Impatiently Patient

by Amelia Shea

  “Fuck it.’ She walked back to where his jacket lay draped over the couch. She reached into the pocket grabbing his phone. The ringing continued as she looked down at the phone that was not ringing. “What the…”

  Peering down, she opened it and felt the inside pocket. Why did he have two phones? She pulled it out, the screen read, “Unknown”.

  Tapping the phone, she answered, “Hello?”

  The phone was silent but she could hear someone breathing.

  “Hello?” she said again with no response, which irritated her.

  “Hello?” Her tone was bitter with a slight edge of annoyance. “I can hear you breathing.”

  “May I speak with Ethan?” A small female voice asked. Her tone was hesitant and a bit shaky. What the fuck? Emory grinded her teeth together but tried to stay calm. Her mind going to a place she did not like.

  “Who’s calling?”

  “Is this his phone?”

  “You called it, you should know.” Her tone was snarky and she breathed in a deep breath. Who the hell was this girl, and why was she calling Ethan? She realized how possessively immature she sounded but as the moment, she didn’t give a fuck.

  “Uh…is he there?”

  “Depends, who is this?”

  The line became silent and she thought for a moment that the girl had hung up.

  “Hello?” Emory’s voice laced with annoyance.

  “Can I please speak with him? It’s…important, please.”

  “Yes, you can, as soon as you tell me who this is.”

  “But he said never to use my name.”

  Emory’s stomach dropped. She heard him call out her name from down the hall.

  “Please…” The small voice on the other ended pleaded desperately. Emory was taken aback. The woman sounded so distressed.

  Emory slowly turned her head at the sound of his footsteps trailing down the hall. Her breathing hard and angry, she glared, waiting.

  “I thought you were…” Ethan stopped at the edge of the couch, staring at her, then down to his jacket, raising his eyes to the phone next to her ear and turning his glare on her. His face hardened, he took three strides and ripped the phone from her ear bringing it to his.

  “Hello?”

  Emory was beyond pissed and tried to pass by him but he clasped his hand over her wrist, yanking her to a stop.

  “Get your…” She fumed.

  “Quiet.” He seethed through gritted teeth. His scowl growing angrier and set on her. She pulled at her wrist but his grip was tight with no give. She pulled again, getting nowhere except angering Ethan more to the point of him pulling her into him. He snarled, “Stop fucking moving.”

  Emory’s mouth dropped open. She had never heard Ethan talk to anyone that way especially her. Who the fuck did he think he was? He had a separate phone for girls to call him on, girls who renamed nameless. Fuck him.

  “Sweetheart, it’s fine, I told you, you can call me anytime.”

  His eyes stayed on Emory as she stopped pulling. Her heart was breaking, he was talking to another woman, calling her sweetheart while standing in front of her, the woman he claimed to love. Her arm thrashed, trying to break free of his hold, unable to stop her eyes from watering. He never let go.

  “Em,” he mouthed, shaking his head. He stared at her, anger drifting to a solemn stare.

  A lone tear fell down her face, which prompted Ethan to pull her into his chest, wrapping one arm across her waist, holding her in place.

  He clicked the phone on speaker and held it out in front of him and in her view.

  “Did I get you in trouble? I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have called but you said…” Her voice was sad and Emory could her a sniffle. Ethan hugged her deeper into his chest.

  “You didn’t get anyone in trouble. I told you anytime you needed to talk, I would be here. Are you okay? You sound like you’ve been crying.”

  She wept. “I just miss him so much and I thought after,” she paused, “after it was over, I’d feel better.”

  “And do you?”

  “Yes and no.” Her voice changed, taking on a bite of anger. “I feel good knowing that piece of scum got what he deserved, that he can’t ever do it again, and that Mike got his justice, and I was the one who got it for him.” She paused. “I just wish this pain in my heart would go away. Two years later and it’s with me, from the moment I wake up until the moment I fall asleep.” She sniffled.

  “Sweetheart, it will. In time, you will heal. But it’s going to take time.”

