Waiting on Forever

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Sorry, it's been a long day."

Emerson said after a few minutes of the ride home. She was trying her best not to pout too.

"We all have those." He said simply.

"Yeah but I can be a little...to much sometimes."

He gave her a look that was doubtful. "Oh really?"

"Fine...I can be a little bit of a bitch...but in my defense, I got stuck on so many delays I don't know if I am more hungry or more tired, and my mom...well...my mother is Virginia. That should tell you enough."

Dane smiled knowingly. "That's only half an excuse. Do you want me to stop for food?" He was changing lanes already before her answer.

"No, I'd rather get home and shower, but do you have a snack?" She said, already resigned to being hungry.

"There's goldfish in the glove compartment and if you reach behind you, there's fruit snacks in my briefcase. I think there's a water bottle under your seat." He said without missing a beat.

"Thank god you always have snacks." She said reaching back, trying not to mess up his stuff and his nice car.

"It's a habit...you were always hungry when we were...better friends."

"Better friends?" She said unlady-like, with a mouthful of goldfish.

He paused for a minute. "Let's leave it as better friends, for now."

The for now made her stop chugging goldfish for a minute.

The realization that he kept snacks for her in their youth made her...feel something she hadn't felt for a long time deep inside her heart.

But she shut it down almost as fast as it came into being. Plus, it wasn't that she was always hungry, but that Mrs. Kitty always bought the good snacks.

The for now told her he did want to have a conversation about themselves later, and that was not something she was prepared for.

Real conversations had always scared her. At least the type of conversations where she had to be vulnerable and expose her feelings to someone else.

Even with James, she kept things light and easy. She loved how her relationship with him just flowed. They had moved in together before she realized where their relationship was headed. When he proposed it seemed only natural to her. Of course he would want to settle down, and of course he'd want to settle down with her. They were perfect together. It was easy. Except for the wedding planning and the few weeks where they broke up, there were hardly any hiccups in their relationship. Yes they fought, but it was mostly about superficial things, mostly about the wedding. The only big fight they'd had was the one that preceded the short break-up.

She mentioned that there might be a big promotion coming her way. One thing led to another and they started talking about the possibility of moving for a job. He wanted her to commit to what her stance was on that, and she wouldn't concede one way or the other. Making plans for the future was not something she was good at, and he had sprung that on her without prior warning. She pushed against him, he pushed back. He stormed off when they couldn't come to an agreement. It was the second biggest fight of her life.

Norah said that because of Emerson's daddy (and mommy) issues, she had gotten engaged to the last good looking, established, killer bodied, older bachelor in town; and of course, someone like him, on his way to being senior partner in a few years, would want more stability in a relationship, concrete plans, and a basic contract at the very least of what was to come when his life was so together already.