Page 128 of Worth the Fall

EMERSON

Roll your eyes all you want, but I’m breaking the rules again. Have a good day.

– Grant

I look at the card in my hand again and then back to the arrangement of dahlias that were just delivered to Blue Skies. It’s strange and sweet and crazy that he’s sending me flowers on the day of his interview. Shouldn’t it be me who is taking care of him today?

I smell them again. I want to be mad and say they’re ridiculous, but I find it hard to stop staring at them. My cheeks actually hurt from smiling, and I know by the side-glances Leo keeps giving me, he’s noticed.

“Did someone die?”

I look up to see Travis standing in the open doorway, ball cap in hand and eyes curious.

“Seems to me someone has taken a liking to Em,” Leo says.

“Humph.” Travis looks at the flowers again, then to the card in my hand, and then back to me with obvious curiosity. “When you get my age, you look at every flower like it’s waiting to adorn your casket . . . so don’t bring no flowers around me and jinx me.”

“I won’t.” I laugh. “I promise.”

“Well, you enjoy those then.” He nods and offers a smile before leaving the office.

Leo and I both watch him retreat across the tarmac to the Skies’ hangar. It takes a while at the pace he walks.

“What’s going on with the loan and the prick?” he asks as he rubs his hands together in mock anticipation of when I own this place. “It feels like it’s taking forever. When will you know?”

I blow the hairs that have fallen out of my ponytail away from my face and shrug. “Two, three more weeks? Your guess is as good as mine. We had to file an extension and get approval from the Skies family to do so because some paper had to be resubmitted or something like that. Honestly, I have this sick feeling that he’s holding out, thinking the more desperate I get to have this close and fund, the more willing I will be to sleep with him.” I roll my shoulders. “I’ll never be that desperate,” I say with a laugh as I look back down to the card in my hand and smile. “Thanks again for not telling Grant who the loan company was when he was in the other day.”

“It isn’t my business to tell.” He shrugs. “Although, I’d gladly watch him go all badass cop on the fucker, if for no other reason than to prevent him from doing it to someone else. I know you can handle yourself, but you’re a badass in your own right.”

I look at him for a beat, his words striking me. Here I stand, always a mix of uncertainty beneath the surface, and yet, Leo is telling me he sees anything but.

His words remind me of something my mom might say to me and it makes me smile at the thought.

“You know what, Leo?” I ask, turning the card over in my hand again.

“Huh?” he says without looking up from whatever he’s doing on his laptop.

“Can you cover my classes today?”

“Sure. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah.” My grin widens. “I’m going to take the day off.”

“You’re going to what?” He looks as if I just punched him.

“I’m going to take the day off,” I say as I grab my keys from my desk drawer.

“Take off or ‘take off’?” he asks considering I did just disappear for three days.

“Take off as in the afternoon. Life’s too short not to. I deserve it.”

“You do.” His laugh follows me all the way out of the office until I hit the stairs of my apartment.

I’m dialing my phone before I even take the first step up.

“Em?”

“Hey, wanna play hooky with me, Des? I need your help.”