EMMA DAMIAN 19

E M M A

For the following ten minutes, we did what any other awkward person would do: we played on our phones.

I went through Imgur, the gifs of kittens and memes blurring as I swiped down with my thumb. I wasn't sure what Damian was looking at, and I didn't want to chance making eye contact with him.

But one thing was certain: when the adrenaline wore off, I became less at ease in his presence.

I'd told him the last time we spoke that I wanted him out of my life in no uncertain terms. And I'd meant it as well. I'd crawled out of his bed the night before, looking at the smug smirk on his face, as if everything was going as planned.

He was seated right next to me in some antiseptically lit waiting room, scanning through his phone as if he didn't care. I had no idea what the jerk was thinking, if he cared about how I felt, or if he thought the whole thing was humorous.

The guy was difficult to read and had a way of disguising his feelings beneath a shell of smug, self-satisfaction. Damian summed it up perfectly: I wanted to kiss and smack him at the same time.

But I didn't know what to say or do. What made him want to sit with me? Was he thinking we were friends again?

What was I thinking? I was uneasy, but was it because of him or because I was dealing with a flood of emotions I didn't know how to handle?

And he wasn't assisting. Maybe if he said something diplomatic like, "Do you want to be alone?" "A normal, sensitive man would say that." Damian, on the other hand, wasn't. And he was anything from normal.

Someone had to speak up. And with each passing second, I was convinced it had to be me. I cleared my throat and spoke, swallowing my pride. “Listen…”

He didn't take his gaze away from his phone, giggling to himself. He furrowed his brow but did not glance up.

"I'm sorry, am I disturbing your meme time?" I joked. ”

"Look at this one," he added, showing me his phone. "It's from the series 'cats where they shouldn't be,' and this one is on a ceiling fan."

I didn't even bother looking at his idiotic cat meme. "Are you sure? " I asked. "Or are you just trying to irritate me?" ”

"What's the deal?" he inquired. "You told me to screw off and get out of your life the last time I saw you. How should I react while we're together like this? ”

I had to accept that the jerk was correct. It was just as tough for him to negotiate the situation as it was for me. I was the one who'd made the big announcement. That meant I had to be the first to propose the terms of the peace accord.

Or I could tell him to fuck off now and forever, whether or not the baby was born in the other room.

When I woke up that morning, I had no idea I'd find up in a hospital later that day, forced to make a now-or-never decision with the only man I'd ever loved.

I couldn’t do it. As much as I wanted to tell him off, to make it clear whatever there had been between us, it was over, I couldn’t.

With a deep breath, I started again. “Listen.” He kept his eyes on the phone. Overcome by a sudden wave of frustration, I reached over and snatched it out of his hand.

“What the hell?” he asked. “Did you seriously just do that?”

“I want to tell you something and you’re ignoring me like some…kid playing video games.”

“Well, forgive me for wanting to keep to myself. Last time we talked, you told me to stay out of your life forever. Not really all that interested in revisiting that particular conversation.”

“But that’s what I want to talk to you about. I want to…” Here comes the hard part. “I want to apologize.”

Whatever interested he had in his phone was long gone. He stared at me for a beat before speaking. “You want to what?”

I began to speak, but a smirk formed on his face. “You heard me, dumbass.”

He laughed, waving his hands in front of himself. “Okay, screwing around is over. Tell me what’s on your mind.” He stuck out his hand and I put his phone back in it.

“I…wanted to apologize. What I said about you pissing off and leaving me alone forever, I said it in the heat of the moment. It was out of line, and I shouldn’t have gone that far.”

Relief settled over me as I spoke, as if I’d been carrying a heavy burden and just then had the chance to set it down.

“But you have to understand where I was coming from. You came back into my life after what happened, you--” I lowered my voice, not wanting people to hear. “You sleep with me.”

He raised a finger. “We slept with each other.”

I tilted my head to the side, conceding the point. “Fine. It was mutual. Pretty…pretty damn mutual.”

“And fun.” He grinned.

“And fun.” No sense in denying it.

I raised my finger while his was still up. He laughed, tapping my fingertip with his before pulling his hand back. And as crazy as it was, that little bit of touch was enough to send a wave of electricity through my body, as surely as if he’d grabbed me by the hips and kissed me.

“Cut…cut it out,” I said, withdrawing my finger.

He smirked, then nodded for me to go on.

I cleared my throat and regained my composure. Damian had a way of making me feel like a nervous high schooler.

“Anyway, it was all so much. One minute we’re seeing each other for the first time after years,” I said, sighing. “I mean, the last I heard on the subject of Damian Aquino was that you left me to run off and get married with the bitchiest bitch in high school who you knocked up.”

He glanced away, the same strange reaction taking hold as the last time I’d brought up the subject of him and Marian.

“Then we’re in Bora together.”

“And it was a blast, right?” he interjected. “I mean, not even talking about the other stuff.” The emphasis made it obvious what the other stuff was. “You and me out on the town, hanging out like in high school. I had a ball. You can’t tell me you didn’t have fun, too.”

There was something about the way he looked, the way he spoke, that turned me on like crazy. With the awkward tension melting away by the second, sexual tension quickly moved in to replace it.

“I had fun,” I admitted, shifting in my seat to try to ignore the growing wetness in my pussy. “But that’s beside the point.”

“No, I think it is the point,” he countered. “Years apart and as soon as we’re back together we’re having fun again, like no time had passed at all.”

He was making his point well. And more than that, he wasn’t easing up. Instead of waiting for me to say my piece, he pounced, ready to make his case that we shouldn’t simply be on amicable terms but be more.

And it was getting hard to tell him he was wrong for wanting it. Because there was no doubt in my mind that he wanted me just as badly as I wanted him.

