She marched right past them while Chase and Emma could barely keep up as they walked through aisles of bar supplies before getting to the glasses they wanted.
It was a sight to behold. Martini glasses onboth sides of an aisle that was longer than the typical Costco aisle Emma would wander through with Nana. Even Chase looked impressed.
Macie took his hand and Emma ignored the ping of jealousy in her chest as she watched them walk from glass to glass with Macie showing off this one and that. There were glasses with different colors, glasses with etched designs, big glasses, little glasses. The place had it all.
"What about these?" Macie asked him, holding up a pair of green-tinted martini glasses.
Chase scrunched up his nose. "Nana didn't like green."
Emma had the same thought, and it was just another one of those little moments when she realized that perhaps Nana knew what she was doing when she paired Emma with Chase. Maybe he knew her grandmother more than she realized.
"Oh! What about these?" Chase held up a hot pink martini glass with streaks of neon blue in it.
"They look very eighties," Emma said.
"I know!" he said with a huge smile on his face. "These look just like the ones from the Project Lyonheart set."
"Oh my gosh, yes! I'm so glad you recognized them," Macie exclaimed. "Your set designer bought them here. I didn't want to push those on you since you probably see them at work all the time, but I do love them."
Chase held them up to the light, the smile growing on his face. "Think Nana would approve?"
Emma took the whole scene in. In front of her was the man she got stuck with because of her grandmother. The man she once despised, thinking about the money she had to spend on him.
The man she had been falling in love with.
And standing here, watching him look in awe at a martini glass, she had to admit that Nana would probably approve of all of it.
"I think those are a great choice."
Chase's eyes met hers, sparkling in a way that made her feel warm inside. Then he turned to Macie, and Emma watched as the woman got sucked into Chase's charm. Emma knew from experience that it was hard to resist.
"Can we get four of these?" he asked. "And do you have other glasses with this design?"
"Oh, maybe wine glasses like that?"
She saw Chase's eyes light up as he looked at her. Because yes, she still remembered that night by his pool with that slice of chocolate cake when he said he needed wine glasses.
Macie looked dazed for a moment before finally snapping back to reality. "Yes, we have plenty of wine glasses!" she gushed. "Let me get four of these to Dylan to wrap up and I'll take you to our wine glasses. There are a few with a similar design that I think you'll love."
When they were finally done shopping, Chase had a set of four martini glasses, some stemless wine glasses, and a wine decanter all with thesame design. Dylan and Macie packed everything up neatly in a box with plenty of packing paper to protect the glasses. Emma paid.
The sun was bright as they got outside to the little parking lot and Chase stowed his new glassware in the trunk of his BMW, gingerly closing the trunk with his stuff inside.
Then he turned to her, that smile still there, and she couldn't help but smile back. There was something about it that she still found intoxicating even if she had stepped away for a month.
She knew she needed to go and find what she was looking for when it came to who she wanted to be and the life she wanted to have for herself. But that month away had made her realize that one of the things she wanted for herself was Chase.
Chase turned to her and gave her an awkward half-hearted smile. "Well, it was good seeing you again, Emma," he said quietly.
Nope. That felt too final for her. She couldn't let this be the last time she saw Chase and have their conversation end with stupid niceties. She had to stop hiding what she felt.
"I'm sorry I left the way I did."
Chase seemed to be taken off guard a bit by her confession but tried to put on a smile that seemed to be hiding something more.
"It's OK," he said soothingly. "This whole thing was a lot."
"I just..."
