Emma's POV
I wake up the next day feeling a strong pair of arms around me. For some reason, the first thought that comes to my mind is that the person behind me is Jay, and it takes a few seconds for the memories of what happened between us to come rushing back to me and to realize it isn't him. I slowly open my eyes, blinded by the daylight coming from behind my curtains. I try to move from Brad's embrace but that only makes him tighten his grip on me. I can feel his warm breath on my neck and his skin against mine where our bodies touch. That weird butterfly feeling I felt when we kissed that night is back. I remember it as if it was yesterday. I can still feel the taste of his lips, the softness of his touch on me, the... Wait. No, no, no, no. Stop. Emma, just stop it now. Stop thinking about it. It will never happen again. Stop torturing yourself like that. But I want it so bad. The thought of never tasting his lips again is literally killing me. I lie there in his arms, not willing to wake him up. I know he needs to catch up on some well-deserved sleep and I also know that he's not gonna go back to sleep if I wake him up. The minutes go by and I'm internally praying for him to wake up. I'm dying to pee and I'm not sure I can hold it much longer.
-
Brad's POV
I wake up to find Emma lying in my arm, my hand resting on her waist. Fuck, how I missed that contact with her. I haven't stopped thinking about her since that night in the park. I can't remember what I said to her that night, but according to Tris, nothing too compromising. I was so relieved when he told me I haven't said what I planned on telling her that day, because there's no way she can know how I feel about her. There's no way I'll take the risk of losing her by telling her I love her, especially not now. I know she's still hurt by everything that happened and the fact that she kept pushing me away every time I made physical contact with her last night makes me wonder if she'll ever forgive me. Even though I'm happy to know she still wants to see me, I can tell there's something different between us. And how can it be otherwise? Jay broke up with her because of me and now there are all these new feelings I have for her and frankly, I don't know how to act normal around her anymore. Because every time I look at her, all I can think about is that kiss and how bad I want to kiss her again. I know I shouldn't have kissed her that night. She was drunk and probably didn't even realize it was me she was kissing. I regretted it the moment my lips touched hers, but then she initiated the second kiss and I just lost control. I wanted her so bad that night I completely forgot about Ashley. And that's what scared me the next day when I realized I almost cheated on Ash. No wonder why she knew I had feelings for Em. Anyone could have seen that. Anyone except me I guess. And Em. And I intend on keeping it that way. I suddenly feel Em's hand on mine as she gently grabs it, freeing herself from my grip. I have no idea how we ended up in that position and even if we were used to sleeping like that before the fight, it probably feels awkward for her now. She slowly gets off the bed, clearly trying not to wake me up and tiptoes out of the room. I can't help but notice her buttcheeks peaking out under her shirt and no amount of willpower in the world could get my eyes off that view. Fuck, I'm screwed, ain't I? Because whatever I do, I'll lose again. If I tell her, our friendship will never be the same again. And by not telling her, I'm dooming myself to seeing her with other guys and I can't bear that thought. I let myself fall on my back and close my eyes. Shit, how am I gonna get out of this situation?
"Are you sleeping?", I hear a moment later and I feel Emma lie down next to me. I turn my head to face her and smile at how beautiful she's looking with her sleepy eyes and messy hair.
"Morning", I say, turning to my side, one hand under the pillow.
"I woke you up, didn't I?", she asks, looking sorry. Her being so close to me is making my pulse go crazy and I wonder if she can hear it. I want to break that small distance between our lips again, feel her body on mine and make her feel all the things that dickhead couldn't. "Do I have dried drool on my lips or something?", she adds, wiping her mouth with her hand.
"What?", I answer as I realize I was staring at her lips. She's looking at me, probably trying to figure out why I was staring at her lips like that. "Umm, yeah, you did", I say so that she doesn't get creeped out.
"Is it still there?", she asks as she wipes her mouth again. I can't help but laugh at how cute she is.
"Nah, you're good now", I answer. "It was real gross though"
"Shut up!", she says as she punches me in the arm and laughs. I missed hearing her laugh. I missed seeing her smile. I never want to ever see her cry again and I swear I'll do everything I can to keep that smile on her lips. "What do you have planned for today?", she asks, looking straight into my eyes. "You must be excited to see your family"
The thought of being away from her again is killing me. All I want to do is to spend time with her. I want to keep looking at her beautiful face, imprinting every inch of it in my head. I want to stay in this room, just the two of us, away from the rest of the world.
"Do you still wanna go to Bali with me?", I ask, clearly taking her by surprise judging by the look on her face. Shit. What if she says no? She probably doesn't want to spend a week alone with me after what happened. I'm already lucky she still wants to be friends with me. Why did I even ask her that? "I'd understand if you...", I start to say before she cuts me off.
"Do you even have to ask?", she says and I can't help but smile at her answer. "Lying on a beach under 35 degrees, ugh, what a torture", she adds before she laughs. "When were you thinking of going?"
I grab my phone and quickly lookup some flights. I want to leave as soon as possible and finally have her for myself, without any distractions.
