It was midnight. Mrs. Pan walked me to my room. She held onto my hand until the moment we reached the door.

I hugged her in my arms. She smoothed her hand on my back in circles and kissed me on the cheek.

"Sleep well, my dear. Remember you don't have to decide now, take your time and do it when you're ready. Don't let your worries trouble you this much."

"I will. Thank you for today, Mrs. Pan. I really needed it."

"It was my pleasure. Goodnight."

She kissed my other cheek and let me go. I muttered a quiet goodnight and watched her leave. By the time she was gone, I still didn't open the door.

I was the one who suggested to discuss what happened last night with Neal. But after finding out everything on my own, I'm not prepared to hear half the story again from Killian. I need more time to pretend nothing bad happened so I could break the silence with him when I'm ready.

The time is not now.

I grabbed the doorknob and paused for another long moment before opening it.

I found Killian sitting on the bed with his back pressed with two pillows. He was without a shirt, comfortably in a pair of gray sweat pants. His laptop was on his lap and his ears plugged with a pair of headphones.

This is a rare occasion I have ever seen him in..normal people clothes. Maybe next time I'll see him in jeans.

I closed the door behind me quietly.

"Finally, you're here."

Show time.

I breathed in slowly and exhaled through my nose. I forced a grin that made my left eye twitch from the effort.

He and I need time.

I turned around and joined him in bed, making sure he can see my smile.

"I expected to be the first one to get to bed. But I can see you went ahead of me. Why aren't you late for bed?"

I scooted closer to him to take a peek on what he's doing on his laptop. He smirked his most devilish one yet.

"Well you spent the whole day with the fun parent. I was stuck with the childish, unbearable one."

His arm took me by the waist and pulled me to his side. I giggled the way he held me tight and loosening his grasp. I leaned my head on his shoulder and smiled even wider when he kissed my hair.

On the screen of his laptop, it shows a scene of an old black and white film. A woman is resting on top of a fence, watching a man trying to hitchhike for a ride.

"What ya watching, Irish Boy?"

"It Happened One Night. It's a classic. Do you want to sleep or make this a movie night? I haven't had you all to myself today – either one I'm happy with."

"Sleep, please. I had quite today with your mom. Gosh, I love her."

"What did you girls talk about today? Don't tell me she showed you more pictures of me?"

I bit my finger in a tease. I lifted my head to look up at his eyes. He sighed and rolled his eyes.

"She did. Damn it."

"Oh get over it. You were a cute wimp back then. The last pictures she showed me were wedding pictures. Now that was a whole level of comedy. I am so surprised you haven't made a movie about your family. It will be best-seller."

"Don't get me started on that, love. It'll be impossible to find the cast who could portray my family."

"Well, it'll be a good retirement plan. When you're really old and uh – well…" I traced the firm abs on his stomach with the tip of my fingers. "..these go away, it'll keep you busy."

"Fine. But you're gonna play my stepfather. I'll hire some people to turn you into a man and develop the childish demeanor to have a strong need to grab a sword and play character."

"Fuck yeah. Then I'll have those abs while yours will sag."

That made him laugh. Seeing him laugh makes me smile genuinely.

"Can you reward me when we get back to New York? I deserve it – hard, Irish Boy."

"Oh," he kissed my forehead. "And why should I do that?"

"I hit the jackpot with your parents. I didn't get my hair pulled out or receive a black eye. Well..not mentioning your father. I don't know how he and his family are gonna treat me when I see them again."

"Very well. I suppose you deserve a reward. What do you have in mind?"

I reached for his cheek with my hand. He leaned his cheek for my palm to touch. I took a moment to take a long stare at his face.

He is a good man. But a reckless risk taker, he doesn't believe in swallowing his pride and go along with a false face to make others feel better.

Behind a camera, he is a hard-working and strict artist. Anyone who puts him down, like the stress I pour out with my big mouth, he finds ways to prevent them from affecting his work. It took me to admit my feelings for him to appreciate his work as a director.

To me, I've learned a lot of what he is while he was engaged to another woman to a free man who broke his engagement for me. Even though I know everything, I cannot let myself to imagine him as the person he once was in the past. The time to find out answer from him is not now. But fear is all I feel because his answers may not be what I expect.

