When I eventually leave the bathroom a while later, I find Ruben lost in thought, sat on the edge of the bed, still in his boxers. I scan the room to find my dress so I don’t have to stand here in last night’s underwear with a towel wrapped around me. I don’t see it, but what I do see is Ruben’s shirt. I grab it off the floor, turn my back to him and cover myself up.
“Where are my dress and shoes?” I ask coldly.
“Em, come sit down.”
“No. I need to go home. Where are my clothes?”
I see him glance at the floor next to the other bed briefly. I follow his gaze before moving to pick them up.
“What’s the rush? We’re booked in for breakfast soon. I’ll go and get your stuff from your room and you can get ready,” he says, getting up to put some clothes on.
“NO,” I shout and he looks back at me, a little shocked. “No,” I repeat, only quieter this time. “I have the hangover from hell, and I can barely even look at you. I need to go home. Now.” I say, trying to keep control, but my voice breaks on the last word and my eyes refill with water.
“Can’t look at me? Why not? I haven’t done anything. I got you up here when you passed out last night and looked after you. Nothing happened, Emma.” He says, trying to plead his innocence. “I wouldn’t take advantage like that. I thought you knew me better than that.” He walks towards me but stops when I take a step back away from him. I can see the fear and confusion written all over his face.
“And you had the perfect opportunity to do just that so you could win your bet,” I say in a quiet voice.
I watch as the words settle into his head. It takes a few seconds for them to register, but when they do, his eyes go wide and he steps forward again.
“NO. Don’t you fucking dare, you lying shit. I heard you with Fin last night. I was a fucking bet, you arsehole. A fucking bet. You must have been laughing at my expense as I ate up all your words about how you felt about me and how beautiful I was. How fucking stupid am I? I knew I wasn’t good enough for you. I mean, look at you, and then look at me. You are so out of my league it’s laughable, really. I guess it should have been obvious that it wasn’t for real from day one.”
I go to continue to rant on but Ruben stops me by putting his hands on my waist.
“Emma, stop. Please let me explain.”
“There’s no need. I heard everything I needed to hear last night. I need to leave, so please,” I say as I try to push him away from me, “Let me go.”
Thankfully, he steps back, looking a little defeated. He lets me grab my stuff and head towards the door. I make quick work of getting out of the room and heading down the corridor.
I bang on my hotel room door, hoping that Connie is in there because I don’t have any other way of getting my stuff.
I start to think it’s empty, but after knocking for the third time, I hear some movement from inside. A few seconds later, she is pulling the door open slightly. Even that is enough to see that she is only wrapped in a sheet. She obviously pulled last night.
“Sorry, but I need to get my handbag.”
“Uh,” she stalls as she looks behind her, “Sure, come in.”
“Thanks. Could you do me a huge favour?”
“Of course, is everything okay? You look upset.”
“Ruben will explain later, but right now I need to leave. Could you pack the rest of my stuff and drop it off to me later?”
“What has he done now?”
“Ask him. I need to go. Is that okay?”
“Yeah, of course, anything.
“Thank you.” I grab my bag, give Connie a kiss on the cheek and leave the room. My plan is to get to reception and get a taxi home before Ruben decides he wants to talk to me. That plan fails as soon as I start walking down the corridor, though.
“Emma, wait.”
I ignore him and continue to walk as fast as I can. I run down the stairs but I can tell he is hot on my heels and there is no way I can out run him.
A few members of staff and some customers look up at me as I enter reception. I suddenly realise that I am dressed only in Ruben’s shirt, with wet hair, no shoes, and I probably have make up all down my face both from crying and the shower.
“Emma, for God’s sake stop, will you?”
Ruben grabs my wrist and halts my journey towards the desk.
“Let me take you home and we can talk.” It’s only now I notice he has his bag in his hand.
“Leave me alone…please,” I hate that I start to cry at that. And I hate it more that I start to cry harder when he puts his arms around my shoulder and starts to drag me out the front of the hotel. I let him because I don’t want to cause a scene in reception.
I shrug him off as soon as we are out the door, and storm ahead of him towards the car park.
“You probably don’t want to hear how hot you look dressed only in my shirt, do you?” I hear come from behind me.
I have to bite my tongue to stop me from responding. I do not have the energy to argue with him right now. I just want to get home, have a nice long bath and try to forget about this whole disaster. Or at least have some time to process my thoughts so I can have an intelligent conversation about this. Currently, I’ll just end up an emotional mess if we get into it. I’m too hungover, tired and emotional right now.
“You’re going the wrong way. My car is over here.” I look back and walk over to where he is pointing.
As soon as we are both in his truck, he starts trying to talk about it. “Emma, just hear me out, please. I can’t cope with the silent treatment. It’s not quite as bad as it sounds.”
“Just take me home, please.” I turn his radio on and crank the volume up to show him just how uninterested I am at the moment in what he has to say. I then shift in my seat so that I am slightly turned away from him, and look out the window at the passing fields.
We’re about halfway home and I’m amazed that he has actually done as I asked and kept his mouth shut, when I think to check my phone.
