Last Night

Part 21

He merely nodded at me as I slipped by. Now I had a few more errands I had to run before tonight.

~

I'd been wandering around the apartment for the better part of an hour when my phone rang. It was Emily. I had to wonder what she wanted, we didn't normally talk this much. I mean, she was a very busy person.

Picking up my phone, I answered, "Hey, Em, what's up?"

"Hey, want to have a redo on our girls' night? I feel bad that I wasn't really prepared for it and the movie was a downer. That's not how those nights are supposed to go."

I exhaled with a smile. "I think you're starting to take a little too much responsibility for my happiness. Only I can control that."

"Wow. That's surprisingly philosophical of you. It's still too early for 'middle of the night philosophical thoughts with Nic'. So do you want to clean out your system with some Thai green curry and Shrek?"

"As tempting as that sounds, I'm gonna have to pass on tonight. I know you're volunteering with the neighborhood clean up team tomorrow night so what about Monday?" I glanced out the window at the slowly sinking sun.

"Can't. Helping out with my sister's theater tech week so tonight would really be best."

"We'll just have to try next week then."

Emily's voice grew timid. "You're not mad at me, are you?"

Rolling my eyes was becoming habitual when talking to her now. "For what? Not wearing your matching taco shirt? I'll admit I was a bit annoyed the other day, but whatever. I know you'll pretty much do anything for your little sister."

"Yeah, that. I've just been thinking about what you mentioned on Thursday, about whether or not you'd help him. If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were honestly seeking out advice." She chuckled awkwardly.

I joined her laughter. "I mean, you said it yourself. Stuff like that doesn't happen in real-life. I don't know. I've just been doing a lot of introspection lately, you know, with the anniversary of Philip's death and everything. You would do anything for family and I thought I would too."

"Yeah, but that's different. He wasn't related to any of them. In fact, they barely knew him at all. Frankly, he endangered them all by being so brash and flashy with his punishments."

"Hah," I chuckled, rolling my eyes at her. "You must be so proud of that pun."

"I thought it hit the mark. But seriously though, I'd do anything for family, and that includes you. I know you'd do the same for me."

Keeping her safe, yeah, I'd do anything to make that happen. "I love how honest and straightforward you are with me. It's so refreshing. Thank you."

There was a second pause, before Emily spoke up again. "Yeah, it's nice to know that you trust me enough to keep me in the loop when you hook up with your neighbor."

"Ouch," I rubbed my chest with a hand. "I think I felt that knife from here. Look, I, I don't know what to say, okay? I didn't even, it wasn't a planned thing. It just kind of, happened, I guess."

"Next time, I expect a text if you think you're going to get some." Her tone was sassy, but still serious.

"I do hope you're kidding. That sounds like an excellent way to kill the mood and why are we still talking about this?"

"Because I'm curious if you've been keeping secret meetings up without telling me. I thought we were besties." Her teasing tone felt a little too close to the mark this time.