For the Love (a Tom Hiddleston fanfic)

Chapter 26

        Emie shoved a silk pashmina, a bottle of lotion and a package of chocolates into a gift bag.  She crumpled up some tissue paper and shoved that into the bag as well.
       “Wow, that is artistry.” Lucia said flatly, eyeing the crumpled mess Emie had just created.  Emie looked down, and laughed at what appeared to be a rather disheveled birthday present wrapped by an infant.
       “Sorry.  My mind is…elsewhere.” Emie apologized, pulling out the contents of the bag and starting over.  “And you’re wrong. THIS is art.” Emie held up the chocolates, which had a rather corny picture of Lucia and Chris on the front.  Lucia sighed.  Emie recognized the picture as one of their engagement photos.
       “Chris liked it.  It was his pick.” She beamed at Emie and Emie laughed.  Lucia grunted, and started making another gift bag.  They were in Lucia and Chris’ bungalow, boxes of supplies spread out around them.  They were making wedding favors for the guests and right now, Emie was supposed to be creating tasteful gift bags for the ladies attending.  It was Thursday night, and the wedding was just around the corner. Friday night would be the rehearsal dinner at the restaurant in the resort, and then Saturday was the big day.
       “Emeline, most of your bags look like someone stepped on them.” Lucia and Emie’s aunt, Erica, quipped from across the room.  Emie looked up at her aunt, her mouth opening in shock.
       “Aunt Erica!” She exclaimed in mock anger. Their aunt laughed, walking over and starting to fuss over the tissue paper in the bags.  At nearly 60, Aunt Erica was still a very beautiful woman.  She had the Harris blond hair and blue eyes.  She kept busy and in shape by swimming every day at the gym and volunteering around her town.  She was a sweet woman, and Emie was convinced she didn’t have a truly malicious bone in her body.  It had always shocked Emie that she had never been married.  She had never really asked her Aunt about it, but Emie had always sort of assumed that Erica had just somehow never found the right person.
       “Lucia, honey, I’m shocked you wanted to make these gift bags instead of just hire someone.” Erica smiled, sitting down at the table next to Emie.  Lucia scoffed.
       “Auntie, I’m very DIY.” She laughed and the other women joined in.  Lucia was the least crafty, hands on person that Emie knew.  It wouldn’t have surprised her if Lucia had hired someone to cut up her food for her. 
       “What’s the real reason?” Erica asked. 
       “I thought it would be something fun that we could do together.” Lucia said, getting a bit more serious.  “We don’t get to see you often.  I knew the week leading up to the wedding would be crazy, so I figured this was a way to spend some quality time.”
       Emie made a cooing noise, and Erica smiled warmly at the two girls.  Lucia gave Erica a hug, and then punched Emie in the shoulder.  Emie retaliated by pinching Lucia’s butt.  She squealed, running to the other side of the table.
       “You girls are both wonderful, you know that? After all you’ve been through.  You’re wonderful people.  You should be proud of yourselves.  I know your mom and dad would be.” Erica said softly, looking away.  Erica was their father’s sister, and honestly their only close relative.  Their mother had been an only child.  Their grandparents had all passed when they were young.
       “Thank you, Aunt Erica.” Emie said softly, reaching over and squeezing her aunt’s hand.  Erica’s eyes filled with tears, but she took a deep breath, gave them a watery smile and then seemed to shake it off.
       “So tell me, Emeline, who is the young man you were running around with yesterday?” She asked, looking sternly at Emie.  Emie’s face fell, her mouth dropping open. 
       “How did you…” She said, staring at Erica.  Erica laughed, shrugging her shoulders.
       “I have eyes and ears everywhere, honey.  And I saw you two jog past my bungalow.” She waggled her eyebrows at Emie.  Emie noticed that Lucia had stopped what she was doing and was just staring at her. 
       “What, Lucia? Just say whatever you want to say and get it over with.” Emie grumbled under her breath.
       “I don’t have anything to say.” Lucia shrugged her shoulders, tidying up the table and throwing away trash and plastic wrappers.  Emie waited.  “It’s just that I didn’t know you and Tom were still seeing each other.  Not after the whole…paparazzi thing.” Lucia looked at Emie from the side of her eye. 
       “Oh his name is Tom? Short for Thomas?” Erica asked, her eyes sparkling.  She loved hearing about her niece’s romantic entanglements.  Emie cleared her throat.
       “Yes. Tom.” She said shortly.
       “Is he an actor like Lucia? What happened with the paparazzi.”  Erica frowned.  Emie smiled, feeling some sort of relief knowing that her Aunt was so blissfully unaware of all the things that had been happening lately.  Even if it seemed to pervade Emie’s world, it was a nice reminder to her that not everyone lived in this bubble. 
