Page 17 of Decoding Emma
Emma’s cheeks pinked, and I grinned.
Cassie looked from Marcus to Emma’s flushed face then back to Marcus.“You left her alone with Asher in your R&D display room?”Cassie hit him in the arm, trying—and failing—to deliver a charley horse, then turned to Emma.I coughed to cover a chuckle.“Don’t let them scare you away.”
Emma smiled at Cassie.“It was eye opening, especially since I didn’t realize what kind of company Fantasies, Inc.was.”
“Men.”Cassie shook her head in mock frustration and leaned closer to Marcus, who took advantage of the opportunity and gently kissed her forehead.
Emma watched the couple, and I caught the flash of a wistful expression.
Cassie stroked Marcus’s cheek and then straightened.“I hoped you weren’t too shell shocked?”
“A little, but I got over it.”
Now that was interesting; her reaction seemed like more than ‘a little’, and she hadn’t talked much about R&D since the visit.Was it shock or just surprise?That definitely warranted a future conversation.
But not tonight.
“I will say your questions about customer service were right on track with what I wanted,” Cassie said.
“To me, customer service is customer service, no matter what the business does.It’s all about having happy customers.”
“And good focus groups,” Cassie commented.
The waitress returned with the beers.Cassie ordered first, then the waitress looked at Emma.
“I’m not sure yet.”She bit her lower lip.“Please take their orders first.”
I glanced at Marcus who shook his head.“We’ll wait.”
Emma rolled her eyes.“Bacon cheeseburger, no tomatoes.”
“Fries?”the waitress asked.
“Yes, please.”
“Good girl,” I whispered, unable to help myself, and Emma stilled then tilted her head.Her expression changed from confusion to curiosity in the blink of an eye, and this time, she didn’t look away.
Marcus ordered and then I did.
“You didn’t need to wait until I ordered.”Emma’s voice was barely above a whisper.She leaned back in her chair, her arm resting on the chair arm closest to me.
I reached over and gently squeezed her hand.“It was the polite thing to do.”
Cassie laughed.“Emma, arguing with men like Marcus and Asher is pretty much wasted effort.They’ll do what they want.”
“And don’t you forget it.”Marcus placed a kiss on Cassie’s cheek.
Chapter Eight
Emma
Cassie’s words threw me for a minute.It wasn’t as if I hadn’t noticed how—I wasn’t sure what to call it—bossy, micromanaging, controlling, Asher had been this week.Was Cassie validating the behavior?Or…was Asher dominant?There was a fine line between the two, according to the stories I’d read and information on various websites.Every day, he made sure I took breaks and lunch, even if I wasn’t ready to.Looking out for my wellbeing, okay, maybe dominant.He would insist, even to the point of turning off the computer monitors so I couldn’t work.Bossy for sure, definitely not dominant, and well into PITA territory.
While it annoyed me, some part of me liked deferring to Asher.I’d been so careful, so anxious around, well, anyone.What would it be like to have someone confident at my side?
I didn’t have a lot of people in my life who cared about my well-being.My parents had never really been all that involved with or about what I did unless whatever I was doing impacted them directly.
They always hung out with large groups of friends and acquaintances, attended lots of parties.I preferred being alone and hated it when my parents made me go with them.I was nervous, sometimes feeling like I couldn’t breathe—especially when people got close while trying to get to my parents, ignoring the little girl standing there.
