My Week with Emma

A/N: I have to have two versions of this chapter, one where Isaac won the quest over the weekend and one where he lost. These branches need to remain separate even though I intend for these chapters to be mostly identical, so don’t be puzzled by the fact that both chapters are roughly the same. Also note, this chapter is purposefully planned to explore the non-sexual side of Isaac and Emma’s relationship in more detail, so don’t go in looking for sex in this chapter.

On Monday, over lunch, Emma let me know that she was in need of some help. She had a couple of classes with big assignments due that she was struggling with, so we found ourselves back in the library on Monday after school, with me helping her with her assignments.

It actually felt really good to go back to what had brought us together in the first place. We were once again focused on me helping her to understand some concepts she was struggling with.

“This would be easier If you understood calculus,” I told her as we were working on her assignment for physics. “Then you could simply derive all the equations you needed.”

She just shook her head at me like I was an idiot.

“What?” I asked.

“If I understood calculus,” she said, “then I wouldn’t really need you at all, now would I?”

She had a point. She smiled at me the way she always does when she’s teasing me.

“And if I didn’t really need you at all in the first place, then we never would have even met, and you’d still just be a loser, stuck playing D&D in his basement with his nerdy friends. Think how sad that would be for you.”

She laughed at me when I pretended to be offended by what she’d said.

“And you’d still be … ummm …,” I tried to come up with something to throw back at her. I couldn’t. She would be relatively unchanged if she hadn’t met me. I was way out of my league here.

“The most popular girl in school, getting all the sex I could ever want from my stable of available studs?” She responded.

It was really hard to argue with her. I was fighting way outside of my weight class dating someone like Emma and we both knew it. I was certain that most of the guys in the school wondered what in the hell she was doing dating me in the first place.

“Perhaps it’s best you don’t know calculus, then,” I responded with a smile.

“Better for you, for sure,” she said with a chuckle, “so just shut about about your calculus and help me figure out how to do this like a normal person.”

“A normal person would use calculus,” I said.

She just laughed.

“If you call someone who spends all his time in the basement with his nerd friends, pretending to chase wizards around normal, I guess.”

“Wizards are scared of people who know calculus, you know,” I said with a grin.

“Everyone is scared of people who know calculus,” she replied.

We laughed and then I worked harder to help her understand her assignment a little better. After a couple of hours we both felt like we had made pretty good progress.

“I’m starving,” Emma said eventually, “let’s go get something to eat.”

“I promised my mom I’d be home for dinner tonight. She’s making her famous spaghetti and meatballs. I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t mind if you joined us.”

“Ooh,” she said with a silly grin, “your inviting me home to meet your parents?”

“You’ve already met my parents.”

“But we haven’t sat down for a meal with your parents since we’ve been officially dating. That sounds serious to me.”

“Well, they’re going to have to get used to having you around at some point. I plan on keeping you around for a long time.”

“Because otherwise it would just be you and your nerd friends chasing wizards and scaring them with calculus?” She said, teasingly.

“Exactly,” I agreed.

We drove our separate cars back to my house after I texted my mom and asked if Emma could join us for dinner. Mom seemed quite excited by that possibility, as I had suspected she would be.

Emma charmed the pants off of my parents over dinner.

Well … not literally of course. That would have been more than a little awkward I think. But she was funny and smart and gracious, and I think my parents were beginning to like her more than they liked me.

“So what are your plans for the fall?” My dad asked Emma towards the end of the meal.

Emma told them where she was going to school.

“Isn’t that only a couple hours away from where Isaac and Mike are going?” Mom asked.

Emma nodded.

“We got lucky on that one,” Emma replied.

“So you think you’re going to continue this relationship from a distance while you’re in school then?” Dad asked.

“Definitely,” Emma replied. “How else am I going to pass all my STEM classes?”

We all laughed. She’d made us all laugh multiple times during the meal. I honestly wasn’t expecting her to be nearly as charming as she had been. Not that I didn’t believe she was capable of it, I just expected her to be a lot more nervous around my parents, like I knew I would be around her dad.

When Emma and my mom got up to carry dishes into the kitchen after dinner was over, dad looked over at me.

“You damn well better hang on to that one, son,” he said to me.

“I intend to,” I replied.

“Good,” he said with a large smile in his face, “because if you break up with her, it’ll be a challenge for your mother and I to decide which one we keep in the family.”

“Ahhh,” I replied, smiling back, “I love you too, dad.”

He laughed at stood.

“Seriously though son, she’s a keeper. Don’t screw this one up.”

“I don’t plan to,” I agreed.

We spent Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons in the library as well. Emma was struggling with both her physics and her math, and I was struggling to explain it to her in ways that would make sense to her instead of in the ways that made sense to me. We made progress, but it was slow, so we spent most of our spare time studying together.

