XLII

“Oh come on, Mera. I'm trying to help you out here but you're making it very difficult for me to. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for you to spend more time with him like I'm very certain you want to. Or am I wrong?”

Emerald sighed and bent forward to lean her elbows on the cool metal of the high balcony banister. A call from Oriana had interrupted she and Jordan's conversation and to give her some privacy, Jordan had cleared the table and had left to bring their desserts while Emerald spoke to Oriana.

Her friend had called to inform her of her plans to spend the night over at Amari's high-end penthouse suite — one of the perks of being the personal assistant to one of the richest billionaires in America — alongside Aubrey.

They had hoped to invite Emerald as well but later decided against it and instead, chose to let her enjoy her first ever real date. Oriana called to let her know that she wouldn't be spending the night at home and suggested that Emerald should also sleep over at Jordan's house. Since then, they had been arguing back and forth over the matter.

“No, you're right. I do want to spend more time with Jordan and the idea of sleeping alone in the house doesn't sound so inviting anymore,” Emerald muttered as she stared at the twinkling star, which appeared as though it were slow dancing above her head.

“So why are you being headstrong?” Oriana grunted and Emerald could guess that she was stuffing her backpack with more than what it could carry and forcing it shut.

“This is my first time here, Ori, try to understand me,” she drummed her fingernails lightly against the metal, listening as the soft clanking sound the motion generated, filled the quietude of the neighborhood.

Jordan's house was quiet, too quiet but the tranquility it offered Emerald wasn't one of loneliness or discomfort. It wasn't akin to the atmosphere in her apartment. It was comforting because she knew that she wasn't alone, Jordan was just a floor below her. And that thought was better than the darkness and emptiness her own house filled her with.

“So what? You don't trust him?” Oriana asked with a slight tone of disbelief.

“No!” Emerald exclaimed, “that's not it. I trust Jordan more than I trust myself,” she whispered, letting her words gain root in her heart and brain. It was the truth and it didn't scare her like she had initially thought it would. “It's just that this is my first time here. I don't think it's common courtesy to stay over at someone's house when you're just visiting for the first time. Especially since it's a date.”

Colourful expletives flew from Oriana's side of the conversation while Emerald sighed and shook her head as she waited patiently for her friend to get her situation under control, then reply. “You know you could just find another bag, right?”

A click from the other side followed by a satisfied heave from Oriana was enough sign to show that she had triumphed over her luggage. “Sorry about that,” Emerald hummed in reply, “so you were saying something about common courtesy?” she asked, to which Emerald affirmed.

“Well Mera? Screw common courtesy! Who considers that shit these days? Besides, it's almost kinda like an unspoken rule for couples to spend the night of their date together.”

“Hmm. . . Really?” Emerald asked disbelievingly.

“I don't know. I'm not sure, but my point is when did you begin to allow common courtesy be the director of your actions? Is that the new lame excuse you've conjured to restrain yourself and your happiness now?” Emerald couldn't reply to that.

Oriana sighed. “Listen, Mera. Do you like Jordan?”

“I do,” she whispered with a nod. “I really do.”

“Do you want to spend more time with him?”

“Yes, I do. I want to spend more time with him.” Her voice grew stronger with every word.

“Do you want to get to know him better?”

“Yes, Ori. Yes, I want to get to know Jordan better and I want to give him a chance to know me as well.” Her tone was of determination as she spoke and Oriana couldn't help but smile with pride.

“Good, so now's your chance. Don't let it slip out of your fingers, Mera.”

“Thank you so much, Ori but what about m—” Before Emerald could ask about her clothes from Oriana, her friend had hung up on her so abruptly. With a groan, Emerald dialed her number again but was only met with an automated reply informing her that Oriana's phone had been switched off.

Letting out a louder groan, Emerald silently cursed Oriana for her bad habit of waiting till her phone was completely dead and out of battery before putting it to charge.

“Is everything alright?” Emerald jolted and hurriedly turned around at Jordan's sudden voice behind her.

“Oh, everything's fine. You just scared me, that's all.” She watched as he carried the tray of the delectable looking dessert towards their table while chuckling at her wide eyed expression.

“Scaredy cat,” he muttered with a wink.

Emerald shot him a playful glare as she gravitated towards their table in an almost trance-like state, all the while still staring at their dessert. “I feel like you went on this date with me just for the food and desserts,” Jordan grumbled, successfully grasping Emerald's attention to his childish pout.

She chuckled as she passed him a wink as well, “why else?” she gibed, falling into her seat. “Parfait?” she gestured towards the tall glass of creamy goodness.

Jordan nodded as he also sat down and unwrapped their spoons from the serviettes. “Chocolate cheesecake Oreo parfait,” he said in one breath, passing a spoon to Emerald, whose eyebrows were raised at him. “Carol made me promise to say it all,” he muttered with pink ears.

Emerald cooed with a giggle as she stared at him. “You just look so cute sometimes,” she voiced her thoughts, causing Jordan's eyes to go wide.

“I am not cute,” he emphasised on the word ‘cute’ like it were a disease, eliciting a full blown laughter from Emerald, who clutched her stomach with a flushed face.

Jordan couldn't help his own smile as he stared at the beautiful woman seated in front of him. Her enchanting emerald green eyes were twinkling so brightly as she laughed — even brighter than the stars shimmering far above their heads in the night.

He liked everything about her. He liked her smiles, her laughters, the way her smaragd eyes would crinkle at the corners whenever she laughed or smiled, the way her dimples would pop so conspicuously on her cheeks whenever she made the slightest movement of her mouth. Every single damn thing about her, did he adore.

