"Hmm, so what's going on with you and Zain? Why doesn't he come to pick you up for lunch anymore these days?" Eva asked as they finished up in the rehearsal room, as if her control had finally snapped.
For two days now, Eva had been giving her a look of concealed curiosity whenever it was lunch time and Em went with her for lunch, but it was obvious she was holding back her questions because she feared what happened the last time would repeat. But even frogs croak when water overwhelms them.
Sighing, Emma waited for her employees to walk out before turning to Eva. "We're no more friends, Eva." She hadn't wanted to tell Eva because she didn't want to face the proud look Eva would throw her like i-just-knew-it.
"Whoa? Why?" Eva asked, seemingly perplexed. "What happened?"
"You were right all along. Zain never really tried to forget me. He was only faking."
Eva looked surprised, but not shocked. "Oh, so he finally dropped his façade? When was that?" Em groaned when she saw the look she'd feared on Eva's face.
"It was the day he brought me to talk to my father. I lied when I said I only went for a walk, Eva. I had gone back to Zain's apartment, and that was when he told me he still loves me and wants me back." She thought of the look of horror Eva would give her if she'd revealed how she'd kissed Zain, and she held back the bit of information.
"What did you tell him?"
Em casted Eva an incredulous glance. "What do you think? That 'oh, I'm so sorry Zain but I can only offer friendship'? Seriously, I just told you we're no longer friends. You should figure out I ended things."
Then as Zain's last words to her flew through her mind, she shuddered from dread. "But he said he won't give up. That he's continue to insist till I leave George to be with him."
"That son of a potato." Eva said, grinding her teeth. Think of Eva to pass funny comments even when she was angry. "But don't worry. I think he'll give up soon. Just go on avoiding him."
I'm not so sure.
"But why do you have to look like you regret that decision to kick him out of your life? For Pete's sake that's the best you could've done." Then Eva suddenly covered her mouth to stifle a gasp. "What if he tells George about the history the two of you share? Oh, Emma. Why haven't you even told George yet?"
"Zain won't do that." Emma assured her friend even while she felt fear sear through her heart. What would George think of her lying to him? "And I don't regret ending my friendship with Zain because I know it's for the best. I just thought our friendship could've gone on great especially since Amy likes him so much. He just had to destroy it."
Without a tinge of sympathy, Eva parted her on the shoulder. "I'm sorry for that." She said even though Emma knew she all but wanted to say "I told you so."
**~**~**
George left on another business trip to California that Friday evening. After he apologized profusely for how much this partnered project was making him travel, Em assured him she would be fine, but after he'd left, leaving an ominous sense of another lonely night, she begun to resent him, his absence at night forcing in a reality she didn't want to face; the reality of her feelings for another man who wasn't her husband.
To distract herself, Emma went to spend the night in her daughters room. They played paper games of which Amy was much still an amateur, eliciting laughter from both of them. Even if she wasn't that content, her daughter's laughter and happiness was enough to boost her spirits.
Amy suddenly fell asleep when she couldn't seem to fight off the drowsiness any longer. Disappointed but berating herself for keeping her daughter up this late like never before, Emma covered her with the quilt. And as she made to sleep herself, all the things she hadn't wanted to feel came rushing back to her.
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven..." She begun counting to distract the reality and must've reached 986 before sleep finally listened to her plea.
The next morning, Emma didn't wake up in a particularly bright mood. Amy was still sleeping, so she gently got out of the bed so as not to wake her bundle of joy, leaning in to kiss and gaze at her affectionately before slipping out.
That particularly surly mood didn't brighten as she realized it was a Saturday, another weekend without George. Suddenly her treacherous mind sent her back to the week before when Zain had taken she and her daughter out, how happy it'd made Amy, and she felt an alarming sense of loss.
She quickly stomped on the memory, deciding that she didn't need Zain to make her daughter happy. She planned to take her daughter out later by herself.
After breakfast, Emma went up to shower, requesting her aunt to please bath Amy. She was just done, in her bathrobe and about to do her make up in front of the mirror when the door suddenly squeaked opened.
She froze as she wondered who it could be. Maggie never entered without knocking or asking for permission. While Amy had the tendency to do that. But even so, the squeak of the door was much too loud compared to the usually vague ones if it was indeed her daughter.
As a woody, musky cologne filled her nostrils, her heart pounded against her chest, and Emma whipped up, spinning around immediately. Her heart nearly stopped at the sight of Zain. It was from the dread, certainly not from the fact that his tight shirt emphasised his muscles.
"Hello, Emma. Did you miss me?" His voice held volumes of persistence and relinquishment of control, and the dread of it made Emma shiver, goosebumps rushing over her skin.