Personally, I didn’t mind at all. I loved studying with her. It was how I had built my friendship with her in the first place. Of course Emma wasn’t nearly as fond of studying as I was. I could tell she was getting a little frustrated that it was taking her so long to grasp the concepts.

On Wednesday afternoon, after a couple of hours in the library, I could sense her looking nervously over at me for a while. She didn’t say anything to me, but I could tell something was up, so I finally asked.

“What’s up? You seem distracted, and maybe just a little nervous.”

“Ummmm,” she said, “I may have mentioned to Papa Bear about you having me over for dinner on Monday.”

“And why would that make you nervous? Was he mad that I had you over for dinner?”

“No,” she said, “nothing like that. It’s just that … ummm … he wants to return the favor … tonight.”

“Tonight?” Now I was the one that was feeling nervous.

“He’s not making dinner, so don’t worry about that,” she said, “but he’s getting pizza from his favorite pizza place and he wants you to join us.”

Crap!

It was all I could think. Emma had dazzled my parents on Monday night. My mom couldn’t stop talking about her the rest of the night, or on Tuesday night either. I knew there was simply no way I was ever going to replicate that experience with Emma’s dad. He seemed to be quite jovial and very friendly, but he was also big. There was a good reason they referred to him as Papa Bear. He looked like he could easily out wrestle a bear. I could never fully get past the physical intimidation I felt around him. If he wanted to break me, I knew it would take very little effort for him to do so. Sometimes I wondered if he would want to if we ever explained to him the full nature of our relationship.

To say I was scared at the prospect of having dinner at Stefan’s house, with Emily and Emma there to make sure I was always on the edge of my comfort zone, would be a massive understatement.

“Okay,” I said nervously. “I guess I can manage that.”

“Don’t worry, he’s only dismembered two of the boys that I’ve brought home for dinner,” she said with a wink.

Her joke did nothing to allay my nervousness.

I found myself wanting to stay and study at the library until they kicked us out, but soon enough Emma was announcing that it was time for us to leave for dinner with her dad and sister.

Once again, we drove our separate cars to her house. Emma got through a light that I got stopped at, so she arrived before I did. I found myself standing alone on the doorstop, ringing the bell.

I was expecting Emma to answer the door, but when it swung open, it was Emily instead.

“Hey, Isaac,” she said to me. “Welcome to the bear’s den.”

“Thanks,” I said.

I could tell she sensed my nervousness.

“Don’t worry,” she said with a huge grin. “Your parents will never find the body. They’ll always still hold out hope that you’re still alive somewhere.”

It was then I noticed Emma had walked up behind her younger sister.

“Stop teasing him, Emily,” she said, nudging her in the ribs with an elbow. “I already told him dad only dismembered two of the boys I brought home.”

“That’s because you only brought two guys home before this,” Emily replied with that same shit-eating grin plastered on her face.

Emma paused for a minute, looking thoughtful.

“That can’t be right,” she said. “I only remember bringing one boy home before.”

“Yes,” Emily chimed in with a chuckle, “but he had a brother. That was a little too close for comfort for dad.” Then she looked at me and deadpanned. “You don’t have a brother do you?”

“He does,” Emma answered quickly, a look of mock horror on her face.

“Hopefully you don’t like him too much then,” Emily responded.

The girls both laughed before actually inviting me into the house. Of course I knew they were both joking, but it didn’t do anything to put my mind at ease. It only seemed to add to my nervousness.

I followed them into the kitchen where Stefan was opening pizza boxes and setting them out on the counter and pulling some plates out of one of the cupboards.

"Isaac!" he practically shouted at me when he saw me walk in. "Welcome."

He walked over to me and patted me on the back.

"Good to see you my man," he said.

The 'pat' on the back was anything but light. I don't know if he was deliberately trying to demonstrate his strength to me, but I got the message whether he intended it or not. Stefan was not a man to be trifled with. Not that I didn't already know that.

"Good to see you Mr. Wright," I said as enthusiastically as I could muster.

"Please," he said, "call me dad."

I stood there, looking stunned at what he just said. Call him dad?

He burst out laughing.

"Just messing with you," he quickly said, "but I can't stand being called Mr. Wright. You can call me Stefan."

I had to admit, that felt really awkward to me, but I just nodded my head, not wanting to disagree with him. He walked over to the fridge and opened it up.

"Can I offer you a beer?" He asked.

What the hell?

Was this some kind of a test to see how I would respond? He was a cop. Surely he wasn't serious about offering me a beer, right? I looked to Emma and Emily for support, but got nothing but blank stares.

"Nah," I said, "I don't drink." I decided to play it safe. I figured it wouldn't offend him that I turned him down on his offer of a beer, but if he was testing me, taking the beer would have been a very bad choice.

I heard Emily snort in laughter when she heard me declare I didn't drink, but Stefan just seemed to ignore her.

