What should have been an easy situation to navigate seemed to have thrown Sarah into panic mode. Emory reluctantly took her cue. “I did. I left it. I don’t know where my head’s at lately.” She hated the lie.
Sarah met her gaze appreciatively. “I’ll walk out with you. Back in a sec, Dan.”
Emory walked a few paces ahead, lost in her thoughts, the stresses of the day, and what had just happened on the porch. So many things seemed wildly out of her control, her own emotions included, and it angered her. She wasn’t a weak person and she hated how vulnerable her relationship to Sarah made her feel.
“Em, wait. Please.” She did, but took a moment before turning fully to Sarah. “I didn’t know he was coming over tonight. His roommate invited over a bunch of friends and he was looking for a quiet place to crash.”
“He’s your brother. That makes perfect sense.”
“But?”
Here it goes. “When are you going to talk to your family?”
Sarah sighed, her eyes finding the ground as she seemed to gather her thoughts. “That’s not a step I’m ready to take quite yet.”
Somewhere deep, Emory needed to know more. “Will it ever be?” she asked quietly.
“I don’t know.”
And there it was. I’m not sure about us was easy enough to read in Sarah’s guarded response. She didn’t blame her. She couldn’t.
Emory nodded, resolute. She felt herself failing at what she’d known from the beginning would be an impossible scenario. “I better get going. Here.” She reached into the passenger’s seat and handed Sarah a few odd papers from her junk mail pile. “For authenticity.” She turned to her car, but Sarah’s hand on her arm caught her attention. She looked as if she wanted to say something, but instead, leaned in and she kissed her softly. As she pulled away, Emory could see the heavy emotion in her eyes.
“Tonight was rough. But don’t leave without saying good-bye. Never that.”
Emory felt a wall come down at the words. Such a simple request that managed to touch something in her. “Never that,” she agreed and stole a final kiss before driving off into the summer night.
If only everything between them could be as simple.
*
“Hot or cold weather?” They were lying in bed a week later. It was three a.m., but Sarah wasn’t missing sleep a bit. She loved it when Emory stayed over. They’d spent the earlier part of the night lost in each other and welcomed the morning hours talking about anything and everything. With her fingertips, she absently traced circles across Emory’s abdomen as she awaited her response.
“Hot. You?”
“Oh, most definitely cold. Lots of hot chocolate and cuddling when it’s cold. I mean c’mon.” Sarah lifted her head from where it rested on Emory’s shoulder and shook it slightly, grinning like it was a no brainer.
Emory tightened her arms around her. “Sounds cozy. I could be swayed to your side with that kind of thinking. Favorite color?”
“Blue.”
“Me too, but aqua.”
Sarah smiled to herself. “Because you love the ocean. Favorite food?”
“That’s hard. Mahi Mahi, if it’s cooked right. What about you?”
“Nope. You’ll laugh.”
Emory slid down on the pillow so they were face to face. “Oh, then you definitely have to tell me.”
Sarah scrunched one eye. “Whopper with cheese.”
Emory’s mouth fell open in playful surprise. “As in Burger King? From all the foods in the world, you choose Burger King?”
They were laughing now. “After a long day, there’s nothing like it. I could go for one right now if I’m being honest.”
Emory pushed herself up. “Then I’ll be right back.”
Sarah pulled her back to bed and crawled on top. “No way. You’re not going anywhere.” She kissed her. “Too cute to leave.”
“You know your accent comes out when you’re playful.”
“It does not.” She sank further into the kiss.
“Okay. Except it does,” Emory murmured, as her hands drifted down Sarah’s body.
They were both a lot less interested in conversation after that.
*
Dallas was hot. It was September and still pushing ninety degrees outside, a cherry atop the already difficult sundae that had been Emory’s day from hell. She decided to cool off with refreshment at the hotel bar before heading up to her room for the night. In the forty-five minutes she’d been there, she’d refused drink offers from two different men and one woman, all the while desperately wanting the chance to sort through her own head for five damn minutes.
Her workday at the Dallas office had not gone the way she’d planned at all, and she was pissed off. She thought back on the series of events and bristled all over again, knowing full well who was to blame. She’d had two Kentucky mules by the time her cell phone notified her of an incoming call. She rolled her eyes at the readout but answered anyway. “I shouldn’t be talking to you. I should be lying on a highway hoping to get run over.”
“Wow. Kinda drastic. Bad day?” Sarah asked.
“Bingo.” She stirred her drink with the annoying shamrock swizzle stick. This wasn’t even an Irish bar, for God’s sake.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Emory exhaled, softening. “I didn’t, but now that I hear your voice, maybe. I don’t know.”
“Okay, I can work with that.” Sarah switched the phone from her left ear to her right so she could flip the pancakes she was making Grace for dinner. “Let’s try it out and see how it goes. Tell me what happened.”
“Today, I had to fire the two editors I told you about.”
“Right, I remember. Did they not take it well?”
“No, they took it fine, because I couldn’t do it.”
“What do you mean? You never got the chance to speak to them?”
“No, I got the chance, but the moment I was face-to-face with them, all I could think about was what you said about them having families to feed and kids to put through college, and I’m dead in the water. Next thing I know, I’m flashing on an eighteen-year-old kid flipping burgers instead of growing up to be president of the United States and I’m the reason.”
Sarah grinned broadly, still attempting to keep her voice entirely neutral. “So what will happen to them now?”
“I enrolled them in the new training with the rest of the Dallas editors, but I told Sheila to devote extra time to them. More one-on-one attention. I hate that I’m suddenly ineffective. This sucks.”
“You’re not ineffective, you’re sympathetic. You took steps to make them better at what they do. If it doesn’t work out, you can fire them later. Doesn’t that sound like fun?”
“I want to fire them now,” Emory answered.
“I get that and I’m sorry you’re upset. If you were here, I’d take all sorts of care of you.”
“I can’t hang out with you anymore. You’re warm and fuzzy and it’s rubbing off.”
Sarah could hear the slightest hint of teasing in Emory’s voice and took the opening.
“So I should make other plans for Friday night?”
“Don’t you dare.”
“All right, all right.” She chuckled. “I’ll pick you up at the airport at six thirty. There might be kissing. I can’t be sure.”
Emory sighed audibly into the phone. “Now I’m going to think about the kissing all night.”
“Good. Now sleep tight and try not to be too mad at me.”
“S’okay. I still like you.”
“Wait, before you go, someone would like to say hello.”
“Emory, it’s Grace! What’s Texas like? Seen any horses?”
Emory sat up a little straighter at the sound of the exuberant young voice. “Hiya, kiddo! Dallas is hot. Negative on the horses. Lots of concrete and tall buildings though.”