Andrew was still standing in the threshold between the kitchen and the living room.
“Well I want him here,” Emzee said stubbornly. “Andrew, stay.”
“You can go,” I told him.
Unsurprisingly, he didn’t listen to me. Instead he walked past me and eased into a chair in the living room across from Emzee, who had plunked herself back down on the couch.
“This is a conversation between the two of us,” I said. “Not the three of us.”
“Do you think I want to be alone with you?” Emzee scoffed. “Maybe we should invite Claudia down here, just to keep things even.”
“Claudia isgone,” I said.
“How convenient. I hope you had fun together.”
“Nothing happened,” I said between clenched teeth. “You always assume the worst when it comes to me and her, but we are done. We’ve been done for a long time, as I just reiterated to her before I threw her ass out of my apartment, Louis Vuitton luggage and all. She’s out of my life for good!”
Emzee rolled her eyes.
“How could I not assume the worst?” she asked. “I came to your apartment and she was in your bed dressed in a fucking pink doily!”
“Jesus. She letherselfin!”
“Which means she obviously has a key! Which you obviously gave her!” Emzee screamed. “Tell me again how I’m not supposed to be jumping to conclusions here, because usually when you give someone a key to your place it isn’t because you want them out of your life for good!”
I scrubbed my hands over my face, almost laughing at how fucking ludicrous it all was.
“Mymothergave her that key,” I said as calmly as possible, praying Emzee would start to see the truth. “She planned this whole thing with Claudia behind my back. When I was in Chicago, she was nagging me nonstop for a key to the new place, and when I got home today I finally realized exactly why that was.”
Emzee looked at me. I could see my words were finally beginning to sink in.
“You didn’t give her that key?” she asked.
I moved toward her, and as I did, Andrew got up from his chair, but Emzee stopped him with an extended hand.
“Never,” I told Emzee. “I swear to God. I wouldn’t’ve given my mom a key at all if I’d known what she was going to do with it. And I’m going to call Louie as soon as I get back to my place and tell him I need to get the locks changed.”
Emzee looked away and sighed, then met my gaze, her expression guarded and unreadable.
“Then…you really don’t want Claudia?”
“Of course not. The only thing I want isyou,” I told her. “You and our kid and whatever kind of happily ever after we can make for ourselves. I’m here for all of it. The white picket fence, the smelly diapers, those embarrassing dog sweaters you get for Munchkin. I mean, if that’s what you want, too. The decision is yours. You get to choose.”
I heard a quiet intake of air from Andrew—guess he didn’t know the happy news—but I didn’t really care. Maybe it would finally convince him to back off.
“I love you,” I added. If this was my last chance with Emzee, I didn’t want to hold anything back. “I’ve always loved you. It just took me way too long to figure that out, but believe me when I say I’ll happily spend the rest of our lives trying to make it up to you.”
Emzee blinked up at me, searching my eyes, and then, as if we hadn’t just been screaming our heads off at each other, gave me the kind of smile I had been waiting for since that night of the gala. “…I choose you, too.”
I couldn’t help myself. With one firm yank, Emzee was in my arms and her mouth was on mine, her hands clutching my shoulders as she melted into me. It was exactly what I wanted. Emzee in my arms. Everything felt right again.
Well, almost everything.
But as our tongues tangled, I heard the sound of her front door opening and closing. Thank God Andrew knew how to read a room and had shown himself out.
Emzee
Chapter 21