       “Yes.  He works with Chris.  Erica, it’s Chris’s best friend, Tom.  You met him at dinner the other night.  And he and Emie were caught canoodling by the paps.” Lucia said, prompting her Aunt to look surprised.  Erica gasped, her eyes positively glowing. 
       “Oh my.  You’re right!! I didn’t get a good look at him when the two of you ran by my room this morning.  Oh, Thomas! He is just darling.  We all had dinner the first night I got here.  You weren’t feeling well that night, Emie.” Erica said, pressing her hands to her cheeks.  Emie fought a groan.  Of course Tom had met her Aunt.  And of course he had charmed the pants off her, excuse the expression.  Was the Earth round? Was water wet?
       “Emeline, honey, are you dating him? He’s really handsome.  And quite dashing, if I can say so.  He had me on the floor laughing.  And he’s a wonderful gentleman.” Erica gushed.  Emie pressed her lips together, wrinkling her nose.
       “Erica, he’s single.  Why don’t you ask him out?” She teased, gently, though her voice was a bit flat.  She loved her Aunt and knew she was only being nice, but this was about the last thing right now that Emie wanted to talk about. 
       “Oh honey, if I were 30 years younger.” She laughed heartily.
       “You’re still gorgeous, Aunt Erica.”
       “I can’t keep up with you young things.” Erica brushed her short hair off her face, beaming.  Lucia and Emie laughed, looking at each other.
       “So he’s single then? A man like him? Not married yet? And Emeline, you haven’t stepped in there?” Erica asked, standing up and straightening her dress as she did.  She gathered some of the bags and placed them in the boxes they were storing them in.  Emie was quiet for a minute, focused entirely on the bag she was arranging. 
       “He is single.” Lucia butted in.  “Not married.  No kids.  Perfect gentleman, like you said.  Emie hasn’t stepped in there.  Emeline is too busy being an idiot.” Lucia said, her eyes flaring.  Emie looked up, feeling her raw nerves start to fray.
       “Lucia, don’t be rude.” Erica said gently.  Emie groaned, pushing back on her chair.  She stood up and walked over to the kitchenette.  Lucia’s bungalow was similar to Tom’s except hers was on the opposite side of the long pier.  Emie opened Lucia’s bar and pulled out a beer.
       “I’m not being rude.  I’m being honest.” Lucia shrugged.  Emie took a long drag from the bottle, feeling the hoppy, carbonated beverage rush smooth down her throat. 
       “I’m sure Emie has a perfectly good reason for doing whatever she’s doing.” Erica said diplomatically.
       “No, not really.  She really doesn’t.” Lucia pursed her lips, shaking her head.  Emie spun around, her face red.
       “Please, Luce. For the love of the all things good and holy, please.  Just stop.  The last thing I need right now is you constantly reminding me how perfect Tom is and what a good catch he is.  Don’t you think I already know that? Don’t you think I REALIZE that?  I think about it all day long. And then I think about it all night long.  Believe me, any way you’ve ever thought about it, I’ve thought about it four thousand times as much!” Emie spat out through clenched teeth.  Lucia didn’t move, she just moved her head back slightly and raised an eyebrow.
       “I’ve been waiting for that.” Lucia crossed her arms over her chest.
       “For what?” Emie groaned, exhaling and feeling drained.
       “For you to finally admit that you are an idiot.” Lucia grinned.  Emie threw her hands up, puffing air through her cheeks and slamming her bottle onto the counter.
       “Girls, please.  Let’s not fight.” Erica said, stepping forward.  She touched Emie’s arm, gently.  “I’m sorry for bringing it up, Emie.  I just saw you with him yesterday and you two looked so lovely together.”  She pulled Emie into a hug, and Emie hugged her Aunt back, relaxing slightly.  She swallowed, feeling her anger subside slightly.  Lucia knew how to push all her buttons.  Repeatedly.
       “Aunt Erica, he is perfect.” Emie whispered, feeling her throat tighten.  She wasn’t going to cry.  She had gotten all her tears out the day before, after her run with him.  Erica tutted, and pulled Emie closer, rubbing her back. 
       “Then why are you so upset?” Erica asked softly, pulling back and looking at Emie.  She held her face in her hands, smoothing Emie’s hair back from her face.
       “I can’t get over…” Emie looked away.  “I can’t get over what happened to Mom and Dad.  I can’t get over the fact that he does the one thing that I swore I wouldn’t truly allow in my life again.  And I don’t want to be a part of all of that.  The fame. The celebrity.  It’s not me.  It’s not my life.” She whispered.  Lucia took a step forward, her eyes soft now.  Emie looked at her sister. 
