'Nother February chapter where I need to go and hide under a rock X'D love you guys, I'll be in my bunker.
Song Suggestion: My Head and My Heart by Ava Max
Disclaimer: I own nothing =v= CapCom plz don't hurt me
Emma stretched a bit as she made her way up the stairs of the apartment complex. "What a bust, the place wasn't even worth getting dressed up," She says with a tired sigh as she took off the blazer jacket. While opening the door of her apartment "Duke I'm home" she says with a worn-out tone as the dog pattered over to greet her. "hi baby," she says as she closes the door then kneeled down to give him pets before getting up to get his dinner. With the pooch fed she lays her blazer over the back of the couch then walks over to the fridge to marks off another day on the calendar. February 21st. One more week before March.
she looked at the date above that on the calendar. the 14th. she frowned slightly and sighed. It was bound to happen eventually that he'd be away for a mission during a holiday. Emma loosened the top few buttons of her blouse before opening the fridge to start gathering ingredients. the fridge was starting to get a bit skimpy. She was running out of time. She gave a tired sigh "fried rice it is" she says as she starts taking out various leftovers to avoid wasting anything and turns on the oven.
She only had enough of her severance to get through March. "I can probably dip into my savings and make it another month. Maybe two if I really pinch pennies... worst-case scenario, there's always the nest egg," She didn't want to do that but bills didn't really care if you were unemployed.
Emma finished cooking her meal and brought the plate of food over to the Island. She continued to stand and simply leaned against the Island to support herself as she ate. How was she going to sign another 1-year renewal in April if she was still unemployed?
'*'*'*'*'
Chris made his way up the stairs of the apartment building to the second floor. 2 weeks closing up loose ends around the states and he was finally back. The timing was kinda unfortunate but work was work. They actually let him out at a decent time which was nice, he was able to try and head to the store to pick something up but naturally pretty much every store he went to was down to scraps since the holidays had well since passed. It wasn't much but he looked at the small buddle of 6 roses that were just barely starting to wilt and turned a bit pink before shaking his head. It was fine they'd been seeing each other for a little over a year now.
He stopped in front of Emma's door and slung his bag over his shoulder so he'd have a free hand and he hides the hand holding the small bundle of flowers behind his back. Chris contemplates knocking. He shakes his head and digs out his keys to unlock the door and quietly walks in to see Emma she leaned forward against the kitchen island dressed in a black pencil skirt and a white collared shirt with a sparse thin blue pinstripe design. Duke lazily looks at Chris before going back to sleep. The soft clinking of silverware against a plate and a light scent in the air told him it was dinner time. Maybe she started a new job while he was away?
Chris puts his bag down by the closed door. huh. she still didn't notice? She must be spacing out. He smiles a bit at this and slips his shoes off so he can quietly walk over. At this point, he wanted to see how long it would take her to notice. He continued to hold the flowers behind his back with one hand and used the other to hook her waist.
As he does this Emma yelps and flails a bit while panicking before eventually grabbing her fork to turn and face him "Chris?!" she says surprised and partially mortified as she lets go of the fork which falls to the floor and moves to hug him instead. Holy heck he was 5 seconds away from getting 4 new tiny holes in his chest. "You scared the shit out of me."
"It's a good thing, we still train, because that was a horrible reaction," Chris says through his laughter. He felt bad for scaring her but it was also kinda funny. "What's for dinner by the way? it smells good."
"You," Emma lets go of him and gives him a gentle swat "None for you, you're in trouble," she says shaking a finger at him even though she stayed in his loose grip.
"I'm in trouble?" he asks amused.
"Yes," Emma replies while forcing a frown, she was happy to see him but not thrilled about the scare.
"Even if I say I'm sorry?" he asks in return as he leans forward a bit to rest his forehead against hers.
"...maybe" She replies looking away as her resolve weakened. dang it.
Chris gives her a quick peck. "Well, I'm sorry. I won't do that on purpose again. promise." he offers as an apology. It was a difficult promise to make because it was genuinely funny but he was a man of his word.
Emma pauses but eventually returns the peck "Okay fine" she relents before walking over to get a plate and serve up the last of the fried rice "How was your trip?" she asks as the usual ritual began.
"It was work," he replies as he moves his hand from behind his back to casually hold the small bundle in view as he waits for her to turn back around.
"I see," Emma says as she gets a fork from the silverware drawer before turning back and noticing the flower. "Oh! You are full of surprises today, what's gotten into you" Emma says smiling now.
The question joking or otherwise surprised him, "Nothing, nothing. Sorry it's a bit late," he says as Emma trades him the plate and fork for the bundle and gives him a quick peck.
"Don't worry about it, you don't exactly get to pick when you leave," Emma says as she goes to get a vase and fills it with water placing that on the Island next to the tiny metal hut before putting the flowers into the vase "There we go," she added with a smile.
While Emma messed with the flowers Chris took his usual seat. "How was work?" he asks with hesitant curiosity.
"Interview" Emma says with a sigh.
"Ah. Well, how was the interview then?" Chris asks before starting to eat.
"I don't know, I mean I think I did okay but," she bobs her head. "It's a decent place but I'm not sure I really want to work with book publishing. I'll keep looking there has to be something in the area."
