The Heart Wants What It Wants

Chapter 3

Why were there never any sinkholes when you really needed them?

Diana wished the ground would open up and swallow her, but everything looked disappointingly solid and sturdy.

She didn’t dare look at George, on the stage. He was talking, but she couldn’t really hear the words over the roaring of blood in her ears.

George Hemsworth, Founder and CEO of TechSplain, and the keynote speaker – that’s the man she had been having lunch with. Of course, her mind insisted on playing back the conversation, and the thing she had said, the way she’d talked about people in IT. Oh God, was it possible to die of embarrassment?

Why hadn’t he said anything? Why hadn’t the man just introduced himself properly?

‘I’m George,’ he’d said, as if he was Cher or Oprah or something.

Maybe he was in this particular world. She was probably the only person there who hadn’t known who he was, and he had…

Well, the man had just let her play herself for a complete fool. He hadn’t made a fool of her, she’d done that job just fine all on her own. He’d just not stopped her from doing it.

Diana didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t possibly stay there and listen. She couldn’t possibly stay there and wait for him to get to her and laugh at her.

She couldn’t get up and walk out, either.

So Diana sat there, miserable, her eyes on her phone, not seeing the words of the book she’d been planning to read. The minutes dragged on, and on. The talk seemed to be a big success. Everybody was clapping, laughing, nodding along – she hadn’t heard a word of it, drowning in her own embarrassment.

As soon as the floor opened for questions, she made her move. She grabbed her stuff, and she edged for the door, trying to be as quiet as possible. She could see it – hideous visions of her knocking something over, tripping and falling flat on her face, calling attention to herself and having everybody laugh at her. Worse, having them feel pity for her.

But nothing happened. She made it out of the door, and stood there, leaning against the wall, taking in a few great, gulping breaths.

“I’m such an idiot,” she whispered, but saying it out loud didn’t help.

Well, it was a big hotel. She was booked under her firm’s name, so it wouldn’t matter if he asked for her. They wouldn’t tell him where she was, would they? All she had to do was go to her room and stay there, and order room service. She’d be safe at least for the night.

The next day, though – the next day.

He wouldn’t be there, she told herself. He didn’t have to stay and mingle and have a booth and show presentations that nobody was really interested in. She was supposed to do all of that, but he was an extremely busy man and he would be going places and doing important things.

He wouldn’t stick around like that, would he? Of course he wouldn’t. She didn’t have to worry about that. It was just the evening.

Making up her mind, Diana fled, abandoning the rest of the conference.

She’d been booked into one of the lower level rooms, and she was just glad that she’d been booked into the same hotel as the conference. At least it made life easier. Or, if she was unprecedentedly stupid, difficult, as she’d made it now.

Opening the curtain, she looked out, feeling a little claustrophobic. She was stuck in the hotel room for the night now.

Well, she had the book, she had some work she could do, she had research, she had…

Her phone rang.

Oh no. Oh no, it couldn’t be him, could it? Surely… Surely, he wouldn’t call to rub her humiliation in!

Nobody could be that mean, could they? Nobody could…

“Alex!”

She nearly cried in relief.

“Di, are you okay?”

“I’m most definitely not okay,” declared Diana, and proceeded to tell Alex all about her day, and waited for Alex to be sympathetic, as might have been expected from a good best friend.

“Is he hot?”

“What?”

“Is he hot? He must be hot, or you wouldn’t have agreed to go for lunch with him. And dinner.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Everything! So he was a little mean. I don’t think you gave him much of an opening to tell you all about himself, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, when was he supposed to shoehorn it in? He must have assumed you knew who he was. He’s pretty famous.”

“He is?”

“Sure! I just googled him while you were telling me your tale of woe, and he’s really famous, and… holy mother! He is really rich. Like, really, seriously, super rich. One of the richest men in the country.”

“What?”

“He has this big tech company…”

“I know about that one, thank you.”

“And,” went on Alex, ignoring Diana, “he’s got investments in everything. He’s a majority shareholder in a dozen other smaller companies. He’s really rich, Di. Like, probably has a private plane and a private island kind of rich. And… holy sh*t, he is hot! Oh wow, look at him. Are his eyes really that blue, or is that airbrushed?”

“His eyes are really blue. They’re a very creepy blue. I don’t think people should be allowed to have such blue eyes. It’s unsettling. It’s like you can’t lie when he’s looking at you.”

“I suppose that’s a good skill to have when you negotiate such big money. Well, have you decided what you’re going to wear for your date?”

“What? Of course not! Of course I’m not going. It was all a joke. At least I got really good pesto pasta and awesome carrot cake out of it.”

“He’s a bit older than you – about sixteen years, that’s, hmm. Maybe he is too old for you. But he doesn’t look old, does he? He looks very hot and very distinguished.”

“He doesn’t seem old. He seemed very nice, except for making a fool out of me as if it didn’t matter how I felt.”

“Maybe you’re just making more of it than it has to be. I mean…”

“Come on, Alex. Just because he’s rich and he’s hot, you don’t think it’s a cruel trick to play?”

“Well, maybe it was mean. So you’re not going to dinner with him?”

“Of course I’m not!” cried Diana, frustrated.

“All right, then, do you want to watch old shows with me? I’ll come on Skype and we can watch it and drink wine and you can order room service.”

“That sounds nice,” said Diana, a little mollified.

Diana settled down, and tried to forget about her humiliation, and by the time she fell asleep, she’d almost succeeded in that. Keeping her phone turned off had helped her.