Miles had brought Bass to a diner under the pretence that Bass needed to try some actual food if he thought poorly microwaved food was so great. Bass had fallen for that explanation right up until he followed his friend into the restaurant and froze halfway through the door at the sight of a familiar-looking face at one of the tables.
She wasn't the girl that he had fallen for all those years ago or the one that he had imagined getting killed when he'd gone back to Jasper. She was both older and younger than he remembered. Even with the differences, he knew it was her right away as he stared in shock at those eyes that he never could forget. She was gorgeous, alive, and sitting right there. She was everything that Bass wanted.
His mind was filled with questions for her and racing to come up with more as she smiled over at him and then he panicked. He didn't just make a fool of himself. He made a complete asshole of himself as, without a word, he turned around and walked right back out of there.
He got about two steps outside before Miles grabbed him by the shoulder and forced him to stop. Bass turned around to face his friend and found that the prick had the nerve to look proud of his trap. Even if his eyes were all concern, Bass knew him well enough to see the smugness in the way he was holding himself.
"I did some digging," Miles told him. "And guess who moved to Chicago half a year ago?"
Bass wasn't interested in playing, so he just glared daggers at his friend and remained silent.
"Come on, you know you want to go talk to her."
"I am going to kill you," Bass threatened. "And you should be worried because apparently that's something I'm capable of now."
"No, it's not," Miles argued. "And she already saw us. She's expecting us. Aren't you the least bit curious?"
"She also saw me walk right the hell out of there the second I saw her," Bass pointed out. "And what? Do you expect me to just walk in there and play catch up? That'll be a great conversation. Hey, what's going on with you? Me? I'm certifiably crazy now. But, hey, do we happen to have a kid you haven't told me about?"
"I probably wouldn't start with that," Miles commented in an amused tone that only pissed his friend off more. "But if you want to find out if she has any kids now, then going in there and talking to her would be a good way to find out."
Bass followed Miles back in with his hands in his pockets and shoulders hunched. He knew that this was going to be painful. But at least if he made an ass out of himself and got an answer to the question that wouldn't get out of his head, he might be able to get Miles off his back for a while.
He hesitated beside the table, staring at her awkwardly, as he tried to force himself to do anything at all. Why couldn't he remember how to act like a normal human being anymore? What was wrong with him?
Emma shot Miles an accusing look as she commented, "You didn't tell him I was going to be here. Did you?"
"What? And ruin the surprise?" Miles questioned in an amused tone. "Of course not."
"You are such a dick," Bass muttered under his breath as his legs finally remembered how to move and he sat down in the booth, across from where Emma was.
Emma let out a small laugh at that and it was like he was launched back into high school, when he had used to do anything to make her laugh harder than Miles could. Of fucking course she still had this much of a hold on him. He couldn't just be over her and not have to worry about how much of an idiot he was about to make of himself.
It was clear that Miles was waiting for him to talk as he sat in utter silence, looking over at his friend expectantly. Bass really was going to have to get back at him for this later.
"So," he said, then cleared his throat a little. "I didn't know you were in Chicago, Emma. What made you move here?"
Not exactly the most interesting topic of conversation, but it had been a lot of years since he had last seen her. He didn't know how to talk to her anymore, so he resorted to making the kind of awkward small talk a person would make with an old acquaintance they suddenly found themselves alone in an elevator with.
"Nothing very interesting," Emma responded with a shrug. "I just wanted to move somewhere else and figured here's as good of a place as any. What about you guys?"
"Miles' family is here," Bass answered. He was still pissed at Miles for forcing him into this situation and he wasn't about to pass up an opportunity to take a shot at him, so he added, "He's actually dating his brother's ex-wife now."
"Oh," Emma said, seeming not entirely sure how to react to that piece of information. "I guess that's nice. What's her name?"
"Rachel," Miles responded. An entirely unsubtle smirk formed on his lips as he added, "That reminds me, I should probably go call her."
He got up from the booth and glanced back between the pair, smirk still in place, then headed towards the door under the pretense of looking for somewhere quiet to make his call. The bastard was probably going to drag his absence out as much as possible and act like he had done Bass a favour afterwards.
Could he have been any more obvious about purposely leaving them alone?
"I see he hasn't gotten any subtler," Emma commented in an amused tone.
