I woke the next morning with a huge smile on face. It was the first time in the last five or so days that I knew exactly where I was, exactly what I had done the night before, and I actually felt happy about it. I had flown though an impressive array of emotions in the last few days, and there were a few choice words that could connect them all. Red, passion, desire, and now most importantly, Emily. My chest swelled and I felt my already face splitting grin grow even wider as I allowed the redheads name to float through my brain once again. Of all of the names she could have possibly had that started with the letter E, I hadn't thought of Emily. It suited her; it definitely suited her, it was unbelievably beautiful. Oh fuck, did I really just think that? Jesus, I'm turning into a soppy git aren't I?

But it was true, no matter how much I wanted to deny it. The redhead, Emily, had completely captivated me. We had spent the last night staring at the stars, just talking and laughing with each other until we both knew we couldn't stay there any longer without falling asleep. She let her guard down with me, at least a little bit, and what I saw inside was exactly what I expected. She was smart, and sweet, and funny, and pretty much everything I ever thought I wanted. How this wonderful women could possibly end up in the profession that she had was beyond me. But with the confident, sexy façade I knew she could put on, she was certainly damn good at it.

I had wanted to ask her more about it, but I figured I had pushed the envelope enough for one night. We didn't talk about much of substance after that; we just joked around and talked about mundane things. But I felt like I got a brief glimpse into the inner pools of the women I wanted to know so badly, and I was mesmerized by what I saw.

I glanced over at the clock, quickly discovering it was just after 6am. I stretched lightly, knowing I had at least three more hours before I had to be to work, but I dragged myself out of bed anyway. I threw on a pair of faded jeans and a baggy jumper, and grabbing my keys and a pair of sunglasses I headed towards the door. I wanted to think, and I when I wanted to think I drove. I headed towards my old firebird convertible jumped in the drivers seat. As soon as the engine had revved up, I let the top down and speeded off towards the countryside. The Arkells were blasting through my cd player, and I smiled at how my music always seemed to know exactly what I was in the mood to listen to.

It was a bad idea

To give me this kind of time.

I smile as the wind whipped through my hair and my head bobbed along to the music. I really felt spectacular. Things weren't perfect, things were hardly even clear at this point, but I still felt fucking awesome. My thoughts drifted back to Emily once again, and my smile grew even wider. Our evening together had been so perfect. We hadn't had sex; last night wasn't about that. We just spent the evening laying together, kissing, touching, and simply existing. When our laughter and playful chatter had finally died down, we just lay there together, staring into each other's eyes and holding each other. She had looked at me with such unveiled adoration, I felt like I was the only person in the world. I could hardly believe that just a week ago, this girl hadn't been in my life. Now here she was, gripping onto my heart almost as if she had always been there.

The song changed, and immediately my mood did as well. Promises by The Morning Benders floated through my stereo, and in that moment I realized how insecure I should be feeling. I was completely head over heel for this girl; Naomi fucking Campbell did not fall head over heels for anyone. And, not only did this girl have a death grip hold on my heart, but I barely knew a fucking thing about her. We had sex twice, and almost a third time before I even knew her name, what does that say about a person? What does that say about me?

I knew in the moments we had spent together last night that this girl was someone I would pretty much die to get to know better, but that didn't mean she felt the same way. I mean, okay, obviously she was attracted to me but there was something else going on in her mind last night. She always looked so conflicted, no matter how hard she tried to hide it. In various points throughout the evening, she had gone through a large amount of emotions, but no matter how positive or negative they were, they always seemed conflicted.

I sighed to myself, there were too many emotions flying around this for it to be something casual. I knew I had to talk to her, like really talk to her and find out what all this was about. I still had so many questions, and I was driving myself crazy by not knowing them. I think I was driving myself crazy anyway with the absurdity of this whole situation, I mean I've barely known this girl a fucking week and I'm beyond infatuated with her. But the thing was, no matter how much I dissected it and obsessed over it, I always came to the same conclusion; she seemed to feel the same way about me.

I drove around for about another hour just losing myself in my thoughts, allowing myself to go through everything logically and come up with a plan. In the end, I decided I would give myself and Emily some space. As much as my entire body seemed to tell me I couldn't bare to be away from the redhead, I knew it was the best call. That way I could get my feelings under control long enough for us to have a proper conversation, and hopefully it would give her enough time to sort out her own feelings as well. You know when you get that feeling that you've come acrss someone who's supposed to matter in your life? Well, I felt that way about Emily, and I really didn't want to do anything to screw it up.

I pulled my car back into the garage outside my house, and as I shut off the engine I allowed my head to lean forward into the steering wheel. The cd that I had in the player had restarted itself, and Promises was playing once again.

