His face softened for a moment. “You’re right. You’re the only one who told me I could play guitar.”
“And you can.”
Gabe gently made a strumming motion across her knuckles, hooking his foot between hers. “I’m going to strum you all night long.”
“I can’t wait.” Ivy forced herself to smile, to concentrate on Gabe, but she couldn’t shake her queasiness.
“Here we are,” the server said.
“That looks delicious,” Ivy said as the bowl of Moqueca landed in front of her.
“Are you sure you don’t want a scallop?”
“I’m good.” Ivy dragged her spoon through the soup.
“So, what are your plans for the first night I’m gone?”
Ivy glanced around the restaurant, seeing if she could spot any clients of Metric’s. Her shoulders hunched, and she refrained from rolling her eyes. She didn’t know why Gabe thought being on her own was a problem. She called her parents, zoomed with Alice, listened to her audiobooks, painted her nails, and worked too many hours like usual. And she missed him so much she ached, but she didn’t need him to get her through the day.
“I’m going to invite a hot guy over.”
Gabe paused with his fork to his mouth, his eyes narrowing at her. “Princess, we’ve never discussed that.”
“And would you be up for it?”
“No. I’m not Logan. I can’t have a sub be someone else’s wife.”
“Clara isn’t someone else’s wife.”
“Answer the question.”
“I’m going to soak with my favourite bath bomb, eat a carton of ice cream, put on a chick flick and miss you.”
“Yeah, glad you have plans.”
“Yep.”
“Princess, you know I have to do this.”
“Can we just eat, please, and enjoy tonight? You’re leaving tomorrow?”
“Before the sun goes up. It should only be ten days.”
Ivy put down her spoon, not feeling hungry. For the rest of the day, she had convinced herself that the conversation she had overheard wasn’t real. It was a made-up thing they were talking about, but she couldn’t shake it. What if Gabe went on this trip and didn’t come back?
Once they were home, lounging on the couch together, Ivy snuggled against Gabe. “Anything I can help with before you leave?”
“No. They wanted me to clean my social media. You should have seen their expressions when I told them I didn’t have any social media accounts. They think this is going to be a good fit with them.”
“Gabe, Metric is handling the recruitment for Ribbon of Aid.”
“You’re serious?” He shook his head.
“Yeah, just a coincidence. But you said Cole told you about this? Maybe he mentioned us.” Ivy swallowed. She had reasons for disliking his brother, but before Flint took Cole off her client list, she netted Cole a lot of money with the sponsorship spots she found him.
“Yeah, maybe. So you can see how outstanding they are, right?”
Ivy squirmed under his arm. “I don’t know, Gabe. Honestly, I don’t think you should go. Call Xander or Ares tomorrow, and ask if they have anything.”
