First Love: An Emison AU

Chapter Three

Emily waits outside the school for Alison, just like she has the past two weeks.

Alison sits in her car on the phone with Charlotte.

"I'm nervous, Char."

"You are just asking an old friend to your house for dinner. Think of it like that."

"What if she isn't ready? What if she doesn't like my house? What if she hates my son?"

"Ali....this is Emily we are talking about. The woman who spends every free second of her school day with you. The girl who asks you every day how Jesse is despite never having met him. Relax."

"Again, you are right." Alison takes a deep breath. "She's waiting for me."

"Go. Have a good day."

Alison gets out of her car and meets Emily by the door.

*******

Alison's nerves just get worse through the day and by lunch, she is a mess, though you could barely tell unless you really knew her. She feels Emily staring at her and she looks up from her lunch. Emily is looking at her, amused.

"Your chicken isn't going to get any more dead, no matter how much you stab it."

Alison looks back down at her plate and notices the hundreds of holes in her chicken. She sets her fork down, chuckling and takes a breath. It's now or never.

"I have a question to ask you."

"Ask away."

"Would you come over for dinner tonight? You can meet Jesse."

Emily smiles. "I'd love that."

Alison relaxes and smiles back before laughing. Emily looks at her confused.

"What's so funny, Ali?"

"I've been nervous about that all day."

Emily laughs. "Is that why you have barely even looked at me?"

Alison nods.

*******

Emily facetimes Hanna after school.

"Help me pick an outfit. I'm going to Ali's for dinner tonight."

"Is this a date?"

"This is me having dinner with an old friend and meeting her son." Emily gets a panicked look on her face. "What if he doesn't like me?"

"Emily, he will adore you. You are amazing with kids."

"What if..."

Mona grabs Hanna's phone. "Emily Catherine Fields do not make me fly my ass to California to kick yours. Quit it with the what ifs. Seriously, if I listened to the what ifs I wouldn't be married to your best friend, we wouldn't have started dating Spencer, Aidan sure as hell would never have been born, and I wouldn't be pregnant right now. Life is scary. Get over it....love you."

Emily takes a second to process everything Mona just yelled at her.

"Wait a second. Did you just say pregnant? I knew you were trying again but you three never said anything. How far along?"

"Eight weeks." Spencer pipes up. "We were planning on waiting to tell everyone so keep it a secret...you can tell Ali though. All of our parents are still trying to adjust to the whole polyamory thing. So we are waiting to tell them."

"Congratulations!"

"We can all celebrate later. Go get ready for your 'not date'. Take her flowers. Women love flowers."

*******

Alison finishes cooking dinner and hurries to change into a cute dress. She checks on Jesse in his room before heading back to the kitchen to make sure everything is perfect. She can barely contain her excitement when she hears a knock at the door. She opens the door to a smiling Emily. Emily holds out the bouquet of flowers.

"I was always taught never to show up empty handed."

"It's the Fields way." They both laugh. "Come on in."

Emily follows Alison inside. "You have a beautiful house."

"Thank you." Alison places the flowers in a vase on the table and leads Emily to Jesse's room. "Jesse, come here for a moment please. There's someone here I want you to meet."

Jesse runs over and Alison kneels down next to him.

"Jesse, this is Emily." Alison smiles up at her. "She's the one I've been telling you about."

Emily kneels down in front of him and holds out her hand. "Hi, Jesse. It's nice to meet you."

Instead of shaking her hand, Jesse hugs her. "My mommy loves you so I love you too."

Emily's eyes meet Alison's as she hugs him. The three of them head to the table and Alison makes their plates. Emily turns to Jesse.

"Do you like your preschool?"

He nods. "I get to help teach. Like Mommy."

"That's awesome! Do you like helping teach?"

"Yes. I made a lot of friends by teaching the alphabet and counting. Next is colors."

"Colors are fun. What's your favorite color?"

"I really like mauve."

Emily chuckles. "Mauve is a really good color."

"What's yours?"

"Slate blue."

"Like Mommy's eyes?"

A blush creeps onto Emily's face. "Exactly."

*******

After dinner Emily says her goodbyes. After she leaves, Jesse turns to Alison.

"I really like her, Mommy. When can she come over again?"

"How about we invite her over for dinner again next week?"

His face lights up. "And then the week after that and the week after that?"

Alison smiles. "We sure can, bud."