"No reason."
Unless someone's life depended on it, Emily didn't consider herself a liar but she had lied to JJ about where she'd gone that evening. She had told her girlfriend that she was going to have dinner with an old friend who was visiting from London and JJ had simply kissed her goodbye and asked if she could pick up some dessert on her way home and Emily had lied. Not about getting dessert, she'd gone to Georgetown Cupcake after her secret errand and eating dinner alone at a sandwich shop but about where she had gone before that.
Emily parked in the driveway, noting that JJ's car was gone with relief. She must have taken Henry to the park after they had dinner. Good. That would make this easier. She put the pink cupcake box on the kitchen island and swiftly made her way upstairs to the master bedroom where she took the small white bag from the jewelry store and took out its only contents: a small grey velvet box. Opening it, she looked at the ring; it was a simple platinum band with three sapphires set into it, two diamonds flanking the center stone. Emily hoped it would be good enough, she'd never even indolently entertained the idea of doing something like this before she and JJ had gotten involved so she wasn't exactly sure what she was doing aside from following her gut.
Emily snapped the box closed and put it back in the paper bag, folding the bag around it to make a little parcel. She was just in the process of moving some of her clothes out of the way to nestle the small package under them to hide it from potential prying eyes when she startled at the sound of JJ's voice.
"Hey, when did you get back?" JJ asked, raising her eyebrow suspiciously when Emily jumped and slammed the dresser drawer shut, spinning around to face her.
"JJ!" Emily exclaimed, trying to force casualness into the nervous edge to her voice. "What are you doing here?"
"Um, I live here?" JJ laughed and crossed the room to unplug her phone charger from the wall. She started walking over to Emily and Emily took several hurried steps toward JJ, trying to keep her away from the dresser. "Are you okay, Em?"
"Yeah!" She enthused, wincing at the fake exuberance of her voice. God, how had she ever made it in JTF-12?
JJ tilted her head and regarded her girlfriend warily. "Why are you acting weird?"
"No reason!" Emily cleared her throat, trying to get her voice back to normal. "No reason." She repeated more calmly, pulling JJ closer so she could kiss her. "I bought cupcakes from Georgetown for dessert." She said to change the subject.
"I saw the box on the counter! Did you get me a double chocolate one?"
Emily rolled her eyes and followed JJ out of the room. "Of course I did!"