Disclaimer: I own nothing; everything belongs to its rightful owners.
AN: Thank you to everyone who takes the time to read and/or review my stories, it really means the world to me! And a BIG special thank you goes to the amazingly talented purpleplasticpurse for beta reading!
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It Is So Easy To Forget Who We Were
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(The Color In Anything/February 2007)
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"You've never had a desk job, Emily."
She stills with her hands on the buttons of her blouse, his office feeling too small all of a sudden.
"What makes you say that?" she asks, even though she knows the answer.
She's given herself away without really knowing it.
I never even blinked.
"Where have you been?'' He prompts and Emily shuts her eyes. pondering her options. She wants to offer him something - anything - but there's nothing for her to tell.
"Nowhere," she answers and it's not even a lie. Emily's never been anywhere.
"Your file is nothing but a made up legend," he notes and Emily opens her eyes again.
"Is it?" She throws back, meeting his gaze in the window. His eyes are searching hers for a truth she's not supposed to give away.
"Emily," he starts and then stops. Emily goes back to buttoning up her blouse.
When she turns around, she finds him watching from his place behind his desk. For one moment, Emily wonders what would happen if she told him the truth.
"Who did you work for," he asks. She can hear the unease in his voice growing with each passing second.
He doesn't trust her. And he shouldn't.
"It's in my file," she says, and it is. The truth hidden in plain sight.
He frowns, his eyes turning dark and Emily wishes she didn't know how to manipulate him. But she does. She knows everything there is to know. Clyde had served it to her on a silver platter. Not that she asked for it.
"I told you," she adds, the words falling from her lips with ease. "I just compartmentalize better than most people."
She settles down on the edge of his desk before she reaches for his tie, curling it around her hand to pull him close. She leans forward, allowing her lips to brush against his, careful and tentative, and she wishes it wouldn't make her feel so vulnerable. But it does. He does.
It's what he's done to her since the moment they met.
He cups her face with the palm of his hand so gently she's barely able to feel it. She draws back slightly, her eyes finding his.
"Emily."
For almost a decade she's hardly ever been her, Emily, but to him, Aaron, it's all she is, all she's ever been. Displayed in his eyes, she finds the turmoil she feels; the only thing that's ever truly scared her.
Love.
It's Emily who bends to kiss him first, her lips pressed against his to prevent him from saying what she heard too many times before.
It means nothing to her. It never has.
And no one should be doomed to love her in the first place.
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Disclaimer: I own nothing; everything belongs to its rightful owners.