HAPPY FOREVER AFTER

Emma decided to call the one person she knew she could turn to right now. The only person who could make her feel better right now that it felt like her life was falling apart. The one person who would really understand.

She called her mom.

“Hey mom,” she said.

“Hey sweetie” “How are you doing?” her mom asked.

“I’m fine. How are you?”

“I’m okay honey. You never call by this time. Is everything okay dear?”

“Yes, mom. Everything is fine. I was just wondering if I could come home tomorrow. Is that okay?”

“Sweetie, you know it’s okay. This is your home. And you know I have been wanting to see you. Please come, I can’t wait to see you.”

“Alright then. I will see you tomorrow, mom”.

“Do you need me to prepare anything special for you?”

“Whatever you make is alright” Emma replied.

With the way she was feeling she didn’t know if she would be able to eat anything.

————————————–

Daniel rubbed his eyes and leaned back in his desk chair, tired of working and tired of being alone. Avoiding Emma sucked. Not having her around sucked, not making love to her sucked, and knowing that he had hurt her sucked most of all.

He couldn’t focus on work. He knew she probably didn’t want to see him. He needed to call her, go see her. Maybe once she was done being pissed at him, she would give her a chance to let her know how sorry he was. Explain to her that hurting her was never his intention. Maybe she would listen. Or maybe not, but he had to tell her regardless. Not that apologizing would make anything different. But he had to try at least. He just wanted to give her space for now.

These past few days, he had worked very hard at blocking Emma Green out of his consciousness, pouring his energy into dealing with business during the day, carrying on with social life at night. But it didn’t do anything for him.

It was a lie-a self protective lie.

And he felt uncomfortable with it. Especially since he could not get her out of his mind. He was blind to the attraction of any other woman. He didn’t want anyone else in his bed.

Everything seemed to remind him of Emma… Of all the things he liked about her. Maybe he had made a mistake in pushing her away. He had hurt her. And she hadn’t even done anything wrong. Funny how in trying to avoid anyone getting hurt, he had ended up hurting her… And himself too.Còntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org

Just a few more days to give her some space. Then he would go talk to her.

————————–

Emma was so relieved when she got to her mom’s house. The house she grew up in. After all that had happened lately, she knew this was the place she wanted to be.

She didn’t even tell anyone she was leaving. Not even Karen, because she knew Karen would get worried and what to know why. And she wasn’t sure she was ready to tell anyone about the pregnancy. She had simply told Barret that she had to leave for a while, but she would try her best to do most of her work from home.

Her mom appeared in the doorway, smiling excitedly. Emma was so happy to see her and almost ran into her arms.

Her mom smiled.

“Hi, mom” Emma said

“Hey sweetie, you are finally here,” Amy Green said and hugged her daughter once more. “How was your journey?”

“It was fine. You don’t know how happy I am to see you, mom” Emma said.

“Me too, baby. You are the one who kept postponing your visit. let’s go inside”.

“What about Uncle Ken and Aunt Jen? Are they alright?” Emma asked.

“Yes they are fine, I told them you were coming and they can’t wait to see you.”

Emma found a spaniel playing with a large fir cone when they got inside.

“You have a dog now, mom?” she said. “You didn’t tell me”

“Oh, that belongs to your Aunt Jen, but he comes here a lot. His name is Benjamin” Amy said.

“Oh” Emma said. “He is so cute, a good breed, and a fine doggy. Lemme have a look at you” she said.

After a while she set Benny down and watched the wriggling puppy from all angles, measuring his ears with great deliberation.

“I will set the table for dinner,” Amy said. “You should go next door and say hi to your uncle and aunt”.

Emma did as she was told, and two minutes later she was in the next house. She could hear Aunt Jen’s voice, issuing from the kitchen.

“If a thing is worth doing at all, it’s worth doing well” she was saying, using one of her well worn cliches. Probably talking to Uncle Ken who would be in the living room.

Emma smiled and knocked, then she called out to her.

“Aunt Jen? It’s me-Emma!” she said.

A minute later Jen’s rotund little figure came hurrying through the door. She embraced Emma affectionately.

“Well, how lovely to see you, Emma,” she said, her face beaming with pleasure. “And I’m not really surprised you decided to come today. I always say ‘every cloud has a silver lining’ and so far today has been one big cloud of trouble. So you are here to make everything better”.

“Trouble?” Emma repeated. “Is everything okay?” she asked.

“Oh it’s fine”, Jen replied. “Come here”

Emma allowed herself to be led into the sitting room. There was Uncle Ken.

“Hello, baby,” he said. And Emma went forward to hug him.

“How are you?” she asked.

“I’m fine, thank you honey. You are here finally. Why haven’t you come home for so long?” he asked.

“I’m sorry, uncle,” Emma replied. “My job just hasn’t let me.”

—————–

Soon they all went back to her mom’s to have dinner and after answering all their questions and making conversations, Emma was tired. She fell asleep on the couch.

When she opened her eyes and stared round the room. Uncle Ken and Aunt Jen had left. Her mom sat on the couch opposite hers, watching TV.

Emma lay still, watching her mom, savoring the moment of lazy comfort, not wishing to inform her mom that she was awake. She looked round the room through half closed eyes and saw Benny, curled up in a corner.

She sighed.

“Oh, you are awake, dear,” her mom said. “You had a nice long sleep didn’t you. I will bring you tea”.

“Thanks mom… But you don’t have…” Emma began, but it was useless because her mom was already up.

When Amy returned she watched Emma sip her tea for a while, then she said. “Are you okay, Emma? You seem troubled”.

Emma stared at her, thinking about the best way to tell her mom about the pregnancy. She couldn’t come up with any. So she stood up. “I’m not troubled mom…” she said. But when she looked back at her mom she saw her mom had a weird look on her face.

“You are pregnant,” Amy said.