"You too!"
He probably said it with too much enthusiasm, which he kind of picked up on when Emma pulled his arm a little too forcefully to get him to finally leave her friend and the library behind.
They walked through the parking lot to his car, and Chase popped the trunk of his BMW to help Emma put her dress in there. It was well protected by the dress bag she was carrying it in so he wasn't too worried about it, but there was still something about that expensive dress that made him want to be delicate with it. Kind of like how he was trying to be delicate with Emma.
Her suitcase was already in the trunk from this morning when they loaded them up together and she held onto her purse as she slid into the front seat of his car. Apparently, her bag was big enough that she was able to slide her heels inside and he couldn't help but smile seeing them again sitting on top of a pile of books.
"So help me out here," he said as he pulled out of the parking lot into traffic. "What was up with that meeting with Sabrina?"
"What do you mean?" Emma said with a bit of an edge to her voice.
"I can't decide if you're trying to be private about what's going on with this whole set up or you're actually embarrassed to be seen with me."
"I just don't want to get into details about what we are."
Chase turned and cocked his eyebrow up. "And what are we?" he asked mischievously.
"We're professional partners." Emma gave him a small smile and looked out the window of his car. "Besides, it's not like we're ever going to see each other after this."
Chase looked at her for a second, not letting on to Emma that her words had stung.
"Right," he simply implied instead.
Honestly, he hadn't really thought about what would happen after this month was up, but he figured they would still see each other in some way or another. Maybe become friends or go out to dinner on occasion. Maybe he would invite her to some movie premieres. Maybe she could let him stop by story time and get coffee afterward.
But if he thought about it, really thought about it, he knew she was closer to the truth than he wanted to admit. They probably wouldn't see each other after this month was over. It was just a crazy adventure that Nana made them go on together and that was it. There was no being friends with Emma after this just to be friends with her.
It made him sad to think about, but he was thinking about it instead of responding to her question, which likely just confirmed to her that she was right. They probably wouldn't see each other after the money was spent. So the least he could do was make their time together magical before they parted ways, which only made him more determined to show Emma a good time until she was gone from his life.
Chapter Ten
She could hear Chase in the other room singing along to some eighties tunes that he said would get him in the mood for the convention tonight.
Well, it wasn't the other room but ratherthe room. Their room. Because they ended up with only one hotel room and Emma was hiding out in the bathroom under the guise of getting ready when she was really just stalling for time.
The convention planners didn't expect Chase to bring a date with him so they assigned him what he normally got for conventions. Apparently that meant one room with one king-sized bed. It was like the most cliched trope from a romance novel that Emma loved reading.
But unlike those romance novels, nothing was going to happen between them. Emma knew that for sure. Because as she once again reminded herself, she was just a librarian stuck with a big movie star that she had to spend money on because her grandma thought it would be amusing.
Except right now, Emma wasn't amused. She was getting a little hot and bothered as she finally put on her make-up and stood back to see herselfin the mirror. She wasn't sure if this was the right thing to wear or if she would be over dressed. Conventions were her grandmother's thing, not hers. That's how Emma ended up with this black dress paid for with money she had to spend to fulfill Nana's challenge.
She justified the expense to Charles by telling him that she was wearing it to an event with Chase. Charles gave her his reluctant approval as usual. She was going to be thankful when this was over and she didn't have to deal with that guy anymore.
Not dealing with Chase anymore would be a different issue, but she didn't want to think about that right now.
Emma took a deep breath and did one more check in the mirror before finally deciding it was time to check in with Chase so they could head downstairs.
"Does this look OK?"
Chase's eyes landed on her and took her in from head to toe, making her feel hotter than she should.
"Yeah." He cleared the gravel out of his throat and turned back to working on his cuff links. "You look good."
"Are you sure I'm not over dressed?"
Chase fiddled with the cuff links some more. "Nope, it's fine."
She couldn't tell why he seemed to be distracting himself with his shirt so intently, butat least it gave her time to look him over. Tonight he was wearing a white button-down shirt — with cuff links — and a black pleather skinny tie that looked like Chase had borrowed it from his eighties wardrobe on the Project Lyonheart movies. He also had on some black flat-front pants that accentuated his waist even though Emma would never admit that she noticed. There were also his very eighties neon-colored sneakers.