Most especially, he liked the way his heart would thump ever so loudly against his chest at the sight of her. But Jordan couldn't help but feel like that simple word, ‘like’ was too meager and too measly to describe what he felt for her.

The ardent and gratifying emotions swirling in his chest and slowly consuming the entirety of his being was too much to be compared to an insubstantial feeling such as ‘like’.

But what word would best be sufficient?

▬▬▬▬▬

Slowly inhaling and exhaling with her eyes closed, Emerald breathed softly as she relished the cool night breeze that blew around her frame, whipping and weaving through her hair, which she had set free from the style Oriana had made for her date.

She sucked in a sharp breath when she felt a huff of warm air crawl against her right ear, tickling it with its contrasting temperature from the cool night breeze. Strong arms wound round her dainty waist from behind before gently pulling her into a body of immense warmth.

Familiar scents of vanilla, cinnamon and cedarwood with an underlying whiff of ginger and bergamot encased her, overwhelming her with their symphonic deliciousness. She couldn't resist snuggling deeper into those familiar arms, releasing a satisfied moan, still with her eyes shut.

She felt his chest rumble with a barely suppressed groan before he spoke, “you look better in my shirt than I do.”

Emerald's eyes slowly opened as she looked down at herself. She was indeed dressed in one of Jordan's shirt and a fabric that would normally look snug and dapper on him, now looked like an oversized sweatshirt or dress shirt on her, barely reaching her knees.

After literally scraping out her glass of parfait, Emerald had spilled the beans on her situation and Jordan had been more and more than happy to let her stay for as long as she desired. Emerald hadn't been able to control her laughter as she had watched him skip around the whole house from excitement, claiming to clean the already spotless place.

When Jordan had dumped the used dishes into the dishwasher, still brimming with excitement, he had gone further to give her a little tour of the whole place before showing her her room, which was directly opposite his, leaving her to settle in and take a shower before providing her with what to wear for the night and leaving tomorrow to worry about itself.

“You should keep it,” he muttered, moving to snuggle his face in the crook of her neck.

“Oh yeah?” Emerald chuckled, watching him from her peripheral vision. She lifted her hand to roam her fingers in his hair, earning an approving groan from him. They couldn't seem to keep their hands off each other as they basked in each other's warmth, as well as the peace and tranquility the quiet neighborhood provided.

“I like it here,” Emerald whispered into the silence, feeling as Jordan halted against her neck momentarily before placing a lingering kiss against her temple.

“Then you're welcome here anytime,” he mumbled into her hair, his arms tightening fondly around her. “What's mine is yours as well, Gem.” Emerald craned her neck to look at him properly. He smiled before winking at her. He leaned to whisper into her ear, “and you don't have to bring clothes either.”

Emerald blushed, playfully hitting his arms wrapped around her, causing him to laugh as he tightened his hold before placing a kiss on the corner of her lips. “I mean it,” he whispered.

“Ok.”

Minutes of silence went by as they both stared at the scintillating stars and silver moon in the night sky above them. “Wanna play twenty questions?” Emerald asked Jordan, who looked away from the sky with a questioning look thrown her way. “I ask you a question to which you reply with a sincere answer and then you ask me a question and we keep repeating that until we've got all twenty questions out of the way,” she explained.

“Ok,” Jordan nodded. “You go first.”

“Ok,” she tapped her chin with a thoughtful expression. “When is your birthday?”

Emerald couldn't look past the slight change in him when she had asked that question. She felt him tense up a bit against her back before replying, “December 10th.”

“That's like three months away,” she tenderly rubbed his arm back and forth in attempts to calm whatever was bothering him and it seemed to work when he hummed a response and went back to rubbing his nose delicately against her neck with a relaxed stance. “Your turn.”

“When is your birthday?” he mumbled.

“May 2nd,” she replied and they kept up the simple questions, threading on a much lighter path at first. They discovered that they had quite a lot of things in common; their preferences in colour, tastes in food and other trivial knowledge before they began digging deeper into each other's lives.

“Have you ever dated anyone before?” Emerald smiled at the hesitation in Jordan's voice as he asked the question.

“I have.” A slight growl reverberated from his chest at her answer and Emerald tried to keep her amusement at bay at his jealousy. “I dated Logan back in Harvard, but it didn't work out.”

“Logan?” Emerald nodded. “And you're still friends with him?” There was slight contempt in his voice as he spoke and Emerald couldn't refrain from turning around in his arms to look at him.

“We were friends before we tried dating each other and when things didn't work out, we went back to being friends,” Jordan's face hardened, earning a chuckle from Emerald, who lifted her hands to smoothen the frown etched between his brows.

“Besides, you have nothing to worry about. Logan is gay,” Jordan's eyes went wide but immediately hardened again at her next words, “I could be stark naked in front of him and he wouldn't even twitch.”

Jordan guided Emerald's lips to his as soon as she finished speaking, surprising her with his fiery possessive kiss. He marked every corner of her mouth with his tongue, completely ruining her for every other man out there.

They parted with heaving breaths, Emerald a panting mess as Jordan declared her his. “Gay or not, he's still a guy and I wouldn't tolerate someone else seeing you so bare and vulnerable, Gem. You hear me?” Unable to utter a coherent word at the burning gaze in his eyes, Emerald could only nod in response.

Jordan placed a kiss on her forehead before muttering, “words, my love. Promise me with your words.”

“I promise.”

“You are mine, Emerald, mine alone.”