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Too Close for Comfort
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"Emma, was that your stomach?"
She looked up at Joey sheepishly from her desk. She had hoped that the low rumbles that had been occurring for the better part of the last hour would dissipate, but they had instead grown louder and louder- her stomach protesting her skipping breakfast and not having eaten lunch yet. "Yeah. I kind of haven't eaten anything today."
Joey dropped the pen he had been writing with onto the desk in front of him. "Emma!" Taking a deep breath so he wouldn't risk loosing his temper, he tried to calm his voice. "Why haven't you eaten today?"
Shifting uncomfortably in her seat, Emma began gnawing on her lip while she thought over what to say. Admitting the truth-that she had been too nervous about the prospect of an entire day with Joey-wasn't a feasible option. So what did she say? No matter what she came up with Joey was still going to think it was some sort of leftover anorexia related issue.
"Emma?" he prodded.
With a shrug, she looked him right in the eye and told him the first thing that popped into her head. "I was running late and just didn't have time. Honest."
Joey pursed his lips. Emma obviously wasn't telling him the truth-at least not the whole truth. She had never been able to lie without giving herself away. Her habit of chewing on her bottom lip whenever she was hiding something was a dead give away. "Really?"
She bobbed her head, her blonde hair shimmying around her shoulders. It caught the light from the window behind her, glimmering like pure sunlight, and distracted him momentarily. With a shake of his head to gather his thoughts, Joey fixed his eyes on Emma's face only to see her own big brown orbs locked onto him with a pleading look of anxiety. Picking up his phone, he asked, "Pizza or Chinese?"
Relief rushed through her, deflated the sheer terror that had been coursing through her veins. "Chinese."
"Corn nuggets, right?" he asked with a grin. "And sesame noodles?"
Her stomach growled once more, the mention of foods she loved and hadn't had in so long making her even hungrier if that were possible. She laughed, blushing, and nodded her head.
"Okay then. I'm just going to go see if Chip wants anything," he told her and headed out to the lot.
Emma sighed, leaning back in her chair, and rubbed her hands over her face. This was a lot harder than she had planned on. The basis of her logic for taking the job with Joey in the first place was her idea that if she were around him more, eventually her common sense would kick in and things would go back to normal.
No such luck.
Her stomach rumbled again and she looked down, grimacing. "You are no help whatsoever."
Joey walked back in, muttering under his breath and picked up the phone on her desk. She studied him; his jaw working in irritation and the glare in his eyes as he punched in a few buttons on the phone and ordered lunch. When he hung up, he exhaled slowly and glanced down at her.
"Joey, are you okay?" she asked tentatively.
"Yeah. I think I might need to call Wheels later and tell him his nephew is an idiot." He placed her phone back in its cradle and gave her a weak smile. "But there's no need to worry you with that. How's your work going over here?"
Frowning, Emma stood up from her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. "You're not going to worry me, Joey. In case you missed it, I don't really care much for him either."
"Emma-"
She shook her head, cutting off his reply. "You're one of the only people who has never walked on eggshells around me," she said softly. Stepping closer, she added, "Please don't start now."
Joey swallowed, nodding a bit. His eyes seemed a little confused; almost worried. But his gaze remained locked onto hers and Emma felt herself subconsciously leaning forward so slowly she doubted Joey could even notice. His eyes were just so dark…
The phone began ringing, jolting them out of their haze. Joey snatched up the phone. "Jeremiah Motors."
Emma sank back down into her seat, dazed. She turned back to the file entry she had been working on earlier-though she doubted the quality of her work was going to be anything to brag about. Her focus was totally shattered.
Joey cleared his throat, drawing her eyes back to him while he talked to someone about exhaust manifolds on the other end of the line. She studied the line of his back, his shoulders, realizing that Manny had been right about her getting in over her head in taking the job.
Things would get a whole lot worse before they got better.
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A customer ended up staying past six, when they were supposed to be closed, milling around a VW Bug at the edge of the lot. Joey had offered to drive her home, and she would have felt horrible leaving just because it was taking longer than planned. Especially since Chip had stood, sighing and looking at his watch, until Joey told him to go ahead and head home at ten after.
