"Morning," Ruby yawned, as she made her way out of her room to drop down into one of the seats around their small kitchen table.

"Good morning," Emma chuckled. "Busy weekend?"

"Uhuh," Ruby mumbled, as her friend sat a steaming mug of coffee in front of her. Emma waited patiently while she took a number of small sips of her drink, allowing the warmth and bitterness of it to wake her fully, before she expanded on her answer. "Midas sent me back those revisions he wants doing for my paper, at nine on Saturday night. I spent all day yesterday trying to get them done so I could hand the fucking thing in to him today."

That explained everything.

Ruby had already been asleep when Emma had made it back the night before, and she'd written off her concerns for her friend's health as it being due to a night of heavy partying. While she was certain that Ruby had made the most of her Saturday evening, Emma also knew that her friend was serious about her studies. So if Midas had been demanding rewrites due on Monday, Ruby would have done everything she could to make those happen.

"I'm sorry, Ruby. But I'm sure it will all be worth it when you get that grade back."

"I dunno," she sighed, "Midas is so tough to please. But as long as he passes me, I'll be happy. And I stand a better chance of that happening with these rewrites, than without them."

"I'm sure he will," Emma assured her, as she poured herself another mug of coffee and took her own seat. For a long moment the room was filled with a comfortable silence, as both women sipped at their drinks. Emma had assumed that her friend was still busy shaking off the haze of sleep, and she'd pulled out her phone to reply to Jones's sweet message wishing her a good morning. But when she looked up again it was to see Ruby smiling fondly at her over the rim of her mug. "What?" she asked.

"I assume that's your Sugar Daddy?"

"Please don't call him that."

"Well, maybe if you introduce me to him, so I can put a name to the face, I would," she threw back at her friend, arching one of her perfectly plucked brows in Emma's direction.

"Soon," Emma promised, as she locked her phone and slid it back onto the table. "I just… I'm having the best time with him, Ruby. And I don't want it to end. The last time someone from our lives got involved, we ended up not speaking to each other because of a miscommunication. And while I don't think you're gonna accuse him of being a pervert, like his friend did, I just wanna enjoy having him to myself for a moment longer. But I promise, I'll introduce you both soon. Just… give me a few more weeks to enjoy this honeymoon phase? Please?"

"Okay," Ruby agreed. "I can wait a little longer." She allowed a silence to settle over them both once more, and Emma made the mistake of thinking that would be the end of their conversation. So she was a little surprised when her friend suddenly asked, "How was your date?"

"It was uh… it was good. The show was great. And he had a private box for it too, so we had the best seats to watch the performance from."

Ruby's brows climbed her forehead a little as certain pieces of the puzzle began clicking into place. It wasn't the show that had her friend flushing bright red. It was her date. Or, more accurately, what he'd done after the show. "Did you come home this weekend?" she wondered.

"What? Why would you ask that?" Emma tried to keep her voice as level as she could, but even she knew that it wasn't working.

"I was just wondering what must have happened during the show for you to blush like that, when you remembered it," she teased. "And then I realized… it wasn't the show that you were remembering. It was what happened after it. You got laid, didn't you?"

Emma opened her mouth to deny her friend's accusations, and then snapped it closed once more. The weekend she'd spent with Jones wasn't one she regretted. And now that Ruby knew a little more about their relationship, it was also one she didn't need to hide.

"Yeah," she confessed, as she turned her attention down to the chipped mug between her hands. "Multiple times."

"Damn, Girl. I'm guessing my next question of, 'was he any good?' is kind of redundant now."

Emma giggled along with her friend as she nodded her head in agreement. "Let's just say that he knows exactly what to do, and when," she told her, before adding, "And I'm not saying anything else on the subject."

"Oh, come on, Ems. I share all the good details with you."

"Yeah, and it took me weeks to look Graham in the eye again after you described the shape and size of his penis to me in so much detail. No thanks, Ruby."

Ruby finished the last of her drink to smother her giggles, as she glanced over to the clock on their ancient oven, and then groaned a little in frustration. "Ugh, we need to leave soon," she pointed out, and Emma nodded her agreement. "But, when we have some time this week, you and I are going shopping," she added, making her way back through to her room to stuff her laptop into her bag. "If you're having regular sex now, then we need to get you a better wardrobe."

"I don't think Killian cares much about how many pairs of jeans I own," Emma pointed out, looping a light scarf around her neck, before she slid her arms into her jacket.

"I wasn't talking about that kind of wardrobe," Ruby told her friend. She slipped past her and out of their front door with a slight smirk on her face, as Emma lagged behind.

