It's Not Love

The Past is Haunting

- Emma's POV - 

Weeks went by and all Eric and I had done was text, he said he had to go out of the country for business, but it felt like a lifetime. I noticed myself liking him more as time went on, sending cute emojis, constantly flirting, and the buildup of when he gets back. He promised a nice surprise for when he got back, and after the dinner we shared, I'm not sure what can top it. Eric's coming back this week and I was prepared until, *ding*, I checked my phone and stared at a text I never thought I'd see in a million years, "We need to talk. -Aaron." 

I ignored it, feeling as if it was some test from God to see how weak I was and going back to a man who did nothing but hurt me. That was never going to happen, I was in the clear or so I thought. I clocked off work at 4 pm, my usual time, and was beyond ready for sushi and a new episode of Law & Order: SVU, I had just shut the door to my car when a knock on the window startled me, I didn't want to look I knew it was him. "Come on Emma, at least roll down the window," tears weren't welling in my eyes like they used to,  just annoyance, that now I'm in a place to finally be happy again, here he is, to fuck it up, well that's the LAST thing that is going to happen. I opened the door, almost hitting him, and slammed the door behind me. 

"What the hell do you want Aaron? Wasn't I ignoring you not enough that you had to come to my job?" I had never spoken like this to anyone and it stumped him, I couldn't care less, the sweet innocent woman who was a pushover grew a thick skin and said, "Fuck that." He stood with his hands on hips, like he always does when he's disapproved of something, "Listen Emma I'm sorry, but I needed to talk to you about this new guy you're talking to, he's not who you think he is, and you NEED to stay away from him." His eyes had sunken into seriousness, Instead of falling into submission like I always do I said what was on my mind, "You know what Aaron, we've been broken up how long now? And THIS is the first thing you say to me now that I'm finally moving on, I'm telling you this once and then I'm leaving, stay the fuck away from me." Before he could speak another word to me, I got into my car and drove to Sushi Sake. 

The whole drive I debated telling Eric since we were getting serious, since the dinner we've had I told him lots of things since we only texted, my family, the crazy stuff I did back in college but the one thing I couldn't bring myself to talk about was Aaron. He had shattered me and cheated on me, and I forgave him every time, how humiliating is that to talk about? I never even told my friends because at the end of the day, he broke up with me and I looked like an idiot being so blindly in love with a man who cared for no one but himself. I guess Eric had a sense of knowing when something was off because he texted me, "What's wrong?" 

"Can I tell you when you get back?" I finally made it home with my sushi, ate, and was relaxed in bed engrossed in the newest book by Ana Huang when I heard from Eric, "Change of plans, we finished up early and got the designs finished for the new project for the building we're starting next month, I got an early flight back, surprise, I'm outside." Shaking my head, no way, I heard the doorbell ring. I bolted out of bed, not caring for my oversized t-shirt and panties, and threw open the door. There he stood gorgeous as ever, with roses, cliche, but my favorite nonetheless, along with a bottle of red wine. "How the hell did you get here so fast?" I shrieked and jumped into his arms, "Well I stretched the truth a bit, I got back in this afternoon, and thought a surprise was better than the expectation." I blushed as I took the roses and headed to the kitchen to find a vase, "Well you were right!" As soon as I dropped the roses in the vase, Eric spun me around and kissed me, except this time like it was the first time he had ever kissed me. 

When we pulled apart I went to the cabinet to grab two wine glasses, "So what's been making you so upset?" He asked as I was pouring the second glass, I sighed as I handed him his glass, and sat on the couch. "So to start his name's Aaron," and so I let it all out on the table from the times he cheated, to when he dumped me, to today when he told me to stay away from Eric, "I didn't know you two knew each other," I said after giving the entire schpiel, "We did some business together that went bad, he blamed me for the whole thing because his company dropped him, it was last year." That makes sense he wouldn't know me through Aaron since we broke up almost two years ago.  "Makes sense," that's all I could say I never wanted to hear about Aaron for the rest of my life, being with Eric is a breath of fresh air, and I like what we have going right now. 

By the time we had finished the conversation I was so tired all I wanted to do was sleep, bringing up the past with Eric took a lot out of me, especially finally opening up about the cheating. Eric could tell, that when he said, "Let's go to bed unless you don't want me to stay the night?" I snapped back into focus, "Yes, I want you to stay the night," he picked me up and laid me gently in bed, he took off his clothes down to his underwear, even deadbeat tired, he still looked amazing, he snuggled up against me and before I dozed off he mumbled, "I will kill him before he can ever hurt you again." I knew he wasn't being serious but the thought was nice.