen Bee and that the paparazzi that showed up weren’t necessarily there just for him – which Gemma kind of liked.  He had only ever known press and paparazzi throughout his life whereas Gemma only started to get a true glimpse in her teens, when she started her career as a singer.  But Corey wasn’t being followed for his career or for who he was dating, he was simply followed for being
himself
– a Sloan.

“Should we go?”

“Sure,” Gemma replied.  She flinched at her own response. 
Stop making plans with him if he
bores
you so much,
she scolded herself.
 
But she had planned on going anyway, just not with him.  She wanted to spend some time on her own with her friends that would be there – and perhaps get a few more opinions on whether or not it was premature to break up with Corey.  And it had been awhile since she’d seen her brother.  Ever since Gavin and Zoe got back together, they had stayed holed up in their new home in Murray Hill, happy to be secluded from the world.

“Good, I’ll see you then,” Corey smiled, leaning in to give Gemma a quick kiss goodbye.  Just as he did, Gemma caught a flash from the corner of her vision.  She peered over to catch a paparazzo taking repeated photos, despite the fact that there really wasn’t anything new to see.  Annoyed, Gemma could feel her heart beat a little faster.  She’d been fairly paparazzi-free as of late, probably because her post-Tyler life was considered boring, what with so much focus on work.

Corey looked over at the paparazzo, giving him a quick wave.

“John! Hi!” Corey said, with a big smile.  Gemma furrowed her brows.  It wasn’t the first time Corey addressed a paparazzo by name.  She found it both amusing and infuriating, as if she had learned that he had been regularly feeding the neighborhood rat.

“Hey Corey, big smile for me! And c’mon Queenie, smile for me,” John yelled, continuing to snap away.  Gemma crossed her arms as she looked over at Corey, who actually gave him a quick smile and wave before giving Gemma another goodbye kiss.

“I’ll pick you up this Thursday,” he said before disappearing into his car.

~

“Please, Armand,” Gemma begged.  “This news shouldn’t be devastating you quite as much as it is right now.”

Armand sat in the middle of the large backroom of her boutique, the space that she had been using as her studio and storage space for all her own fabrics and designs.  Armand wrapped himself in a stray roll of charcoal silk, looking pitiable as he stared at the concrete floors.

“It is just that
you
are perfect, and
he
is perfect, and I love seeing all this perfection so neat in one place.”

“I didn’t say that I was
definitely
breaking up with him, just that I don’t really like him,” Gemma said.  She paused before laughing at the ridiculousness of her own statement. 
Do you even need anyone else’s opinions?

“You are breaking my heart.  And when you break Corey’s heart, I will be heartbroken all over again.”

“Of everyone in the world, you should understand
the most
why I shouldn’t even be dating right now!” Gemma exclaimed as she filed through a catalog of fabric swaths.  The annual Gotham Ball was nearing, and The Court had gotten quite a few orders for pieces to wear to the famously costumed soiree.

“Being single for over five years is not my choice, Bee.  It is just an unfortunate side effect of loving my work.  You have a boy who wants to be with you even with your crazy schedule – and not just any boy, but the
perfect
boy.  How could you not see what everyone else sees? That you have hit the jackpot! If
I
could find a boy who is this understanding, I would never let him go.”