Emily sat on her brother’s bed as he paced the room mumbling incoherently as he went. After bargaining, brining and attempted blackmail she had finally told her brother of her situation, but not before getting him to promise to at least trim his beard.
“So, let me get this straight. We switched projects back in high school, and you developed a crush on the subject of mine? Then you wrote fan mail to him thinking he would never get to it, only to discover that he not only read it but also kept it.” Ethan recounted, stopping in his tracks all of a sudden and turning to face his sister. A look curiosity was plastered in his face and as he pulled out his phone and began scrolling through something a childish giggle would erupt every now and then.
“Ethan, What's so funny? You know you look creepy when you do that, specially with the whole bum look you have going on.” Emily murmured, her brother continued to ignore her until he seemed satisfied with his findings.
“Look, I think he was thinking you were such a super fan that you followed him on social media.” Ethan explained hopping on the bed next to her and showing her his phone.
The screen displayed a grid of pictures, none of which had Blake, but they all quoted a part of her letters.
“See this one? I thought he had gone crazy by posting a picture of a night light, but the caption make sense now.” Ethan pointed out as he scrolled down a bit more and found an older picture to enlarge.
The image made her want to laugh, it was of a menu at an expensive french restaurant. The table looked spectacular, silver cutlery an expensive champagne bottle, and the main attraction, a plate of escargot.
Who wants to eat a snail?
“And then there's it's one” Ethan continued as her clicked on another picture before hand in Emily the phone. He got up and opened the curtains, a stream of light illuminated his room causing him to hiss in annoyance. His sister ignored him, he could see her scrolling through countless updates, that a certain billionaire what posted in hopes that it would one day reach her.
When you can't get a date, so you take the VP and hope her gf won't kill you. A picture of him and Daliah at a Christmas dinner almost four years ago.
Don't forget to maintenance your cars! A picture of rental keys and in the background his trusty sedan sitting on top of a mechanic's stand.
Who knew honey and lime tasted so good together. A simple picture of a slice of green lime a spoon and a container of her favorite brand of honey.
The pictures all had something to do with her letters, she wanted to shrug it off as coincidence but then one of the more recent ones caught her attentions. It was a screenshot of the job posting. The caption made Emily want to cry
I am now, go apply ->
“He really is a nice guy. He probably hates me now and thinks I used him!” Emily sobbed. She didn't expect Blake to be looking for her, and couldn't help but feel that she had disappointed him.
He had wanted to find EJ, and had hired a small army of EJs in hopes that he had picked the right one. Was him taking her out on dates part of his plan to check her off the list? And if it was why was she the only EJ not interning for him?
“I don't know Em, the guy looks pretty determined to find you. I mean he's sitting in our driveway right now.”
“Tell me why we are driving to the office? I'm supposed to be taking you to your girlfriends house so you can declare your undying love to her” Calvin exclaimed as he pulled into the empty parking lot of Redwood Inc. Blake continued to ignore his cousin, instead he ran over to the elevators and began pushing the call button.
Both men remained quiet the entire ride to the office an occasional buzz for Blake's cell phone was the only thing that broke down the silence.
Once in the office Blake wasted no time opening drawers and pulling out files after files, and after a few minutes of crazed searching he found what he was looking for.
“OK, let's go now, Daliah texted me Emily’s home address. She said Claire sent it to her the moment they left the party.” Blake explained putting the item inside a gift bag that was conveniently under his desk.
“Great, a road trip” Calvin mumbled walking out of the door. He loved his older cousin, he was like his brother more than anything, but Calvin hated driving for long periods of time.
“Get. Out. Of. The. Car.”
“ I will, just let me breath, I'm panicking here. What if she really doesn't like me and ran off because she realized the gig was up?” Blake questioned as they sat in Emily’s driveway.
After sitting in traffic and being cursed at as they cut people off they had made it to their destination in just over two hours. The entire drive Blake had been calm, it wasn't until they pulled up into the street that sweat began to form on his brow and his palms began to feel clammy.
“Man, seriously, I didn't drive all this way for you to change your mind, if you aren't getting off I am.” With that announcement Calvin opened his door and marched up the front steps of the cottage like house. Under normal circumstances he would have admired how different it looked from the neighbors and would have probably asked for gardening tips to take back to his parents. Today though, he was on a mission to get his cousin and his girlfriend back together.
The door swung open before he could even knock a tall bearded guy stood before him, grinning.
