The Pact

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Emmy stood outside her building waiting for Justin to show up. He had told her he would be there 15 minutes ago, and she was praying he hadn’t forgotten about her. They had been dating 6 months now, and he was the most unreliable man she had ever met. She was just about to hail a cab when he showed up.

“Sorry babe, I got away late from work, and I still needed it change,” Justin said jumping out of the car, running around the front to open her door for her. When Emmy was at her wits end with all of Justin’s flaws that it made her want to break up with him, he’d do something cute like this.

“It’s fine, can we just hurry up,” Emmy jumped into the taxi, and it sped away, well as fast as New York traffic would let it. They didn’t have to go far; it was just too far for Emmy to walk in her heels.

“Finally Babe, it took you long enough,” Rory said swinging open the door.

“Sorry Rory, Justin had to work late,” Emmy kissed him on the cheek before handing him a present.

“I thought I saw you leave when I did,” Rory questioned Justin as he entered the apartment.

“I was called back in a little after that,” Justin replied shortly.

“Paul,” Emmy squeaked when she saw him, “congratulation, can’t believe you too are getting married,” Emmy hadn’t seen Paul in a while, Justin didn’t like going out, he preferred to stay indoors, so Emmy hadn’t had been able to hang out with her friends in a while.

“Thank you babe, this is all down to you, you are my wonderful little cupid, and now that you are here I want to say a toast,” Paul cleared his throat, “too Emmy, the angel that pushed me in the direction of true love.” Emmy blushed at his words; her eyes met Zach across the room. She hadn’t seen him in a very long time. They had barely spoken anything more than hi to each other recently, they had gone from best friends to proper New York Neighbours in the space of a monologue in an iHop. Some blonde Emmy vaguely recognised from Junior’s had come up to Paul and her, and now she was trapped under Zach’s gaze, unable to leave the conversation around her.

“I can’t believe you’re getting married Paul, you’ve known each other, what like 5 months,” She teased him. Emmy drew her eyes to the blonde and Paul, trying to enjoy the light conversation.

“6, but it really doesn’t matter, when you know, you know, we would have happily been here 3 months ago but neither of us wanted to scare the other,” Paul laughed, but Emmy had become lost in Zach’s eyes again when Paul had started talking about when you know you know.

“Aww that’s so sweet, it looks like Emmy and Justin will be the next two,” the blonde said to Paul, though he knew she wasn’t staring at Justin, but Zach who was standing a couple of inches to the left. Emmy blushed, being almost caught red handed, luckily for her Justin was right next to him.

The blonde left and Paul took the moment to pounce on her, “are you happy?”

“Of course I am,” Emmy responded, and even she knew it was too quick.

“Okay, I’ll ask you again when you’ve drank a little more,” Paul said wandering into the kitchen.

“What is that supposed to mean?” she angry whispered at Paul when they were alone in the kitchen, none of the guests were allowed in here, but Emmy was always an exception.

“It means I know what a Rory told you when Zach dumped you, and it was fine when I thought you were happy but you’re not. Just because Zach isn’t the one for you, it doesn’t mean Justin is, don’t settle for what is clearly worse than second best for you,” Paul replied in the same tone as Emmy.