no questions asked | ethma

11

Emma

Ethan was pacing across my living room, running his hands through his hair like crazy.

"Wait. So you need me to—what?"

"I'm sorry. I panicked and told my family I was bringing someone to my cousins wedding and they assumed I had a serious girlfriend, and you're the only person I could think of that might be able to actually pull it off."

"Ethan—"

"Emma, I'm sorry I'm dragging you into this."

"So they automatically thought that you had a girlfriend?" I asked. I wasn't mad, but I was just trying to get the facts straight.

"I might've kind of told them I did."

"Ethan, why would you do that?"

"I was a little intoxicated."

Ethan sat down on the other side of the couch, and I sat back, trying to think.

It was silent for a little while, and I was thankful that Ethan somehow knew I needed the quiet to think about this.

"Fine. I'll help you." I said, standing up. "But we need a plan."

"A plan?"

"Your family is obviously gonna ask us questions. How long we've been 'together' or places that you've taken me. We need to have a backstory or else they won't believe it."

"We have two weeks. And we're gonna have to be comfortable around each other."

"Right." I said, sitting down.

Ethan scooted closer to me, and put his arm around my waist, pulling my head to his chest. "We should get used to stuff like this."

I giggled. "And those cheesy pet-names."

Ethan laughed. "I hate those."

"Some of them aren't bad, but some of them make me want to vomit."

"Me too, angel."

I laughed. "What about sugar bear?"

"Princess." Ethan suggested.

"Lovie dovie."

"Bunny."

This one made me laugh so hard that I almost snorted. "Ew. That's what creepy old men call their 18 year old side chicks."

"You mean like a sugar daddy?"

"I feel like I'm a senior in high school and you're my math teacher."

"I really hope you didn't take that from experience."

"No. I didn't. But someone in my grade senior year got caught with one of the teachers at my school. He's in prison now."

"Deserves to be."

"Yeah. He always gave me creepy vibes."

"What about the pet name monkey?"

"That's one for only behind closed doors."

Ethan laughed. "Hmm. Sounds good to me, monkey."

I glanced at Ethan, who winked at me, and suddenly the moment became more than just us having a funny conversation.

"You know what else we can practice?" I whispered. Ethan's warm lips landed softly on mine, the kiss was slow, but it made my heart flutter.

Ethan's hands were loosely gripping my waist as he pulled me closer, then laid me down on the couch as our kiss continued.

His lips traveled down my jawline, and it was everything I've ever imagined and more. His lips were like honey, and I was the queen bee.

I had one arm around his neck, and my other hand laced into his hair as the kissing continued, until Ethan moved to lift his shirt off. Before he could, I stopped him.

"Ethan, no. Not yet. We can't. I'm not ready." I said, pushing him away and sitting up. I wasn't panicking, but I sure felt like I was about to have a meltdown. "I'm sorry." I said. I guess I came to the realization that I need to take this next part of my life step by step.

Ethan ran his fingers through his hair, thinking for a minute. "Emma, look at me."

Nervous to what he was going to say next, I glanced at him. He wasn't mad. He understood.

He took my hand into his. "Don't you ever apologize for saying no. Ever. I will never ever pressure you into doing something you're not ready to do, or don't want to. I know this might be confusing for you, and trust me I'm just as confused as you are right now."

"What do you mean you're confused?"

"It's just—" running his fingers through his hair again, he continued. "I'm really attracted to you, and I don't know how to describe it but something feels different. Like I've never been attracted to someone in the same way as I am attracted to you. It's just confusing because I haven't had a true genuine friendship with a girl in so long, and with you it's just so easy. I just—I haven't felt this way about simply spending quality time with someone in such a long time and now I feel like I'm gonna mess something up."

I leaned my head against his shoulder. "You haven't messed anything up yet."

"Emma, you are the most understanding person I've ever met."

"Cause I know what it's like to be misunderstood. It's the worst feeling in the world. I know how it feels to go through some of the same things you do." He looked at me, and I stared straight ahead at the television. It wasn't even on, yet it was the only thing I felt like I could look at. "I'm starting to think you're not the only one with a drinking problem." I admitted. I looked at my glass of wine on the coffee table. It wasn't even 9 o'clock, and I was already on my third glass.

"Emma—"

"You should go before I do anything stupid." I said.

Ethan nodded. "Okay. Thank you for helping me out with this."

It was just his cousin's wedding, and then that would be it. We only had to survive as a 'couple' for a few days. It's not like it was gonna be too difficult.

"No problem." I said, standing up. I walked Ethan to the door, saying goodnight before I shut it and locked up.

I showered, and then I went to bed. One weekend wasn't going to be that bad, right?

I mean, meeting someone's family and straight up lying to them about being in a serious relationship with their son is definitely a morally-fine thing to do.

What did I have to lose? I mean, Ethan just admitted that he's really attracted to me, and I was too shy to say that I felt the same way.

Maybe I wished our hypothetical relationship wasn't gonna be so hypothetical.