AN: I'm so glad you guys liked the last chapter! All you guys are so awesome for all the positive reviews, they make my day :) The next chapter will be in Emily's POV which I'm really excited to write. Hope you enjoy this chapter.
We just stare at each other. None of us is moving because we just can't tear our eyes away, but after a few more moments Emily grabs my hand and walks us across the street.
Oh my God she's holding my hand
Her hand feels so soft; it feels so right in mine. I didn't want to stop looking in her eyes but I was probably best, we were standing in the middle of the street and I really didn't want to die right now. When we made it back to the sidewalk she didn't let go of my hand, she was holding on to it pretty tightly actually. She turns around and looks at me for a short moment and smiles, giving my hand a small squeeze and starts walking. I've no idea where we're going but I don't care, as long as I'm with her.
She walks up to a small coffee shop and stops right in front of the entrance. Emily looks at me and points to the shop while raising her eyebrows. I'm assuming she's asking me if I want to go inside, so I just nod and let her take me inside. As soon as we step inside she leads me to an open table, she squeezes my hand one last time before she lets go. She sits down across from me and I can't help but be pulled in those big brown eyes again.
She almost has an unsure nervous look on her face. I tried to speak again but like on the crosswalk she puts her finger to her lips shaking her head slightly. She pulls out a pen and some napkins that were on the table. I smile to myself knowing that we're going to be writing notes again. She starts writing and slides the napkin my way so I can see it. 'Hi', I smile and write hi back. She takes the napkin from me writing again, 'I'm glad we're properly meeting'
I don't mind doing this but I have to ask. "Why are we still writing notes to each other?" I say. She looks me in the eyes which a timid expression on her face. Emily gives a deep sigh and lifts her right hand, pointing her index finger in the air. She slowly touches the side of her chin, then to a spot right in front of her ear.
Oh, she's deaf…
My eyes widen slightly in surprise. When I did that I noticed how nervous Emily looked. She mouths "I'm sorry" and looks down at her hands. Oh God does she think I'm upset over this? Why would she think that? I quickly grab the pen from her and wrote on the napkin and slid it to her so she could read it, 'You're still beautiful'. I'm not sure how she'll take that. That may have been too much but before I could take it back she's read it. Emily looks up at me and just stares into my eyes. She has a faint blush on her cheeks so I guess she took it well. She has this look of… I don't even know disbelief? Like she can't believe I think she's beautiful or that I haven't gotten up and left because she's deaf.
I grab the napkin again, 'Can I ask you something?'
Emily just nods, looking a little more nervous. 'Can you read lips?'. Emily took the napkin writing something then sliding it back; 'A little, most people can't read more than 30% of what's actually being said' I slowly nod taking that in, only 30%? Jesus that's not very much. I take the napkin again, 'Do you know Sign Language?'. Emily smiled at this and just nodded. I take the napkin again asking one more question, 'Would you teach me how to sign?' Emily's eyes darkened as she read this. She had this surprised look on her face; I don't think she was expecting me to ask that. Emily took the napkin and started writing, 'Why do you want to lean sign?' I wrote back, 'Because I like you, a lot actually. Don't get me wrong I like writing back and forth but I want to speak with you normally'. Emily furrowed her eyebrows and began writing her reply. 'But signing isn't normal speaking for you, and I don't use my voice like you do'. I just smile at this and write back, 'You don't need to use your voice to talk to me. Signing is the way you speak; I want to lean so we can talk what's natural to you. And, I want see what your voice looks like'. After Emily read that she looked up and just looks at me. I notice her eyes are filling up with tears and I instantly panic thinking I said something I shouldn't of. "Shit I'm sorry, are you okay?" Fuck why am I talking? I don't know how much of that she got. I grab the pen and go to write but she places her hand on mine to stop me. I look up at her and see her smiling and mouthing "It's okay". She takes the napkin from me and writes, 'I understood what you said and you didn't do anything wrong. No one besides my family has wanted to learn how to sign just for me. It's just that no one wants to try for me, ever. Like when I go out, every time a hot girl trying to talk to me finds out I'm deaf they just walk away'
Two things happened; my heart instantly broke when I read that. I can't believe people would actually do that to her. Why people are such fucking pricks… The other thing that happened is my stomach instantly flipped when it was only girls she mentioned trying to talk to her. I'm feeling some good gay vibes here so I'm going to test the water a bit.
