Page 17 of Railed

"Oh geez, sorry. This was crazy. I should let you go home. I have work pretty early in the morning, anyway."

I was surprised at the quick dismissal. It must've shown on my face because she quickly added, "Tomorrow's Friday, though, so I'll be off work for the weekend. We could go on a real date… if you want to."

"You read my mind," I said quickly. "I'd love to spend more time with you."

I wanted to get to know Emma inside and out. I was determined to make her fall for me as hard as I'd already fallen for her.

"Maybe at your place this time?" she asked.

"Don't want me back at your place?" I chuckled.

"No, no, it's not that!" she quickly protested. "It's just that we were probably a bit loud. Maybe your place would be better? If your roommates aren't around?"

"I'll make sure they're not a problem," I told her, though I wasn’t positive I could deliver on that. Rosie and Jamie would be near impossible to force out of the house if they knew I was having Emma over.

Maybe I could just get them to agree to stay quiet. Rosie had to see that if we wanted to share Emma eventually, which I'd be willing to do if she was into it, we didn't want to scare her off.

We had to take it slow; all three of us spending time with her at the apartment would be the opposite of easing her into things.

"See you tomorrow," Emma said with an adorably shy smile as she shut the door behind me.

The only way I was able to force myself to go back home was because I knew I'd get to see her again tomorrow.

As I walked home, I floated idea after idea in my mind about how to convince Rosie and Jamie to either be cool or make themselves scarce. I started to worry there wouldn't be enough time to convince them. I wasn't even sure it was possible, since Rosie and Jamie seemed just as intrigued by her as I was, but I would try.

Chapter Thirteen

Emma

"Soooo…" Cassie said as she came over to my desk. "I'm guessing based on the lack of updates that things didn't go so well yesterday?"

"Take whatever your worst possible scenario was and double it."

"Oh, honey, what happened?"

"The executive I was meeting with? He turned out to be my ex-boyfriend," I groaned.

Her eyes widened. "No!!"

"Yes!! It was horrible!"

"What's he doing here?" Cassie asked skeptically.

"Making me miserable."

She scoffed. "Besides that. I'm sure there's another reason he's here."

"No, seriously. He said he picked the island to make me miserable."

"Did he really?"

I paused before clarifying, "Well, not in those words. But it was clear that was what he meant. He said he picked the island because of me, and because it was so special to me that it must be a special place."

"That sounds...nice?" she asked, clearly confused.

"Trust me, it’s not,” I argued. “He's pissed I left him to come home and wants to get back at me."

"So, he's basing his business decisions and financial future around getting revenge against you?"