Chapter 26

Thud!

"Regina?" Belle called out to the quiet apartment but received no response. She decided to check the sofa before calling Regina's name out once more. She took her shoes off by the door and hanged her keys on the key hanger by the door. She quietly stepped towards the sofa in the living room; she reached her point she leaned forward and looked down to see if Regina was still sleeping.

"Ah..she still asleep" whished Belle to the quietness.

"I should make us something to eat. I bet she will be hungry," Belle said with a smile as she moved herself to the kitchen by the living the room. The kitchen wasn't that big but was good enough to have much of the stuff for cooking and keeping food stored.

Hmm what should I make?...AHA!...got it! Was belle's last thought before getting consumed into her cooking.

Back at the office…..!

"Ruben!1 Where the hell were you? I called you so many times but you didn't pick up at all?!" Emmett burst into Ruben's office when he was notified of his return to the office from his other worker.

Ruben ignored Emmett's flustered look and was just smiling which has been the case since he came back from his chat with Belle. "Ahhh…. I am so happy, Em" Ruben blurted out as he put both his hands on Emmett's both shoulders.

"Obviously I can see that from that giant smile on your face…sigh." Emmett narrowed his eyes on Ruben who was still smiling like an idiot. "Now if you don't take your hands off of me, I might cut them off or something..i don't think that will leave any kind of smile on your face" Emmett said with a tight smile and irritated voice.

That seemed to take Ruben out of his daze and his hands from Em's shoulders. He doesn't prefer a sarcastic Emmett and he believes no one else will either, ever. Because it can get real scary real quick and the boundaries between sarcasm and seriousness tends to fade away with Emmett.

"Uh..ahah…no need to get serious, Em" Ruben let out with a nervous laugh, all his excitement gone.

"So what got you so happy that you skipped some time off of work?" Emmett inquired.

"Uh..Nothing! I was just…uh…"Ruben looked around not meeting Emmett's gaze. "Um I was just doing what you asked for me to do. I actually meeting someone to see if they were fit to be your secretary" Ruben lied trying to look Emmett in the eyes.

"Hmm..so you didn't just go see Belle! Yea how can that be she has the day off of course meeting a stranger for the first time will make only my dear friend so so happy" Emmett said with a straight face, he then glared at Ruben in anger for taking him for a fool.

Yep I can never lie to this creature GOD! Him and his inbuilt lie detector thought Ruben, as he knew there was no point in hiding things from him.

"Okay okay you got me!" sigh "Man why can't I ever keep things from you for once" whispered Ruben to himself as went back to sit on his chair.

"What did you say?" Emmett knew what he heard, but he wanted Ruben to say to his face.

"Nothing I said nothing! Well are you gona just stand there or what come take a seat Em!" offered Ruben as he noticed Emmett didn't move to sit at all since he entered his office.

Emmett dismissed his comment and walked up to the office window and opened the blinds to look through the window to outside world. It was brighter now in the room. They were on the 25th floor of the building; Emmett could see other building and looked down to see cars and people passing by.

"So are you going to tell me now where were you and with whom?" Emmett asked while still facing away from Ruben and looking outside through the office window.

Ruben leaned back on his chair and rested his hands on his stomach. "I was with Belle. She uh she had dropped by to talk to me so we went to the café few blocks from here to talk" Ruben said looking to where Emmett was standing by the window.

Emmett turned back around and looked straight into Ruben's eyes.

"I hope you know what you are doing Ruben. Belle is not like other girls you have had the pleasure of meeting a girl every other night or so" Emmett warned, still not taking his eyes off of Ruben.

Ruben wasn't backing down from their staring contest either. "Trust me Em I'm not doing this to just get laid…I really want to get to know her better and learn everything about her. I am serious for real this time and I won't let anything ruin that," Ruben declared with full determination.

"Ruben I have known you for a long time now. I don't think I have ever seen you be serious about anyone before" Emmett let out a breath. "but…I am also aware of the type of guy you are Ruben after all, I have lived up to now to tell the tales of your very very short relationships" Emmett said with a smirk on his face. He knew Ruben was not lying when he told him he's serious about Belle but he also couldn't ignore his past either.

