(A/N: *boop* Hello dear readers and I'm glad you're still here to enjoy the ride! ^0^ It's a pleasure to write here for you, and sometimes I feel it's like the essence of my existence. Seriously. I'm so tired after swimming practise today, I have a papercut on my finger which hurts whenever I type and I don't even know why I love you guys so much that I'm actually doing this shit. xD
These little stories/chapters are in the same time frame we're in, just so that you know. This is exciting, because this story (or whatever it is *shrugs*) is going to be going on for a while, which means that there might even be like a little Christmas + New Years special! ^o^ But please note there may be some time jumps here and there, due to my impatience of time. Apologies.)
Warnings: Sarcasm like always. Abuse to certain Sony products and other inanimate objects.
Disclaimer: Hue. This is getting old. I don't own nor profit from this piece of work or OUAT (or basically anything you recognise here) and if I did I'd be using like a hoverboard-computer thing instead of a little laptop like this one. AND I'd be making it rain on dem hoses. Those gardening appliances.
Don't judge me.
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...
No. No she was absolutely not stalking him.
He was just... going to the same places she was.
Yeah, you go tell yourself that, Brain-Emma said sarcastically. She hated it when she was right.
The blonde furrowed a brow intently, even though it looked kind of strange for her to be sipping through a straw for a not-so-delicious milkshake she got ten minutes ago, too. What kind of business had this man here, in her workplace, in her city, she wondered.
Emma snapped out of it. Since when was it her business for her to know everything about this man? She had, indeed, seen, not even talked to this guy like literally two days ago and she already thought she knew the guy. Damn did she feel pathetic.
Pretty boys never really caught her attention most of the time. So why was now an exception?
Ignoring her drink from this point on, Emma chewed on a pencil unintentionally in thought (she most likely believed subconsciously that it was a breadstick or something the way she was going), looking around the law firm to see the cerulean-eyed man smile politely at some of Emma's fellow co-workers. The ladies practically swooned, while the men silently glared at him, jealousy overruling their judgement. Whenever they turned a new page to a book, or a contract, they would slam it down roughly without realizing it. One of the guys (a cute blonde dude, if you want to know so badly) did it so hard to his laptop it broke. He looked up and around him, looked down to his Sony in a mixture of shock and irritation, and gingerly proceeded to the nearest exit. He was probably going to have to get a new one, and he literally just replaced the last one (he has issues)!
Her life had been turning into a stereotypical chick-flick!
Huh, who knew?
Well, Emma could imagine that her friend David and his lady friend Mary Margeret weren't doing any of the sort. They were already so well in love or whatever that this mystery man probably didn't even make a dent on them.
And she could cross off Graham off her list, too. He wasn't the jealous type, and, even though he and the blonde had reciprocated feeling for each other (even though she couldn't see why she thought such a fact would matter in a situation like this) before, they'd end up letting each other go, both enjoying the life of being single. Graham was one of her closest friends, along with David, MM, Elsa, Ruby, and everyone else in the world who didn't exactly want to rip her head off.
Neal she could see was green with envy a few work-tables away, and she wished he were more like Graham sometimes.
(Or all the time, it seemed.)
He seemed to know that Emma was looking at him and at his monster of jealousy, so he just rolled his eyes, irritated in the slightest, and went back to his paperwork, muttering inaudibly under his breath. A classic ex he was. Well, so was Walsh. He, however, she could put up with better though. Neal was truly a lost cause.
Emma looked back at the mystery man to see him talking and handing over a case file over to Regina, her boss. Giving a tight smile, she headed back to her desk, muttering something about 'an insufferable know-it-all'. Meh. Regina could just be hating on the Harry Potter character Hermione, she guessed. It would be suitable for her, as Severus Snape suited her nature.
She smiled deviously.
Then, she wondered, what could possibly be in that file. Emma and a couple of her friends worked at the law facility Regina's family had run for generations, Mills and Co., taking up the law for all cases. The blonde mostly dealt with cases that had to do with abuse, adoption, kidnapping, and a couple of cases on rape (associating with the SVU unit in New York for one) here and there, so she doubted any of the above could possibly be a problem of his. Besides, all the man gave Regina was a file. Didn't really have to be his, did it?
And there she went again, talking as if she knew the man.
Damn was she hopeless with her assuming problems.
From chewing on the end of the pencil she was using, a few eraser clumps fell into her mouth, and, realising so disgustedly, she tried to nonchalantly take a tissue and spit them out. Wouldn't that look attractive!
Emma only noticed now some stubble on the pretty boy's face, faint but still so recognisable even from the distance away Emma was from him. She attempted to remember, recognise each little feature and part of this man's face, as you don't exactly see many men from the likes of him. Emma almost wanted to at his tight, uncomfortable expression on his face, contrasting so much compared to that of which just two days ago. If he were a girl, his rest-bitchy face would be perfect.
But no, she should joke as such in the likes of this depressing place. Emma sniggered under her breath. Meh, she didn't care. Maybe the face was just because he had the unfortunate luck to associate and make small talk while he was waiting with cranky Walsh, who was, once again, glaring like a little 5-year-old (less mature than little Manny, perhaps), as if he'd taken away his favourite action figure.
The blonde smiled at his ignorance to Neal's petty glares and put-downs. Strong personality, she liked it. Dislike to that doofus, she liked it even more.
"Miss Swan, if you'd be ever so polite and focus on your lovely stack of paperwork and schedules instead of Mr Cassidy's new client over there, that'd be great!"
Emma had forgotten about Regina and her mock-cheerfulness (and being Snape). And how ineffective it was. She rolled her eyes and got back to work, swiping her screen to the next slide of her presentation and looked at the work she'd done.
Wait. Neal's new client? Wow, did she feel sorry for that guy. Pat pat, random hot dude, pat pat.
She didn't see the man smirk from all those desks away, the busy lass. Or Neal internally screaming and wringing out his neck, for that matter.
How lovely ignorance can be.
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(A/N: Well, there you have it folks! Another two days too long for you? ;P Don't fret, my pet. You'll survive. Just slowly leave a review on this page on this page and no-one will be harmed.
Just kidding. You don't have to if you don't want to, and I'm sorry if it sounds like I was forcing you to. That's rude and I apologise sincerely.
Anyhow, in two days time you'll hope to see the next chapter of...
~ Looking After You ~