“Sure, it was fun. But think about it – we got together and had fun, but the moment it became more than just two old friends hanging out, that’s when it got complicated. Don’t you think that’s a pretty damn big sign?

“A sign of what?”

“A sign that maybe friends are all we should be. I mean, think about it – your life is crazy, and so is mine. Wouldn’t it make so much more sense that instead of trying to fit a friends-with-benefits type of thing on top of two very busy lives, we left it at a friendship?” I paused briefly. “Think about it. We could still hang out, still spend time together. But there’s nothing messy or complicated about it.”

He said nothing, taking a moment to process what I’d said. “You know what? You’re right.”

“I am?”

“You’re right. You’ve got your career, and I’ve got mine. I don’t have time to date, let alone try to add in a complicated relationship like what we have. If we could just keep it nice and simple, I think…I think I’d like that. I mean, I don’t even know what kind of relationship we’d even have.”

I said nothing for a long moment, certain he was pulling my leg. “Are you serious?”

“Totally serious. I mean, imagine if you and I tried some kind of casual thing. Sure, it’d be fun. We’d be screwing all the time, making love to each other like only we could. I mean, it’d be the insanely hot Bora sex but, well, all the time.”

I was shocked. I looked around quickly to make sure no one was within earshot. The few other people in the waiting area were far away from us, busy with their phones or conversation. And the staff was too pre-occupied with running the emergency room to care about our discussion.

“What…” It was the only word I could manage to get out. And more than that, him talking that way caused an arousal in my body I didn’t want to admit to.

“Imagine a situation like this. You and I are hanging out alone, waiting for Zea to have her kid. That means we’ve got time to kill. And what better way to kill time than to, you know.” He winked. “We could figure out a place to go where we could have some fun, come right back before anyone even knew we were gone. Imagine me and you in a supply closet or something, me pulling down your pants just enough to take you from behind, making you come hard.”

I was stunned. Not only was I so wet I worried I might need to change my panties, but Damian was being bold, ballsy as hell talking like this.

Finally, I regained my composure. “Quit being a jackass,” I said, reaching over and swatting his arm.

And, of course, when I swatted his upper arm, I touched him hard enough to make me aware of how solid and strong the muscles under his shirt were. The sensation made my heart skip a beat. I quickly snatched my hand away.

He furrowed his brow, as if something had occurred to him. “Give me a sex. I mean, give me a sec.”

Before I could chastise him for his corny-as-hell Freudian slip, he hopped out of his chair and went to the front desk. My eyes latched onto that perfect ass of his, my mouth watering as I imagined his perfect rear flexing and tensing with every step.

He spoke to the nurse at the front desk, the two of them laughing about something. She was young and pretty and got that doe-eyed look I’d seen Damian inspire in so many girls in high school. And the worst damn part was that I actually got jealous. I had no idea what he was talking about, if he was even going out of his way to flirt with the nurse. But seeing some cute girl hanging off his every word was enough to make my blood run hot.

I was angry and aroused at the same time. Even after all these years, Damian had the same effect on me.

When he was done, he strolled back over, a smile on his face as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Over his shoulder I watched as the nurse quickly gathered the attention of the other women around her, gesturing to Damian. Of course, they all swooned.

“So!” he said, standing in front of me, his cock at eye level. “I talked to the helpful nurse over there. She said that all’s going well with Zea – looking like a normal, by-the-numbers birth.”

Despite how steamed I was, a flash of relief and happiness ran through me at the news. “Good. Is that all you two chatted about?” The words came out in a way I could only describe as bitchy. My hand shot to my mouth, my eyes widening. “Sorry – not sure why I said that weird.”

He laughed. “Don’t even know what you’re talking about. Anyway, she also hipped me to the cafeteria. She said that, believe it or not, the food isn’t half-bad. Want to head over there and grab a bite to eat?”

My stomach rumbled, and I realized I was hungry. “Yeah, that actually sounds pretty good.”

“And let me treat,” he insisted. “It’s the least I can do to celebrate our new, nice and platonic friendship.”

The words sounded right, but the sly smirk on his face implied something completely different.

“Fine.” I made my tone as stern as I could. “Food sounds good.”

“Yeah,” he said, that cocky little smirk still on his sexy-as-fuck lips. “A little snack.”

He stuck out his hand. I sighed, allowing myself a half-smile as I took it. It was a bad idea. A warm tingling rushed through me at his touch, starting between my thighs and spreading to my fingertips. But I took his hand anyway, and he helped me to my feet.

“Come on,” he said once I stood next to him. “I’m starving.”

We started off, and as we walked, I couldn’t help but notice the confidence with which he moved. It made sense – he was a doctor after all. The man was right at home in an emergency room. He strolled with a casual air about him, smiling to the nurses as we passed. They all swooned just as much as the ones at the front desk, of course, and against my better wishes I found myself boiling over with jealousy.

How the hell did Damian still have this kind of hold over me? I should’ve been over it; I should’ve matured past it. But it didn’t matter what I should’ve felt – I knew what I wanted.

We turned the corner, and the hallway where we arrived less populated than the one we’d left.

“Hold on,” he said, stopping near a door, the label supply closet on the wall next to it.

“What?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he glanced over his shoulder, then ahead. And then he opened the door, a line of black appearing in the jamb.

“What’re you doing?” I hissed, looking in every direction.

He grinned. “What I’ve been thinking about since I first saw you today.”

Before I had a chance to respond, he wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me into the closet, shutting the door. I heard a click and low light filled the space. He loomed over me, a hungry, sexual heat in his eyes.

I was shocked. My heart pounded in my chest, and more than that, I was more aroused than I’d ever been in my life.

He didn’t need me to tell him that.

He never did.

And then he kissed me.