Are you going to kiss me?

7

Emma has barely held a conversation with me, by choice she wishes not to speak to me and it's agonising. I've done everything I possibly can. I've kept my distance, I've pleaded for her forgiveness, I've messaged her endlessly, I've apologised, I've given her a pay rise just to hear a thank you but nothing.

Nothing until today.

"Roni, can I speak with you a minute?" She mutters and it's almost as though it's what I needed to survive. To hear my name tumble out of those perfect lips again. To hear her speak to me, to feel like there's a chance again. "I'd like to book three weeks off"

"Three weeks!" I shriek. Definitely not the news I wanted to hear. "Three weeks Emma, why? It's mid summer you know this is our busiest time of year"

"I just need three weeks off, starting by Monday" she bluntly replies, no explanation, no nothing.

"Emma that's a week today; that's barely enough notice to find someone to cover you. I don't think I can approve this 3 week holiday you're planning" I attempt to reason, but reasoning with this woman is worse than trying to win a battle with a stubborn toddler.

"I'm not asking Roni, I'm telling you I'm out of town next Monday for three weeks, I'm heading over to New York"

"And what about us?" I don't even know why I asked this question, it just stumbled out of my lips automatically.

"What about us Roni?"

"You're just going to do fly half way across the world and leave what we have on these terms. Emma you barely even look at me, never mind speak to me. Emma I like you a lot, and you like me so don't let my one mistake stop us"

"I just... I don't know if I can trust you yet Roni" she huffs, looking down to her shoes as she kicks thin air like a teenager having one of their finest mood swings.

"Then let me prove to you that you can trust me, Emma let me take you out?" Emma twists her lips for a moment before her eyes flick up to Roni's. I can see she is contemplating this offer, but I fear the answer will be no. "Please Emma, before you fly millions of miles across the world"

"Okay fine. But I'm not promising anything. I have big trust issues, so you have a lot of proving to do"

"I won't let you down blondie, when are you free?"

"Sunday" she suggests and straight away I nod along. But what hurts the most is that's only two days before she flies. How do I make things right and show her how I feel I'm just those two days. I can show her how much I care and make things right in that short space of time can I? But quick as the wind she turned and fled without a mutter of another word. But finally I get to see that gracious smile upon her lips another time. She is so effortlessly stunning, she takes my breath away.

It must have been a good two minutes that I stood, staring at her. Well, I say staring but I simply call it observing.

"You've got feelings" Henry gasps.

"What?" I snap out of my trance quickly and turn my head to our regular customer. "No I do not"

"Yes you do. Oh Roni you got it hard" he giggles. "Your staring couldn't be anymore obvious, and that's without the additional drool upon your chin"

"Oh burry your nose back in that silly fictional book of yours kid" I pout, I don't really know why I call Henry kid sometimes, it just flows and seems normal. Maybe he is that much of a regular I get used to seeing him and forming that special bond with my customers makes me a good pub owner. "I was not staring, I was simply observing her waiting skills. I need to make sure she's still doing good at the job so I keep her on"

"Lies." He chokes out. "She's incredible and you know it."

"That she is" I whisper, and quickly Henry laughs and sips a little more of his coffee. "Now why are you in here so early? Shouldn't you be working on your charming operation Cinderella with your girl"

"She's not my girl yet. I'm working on a podcast about Hyperion hights, and I've swore to take Jacinda out tonight if she can find childcare for Lucy" he shrugs.

"And how are things going with Lucy? Does she still believe in this book of yours that you are my son, you are her dad, and I cannot all somehow crazily impossibly related" I draw out in humour because that's quite frankly what this entire situation is. It's laughable and unbelievably imaginatively crazy.

"Unfortunately yes"

"She has a big imagination that kid does, don't take her away from that at such a young age"

"I would never. Look at me, twenty years old and still writing fairytale books, I think these fairytale characters and all of us are what's keeping her stable while dealing with her grandmother and everything at the moment" Henry explains and now that he mentions it, it makes total sense.

"I suppose you're right, but it's something real for her. That sense of having a fatherly figure, the sense of having a family, a sense of being happy and staying put in one home. She's swapped around all the time that poor girl, between her mother and that awful grandmother of hers. She craves that happily ever after and that fairytale family so you boy... need to get your girl and complete her little fantasy"

"Lucy is an amazing kid, but I don't know if I'm ready to jump in a relationship with Jacinda and step up to be Lucy's father. I like how slowly we're taking things at the moment" he admits.

"If you go any slower you'll be at a stop" I scoff.

"Okay, I'll take her out tonight and we'll see how things go, I'm not promising anything"