Beautiful

You had told her before that she didn’t need to get dressed up or try and make this night anything more than a casual dinner but all those thoughts left your head as soon as you saw her standing there.

She looked nothing less than divine and the way she nervously stood waiting for you to say something only heightened what you were feeling at the moment, making you fall in love with her all over again.

She was wearing a dark blue one-piece dress that you didn’t expect to even exist in her wardrobe which stopped just barely above her knees. The dress was phenomenal but even with your limited knowledge on fashion and make-up, you could tell she had done everything she could to maximise her natural beauty without going too far. You knew heads already turned when she walked past people at school but now you were pretty sure their eyes would be popping out of their heads if they could see her now.

“Jeez, say something at least” Emma pouted, forcing you to stop staring at her and respond.

“You look… amazing” you blurted out, unable to find the words to describe how good she looked right now. A part of you hoped the KDK saved a photo of this moment just so you could show her later how she looked in your eyes.

“It’s not too much is it?” Emma asked with a blush, the corners of her lips twitching up as she tried to hide her happiness from your reaction.

Emma looked down at her outfit and did a little spin to show off how she looked. The dress fluttered out as she spun and her bare thighs were revealed to your eyes for only a split second before the dress fell back into its natural place.

“It's perfect and if anyone disagrees then they must be blind. I just wanna show you off to everyone at this point.” you admitted, seeing the smile Emma had been trying so hard to hide finally creep its way onto her face.

Given that she looked like she had come out of a fairy tale in your eyes, you reached out for permission to take her hand, making you want to act like a chivalrous knight escorting a lady to the ball. She gladly gave you her hand which you promptly raised to your lips and kissed the back of her hand. The whole scenario had made the two of you giddy by this point and when Emma could no longer hold back a laugh you almost instantly joined her, the two of you enjoying the situation to its fullest now that you had managed to make Emma’s worries disappear.

Emma locked the door behind her and you escorted her down the path, linking your arms together so the both of you could be as close as possible. The journey would have only been a short one but by the time you got onto the sidewalk, you noticed that Lucy’s familiar car had now just pulled up in front of your house. The two of you slowed down your pace as Lucy turned off the engine and got out of the car to join you, giving the two of you a quick look up and down when she met you.

Lucy had a smile on her face after seeing Emma for the first time since she had got back and after a few quick re-introductions, it looked like she wanted to give her a hug. That was until she saw that Emma was dressed up and you were wearing something that wasn’t just a t-shirt and a pair of old jeans.

“I thought this was just a normal dinner. We’re not going out to eat are we?” Lucy asked, a slight panic in her voice that she had somehow missed something.

“No no, don’t worry it's a normal dinner. I just wanted to…” Emma started explaining, the both of you following Lucy as the three of you started walking towards your home.

“Ah thank god for that, I really didn’t want Mom nagging me as soon as I got in. One of the reasons I moved out” Lucy said with a smile, making you smile in return as you unlocked the front door.

All three of you filed into the house and began taking off your shoes, with you shutting the door more forcefully than you probably needed to, to try and notify Mom that you had made it back. It seemed to do the trick as once you were all in the hallway, Mom had come out of the kitchen to greet Emma.

“Hi Mary” Emma nervously greeted, with you finding it strange to hear Mom’s actual name coming from Emma.

“Wow you look beautiful!” Mom exclaimed in surprise before giving Emma a loose hug, unknowingly surprising Emma and lowering her caution about tonight almost instantly

You let the two of them chat for a moment and Lucy seemed content to let them do the same, leaving to go into the living room knowing she would have plenty of time to talk to Emma later.

That left just you watching the two of them talk and you were happy to do so considering how happy Mom looked to be talking with her and the warm greeting had completely seemed to put Emma at ease as you saw her start to relax and give more casual answers. A warm feeling spread through your chest at the sight of the two of them happily talking and you were sure that Mom would have continued asking Emma questions for the rest of the night but as if telling her to cut the conversation short, the sound of yet another timer went off in the kitchen and quickly stopped Mom from continuing.

“Hold that thought, I’ll ask you later at dinner” Mom said, immediately rushing back towards the kitchen and giving you and Emma a brief moment of alone time.

It felt like you had been rushed off your feet ever since you left Emma’s house and it had only been a little under 10 minutes. You grabbed Emma’s hand and gave it an encouraging squeeze that she returned with a smile.

“See not so bad right?” You asked, hoping that the stream of questions so far hadn’t put her off.

“Don’t jinx it but yeah, it's not as bad as I thought. I’d much rather have a tonne of questions than some awkward silence” Emma admitted, quieting her voice just for you to hear.

“Trust me I don’t think she’ll run out of things to ask for at least another week” you joked, before a more serious topic popped into your head.

“We still have some time before dinner from what my Mom said earlier. So we could stay downstairs and relax until dinner or, we could go and see Sarah upstairs?” you offered, giving her a choice of when she wanted to do the meeting before you felt the need to reassure her.

“I have no preference either way. Now or later doesn’t matter to me so just choose whatever you would like” you clarified, trying not to pressure her one way or the other as it genuinely didn’t matter to you.

The decision made Emma consider her options as you waited for her to respond.