"Won't be long I'm sure," Chris offers, causing Emma to sigh.
"I wish I had the same confidence," She admits with a slight frown as she picks up the fork she dropped and takes that over to the sink. "But I'm not giving us so there's that going for me," Emma adds as she gets a glass of water and walks over to put that down by Chris' plate. She would have offered a beer or something but alcohol was a frivolous expense at the moment.
Emma was about to start on the dishes when she heard movement behind her and the scrapping of the wooden table legs against the floor. She turned back to notice Chris moving the table out of the way.
"Come on," He motions for her to join him. "You're frustrated. Put the dishes down, let's train for a bit. They'll be there later."
Emma smiles a bit at this before shaking her hands to get some of the water off before drying them on a dishtowel "Alright, give me a moment." She agrees then walking over to her room to change out her skirt for leggings. As she walks out she rolled up the sleeves of her button-up shirt. "Ready," she says as she takes her stance.
Right jab, left jab, left jab, kick. Right jab, right jab, kick, left jab, Kick, kick.
"Easy now," Chris says with a chuckle before shaking out his wrist. "at this rate I might need to look into more proper padding."
"Well, we have been doing this for almost three years now," Emma says shaking her head.
"Is that right?" Chirs asks a bit surprised before thinking it over "Two years, nice try" He replies amused as he hold his hand up again for another kick.
"Two and a half which is almost 3. Thank you very much." Emma counters shaking her head before going for the target. As she does so he grabs onto her leg and uses that to pull her towards him, supporting her back with his other hand.
"Are you sassing me?" He asks with a smirk which causes Emma to laugh.
"No," She says through her laughing while shaking her head.
Hearing her laughter causes him to chuckle. "We're training. Pretty sure that's a no sir," he teased.
"Yeah right," Emma jokingly replies with an amused smile as she half-heartedly pushes at him.
"m-hm" He hums before leaning forward to pick her up over his shoulder.
'*'*'*'*'
A few days had passed since then and Emma looked over a printed copy of a PDF.
"Auto Beta Publishing is happy to offer the following position for your consideration" Emma read aloud as she plopped onto the couch. It was a less than tempting offer, to say the least. She'd be going back to a junior manager since she didn't have experience with books, with that she'd be taking a pay cut. roughly 6k off her last salary. The location wasn't horrible maybe an extra 5 minutes to her commute so that was a plus. " We look forward to hearing your decision within the next two weeks." she read with a slight frown before giving a quiet sigh. she really wasn't in a position to be picky but man this sucks that after 3 months this is all she had to show for it.
upon hearing her phone go off she looked at it confused. she didn't know this number. "Might be a recruiter..." Emma says before bobbing her head trying to determine if it was worth it to potentially have to listen to a scam call for 5 seconds. Ultimately she answers the phone.
"Hello, Emma Swanson speaking. How may I help you?" She asks while waiting for an automated message about her car's extended warranty.
"Emma!" "Emmy!" ey yo em!" "Emmaaaaa" called a group of 4 deeper male voices.
"My kings! It's good to hear from you. Please tell me you got picked up by a new label," Emma says as she smiles. This was a pleasant surprise.
"Yeah, took a while but the last place was able to sell off our contract," one replies with a few yep yeah u-huhs in the background.
"Good, you guys are going to do amazing" Emma says with a chuckle.
"Hell yeah we are, that's why we need you," another says and once more the remaining 3 agree.
"Yeah, we managed to work in some details for the sale. We want you to stick with us as our marketing manager. Wouldn't agree to it unless they at least made you an offer," says the 3rd.
"Aw, Guys," Emma says very touched by the fact that they went out of their way for her like that. "That's. Thank you."
"You get our vision, I don't wanna work with someone that doesn't," the fourth says and gets another chorus of agreements.
"They just signed the paperwork so you should be getting the offer letter in your inbox soon," the first says.
"They'll need your acceptance letter in two weeks," the second adds.
"Yeah, that's," Emma pauses as she holds the side of her head stunned. "I'll definitely look for the email. Thank you guys so much."
"See you there!" they all shout at the same time before laughing.
"Bye guys," Emma says with a short chuckle and she gets a course of goodbyes before hanging up.
The next morning Emma checked her inbox and sure enough there was the email.
Subject: Hiring Proposal - Senior Marketing Manager
Emma smiled as she read over the email and opened the attached PDF, she'd basically be picking up where she left off. better pay, an amazing starting bonus. They were going all out in this. She smiled as she read further but it slowly faded as she noticed a small but ever-important detail... the address of the office she'd be working at.
"That's. On the other side of the country," Emma says quietly as she covered her mouth in contemplation. No wonder there was such a tempting starting bonus they were paying her to move...
She looked from the PDF file on her screen to the printed offer next to it. What was she going to do... whatever it was, she had 2 weeks... Emma walks over to the tiny metal hut to burn a new thought which she quickly scribbles down before placing it inside of the hut with a match.
What am I doing with my life?
I don't usually include cliffhangers, but when I do I choose Dos Equis. x'D Jokes aside love you guys hope you don't mind the cliffhanger. sorry this one was short, the next chapter will be out soon so it won't be too bad I hope.