Emmett still hadn't taken his eyes off of Ruben, he could see that Ruben was taking in his words and the warnings within those sentences.

"Em..please" Ruben closed his eyes for a minute and looked towards Emmett again.

"Well then really give me a good ass reason to really believe you about your feelings for Belle!"

"I can't do it Em, you just have to trust me and believe for now. Even I don't know how I came to obtain such strong feelings for her" Ruben got up from his sitting chair and walked up to Emmett and stood in front of him not breaking eye contact at all.

"I admit that the first time I saw her I just wanted it to be those regular one time things and nothing more…but for some weird ass reason I always lost my cool whenever I tried talking to her" Ruben explained as he ran his hand through his brunette hair, not liking the feeling of being completely open like this. "You have to believe when I say this that over time as I slowly got to know her even thought its not much but her mere presence just calms me down and I love being around her and, and I don't want anyone else because every time I try to its her who just pops up in mind stopping me from being the person I was before, not that I am complaining, its just her being around me and my life has given me a reason to actually feel something for real, something strong" Ruben finished pouring his heart to his best friend, never breaking eye contact. He let out a soft sigh and hoping that his best friend would believe him now.

Ruben noticed Emmett give him a small smile; he didn't know what to make of it.

What he hadn't expected was for Emmett to just grab him to hug him instead of laughing at him for his confession.

"So does this mean you believe me..?"

Emmett let go of Ruben and said "Ruben I never doubted you, I just wanted to make sure that whatever you were planning to do was something you wouldn't regret later on. I wanted to make sure that you were sure of yourself and your feelings for her." Emmett gave him another small smile.

"Damn you Em, you scared the shit out of me. I was afraid for a second that my best friend won't support me on this" Ruben let out as he lightly shoved Emmett away.

"Well…hmm" Emmett thought with his hand under the chin motion "I couldn't just let some girl come in between us now, could I?"

Ruben just stared at Emmett with his mouth open, trying to see if that was meant to be a joke or what. Emmett just couldn't get enough of the reactions he was getting out of his friend.

"Ruben darling, you better close you mouth before a fly gets in" Emmett said with a teasing voice. Ruben had sat down on the sofa by the window, where Emmett was still standing close to. He immediately shut his mouth and tried very hard to understand what the hell was going on here.

"Okay man! I get that..you..you..um well its been a long time since you have met someone interesting…but…BUT…lets not lose hope, there are still plenty of fish in the sea…so lets not, not that I have anything against it but..you know…" Ruben shrugged his shoulders hoping to get whatever he was saying across to his friend

Emmett on the other hand, couldn't hold it any more so he burst out laughing at his friend's frantic behavior.

"Calm down Ruben, I was merely teasing you. God, your reaction was priceless. You should have seen yourself" Emmett was still laughing at him.

"Alright, alright!" Ruben got up and away from Emmett and say on his chair.

"So you planning on spending the whole day in my office or what?" Ruben asked after few minutes when Emmett had calmed down.

"Oh well…yea sorry, I was actually asking for you because of that file I had handed you to look through to finalize the deal with our clients" Emmett asked all of a sudden in his serious business like self.

"Um..weell, I looked through it but I will call them up right now to and go over it with them also to make sure everything is in order and I will let you know. How does that sound?" Ruben was hoping for his friend to not lash out at him for ignoring his job.

Emmett walked away from the window and walked up to the office table. He leaned on the table with his arms spread out on the table and started at Ruben.

"I know…I know what you gona say, I promise you it won't happen again" Emmett leaned back to stand properly and Ruben let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

Emmett walked to the office door and opened it halfway "Make sure you won't neglect your duty for anything else again, Ruben" before Ruben could say anything more, Emmett had already exited out of his office and the door was not closed again.

Damn those intense green eyes, scares the shit out of me when he get so serious like that!

Ruben said to himself as he picked up the phone to call the client about the deal papers sitting in front of him on his desk.