"What are you doing here?" She demanded as she found herself taking subconscious steps towards him. She wondered if she was dreaming, but after blinking five times in a roll and still finding him at the door with the confident grin on his face, she realized this wasn't a mere reverie.
"Calm down, sugar." He said, eyes glinting with mischief. "Did you think you could forever run away from how you feel about me?" He closed the door and leaned against it.
"I'm not running away from anything." She tried to control her heaving chest.
"Really, now?"
"Yes. I have nothing to run away from. The only thing I felt for you was affection as a friend but you've killed even that. You disgust me now." Why did that have to be a lie?
And she realized she was being too defensive when she should be acting calm and collected and unaffected by his presence. The fact that she had to act was already alarming in itself.
"How blatant can you get at lying?" He chuckled, unconvinced.
"How the hell did you get up here?" She demanded, feeling the chaos rise again, provoked by Zain's presence.
"On legs, of course." He laughed cynically. "Okay well, I met your aunt downstairs. She told me you were in your room and wanted to inform you that I was here but I asked her not to, saying you will come down anyways. As soon as she stepped outside, I found my way here, sugar."
"Don't call me that! What the hell do you want? What are you doing here?" She ejected every bit of emotion and induced coldness, making her voice as stern as she could get it.
"I'm merely here to continue the second phase of the reclaiming process. To try to remove the blinkers from your eyes and make you see your 'feelings' for George as the mirage it truly is. To make you realize that you've never stopped loving me." He said flippantly, paying disregard to the gravity of what his actions could cause.
For the first time, Emma tasted disgust - the kind directed at him. "Just how do you plan to do that." She didn't bother tempering the disgust from her tone.
He froze for a bit, then that smug grin was back on his face. Em suddenly felt conscious of the fact that she was just in a bathrobe with her nudity merely camouflaged with a belt of cotton. And when his eyes raked over her body, she felt as if he was undressing her with his lewd gaze.
A bang of her heart against her ribcage as he took a step towards her made her double her step back. But she realized that wouldn't help her situation, so she faced him head on and steeled her facade.
Suddenly, his hand snaked around her waist as he plucked her to his body. She gasped as she braced her hands against his chest but found it hard pushing him off. All too soon she felt a crack in her façade of cold boldness.
His heated gaze bore into hers, but Emma refused to give him the privilege of a reaction. "So you really love George?"
"Yes." The word tumbled out her mouth in a breathless whisper.
"Hmm." His head neared just close enough so she could feel his breath on her face, and his cologne impaled her nostrils. "Does he make you so nervous when he's close to you like this?"
"I'm not nervous." She cried desperately.
"It's so threaded in your voice you know. But that doesn't exactly answer my question." He pointed out, his seductive voice oozing with arrogance that made her clench her hands at her side.
"George is my husband. There's no need to get nervous around him." It was quite logical. She and George had been sleeping together for four years. What was there to get nervous for around him?
Zain chuckled. "Does he make your knees buckle like they're doing now?"
Em was about to protest when she realized with shock that her knees were indeed buckling. She tried to still them without success and glared at Zain. "Let go of me."
"Giving up that easily I see." He smiled lasciviously, confident victory shimmering in his eyes.
She refused to give him the liberty of forming his own conclusions. "Yes. He makes my knees buckle so bad in response to his touch." She realized how lame she sounded after saying that. And though it was true, the fact that this current knee-buckling wasn't provoked by her husband had her heart constricting painfully.
Once again, Zain chuckled like he found her forced confidence funny. "Fine. Adequate." He mused, pulling out his lower lip as if in thought. Then suddenly, his lips were so perilously close to hers she couldn't curtail her heart from lurching even while she tried to neutralize her expression.
"Does he make your lips part so earnestly in wait of his kiss, huh?"
She felt rage tear through her, and it took all that she could to stop herself from screaming in his face which would definitely give away how his presence agitated her emotions. Instead, she decided to hit him where it hurt the most. "He makes me feel so much more Zain. Just one look at his sexy body and I get so wet."
Ignoring the warning glare in his eyes and her own heartbeat, she went on, feeling disgusted with herself. "He fucks me so good that I can't stop screaming his name every single second through it."
A savage emotion flashed in Zain's eyes, his nostrils flaring with relinquished control. Before she could decipher his next move, his mouth was on hers, and as she gasped, his tongue plunged deep, fumbling with hers.
A dreadful frisson shot through her as she tried to push Zain without success. His mouth was wild against hers, infused with a deep hunger. Before long, Emma found herself slipping as her knees went weak and she found her hands had stopped their protests. God, was she kissing him back?
"Mummy?"
The sound of that voice, as little as it floated to her ears, had a startled Emma pushing hard against Zain and jumping back. Her head automatically whipped to the door and fell on her daughter, looking confused and. . . shocked.