Page 42 of Don't Leave Me

I widened my eyes. “Really? Oh my god, you should!” I exclaimed loudly.

Michael looked up at me from behind the counter.

“Really? I don’t want to intrude or anything. And I could give you and Michael a ride back so you don’t have to take the train,” she offered, matching my enthusiasm.

“Yeah, that would be awesome,” I smiled, then looked over at Michael, almost feeling like I should be asking him for approval.

He nodded and smiled, continuing to make me a plate.

“Yay! I can’t wait!” Emily jumped up, disappearing from the kitchen.

“Is that okay?” I asked Michael quietly as he set down a plate full of pancakes in front of me.

“Of course,” he shrugged. “Now eat. You barely ate yesterday,” he ordered.

“Yes, sir,” I said, biting my lip and taking my fork.

He eyed me with his lustful dark eyes and shook his head, then went to make a plate for himself.

“I love you so much, baby girl,” my mom hugged me as Michael, Emily and I headed out the door, my dad not far behind.

“I love you too, mom,” I hugged her back, then turned to my dad.

“Take care of yourself, bug,” my dad smiled at me warmly, then gave me a huge squeeze of a hug.

“I will, daddy,” I hugged him.

My mom hugged Michael enthusiastically. “Michael, it was so nice meeting you. Come back anytime,” she beamed.

“Thank you, Jemma,” he smiled at her, then nodded at my dad and took our bags outside.

My mom widened her eyes at me with a smile. “Hold onto that one, Han. He’s the whole package!” she giggled.

My dad shook his head at her.

“Alright, mom,” I humored her with a wink.

Michael insisted on me sitting in the front with Emily, probably so he could observe us with amusement. Emily played the Violent Femmes self-titled album, the one we would listen to on repeat when we were younger, as she started to make plans for us for the weekend.

“I definitely wanna go see a show, and we have to hang out at that one bar by your place for a while…there’s always a sea of good looking guys there,” she smiled at me. “I mean, I know you’re not drinking or whatever but we’ll still have fun. Oh, and we can go to that record store too, in east Williamsburg, you know the one?” she went on.

I nodded, smiling at her enthusiasm. “Yeah the new one. There’s this other place I think you’ll like, it’s like an old pool house turned bar. And you haven’t been the Music Hall yet have you?”

“No! I wanna go there too!” she replied excitedly.

I glanced back at Michael and he was, indeed, watching us with amusement.

We finally made it to Brooklyn and found a parking spot a block away from my apartment. Michael insisted on carrying up our bags for us before taking the train back to his apartment to let us have some “girl time,” as he referred it.

Billie wasn’t home so I figured she was either with John or still at her mom’s, so I texted her to let her know that Emily was there; she responded back: “Okay. Don’t get into too much trouble!!!”

“I think we should go to that bar first tonight since it’s close,” Emily suggested as we had dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant.

First?!I figured it was going to be an all-nighter…great, Michael will be happy about that.

“Yeah, that sounds good,” I nodded agreeably.

To be honest, I was relieved that she didn’t want to go to the Bowery first; the last time I was there, Jack was whisking me away to his apartment.Jack…I wonder how he is. As we walked the few blocks to the bar, I texted Michael that we were going out but that I would “behave.” He responded quickly, of course: “Where will you be?” I answered. He responded again: “Ok. I will check in soon.” I smiled to myself and Emily and I walked into the bar.

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