Emily would be lying if she said that the weeks following Aaron's resignation had been anything but difficult. Everything felt so out of place, including her. She could barely stand to be in her own office anymore because it reminded her of him. There was no point in trying to deny it, seeing him leave had hurt. A lot. She'd let him leave without a single word of protest, and now it seemed as if the stabbing pain of guilt she felt in her stomach every time she saw him would never go away. Until it did.
Guilt turned into something entirely different when she started seeing him with Blondie. That was the not-so-affectionate nickname she'd given the gorgeous blonde woman she often found Aaron talking to. For a while, her presence had just annoyed Emily. She blamed it on the blonde's personality, despite that not being the case. Hell, she hadn't even cared to know her real name, until she'd really started to bother her.
"Who is that?" she asked, approaching Seth in the hallway.
"Who?"
"Blondie," Emily accidentally hissed. She hadn't meant to let that one slip. "Uh, the one talking to Aaron."
"Oh, her, Scarlett Ozera. Speaker Hookstraten's Chief of Executive Affairs. She's no stranger on The Hill."
Emily looked the woman up and down. She was tall, at least 5'10" in heels. Not to mention, she was gorgeous too. Her wavy blonde hair made her blue eyes pop even more and framed her face while accentuating her full figure. Scarlett made her feel small in every way possible.
"How do you know that?" she questioned, almost too eagerly. "I mean, has he told you about her?"
Seth shot her a suspicious look.
"No. Emily, I'm Press Secretary. It's my job to know people. He's never spoken a word about her. I was just talking to a new staffer yesterday and she introduced us," he explained. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"
"I don't know. You just seem a lot more on edge recently and I was-"
"I said I'm fine, Seth," she snapped. Emily sighed and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, I've just been stressed with everything that's going on, like the federal tax spending bill, and all. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to work."
For the next few days, Emily tried her very hardest to ignore the feeling she got in her stomach every time she saw them together. Eventually, the feeling became too strong to ignore any longer.
"Hey, Aaron, can I talk to you for a second?" Emily asked, approaching him in the hall as he walked with Scarlett.
"Sure. What is it?" he replied, stopping, the blonde doing the same.
"I'm sorry, but who are you?" Emily asked, condescendingly.
She scoffed.
"Scarlett Ozera, Chief of Legislative Affairs to the Speaker of the House."
"Well, Scarlett, you're obviously new here-"
"Actually," she interrupted, "I've been on Speaker Hookstraten's staff since her first term."
"Then you should know that this conversation is classified and you don't have clearance."
Scarlett raised her eyebrows and smirked in amusement.
"Oh wow, feisty too," she said, turning to face Aaron. "I can see what you saw in her,"
That statement horrified Emily, and also made the white-hot lump of rage in her chest even hotter. She was mortified that Scarlett had found out about them, and also enraged at Aaron for telling her about it.
"Still, she's smaller than I imagined."
"Scarlett," Aaron warned, side-eyeing her.
"Oh, don't get all bent out of shape, Aaron. I'm only riling her up. Although, it seems like I don't really have to say anything to do that," she stated, raising a questioning eyebrow at Emily, sizing her up. When Aaron didn't respond, she broke the silence. "Anyways, I have a meeting to go to. I'll see you later."
Emily rolled her eyes as the blonde practically strutted away.
"What the hell is her problem?"
"I could ask you the same thing," Aaron replied angrily. He must have caught onto her initial attitude towards Scarlett.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"I'm sorry, but who are you? Really, Emily?'
"So, you and her now?" she demanded, changing the subject.
"Are you kidding me?"
"She's obviously into you."
"And you're obviously delusional."
"Am I now?" she replied, folding her arms across her chest and cocking her head at him.
"Since when did you care about who I was seeing, anyways?"
"I don't know, maybe since that night, you decided to kiss me in your office," Emily blurted, biting down on her lip due to immediate regret, chiding herself for letting that slip.
Aaron stared at her for a moment, eyebrow raised.
"Last time I checked, it's your office now, Princess,"
"Princess? Wow, Aaron," she scoffed. Where the hell did that name come from?, she silently thought. "Real creative,"
"Well, I call em' like I seem em'," he said, walking away, Emily following in close pursuit. "Besides, if you had actually done your research, you would know that Scarlett has a girlfriend."
Emily stopped dead in her tracks for a moment. She reached out and grabbed Aaron's sleeve, pulling him back to her.
"What did you just say?"
His expression was unreadable.
"Scarlett's gay. Her girlfriend Leah just started working in Communications, I'm surprised Seth didn't mention that when you asked about her," Emily's jaw dropped as she glared up at him. "Close your mouth, Princess, you'll catch flies,"
"You've got some nerve, don't you?" she growled through tightly gritted teeth.
