It was Emily's turn to get up with the kids.

To be clear, Emily loved her daughter and loved Henry as if he were her own. She just hated the fact that they got up before the ass crack of dawn on a daily basis.

On that particular morning, she'd made them packets of oatmeal (the kind with the hatching dinosaur eggs) and made herself an entire pot of coffee, which she proceeded to guzzle like it was the nectar of the gods.

She was staring out the window, expression sullen and moody, when JJ emerged from her bedroom. "Morning," she mumbled, voice cracking from disuse. She yawned, rubbed sleep from her eyes, smudging leftover eyeliner across her cheeks.

The sound startled Emily and she whipped around, her mug crashing to the floor where it shattered, splashing coffee all over her feet.

"Jesus, Em..." JJ said. "On edge much?" She was not a morning person, especially if she'd worked the night before, and waking up to find that Emily had drank all the coffee left her in a sour mood.

"I'm fine," Emily insisted. "It's nothing." She caught the rag that JJ tossed her and proceeded to mop up the coffee spill.

JJ seemed to soften then. "Is it... Is it because of what happened the other day?" she asked quietly. Emily hadn't given her the whole story, all she knew was that things has turned sour on her coffee 'date', but she had a feeling that Emily was much more effected by it than she wanted to let on.

Emily shrugged, but didn't answer as she picked up the shards of ceramic.

"Em, stop," JJ commanded. "Stop avoiding and look me in the eye." She paused, waited until she had Emily's full attention. "Do you really think I haven't noticed that you've been acting different? You're jumpy, moody, and hyper-vigilant... What's going on?"

In spite of her best attempts to keep her temper under control, Emily lashed out then, hissing, "We have to make him pay for what he did to me! Who the fuck does he think he is? Acting like he fucking owns me because he tossed me a few dollars!?" She shook her head, eyes blazing with fury. "We have to do it," she said firmly, "He gave us no choice."

With a glance to make sure the children were occupied, JJ said, "You're talking about robbing him?" It was phrased like a question, but she knew the answer.

Emily rolled her eyes. "Of course I am," she said firmly. "Do not tell me you're chickening out now..."

"I'm still in..." she said slowly, chewing at her lip. "I just... I think it's too soon. I mean, what if we make a mistake? If we get caught we won't see our kids for years."

"We discussed that," Emily insisted, "It's a risk we're going to have to take."

JJ thought on that for a few moments. "I'm just thinking that maybe Ian isn't someone we want to mess with. At least, not right out of the gates. We need some practice first."

"You have officially lost your mind," Emily announced as she stalked up to JJ where she waited outside the gym's doors.

Half an hour earlier, JJ had texted her with instructions to drop the kids off with Will and meet her at the pilates studio – the one that they could never have afforded a membership to in a million years... She had followed the order, but had been dubious about it. Even more so now that she'd seen JJ's expression...

"You say that now, but you'll be thanking me soon..." JJ replied with a wicked smile. She looked entirely too pleased with herself for this to be an innocent exercise class...

Emily raised a brow, intrigued, but skeptical.

She nodded into the studio. "See that guy teaching the class?" she prompted. "Tall, bearded, rather handsome?"

"Please tell me you're not trying to set me up on a blind date..." Emily almost begged. It wouldn't have been the first time, but she was really in no mood today.

JJ barked out a laugh. "He comes into the club sometimes. He owns a bunch of pilates studios that rake in the bucks from suburban soccer moms who would shit bricks if they knew he was spending their money on lap dances. Anyway...he seems harmless enough, so I was thinking we could pop the robbery cherry with him, so to speak..."

A smirk crossed Emily's lips.

After the pilates class ended, Emily approached the teacher – he'd introduced himself as Andrew Mendoza at the beginning of class – with the intent of putting their plan into motion.

She'd discarded her tank top so she was left in her sports bra (perhaps a little too small for her ample breasts) and yoga pants so tight they left nothing to the imagination. She'd long since lost any sense of shame or embarrassment she'd once had, so she had no compunctions against approaching a man and asking for a date...even if said 'date' was actually a front for robbery.

"Andrew, right?" she asked with a smile carefully calculated to be the perfect combination of demure and mischievous.

He nodded. "I don't think I've ever seen you in one of my classes before," he said. "But you look awfully familiar..."

She laughed as if he'd told a joke. "I was wondering if you wanted to get a drink tonight?" she asked. "I know this great little place uptown that serves a mean Dick Sucker..."

He choked on a sip of water. "Excuse me?" he said, flustered.

She grinned, biting her lip in faux coyness. "It's a drink," she explained, "Grape Schnapps, pear vodka, and Sprite." At his continued incredulous expression, she insisted, "It's really tasty, I swear."

He seemed to debate for a few moments longer, but she could see by the way he stared at her breasts that she'd sufficiently baited the trap.

"Please?" she added, pouting, because she didn't know a man alive who could resist a woman begging for his presence.

He nodded once, eyes still lingering on her tits. "I'm not sure about that Dick Sucker, though..."

She laughed. "We'll see how the night goes..." she joked with a playful wink.