Little Did I Know

Chapter seven

Emma

Ding, dong.

Phew, here we go! For some reason, my palms were sweating. I usually didn't get these clammy hands and especially not over a boy.

I had decided to surprise Jakob instead of just plain out telling him I was coming to Berlin on an assignment and asking him if he wanted to meet up. And Amalia, the sweetheart that she was, somehow got Tom to give out their address for the apartment they all shared. I don't really want to know how she got him to give it up without him growing suspicious, but according to her, he was blissfully unaware of my impending arrival.

I, perhaps insanely stupid, had chosen to just show up on his doorstep with no prior warning. I didn't really know if I feared a rejection over the phone, since I didn't tell him sooner. But as I stood and waited for the door to open, I feared the possible rejection face to face.

Maybe this wasn't the greatest idea I ever had.

No, don't second guess yourself, Ems. You want something, you go after it. And what you want is Jakob underneath you or even on top, it didn't really matter. Anyway, you wanted to feel his skin against yours again. Which was a pretty good feeling. And to feel that spark and sense of being something other than someone's mom and struggling with the everyday life at home. Time to have some fun!

The door was flung open and Karl, one of the other guys from that night, was standing with a puzzled look on his face. Like, he had no idea who I was and what I was doing there.

I could hear music emanating through the house. People were talking and laughing, having their own fun in there. It sounded like people were having a good time, almost like a full-blown house party. I couldn't have come at a more inconvenient moment. Great!

Suddenly, Karl snapped his fingers at me and his whole face lighted up with recognition.

"You're the girl, Jakob hooked with that night a while ago, right? The one, he won't shut up about," he said with a grin on his face. He was having a good time with this. It was plastered all over his face.

"I don't know about the last part, but yes to the first. Is he by any chance here?" I asked looking around in the foyer behind Karl. Like I could magically conjure him up. As if.

"Yes, come on in. Is he expecting you?" he said looking questioningly back at me.

"No, not really," I said rather uncomfortably looking around their foyer once again. It was quite spacious, with lots of space for coats and shoes. Which, there were was a lot of right now.

"Okay, well. Come on in," Karl said motioning with his hands to follow him. "It's great to see you again. As you can see, we're having a little party, so hope you don't mind."

And what if I did? Not the smartest question to ask, if you asked me. I was the one crashing it.

"Thank you," I said following him through the house to the living room where the majority of people were congregated.

It had a studio-feeling to it with a big open space, where you could see huge sofas arranged in a corner of the apartment and the tv setup and a big industrial looking kitchen. It looked like there wasn't spared any expense in this apartment. It was all very modern and straight lines at first glance.

Karl looked back at me to make sure, I was following, and I smiled reassuringly back at him. With every step further into the crowd and potentially Jakob, I slowly started to second guess my decision badly with just showing up here with no warning. You know when you get that churning in your stomach, like an omen of something bad coming your way.