Chapter 18, part 1: Hang Your Halo, Pt. 3

Let's wear these sheets around as clothes.
And wear deceit around as robes that we can hide in.

"What do you think you're going to do?" Manny asks Emma, plopping down on her bed.

"I don't know." Emma holds up another outfit against her body. "He always says that it's a surprise."

"He's really sweet." Manny smiles. "So..."

"I told you already Manny, we haven't had sex." Emma looks at Manny through the mirror.

"Okay, but maybe..." Manny bounced lightly from side to side suggestively.

"Yeah, I thought that too." Emma agrees and holds another outfit up to her.

"What's the occasion?" Manny asks, standing to help her friend.

"He said whatever I'm comfortable in." Emma looks at herself and the outfit held up against her body.

"You have to wear something sexy." Manny starts going through Emma's closet.

"Manny, if tonight's not the night; you can't force it to be." Emma tells her best friend.

"Why can't it be tonight? You guys have been together for a couple weeks. He's amazing, you're amazing." Manny pulls out a short sleeved gold colored sequin scoop dress.

"Manny, that's a form fitting dress." Emma says, as if Manny didn't realize what she pulled out.

"Duh," Manny replies, "It's perfect." Manny pushes it towards Emma. "Try it on and you'll agree with me." Reluctantly, Emma takes the dress from Manny and puts it on. Standing in the mirror, Emma couldn't help but stare at the dress.

"You don't think it's a little short?" Emma turns to Manny.

"Do you realize who you just asked that question to?" Manny smiles a bit. "He is going to love it!" Manny straightens out the dress a little. "What time is he picking you up?"

"He asked me to drive to him." Emma looks at Manny for a sign.

"Oo, he does have something special plan." Manny pouts for a second. "I wish he was more like Sean, then I would be in on the loop."

"If he told you, it wouldn't be a surprise for me." Emma states, a mile on her face.

"I don't tell you all the time... sometimes it just slips." Manny shrugs her shoulders. "Oh, where these pumps. They are really comfortable for three inch heals." Manny gives Emma her shoes and looks at the time. "Hurry, and I want to know every little thing, right down to the second." Manny tells her as she walks Emma to the door. Emma nods in agreement.

"Right down to the millisecond." Emma grabs her purse as Manny pushes her out the door. Giving her a big smile, Manny waved as Emma left. Taking the forty minute drive, Emma arrived at Zack's parents' house. All she could do was think about how if her and Tristan's relationship wasn't so... rocky, then they wouldn't have to go to Zack's old house... but it was a nice house. Slowly, Emma got out of her car, wondering what Zack had planned. Knocking lightly on the door, she waited for Zack to answer. Checking her watch real quick, Emma was only ten minutes late. Zack opened the door, his shirt unbuttoned.

"Hey." Zack smiles sweetly at her as he buttons his shirt.

"Hi." Emma says back, reaching to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"Come in." Zack stands out of the way, watching Emma's body move as she entered the house. "You look amazing."

"Thanks." Emma bent down to un-strap her pumps, allowing her feet to be able to slide out of them. "So, what do you have planned this evening?" Emma asks sweetly, looking up at her boyfriend.

"I um," Zack pulls his eyes away from Emma's dressed. "I made dinner for us." Zack takes her hand, lightly pulling her with him to the kitchen. "This is a family recipe, except I tweaked it for you."

"Why'd you tweak it?" Emma questions, looking at the food Zack had laid out.

"The sauce had meat in it; you don't eat meat, so I tweaked it." Zack begins to make her a plate. "If I say gravy, I'm talking about the sauce. I have some Portuguese in me, we call it gravy."

"Got it." Emma smiles at him. "This is really nice."

"Cool, I'm glad you like it." Zack hands Emma her plate. "Just wait till you try it." Zack takes his plate and they walk to the table. The two sit across from each other, a glass of wine already at their plates, with two lit candles on either side of the table.

"This is really good." Emma looks up at Zack as she finishes chewing. "I love spaghetti."

"Good, hopefully you'll like desert too." Zack smiles at her. "I didn't make it though, not really anyway."

"What's for desert?" Emma asks coyly. Zack wipes his mouth with a napkin, looking up to meet Emma's big eyes.

"I'm going to tell you," Zack spoke slowly, trying to avoid her dress. "You are making it extremely hard to... concentrate on anything while you're wearing that dress." Zack carefully finishes the spaghetti on his plate as does Emma.

"Really?" Emma looks at their almost finished plates. "Anything I can do to... fix that?" Emma looks across the table to meet Zack's gaze, smiling warmly. Zack stands up, picking up his plate.

"I can think of a few things." Zack's voice is just above a whisper as he picks up Emma's plate. Placing them in the sink, Zack turns on the faucet, and Emma takes another sip of her wine.

"Do you want me to help you?" Emma asks, getting up from the table and quietly walking over to Zack.

"No, your job is to relax." Zack tells her, not hearing her walk over to him. "Go into the living room, I'll be there in a sec."