  She swallowed loudly. “Thank you for everything, Ethan.”

  “You don’t need to thank me.”

  “Yeah, I do. Even though the pain is still so raw, I feel like I can move on. Someday. Not forget, but move on because Mike would have wanted me to, he’d hate it if I gave up after losing him.” She sobbed. “You would have liked him. Everyone did.”

  “I’m sure I would have.”

  She breathed heavily, her voice lighter. “Was that your girlfriend?”

  Emory gasped as he kissed her head. “Yes. I apologize if she was a little abrupt.”

  The woman snorted. “Don’t apologize and don’t be too hard on her. If some girl called Mike, refusing to give her name, I would have gone bat-shit crazy. It’s the beauty and curse of being loved by a woman.”

  Emory leaned her head back, meeting Ethan’s eyes, smiling at him.

  “I think you would like my girl.” He winked down at Emory.

  “I’m sure I would.” She sighed. “Bye, Ethan.”

  “Bye.” Ethan clicked the phone.

  Emory waited for Ethan to say something. She didn’t know who the woman was but she certainly wasn’t what Emory thought. His chest moved against her back in a deep heavy sigh. She should say something, anything, but what? Should she apologize for turning into a psycho, possessive jealous crazy bitch? That might be a good start.

  “Ethan.”

  “Sit down with me.” He kept his arm around her chest and walked with her to the couch. Gesturing for her to sit, she sat on the couch, him next to her, shifting his body to face her. He grasped her hand from her lap, clasping their fingers together, staring at their hands.

  “Have you ever known me to cheat on any of my previous girlfriends?”

  Her eyes widened. “What?” The question caught her off guard.

  He looked up to her, his face thoughtful, as if he were trying to read her mind.

  “Have you known me to be a cheater in relationships?”

  She shook her head, understanding where he was taking this and feeling like an idiot. She opened her mouth to speak but he held up his other hand, stopping her.

  “Then why would you assume that the woman on the phone was someone I was with?”

  “I don’t know, you had another phone, she wouldn’t give her name…” Her eyes peered down. “I just thought the worst, I guess.”

  “You did. Emory?” Her eyes met his hard eyes, his tone sharpening. “I don’t like that.”

  “You don’t get it,” she whispered.

  “Get what?”

  She bit down on her lip, not wanting to say the words. She had always been strong and this feeling she had for him made her feel weak. Saying the words would only confirm it. His hand squeezed hers and she pulled away but he wouldn’t let her go.

  “What don’t I get?”

  “I don’t want to lose you,” she shouted louder than she intended.

  “You aren’t going to lose me.”

  “You don’t know that. See, right there, you don’t get it.” She shook her head, sighing heavily.

  His hand squeezed hers, his voice tender. “Then explain it to me.”

  “This, right here, what we’re doing, this is what I’ve wanted with you for as long as I can remember. I mean, not fighting but, well, yeah, even the fighting. I’ve wanted you and everything that comes with. I thought I lost you last year, then you show up a
year later, decide you want me, and here I am.”

  “I decided I wanted you? Just like that?” he mocked.

  “Yes.”

  His laugh was harsh. “Is that what you think? I just woke up one day and said, ‘Yes, I think I want Emory, let me fly five states away to get her.’ I thought I made myself clear in Beaufort but clearly I was wrong.”

  She gazed up at him, he was still holding her hand.

  “I didn’t just decide, Emory, I had no choice. You’re not the only one who finally got what they wanted. Years is a long time to desire someone, I should know.” His lips curled.

  “Ethan, you didn’t even know I existed back then?”

  He burst out laughing. “Is that what you think? For someone who has been watching me all these years, you weren’t very observant. Trust me, Em, I noticed you.”

  She eyed him suspiciously.

  He smirked. “Green bikini at the lake?”

  Her face flushed.

  “And that was not the first time.” He winked. “But quite memorable.”

