She should have known better, she really should have.

Her apartment building was average size, a random assortment of people who would stroll in and out of the apartment at times. Emma knew some of them by name just by meeting in the elevator or laundry room. But there are people who have moved out in the past month and their rooms were quickly filled. It wasn't the most glorious of homes, but it was cheap enough for her to live in.

The one person that everyone in the building somehow knew was Mrs. Carson. She was a sweet old lady who lived by herself, and you would commonly find her sitting outside in front of the apartment, usually feeding the birds. She always greeted everyone whenever they came into the apartment which was probably how she knew everyone.

This morning when Emma was on her way to work, she decided to take the bus and when she made it to the stop, which was a little ways from her apartment she happened to find Mrs. Carson sitting alone waiting for the bus.

"Hello, Mrs. Carson," Emma sat down on the bench next to her and placed her bag on the side of her.

"Why hello dear," She replied with a small smile, although she didn't seem to have the usual enthusiasm that she was regularly greeted with.

"Is something wrong?" Emma frowned.

"Didn't you hear?" Mrs. Carson turned her body so she could look at Emma. When she saw Emma shake her head, she continued, "That poor boy. Killian Jones I believe? In 4B, heard he got into a terrible car crash, such a shame. He was a nice, handsome boy too."

"Oh, no…I didn't hear about that. That's terrible," Emma didn't know Killian Jones, although she had briefly met him that one time she went downstairs to change out her laundry and found him using way too much soap for his load of clothes. He had admitted that he wasn't to sure how to do laundry since he had just moved out on his own and she was glad to show him and he had introduced himself to her. They hadn't seen each other that much after that, "Huh. I guess I'll go pick up a card or something on my way home from work."

Mrs. Carson just let out a hum as the bus approached the stop and they both got on, Emma making a mental note to stop at the store on her way home.

She decided on picking up a bouquet of orchids and a sympathy card and when she returned to the apartment just opted to leave them outside of his door and hoped that a family member would come by and pick them up. It was just a shock to her, considering she had just seen him the other day and now he was gone.

After dropping the flowers and card off at his door (not noticing the strange look that she got from the man walking into 4C) she went back to her room on the third floor. Emma slipped out of her work clothes and into her pajamas and decided tonight was a night for Netflix. She poured herself a glass of wine and opened her laptop and picked a random cheesy horror movie to watch.

But about halfway through the movie she had to pause it. For some reason she just couldn't get his face out of her mind, suddenly wishing that she had more time to get to know him. It was really just strange, here one day and gone the next. Emma understood loss more than anyone but she couldn't understand why he was getting to her so much.

Before she hit play to resume the movie, Emma got up got up and walked into the kitchen to pour herself a second glass of wine when she heard a knock at the door. Walking slowly to the door, wine in hand, she unlocked the door. It was strange for someone to be outside her door, especially at almost 9 at night.

Opening the door slowly, ready to strike just in case, she was shocked by the scene before her. It was Killian Jones and he was holding a vase of orchids and an opened sympathy card.

Before she could even comprehend his appearance at her door (especially this late at night) he spoke up, "Your condolences?" He raised one eyebrow at her, a small grin threatening to spread over his face.

She managed to close her mouth before her jaw literally hit the floor, "Uh…"

He smirked at her shocked response and looked down as he read the card over again, quoting her words, "Jones family, very sorry to hear about your loss…" He tried off, looking back up at her again, "You couldn't have mentioned how devilishly handsome I was? Well, I now know who not to let write my obituary when the time comes."

Emma could feel her face growing warm. Shit.

"Oh my god, I am so sorry. Oh, wow, this is embarrassing, I heard that someone who lived here died and so Mrs. Carson told me it was you…" Emma had to stop herself from rambling on, this was not like her at all. Closing her mouth to stop the verbal diarrhea, Killian just continued to smirk at her, "I'm, uh…glad you're not dead?"

"Well, love, you don't sound too sure about that."

"No, really..I, uh, am glad. I will now know not to listen to her anymore. Again, sorry. I'm gonna just go now. Yeah." Emma's face was still beet red and she just wanted to never think about this moment ever again.

"Goodnight, lass," He chuckled and smiled at her one last time and walked back down the hall to the elevators, but Emma slammed the door shut fast before he could turn around and look at her.

Nice one, Emma, nice one.

The next day, she made a note before heading off to work to let Mrs. Carson know that it was in fact not Killian Jones who died and the little old lady seemed very relieved to hear that.

When she finally got home from an extremely long day of work, she trudged her way to her apartment and found a bouquet of roses outside of her door and she opened up the card that was attached to it.

Will you go out with me?

~Killian Jones.

p.s Alive and well.

All she could do was smile and of course say yes.