Bass let out a groan as he let his head fall against the table. This was not how he wanted to run into Emma, if he was ever going to. He had hoped when he saw her again that he'd be normal and not living in Miles' apartment, getting babysat twenty-four hours a day. He had hoped he would run into her on his own. Then again, maybe it was best not to go down the road of how things would occur in his mind, considering how the blackout world his brain had made up had ended for Emma.
"I made the mistake of telling him that we slept together while you two were dating," Bass told her as he reluctantly lifted his face from the table. "I thought he'd get mad, but I think this is worse."
"What? You're not happy to see me?" She teased.
"I'm a lot happier around you than around Miles," Bass grunted out.
"I doubt it," she commented. "I know what you two are like. You couldn't stand to live without him."
Well, she had that right. Thinking Miles was gone had literally driven him off the deep end.
"Yeah, he's a really great babysitter," Bass muttered under his breath.
"What does that mean?" Emma asked as her brow furrowed in confusion.
"Look, it's not that I don't want to see you," he admitted. "Because believe me, I really did want to see you. Miles at least got that right. But I'd just rather have gotten my shit together first. I mean, what am I supposed to say now? I don't have a job. I live with Miles. I don't exactly have a whole lot going for me right now."
Not to mention the fact that he wasn't entirely certain he had a stable grip on reality and he was dragging Miles down with him and tearing him from his family. But he wasn't going to touch that subject with a ten foot pole around her. He knew he was pathetic, but he still wanted to keep at least one shred of dignity somewhat in tact.
He had been avoiding her gaze, but she was silent for long enough that he looked up to judge her reaction and became annoyed as she smiled at him across the table.
"What?"
"I moved to Chicago because I couldn't stand to be around my family," she pointed out. "I hate my job, but I can't quit it because I can barely get by as it is. I don't have a whole hell of a lot going for me either. And I don't have many friends here, so it's not like I'm in a position to be picky about who I will and won't eat dinner with."
"I don't have a lot of those either," Bass admitted. He turned over his shoulder to look out the window at where Miles was still on his phone, or at the very least pretending to be. "Actually, he's the only one I've got right now. That's why I still have to put up with his shit."
"If he doesn't come back soon, then I'm ordering without him," Emma commented. "I'm sure you could figure out something that he'd want."
"Probably," Bass agreed. "What are you having?"
She opened her menu and glanced down at it again as she told him, "I don't know. I'm thinking of getting-"
Bass didn't catch her answer because he was too distracted by the picture on the top of one of the pages and had to cut her off to ask, "What in the hell is that?"
"What?" She asked as she glanced up to try to check where he was looking.
"That," he clarified as he pointed to the image of a dish that looked utterly disgusting. It was a wonder they were trying to sell it by including a photograph of it. Maybe he would get his revenge yet. "I was just going to order Miles a burger, but no. He's having that."
A smile formed on her lips as she pointed out, "I bet we can convince him to eat it."
She was probably right. Miles wasn't one to back out of a challenge, regardless of how disgusting it might be.
When the food finally came, Miles still hadn't returned. Bass knew that Rachel liked to talk, but this was starting to get ridiculous even for a conversation with her.
"I'll go get him," Bass told Emma as he slid out of the booth. "I wouldn't want his mystery slop getting cold."
Bass ducked his head out of the door and told his friend, "Congratulations, you stalled long enough that the food is here. Come eat."
"What the hell is this?" Miles asked as he sat down and looked at the plate in front of him. It wasn't quite liquid or solid and there were some hunks of distinctly grey looking mystery meat in it.
"Personally, I think it's probably better not knowing," Emma piped up.
"Exactly," Bass agreed in an amused tone. "The fun is in not knowing. It makes the flavour a real surprise. Hell, I bet even the texture will be surprising."
He was enjoying the fact that he had finally wiped that smug look of the other man's face just a little too much.
"You are never ordering for me again," Miles grunted out at his friend.
"What makes you so convinced it was me?" Bass asked as he pretended to be personally offended by the accusation.
"Because this is too stupid to be her doing," Miles retorted.
"Guess if you wanted to eat actual food you shouldn't have spent so much time on the phone with Rachel," Bass commented unsympathetically as he grabbed his burger off the plate. A smug smirk formed on his lips as he added, "At least it can't be worse than your cooking."
A/N: Please read and review! Updates for this should hopefully be coming a lot faster for this now. I'm hoping not to have that long of a break between again. And a gigantic thanks goes out to bigred20 and BassCharlie-SparrowHawke for being awesome and reviewing the last chapter! :)