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Emma slid into the hot tub on the other side of Vivian, trying her best not to ogle too obviously at her. It was difficult given that Vivian was clearly fighting the same battle. Her eyes flicked constantly down to Emma’s cleavage and thighs before going back to the window. Emma’s heartrate was abnormally fast given that all she was doing was sitting in a tub.
She wondered how Vivian would react if Emma kissed her right now. As much as she wanted to, Vivian had made herself clear. She didn’t want Emma, and Emma wasn’t going to force herself on someone who didn’t want her.
As obvious as it was that Vivian was attracted to her too, attraction wasn’t enough. You needed willingness from both parties, and they didn’t have that.
“Tell me more about Lily.”
Emma was glad to have conversation to distract her from her racing thoughts. “Well, she’s quite taken with you. You must have made quite an impression.”
Vivian raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Yeah. I didn’t know you were so good with kids.”
“I didn’t either.”
This seemed as good a time as any to ask. “Actually, speaking of Lily, I wanted to ask you a favor. She’s doing a school project and needs to shadow someone in business. She’s been begging me to ask you if she can shadow you.”
“Oh! I would have thought she’d want to shadow someone in accounting.”
“I did ask her about that, but she was adamant that she wants you. I don’t think she quite understands that it’s more about getting to know how the job works than watching someone you admire work. I tried to explain it to her, but she’s got her heart set on shadowing you.”
“If that’s what she wants, then I’m sure I can accommodate her. We’ll have to plan which day she comes in—nothing too busy, as I’d want to be able to pay attention to her. We can take a look at the company calendar together and brainstorm dates.”
If Emma had wanted to kiss Vivian before, it was nothing compared to how she felt now. She contemplated lunging across the tub and capturing Vivian’s lips with hers. Emma closed her eyes for a moment, shutting the temptation out of sight.
“Thank you.” She opened her eyes, forcing herself to meet Vivian’s gaze and not deviate to her body. “I really appreciate that, and I know Lily will as well.”
“It’s a pleasure. I really like Lily. How is she doing at school?”
“Really great! She’s fully integrated into Miriam’s friend group now. They were having a pool party at Savannah’s house just last week. She’s enjoying the schoolwork as well. She’s top in her class for math.”
Emma was practically glowing with pride at the teacher’s last report. While Lily had initially had trouble, she was settling in beautifully now.
“What about you? Did you ever consider kids?”
Something in Vivian’s face shut down. “No, I never considered it. Did you always know you wanted children?”
“Yeah, ever since I was a child myself. Alison and I were on the same page about it from the start…”
She trailed off, wondering what Alison would think if she could see Emma now. Emma knew that Alison would want her to be happy, but it was still hard. Emma felt guilt, but it had been a long time of grieving now. Maybe it was time to move on. If only she had found someone she wanted to move on with who wanted her too.
Vivian soon brought her out of her thoughts with another question about Lily. Emma loved talking about her daughter, and the time in the hot tub flew by quickly. Vivian offered very little personal information, at first, but as they time stretched on and their fingertips started to wrinkle, she began to open up a bit more.
“My whole family is in business. There were a lot of expectations to live up to growing up. I wasn’t pressured to go into the field, but I was always expected to be excellent at whatever I did.”
“Well, you certainly lived up to that expectation.”
“Thanks, Emma. I’m not really close with my family anymore, but I still love them, of course.”
“Why aren’t you close?”
Vivian hesitated for a moment. “I distanced myself from… well, from everyone… when I was starting up my business. I didn’t want anything to interfere with building my dream.”
“And yet now that you’ve built it, you’re still distanced.”
Vivian shrugged. “It’s better this way.”
“Why?”