It took her longer than she would care to admit to work out what kind of wardrobe her friend had been talking about.

"So, what were you thinking we should do on Wednesday?" Jones asked, as Emma wedged her phone between her shoulder and her ear, to accept the tray of food that she'd ordered. Ruby was in the library, giving her paper for Midas one last read through, after her friend had found a couple of typos in it. And Emma had decided to make the most of her free time by ordering some food, and calling her boyfriend.

"I uh… I was thinking that maybe I could take you out for the afternoon," she suggested carefully. She had been doing some research the night before on her laptop, and at some point during the evening, she'd ended up booking tickets for an attraction on Wednesday afternoon, on a whim.

"Carry on," he drawled down the line, and Emma could just imagine the way his brow had climbed his forehead as he spoke.

"I uh… I booked us tickets for the Empire State Building," she said, suddenly doubting her actions. It had seemed like a good plan at the time. Neither of them had been before, and it was an attraction that while not cheap, certainly wasn't as expensive as some of the ideas that Jones had suggested for their future. But now that she'd told him about her plans, she was a little worried that he wouldn't find it appealing enough. After all, they certainly didn't compare to the night he'd planned for her the weekend before.

"That sounds like a perfect way to spend the afternoon with you. Will we be dining at another fast food restaurant before we go?"

Emma chuckled at his question and took a small sip from her cola, before she replied. "Not this time. I reserved us a table at the grill they have there. I figured we should go all out, just in case this is the only time I ever get to visit it."

"I like how you think," he told her genuinely. "I'm looking forward to getting to see such a beautiful sight again so soon."

"I thought you said you'd never been before?"

"I wasn't talking about the building, Emma."

Emma smothered her giggles into the back of her hand, so that she wouldn't draw too much attention to herself. She knew that the line was cheesy, but she could tell that the meaning behind it was genuine. And she loved Jones all the more for it.

"I can't wait to see you again," she offered.

"Well… you could stop by on your way home. My door is always open for you, Sweetheart."

"I know." And Emma truly did. She knew that she could probably turn up on Jones's front door at any time of the day, any day of the week, and he would welcome her inside with open arms. But she didn't want to become one of those people who pushed aside all of her responsibilities, and her other relationships, just because she had a pretty boy feeding her even prettier lines. "I just have a ton of work to do if I'm gonna spend the weekend with you. And I promised Ruby that we could go out shopping together later this week too. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I know I'm not the only person in your life right now, Emma. And if I'm completely honest with myself, I'm glad I'm not. You deserve to be surrounded by people who love and respect you. I'm just feeling a little greedy right now. I'm sure it'll subside soon enough."

Emma wasn't sure that last statement was completely true, and she was pretty sure that Jones knew it wasn't either. But she didn't say anything else. She appreciated how understanding he was, and a small part of her loved just how much he craved to be with her too. It made her feel wanted and desired, in a way that no man had ever managed to achieve before.

"So, tell me about how your day's going," she invited, as she sank back in her seat to eat the warm sandwich that she'd purchased for lunch.

Ruby was practically skipping beside her friend as the two of them made their way off campus the following day, headed for their favourite mall. She had always loved a good excuse for a shopping trip, even if she wasn't the one doing the majority of the purchasing. And as much as Emma normally hated the chore herself, she was struggling to find it in her heart to hate anything that made her friend so happy.

"Is there anything else you need while we're here?" Ruby asked, already mentally plotting the best places to hit.

"Uh… I guess if there's anything on sale, I could always grab some new shirts and jeans. But I'm not really looking to spend a fortune today, Ruby. We still don't know if we'll get to keep the apartment next year. And if we can't…" Emma didn't need to finish her sentence. Both women were already well aware that if their landlord decided to sell, or let to someone else, their rent would at least double in price.

"That doesn't mean that you can't treat yourself every now and then, Ems. I hate seeing you work so hard to only pay bills."

"I don't only pay bills."

"No. You buy textbooks too," her friend countered, with a knowing smirk.

Emma stopped moving for a moment as she considered the idea of her final year of law school. Jones still had most of his old textbooks, from what she'd seen of the books he'd unpacked in his study. And he had a great deal of new ones to match them. She wondered if she might be able to get away with borrowing his for the year, instead of spending hundreds of dollars on her own.

"Hello? Earth to Emma?"

"Huh?"

"Thinking about your hot boyfriend?" Ruby teased. "Actually, I don't think you've ever told me what he looks like. Is he hot?"

