HAPPY FOREVER AFTER

Look, Emma… I’m sorry about Michelle” he said. “She just came to discuss some work stuff”Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

Emma faced him, determined not to let how she felt show on her face. “I don’t care,” she said.

“Sounds like you do,” he replied.

“Well I don’t. Don’t flatter yourself” she snapped. “I don’t care what you do. Go ahead and do what ever the fuck you want. I don’t care… I don’t want to know why she was here. You don’t owe me any explanation”.

“I know.” he replied softly. “But I want to explain. Nothing is happening… I’m having a baby… With you I’m not going to do anything to ruin that”

Emma stared at him and rolled her eyes. “Yeah that’s right… You have said and done enough”.

Daniel stared at her. He wanted to grab her and shake her, pull her to him and kiss all that anger away. Talk some sense into that pretty head of hers. Maybe then she would understand that she wasn’t the only one hurting, that he was frustrated and miserable as she was. That he missed her so fucking much. And that he regretted accusing her of trying to trap him.

He had just lost it that night. And who could blame him. But he knew that grabbing her wasn’t a good idea right now. It would make her hate him even more.

Emma abandoned the food she had scooped into the plate. Thanks to Daniel, she was no longer hungry. She brushed past him, intending to go back to her room.

Daniel stopped her movement with one hand on her arm and ran the other through his hair.

“I’m sorry, Emma. About everything. I didn’t mean to upset you.” he said softly. He stared at the food. “You are not going to eat that?” he asked.

“I’ve lost my appetite,” she stated flatly as she withdrew her hand. She turned and walked out of the kitchen and back to her room.

Once inside, she perched on the edge of the bed, and in the distance she heard knocking and then Daniel’s angry voice through the door.

She ignored him, but her head came up when her bedroom door flew open, revealing a livid Daniel. Yeah, well he wasn’t the only one pissed, and she wasn’t backing down. She got to her feet and faced him head on.

“What the hell is wrong with you, Emma? What do you hope to accomplish by locking me out? Ignoring our problems isn’t going to make them go away.” he said.

“Leave me alone, Daniel please” Emma replied.

“I’m not doing anything with her.”

“And I didn’t ask,” she retorted. “And isn’t it amazing that she didn’t know we are having a baby together? I’m not surprised though. She is your type… You know, the kind that wouldn’t be after your money”

“She didn’t know about the baby because I haven’t seen or spoken to her for a long time and it’s none of her business” he said.

She turned away from him, trying to control the tide of rage boiling over her. Shaking with her attempts to tamp down her angry shouts, she clenched her hands and closed her eyes tightly.

When she opened them and turned around, he had left the room.

———————————

“Morning,” Daniel said to Emma the next morning when she walked into the kitchen, standing up from the table. Once he was on his feet, he wasn’t sure why he had done it, except that it seemed impossible not to react to her, not to want to get close.

“Can I get you anything?” he asked.

He bit his tongue to stop the flood of questions filling his mouth. She had more color in her cheeks than she had the previous day, but he was still worried. As he reached her side, he rested a gentle hand on her shoulder, turning her to face him. “Did you sleep well?” he asked, looking for any sign that she wasn’t completely recovered from their argument yesterday.

An overwhelming need to protect her swept over him, and the hand on her shoulder slipped to her waist, pulling her closer. Once her body was near enough that he felt her magnetic pull, all thoughts of protecting her flew out of his mind, and were replaced with something hotter, more urgent. He pulled the arm around her waist tight, and dipped his head. His eyes were already closing as his body remembered the feel of hers, as his lips tingled with remembered sensation.

And then he was cold, his body left bereft as Emma turned and pulled away until his arms were empty.

“I’m fine. I’ll make the coffee,” she said, the shake in her voice at least showing that she wasn’t completely immune to him. “And I could murder some carbs. What is there for breakfast?”

He pulled his brain back to the real world, the one where they weren’t a lust filled couple shacked up together for a fun weekend. To the world where an ill thought through two months together had led to a baby, a lifetime of commitment. To the world where they couldn’t get along and he was momentarily glad that her self control had outwitted his libido.

“Toast? Cereal?” he replied. He tried to keep his voice level, to take her cue and pretend that his clumsy attempt at a kiss hadn’t happened. But he couldn’t forget it, couldn’t forget how it felt to be fractions of a second from bliss, and then left cold and wanting her.

She nodded, her body stiff, her smile a little forced. He threw bread into the toaster, dug around in the cupboard and put together a carb loaded platter: muffins, crumpets, toast and cereal, anything to keep mind and body busy and away from her. They feasted on the bread, slathered in honey and jam in silence.

When they finished up with breakfast, they both stood up. He watched her through the corner of his eyes. She was fidgeting as they cleared the table, clearly getting more and more uncomfortable. There was tension in her shoulders and a tightness in her muscles that he didn’t like. And he didn’t know how to get rid of it.