The Affair: Emily Thompson’s Entaglement

Nightmare

Technically, he’s right. Pretending has never been her strength, especially around him, but she does it anyway. Pretend she didn’t want to scream yes the first time he asked her out. Pretend she didn’t want to go on one of those really cozy dinner dates with him. Pretend he doesn’t take her breath away, literally. So technically, he’s not right.

“Emily?” Tony called, breaking the silence.

‘Focus’ she reminded herself. "Sir,” she said, even though he had told her not to call him that anymore, “I am not sure… I think we…no I. I need more time.”

‘How the f*ck are you stammering?’ She hated it. Not the stammering— she hated that too— but the way it’s impossible for her to be herself around him. It wouldn't be surprising to her if she found out that Tony thinks she’s a stammerer.

Tony frowned a bit, It’s written all over his face now that he was really thinking about what she had said. “Why?” he asked.

She could list a couple. At the top of the list would be that she never thought she would be getting married. And definitely not to someone like the Merchant. At least not until a man dressed in a brown suit came into her studio apartment with a deal her father had signed.

“I… I don’t know,” Emily said, now her forehead was all squeezed up. “Sir, I..”

“Enough with the sir already.” Tony said, smiling. But Emily knew what he was trying to do. He was trying to stop her from having a heart attack and damn! It worked. Something about his smile always made things melt. By things, it meant her heart. “Emily,” he sounded serious now even as his face was filled with compassion, “we’ve talked about this and we agreed a month.”

In his defense they had. And she agreed. And in her defense it sounded like the right thing to do at that time. Tony wasn’t just herCEO, he was the hottest man she knew, and definitely all the ladies working in Broadway knew. Why would he be interested in her? Nobody that worked in Marketing.

Tony now moved closer. It was as if he knew what his proximity does to her. He lifted her face up a little. Her hands were trembling already and Emily was really expecting a Kiss. She’d not stop him should he try.

“A month it is” he said.

‘Did he just decide?’ Emily wondered but was too weak to fight it. Somehow she was still expecting his lips on hers.

Suddenly, he stepped away from her. And returned to his office seat.

Now, she felt stupid. Should he have tried a little to come any closer, she might have closed her eyes and moved her head slowly towards him. ‘Thank God that didn’t happen’

Emily watched him pick up his smoke pipe “You are now my executive assistant” he said, wisps of smoke escaping his mouth with each word he spoke “now not only would I need you close, I’d need you to live here with me”

“Just like that?” Emily couldn’t help it.

“Well, do you have a problem with it?”

Emily lowered her eyebrow but was too overwhelmed to say anything else. Executive Assistant was way beyond her level even if she gets promoted every month for the next year.

“Besides, I’d want my girlfriend closer to me”

…..

Three days later

Emily had gotten over the soreness between her thigh but not the details of what happened that night, it lingered like an ugly scar, except she was beginning to get fond of this scar. Just last night she had a nightmare about it. Maybe a dream.

In her dream she meets with the Merchant again. His nine inches in her again. He held her hair back and worked on her.

She couldn’t help it when she woke up. She had to help herself with her fingers. It didn’t feel like it, but it’s close.

But again, all her rainbow memories didn’t come without a storm. Not even the shelter of Tony’s home hid her from the fear of the Merchant coming for her for not showing up at the wedding

“A breath at a time,” she whispered, taking huge breaths in and out.

She’d need a clear mind for the meeting she’s going for. She needs to prove herself, if not to anybody but to Tony. Even though they started dating — after he asked her out and accepted for her at the same time— he had not had her time.

“We are here,” the driver said as he halted in front of a giant corporate building.

Emily stepped out and just in time a man with brown hair and glasses the size of an owl’s eye welcomed her. And without wasting much of her time he led her to the boardroom where the meeting was meant to take place. There were at least twelve people seated around a semicircle-like table, except for the chair at the curved part of the semi-circle arrangement.

“He will soon be here,” the owl eyeglass man who had brought her there said to her with a smile that exposed most of his teeth then pointed her to a seat.

Emily settled in. In less than three days after becoming an Executive Assistant, she’s already representing the company in meetings. Even she cannot believe it and surely wouldn’t Abel.

In less than five minutes after they grabbed their seats, the Owl Glasses man said to her nodding to the door. “Talking of the devil,”

Emily turned.

A cold shiver went down her spine and her mouth opened slightly. It had to be a joke. No, a nightmare. It cannot be him.

‘It can’t be. The Merchant?’