What if he won't apologize to Ellie and genuinely make up to her after everything he did to her? I don't want to be like Ellie. And..I can't be with Killian if that part of him from the past still exists inside him.

"I'll give you anything," he whispered.

"I want you to do three things."

"Three? I can't spoil you too soon."

"You said anything. I deserve it."

He chuckled. "Alright, alright. Three wishes."

"First, when we get back to New York, I'm gonna call you out of the blue and you have to make time for me. It is very important you make me time for me that random day – I don't know when but you can't miss a phone call from me. Got it?"

He arched a brow. "A random day? Is it a surprise?"

"Well, I said it is important but you could call it a surprise. Now for my second wish, you and I are going to attend to EVERY holiday and anniversary for both families."

"But Em- "

I silenced him by placing a finger on his lips. "No excuses. For holidays, we're gonna have to visit one of the families, but for anniversaries, we're going to both. I want to get to know your family – your entire family. I don't have relatives so it'll give me a chance to know what it's like to be with a big family."

He sighed and shook his head. "This second wish of your is a lot to ask."

"Hey, unless you catch a deadly disease or died from an accident, you are going to make this happen, Irish Boy. This is important to me..and for you."

"Emma, it isn't that easy. My family has always been growing and growing. There's always a new face and it doesn't seem to stop. I was able to cope with it by being away form them. Why do you think I left London?"

"Your parents did what they did because they couldn't help it. A troubled marriage will always remain a troubled marriage. Moving on must had been the hardest thing they did, especially for you. But a lot of time has passed and, like you said, your family is just continuing to grow from two different countries. How much more are you going to miss out?"

"Did my mother get you to tell me this?"

I shook my head. "Your mother didn't scheme anything with me. This is really what I want. Also this is my reward so you have to go along with it whether you like it or not."

"You're truly the dream girl my mother wanted," he breathed the words sadly.

I grinned widely at him. I lightly slapped his cheek. "More reasons for me to love her. Ready for my third wish?"

"Ah. Forgot about the third. How much worse is this going to get?"

"My last wish is not going to be that bad. Cheer up, my Irish Boy."

He closed his eyes and leaned a bit of his weight on my hand. "Irish Boy wishes he was asleep and forget this ever happened."

"Irish boy should forget about that wish because he is a good Irish Boy who will listen to his girlfriend. My third – last wish is for us not to move in together or randomly visit each other's places unless one of us invites the other. I want us to date and get to know more about each other and see family when we need to. But I want the boundary of privacy like we only dated for a month."

His eyes opened. He wasn't playing coy with me anymore.

"I…I didn't expect you to say that."

"Well, I think we need to start this relationship as a normal couple who's starting out. You know. Start from base one, not move all the way to home run."

"Very well. We can do that."

Here goes nothing.

I grabbed Killian's arm and moved it away from my waist. He sat straighter when I turned to face him.

In twenty-four hours, Mrs. Pan decided she would stay with Mr. Pan. His childish ways and fear of commitment were behind her. She chose love over losing him for his differences.

Twenty-four hours is not going to be my lucky time. But at this moment, I am going to stand by my words that I told Neal – I am choosing Killian for now.

I took both his hands and laid them on my lap. "Killian, what happened last night with you and Neal is far from both our minds."

"Emma – "

"Killian," I interrupted in a louder tone. "Let me speak. Obviously there is a story between you guys that tore you apart. Believe it or not, Killian, I also have something to share with you involving that. But right now..to be honest, I am not prepared to talk about anything what happened between you and Neal."

"What do you mean? What do you know Emma?"

"Please, Killian, I told you I really don't want to discuss this about you right now, not tonight. I want for us to have some time to put all that behind us and move forward. When I'm ready, we can talk. I think it's for the best, Killian. Already there is so much going on, both of us could only handle one at a time. Your broken engagement, lying to your family, and the scandal of our relationship. We don't need to add one more to that list."

"I understand, Emma."

I opened my arms for him and hugged me close. His arms wrapped around my waist. His cheek pressed to my neck.

"It's going to be hard, Killian. I realize that. But let's take things little by little and try to be happy together before things hit us back again."