"Good answer," he said to me, pulling out a bottle of beer and a can of Coke, smiling at me as he pointed the Coke in my direction.

Phew!

It was a test. At least I assumed it was a test.

"What about us?" Emily asked. "What are we, chopped liver?"

"You can get your own drinks," Stefan replied. "Isaac here is our guest and it's my responsibility to make him feel comfortable."

"And I am sure offering him a beer did exactly that," Emily replied, mostly under her breath, but loud enough that I could easily here her.

"I heard that," Stefan said with another big smile. "I just wanted to see what kind of kid he was. Nothing wrong with that, right Isaac? Trust me, when you have daughters of your own, you'll want to know what kind of kids they are dating."

"No doubt about that, Mr. Wright," I said, and then kicked myself for not calling him Stefan.

"Hey," he said, swatting me on the arm lightly, "What did I tell you about calling me Mr. Wright?"

"Sorry ..." I said, "Stefan." It felt really awkward to me, but I didn't want to make him angry with me.

Emily got into the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water. Emma got into the fridge and pulled out ... a beer!

What?

Stefan saw the look of shock on my face.

"Oh," he said, "I can let my own daughter have a beer if I feel like it. I'm just not supposed to let someone else's kid have a beer. I decided, once she turned 18, that Emma should get to have the official drink of pizza on the rare occasions that we ordered it for. I might do the same with Emily, but she still has to prove she's capable of growing up a bit first."

"Dad," Emily complained.

"You do need to grow up," Emma said to her little sister. "He's not wrong."

"Like you don't need to grow up," Emily replied.

Emma just shrugged and waved her beer in Emily’s direction with a smile.

Stefan grabbed a plate and a big slice of two of the different pizzas out on the counter and then walked over and sat down at the table. I followed him, adding some pizza to my plate and heading over to sit down along one side of the table. Emma sat down next to me and began to eat her pizza and drink her beer.

Emily was the last to join us at the table, sitting across from where Emma and I were sitting.

Stefan looked at me.

"You can relax, Isaac," he said to me. "I like you. I am glad you're good enough to my daughter that she actually wanted a real boyfriend for a change."

I wondered if that meant he knew about the other guys, that weren't real boyfriends, but who had gotten more from her physically than I had. I suspect Emma thought her dad didn’t know about her promiscuity, but I was beginning to guess that he knew far more than she thought.

"Well," Emily chimed in, smiling at me "I am still going to torment you."

"You torment everyone," Emma responded.

Emily pouted, but it was clearly a fake pout. I was relatively sure that Emma was right. Emily seemed exactly the type of personality to torment people, playfully of course, just as a matter of course. It seemed to run in the family.

"Don't worry, Isaac," Stefan added, "if Emily is tormenting you, it means she likes you ... I think."

I would like to say that I was as charming with Stefan and Emily as Emma had been with my parents, but I know I wasn't. I think I did manage to make it through the evening without embarrassing myself. The pizza really was quite good. I found Papa Bear to be incredibly witty. Beneath a rather gruff exterior, it was clear that he was a very nice guy. He definitely was the source of his daughter’s ability to tease people, and I was on the receiving end of a lot of that, just like Emma and Emily, but I recognized what that meant - I had been accepted into the sleuth.

Yeah, I had to look that one up, as I had never heard the term for a group of bears before.

By the time the library had closed on Thursday night, we had finished both of the assignments that Emma needed finished, and I actually felt like she had a really good understanding of the concepts involved. It was a major accomplishment considering the way things were looking on Monday after school.

For me, it was one of the best weeks I had spent with Emma.

I am not sure she felt the same way, however. She simply didn't enjoy studying and learning at the same level that I did. Very few people on this planet do. I could tell by the time we were done on Thursday that she was getting really antsy, ready to be finished with all of that extra studying.

"Wanna go catch a movie, or get some dinner or something?" I asked as we finally headed out of the library.

She leaned in and kissed me.

"I'd love to," she said, "but I can't."

"Why not?"

"I'm meeting Mike in a little bit. Sorry, but after this week, I really need to let of some steam in a way that I can't do with you right now."

And with that, she turned and headed towards her car.

"Goodbye, Isaac," she said to me. "thanks for helping me out this week. Right now I need the kind of help that you can't give."

I have to admit it. That hurt. Quite a bit.

We had such a great week together, getting closer to each other, getting closer to each other's families at the same time. And then she had to go off to get fucked by someone else.

Damn.

She really knew how to hurt me when she wanted to.

And how to turn me on like no one else ever could. She had just done both with two short sentences. I knew exactly what I would be doing for the rest of the evening, and that it would involve a certain tube of lubricant I kept in my nightstand. At least I could imagine the fun I might be able to have with her on Saturday if I won this week’s challenge.

My life with Emma was never going to be boring, now was it?