"You mean it?" Derek asked uncharacteristically shy in that moment. "I do." Emily assured him while raising her hand to caress his face. Both their phones buzzing broke their trance and they backed away from each other hastily. Emily blushed and bent her head down. Morgan ignored his without even thinking about it. He cleared his throat and got Emily's attention in the process. "Secret boyfriend princess?" he asked. "I have a lot of secrets that you don't know about" Emily said back without thinking about it. She looked up and saw him recoil. "I'm sorry. That was a bad joke." "Don't sweat it princess." Derek replied with a forced smile that both of them recognized. He cleared his throat, "So, what kinds of secrets does Princess have?" Emily gnawed at her cheek and started to pick at her nails. She avoided Morgan's gaze although she felt his eyes boring into her. Derek reached out and lifted her chin with his index finger. She slowly lifted her eyes and saw his warm chocolate eyes staring intently back at her with concern. "Emily, you know that you can tell me anything. Anything." "I um I have quite a few secrets in the vault. The first of which is that I'm not an only child." Emily looked up at Morgan and shifted her body back so that she was resting on the railing with her elbows. "I have a twin brother named Emilio. We call him Milo. We have an older sister named Elesia. We call her Lisa. My parents had Lisa 6 years before they had me and Milo. My parents originally met at Northwestern. It's where my dad went. He's from Chicago, Southside to be exact, and he knew your dad. They played Little League together but separated before high school. They both met up again when they were in their twenties. My dad was finishing up at Northwestern and yours was fresh out of the academy and crazy about your mom. My dad took your dad's death pretty hard and that resulted in us leaving Chicago." Emily took a breath to control the tears that were welling up in her eyes.
"Us leaving Chicago was the beginning of my family falling apart. Everything was tense for years. My mom kept taking assignments out of the country and I thought that I'd be happy traveling, so I went with my mother. I didn't realize that Milo and Lisa started harboring animosity for both of my parents. When Lisa graduated from high school, she went to fashion school in Milan and never looked back. She's lived there since she was 18. She got married 10 years ago and has a son. Milo went to culinary school after we graduated high school and then moved to Africa. He's been living in Cape Town since he was 20. His longtime girlfriend died in childbirth with his twin boys." Emily looked at his guilty expression and took a breath and waved a hand dismissively. "Enough with the depressing stuff. This is the first time that we've all been on the same continent and in the same city and state in years. It's overwhelming but in a good way. My family is finally taking steps in the right direction. My dad retired and came back to the city. I kind of gave my mom an ultimatum." Derek's snicker caused Emily to sport a sourpuss face. He reached out and pinched her cheek lightly, "Aw is the wittle princess pouting?" Emily smacked his hand away. "I do not pout." "If you say so" Emily rolled her eyes and ignored him, "Anyways, everyone thinks that I'm the rational one, so I was designated to have the conversation with my mother. I basically told her that if she wanted to keep her marriage, have a better relationship with her kids, and to be a part of her grandchildren's lives, then she needed to give it up and retire. I told her that she had a good run with her political career but that it was time for her to put us first. It's time for her family to matter more than her career." "How did she respond to that?" Derek asked as he started drinking his coffee again.
"Surprisingly, she agreed with it and now here we all are. Everybody is back in Chicago…the last place that we were all happy as a family. I hope that it all works out." Derek reached out and pushed a strand of hair out of her face. They both heard her breath hitch and, slowly, he moved in closer to her. As their noses touched and eyes connected, Derek brought their lips closer together but his phone ringing broke their trance. "I'm sorry Em." "It's okay. Answer it." Emily had to force her breathing to even out so that she could calm down from the intensity of their almost kiss. She smirked to herself when she heard Morgan slightly stumbling over his words as his eyes bore into hers. He hung up the phone and slid his phone back in his pocket. "Your mom gonna send out a search party?" "Pretty much. I better get back there before she gets really pissed off at me." "Your mom isn't pissed. She's just concerned and you not talking made her that more worried about you. You are her only son." Morgan bowed his head as if he were ashamed, "I know." Emily lifted his head up and rubbed her palm across the smooth caramel skin of his jaw. Morgan's eyes closed slightly and he nearly groaned when Emily removed her hand. "You need a ride back Derek?" Morgan slowly opened his eyes and looked towards the ground. "Morgan? Hello? Did you drive here?" "Um no I didn't drive here. I walked." Emily rolled her eyes good naturedly, "You mean you sulked here? Cause that was so smart of you?" "Don't be mean."
