The Bet

Chapter 11

Things stayed the same for about a month. Emma continued dating Killian, but kept clear on not making anything official. Meanwhile, we hung out constantly, not always keeping space between ourselves. Our lips kept finding each other and there was nothing either of us could do about it.

Emma hadn't said the three words to either Killian or me, but I knew it couldn't be long until she'd do so. I'd just returned home from work, when I heard a rapid knocking sound on my door. I frowned and held a kitten in my hand as I got up to open the door.

The kittens had grown a lot over the past weeks. Emma had taken two and Ruby had kept one, so I still had Rocinante and one of her babies. The kitten remained nameless, because I had no idea how to call her. I didn't go anywhere inside my apartment without the little gal and Rocinante often looked jealous. They were both precious.

"Emma," I said, rather confused, because I hadn't expected her. Her internship was about to end and she was busier than ever, having to finish lots of deadlines before the end of the week.

She kissed me. She never did that so suddenly. We always talked for at least half an hour, before one of us would "accidentally" touch the other's thigh and she would "accidentally" put her hand on my hip, knowing that turned me on. Those actions would eventually lead to kisses, but I couldn't say I was disappointed with Emma's sudden initiative to skip all the teasing.

I was still holding a kitten, though, so I couldn't get into it as much as I wanted to. She looked bewildered once she pulled away and stepped into my apartment. "He wants to make us official."

"I can see you're thrilled about that," I said, cursing Killian inaudibly. I was going to stop her from letting this happen and it would be easy.

She sat down on my couch and took Rocinante on her lap. The cat purred softly and waggled its tail around. Emma groaned and looked at me. "Maybe I am," she said.

"Your lips were just against mine, do you really need that reminder?" I said and sat down next to her. I scoffed softly and shrugged. "Well, you should do what you want of course."

Emma got up again and started pacing the living room. "When did he ask you?" I asked.

"Just now."

"And your response was to just run away and ask me for help?"

"Well.." Emma said and plopped down on the couch again. She cupped my cheek, but I slightly moved away. If she was even considering saying yes to Killian, it meant I was doing a worse job than I'd thought. She dropped her hand in my lap and groaned. "Why is this so hard?"

"What exactly is so hard?" I asked. "He asked you, you can say yes or no. If you say yes, you can always break up later and if you say no, you can always get together later."

She fumbled with her hands, but I immediately put a stop to that. Frankly, I was a little irritated that she came to me with this problem. I'd met a few of her own friends, they were nice and they'd be glad to help her out with relationship troubles, but I didn't need to know just how well Killian was doing with her. He was rubbing it in my face every single day.

"I don't know," she muttered.

"I don't know either, Emma," I said, trying to remain calm, but a hint of my annoyance was audible in my tone. "Just do whatever you want. If you think you can be in a happy relationship with him, say yes. If there's someone else out there you'd rather be with, ask that person and say no to Killian. Deep down you know what's best for you. Go with that."

Emma didn't respond. She just sighed and looked at me. "I actually have some work to do. Maybe you could come back another time?" I walked towards my table where my sketches were lying all around. I was working on a new design, hoping that my boss wouldn't dismiss these this time. I'd just put them to rest for a bit to take a break, but I didn't want to be with Emma while she was deciding on who would win the bet. Well, she didn't know she was deciding that, but that was all it was to me.