'Nother February chapter where I need to go and hide under a rock X'D love you guys, I'll be in my bunker.
Song Suggestion: My Head and My Heart by Ava Max
Disclaimer: I own nothing =v= CapCom plz don't hurt me
Emma stretched as she made her way up the stairs of the apartment complex. "What a bust, the place wasn't even worth getting dressed up for," she said with a tired sigh as she took off the blazer jacket. Opening the door of her apartment, she said, "Duke, I'm home," in a worn-out tone as the dog pattered over to greet her. "Hi baby," she said, closing the door then kneeling down to give him pets before getting up to get his dinner. With the pooch fed Emma laid her blazer over the back of the couch then walked over to the fridge to mark off another day on the calendar. February 21st. One more week until March.
Emma looked at the date above that on the calendar. The 14th. She frowned slightly and sighed. It was bound to happen eventually that he'd be away for a mission during a holiday. Emma loosened the top few buttons of her blouse before opening the fridge to start gathering ingredients. The fridge was starting to get skimpy. She was running out of time. She gave a quiet hum.
"Fried rice it is," she said as she took out various leftovers to avoid wasting anything, and turned on the oven.
She only had enough of her severance to get through March. I can probably dip into my savings and make it another month. Maybe two if I really pinch pennies... worst-case scenario, there's always the nest egg. She didn't want to do that, but bills didn't really care if you were unemployed.
Emma finished cooking her meal and brought the plate of food over to the island. She leaned against the Island to support herself as she ate. How was she going to sign another one-year renewal in April if she was still unemployed?
'*'*'*'*'
Chris made his way up the stairs of the apartment building to the second floor. Two weeks tying up loose ends around the states, and he was finally back. The timing was kind of unfortunate, but work was work. They actually let him out at a decent time, which was nice. He was able to head to the store to try to pick something up, but naturally pretty much every store he went to was down to scraps since the holidays had well since passed. It wasn't much, but he looked at the small bundle of six roses just barely starting to wilt and turned pink before shaking his head. It was fine. They'd been seeing each other for a little over a year now.
He stopped in front of Emma's door and slung his bag over his shoulder, so he'd have a free hand, and hid the hand holding the flowers behind his back. Chris contemplated knocking. He shook his head, dug out his keys to unlock the door, and quietly walked in to see Emma. She leaned forward against the kitchen island, dressed in a black pencil skirt and a white collared shirt with a sparse thin blue pinstripe design. Duke lazily glanced at Chris before going back to sleep. The soft clinking of silverware against a plate and a light scent in the air told him it was dinner time. Maybe she had started a new job while he was away?
Chris put his bag down by the closed door. Huh. She still hadn't noticed him? She must have been spacing out. He smiled and slipped his shoes off so he could quietly walk over. At this point, he wanted to see how long it would take her to notice. He continued to hold the flowers behind his back with one hand and used the other to hook her waist.
As he did, Emma yelped and flailed, panicking, before eventually grabbing her fork to turn and face him. "Chris?!" she said, surprised and partially mortified as she let go of the fork, which fell to the floor, and moved to hug him instead. Holy heck, he'd been five seconds away from getting four new tiny holes in his chest. "You scared the shit out of me."
"It's a good thing we still train, because that was a horrible reaction," Chris said through his laughter. He felt bad for scaring her, but it was also kind of funny. "What's for dinner by the way? It smells good."
"You…" Emma let go of him and gave him a gentle swat "None for you. You're in trouble," she said, shaking a finger at him even though she stayed in his loose grip.
"I'm in trouble?" he asked, amused.
"Yes," Emma replied, forcing a frown. She was happy to see him, but not thrilled about the scare.
"Even if I say I'm sorry?" he asked, leaning forward to rest his forehead against hers.
"...Maybe." She looked away as her resolve weakened. Dang it.
Chris gave her a quick peck. "Well, I'm sorry. I won't do that on purpose again. Promise," he offered as an apology. It was a difficult promise to make because it was genuinely funny, but he was a man of his word.
Emma hesitated but eventually returned the peck. "Okay fine," she relented before walking over to get a plate and serve up the last of the fried rice. "How was your trip?" she asked as the usual ritual began.
"It was work," he replied as he moved his hand from behind his back to casually bring the small bundle into view, waiting for her to turn back around.
"I see." Emma got a fork from the silverware drawer. Upon turning back around, she noticed the flower. "Oh! You are full of surprises today. What's gotten into you?" Emma said smiling now.
The question, joking or otherwise, surprised him. "Nothing, nothing. Sorry it's late," he said as Emma traded him the plate and fork for the bundle and gave him a kiss.
"Don't worry about it, you don't exactly get to pick when you leave," Emma said, then went to get a vase and filled it with water, placing that on the Island next to the tiny metal hut before putting the flowers into it. "There we go," she added with a smile.
While Emma messed with the flowers, Chris took his usual seat. "How was work?" he asked with hesitant curiosity.
"Interview," Emma said with a sigh.
"Ah. Well, how was the interview then?" Chris pressed before starting to eat.
"I don't know. I mean, I think I did okay, but"—she bobbed her head—"it's a decent place but I'm not sure I really want to work with book publishing. I'll keep looking. There has to be something in the area."
