Stealing Emma

Chapter 5 - Partners

Emma walked hesitantly into the study room. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been this nervous. How the hell did she get stuck working with Max as a partner? Her plan of dividing up the course work among their study group members had totally backfired on her. When she mentioned it to the team, it never occurred to her that this might happen. And then of course with her luck, it did. She had only been thinking of relieving her workload and attempting to regain a normal life at the time.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to ignore the way her heart fluttered when she saw him sitting down at the conference table studying his course packet. Ever since they had agreed to be friends, it kept messing with her mind that there was something else going on between them. They were obviously beyond ridiculous thoughts.

He looked up at her as she walked in, giving her the same easy smile that seemed to be reserved only for her. “Hey, Em.”

God, even the way he casually tossed her nickname around made her head spin. He just seemed so comfortable with her all the time, while she had an internal battle with herself going on 24/7.

“You okay, partner?” he asked looking concerned.

“Um…yeah. Hey,” she answered. “Sorry, just a little distracted today.”

“You wanna talk about it?” he asked, standing up and pulling out a seat for her right next to him.

Always the perfect gentlemen. “It’s nothing really but thanks.”

“Well if you ever need anything…my office is open,” he said gesturing with open arms and  smiling.

“Good to know.” She settled in her seat and pulled out her computer. “So I was thinking we could divide and conquer? I can do the write-up and you can work on putting the PowerPoint together?” The less they had to communicate, the better.

“Sure. You’re the boss. I just take orders.”

This was going way better than expected. She loved how he was so uncomplicated. “Okay, then.”

She spent the next hour working diligently on the write-up. Well, if diligently includes sneaking looks at your partner every 15 minutes. I mean, someone had to check he was doing his work. The worst part was every time she looked at him, he would stare right back at her and smile. Not awkward at all.

It was during one of these side staring contests that he stretched and finally spoke up. “I’m going to take a breather. Do you want anything?”

“No, I’m good. Thanks though,” she said looking at her computer screen and pretending to type something really important.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it.”

“Hmm. Okay,” he said mumbling something as he left the room.

She took a deep breath and felt like she could finally relax. She took the time to concentrate and finally write down some decent words. She was in the middle of wrapping up the ‘Challenges’ of the case study, when a Snickers bar was tossed in front of her computer.

Her eyes instantly lit up, and then slid over to Max who had resumed working like nothing had happened.

“Um…I think this is yours?” she asked holding it up.

He looked at her briefly and shook his head. “Nope, that’s yours.”

“How did you know?”

“Please. As if you don’t eat those all the time.”

“Oh. I didn’t know people noticed this little vice of mine.”

He grinned at her. “Oh, I definitely noticed. Don’t worry though, your secret is safe with me.”