More Than Just Butterflies (Marianas Trench fan fic)

Chapter 54

***Emma’s POV

Everyone was right, the tour flew by. Of course helping Katie plan for the wedding and going out with Brad from time to time definitely helped but I know that not every tour is going to be like that. Especially considering Katie’s only going to get married once (hopefully). Brad was still a secret from everyone. I knew I eventually had to tell someone but I didn’t quite know how to do it.

I glanced anxiously at the work phone as I stood behind the counter and sighed out of frustration when I saw I wasn’t off for another three hours. Josh didn’t give me a set time of when they’d be back in town but it would be sometime while I was working. I told him to just wait until I was off work to see me so he could unpack and relax before having to deal with me.

I decided to make myself useful and just go around straightening the store until another customer came around. It always happens to work out that the store will be dead and time drags on when you’re waiting for something. My mind began to wander as I began refolding some polos.

Was I really doing the right thing by hanging out with Brad? I mean, Josh will be back in town and I can’t keep this a secret for forever. Should this just be a onetime thing? Just this one tour to help soften the blow of Josh being gone and then I could handle it from there? That sounds an awful lot like I’m using him and I didn’t like the sound of that.

As I grabbed the polos I just finished folding, I turned a little too fast and accidentally dropped half my pile.

“Dang it.” I mumbled as I put the ones in my hands on the counter so I could collect the rest off the ground.

“Good job, butterfingers.” A voice behind me said.

I snapped up out of surprise and scrunched my nose at Brad before picking up the shirts.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” he smirked as he helped me pick up a few.

“It’s fine.” I said while taking the shirts from him. “I was kind of in my own little world.”

“Oh really?” he asked as he leaned against the counter I was using to refold the shirts. “What’s going on in that little world of yours?”

“Josh is supposed to be getting back today but I don’t know when. I’m just dying to get off work.” I explained.

“That’s great!” he smiled. “Do you guys have any plans?”

“I think he’s going to meet me at Mike’s but nothing is set in stone yet.” I said.

“Nothing set in stone, eh?” he repeated almost to himself. “So what’s going to happen to us once he comes back?”

I put all my focus on stacking the polos right this time before making my way to where they belong. Part of this being because I didn’t want to drop them again, the other part being I couldn’t bring myself to make eye contact with him about this.

“I don’t know.” I eventually sighed.

“Disregarding everyone else’s feelings, including mine, what would you want to do?” he asked curiously.

I bit my lip as I thought about it, “Well, I don’t think it would be fair to you to just drop you like that but at the same time, I know how Josh would feel about this.”

“This being?” he trailed off for clarification.

“You and me hanging out.” I said. “You guys aren’t exactly on the best of terms, you know?”

He let out a laugh, “Oh I’m well aware of that. I’m just curious about what you want?”

I opened my mouth to answer him when something outside of our glass entrance caught my eye.