His Princess - Stacy Gail Page 0,41
fight it out with her. The only thing in her head at that point had been to finish that stupid video to get it out of the way, so that was what she’d done. The moment she and Alice walked into her place at almost two in the morning, she’d put herself to work while Alice had tried to get her to eat something. When that had failed, her foster sister had simply curled up on the couch to catch a few winks, while Joelle wrapped up the video and sent it off to Heidi.
Now the sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon in the east. The segments of her next post— “Wowing with Weekend Wear”—had been outlined. She’d also written a rough script, and several outfits had been chosen to be photographed later that day when the light was better. The thought of trying to grab some sleep surfaced briefly, then vanished just as fast. No way was she going to be able to close her eyes any time soon. She might see Gus in her dreams.
“It’s okay if you’re not okay, you know.”
Joelle’s head snapped up so quickly she heard something pop in her neck. Alice had rolled onto her stomach to prop her chin on the couch’s armrest, and her sleepy eyes were fastened on her, soft with compassion.
“Alice.” She swallowed, and it was harder than she’d expected. Guess that was what happened when she was trying to choke down a fist-sized knot of tears. “I don’t know what I am.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No. Not in the way you mean, anyway.”
“In what way, then?”
“He didn’t value me. All of me,” she corrected fairly, swiveling around in her chair to face the other woman. “God, that actually hurt to say it out loud, but it’s true. He just wants the princess. Not the whole woman.”
“I don’t even know what that means.”
“It means that right from the beginning, it felt like Gus and I were made for each other, you know? I didn’t even get angry when he got called away to work, because I knew it was important to him. I respected that. Was it too much to ask for him to do the same for me? Is it because I’m a woman? Generally speaking, our culture has a bad habit of not valuing women and their work as much as men’s work. Is that it?”
“Jo, stop.” Alice got up to sit on the couch’s armrest, her expression torn between bewilderment and exasperation. “I feel like I walked in on a movie halfway through, so do me a favor and start from the beginning. What the hell happened?”
At last Joelle told her everything, and as she did she tried to look at the situation objectively. It hadn’t been cool of her to jump at the work opportunity that had popped up without at least giving Gus a heads-up. She knew that. As a matter of courtesy, she probably should have talked it over with him and explained how important this move could potentially be for her career, instead of letting her ambition get in the way.
So, yes. That crap move was totally on her.
But he had one helluva lot to answer for, too.
“So, let me see if I have this straight,” Alice said when she finally wound down. “This is a lot of upset over what amounts to be an interrupted date, something couples the world over have experienced.”
“Exactly. Of course, most dates don’t include private plane travel just to pick up a bottle of your favorite wine at a Napa Valley winery, but the point is clear. Gus blew this whole incident way out of proportion.” Feeling sick all the way to her soul, Joelle crossed her arms and hugged them tightly to her chest. “At least now I know how he really feels about me. I’m just a fluff-brained princess whose work—or life, for that matter—isn’t nearly as important as his.”
Alice made a dubious sound. “I don’t know, Jo. Seems to me you both have kind of blown this way out of proportion.”
That brought Joelle’s gaze snapping back to her. “You cannot be serious.”
“Let’s try to be objective and not emotional for a moment,” Alice said, lacing her hands in front of her. “You don’t think that what you just said wasn’t a tiny bit of an overreaction?”
“I’m not overreacting to anything. He told me to my face that my work, and therefore my ambition—and therefore me—isn’t nearly important enough to mess up his