Emily shoved his shoulder, "Stop being a baby. Come on. Let's get you back to your mom's place." Emily and Morgan walked silently back towards her car as their hands brushed one another softly. When they got to the parking lot, Morgan let out a wolf whistle. "Look at you princess." "Don't start that." Morgan ran his hands smoothly across the paint job of Emily's SUV. "So, princess likes to ride around in style?" "Maybe I do. Maybe it's a rental." "Uh huh. No you don't. You said that you got in your car and drove here. This is definitely yours." "What makes you so sure? Maybe I was lying." Morgan settled his hands on his hips before pointing his thumb at her car. "The color gave you away. You may have Babygirl and JJ fooled into thinking that your favorite color is purple but you and I both know that it's red." Emily nibbled on her bottom lip. "Think you know me so well?" Morgan raised a brow before smiling, "I think that sometimes I know you better than you know yourself." Emily made the mistake of looking into his eyes and seeing how he looked back at her. He looked at her as if she was the most beautiful thing in the world. Morgan waged an internal battle with himself and decided that he'd get at least one friendship back on track before he rushed into anything else; he noticed that Emily never stopped looking at him and he didn't even know if she'd blinked. He desperately wanted to change the mood before he professed something that she may not reciprocate. "You know what's missing on your ride?" "What?" "A gold version of me on the hood." Emily dissolved into hearty laughter that was too infectious not to return. "What's so funny about that Prentiss?" Emily tried to get her laughter under control, "That's the last thing that I need. Your ego is big enough. A gold you on the front of my car…..who do you think you are King Midas?" "Actually no. I'm King Gold on the hood of your car Morgan. That has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?"
Emily couldn't hold back her laughter and Morgan's straight face made it worse. "Get in the car before I let you walk back." Morgan tried to remain stone-faced but it failed and he laughed as he settled into the passenger side. Emily pulled out of the lot and followed the directions that Morgan gave her. When they were almost to his mom's house, Emily's phone—which was connected to the Bluetooth in her car—started ringing again. "You know you can answer the phone right princess?" Emily smiled, "Thank you for permission Oh Great One." Morgan chuckled to himself as she pressed the answer button. "How may I help you Milo?" "Auntie Mily!" "Antonio? What are you doing with your daddy's phone?" "Can you bring me some strawberry sorbet?" "I thought your daddy said no sweets?" "Please please please Auntie Mily. I've been so good today. It'll be our secret." Emily was about to respond when she heard her brother's voice in the background, "Tonio? Have you seen my phone?" "Nope." "Well if you find it, let me know. I need to call your Aunt Mily to make sure she picks up some ginger so that I can finish dinner." "Okay Daddy." "Antonio? Are you telling fibs?" "Um I plead the fifth. Daddy wants you to get ginger." "I heard." "About the sorbet?" "I will get it only if you give your dad his phone back." "Okay deal! You're the best Auntie Mily. I Love you!" "I love you too!" Emily hung the phone up and shook her head. She pulled up at the curb and turned to see Morgan smiling back at her. "What?" "You're a pushover." "Excuse me?" Emily said. Morgan opened the door and turned once more to taunt her, "You Emily Prentiss are a pushover." "Morgan?" "Ye-" the rest of his words died on his lips as Emily pushed him out of the car. He managed to save himself from hitting the concrete and got up to turn towards Emily. "Woman" "I thought you said push me over. Guess I misunderstood" Emily said with a smile. Morgan chuckled and closed the passenger door as she rolled the window down. He leaned in to say one last thing. "Do you want to meet Hank? He's upstairs." Emily's face changed and she looked down at her lap before returning her eyes to Morgan, "I don't want you to feel pressured." "I don't-" "Yes you do. You don't have to rush to repair our friendship because it was never truly damaged. Derek, you need to straighten things out with your family first. I'm not leaving your life. I'll still be here but your family needs to be repaired first." "Yeah you're probably right. Thanks Emily for today…for everything." "You don't have to thank me." "Get out of here and go be with your family. You gonna be in Chicago for a while?" "Something like that." "Go ahead and get out of here silly girl. You know I love you princess?", Morgan said as he leaned off of the window. Emily switched gears and just before she pulled off, she said, "Who doesn't King Midas?" Morgan watched her drive off and blew a breath into the calm air.
"I didn't mean I love you like that Emily."
