Page 1 of Sass Me Again

1

“Don’t look at me like that,” Emily Holmes said as she pushed her salad around her plate. The only reason she agreed to go out to dinner tonight was to get out of the damn house. The walls of her apartment seemed like they were closing in lately. She felt like she was in a funk and needed to do something different with her mundane existence. Her life felt as if it had stalled. At the ripe old age of thirty-five, she wanted something more than what she currently had, if only that were easier.

“Look at you like what?” Jennifer Mason, her best friend, replied with a knowing smirk. Her eyes moved from Emily to the hottie who just sat across the room from them with a few of his friends.

“Stop gaslighting me. You know what I’m talking about.” Emily shoved a forkful of lettuce into her mouth as she impatiently waited for her main course to arrive. She tried like hell to ignore the fact that Ian Summers had to pick the same restaurant she and Jennifer had chosen for dinner.

“Fine. Why are you fighting it?” Jennifer asked. “You’re clearly still in love or lust with him. Even after all these years.” Her eyes flew once again to Ian’s table.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Emily’s words came out as a garbled mess as she crunched extra hard on a crouton. She didn’t want to talk about the Ian situation. She’d been avoiding both him and the situation for nearly a decade. Thankfully, their town was big enough that she was mostly able to avoid bumping into him and creating some very awkward situations. That also meant giving up some of her favorite stomping grounds over the years, out of fear of running into him.

“Now, who’s gaslighting who?” Jennifer’s eyebrows arched high up her forehead.

“I’ve told you a million times. When it comes to Ian, my parents don’t approve. It doesn’t matter what I want. Please, just let it go.” That was the understatement of the damn year. Her parents would disown her if she even thought about hooking up with Ian again. No matter how much she wanted him, the repercussions she would face just weren’t worth it. She would lose everything, and for what? A guy? It was hardly worth losing everything she’d ever known for a man who wasn’t sure what the hell he wanted.

Emily’s heart slammed against her ribs just thinking about the times she’d been with Ian and how her body had reacted to him every time. Sex with Ian had been like nothing she’d ever experienced…and nothing she’d been able to replicate with anyone else in all their years apart. She had started to think it had all been in her mind—that somehow her brain had exaggerated the events in her memory. Sex couldn’t possibly be as good as she remembered it with him. Then again, she had never found anyone who had ever rocked her world like Ian had.

“I don’t understand this weird thing you have going with your parents. You’re an adult. You’ve been an adult for a long damn time now. Why do they still have so much sway on your life?” Jennifer asked.

“It’s hard to explain. I respect my parents and don’t want to upset them. Not when they only want what’s best for me.” It seemed selfish, after all her parents had done for her. She owed everything she had to them. They had supported her when she had nothing and ensured her future would be secure with the generous trust they’d set up for her. She worked hard, but she wanted for nothing. Emily knew the privilege she had been born into, and she was thankful for it.

“I get that. I do. But you let them control just about everything you do. Did you have to ask permission to go out for dinner tonight?” Jennifer asked.

Emily wanted to laugh and shout, "Hell no.” But she didn’t. “No. It wasn’t like I had to ask to go out to dinner with you.”

“But I’ll bet that Layla and Eric know exactly where you are, who you are with, and when you’ll be home. Am I right?” Jennifer asked with an arched eyebrow.

“What’s wrong with that?” Emily didn’t see what the big deal was. So what if her parents knew where she was and who she was with? In this day and age, it was considered safe to let someone know where you were, right?

“It’s not normal for a thirty-something woman to be lorded over by her parents. That’s what’s wrong with it. Yes, it’s okay to love and respect your mom and dad, but it’s not okay for them to run your life like you are still a teenager who lived in their home.”

Emily wanted to deny everything her friend was saying, but she couldn’t. Instead, she replied with, “I don’t mind. It’s just the way we do things. I respect my parents enough to heed their advice in life for success. They have never steered me wrong.” Though, she wanted to say that having to always defend their position was beyond exhausting. But she didn’t. Emily kept her mouth shut like she always had and likely always would.

Jennifer sighed. “I wish you would just live your own life for once. Instead of always doing what they expect you to do. Do you have any plans for the weekend?”

“I don’t have any plans right now. Just brunch with my parents on Sunday. Why?” Emily asked, genuinely curious as to what her friend had in mind. It didn’t really matter to her. Jennifer could ask her to hop in circles on one leg across the damn country for all she cared. She would agree to just about anything at this point if it meant getting the hell out of her freaking house.

“Good. You’re going with me to the Annual Convergence. I have to make an appearance and don’t want to go alone.”

“Here you go,” their waiter said, delivering their dinners.

“Thanks,” Emily replied, inhaling the wonderful aroma of the steak and lobster on her plate. She loved a good surf and turf.

“Looks great,” Jennifer said as the waiter left. “So what do you think about joining me this weekend?”

Emily looked around cautiously and lowered her voice to a whisper. “I don’t know. Isn’t that kind of exclusive for shifters only?”

“Yeah, I suppose it is. But I don’t want to go alone. It’s just not my scene. I’ve been there every year to supposedly find my mate, but it’s never going to happen. At least not there anyway.”

“While I would love to get out and do something this weekend, I don’t think I should go. I mean, I’m a human,” Emily whispered, making sure no one else heard what she was saying.

“It’s okay. I’ll sneak you in. You’ll be fine and no one will ever know,” Jennifer said with a wink.

“What if we get caught?” Emily’s eyes bugged out of her head.

“You won’t. We won’t. No one will ever know. It will be easy-peasy. Don’t worry.”

“Fine. If you say so.” Emily shrugged, hoping that her friend was right. She took one last glance over toward Ian’s table and wished that she hadn’t the second her eyes locked onto his. From where she sat, it looked as if his eyes were glowing with an intensity that she had witnessed only when they were making love. Surely, it was a trick of the lighting.