Little Did I Know

Chapter fifteen

Emma

How could something so great go so wrong in such a short amount of time?

The first few days in Barcelona went really well. There weren't any major hiccups or arguments between Jakob and me, everything was just happy days filled with sun, sangria and sex.

Except, of course, the teeny tiny meltdown where I almost spilled the beans to Karl that night.

And laughter. Oh God, how we've laughed. Over silly little insignificant things, like finding our way home to the hotel at night and bumping into the sofa table falling all over each other or battling it over who had the worst dad jokes.

It was difficult finding a clear winner because they were all very good. Or bad, actually. One of Jakob's was 'I can't take my dog to the pond anymore because the ducks keep attacking him. That's what I get for buying a pure bread dog.' Another one of mine was 'When I was a kid, my mother told me I could be anyone I wanted to be. Turns out, identity theft is a crime.'

As it turned out, we both had a fondness for telling bad jokes, the worse the better and some slightly inappropriate. We both tried so hard not to laugh at the other one's jokes, but we failed miserably.

I didn't think I ever had that much fun as that night with Jakob telling extremely bad and dirty jokes. There might have been some alcohol involved but nonetheless it was hilarious. We didn't even have sex, it was literally just the two of us talking and drinking. It was nice. No, it was better than nice.

But then Jakob just went more or less M.I.A. on me for a couple of days and I didn't really know where it went wrong afterwards. Or that was not entirely true.

Maybe I did know.

Maybe it was all me. Or more like 90% me and 10% Jakob.

And he may or may not have called since then. Where I may or may not have ignored it or sent it straight to voicemail.

"Earth to Emma? You in there somewhere?" Amalia waved her hand in front of my face. I'd completely forgotten she was even here. My inner monologue had kept me occupied.

"Yup. Yup," I croaked. I adjusted my butt on the couch trying to get comfortable because thinking about him was definitely under the category uncomfortable.

"Whatcha thinking about?" she asked cheerily settling herself down in her favourite corner of the couch. She was going to be here for a while that much was apparent.

"That I might have overreacted a bit?"

"When specifically?" she asked taking a sip of water.

"Barcelona." I buried my head in my hands. It took a lot to admit that aloud. My cheeks were starting to feel flushed.

"Took you long enough to admit," she stated simply over from her high horse. Easy enough for her to say!

"Thank you for that!" I rumbled peeping out between my fingers giving her a death glare along the way.

"You needed to hear it, sweety."

"I know, I know. But still... It's just... argh. I know I overreacted, but Martin had just called about Alma being in the emergency room."

I could clearly remember how I felt in that moment when Martin called. I was arguing with Jakob, emotions were running high and then I saw his name on my phone and an inexplicable feeling came over me. I knew that Jakob saw the name, but I couldn't care about his feelings right there. And then Martin telling me that Alma had a bad fall from a playground, and they were at the hospital. My heart had stopped. THE worst phone call to receive as a mother. And there was nothing I could do. I felt so powerless. He reassured me it was nothing major and she was okay. She was a tough girl, I knew that, but she was still my little baby girl.