A basket

…basket.

It’s a small, picnic-esque like woven basket.

My curiosity peaked, I open the door.

“Hey Asher, what’s up?” I ask.

I hear Emma clammer up to her feet in surprise, quickly trying to fix her loose clothing. Maybe I should’ve given her some warning before opening the door.

“Hey John.” He greets. His eyes then pass me, his smile becoming the smidgest bit wider. “Hey Emma.”

“Hey Asher!” Emma squeaks out, slowly approaching with a light blush on her cheeks.

“I wanted to thank Emma for helping out last night, so I got her this.” Asher held out the basket. “Think of it as like a work bonus.”

“Oh thanks Asher, you didn’t have to.” Emma whispers, grabbing the basket.

“What’s in it?” I curiously ask.

“Go ahead and open it.” Asher smiles.

Emma glances between Asher and I nervously, before slowly opening the picnic basket. She’s really putting the suspense on!

She looks in the bag, blinks in confusion, then pulls out a bag of cherries.

“Cherries?” I question.

“Yep.” Asher grins. “Since Emma lost hers.”

Emma’s face turned red hot as she squeaked out something insensible, throwing the cherries back into the basket.

Cherries? Since when did we have cherries?

“She was supposed to bring them back with her.” Asher added with a chuckle. “But she lost them when helping me. So I thought I’d get her some more.”

“Asher!” Emma hissed, her face burning red.

Once again, Emma is just the cutest when embarrassed. It’s okay Emma, we all forget and lose things! I’ve lost so many things by misplacing them…

“Thanks man.” I smile. “You’re so thoughtful.”

Asher lips turn upwards and it almost seems like he’s holding back a laugh.

“I’ll go and take those to the fridge.” I say, taking the basket from Emma. I turn around and start to head over to the kitchen when I hear a sound.

“Mwah.” I turn back around, seeing Emma looking downwards and Asher staring at me. Huh, I wonder what that sound was. Almost sounded like a kiss or something, but that doesn’t make sense.

I turn around again, heading towards the kitchen and the fridge.

“Mmmm…” I hear a low hum in the distance behind me, and I wonder if that’s Asher. Maybe he’s the type to hum in silence?

“Mmmm…” I pull the cherries out of the basket, placing them into the fridge. “…mwah.” I place the basket on the counter for now, turning back towards Emma and Asher.

They’re still standing in an awkward silence, but they almost seem closer to each other…

Eh, I’m just imagining it. I glance over to the clock and gasp, realizing it’s time for me to go to work. Actually, if I don’t hurry, I might be late.

“Bye babe, bye Asher!” I quickly rush out. “Gotta get to work!”

As I close the door behind me, the sounds of Asher humming seem to start again. But I don’t hear much of it as I rush off to make it to work.

I was almost late, but just made it on time. After another long and boring day of networking I finally finish, actually ending up finishing work earlier than expected.

Must’ve been in a rushing mood from this morning. Well, since Emma’s still at work, maybe I should stop by and check on her! By the time I get there it’ll only be about thirty minutes until her shift ends so I could walk her home too!