aisle five » hemmings a.u.

thirty-nine

twitter: intoxicatingcal
em's twitter: emroseking
luke's twitter: lukerha5

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Her hands shook as she drove to her flat. She imagined the whole hunt would be to distract her so he could get into her apartment, but what for?

Emma's heart thudded in her chest and she felt like she was going to throw up. This wasn't like when she went to his flat for the first time, or when she got stuck in the store in the first place. It was so weird that she was so nervous to see Luke. He shouldn't have made her feel like they'd just met again, but he did. It was like their first date all over.

As she pulled into her building's parking lot, she expected her heart to jump out of her chest when she saw his sleek black car parked neatly in the spot next to hers. Her eyes nervously flitted up to her building.

She sat in her car for a few minutes. God, could she even muster up the courage to do this? Em had no balls, none whatsoever. She was absolutely terrified. Luke was up there and of course she wanted to see him, but she was so scared. Finally, she stepped out and looked in the reflection of the window of her truck, fixing her hair. Jesus.

Emma gulped and went into the apartment complex, waving at Birdwoman skittishly. It was like she wasn't in her own skin as she rode the lift up to her floor, tapping nervously on the railing, watching the numbers go from one, to two, to three. Then the gap between three and four felt tiredly long. And then she was stepping off and going to her door. Should she knock? Of course she shouldn't knock it was her own fricken flat.

She fumbled with the keys until she finally got them into the slot and turned, peeking her head in before stepping all the way into her flat, seeing that everything seemed normal, except it smelled . . . like Luke. She closed the door behind her and stepped in nervously.

"Em," his voice said and she jumped probably four feet in the air. She turned, all the air in her lungs dissipated and heat crept up to her cheeks. Luke was standing there, in her kitchen, looking completely normal like he belonged there. "Er, hi."

Emma couldn't even move. "Hi," she whispered, and it wasn't like he didn't hear it because the silence was thick and suffocating to both of them.

"I don't want to drag this out if you don't want me here, so. I sent you to all of those places for, like, three reasons. First, I needed you to get out so I could come here. Second, I wanted you to see and remember all of the good times we had and the memories and show you where and how I fell in love with you." He walked closer to her and she couldn't breathe as he took her hand and lead her to the island, sitting her down at a barstool. "And third, because I wanted to know."

She found her voice when she couldn't figure out what he meant. "Know what?" Em breathed, and he went around to the other side, leaning down to pluck something out of a plastic grocery bag. He stood up straight to set a pile of Starbursts down in front of her, making her giggle softly. Barely.

"To know if you thought I was worth it," Luke said and she furrowed her eyebrows, picking up a pink one and toying with the wrapper. "Personally, if I didn't love you anymore, I wouldn't go through all of that. I would just throw away the letter. But you didn't and I know that you have to love me still, you have to." Her eyes almost filled with tears, but she didn't let herself. "I'm in love with you. I love you so much it hurts. I'm human, and I make mistakes, and this mistake was the biggest fuck up of my life." If there was an award for biggest tear jerker, it'd be Luke. "If I lose you today, and if I let you slip through my fingers again, I won't ever forgive myself. You deserve better than me, obviously, but I can treat you ten thousand times better than I did before. I just don't know if you want me still."