  She studied his face. He was serious, he had noticed her. All these years of thinking he didn’t see her and he did. She didn’t know whether to be excited that he noticed her or pissed that he never acted on it.

  “When you told me you were in love with me, I was done. It was over, I was yours. I just hadn’t figured it out at that moment because I never thought you were a possibility. Didn’t mean I didn’t think about it or want it. The last year for me has been hell. You have no idea how many nights I stayed up in my bed, replaying your words over and over in my head. As I explained on the dock in Beaufort,” he smiled, “you’re Emory.”

  “You never came after me, not that night, but after.”

  “You’re right, I didn’t. I should have, because I waited too long. You stopped coming around, refused to talk to me and by the time I finally decided, fuck it, I was going to have you, the night of Sadie and Stone’s party, you walked in with someone else.”

  “Brayden.” She had started to date him months after declaring her love to Ethan. She thought she was ready to move on. She wasn’t, and ended things after a month.

  He nodded. “You looked happy. I thought I had lost my chance, it was over, you moved on. Then we had that fight, which made it worse. I could see the hate in your eyes.”

  “I never hated you,” she whispered.

  “I wish I never met you. Those were your words. I figured you meant them. At the wedding, hearing you were leaving, it took everything in me to not beg you to stay.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “As I remember it, you refused to talk to me, even that day. You didn’t want anything to do with me.” He smirked. “But I was never going to give you up, I was willing to wait for you, Em. You needed your new beginning away from me. But I wasn’t giving up on you. You were mine and I would wait patiently.”

  “So, what changed?”

  He pulled her into his lap, her butt on his thigh, her face inches from his. “I didn’t decide that I wanted you, I decided I couldn’t lose you. The longer you stayed away, the more I felt my chances slipping. If you hadn’t showed up at my party, I would have come after you. Then you walk into my party, and I thought I had you. After our kiss, I knew the feelings you had for me were still there. I also knew that you were scared of me breaking your heart again. In the hotel? I finally got it. We couldn’t pick up where we were. We had to start over and we did.”

  She wrapped her arms around his neck, her face resting in the crook of his neck. “I love you.”

  “Em?” His hands slid to her waist, urging her away from him.

  She pulled back slowly, her head bowed slightly, meeting his eyes.

  “There is no one else for me, you’re it. I need you to believe in that, and trust in that, trust me.”

  She nodded. His gaze shifted to his phone and then back to her.

  “It was a business call but as you heard, not my usual business. I’m prepared to put it all out there, tell you everything because I trust you. Not tonight, though, tonight I want it just to be about us.” He kissed her lips, his eyes fierce and meaningful. “I love you.”

  Chapter 18

  EMORY bounced on her toes with excitement. She had just met with the manager at Blake Realty and it went great. She had cancelled the interview with Bill at the Malley agency ten days ago. She decided she didn’t want to take any chances of her mom pulling strings to get her the job. She didn’t need it. She had spent the last week and a half job hunting, making up for lost time with Rox, and more importantly, just being in love with Ethan.

  She knew it was crazy that after all this time, they immediately moved in together or well, she just never left. She thought she’d get shit from Roxanne or the guys. It was all happening so quickly, even she thought they might be rushing it, but Ethan put her mind at ease.

  “We could take things slow, if that’s what you’d like, Emory. But just so we are both clear on it, that’s not what I want. I want you here, with me. I see what taking things slow did for us. I lost over a year of time that could have been spent with you. If you need to take things slow or slower, I’ll agree.” His eyes turned dark. “But I won’t like it.”

  That was enough for Emory to say, “Fuck slow.”

  Emory had just walked out of the building after her interview. Her head up, shoulders back, and grinning, she met Ethan by his car. He was leaning on the hood, typing on his phone. She walked straight to him, not giving him a chance to look up from his phone. She threw her arms around him, shouting, “I got it!”

  His arm wrapped around her waist, his chest rumbling from his laugh. “Well done. I think this calls for a celebration dinner.”

  She shook her head. “No. I don’t want to go out to dinner.”

