Unexpected

3

ETHAN POV

I watched Emma in that moment, knowing she was too entranced by the building and lights ahead of her to notice. She was small and kind of mousy, but there was something beautiful about her that I hadn't noticed before. Maybe it was just the city lights painting her in a different way or maybe I never had taken the time to really look at her before. I felt my breath hitch at the back of my throat when she finally broke her trance and turned to me. I quickly looked away not wanting her to realize I had been watching her so intently.

"It's honestly gorgeous out here" I said finally.

I spoke, but my mind was still elsewhere. Had something between us changed for me or had I just been too oblivious to notice it before? She wasn't the type of girl I usually went for, but maybe that's why relationships never worked for me. I pursued the same type of girl over and over again. The only that would change were the names. I blamed my mind running a thousand miles a minute on how late it was. It was just a few hours earlier I had barely made an effort to stop Grayson from teasing her too much, but in this moment something about her seemed different.

"Yeah it is..." her voiced trailed off for a minute. I was about to ask her what was on her mind when she spoke again. "It's getting late. Do you want to crash here?"

"Uh sure why not." My heart started beating just a little bit faster. This was the most time I had spent alone with Emma. I didn't know what to expect or how I would feel tomorrow morning when the rush of doing something so impulsive would have faded.

"Cool" she said with a smile. I stood up and she extended her arms out towards me. For a split second I almost hugged her, but I knew that wasn't what she was implying. I took her hands in mine and helped her up from her seat, she was ice cold to the touch.

"You could've told me you were cold Emma. We could have gone inside ages ago." I was upset that I hadn't realized earlier. She was always cold and had probably been freezing the whole time. I could have offered her my hoodie or at least suggested going inside earlier.

"S'okay" she said with a shrug. She opened the sliding doors and led me back into her apartment. Her place smelled like coffee beans and sugar cookies, there was something just so Emma about the whole place. "I don't have a guest bedroom or anything like that. I hope that wasn't what you were expecting."

"Oh of course not. I'm good just on the couch don't sweat it." I followed her into the living room still taking it all in. This was her space, where she filmed, where she edited, where she just...was. It felt like something special was being shared between us, or maybe I was just wearing my heart on my sleeve and looking into things too deeply as usual.

—

EMMA POV

What the hell was I thinking? What was i doing? This was so out of character for me. My heart was beating in my eardrums and the caffeine from the coffee was giving me anxiety. My place wasn't even fully furnished yet. Why did I open my big mouth? He probably just said yes because he felt bad. Oh my god what was I doing and why was I so nervous to have Ethan spend the night?

"You know you really don't have to stay if you don't want to. No hard feelings." I said, turning around to face him. I gave him a small smile and tried to look as genuine as possible. On the inside, under all the nerves, I did want him to stay. Really fucking badly. I still wasn't used to being alone and it would be nice to have company for once. It was just a bonus that company would be Ethan...

"Are you kidding me" he said with a look of shock plastered on his face. "I'm in THE Emma chamberlain's apartment. I should be recording right now."

I couldn't help the ugly laugh that escaped me.

"There's that laugh I came here for. I can't leave now, I might miss the chance to hear it again."

Wait...was he flirting with me? God of course not. Was I that desperate for companionship I had reached the point of delusion? Hell would freeze over before someone like Ethan would even consider flirting with my gremlin ass.

"Stop I'm embarrassed" I said, still laughing. I handed him a stack of blankets and pillows I had in a drawer from when James would occasionally grace me with his presence. "I just washed them, so they should be clean enough for you, your highness."

"You could point me to the floor and I'd probably still pass out." He said, taking the stack from me and setting up his "bed" for the night. "Or you could just let me sleep with you."

There wasn't a foundation dark enough in the world to hide how tomato red I had turned. I couldn't be delusional. I knew I was a little rusty, but come on, this had to be flirting.

"Don't worry Emma, I'm just kidding." Ethan said finally, probably realizing I had gone mute.

"Of course. I know you are." I replied, hitting his shoulder lightly. I tried to regain my composure but my head was still reeling from the tiny glimmer of hope that he had just been flirting with me. "Anyways, my room's down the hall if you need anything and the bathroom is on the other end. Oh and there's glasses and stuff if you need any water in the kitchen."

"Perfect thanks again for letting me crash here, Emma. And thanks for letting me in in the first place."

"Yeah of course, any time E." I turned to walk towards my room when he spoke again.

"Emma, wait. Will you stay with me for a minute?"