Chapter 36

So it's a filler chapter...but I'd rather put something out then nothing at all. Thank you for the lovely comments ladies! You all make writing so worthwhile :)


Chapter Song: "I Wouldn't Need You" by Norah Jones ***This song is so sexy!




Emma's POV:

It took me until after 10:30 to realize that Sidney wasn't coming home any time soon. Since I was starting to get paranoid about his safety and whether or not something had happened to his flight, I called Vero to find out if she knew anything.

"What? Hun, Marc got home about an hour ago. Isn't Sidney home? Did he call?"

"No, that's what I'm worried about" I told her suddenly feeling like I could punch a wall. What if he was laying in a ditch somewhere? Why wouldn't he at least text or call me back to let me know that he was going to be delayed or something?

"Well, I'm sure he'll call you soon" Vero said trying to be reassuring. The pity and concern was barely veiled in her voice even if she didn't mean for those emotions to seep through.

"Yeah, well listen, I have to get going" I told her saying a quick goodbye and hanging up the phone. I decided to wait another half hour before leaving. Afterall, this wasn't my house and it was strange for me to keep waiting around for him when I didn't live here. There was nothing that I could do except hope and pray that he got home safely from wherever he was.

Against my better judgment, I lingered a little bit longer and cleaned up the prepared meal in the kitchen. It was almost embarrassing that I had put this much effort into cooking and setting the table and no one was going to be eating it fresh. Without dwelling on it for too long, I scraped the chicken pasta into tupperware containers and packaged up the low-fat cheesecake that I had made.

The clock numbers on the oven blinked back at me in a startling green color. I decided against leaving him a note and instead left the food in the fridge without any labels just to leave him guessing. Since I had no idea where he was, I didn't know whether to be angry or worried. Afterall, he could actually be fine but still, it was frustrating to be dating someone so clueless and nerve-wracking at the same time.

The drive home was long and uneventful and I left the radio turned way up so that I would purposely miss his call if he even bothered to call me back at all. Sure enough, by the time that I pulled into my driveway, there were no missed calls and no texts either.

I sighed throwing my phone into my purse and climbed out of the car ready to go inside and burrow under my covers for the next couple of hours. I was mentally and emotionally exhausted from dealing with Sidney related shit all evening and it struck me as ironic that he wasn't even around and he was causing me so much heartache unknowingly.

I mean, didn't he care for me at all? It was awful just waiting around to see if he would even remember to think of me or to text me and let me know that he was okay somewhere. Things were different when we were just friends. It wasn't my obligation to worry about him like this or to expect him to call me on a regular basis. As we got to be better friends, I realized that I still had deep feelings for him that weren't going away but at least then I knew that I didn't have the right to expect a phone call just to say goodnight or that his plane had landed.

Now I was stuck wondering if maybe we were better off as friends, period. At least for the sake of my sanity. Just friends meant that I wouldn't feel this internal obligation and need to know where he was. More importantly, I wouldn't have the right anymore to know where he was during the day and night.

My phone rang startling me out of my thinking and I quickly answered it thinking that it was Sid finally calling me back. When I answered, I instantly regretted answering the phone.

"Hi Mom, how are you?" I asked trying to sound cheerful.

"Emma, darling! I'm fabulous. How are you?" Her voice still held that familiar twang of polite, European sophistication even though she was originally a Pittsburgh girl herself. Then again, that was my Mom- always reaching for what was above and beyond her reach.

"I'm fine, it's kind of late though Mom. Is everything alright?" Then again, I didn't know why I was even asking her this. She never remembered pesky details like time zone differences and the like.

"Late? Oh! I guess it is rather late there isn't it? It's only 9-o-clock here darling in Los Angeles."

"Why are you in L.A?" I asked almost fearing her response. Usually she was flitting about in Europe with her "friend" Ronaldo. It was disconcerting to say the least knowing that she was actually on the same continent that I was.

"Oh well I traveled back with friends to enjoy California at this time of the year."

She rambled on more about what she had been up to lately and clued me in on the latest fashions from Milan as if I actually gave a damn.

"Mom" I said trying to get her attention and cut her off, "I'm really sorry but it's late here so could we talk tomorrow if you have time?"

"Oh, sure sweetie. I was actually calling just to let you know that your father and I are going to both be in town next weekend. We'd like it if you could come over and have dinner with us. It's been ages since we had a proper, family meal."

Her voice was all hope but underneath there was the layer of steel that really meant "we're going to be in town next week, you better be at that dinner."

"Sure" I said agreeing to her plans. She seemed happy that I said yes and promised that she would call soon to give me more details. By 'soon' she actually meant 'the day before' but I let it slide and we hung up quickly not even bothering to say goodbye like a normal mother and daughter would with an 'I love you' or an 'I miss you.' At 26 years old, I didn't even expect it anymore either.

Seeing that the entire night could be chalked up as a bust, I shut my phone off and plugged it into its charger. Thank god it was a Friday- I was grateful that I didn't have to work the next day and could just sleep in on my Saturday morning. While it would have been nice to sex up my boyfriend all night and wake up in his arms the next morning, that obviously wasn't in my cards for the night. Needless to say, with the impending dinner next week and Sidney's lack of sensitivity and acknowledgment, tonight could definitely be chalked up to a bust.

I changed and settled into my bed pulling the covers up to my chin like I was 10 years old again and fighting off a bad case of the sniffles. Unfortunately, this time it didn't seem like taking a dose of NyQuil would fix my problems and make me sleep any easier.

Sid's POV:

"Okay, seriously," I said holding up a hand to Staal who was already pressing another drink on me. "I've gotta go home, man."

He groaned and called me a pussy but I didn't care. I was tiptoeing the line between sober and drunk and it was proving to be a very slippery slope.
Finally after getting away from the group, I dragged my ass out of the bar around midnight, not wanting to drink anymore if I was going to drive home safely. A lot of the other guys were starting to trickle out also because they had nagging girlfriends or wives wondering where they were and telling them to report home.

It kind of struck me as odd that Em hadn't called or texted but when I checked my phone on the way out, I remembered that I had turned it off before the flight and never turned it back on.

As soon as the screen lit up and fully loaded, I was hit by messages and beeping reminders on my calendar for the week. Only one message was from Emma while the other four were from Vero and Marc respectively wondering where the hell I was and asking me to text Emma back and let her know that I was okay.

Her message was simple, she was just wondering what time I was going to be home but it was obvious from Marc and Vero's reaction that something was wrong or that I should have answered her back hours ago by having my phone on.

On hindsight, I was probably an ass for not turning my phone on right away but it had been nice not to have it constantly buzzing in my pocket or ringing in my ear all night.

Rubbing a hand over my face, I started up the engine to my car and backed out of the parking lot of the restaurant. I was only about 20 minutes away from her house but it was late. Probably too late to actually go over and apologize for having my phone off.

I didn't have too good of a feeling about not calling her or going over there but I didn't want to go over and wake her up or her not be there at all. Right now it seemed like the best I could do is go home then call her first thing in the morning.

Mon ami, you're an ass. Marc had typed in his final text message to me.

Later when I walked into the house and saw the leftovers in the refrigerator, I knew that I had definitely done something wrong. Even though no one had really been at my house all week, I could tell that she had cleaned a little and straighened up the place so that I didn't have to. It made me feel guilty to smell her in the house when normally it just smelled like cleaning products and my hockey gear sitting in the laundry room.

Yep, I had definitely fucked up.