Page 25 of Ruthless Edge

"I should head home," she says. She's looking at a spot on the table. "It's getting late."

"We haven't finished the auction conversation."

"We have enough for now. I'll send the Landon proposal over Sunday."

"Emma—"

"It was a good show." She's already reaching for her bag. "We can debrief next week."

I want to go after her. I have no idea what happened between laughing at the bar and right this second, but something clearly did, and I'm not willing to just watch her walk out again.

Then Laura laughs.

And then she's in my lap.

It happens in about two seconds. She slides over from beside me, still laughing at something she said, and she's sitting across my legs and her arm is around my neck and her other hand is going into my hair.

"I like it longer," she says. "You should keep it."

I freeze.

Not because I want her there. Because it comes out of nowhere and my brain needs a full second to catch up with what's happening and figure out how to respond to it, and that second is one second too long, because when I look up to find Emma…

She's looking back at me.

Her face is completely still.

Then she turns and walks into the crowd.

"Laura." I'm already moving, getting out from under her without knocking everything off the table. She makes a surprised sound and I'm on my feet before she's finished my name, pushing through the space between tables toward the door.

The crowd has gotten thicker since we sat down. I push through it looking for a gray coat and chestnut hair and I catch a glimpse near the exit for about half a second before the doors close behind her.

I get outside.

The sidewalk has a few people getting into a rideshare. I look both directions down the street. Nothing. She moves fast when she's leaving, I know that much, and she had a head start and apparently used every second of it.

I stand there. Absolutely confused.

Tonight started so well. We'd been good at the bar. Better than good. We'd been easy together, the way we were easy freshman year, and the banter had been real. The kind that only works when both people are actually paying attention to each other. She'd stopped fighting me when I held her through the crowd. She'd sung along to every song. She'd smiled at me twice, actual real smiles, and backstage she'd been genuinely excited about the Landon conversation and I'd felt it. I'd felt us actually getting somewhere.

Then Laura showed up and Emma shut down.

I don't know what happened. I've been turning it over since she stood up from the table and I can't land on anything. Emma not touching her drink. Emma's face going somewhere I couldn't follow. The table feeling different than the bar had, and I don't know why, I just know I sat through something and missed it.

I take out my phone.

I type: Are you okay?

I wait. Nothing.

I type: You left without saying goodbye.

I look at it. Delete it.

I type: Did I do something?

Delete it.