"Yes," Emma replied, but the way Ruby's smile widened told her that her friend had very different ideas about the kind of thoughts Emma had been having. "And I wasn't thinking about him in that way," she chided. "I was just wondering if he'd have the books I need for next year. Remind me to ask him tonight, will ya?"

"He's a lawyer?" Ruby prodded, as she slowed her own steps to allow her friend to catch up with her.

"Kinda. It's sort of how we met." Emma had been too lost inside of her own mind to remember just how little she'd told her friend about Killian Jones. And now she was kicking herself for it. She was pretty certain that Ruby now had enough information to put together his identity without her help, if she wanted to. And her best friend was curious by nature.

"I should have known that you'd be attracted to the nerdy types," she said instead, as she steered Emma over to a rather scary looking lingerie store.

"Oh no," she protested. "I don't think we need anything like… this."

"Trust me, I know what I'm doing, Ems. Killian will be thanking me when he sees what these places have to offer. Now… does he have a favourite colour?"

"Uhh…" Emma was a little embarrassed to admit that she didn't know if he did. While they'd had plenty of conversations since he'd sent that first email, none of them had included the basic get-to-know-you questions like that.

"It doesn't matter," Ruby declared, already sorting through a rack of tiny lacy things. "If he doesn't, he will do after he's seen these. Now… what do you think of this?"

"Where's it supposed to go?" Emma tilted her head a little one way, and then back the other, as she tried to figure out the item that her friend was holding out to her expectantly.

In hindsight, she probably should have come alone.

It was as the girls were headed towards the food court, to grab something to eat, that one particular store caught Emma's attention.

Ruby had dragged her around every lingerie shop in the building, and although she'd tried to talk Emma into buying something a little more risqué than her usual taste, Emma had left with only a few new sets of matching underwear, in a variety of different colours. While she didn't doubt that Jones would enjoy seeing her in a corset, or something apparently called a teddy, Emma didn't quite feel comfortable enough in her relationship yet to venture into that territory with him. So she hoped that her boyfriend would enjoy what she'd picked out, when he finally got to see it over the weekend.

And if she felt a little more daring in a few months' time, at least she now knew where to go.

But there was something else that she knew he would appreciate, and that she already felt comfortable wearing for him.

"Do you mind if we just head in here quickly?" she asked her friend, nodding to the open doorway of the darkened store.

"Of course not." Ruby looked a little confused, but she didn't complain. If it had been up to her, she'd have browsed every store in the mall that looked like it sold clothing or accessories, on the off-chance that the two of them might find some bargains. But she knew that Emma wouldn't appreciate being dragged through every shop in the mall that afternoon. Especially when she had deadlines to meet.

Emma took a moment to look over the rows of shoes and sandals that filled the shelves, before something along the back wall finally caught her attention. Sitting her bags down at her feet, she reached for a pair of long black boots, and turned them over in her hands. The heels were solid, which would make them easier to walk in. And they had a dark zip hidden on the inside, which would make them easier to pull on and off.

"Excuse me. Do you have these in an eight?" she asked the nearest assistant, holding the boots up so that they could be seen.

"I'll go and check for you."

Ruby watched as the older woman headed back to the storage room behind the counter, before she turned her attention over to her friend. "Do you need new boots?"

"Uh, need? No," she replied cryptically. "But uh… Jo… Killian. He um, he liked yours," she added quietly, keeping all of her gaze on the black velvet fabric in her hands.

It didn't take long for Ruby to work out the true meaning behind her friend's words. And when she did, a wide smile broke across her face. Killian might not have had a preference when it came to the lingerie his girlfriend wore, but he certainly seemed to have a thing for over-the-knee boots.

"This is the last pair," the assistant declared, as she handed a large box over to Emma, for her to try on.

Ruby stood back and watched as her friend slipped off the sneakers that she was wearing, and wiggled her feet into the new boots. As soon as she knew that Emma could both stand and walk in them, she held out her credit card as a silent offering.

"Ruby!" Emma chided.

"What? Call it an early birthday present. And make sure you tell Killian that I expect my thanks in the form of a fancy meal, when I finally get to meet him. If he's loaded enough to rent a private box to take you to the theatre, then he's loaded enough to buy me a proper steak."

Emma chuckled softly as she placed the boots back into their box and followed her friend to the cash register. If the lingerie didn't blow him away, at least she knew that her new boots would.

Sorry this one is a little shorter than the last few have been. I felt like Ruby deserved this time alone with Emma, before Jones got her back again.

Thanks for reading and reviewing.