Want You Back | c.h.

10.

Emerson pulled open the door to the restaurant and walked slowly to the kitchen. Wiping at her eyes, hoping in vain to erase the evidence of her tears. She pushed through the galley door and was greeted by her staff.

"Surprised to see you here." Callie said while chopping veggies for what Emerson assumed was tonight's soup.

"Yeah, I'm feeling a little better, must've been an eight hour thing or something. Figured I could at least try to be of service." She lied and hoped it wasn't as painfully obvious as she suspected.

"So it was a bug, not the boy who was here last night?" Callie asked knowingly, raising her eyebrows but continuing to focus on her knife work.

Emerson stopped buttoning her chefs coat and turned to look at her sous chef. Her heart beat was fast in her chest, a lump growing in her throat.

"What?"

"The boy, from last night. The one who had you in your head for hours."

Had she really been in her head for hours? She knew she had been off her game but she hadn't realized she had made it so obvious. If her sous chef had recognized the way Calum affected her, had her whole staff? If so, how long would she be able to keep this from Kyle? Nearly all of her staff was friends with him, all of them having studied together in culinary school.

"Was it that obvious?" Emerson asked, her shoulders slouching.

•

"Hey, mate. How ya feelin?" Luke asked as Calum entered his hotel room.

"Alright, I guess. Sorry, I was such a fucking mess last night."

"It's not your fault, Cal. Not like you expected to see her."

"No, but I could've stayed at the club with you guys or I could've not gone to meet her. I could've not brought her back here and I could have stopped before I made love to her. I don't know, I thought it would give me like closure, but I just have so many more questions for her now. I miss her Luke, and I think she misses me too. I think she's just scared to admit that to herself."

"Maybe you're hoping for something you're never gonna get bud. I don't want you to get your hopes up and get crushed again. I don't know if we can get you through another night like last night."

"It's weird though, I just feel like she has to be unhappy with how we left things too. We were always so connected. I don't know I guess I thought she'd call or something. Maybe I'm reading too far into it."

"Umm." Luke glanced around the room trying to decide what he should tell his friend. He didn't want to be untruthful but he didn't want to cause unnecessary harm to Calum either. "Cal, she was here. She came here earlier this morning."

"Wha-what do you mean?"

"I mean she was here. It was right after you finally got to sleep. I guess she couldn't remember exactly which door was yours so she knocked on mine."

"What did she say?"

"She said she wanted to talk to you. That she had some questions she needed answered."

"But then why didn't she see me?"

Luke nervously scratched the back of his neck. "I may have told her that she shouldn't have come, that she was just going to hurt you more. I guess she left after that."

"Fuck Luke. What the fuck is wrong with you? You know how much I love her and you sent her away?" Cal couldn't contain himself and he placed his hands to Luke's chest shoving him backwards.

"Fuck!" With that Calum fled Luke's room, hurrying into his room next door, sliding on his shoes, grabbing his phone and heading out.

"Where are you going?" Luke called after him.

"To do what I should have done a long fucking time ago."

•

"Emi?" The sound of Calum's voice caused every hair on Emerson's body to stand straight up. She felt her mouth grow dry as his face came into view, having burst through her galley doors.

It was a little like what she assumed it was like to be a deer caught in a car's headlights.

"Emi, we need to talk."

He gave her no time to protest instead just jumping straight into it.

"I'm sorry about last night. I didn't mean to be cruel to you at first. I'm sorry that I didn't know what to say and that we didn't do a whole lot of talking. I'm sorry that, if you're anything like me you have more questions now than you did before. I'm sorry for not chasing you three years ago and for everything wrong I ever did to you back then. I'm sorry for taking advantage of you, for not appreciating everything you brought to my life. I'm sorry for not encouraging you like I should have and for not doing everything in my power to help you reach your dreams."

"Cal..." She started but he just kept going.

"I can't change the past, Emi. But last night, I know you had to have felt it too. You and I were always so good that way, connected. Last night just proved to me that we obviously still care about each other. We could figure this out Emi, I want to figure this out. I love you. I'm still in love with you. It's always been you. Making love to you last night just solidified it for me. You're my person Emi, I want to be with you."

"Cal..." Emi said shaking her head and staring at him through eyes clouded by tears.

"Cal this is Kyle." She said pointing to the corner, to the guy standing red faced with his arms crossed. "My boyfriend."

An: big oof

Thoughts? Where do they go from here?

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What's Cal gonna do?

What's Emi gonna do?

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