Story of another us // Calum Hood #book 2

10

Emily sat picking at the tiny pieces of paper which she had been tearing apart for what felt like hours. Jake came into the front desk and look over at her with concern before sighing.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Jake asked sitting down in front of her on the other side of the desk. 'hm?' Emily answered lifting her head to look at him as he snapped her out of her daydream.

"Whatever it is on your mind" Jake stated. Emily let out an sigh and looked at him in the eye.

"My mind is a dangerous place at the moment" Emily stated not wanting to talk about feelings, she was never very good at that.

"Em you don't understand how painful is it to watch you tear up a whole A4 sheet of paper into 0.5mm squares" Jake commented "Also it creates a lot of mess"

Emily chuckled at him before she paused and glanced at him. "You know I'm not good at talking about feelings"

"Well you are, you're just selective" Jake answered "So just tell me what's wrong"

"I more caught up in the fact I had a fight with Calum, not the fact I know that Rob is cheating" Emily  

"Rob is cheating?" Jake asked frowning at her. Emily nodded and looked away from him. She knew that look. That look she hated. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?" 

"I didn't tell anyone" Emily paused "Well I did.." 

"Look Em" Jake sighed "Forget Calum for now. This is two things, two problems and you're making them seem like one. You gotta end it with Rob, you've never been happy with him. Why would you sign up for life of miserableness?" 

"I don't know" Emily sighed a little picking at the little pieces of paper again.  

"And the Calum thing.." Jake started but trailed off a little making Emily look up at him "You two have probably had worst arguments and made it through. I'm sure he'll forgive you" 

"The thing is. I don't even know him anymore. He seems like the same guy I fell in love with but" Emily stopped caught up in her own thoughts. 

"But?" Jake asked hinting at her to carry on her sentence. 

"I don't know, something isn't right and he's been a stranger for the past four years. It's different now" Emily sighed a little running her fingers through her hair. Jake nodded and bite his lip a little. 

"Then get to know him" Jake stated making Emily look at him in confusion "You got to know him before, so do it again" 

"You want me to treat him like I'd never met him before and restart?" Emily questioned. 

"Not exactly. Obviously there are things that are the same about him, but things would've changed. A lot can happen in four years. You just need to fill in the gaps" Jake shrugged before standing up "As much as I loved this talk, I've got a son to pick up" 

"Right yeah" Emily nodded a little before wiping the tiny pieces of paper into the bin and standing up herself. 

Emily left the studio, locking it up behind her before getting in her car. It was 5PM, she'd be lucky to miss the rush hour. She tapped on her steering wheel as she sat at the traffic lights, the queue of cars coming from the centre of the city. She twirled the ring on her left finger around, what was she supposed to say to Rob? I mean surely it couldn't be that hard to break up with someone you don't love. 

Eventually, Emily was walking through her front door. She was faced with Tommy sitting at her kitchen bar. 

"Hello?" Emily said, more of an confused question as to why her brother was sitting in her house.