I grab a new napkin because the other one is all filled up and I write, 'I'd never walk away from you'. Emily blushed and gave me a shy smile. She took the napkin and started writing, 'I need to get back to work. Can I have your number? My new desk isn't by the window anymore and writing notes might be a little more difficult to do. I'd like to keep talking to you though'. Jesus I wasn't expecting that, fuck yes. I write my number down and we both got up to go back to work. I walk her back to her building in an obvious silence, but it's not awkward. We get to her building and before she goes in she turns to me standing on her tip toes giving me a soft kiss on my cheek. I instantly blush form a goofy smile. Emily looks me in the eyes and mouths "thank you". When she said that she also held her hand flat, palm up touching the tip of her chin with her fingers, then lowered her whole hand completely going slightly out in front of her. With that she turned around and went into her building. I just stand there for a few minutes trying to process what all has happened. She kissed me; I can't believe she kissed me.
I start walking back to my building and I almost can't process what's all happened in the past half hour. Emily is deaf. I can honestly say I didn't see that one coming. I don't care that she can't hear. I don't need to use my voice to feel connected with someone or to be able to talk with them, and I was serious about wanting to learn sign language for her. I want to speak in her language; I think it will make me feel closer to her. I need to be closer to her. Especially after she told me people always walk away and leave because she's deaf. Knowing that really makes me fucking mad, people don't want to put in a little more effort to talk to her like it's some huge problem or burden. Well fuck all those people, I won't leave her.
I get back to my desk and look towards the window where I saw Emily just a short time ago and she isn't there. I'm not surprised; she did say her desk isn't by the window anymore so it will be harder to write to each other. I won't lie it makes me pretty sad knowing I won't see her every time I look out my window. Just then my phone went off. I grab it and see I have a text from a number I don't know. I open it up and read it,
'I'm sorry if I'm not what you expected. - E'.
Reading that made my heart hurt, she must of have a lot of people leave her or not want anything to do with her because she's deaf. I add her name to my contacts and reply back,
'You turned out to be better than what I expected. -N'
It was kind of a cliché response but it's true. A minute later I had another text from Emily
'It doesn't make you nervous or intimidated? - E'
'What you being deaf? No, that doesn't intimidate me in the slightest, the only thing that makes me nervous is that I'll say something stupid and make myself look like a twat. – N'
'Are you doing anything tomorrow? I'd like to see you again. – E'
Yes! She wants to see me after work! I'm internally failing and dancing again, I'm so happy oh my god.
'No I'm not doing anything. I'd really like to see you again too, what do you have in mind? – N'
'I'm afraid it's going to have to be a surprise ;) –E'
A wink face? She's so flirting with me.
'I can't wait to see what you have planned :) – N'
I'm absolutely terrible at flirting so I didn't really try. I want to fuck things up so soon. Wait… Is this a date? Oh Jesus what if it's a date? Should I ask or would that be too weird to ask? Ah shit. My thoughts are stopped by my phone going off again with another text from Emily.
'I'm done at work at 5; will you meet me in the lobby of my building when you finish tomorrow? – E'
'I get done at 5 as well, I'll meet you then. Do I need to wear anything specific? – N'
'Tomorrow is casual day at work for me so I'll be dressed normally; I recommend the same thing though. – E'
Thank God, I love casual Friday.
'Same for me, I'm looking forward to it :) – N'
Emily replied back with a smiley face which made me smile too. I don't know what's happening to me. Just texting she makes my heart rate speed up and oh my God when I was actually with her today I thought my heart was going to bust out of my chest. These feelings are almost too much. I've never felt this strongly about someone before, especially someone I just met. Jesus Emily what are you doing to me?
AN: So what did you guys think of this chapter? Did you like it? Hate it? If there is anything you guys don't like tell me so I can try to make it better. Also, I do know American Sign Language (ASL), so the signs I use in this will be accurate, however I may not be describing them as well as they could. I do apologize for that. Again I'm not a writer so I most likely suck as describing things especially something that's purely a visual language. Leave a review and tell me what you guys think or if you have any suggestions for future chapter ideas, I'm open to anything!
