Okay

Nap

It had been a long day for Emma, she hadn't slept particularly well the night before, in fact she'd barely slept at all, instead spending the night stressing over her assignment that was due in a couple days. She'd pushed through the morning fine and was hopeful that she could push through till the end of her shift, this however did not go as she hoped.

She'd been leaning against the counter for quite some time now, her eyes just resting while the store was empty, it wasn't like she'd get many more customers at this point, I mean who got coffee at 8:00pm anyway?

She'd just about fallen asleep right there on the counter when the shops bell startled her awake.

"How can I help you?" She blurted out as she shot up, quickly making herself look like she hadn't just been asleep.

"I don't think I should trust the coffee if this is how the employees look" a familiar voice laughed.

Emma's mask began to fade as she gave him a small smile. "Oh, it's you" she laughed.

"It's me" Paul grinned at her, then frowned slightly, "are you okay?" He asked worriedly.

She looked down at her feet, suddenly feeling very small, and it wasn't just because of her short height compared to Paul's enormous one, Paul's question suddenly made her feel fragile.

"I didn't get a lot of sleep last night" she offered in explanation, Paul nodded sympathetically, he came closer to her, as if somehow knowing that she wanted to hold onto him.

That she did, she pushed her face into his chest with no shame wrapping her arms around his middle tightly.

Paul hugged her back wordlessly, something that she appreciated. She liked that Paul never tried to fix her, only offer her support when she needed it, even after a year of knowing him she still believed she didn't deserve him.

Without pulling away Paul broke the silence, "do you wanna postpone the plans for tonight, watch a movie or something instead?"

Emma pulled away suddenly at his words, a look of shock then sorry forming on her face, "how could I forget" she palmed her face, her head shaking disappointingly. "Our date!"

Paul smiled at her sadly, "yeah" he sounded disappointed, oh god he was disappointed with her.

She shoved herself back into his arms, "I'm so sorry!" She blurted out, "I've just had so much happening, and I– I've–"

"Shhh, Emma. I'm not mad at you" he comforted rubbing up and down her back, "these things happen sometimes, and hey, sure i'm a bit disappointed that we can't go out tonight, but that doesn't mean we can't go out another night. Hell if you let me we have years and years to make up for this one night. Besides just because we don't go out for dinner, doesn't mean we can't still hang out."

Emma nodded "okay"

"Okay" Paul repeated, "why don't you grab your stuff, and I'll finish cleaning up out here."

"You don't have to do my job for me Paul" she argued.

"But I want to" Paul cut in, "besides the quicker you're off the more time I have with you, so it's not just benefiting you."

"Fine" Emma grumbled, "it's just the counter and the machine really, I've already done the floor.

"Okay" Paul smiled, "do what you need, I'll be here when you're ready"

He'd already began to pack everything away as Emma set off into the backroom, but stoped when she called out to him again. "Hey Paul" she turned to face him.