Seb's hand on her arm got slower and a lot more gentle. “You're not the most subtle person, you know that, Em?” he said, his eyes travelling to her lips before they slowly met her eyes again.
Wait, what? “What?” She asked.
“I'm gonna kiss you now, okay?” He said, looking at her lips.
“Okay,” Emily said. She didn't have any thoughts left.
“Okay,” Seb breathed out and closed the gap between them.
Emily kissed him back and opened her mouth as soon as their lips touched. Seb sucked her tongue into his mouth, and Emily's whole body relaxed, but she could still feel the distance between them. She climbed over his lap because she couldn't bear to have any space between them.
“Fuck, Emily,” Seb moaned. Emily felt his voice down her stomach and in her entire body.
She held him tightly, combing her hand through his hair, his arm, and his stupid tank top. She bunched it up while their tongues fought for dominance. She'd happily lose to him.
He pushed her down on the couch and climbed over her. He looked into her eyes and smiled so lovingly that Emily's heart shattered and glued back together just with that expression. She pulled him back to her lips. He explored her body with his hands, and Emily felt hot wherever his hand touched.
Suddenly, she felt too hot to bear anymore, so she pushed him back.
“What's wrong?” Seb asked, looking alarmed.
Emily realized she didn't understand what was happening. Were they just hooking up for the night? Seb rarely did relationships.
Were they together now? Did Seb love her? Oh god, did she love him?
Seb sat up and looked more worried by the second.
Emily wanted to say so many things, but all that came out of her mouth was, “Can we watch the show now?”
Seb looked at her for another second, as if assessing her for damage, before he nodded. “Yeah, okay,” he said. He sat down properly and put the show on.
Emily scooted until they were snuggling, and Seb wrapped his hand around her. Maybe that was enough for today.
But clearly, it wasn't because she woke up the next day on the couch to an empty apartment with a crick in her neck. She looked around for Seb, but only found a box of donuts in the kitchen with a note.
Can you please Uber to the office? Had to go to mum's.
If she knew that was the last thing Seb would say for over a year, she'd have probably not crumpled that note up.
Chapter 7
Present
Seb was thankfully gone by the time Emily collected herself enough to face humans again. She went downstairs and finished her mingling duties because it wasn't her parents' fault that her life was a complete mess. But her father did thrust Seb back into her life, so he wasn’t completely faultless. Still, she was willing to let that go for all the nice things they'd done for her.
When she finally got back home, she was bone-deep tired. She wasn't looking forward to the morning. Maybe she could call in sick?
She slowly dragged her feet to change and go to bed. Her brain was jumbled up with thoughts she couldn't even begin to untangle. So she did the only thing that helped in situations like this. She called Ray.
As expected, Ray picked up almost immediately. “You weren't sleeping, right?” Emily asked as soon as she heard her voice.
“Nah, I was waiting for you to call, actually,” Ray said, sounding very awake.
“Oh?” Emily asked.
“Listen, you are coming to dinner tomorrow,” Ray informed her.
“I mean, I have work to catch up on. You know I had to leave early today for my folks' anniversary that you conveniently missed,” Emily accused.
