Forever | ✓

17. The Dinner

Just as Tiff began to show me another one of her Pinterest boards, we heard a knock on the door.

A second later, Emma walked into the room.

"Hey, Aunt Em." Tiff greeted her.

Emma smiled. "Lucy wants you dear. Something about the food," she said in an uncertain tone.

Whatever it was, Tiff seemed to be panicked by it and immediately jumped up and practically sprinted out the room.

I was confused. "What was-"

"It's better not to ask," Emma chuckled and I just nodded, listening to her advice.

Emma then took a seat in front of me on the bed I was sat on. "Sometimes I forget it's been so long," she said.

I smiled at her words. "I know. Although sometimes it feels like no time has passed at all."

With Emma and Mr Hunter, it really just felt like I'm that little girl, going over to their house with muffins that my Mum made. I think with them, I may always feel like that.

"Rena, I just..." Emma hesitated, which made me frown a little. "I never really got a chance to properly thank you before."

"For what?" I asked.

"You dropped everything to be by my Liam's side after..." she didn't finish her sentence, but I gathered where she was going with that.

I placed my hand on top of hers, seeing the sad smile on her face. "It's alright, honestly," I told her.

Emma pursed her lips and it looked like she wanted say something more, but held herself back.

It always made me nervous when someone would do that, because it just made me assume whatever they were going to say, wasn't good or just bad news.

Although, this was Emma. I doubt she'd say anything bad.

"I know that it's not my business and I'm probably intruding but whatever happened between Liam and you, I hope you both work it out," she said.

I was a little startled by her words. I hadn't even realised that Emma knew that there was some kind of tension between us, or at least used to be. Instead of agreeing, I chose to act oblivious.

"I'm sorry?" I questioned.

"I'm his mother, Rena. I could tell something wasn't right," Emma said, with one of those all-knowing Mum looks. "You both were seemingly fine four years ago and then suddenly, it was like you were gone. Anytime your name was mentioned, I saw this look on his face, like regret or guilt or sadness. I wasn't sure, but it was something."

Honestly, I wasn't too surprised that Emma noticed all of this. She would always know if something was up with Liam. Even when we were little and he tried to hide his injuries after football, she would know.

"We had a disagreement," I told her, very vaguely.

I didn't want to tell Emma everything, since it really was between Liam and I. We had an argument, we had a falling out, but we were sort of friends again.

She just nodded in understanding. "Like I said, I hope you work it out."

"You're not going to ask what it was about?" I asked her, eyeing her a little suspiciously.

Emma shook her head. "You're both grown ups and you can handle it," she shrugged.

Before I could reply, I saw her gaze wonder down to my left hand, more specifically my ring finger.

"Look at this beauty," she commented, gently lifting my hand, to look closely at my ring. "Tell me about him. What's his name? How does he look? What does he do?" Emma bombarded me with questions.