She got off the elevator and exited the building, scrolling through her phone. But when she located the car, she almost dropped it.
“I got you coffee. Two sugars and cream, right?” Sebastian walked towards her with his hand extended, offering her the cup. Once she accepted it, because obviously she did, he walked back towards the car.
“Why are you here?” she asked, rushing to keep up with him.
“Oh, the car picked me first. Marissa texted this morning that I should sit in on this meeting. Good way to get a lay of the project,” he explained, opening the door for her and waiting beside it.
Emily went on the other side and opened her door (thank you very much) and got in. “Of course, she did!” she mumbled.
“Huh?” Sebastian asked once he slid in.
“Fine! But don’t open your mouth unless it’s for something productive,” she warned.
“Are you sure? Didn’t work out so well the last time I tried that,” Sebastian teased.
It did not. Her mind helpfully brought back the images of what happened when she gave the instruction last time. To make things worse, her cheeks got hot and she was blushing.
She didn’t dare to look at Seb. She made conversation with the driver for a couple of seconds, ignoring the third person in the car. But of course, no one can put Seb in a corner. Once there was a lull in their conversation, he jumped in, “So, I couldn’t help but notice your office was empty when I came back last night. Still running from our problems, are we, Em?”
Emily narrowed her eyes and stared at him. What right did he have to say that? “Maybe a few things that I picked up from you haven’t faded yet,” she retorted. But as soon as she said those words, she realized she had taken Sebastian’s carefully crafted bait.
He didn’t miss a beat. “Now that you bring it up, we should really talk about that,” he said.
“You know what, no! We are here as professionals, and all we can talk about are professional things. So, I apologize for bringing up whatever you thought I brought up,” Emily said. Sebastian looked hurt, but he did a good job hiding it. “Let me just brief you about today’s meeting,” she diverted.
Sebastian was thankfully quiet almost the entire meeting, only speaking when he was directly addressed or to make jokes now and then. Once she was sure she wasn't going to be ambushed by his attempts at explaining a past Emily had completely wiped from her memory, Emily could focus on her work again.
The drive back to the office was just as quiet. It helped that Emily had remembered to pack her headphones and shoved them in as soon as they were in the car.
She knew it was the right decision because Sebastian didn’t shut up once she had to remove them on the walk up to their floor. She tried tuning him out, but it wasn’t easy.
“Ray just wouldn’t shut up about the movie, so I gave in. And you know what? It wasn’t bad. Have you seen it yet?”
Emily gave him a withering look. She didn’t have to be nice to him outside of work if she didn’t want to, right? That wasn’t a requirement of professionalism.
“C’mon, Em. Colleagues talk about movies,” Seb complained, as if he could read her mind.
“Oh, look, we’re here,” Emily said, getting out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened.
She could feel Sebastian rolling his eyes behind her back, but it was easier to ignore because she could finally see her office, which, until yesterday, was her safe space.
Emily hated that this building, her favorite place in the world, had now become somewhere she had to be on a constant lookout. She couldn’t just chat people up in the break room, slowly sipping her coffee. She couldn’t enjoy the long parties the teams so often had.
She couldn’t randomly stop in the hallways to look at the pictures anymore. There were more than a hundred, all around the space. She encouraged her teammates to print new ones out and put them up.
All because she didn’t want to leave herself exposed to being attacked by the enemy. That’s how you found yourself on the Nature Channel.
At least when the day ended, she didn't have to worry about facing Sebastian.
She was all the more excited about leaving that day because it was her parents’ anniversary party, and it had been more than an acceptable amount of time since she’d seen her mother. Not that she would get to spend any time with her that day, with them entertaining God knew how many people.
Baileys didn't do subtle. The waiters in uniforms carrying champagne and hors d'oeuvres were the perfect examples of that. When she finally found her parents, they were deep in conversation with her mum’s frenemy, Martha Rodriguez.
“Oh, my baby!” her mother exclaimed when she spotted her. Emily hugged her and then her father. She greeted Martha the only way appropriate, really pretentious, not-touching air kisses.
“Did you bring any young man along, dear?” Martha asked.
“Why, Martha? I thought Stuart had finally cut down time on the golf course and was home more often now,” Erina said, before Emily herself could come up with a way to disappoint her. Her way probably would have been nicer, too. But she was happy to know her mother always had her back.