       “Emie, don’t you get it though?  This will always be a part of your life, whether you like it or not. I’ll always be an actor.  Chris will always be an actor.  I know how much it hurts because of what happened with Mom and Dad, but you have to stop letting it rule your life.  Whether I get on a plane tomorrow for work, or Chris does, or Tom does or you do…what is going to happen is going to happen.  It won’t hurt any less or more whether you push against it or not.” Lucia said this gently, and then she was hugging Emie as well.  Emie pressed her face into her sister’s hair, squeezing her tight.
       “I worry about you constantly, Luce.  I really do.  Every time you travel.”
       “I know.”
       “I couldn’t…I don’t think I would make it if something happened to you.”
       “Nothing is going to happen to me.” Lucia said firmly. “And you would make it.  You would be fine.  You’re a survivor, just like I am.  You couldn’t stop me from doing what I love.  Why are you letting all of this keep you from having something that you love?” Lucia breathed out, waiting.  Emie looked away, biting her lip, hard. 
       “I don’t love him.” Emie managed, feeling her stomach turn.  Lucia pulled back, frowning.  Her eyes were hard, worried.
       “Really? Is that what you’ve convinced yourself?” She asked.  Emie blinked and looked away.
       “I barely know him.”
       “I’m not sure how true that is either.” Lucia sighed and let go of Emie, walking away and grabbing a drink for herself out of the fridge.  Erica sat down on the sofa, suddenly looking a bit tired.
       “Emeline, your mother and father spent their lives chasing what they loved.” She said softly, looking out the window.  “At times, it was to the detriment of you children, I’ll admit.  You and Lucia were dragged all over this planet, and perhaps some stability would have been nice every once in awhile.” She smiled a somewhat sad smile.  “You knew what you wanted from the start, you always knew what you wanted.” Erica nodded.  “But sometimes I worried that you were so set on what you thought should happen, that you missed out on what was already happening.”
       Emie took a drink from her beer.  She waited.
       “We like to call it tunnel vision.” Erica looked at Emie, smiling.  Emie laughed, shaking her head.
       “I’m familiar with it.”
       “Maybe Tom doesn’t fit into what you thought your plan was.” Erica shrugged, raising her hands in defeat.  Emie frowned.  “But plans shouldn’t be written in stone.  You of all people know things can change in an instant.  You’re sticking hard and fast to a rule you made for a game that you didn’t have all the parts to.  How could you have known?” Erica asked.  Emie didn’t say anything.
       “Anyway, that’s my two cents.  Not that anyone asked for it.” Erica said with a smile.  Lucia gave her a small, half hearted smile and then started packing up the rest of the bags.  Emie kept quiet.  The women went back to work, packing up bags and sorting through the gifts. 
       “We went running again this morning.” Emie said after a few minutes of silence.  Tom had showed up at her suite early that morning, and they had set off for their run without exchanging more than a few words.  They hadn’t talked since their swim the day before, where they had been interrupted by Chris.
       “Oh?” Erica asked.
       “Yes.” Emie said softly. 
       “He’s quite fit.” Erica said innocently.  Emie rolled her eyes, but smiled.
       “We went back to his room.” She said softly.  Erica looked at her niece, an eyebrow raised. Lucia leaned forward, waiting.
       “And?”
       “He got a call for work.  He ended up having to do a bunch of phone interviews right then and there.  I ended up leaving after fifteen minutes so he could finish up.” Emie said.  They had been sitting on his deck, cooling off from another brutal run.  There hadn’t been much talking that morning.  Both of them seemed a bit lost in their own thoughts.  Chris wasn’t the one to interrupt them this time.  Tom’s phone had started ringing as they sat quietly on the deck.  He had ignored it at first, but then had to excuse himself when he realized it was his manager.  He went into the bungalow, but she could hear him talking.  He sounded exasperated at first, if not a bit frustrated and angry.  She heard him say something about flying home, which made her turn and look into the direction of where he was standing.   
       Emie had waited for a few minutes, but then after fifteen minutes on the phone, she realized that he must have gotten pulled into something.  He looked at her, apologizing silently with his eyes.  She just kissed him on the cheek and let herself out. 
       “He’s so busy. He’s like Chris.” Lucia sighed.
       “That’s the thing, Luce.  He works constantly.  He’s always checking emails.  Flying off at a minutes’ notice.  Taking calls.  Doing phone interviews.  Does he even have time for me?  Right now, we’re on vacation, so of course his schedule has been cleared. But what happens when we go back to real life?  He’ll be in London for a few months, and then Toronto.  I’m not dumb.  I know what that means.” Emie sighed, leaning back.  She closed her eyes for a second. 
       “Emie, why do you think he works so much?” Lucia asked.  Emie shrugged.
       “Because he has a demanding job.” She stated.
       “No.  It’s because there’s no reason why he shouldn’t work so much.” Lucia declared.  “Emie. Give him a reason.”