  “What do you want to do?”

  “Order pizza, drink beer and make out with you on your couch.”

  He pushed her back, staring at her like she was crazy. “You want to make out with me?”

  She nodded and wiggled her eyebrows. “Yeah. From the age of fifteen, I dreamed of making out with you, on a couch, TV in the background. Come on, let me live out my teenage fantasy.”

  His eyes crinkled, the corner of his mouth cocking up. “How far did I get in these fantasies?”

  Her lips pressed against him. “You’ll have to make out with me and find out.”

  She stepped back and grinned when he opened her door and she slid into the seat. Ethan got into the car, taking off down the road.

  “I have to make a stop.”

  “Okay. Where to?”

  “Just down the road here.” Ethan pulled into the lot. The building was huge and obviously vacant. There were only two pick-up trucks in the lot. There were three guys, the two younger ones looked about her age and another man, in his late twenties.

  Stepping out of the car, she scanned the deserted parking lot. There were concrete dividers with over grown shrubs. This place was in need of some TLC. Ethan reached out, grabbing her hand and they walked over to the men.

  “Jonah, thanks for meeting me.” Ethan let go of her hand to shake hands with the tall guy with the awesome sleeved tattoo. His blonde hair was short. His green eyes were beautiful but not amazing green like Stone’s. Jonah’s were softer. He had scruff on his face and when he shook hands with Ethan his biceps flexed. He was good looking, probably better than most, but next to Ethan they were all just guys.

  Ethan introduced them and then excused himself to go over the plans with Jonah. Emory wandered around the ten story building. It looked neglected but not decrepit. Ethan had briefly told her about his new venture of buying office complexes and redoing them. He had teamed up with Jonah, who was the project manager and in charge of the construction.

  In the last six months, they had bought, redone, and sold two buildings.

  Ethan fronted the money and foresaw the project without actually having to get his hands dirty. Emo
ry knew that Ethan and Roxanne had been left money from their parents’ estate when they died. She never asked how much but it must have been a lot to allow Ethan to live where he lived and drive what he drove. Roxanne was the one to provide up the start up cash for the event company she and Cassie ran.

  She was standing in front of the building thinking about all the work that it needed when Ethan wrapped his arms around her waist. She leaned back into his arms.

  “What do you think?”

  “I think you have a lot of work to do.”

  “She’ll be beautiful when all the renovations are done.”

  Emory laughed. “She? Your building is a chick?”

  “Of course.” He leaned next to her ear and whispered, “This is the Emory.”

  She burst out laughing. “Oh my God! Seriously?” She twisted in his arms to face him, loving the glint in his eye. She rubbed her thighs together, getting wet from the look he was giving her. She reached up on her toes. “I think when it’s all done, we should christen the building properly.”

  “Blowjobs on every floor?” Ethan smirked.

  “Uh, selfish? It was named after me, I should get to decide what deviant acts will happen on which floors.” His lips came down on her and she drove her fingers up the nape of his neck, into his hair.

  “We should get out of here before I embarrass myself in front of my employees,” he mumbled against her mouth.

  She giggled, opening her mouth to him and stroking her tongue against his, tasting coffee and mint. The kissing was making her lower half ache. She rubbed against him but he gripped her hips and pushed back slightly.

  Narrowing his eyes at her, he said, “You need to behave.”

  “Make me,” she purred. Teasing Ethan was her new favorite pastime.

  “Emory.” He squeezed her hips.

  She couldn’t wait to get him home. Their home. It was still odd to think of his place as hers but she wasn’t fighting it. She was exactly where she wanted to be. She finally got the guy!

  “Ethan?”

  Emory peeked past Ethan’s arm and saw Jonah standing a few feet away. His face was hard but the corner of his mouth was perched up. He was really good looking. Lots of muscles and tattoos but not overkill. He looked a little older than her. If she had to guess she’d say maybe twenty-eight. A small smile played on her lips. She knew exactly who would appreciate Jonah.