I can't help thinking we grew up too fast

And I know, I know this won't last

A second longer than it has.

I snapped myself out of my daze and jumped out of the car. This was going to be a long fucking day.


Work had been uneventful, unsuprisingly. I hated my fucking job so much. I missed the days when I used to be a travel journalist; Cook and I pretty much spent our first six years out of College running around the globe and doing whatever the fuck (or whoever) we wanted. It hadn't paid well, but it kept us going. Now here I was, a big fucking corporate sell out editing for some bullshit conglomerate company, and I hated every minute of it. But it was what we had wanted, what we decided on. Cook had settled down into a boring construction job, and I settled into this one, it was all part of the plan. And even though I hated it, I had been content. After all it was what real people did; real people had boring jobs, boring relationships, and boring lives. And after everything Cook and I had been through, being boring was something we agreed we needed.

That is, until a whir of red and brown disrupted everything and turned my whole world upside down.

I threw myself onto my couch as the redhead invaded my thoughts once again. Why did everything have to be so fucking complicated? This wasn't how real life was supposed to be. It wasn't about passion, excitement, and beautiful redheaded strippers named Emily. Real life was about routine, comprimise, and boring brunette lawyers named Tay. Jesus Christ, why was I letting this happen to me again?

I shook myself out my battle with myself and jumped up off the couch. I needed to stop obsessing over things and just let them happen. I knew I was terrified of feeling out of control again, but I just had to hope I could handle whatever was going to come out of this.

Resolved to have a quiet evening cleaning the apartment, I walked over to my ipod dock and switched it on. You've Got The Love, by Florence + the Machine quickly filled the room and I began to sing along as I started the dishes.

I was startled out of my performace when I heard a loud knock at my door. I stumbled backwards in fright, stubbing my toe against the counter. I caught myself on the chair to keep from falling over and swore loudly.

"Just a minute," I shouted at the door, hoping whoever was on the other side wouldn't think I was trying to kill someone in here.

I threw off my rubber gloves and rushed over to the door. I swung it open and was surprised to find no one there. Jesus, I guess they really were impatient. As I turned to go back inside I noticed that there was a small envelope stuck to the handle. I picked it up, examining it carefully, and quickly noticed that Naomi was written across it in bright red letters. I closed the door behind me and opened it hastily. Inside was a piece of white paper with a short typed message on it. My heart was beating out of my chest and I felt my hands begin to shake as my eyes traced over the letters again and again.

She's hiding something, be careful.

"Jesus," I swore to no one in particular. I leaned heavily against the door, my emotions running so wild I couldn't pinpoint a single one that was dominating. The short letter could mean so many things, but I knew immediately who it was referring to. What was Emily hiding? I mean, she was hiding a lot of things since I barely knew anything about her, and I was especially concerned about that angry conversation she had, had with that man Tony. But it never occurred to me that it could be anything dangerous enough for someone to warn me about her.

I didn't have much time to think about it, because within in minutes I was once again startled by a knock on my door. This one was quieter, but it scared the shit out of me nonetheless. I turned around and stared at the door as if it were a slimy green alien. My hand was shaking like crazy as I reached for the latch to pull it open, terrified of facing what might be on the otherside.

I pulled the door open, and was surprised to come face to face with the brown eyes of the woman I had just been thinking about. I opened my mouth to speak but I was quickly silenced by the look on her face. She looked so nervous, I had never seen her like that before. And she looked upset, really fucking upset. Like, not like she'd been crying, but like she was pretty fucking close to doing so.

"Emily," I finally managed to sputter out after a few moments.

"Hi," she responded in that husky voice that never failed to make my hairs stand on end. As I looked at her, I was startled to realize the confident, sexy creature I had been introduced to a few days earlier was gone, and here before me was her inner core. I was still concerned over the note, but in that moment I just wanted to reach out to her and give her all I had to make her feel better. Whatever she was hiding, I just had to trust her because I wasn't going to be able to control how I was feeling about her.

"I just…I," she began, struggling to find her words. She shook her head, giving up, and instead lunged forward, capturing my lips in a heated kiss and making all my remaining concerns fly out my head.

"I had to see you," she whispered against my lips in between kisses as she pushed me back into my apartment.

So much for spending time away from her.


Ooh, more mystery, what's going to happen! Sorry I'm so slow at updating this, I'm a very busy lady these days. But the updates will come! You just have to be patient.

Sometime in the near future, I plan on releasing a little soundtrack to his story, a la LuvActually (shameless plug, if you've not reading Coin Laundry, you damn well should be). Because that was awesome, and because music is my main inspiration for this story and I think the lot of you would get it more if you heard all of the songs that have essentially written this story.

Well that's it for now. Thanks again for the reviews, got any more? :)