diff --git a/src/crewai/utilities/embedding_functions.py b/src/crewai/utilities/embedding_functions.py
index 07c247b7b..71656e32d 100644
--- a/src/crewai/utilities/embedding_functions.py
+++ b/src/crewai/utilities/embedding_functions.py
@@ -20,7 +20,8 @@ class FixedGoogleVertexEmbeddingFunction(GoogleVertexEmbeddingFunction):
                 model_name: str = "textembedding-gecko", 
                 api_key: Optional[str] = None,
                 **kwargs: Any):
-        super().__init__(model_name=model_name, api_key=api_key, **kwargs)
+        api_key_str = "" if api_key is None else api_key
+        super().__init__(model_name=model_name, api_key=api_key_str, **kwargs)
         
         self._original_post = requests.post
         requests.post = self._patched_post
diff --git a/tests/utilities/test_embedding_functions.py b/tests/utilities/test_embedding_functions.py
index aa6d08851..f65d31d62 100644
--- a/tests/utilities/test_embedding_functions.py
+++ b/tests/utilities/test_embedding_functions.py
@@ -45,8 +45,13 @@ class TestFixedGoogleVertexEmbeddingFunction:
     def test_embedding_call(self, embedding_function):
         function, mock_post = embedding_function
         
+        mock_response = MagicMock()
+        mock_response.json.return_value = {"predictions": [[0.1, 0.2, 0.3]]}
+        mock_post.return_value = mock_response
+        
         embeddings = function(["test text"])
         
         mock_post.assert_called_once()
         
         assert isinstance(embeddings, list)
+        assert len(embeddings) > 0