"I don't know what you're talking about,"
"I knew you were low, Aaron, but this is just scraping the bottom of the barrel," she huffed, being the one to walk away this time. "You pretended to be involved with Scarlett just to make me jealous, didn't you?"
"So you're admitting that you're jealous?"
"I can't believe you. You know, they say time can change a lot about a person but there are some things that don't budge," she said with a distraught tone, dodging staffers as she stormed down the hallway, Aaron following close behind her.
"And is one of those things the way you feel about me," he demanded, both of them coming to a dead halt in front of the door to Emily's office. Emily didn't respond, instead, she swallowed hard, hoping the painful lump in her throat would go away. "Time can change a lot of things, Emily, but avoiding them can't. Think about that, then get back to me when you have an answer."
"In order to be honest with him, you need, to be honest with yourself, first. Figure out how you feel before you say anything."
Seth's wise words echoed through her head. He always gave good advice, so it was no surprise that she had found herself at his office door right after her confrontation with Aaron. She had thought about it all day long. She'd pondered, drank, and slept on it, and finally, she felt ready to give him an answer.
She tried to force the lump in her throat back down as she walked into her office, where Aaron was waiting. His drop in wasn't unexpected, Seth had already texted her to let her know he was there.
"Morning. I just came to get those tax bill papers for Hookstraten, then I'll be out of your hair," he said as she set her things down on the desk.
"It's no rush, really." she said, looking through the files she had just placed down.
"Lose a coffee bet to Seth?" he asked, motioning towards the cup holder with two cups of coffee in it.
"Oh, no," she chuckled. "Actually, I was hoping I'd run into you this morning," she said, picking one of them up and handing it to him.
She noticed the briefly puzzled look on his face as he took a sip.
"Café con leche, two cream, three sugars, right?" she asked, silently hoping she'd gotten it right.
"Yeah? Oh, and Emily, there's absolutely no way you were just 'hoping you'd run into me', because you hate this stuff, so it's not like you'd drink it if I didn't." Aaron smirked, taking another sip and leaning against the desk, beside her. "How'd you know anyways?"
"Too ridiculous to forget," Emily said, trying to contain a grin. "I also have a weirdly selective memory,"
"Mhm," he muttered. "Alright, why don't you just tell me what's really going on here?" he sighed, his tone soft.
"I thought about yesterday,"
"Ah,"
She took a deep breath and swallowed the lump in her throat. Along with it went her fear, pride, and any stubborn resolve she was feeling.
"Aaron, I don't even think words can describe how sorry I am for everything that happened. I know that you don't want to talk about it now, but we have to at some point if we're going to get past this,"
"I know," he sighed. "Believe it or not, you aren't the only one who's been doing some thinking recently."
"Really?" she smiled, turning to face him with an eyebrow raised in interest.
"Yeah. I kept thinking about all sorts of different things, but all of them seemed to lead to the same conclusion,"
"Which is?"
"They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."
This time Emily couldn't contain the smile that came across her face.
"Andy Warhol," she lightly chuckled. "How did you?"
"I may or may not have seen you reading The Philosophy and decided to give it a try myself," he said, blushing noticeably.
"I think I have your answer for you," she said, her voice coming out smaller than she'd hoped.
"And?"
She took one glance at his lips and knew exactly what she wanted. Placing her hands on his jaw, she leaned in and pressed hers to his. She felt him slightly gasp in surprise as he returned the kiss. All she could think of was how his lips were even warmer and sweeter than the first time she'd felt them. The coffee. She'd had too much alcohol the first time they'd kissed to feel the nervous butterflies that were now flitting around in her stomach. She couldn't tell which was making it harder for her to think, the butterflies, or Aaron Shore's lips. Her hands came to rest at the base of his neck, which was where they stayed, even after they broke away.
"Good answer," he joked, trying to catch his breath.
"Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity, or registering wrongs," Emily said breathlessly.
"Charlotte Brontë?" he asked.
Emily laughed in disbelief.
"How do you know all of these authors?"
"I've said it before and I'll say it again, opposition research comes in handy."
She grinned back at him.
They had something special, magical even, and Emily had a new goal: To do everything in her power to assure that nothing ever got in the way of that again.
A/N: Hey, guys! I've had most of this written for over a month, but I just never got around to finishing it, until someone decided to test me. I take shit personally and to me, that was a fucking challenge, so, I wrote the rest of this in under three hours and I was fueled by nothing but spite. Don't fuck with the Salt Queen. This will probably end up starting drama because the fandom is so damn small, but I have the fucking receipts. Learn a lesson from this, children. Don't try the pettiest, most bitter, and passive aggressive bitch in the entire Designated Survivor fandom.