Matters of the Heart

Chapter 23: Girl, Interrupted

Chapter 23:

Girl, Interrupted

She wanted to tell Ali everything the second she got home from school, but she knew she needed to wait until after dinner. It was a strategic and somewhat selfish move, but the last thing Emily needed was for Ali to go into her mother's house with heightened emotions. The evening with her mother was going to be stressful enough.

She tried to devise a plan for the best way to tell Ali about A. It's not like she could just challenge her to a game of charades and make a fun game out of breaking the news to her. She wasn't sure if she should just blurt it out, or if she should draw her a nice relaxing bath and bring her a glass of the finest wine she could find and then drop the A-bomb when she was relaxed.

Emily smiled when she thought about how sexy Ali looked when she was happy and relaxed. There was something about her that was both cocky and shy at the same time. It drew Emily in. And every time Ali caught Emily looking at her with her soft soulful eyes Ali would get a crinkle above her left eye and she'd smile at her with an expression like she didn't understand what Emily saw in her. Emily always felt her insides turning into mush when Ali gazed at her with such a genuine look of pleasure. When Ali smiled, Emily couldn't help but stare at her alluring radiance. She loved seeing her happy. There was nothing better than Alison DiLaurentis smiling at her.

Ali had been so kind and so patient with her lately. Emily wanted to do something for her. She settled on the simplistic act of getting her flowers. It felt a little cliché, but it also felt right. It was perfect because Ali's garden needed a little grooming. Emily spent her afternoon weeding the garden and picking some of the most beautiful flowers she could find. She lost herself in the beauty of nature.

She crafted several floral arrangements around the house, hoping the flowers would make Ali smile. She made a small bouquet and put it on the living room table and put several roses in vases in the kitchen and in the bedroom. She smiled as she arranged a bundle of flowers in a small vase next to Ali's Eiffel Tower statue in their bedroom. She ran her fingers over the smooth figurine, remembering Ali's dream to one day take a trip to Paris.

She heard the front door open and keys clanking as Ali tossed her car keys in the bowl next to the door.

"Emily?"

"Up here!" Emily called out to her.

She heard Ali walking up the stairs.

"Why does the house smell like a Yankee Candle store gave birth?" She walked into the bedroom. She smiled when she saw Emily. "What are you up to?"

"I just thought maybe I would spruce the place up a bit."

"Did you prune the roses?" Ali laughed.

"I got bored."

"But you don't garden." She looked at her in confusion. "You told me once that you killed a cactus."

Emily had forgotten about that. She'd been around eight years old when she'd accidentally overwatered her neighbor's cactus when she was house-sitting. She'd cried and called herself a murderer. Her dad had laughed at her overreaction and had given her his version of "The Circle of Life" speech from The Lion King. He'd basically ended his monologue by telling her that at least she'd kept the goldfish alive.

"When did you suddenly become Anne of Green Gables?" Ali asked.

"It's the 21st century. You can learn anything from Google." Emily walked over to Ali and slipped a daisy into her hair.

"Wow." Ali smiled. "What's the occasion?"

Just buttering you up before I turn your life upside down. Emily thought to herself.