At twenty till seven, the man finally decided to come back the next day with his wife rather than surprise her like he had been originally planning to do.
"Well that was fun," she joked. Joey grunted in response. As irritated as she was by the whole situation, Joey had to be even more annoyed than she was. After all, he had been the one to stand outside with him and stand there while he walked in continual circles around the car.
"You didn't have to wait," he told her. "I would have understood if you'd wanted to head home an hour ago." It had begun to rain, a slow drizzle falling on them as Joey locked up and they walked to his car. "Hang on." He pulled on the passenger door for a second before it finally opened. "It sticks."
Emma slid in and buckled her seatbelt while Joey started the car. "I didn't mind." She smiled at him, then leaned back into the soft leather seats as Joey pulled out onto the road. The rain was coming down steadier by then. Joey was driving slower than normal, stopping occasionally and idling, and for once had the radio off. It was very soothing.
She must have dozed off, because the next thing Emma was conscious of was Joey shaking her shoulder to wake her up. "Emma, wake up."
Her eyes cracked open slowly, not wanting to move. "Sorry," she mumbled. "Guess I dozed off, huh?" She gave him a sleepy smile, broken by a yawn, and laughed sheepishly. "I'll see you in the morning."
She pushed the door jamb, forgetting that it stuck until it refused to open.
Joey chuckled. "I told you." She fought back the urge to stick her tongue out at him for his teasing. "Let me," he said and leaned over her to take hold of the handle himself, pushing at it.
It didn't budge.
"Need some help there, Joey?" Emma asked, smiling brightly.
"No no," he insisted. "I'll get it. It's just gonna take…a second."
He tried again, bracing his other hand on the windowsill for better leverage. Emma sucked in a breath; Joey was almost on top of her in her seat. Scrunching her eyes tightly, she employed one of her therapy techniques and counted to ten in her head before opening them.
Just in time for Joey to push too hard-hard enough for his hand to slip and he knocked his head against hers.
"Damn it. Oww…oh my, Emma, I am so sorry," Joey sputtered, rubbing his forehead.
"No, its okay," she said and tossed a look at the door. "But at least you got the door open."
He laughed, not really seeing the humor in the situation at all. Emma felt his eyes on her-o rather the spot on her temple that was throbbing. He shook his head, blinking a bit, and touched his fingertips to the spot. Emma hissed.
"Sorry. It doesn't look too bad, but you'll probably have a bump there tomorrow."
"Guess I'll wear my hair down then," she joked, aiming her hand towards the low ponytail she was currently sporting to try and look a little more professional.
"Put some ice on it, and it should be fine," Joey stated. His fingers were still rubbing over the spot, a little softer now, and he seemed to have just realized it by the way he stopped suddenly and stared at her.
"Joey," she began. She didn't know what she was going to say, but she needed to say something.
Snapping backwards like he had been hit, Joey turned his head to the road. "Ice. Lots of ice."
"You said that already," she mumbled.
He nodded, swallowing roughly. "Then I'll see you in the morning. I gotta get home; m mom's probably already there with Angie."
Emma nodded. It appeared to be another point to her bad luck. An even worse than that-it looked like she had slipped, no pun intended, and given her feelings away to Joey. She walked up the walk, not really caring that she was getting wet, and swinging her purse idly. 'That,' she thought, 'had to be the most awkward moment ever.'
Her family was eating dinner when she walked in. She walked by them without a word and grabbed an ice pack from the freeze to put on her head.
"Emma what happened?" Spike asked, jumping up to check on her.
She sighed. "Nothing. Just a little accident trying to get the car door open."
Snake chuckled while Spike directed Emma to her own chair and inspected the bump beginning to come up on her skin. "Joey's been meaning to get that fixed for a while now. Maybe now that he's harming innocent bystanders he'll finally do it."
"Emma got boo-boo?" Jack asked from his high chair.
She smiled at her baby brother. "Nah. I'm fine."
He pulled the French fry he was munching on out of his mouth and handed to her. She took it, amid chuckles, and wondered what Joey was thinking right then.
