Chapter 40 So Many Emotions
In the pearly grey morning light, Emily realized she was alone in the middle of a large bed, snuggled between silky sheets. The clouds were spread in an almost transparent layer over the city outside the window. She went to the washroom and realized her hair was a mess, but a kind of sexy mess.
Everything that happened the previous night felt so right. She got back into bed as she couldn’t escape a pleasant drowsiness, and she didn’t have anywhere to be yet. The feeling of Byron’s caresses all over her body was still there, as if it just happened seconds ago.
The man himself appeared in the room, wearing only his briefs and carrying a breakfast tray filled with coffee, pastries, and fruit.
“Hey, you’re awake!” he said, “That’s good because I brought you something.”
She gave him a smile that was partly shy but mostly excited. His eyes lit up.
“You don’t regret getting involved with me?” he asked, setting down the tray in front of her.
“Not when you bring me coffee and breakfast!” Emily said. The smell of the coffee awakened her, and she sat up to enjoy the meal. “And some other things you do are very... good.” The memory of the previous night made her heart beat faster.
Byron settled down beside her under the covers and put his arm around her shoulders. “I’m glad to hear it,” he said, grabbing a chocolate croissant, “and you’ll be happy to know you’re no longer dealing with the loser of the business world.”
“Is that supposed to be you?” Emily laughed. “I hardly thought so before.”
“But now I checked this morning’s news,” he said, “and opinions of my company are going up, as is the stock. Some are saying that we’re using my depression story to distract from the issue of the scam, but the vast majority are on our side.”
“Wow,” Emily said, barely able to keep up with the conversation without chewing with her mouth full, “Sylvia is going to be so proud. And I’m really proud of you too!”
She kissed his lips, getting a hint of chocolate together with his masculine taste.
“How can you be so sexy?” Byron asked, “But also cute at the same time?”
She shrugged, feeling giddy and giggly. “It just comes naturally to me, I guess. How can you be so sexy and extremely gorgeous?”
“You find me sexy?” he asked, a provocative gleam in his eye.
“As if you didn’t know that,” Emily replied, her breathing growing more rapid as Byron reached for the breakfast tray and put it aside on the nightstand. Then she shrieked and laughed as his strong arms pulled her over on top of him.
It was a long time before they managed to get out of bed.
Emily felt extremely distracted that day as she taught her usual art classes. Her whole body tingled every time she thought of Byron. She tried to focus on the canvass in front of her as her teenage student Katie was doing rather well.
Initially, it didn’t seem like Katie was naturally gifted at painting, but Emily saw the girl progress and even show signs of unique vision.
“I have so many strong emotions,” Katie said as she slathered red paint over the canvass to create interesting and wild abstract designs. “And I’m finally getting an outlet.”
Emily would have been surprised to hear that before. When she first met Katie it seemed the teen was only interested in finding a rich husband and the only emotions she had was glee at finding discounted designer shoes. Emily was glad to see her student’s talent blossoming and revealing hidden depths.
“We could display some of your work for the official opening of the school,” Emily suggested. “If you’re okay with that?”
“Sure,” Katie shrugged, “I don’t care what happens to the paintings. I just enjoy doing them in the moment.”
“That’s good,” Emily said. “You have a real passion for this.”
The redesign of the studio was almost complete, and Emily planned to declare it officially open in a week’s time. Everything was going so well she was almost afraid of getting run over by a bus, suddenly putting an end to her good fortune.
Emily was extra careful crossing the streets as she got home, only to find the apartment smelly and disgusting, with old packages of junk food all over the kitchen.
“It would be nice if you took out the garbage once in a while,” she said to her brother.
Nick lay in a pile of cushions reading a book, three bags of different flavored chips open in front of him.
“Yeah, I know. It’s just that I have too many options here as a consumer.” He indicated the chip bags.
Emily couldn’t help but laugh. With his quirky charm, her brother was likely to continue getting away with being a slob for the rest of his life.
“I’d like it cleaned up today, though,” she insisted.
“Okay,” he sighed wearily. “How did the company thing go last night?”
“It was... really awesome.” Emily’s excited smile was irrepressible.
“Oh my God, you’re in love,” her brother said, seeing her expression, “That’s disgusting!”