Chapter Fifteen
Ruben
Her loud squeal scares the shit out of me.
“Sorry. My friend has had her baby. Please hurry, I need to get to the hospital.”
“I’ll take you home to get changed, then I’ll drive you there.”
“No fucking way. Just drop me off.”
“Emma, don’t be stupid. You had way too much to drink last night to be driving yet. No argument. You get changed, then I will take you. Okay?”
She huffs out a breath and I can see that I have won this argument. “Fine.”
She sits herself back so she is twisted away from me in defiance. It’s seriously pissing me off that she is refusing to talk to me. I need to explain that although yes, it was a bet, I never had any intention of following through with it. And even if we did sleep together before last night, Fin would not have been getting any of the details. She means too much to me to do that. I’m not going to force it on her, though. If she needs time, then I’ll give her time. She’ll have to hear me out eventually, right?
We’re not far from her house when a song I remember from last night starts playing on the radio. I don’t think any more of it until Emma jumps forward and slams her hand against the front of the radio unit. She hits it again and again while begging for it to be turned off. I quickly mute it from the controls on the steering wheel. It suddenly hits me that it was the same Adele song that made her run from the room last night.
I glace over to her and see that she has silent tears streaming down her face and she is shaking from head to toe.
“Em?”
“J…just g…g…get me h…home,” she sobs out.
“Okay.” I put my foot down a little and place my hand on her thigh in support. I have no idea what the hell is going on, but anyone could see that she needs some support right now. I must be right, because she doesn’t push me away like I thought she might.
The minute she unlocks her house, she bolts upstairs, leaving only
the sounds of her sobs in her wake. I feel completely lost and out of my depth here. I’ve never cared before if I’ve upset a woman. I usually just walk away and find another one, but it’s eating me alive that I have hurt her with my stupid, childish behaviour with Fin. Then there’s whatever is going on with that song. I’ve never seen someone look so distraught as she did in the car earlier. What sort of memory does that song drag up for her? I wish she would talk to me.
Feeling completely lost, I decide the best thing I can probably do at this point is make coffee and breakfast. I have no idea if she’ll want it, but surely the gesture won’t go amiss. It takes me a while to figure out her complex coffee machine. I always knew I should have paid more attention at Connie’s. I get there in the end, before taking a steaming mug along with a bowl of fresh fruit salad and yoghurt up to her bedroom for when she gets out of the bathroom. I’ve never been upstairs in her house before, but seeing as she walked in on me the other day, I think I’ve got a free pass. Upstairs looks just like downstairs: all pastel colours, soft, romantic and feminine.
I see Kia curled up asleep on Emma’s bed, and I make sure to give her a tickle behind the ear before heading back downstairs. I can hear the shower running as I pass the bathroom, but it doesn’t mask the sounds of Emma’s continued sobs.
I put my hand on the handle and I’m just about to turn it and go into her when I remember how we ended up in this situation. She is not going to take well to me intruding on her, no matter how much I want to go in and comfort her. I stand there a while longer, just listening to her, before I turn and head back down to the kitchen.
It isn’t that much time later before I hear her coming back down the stairs. Kia came to find me a while ago, and has been sat up on my lap while I had my own coffee and breakfast. She keeps giving me an evil eye, though; it’s like she knows I’ve pissed her mum off.
“Thank you for the coffee and breakfast,” Emma mumbles as she enters the kitchen. It doesn’t escape my attention that she doesn’t look at me, though.
“My pleasure. I thought it might help the hangover.”
I look at her as she turns back from the sink, and I desperately want to go over and hug her. She’s blow-dried her hair and it looks amazing, but her eyes are red from crying. The tear tracks are still obvious on her cheeks, and her full lips are turned down in sadness. She’s dressed simply in a pair of loose fitting jeans and a vest top that is low enough just to show the swell of her tits. I do try not to look at them; I don’t think me checking her out will make her happy right now.
“I’m driving myself. I feel fine now,” she says with her hands on her hips, trying to look determined. It doesn’t work, though.
“Em, I’m not letting you drive, you’ll still be over the limit. I’d never forgive myself if something happened to you.”
I see her eyes flash behind me to the hallway and we both dart towards it at the same time. Luckily for me, I’m faster and get to her keys first. I hold them above my head, knowing she’ll never be able to reach them.
“Ruben, for fuck’s sake, stop being such a child.”
“Just let me drive.” As I say this, I throw her keys up on to the top kitchen cabinets. She looks up to where they landed, then back at me with a face full of anger.
“Just don’t talk to me,” she demands, before heading towards the back door.
Emma
The journey to the hospital takes forever. I’m grateful that Ruben does as I asked and doesn’t talk to me the entire journey. My head is still spinning from learning I’m nothing more than a bet to him, along with the emotions that are now simmering on the surface again from the memory of Hannah’s funeral. I haven’t heard that song in months. What kind of cruel joke is fate playing, making me listen to it twice in two days? Haven’t I been through enough already?
“Thank you,” I say to Ruben after clearing my throat when he pulls up at the barrier to the hospital car park. “Don’t worry about parking, I’ll get a taxi back.”
