Page 10 of This: Blake & Emon

Blake turned on her side to face him. “For real? No high school sweetheart? No around the way girl that got away?”

“Nah, I mean I had situations here and there but...” He paused, considering his words. “I saw too many niggas lose focus chasing ass instead of paper. My mama ain’t raise no fool.”

“And now?”

His eyes met hers. “Now I got the paper. Got the businesses. Got everything I thought I needed.” His fingers found hers. “Until you saved my ass. Now I’m questioning all that.”

“I needed this,” Blake admitted, lying back on the blanket. “More than I realized.”

“Nah, don’t do that. You don’t get away. Let me guess, you and some knucklehead boy had big dreams to get married, kiss in a tree, and have some bald headed ass babies?” He laughed. Blake shoved him because he was funny and sometimes he wasn’t even trying.

“You crazy.” she laughed.

“What I say? All babies come out bald from what I heard.”

“Emon hush,” she said doubling over in laughter. After a few seconds she regained her composure. “My last relationshipwas about a year ago. PJ and I dated for a little while, but we wanted different things,” she said, picking at a loose thread on the blanket. “He wanted the picket fence life right away, but I wanted more. Wanted to finish school first.”

“And that was it? No fighting for you, compromising?”

“No, and I didn’t need it. I wasn’t bending and neither was he. Sometimes love just ain’t enough, you know?” She glanced at him.

“Yeah, I get it. His loss. My win,” Emon said, his voice low and certain. The way he looked at her then made her breath catch. It was like he could see straight through her.

“We should probably head back,” she said finally, though she made no move to get up. The afternoon sun was dipping, painting the sky. She’d enjoyed herself playing hooky. There was a small semblance of guilt she felt leaving her responsibilities to be here, in the back of his truck, with pie crumbs on the blanket and music playing softly through his back window. But at the same time, she couldn’t bring herself to regret a single moment.

“Probably,” he agreed, but his arm stayed wrapped around her. “Or we could just stay here forever.”

Blake laughed. “You might be a bad influence on me.”

“Nah, I’m the best thing that could’ve happened to you. Just wait and see,” he said it like a fact. No room for argument.

As they packed up to leave, Blake realized something had shifted between them. Maybe it was the receipt still tucked in her pocket, or the way he kept finding reasons to touch her, or how neither of them wanted this stolen afternoon to end. Whatever it was, she knew there was no going back now. And maybe, just maybe, that was exactly what she needed.

Chapter 6

Emon:Did you do what I asked?

Blake: Yes, are you going to tell me why you needed me to leave my car keys in the car?

Emon:You’ll see but for now you just gotta trust me. Go save them folk’s lives.

Blake:Fine

Blake couldn’t figure out what he was up to, but last night he’d requested that she leave her car keys in her car. And she had obliged, but was unsure what he had up his sleeve. Emon and Blake were headed toward being a couple. She wasn’t ready to accept it, but that didn’t make it any less true. He was on her bad and not letting up. They’d been texting and talking on the phone and occasionally seeing each other for coffee or he’d stop by her work to see her or vice versa.

He was becoming the highlight of her day, and she felt like today would be no different with him always plotting. The day had been brutal. Three codes before noon, a difficult patient family, and charts that seemed endless. Blake moved through it all with she could do it in her sleep, but her mind kept drifting to him. This was possibly why she was dragging her feet on making things official. He was distracting her, but she liked it.

“Blake, can you check on Mr. Lopez’s labs?”

“Already done. His blood sugar’s back to normal.”

“Girl, you on it today,” Nurse Cole commented. She was the charge nurse, and Blake loved working with her when theyhad shifts together. Nurse Cole reminded her of her mother, who she missed dearly. After her father passed, her mother tried to carry on, but a broken heart took her out.

“I’m trying to be. I feel like I’ve been slacking a little lately.”

“Hhmm they call it slacking now? I heard you got yourself a little boyfriend,” she mentioned with a knowing look. Blake couldn’t stand gossip, but she knew the word would get around eventually. He’d been known to pop up.

“Not exactly,” Blake said, updating her charts. “It’s... complicated.”

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