"Won't be long I'm sure," Chris offered, causing Emma to sigh.
"I wish I had the same confidence," she admitted with a slight frown as she picked up the fork she dropped and brought it to the sink. "But I'm not giving up so there's that going for me," Emma added, getting a glass of water and walking over to put that down by Chris' plate. She would have offered a beer or something, but alcohol was a frivolous expense at the moment.
Emma had just started working on the dishes when she heard movement behind her and the scraping of the wooden table legs against the floor. She turned back to notice Chris moving the table out of the way.
"Come on." He motioned for her to join him. "You're frustrated. Put the dishes down. Let's train for . They'll be there later."
Emma smiled before shaking her hands to get some of the water off, then dried them on a dishtowel. "All right, give me a moment," she agreed, then walked over to her room to change out her skirt for leggings. As she returned, she rolled up the sleeves of her button-down shirt. "Ready," she said as she took her stance.
Right jab, left jab, left jab, kick. Right jab, right jab, kick, left jab, Kick, kick.
"Easy now," Chris said with a chuckle before shaking out his wrist. "At this rate, I might need to look into more proper padding."
"Well, we have been doing this for almost three years now," Emma said, shaking her head.
"Is that right?" Chirs asked, surprised, before thinking it over. "Two years, nice try," he replied as he held his hand up for another kick.
"Two and a half, which is almost three, thank you very much," Emma countered, shaking her head before going for the target. As she did so, Chris grabbed onto her leg and used it to pull her towards him, supporting her back with his other hand.
"Are you sassing me?" he asked with a smirk, causing Emma to laugh.
"No," she said through her laughter, shaking her head.
Chris chuckled. "We're training. Pretty sure that's a no sir," he teased.
"Yeah right," Emma jokingly replied with an amused smile as she half-heartedly pushed at him.
"Mm-hm," he hummed before leaning forward to pick her up over his shoulder.
'*'*'*'*'
A few days had passed since then and Emma looked over a printed copy of a PDF.
"Auto Beta Publishing is happy to offer the following position for your consideration," Emma read aloud as she plopped onto the couch. It was a less than tempting offer, to say the least. She'd be going back to being a junior manager since she didn't have experience with books, and with that she'd be taking a pay cut. Roughly $6000 off her former salary. The location wasn't horrible, maybe an extra five minutes to her commute, so that was a plus.
"We look forward to hearing your decision within the next two weeks," she read with a slight frown before giving a quiet sigh. She really wasn't in a position to be picky, but man, it sucked that after three months this was all she had to show for it.
Hearing her phone go off, she looked at it confused. She didn't know the number. "Might be a recruiter..." Emma muttered, bobbing her head as she tried to determine if it was worth it to potentially have to listen to a scam call for five seconds.
Ultimately, she answered the phone. "Hello, Emma Swanson speaking. How may I help you?" she asks while waiting for an automated message about her car's extended warranty.
"Emma!" "Emmy!" "Ey yo em!" "Emmaaaaa," called a group of four deeper male voices.
"My Kings! It's good to hear from you. Please tell me you got picked up by a new label," Emma said with a smile. This was a pleasant surprise.
"Yeah, took a while but the last place was able to sell off our contract," one replied with a few "yep," "yeah," "uh-huhs," in the background.
"Good, you guys are going to do amazing," Emma said with a chuckle.
"Hell yeah we are! That's why we need you," another said, and once more the remaining three agreed.
"Yeah, we managed to work in some details for the sale. We want you to stick with us as our marketing manager. Wouldn't agree to it unless they at least made you an offer," said the third.
"Aw, guys," Emma said, very touched by the fact that they went out of their way for her like that. "That's… Thank you."
"You get our vision. I don't wanna work with someone that doesn't," the fourth said and got another chorus of agreements.
"They just signed the paperwork so you should be getting the offer letter in your inbox soon," the first said.
"They'll need your acceptance letter in two weeks," the second added.
"Yeah, that's—" Emma paused as she held the side of her head, stunned. "I'll definitely look for the email. Thank you guys so much."
"See you there!" they all shouted at the same time before laughing.
"Bye guys," Emma said with a chuckle and got a course of goodbyes before hanging up.
The next morning, Emma checked her inbox and sure enough there was the email.
Subject: Hiring Proposal - Senior Marketing Manager
Emma smiled as she read over the email and opened the attached PDF. She'd basically be picking up where she left off, but with better pay, and an amazing starting bonus. They were going all out in this. She smiled as she read further, but it slowly faded as she noticed a small but ever-important detail... the address of the office she'd be working at.
"That's on the other side of the country," Emma murmured, covering her mouth in contemplation. No wonder there was such a tempting starting bonus. They were paying her to move...
She looked from the PDF file on her screen to the printed offer next to it. What was she going to do? Whatever it was, she had two weeks to decide. Emma walked over to the tiny metal hut to burn a new thought which she quickly scribbled down before placing it inside of the hut with a match.
What am I doing with my life?
I don't usually include cliffhangers, but when I do I choose Dos Equis. x'D Jokes aside love you guys hope you don't mind the cliffhanger. sorry this one was short, the next chapter will be out soon so it won't be too bad I hope.
