Could It Be You? |✓

(18) Guesses - part 1

Merry Christmas dear friends! :)

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Ethan saunters out from the bathroom with just one towel wrapped around his hips - doe-eyed, half-naked, with dripping hair.

"OH MY GOSH! ETHAN!" Her jaws drop and she quickly turns around for cover. Why? That is too sizzling for her eyes to take.

"What?!" he asks, puzzled. "It's not like you've never seen me naked."

"Don't show me your naked body just like that! You can't do that! Get dressed!" Emma shrieks in utter horror.

"You've seen me in swimming trunks this morning."

"Get dressed, please." she pleads, and hurls him a shirt from his opened luggage.

"Fine. I'll get a shirt,"  he says grudgingly, still not sure what her deal is.

Emma hears the slamming of the bathroom door, and tentatively removes her hands from her eyes. After a few seconds, the door opens, and this time, Ethan returns with a sky blue T-shirt and grey pants. She continues to glare at him for his previous episode of indecency. It made her jumpy.

Mischief plays in his eyes as he passes Emma, heading straight for the kettle. "Do my perfect abs really disturb you that much?"

"Yes. I'm a hormonal single lady. Don't tempt me." Emma says with a straight face. There may be just some truth in that. Naked bodies lead to something else and it's better to nix such ideas in the bud because she is so not going to entertain them.

"Oh dear. Lusting after your friend is wrong."

But he doesn't seem too offended by the idea; the smile on his face tells it all. Emma rolls her eyes, unamused. "Obviously not gonna do that. You worked out, huh?"

He shrugs, then empties a packet of instant-made coffee into his cup. "Sarah's a model. Couldn't be too shabby. Coffee or tea?"

Emma opts for the latter, and watches him quietly. For the past few days, her mind has mysteriously conjured up a series of memories - memories with Ethan, from commencement dinner to Alice's wedding. She wonders if they are triggered by their conversation during the hike. Speaking of which, that plagued her mind the most, as if that's all she could really think of. It made her wonder about what-ifs. What if she and Ethan had gone up the other ladder? What would happen today? Would she still be sitting in this room, enjoying such a close relationship with him now? She shudders at the thought that they probably wouldn't.

"I'm glad you didn't end up confessing to me back then." she blurts.

If he had, she will grow all possessive over him, and he'll soon get tired of her immaturity, then dump her, and they wouldn't even be friends now.

Ethan perks up curiously. "Why?"

"Because I was young and an awful person. We would probably have bad blood. Just look at all my messy breakups." she replies, and that is true. Amiable break-ups? Never happened to her. She could blast Shout Out to my Ex any day, but she knows her exes would too. She hasn't been the best of herself when she was in relationships. She's more of a taker than a giver. She picks most of the fights and has most of the dissatisfactions. And at the end of it all, she's the one unwilling to let go. She cries victim, when she probably caused the fall to rock-bottom.

"Really."

"Yes."

He drops a teaspoon into the cup and stirs carefully. Emma couldn't read what's on his mind, but he seems to be in thought. He walks over to Emma and sits down next to her. Emma gently takes over the piping hot drink, and flinches when he leans in close. There is an unmistakable glint in his eyes, as he looks at her with sincere affection.

"But I know you better than all your boyfriends did. And I think you've always been awesome and beautiful."

There's a long silence between them. Emma does not know what to say to that. What she does know is that her cheeks have flushed red. Whether or not he noticed, is undetermined. He leaves her a smile and walks off to fiddle with his phone.

* *

Emma lets the warm water run down her body, cleansing her of the grime and salt. Despite herself, she is once again beginning to entertain the possibility that Ethan is the answer. That Ethan is the "husband". He's fitting all of the criteria, with the exception of just one. He is related to the necklace, and he had been with her at Alice's wedding. He is just not a Clark.

But then again, none of the people she knows is. What's the story there?

She steps out of the shower and draws her hand across the mirror, leaving in its wake a streak of clearness amidst the mist. She focuses on the glitter from her collar, and realises, that she now looks at the necklace differently. It means so much more now. But she isn't really sure why the significance matters to her. Sure, it meant he had liked her, but did she really need that? She didn't. She has been perfectly good with him as a friend.

Despite herself, she goes through the conversation again. If she hadn't gone with Matthias, he would have asked...

All of a sudden, something surfaces in her head.

She pulls on a shirt promptly, then unlocks the bathroom door and peeps out, where Ethan is enjoying another HBO movie.

"Ethan?"

"Yes?"

She hesitates, and her brows furrow. It is as if she is scared to know the answer. She takes a breath.

"What is Matthias' last name?"

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