when the sun came up

xix.

"Hey Liv, sorry to barge in but I really need to talk to yo– oh! Oh. Fuck! Sorry!"

Emma slammed the door quickly behind her and stood there for a half second, staring blankly at nothing while she attempted to process what she'd just seen. She debated whether or not to turn tail and run but figured that that would be a fairly drastic (not to mention cowardly) thing to do, so settled for moving a safe distance away before leaning back against the wall and exhaling a deep breath.

Holy shit. Did I really just see that?

There was a loud thump from the other side of the wall, followed by a muffled shout and scuffling, then what sounded like quiet conversation noises before Olivia's door was being yanked open again. Emma turned, arranging an expression of mingled guilt and contrition on her face, to find Olivia, hair awry and with a blanket draped messily around her body, looking suitably flustered but nevertheless smiling brightly at her.

"Hey! Sorry for the, uh, eyeful you got there, that was probably a bit of a... shock," Olivia rambled distractedly, casting an eye back into her room where someone was no doubt putting his pants back on. "I didn't mean for you to see that. Well, obviously," she added with a hasty laugh.

Emma raised an eyebrow, trying and somewhat failing to hide the smile growing on her face. Who was this girl and what had she done with cool, calm and collected Olivia Rouyre? The Olivia Rouyre who could scorn hordes of boys with a single searing look and her wickedly sharp tongue? A fling was one thing, but this endearing nervousness Olivia was exuding was another matter entirely. God, she must really like this guy, Emma thought, feeling a bolt of astonishment shoot through her.

The guy in question appeared in the doorway a second later, outfitted in rumpled clothes that had probably two minutes previously been lying abandoned on Olivia's bedroom floor. He looked sheepish but flashed Emma a friendly smile, looking genuinely pleased to meet her. Emma had to give him some credit; she didn't know how polite she would've been if some random stranger had charged in and interrupted her weekend morning playtime.

She was amused to note that Mickey was as scruffy as Olivia had described. And pretty cute, though not really Emma's type. She preferred boys with dark hair, and skin that was a little more pale. And honey eyes...

Fuuuuuuuck.

She quickly put a mental block on that line of thinking before it got too advanced, and made a concentrated effort to return to the present situation.

"Emma, this is Mickey. Mickey, Emma," Olivia was saying, sounding a little awkward but mostly happy. "Emma's one of my best friends. Michael is my... friend from work."

Emma didn't miss the pause there, but pretended it hadn't happened for Olivia's sake. "Hi," she said, smiling back at him and holding out her hand. "It's really nice to finally meet you."

"Yeah, you too," he grinned, leaning forward to shake the offered hand. "Though to be honest, when I imagined meeting Olivia's friends for the first time I kind of thought I'd be wearing more clothes." He laughed awkwardly.

Emma laughed too, while Olivia rolled her eyes and dug an elbow into Mickey's ribs. She could already see why Liv liked this one. He had a lovely genial air about him, warm expressive eyes and a fantastically cheeky grin, not to mention a pretty bangin' bod – she'd gotten a good half second preview of the latter just before, after all.

Emma just hadn't expected Olivia to like him so much, or for her guard to be so lowered already. It was just obvious from how natural they were together, and Emma hadn't seen Olivia have that kind of comfortable, well-worn chemistry with a boy in a long time – or ever, in all honesty. After all, they'd only become friends after they'd both kicked Anthony to the curb.

She felt warmth bloom in her chest as she watched Olivia reply snarkily to Mickey's comment, and he simply shake his head and make a funny face in response.

"Anyway," Olivia said, directing this next comment to Emma and bringing her back to earth. "You said you needed to talk to me about something, right?" She trained her uncomfortably sharp gaze on Emma, who felt the almost instant urge to start backing away slowly. "He''s heading home now so do you want to hang out and catch up?"

It sounded like just a suggestion, but Emma knew Olivia – it was nothing short of a command. She shook her head, already insisting that she'd rudely interrupted and would be completely happy to talk later, but Olivia wasn't letting her off the hook so easily.

"It's fine, he's going, he's got shit to do anyway," Olivia said dismissively, already nudging Mickey away from the bedroom and through the kitchen towards the front door. For someone who was half a head shorter than him, not to mention a lot more petite, she was certainly skilled at pushing Mickey around. "Right?"

"Sure I do," he said indulgently, giving her a smile that was equal parts fond and exasperated as they reached the foyer area. He stepped into his shoes and moved to open the door. "Bye Liv, I'll see you later. Emma, great to meet you again."

"So?" Emma launched in immediately, barely able to contain the excitement in her voice. "Mickey?! Since when did you two start having adult sleepovers? You've been holding out on us!"

"We are not talking about that right now," she said, her smile making the words less stern than they were clearly supposed to be. "I'll fill you in later, I promise, but you said you wanted to talk about something?"

Emma hesitated. Now that she was actually here in her friend's apartment, with Olivia scrutinising her way too perceptively for her liking, she found herself suddenly at a loss for words. Was it really a good idea to talk to her about Ethan? Or would it just make things awkward, especially considering Olivia's own history with him?