“Like fuck you will.”
“Ruben….” I say with a sigh, trying to gather my thoughts. “I appreciate you bringing me, but you don’t need to stay. You have most definitely done enough. Please just go home.”
He opens the window and pulls a ticket from the machine before the barrier rises to allow us to drive in.
“No,” he says stubbornly. “I’ll wait for you.”
“Fucking pain the arse,” I mutter under my breath, but I guess he heard it from the laugh he emits. “Fine. Stay here, I’ll only be about thirty minutes.” With that said, I jump out of the car and storm away from him. What the fuck is his problem? Just leave me alone.
“Oh my God,” I whisper when I poke my head around the doorway to the room Molly and Ryan are currently in. It was not what I was expecting at all. There is no hospital bed or medical equipment that I can really see, just a sofa, chair, what I guess is a birthing pool, and a little kitchenette area. But what really takes my breath away is the sight of Molly with a little bundle in her arms.
“Em, come in,” Molly says when she looks up and sees me. For someone who’s just given birth, she looks remarkably good, and so unbelievably happy.
Ryan gets up so I can sit down next to Molly and the new arrival. Tears instantly start streaming down my face when I take in the little face peeking out of the blankets.
“Emma, say hello to Lois Hannah Evans,” Molly says with a beaming smile as she looks down at her daughter.
I reach out and run my knuckle over her cute little chubby cheek as I sob at her name choice.
“You don’t mind, do you?” Molly asks, suddenly sounding a little unsure.
“Of course not. It’s perfect and she is gorgeous.”
“Just like her mummy,” Ryan pipes up from where he is sat in the chair watching us.
It’s then that Molly really looks up at me. “What’s wrong?”
I wipe at my tears with the back of my hand before saying, “Sorry, just feeling a little emotional with her arrival.”
“No, it’s more than just this. You look like you’ve been crying for hours. What’s happened?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Emma,” she warns.
“It’s not important right now. She is way more important.”
I manage to get Molly to start talking about having Lois, and once she starts telling the story about how her waters broke on early Saturday morning through to her delivering Lois in the early hours of this morning, she completely forgets to nag me to tell her what’s wrong. I’m grateful, because I’m not sure I’m up to talking about it yet. I know that she’ll know exactly what I should do, but I just can’t bear the pain of discussing it and admitting how stupid I was to get swept away by him.
I have no idea how much time passes while Molly and Ryan tell me all the details and I get my first cuddle with Lois. I don’t think I’ve ever held such a little person before. It’s really quite scary. Kids aren’t something I’ve ever really thought about. That’s the next step on from having a boyfriend and getting married, and those are two things I’ve tried to avoid until recently.
“Please talk to me, Em,” Molly tries again when Ryan leaves the room to put some more money on for parking.
I bite on to my bottom lip to stop it from wobbling too much. When I feel like I can speak, I mumble, “It’s Ruben. I was so stupid to think he actually wanted me.”
Molly is quiet for a while before she whispers something that shocks me. “If that is true, then why is he here and looking like his world’s come to an end?”
I follow her gaze and see that she’s right. Ruben is leant up against the doorframe with a lost look on his face. He looks like he’s miles away right now as he looks at me holding Lois.
“He insisted on driving me because I drank a little too much last night. I’ve told him to go and that I’d get a taxi, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer,” I whisper back.
“Those aren’t the actions, and that isn’t the look
of, someone who doesn’t want you, Em.”
Our whispering must have brought Ruben out of his daze, because he clears his throat to talk. “Sorry, but you said you’d be half an hour and it’s been well over an hour, so I thought…” he tails off.
“Damn, sorry, I didn’t want to stay too long. You two need to make the most of this time together,” I say to Molly as I carefully hand her little bundle of joy back to her.
“I wouldn’t have asked you to come if I didn’t want you here,” she says back reassuringly.
After I have given Molly a hug and kiss on the cheek, I go to leave the room, promising to see them again once they are home. I walk straight past Ruben, presuming he’ll just follow after me. I hear him say his congratulations to Molly before his footsteps start getting closer and closer to me.
“Do you want kids, Em?” he asks when he catches me up.
My response is to turn and just stare at him. I’m hoping the look in my eyes convey that I still want to hear nothing from him, let alone talk about my possible future. My main focus currently is to get away from him and put this disaster behind me.
“Thanks for the lift,” I say coldly when he pulls up outside my cottage.
“My pleasure. Please can I come in so we can talk? I need to explain everything to you.”
“No, I don’t want to hear it. I heard enough to know everything I need to know. I suggest you just go home and leave me alone. I was stupid to think there could be something here. I knew you were going to hurt me, and that is exactly what you have done. So we are done. Goodbye, Ruben.”
He’s quicker than I am and manages to grab my wrist before I’m out of the car. “Emma, please just hear me out.”
“No, Ruben. How many times do I need to say it? I’m not interested in hearing what you have to say.” I pull my wrist from his grasp and jump out the car.
“This isn’t over, Emma. Not by a long shot,” he warns as I go to shut the door.
Angel Series Books #1-2.5 Page 84