"Okay." Emma whispered near his ear as she positioned herself behind him. Leaning against his back, Emma gave him a tender kiss on the cheek. Emma walked out of the kitchen and into the living room. Zack rinsed off the dishes, telling himself he'd wash them later. Drying of his hands on the kitchen towel, Zack walked into the living room. One the couch sat Emma, her legs curled under her, her body turned, facing to entrance way to the dining room. Zack walked over to her, mesmerized by the way her dress slowly began to reveal her thighs. Putting her elbow onto the back of the couch, Emma rested her head in her hand as she watch Zack sit down next to her. "Why are you sitting so far away from me?" Emma asks, her voice sweet. Zack looked at the space between them; it was only two or three inches. He looked up at her, realizing he wasn't going to be able to ignore his hormones anymore. Moving closer to her, Zack gave her a soft kiss, letting her decide what she wanted to do. As Emma kissed back, she knew tonight was the night. Delicately, Emma placed her hand on Zack's cheek. Their kiss was passionate, yet so gentle. Letting her hand fall from his cheek to his shirt, Emma began unbuttoning the buttons on Zack's shirt. As she came to the conclusion that she undid all of the buttons, Emma moved so her legs were on either side of him. Zack rested his hands just above her knees as Emma ran her hand along his bare chest. Standing up, Zack held Emma into him and she wrapped her legs around him. Moving his hands to her thighs to get a better grip on her, Zack felt no fabric. The form fitted dress slid up her legs, just covering the bottom of her butt. He walked slowly as the two remained in a lip lock. As they made it to his old bedroom, Zack gently put Emma down so her feet were on the floor. She pushed his shirt off of his body, allowing it to find comfort on the floor. Placing his hands on the bottom of Emma's dress, he very carefully began to lift it up. She broke the kiss to raise her arms over her head as Zack pulled the dress all the way off, allowing it to make friends with the floor and his shirt. Staring at each other briefly, their mouths found each others again. Emma's hands found the button of Zack's jeans as Zack's mouth made its way down her neck. As the rest of their clothes found the floor, Zack and Emma became intertwined in each other and the bed sheets.

Chapter 18, part 1: Hang Your Halo, Pt 4

You say that you can't help the way you feel.
Well nothing feels like feeling nothing.

I've been miserable... to say the least anyway. I can't... I mean... all I've been doing is working... and Greg's seen 'the change in me'... as he puts it. He thinks I should take the job in Toronto... and I think I should take it too. I never thought I would miss E-... my friends this much. Its only been two weeks... but I don't know... I have all my things in order here... I closed the lease on my apartment... all my bills are paid... my stuff is all packed... so I guess I just have to hope Sean was able to keep up with the bills at the apartment. I should probably give him a call... but if he's mad... nah... I'll just show up... Jay gathered his stuff into the trailer and hooked it to his car. Taking the hour or so drive back to Toronto, his head was only on one thing. He wondered if Sean was working, and then he remembered he kept his copy of the key. Now all he had to do was find it. Jay pulled into the parking lot, not seeing Sean's car... maybe he was going to be able to avoid Sean's lecture, knowing that Sean had one for him. He took a handful of things up with him to the apartment. He began piling the boxes and things up in the corner of his room. Part of him was happy that he didn't have to deal with Sean right this second, or see Manny and Emma. Trying just to focus on setting his things up, Jay stopped, looking at the door to Manny and Emma's apartment. Just as he was bringing in the last of his boxes, Jay saw someone going up the stairs. Enthralled by the outfit she was wearing, Jay walked a little faster to see who it was wearing the outfit. As he got to hallway, he saw Emma in a short form fitting dress, opening her door. His mouth hung open, she looked amazing in that sequined dress. Her pumps were in her hands, and she was digging around in her purse for her key. Forcing his eyes off her, Jay put the boxes in front of his face to make it look like he couldn't see her, and proceeded to Sean's place. Hearing Sean's apartment door open, Emma turned around.

"Hi, why are you going in there?" Emma asks, not realizing who was stepping inside.

"I live here." Jay replies, turning around to face her.

"Oh..." Emma gets quiet. She wasn't expecting to see Jay.

"You look amazing." He tells her, putting the boxes down inside the apartment door.

"Uh-..." Emma, suddenly embarrassed, pulls her dress down, "Thanks."

"Um, so, how've you been." Jay asks, still watching her move in her tight dress.

"Fine, good... you?"

"Same, sort of." Jay admits. He takes another look at her dress, and realizes how early it is. "Did you have a work event or something?"

"Uh..." Emma looks down at her outfit, remembering the magnificent night she just spent with Zack. "...s-s-something-g l-like that." She looks at Jay. "I have to... get inside." With that said, Emma opened her door and went inside. Jay stared at the closed door for a few seconds, wondering why that was so awkward. He tried to focus on getting all his things set up, and making sure he didn't mess anything up in the apartment because he knew after what just happened with Emma that Sean was indeed going to have a 'talk' with him. Deciding he didn't want to spend his time at an empty apartment, Jay went down to the garage, figuring he can put the open signs up and clean up the shop...

Emma walked into her apartment, leaning against the closed door. Sighing, she couldn't believe how incredibly awkward that was. Of course she had just come back from having sex with her boyfriend, and Jay just had to be outside the apartment. Trying not to think about what had just happened, Emma went to take a shower. I can't believe that Jay is here... is back... he's back. He's living across from me again. Why is he back? Is he doing this to torture me? Does he know I still kinda like him.