Prior commitments

All of you were content to sit and cuddle and as time passed, you each seemed to relax and let the boundaries between you slip away even more. Mom moved from just holding your hand to also resting on your other shoulder and when she felt that your arm was wrapped around Lucy, she ended up doing the same, drawing you both into a hug that you could tell Lucy seemed to genuinely appreciate.

She wasn’t someone who would directly ask for physical affection but she never seemed to refuse it either, always happy whenever you hugged or kissed her and it seemed she felt the same way about Mom and Sarah. With Mom hugging both you and Lucy who were within her reach, you were worried that Sarah would feel left out and made room for her to snuggle as close as she possibly could.

It was only you and Lucy who could appreciate the full extent of the family hug and selfishly you were happy to keep this up for as long as you possibly could. However, when Lucy got up for a bathroom break and Sarah reluctantly got up to refill her drink, your phone pinged and you briefly saw you had a text from Emma when the phone lit up.

Mom had filled the spot you had been in originally so now you couldn’t easily reach over to the table where your phone was without having to fully get up and disturb the peace. You had an idea of what Emma would be asking and you thought you shouldn’t miss what it said, having to make the decision of whether you should break up the party.

“As much as I want to stay here like this, I need to see what Emma just texted and we are probably gonna have a call after that” you relayed to Mom, hugging her a little tighter now that you knew the evening was coming to an end.

“That’s okay sweetie. You’re free to have a talk with her without having to feel guilty” Mom replied, her head resting against yours and letting one of her hands run through your hair.

“I know, I know. I just wanted to let you know… For tonight, do you think I could sleep in your room or you could come sleep in mine? It was me, Sarah and Lucy in one bed last night so I thought it would be nice if we could have some time together” you explained, not having had much one on one time with Mom since you had gotten back.

“I’d like that. I think we will finish up this episode and then I’ll probably head upstairs. Just knock on my door when you are finished and you can sleep in my room tonight” Mom agreed with a smile, having enjoyed the time you had spent together so far this evening.

With plans settled, you reluctantly got up from under the warm blanket and almost immediately regretted it as the colder air of the room hit you. Mom took your place pretty quickly as if trying to savor the heat you had left behind so you just grabbed your phone from the table and went to leave the room.

You saw Sarah on the way out returning from the kitchen and told her what was happening, giving her a brief kiss in the hallway before you went upstairs. You didn’t run into Lucy on the way so you just hoped that Mom or Sarah would fill her in.

Again, you made it to your bedroom and it felt like you were spending less and less time in this room as of late, only really having used it to change in the past day or two while you slept in other rooms. It did however still feel like a space where you could go to get away from the rush of your new life that you had made and after fully shutting the door, you decided to just sit at the foot of your bed and take a moment to relax by yourself.

It was the comfiest place you could be sitting but something about sitting like this made you feel more present in the moment and it felt like that was something you needed right now.

Even while feeling like that, you still looked at your phone to see Emma’s message and it felt like you could still be like this while she was around, or at least on the other end of the phone, so there weren’t any feelings of resistance when you thought about your phone.

Emma: Are you still up for that call?

She had texted, exactly what you had thought she would have said, given your past conversations.

Instead of replying, you just decided to call her, hearing the tone drag on for a little while before Emma finally picked up.

“Hey you” she greeted, the happy tone in her voice perking you up as you sat on your own.

“Hey to you too. You doing alright?” you asked, wanting to check in on her.

“Can’t complain, Mom walked in a couple hours ago with a huge smile on her face so I assume you did something to get her in a good mood. And obviously she wouldn’t tell me about it other than that she enjoyed teasing you” Emma replied, sounding mindly annoyed at Grace.

“Yeah she kinda blue balled me” you said with a laugh, finding it absurd to be having this conversation with Emma about her mother.

“Oooo tell me, tell me! Actually wait! Ugghhh there’s so much that I feel like I’ve missed from today. And I know it’s all gonna be good” Emma responded, the sounds of her drumming her feet against her bed in frustration coming through the phonecall for you to hear.

“I mean you were there for a good chunk of the day. We didn’t even separate to go to the bathroom” you joked, getting a sigh from your bad joke as to your escapade in the staff toilets.

“Ha.Ha. But seriously, come on, tell me everything!” Emma urged, now wanting a full recount of what she had missed.

“Fine, but you are gonna see it when you go to sleep tonight” you reminded her, her dream effect letting her see the events.

“But this way I get to know what to look forward to! Like behind-the-scenes commentary” Emma suggested, still sounding just as eager to hear about your day.

You had considered dragging it out longer as you were enjoying teasing her about this but getting your thoughts out to someone about what had actually happened from your perspective felt like it would be good to get off your chest. You tried your best to go through everything in a good order while spending a bit more time on the intimate details for Emma’s benefit and after you were sure she had gotten her fill of juicy stories, you went over some of the more mundane events, eventually getting to hear how she had experienced things from her side. Especially some of her conversations with Sarah in the morning now that there was no need for secrets.

Author’s note: Sorry for the delayed chapter. Got sick towards the end of the week and just spent a lot of the time recovering. Hoping to get a few more chapters out as usual before a longer break over the holidays.