Could It Be You? |✓

(25) Simple Touches

Unedited but hope you enjoy!

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"Hello? You still there?"

"Yes."

"I'm gonna go off first, alright?"

"Yes. Please, go do your stuff."

"Okay. Take care? Catch you another time!"

The connection goes off, and so do the lights in the corridor after a stretch of non-movement. Emma belatedly starts to put two and two together. All of Tess' out-of-the-norm behaviour, on hindsight, did begin after that fateful meeting she herself orchestrated. She wonders why she didn't catch on earlier. In fact, she gave their numbers to each other. She's even more efficient than Tinder!

When everything sinks in, she lets out a small laugh. It is a very, very, very odd feeling to see her closest friend hook out with the girl she sits next to at work. She never expected the two worlds to cross.

She turns the knob of the door and enters into her darkened home. As moments go by, an unnamable feeling - a most peculiar one - crawls over and engulfs her. Perhaps the suddenness of it throws her off. Perhaps she had just gotten used a single Ethan and forgot how it felt to face an Ethan with company. She realises that this information isn't as easy to digest as she thought it'd be.

She tries to shrug it off, and goes into her bedroom. Pulling out her drawer, she combs to find her sports gear, then throws them into a sports duffel. She glances at the clock. Knowing that she still has slightly more than an hour to go before Matt arrives, she grabs a fresh set of clothes and pulls off her bun, as she heads off to shower.

The moment she steps in and sees the mirror, she wraps her fingers around the pendant, not knowing why it feels so out of place, and how she shouldn't be wearing it, all of a sudden.

* *

She wakes to soft nudging and rolls lazily in the white sheets, desperate to stay in the position and reluctant to open her eyes to the blinding rays. When she finally flutters them open, she is instantly disoriented. Where is this place? Why does it look so foreign? She's isn't at home, is she? Even the sheets smell of an unfamiliar fragrance. She pushes herself up against the bed, and the covers slip off her torso to reveal that she is positively, wearing almost nothing. 

"Morning!" Matt greets, as he passes over a glass of water. Emma stares, and slowly, snippets of a wild night flicker through her head. A hot pink rises onto her cheeks.

Right.

"Made you breakfast. Do you wanna take a shower first?" he says. He is dressed casually in a plain grey tee and sweatpants, and Emma scrambles for covers to protect her own modesty, even though she knows he's seen it all already. The colour on her cheeks deepen. She remembers how his lips felt on her body and how his soft tousled hair brushed across her neck. She remembers his lingering touch and his hot breath. She remembers curling her own body along his. She remembers how it all happened.

"Morning. Yes, I'd go... take a shower," she says, finally getting a grip on herself.

"How'd you like the eggs? Scrambled? Sunny side-up?"

Emma can't keep her thoughts straight, as everything about last night returns to her in droves.

"Scrambled, please. With pepper, if possible."

"Okay. Just find me in the kitchen when you're done!" He gives her a kiss on the forehead and smilingly takes his leave.

She waits for the door to close after him, and falls back into the bed, taking all the time she needs to collect her thoughts. She recalls the previous night, from how he picked her up to how they indulged in Pixar animations, to how they ...