“EMILY! Your boyfriend's boyfriend is looking for you!” He called out as he held the door open and tried to wave Blake in from the car.
“Uhm, let me get my cousin, he's the one that should be doing this I'm just the chauffeur.” Calvin explained nervously, he took a step back and power walked back to the car.
Ethan watched in amusement as the two men argued and pointed to each other and then back to the house. After a few minutes of arguing he watched as Blake got out and made his way to the porch, the man that claimed to be his cousin was walking behind him wearing a victorious grin.
“Uhm, hey...I'm...I'm Blake and I was um wondering if Emily was here?” Blake asked as he got to the where Ethan was waiting. He received no reply, instead the younger man inspected his appearance his eyes lingering on the birthday bag Blake was holding to his chest. With a devious smirk Ethan held the door open once more.
“EMILY! YOUR BOYFRIEND IS HERE AND HE DEMANDS TO SPEAK TO YOU NOW, UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE FIRED!” Blake flinched at the introduction, personally he thought it was a bit harsh, but a moment later he saw movement on the top of the stairs. And slowly Emily made her way down the steps, one painfully slow step at a time.
“Seriously? Today Em, we have somewhere to be in.” Looking down as his watch Ethan face went from annoyed to shocked, “shoot, we have less than one hour to be ready or Dad’s gonna kill us. I'm out!” He announced running up the stairs and leaving Emily alone with the two men.
Calvin looked around awkwardly, then mumbled an excuse before heading back to his car. Leaving Blake and Emily alone for the first time that day.
“I'm sorry” They both rushed out at the same time, they stopped to look at each other before Emily spoke up.
“Do you, want to drink anything?” She hoped she would be able to get a distraction and avoid the dreaded conversation.
“No, thank you, Calvin bought giant drinks for the drive.” He replied just as awkwardly as before.
Looking at him Emily realized he was holding the bag like it was his life saver. Noticing her gaze on the bag, Blake held it up to her, and tried to smooth the wrinkles as best as he could.
“Happy Birthday.” He mumbled as she took the bag, Emily nodded in thanks and signaled for him to follow her. Once they were in the living room she took a seat on the large sofa and patted the seat next to her. Taking the offered seat Blake waited for her to speak, he figured it would be less stressful if he didn't push her for answers.
“I'm not crazy or obsessed with you” she mumbled quietly as she played with the colorful tissue paper.
“I know, if anything, you have it out to get me. You've tried to smuther me in my sleep several times already.” Blake tried to tease, the faint smile that appeared on her face made his own light up with joy.
“I actually am really proud of you. My brother had to do an assignment back in high school but we both ended up switching subjects halfway through. You were his topic and by the time I finished I was in awe that you had accomplished so much in so little time. So I wrote you some fan mail, and finally got the nerve to send out the first letter, and after that I don't know what happened but every month I felt like I had to write to you. Somehow I felt like you listened and cared, I know know it's silly but it really helped me through a lot. And I'm sorry if you are disappointed in finding out it was me.” Emily confessed, the tissue she had been playing with was wrinkle free as she finished talking. She was half expecting Blake to start asking questions but he didn't. Instead the two sat in silence, each one caught up in their own thoughts.
“You should open the bag, it is your birthday after all” Blake motioned to the bag she was carrying.
She gave him a nervous smile, and began to carefully remove the tissue paper. For his part Blake was anxious and wanted nothing more than for Emily to just rip into the gift like any normal person, and against his normal behaviour he sat back and watched as she slowly pulled out a wrapped square. She gave him a questioning look to which Blake simply replied with a smile and a nod of his head. Taking that as her signal to continue she began peeling away at the wrapping paper.
“Just rip the paper already!” Blake's outburst made Emily jump in her seat. She had been trying to prolong the inevitable, but now seeing as to how Blake was growing impatient she ripped the wrapping along the top. Seeing the corner of a book, she grew excited and began to tear at the rest. By the time she was done she was holding a large leather bound photo album.
“You have to open it” Blake instructed, he watched as she cautiously peeled back the cover. The look on her face when she saw the first page made him smile.
Emily couldn't hold back the tears as she looked back down at the page.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY EJ!
Thank you for everything
~~~~~•~~~~~•~~~~~•~~~~~
Blake made it, poor Calvin is still sitting ouside in the car.
What's in the album?
we are very very close to the end ❤ So thank you for reading along and leaving your thoughts :)