Page 46 of Beauty and the Nerd

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“It’s so freaking perfect for you,” Megan said as they moved over to the couch, and she relished the hug her friend gave her. “I thought Ben was crazy when he asked if I knew your ring size or if I could help him figure it out but watching you two together here even compared to back home, I knew you all were never going to last long before this came about. I can’t imagine getting married anytime soon, but I also don’t have someone like Ben that knows exactly what I need, in bed just as well as out of it I’m guessing.”

She laughed at the way Megan’s brow lifted and her blush made her friend’s eyes widen further. “Better.”

“No way, we all swore the girl was lying. It is not possible for it to be better than what she described,” Megan argued.

“I can confirm it is. His kisses are awesome but he’s even better with his mouth in other places. I would have come home on cloud nine after just that, add in the proposal and I’ve felt like I’m in another world entirely. Combine all of that with the fact that the ring itself is everything I could have ever wanted and all I’ve wanted to do is post every single picture from that night online.”

“Before we get into the ring part, can I just say that I’m seriously honored you would hold off until you could tell me in person, but I’m also sensing that there’s something else holding you back from posting about it.”

Emma let out a sigh, explaining about the rift between Ben and his mom, and not knowing what would happen if she did post it. “The last thing I want is to make things worse and I’m sure if I asked Ben about he, he’d tell me to just go ahead and post whatever I want, but I really don’t want to put an even wider gulf between them. I can’t imagine if my parents didn’t like Ben when I love him as much as I do.”

“That’s because you want to see the best in people, Em. You want to believe that they’re going to put someone they loveahead of them because that’s what you do, but not everyone is like that girl. Sometimes it’s just because they’re not mature enough to do it, other times it’s because they’re just complete and total scum like Carter, and sometimes, they either don’t care or only care about themselves. From what Ben’s said about his mom, I think she may fall into that latter category. Before you, Ben did what she wanted or at least gave the impression of doing what she wanted, such as not bringing others over to the house she didn’t like.

“Even if they were still friends, she wasn’t seeing it and clearly he didn’t tell her about sleeping with crazy,” Megan added making her laugh to herself a hint. “I think with you, she saw the writing on the wall and tried to bite first, hoping it’d scare you off. When it made Ben fight back, put you first, she knew it was a losing battle, but she wasn’t about to admit it. She needs to be the most important thing to her family. I mean, Ben said she’s acted rude to the twins’ friends before, not nearly to the extent she did it with you, but it wasn’t completely out of character for, so most likely, it’s not something that you’re going to be able to affect no matter how nice or kind you are in return.”

“Shawna told me that too, I just…I’ve only told her a few things about Ben’s mom during my sessions, and she said she definitely can’t diagnose someone without speaking directly with them, but she wouldn’t be surprised if his mom didn’t have some type of personality disorder. One of the things we did talk about was how Daphne asked if I like Ben because he was kind of like my dad and then his mom made a comment that she wouldn’t have been happy married to someone like her father. Ben told me that he was apparently abusive, and an alcoholic and Shawna said children of alcoholics and addicts can have trouble with self-esteem and she might unconsciously put that onto her kids, so him showing up with me could trigger that. Or that she could have a fear of abandonment and Ben choosingme over her need for things to look a certain way, be her idea of perfection, caused her to lash out.”

“And even with all of that, you still want her to like you because you love Ben and want him to have a relationship with his parents like you have with yours. It’s really sweet of you Emma, but it’s not your job to fix her.”

“Ben told my parents that until she apologizes and fixes herself, he’s not going to have anything to do with her. Told them he’s certain she needs therapy.”

“Then stop worrying about her feelings and do what makes you happy, if that’s posting photos of your engagement out there then do it. But you sure as heck better show me all of them, and explain about the ring being everything,” Megan said and when she told her what it was and how Ben found it, her friend let out a little sigh, shaking her head although she smiled fully at her. “I swear, if I had a Ben, maybe I’d actually want something serious. You have no idea how few decent guys are actually out there.”

“I’ve met a few, just not ones that I’d like more than Ben,” Emma mused before pulling up the pictures from their engagement to show her with a huge grin on her lips.

Chapter 18

Ben slipped into the apartment, smiling when he heard Emma laughing in their guest bedroom. He poked his head around the door, finding her lying on the bed while Megan unpacked her bag. “Hey Meg.”

“Hey Mr. Emma,” Megan returned, and Emma laughed even harder.

“It’s Miss Emma’s fiancé, not Mr. Emma,” she corrected her friend as he slipped over to drop a kiss onto her lips.

“I don’t know, Mr. Emma sounds pretty good to me,” he stated, his eyes roaming over his girl, and the calmness behind her eyes soothed him. “Feel better now that you’ve gotten to tell your friend our news?”

“Yeah, and thank you, you didn’t have to text her. I could have managed until next week.”

“No, you’d have ended up caving in and FaceTiming me tomorrow or Friday at the latest, then still be bugging out over the rest,” Megan said sending his brow up a hint.

“What rest?” he asked holding Emma’s gaze for a long moment.

“Why don’t you go fill him in while I finish unpacking, and he can change or whatever before we find something for supper?”Megan suggested and he pulled Emma up from the bed, with a nod of thanks to her friend.

“Okay, what’s wrong, baby?” he asked as she settled onto their bed while he pulled off his tie. “You know you can talk to me about anything.”

“I know, I just…I’ve been anxious wanting to post photos from our trip, but I didn’t want to post the best ones until I was able to tell Megan about this,” she said wiggling her fingers with a huge grin. “Now that I’ve told her, I still really want to post them, but…”

“But what, Emmy?” he asked when she paused.

“I didn’t want to bother you about it because whenever she gets brought up you get all tense,” Emma said, and he stopped with his dress shirt hanging off his arm knowing with ease who she was talking about.

“My mother is not going to ruin this for us, I won’t let her,” he promised kneeling down to see her face to face.

“I know you won’t, but I was still hoping that maybe she’d come around, then I worried that she definitely wouldn’t if I posted about our engagement online and that’s how she found out. I know I don’t have your parents or the twins connected to my pages but if I post it, someone who I am connected with could like or repost or comment on it, and they could have a connection to your family, or they could have a connection to someone else that does have a connection to your family. And even if your mom never ends up liking me, your dad and the twins seem to at least be okay with me, and I don’t know if they’d be upset if they only found out through a second or third party, you know?”

“You are so amazing, baby. It’s going to be my mom’s loss not having you in her life, not the other way around, but maybe we can call my dad and tell him later tonight or this weekend might work better? You could post some of the pictures fromthe start of our trip to Hawaii leading up to those pictures, and then after we talk to him and maybe the twins, you can post as many of them as you want,” he suggested, loving her smile, and he texted his dad as they made their way to get dinner about possibly calling him and the twins about something this weekend.

We’ll be at your aunt’s Saturday afternoon for her summer bbq if that works, his dad responded and he smiled, showing the message to Emma who grinned, nodding in full agreement.