"How about today?", I answer, moving my eyes from my phone to Emma.
"What?", she asks, confused. "We can't leave today", she adds as if I lost my mind.
"Why not? Do you have better plans?"
"I mean, no... But what about your family? Don't you want to spend time with them? I know your mom was excited to see you"
"They'll see enough of me when we're back", I answer and I can tell she still isn't sold on the idea. "Come on Em, you don't have a job holding you back, so why are we even discussing this?"
She looks at me, unimpressed.
"Thanks for rubbing that in", she says, instantly making me regret my choice of words.
"That's not what I...", I start to say but she cuts me off again.
"Even if I don't have a job right now, I can't just leave everything like that and go to the other side of the world on a whim. Such a big trip involves planning, and..."
"You sound like your mom", I say, interrupting her and earning myself a death stare. "What is there to plan anyway? Just grab a bathing suit, you won't need anything else", I add and she looks at me, probably weighing the in and outs in her head.
"I am not like my mom", she answers, emphasizing the word 'not' and I can't help but smile. I knew telling her that would make her do anything to prove me wrong. She hates being compared to her "over-controlling/OCD" mom - her words, not mine. And that's exactly what she's doing. "You know what? I'm in", she adds as she moves to a seating position, cross-legged. "Let's do it. But nothing fancy, okay? I don't want you wasting your money on my broke ass"
"Sure", I say as I look at hotels on my phone. I quickly book us up for the week and proceed to buy the plane tickets, Em still next to me, trying to see what kind of hotel I'm booking.
"I wanna see!", she says as she tried to grab my phone from my hands but I keep it away from her reach.
"You're gonna have to wait until we're there, love", I answer as I look at the time on my phone. "Which won't be in very long actually. Flight's in four hours. I'm gonna go pack up a few things and I'll come pick you up in an hour, okay?"
"You really weren't messing with me when you said today", she says as she stands up from the bed. "Shit, where did I put my passport?", she adds as she starts to look in her dresser drawers. I roll over to her side of the bed and open her nightstand drawer, knowing exactly where she left it.
"What if I can't find it on time?", she says as she frantically empties the content of her dresser on the floor.
"Em", I call out, trying to get her attention but she continues to throw her clothes everywhere. "Em!", I say louder, finally making her turn her head towards me.
"What?", she answers, not happy to be disturbed in her search. "Can't you see I'm a little busy here? Help me find my stupid passport instead of just looking at me like that", she adds as she walks towards the bed to look in the nightstand. I don't move, the view's too good to be missed. She's looking through the top drawer of her nightstand, slightly bent over which pulls her shirt up, leaving little to the imagination. My eyes are literally glued to her ass and I have to force myself to think about my grandma to not get a boner.
"Why are you smiling?", she asks and I wonder if she noticed I was checking her out. "You do realize that if I can't find it, I can't come to Bali with you, right?"
"That would be a shame", I answer as I get off the bed, her passport still in my hand. She's too busy turning her bedroom upside down to even notice it. I quickly put my jeans on, followed by my shirt and hoodie and walk back towards the bed where she's looking in the drawer of the second nightstand. "I'm going home. I'll be back in an hour", I say, making her stop her search for a second and she turns towards me. I kiss her cheek before she can answer anything, which seems to surprise her judging by the look on her face. Is it inappropriate now? Or am I making stuff up in my head? "I'll text you when I'm on my way", I add as I start to walk towards her bedroom door and stop there before turning around to face her.
"Oh, you might need that", I say, trying to contain my laughter as I put her passport on the dresser.
"You fucker", she answers looking both relieved and pissed at the same time. The next thing I know, she's throwing a pillow at my face.
"Hey! I found it, you should be thanking me, not hitting me!"
"You're lucky I don't have time to take care of you right now because trust me, it would have been painful", she says as she walks towards me and grabs her passport. "And you're cleaning this up when we're back", she adds as I continue to laugh and she pushes me out of her room. "Come on now, leave! We're gonna miss the flight if you don't hurry the fuck up"
"I'm out, I'm out", I say as I grab my coat and open the front door. "I'll be back in like 45 minutes. Don't forget your passport", I add as I make my way to my car, feeling her death stare on my back. I laugh at how easy it is to make her tick. I know her better than anyone and I have to admit, I love using that advantage to piss her off. I drive straight to my parents' place first as I know they'll kill me if I don't at least come and say hi before I leave for Bali and then go home and quickly pack before picking Em up and driving us to the airport. By some miracle, we make it just in time for the flight. We take our assigned seats, Emma swearing at me for booking first-class tickets and before we know it, we're up in the air. That's probably the most spontaneous thing I have ever done in my life. But even if we probably should have planned the whole trip a little more in advance, it feels right. I'm with the one person I most want to spend time with in the world and she's going to be all mine for the entire week. Some time alone, away from everything and everyone is exactly what our friendship needs after everything that happened. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself to justify the fact that I'm basically kidnapping her to have her for myself for a week.