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Emerson scrunched his forehead a little and looked at me. “Who’s Andrew?” He directed his question to me, but Ben answered.
“He's, uh, he's the guy who dated Brooke before you.”
“Oh, I see. Well, by all means, please tell him thank you for me.”
I took the opportunity to try to ease the tension of the moment, but only because I didn’t want to feel like I wasn’t involved in the conversation at all. “I’m really glad you stopped by to say hi, Ben. It was really nice to see you. But, I only have about an hour to spend with Emerson before he has to get to the MMA class he teaches, so I’d really like a little alone time. I’m sure you understand.”
Emerson leaned a little and glanced in the direction of Ben and Jess’s table. “I think your girlfriend, or whoever it is at that table, is trying to get your attention. It's not good to keep a lady waiting. I believe in treating women with respect, man, you know?”
“Is that Jess?” I asked, looking across the room.
“Yeah,” Ben replied.
“Please tell her I said hello,” I insisted with the brightest smile I could manage.
“I’ll do that,” Ben said and appeared to be about to turn and leave, then pivoted back toward Emerson. “Did you say MMA?”
“Yeah, I teach a class and I'm fighting this weekend. Have to defend my regional title. Won my last ten bouts with straight-up KOs. It seems I've got a killer right hook. Get my drift?”
“Uh, yeah, man. I guess I better get back to Jess. Er, nice seeing you again, Brooke. I'll, um, I'll tell Andrew you say hi.”
“Please do,” I cooed, smiling maliciously.
Ben turned around and shuffled off, scratching the back of his head, glancing back at us a couple of times as he walked away.
The moment I knew he was out of earshot, I let out a stint of laughter. “Oh, my God, Emerson! You totally rock!”
He shot me a satisfied grin. “I saw the smug look on his face when he saw you. I'm sure he was gonna tell you something like how great Andrew was doing and how he was dating some new hot girl or whatever. So, I just pulled a preemptive strike. You know what they say—being happy is the best revenge. And now, that tool is going to go running back to tell his buddy how you're dating a twenty-five-year-old CEO millionaire who also happens to be a champion cage fighter. I can tell you, as a guy, he's gonna feel about two feet tall.”
I beamed an enormous smile. “You really are such a sweetheart,” I said. “Thank you for doing that. It… it means a lot to me.”
“It was my pleasure, Brooke. After hearing what that jerk did to you and then seeing that Ben guy come walking up like he wanted to rub it in your face, I couldn't let him get away with that.”
“Thank you.”
“De nada.”
“You speak Spanish?” I asked.
“Ha! Only the bare minimum of what we had to learn in high school. You?”
“Well, I lived all over the world when I was a kid, so I can speak quite a few languages, but none of them fluently anymore, I don’t think. You know, use it, or lose it. I haven’t used it lately.”
A look came over Emerson’s face like he’d remembered something suddenly. “Oh yeah, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about the time you spent in Japan. I really want to visit there someday.”
“Oh, Emerson, you have to! It's such an amazing place. You should totally go when the cherry blossoms are in bloom. There are few more spectacular sights in the world.”
“Sounds awesome! If only you could show me around the place, huh?”
I laughed a little nervously, not sure if he was flirting with me or not. I was inclined to believe he was. I could almost feel the walls going back up. Words couldn’t express how much I appreciated what he had just done for me, and if I was being honest with myself, part of me had been pretty turned on by how he’d stuck his neck out. But the way every nerve in my body tingled when he’d held my gaze and said what he’d said in front of Ben, it all felt a little too real. And, I couldn't let him inside the walls if I couldn’t trust him. That was the question still to be answered. Could I?
I quickly finished my mouthful of curry and then responded. “Yeah. It would be cool to show you around Japan, but I doubt I'll ever be back there. And what are the odds I’d be there when you're there?”
A twinge of disappointment glistened in his eyes. “Yeah,” he said softly. “What are the odds?”
We finished eating in relative silence with a little small talk here and there. When we were done, Emerson asked for the bill.
“Shall we get going? I have some studying to do and you have an MMA class to teach,” I said, trying to lighten the mood a little.
