Episode 68: Jinxed

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Episode 68: Jinxed

"Emily," he repeated and the woman could hear his tone shifting from being amused to displeased.

"Ugh...I need you to give me at least ten seconds of your eyes being closed so that I can run to the bathroom."

Baffled by her response, he let her be for a second and she had fallen for it. Then in one quick motion, he was pulling the sheet off her head. She screamed at the attempt to get her to reveal the terrible state that she was in. Flipping about on the bed like a fish out of water, Emily kicked her feet animatedly and the man behind the cover let go with a defeated sigh.

"Fine," he yielded. "But make sure to come down in the next ten minutes. You're gonna need something to combat that hangover of yours."

She stilled at his retreat indicated by the tapping of his footsteps on the floor. They faded slowly as he went further away.

Staying true to his words, Nicholas was nowhere to be seen in the room when she peeked from beneath the covers. With a sigh of relief, she hopped off the bed but almost fell to the floor due to a sudden wave of dizziness.

As soon as she caught sight of her reflection in the bathroom mirror, the woman winced.

Emily squinted at the image of herself, hair disheveled and dried mascara making the glamour girl from last night a memory of the past.

The hangover felt like someone had a chainsaw and was trying to recreate a terrible low budget horror movie inside her head. With a splash of cold water on her face, she thought she would feel refreshed but regretted it the moment it felt like she had indirectly given herself brain freeze.

When her hands reached for the towel to the side and it ended up in her hand without much effort, she thought it was her imagination.

However, when her eyes glanced back up there stood Nicholas.

With a high pitched squeal which caused her to hold her head in pain, she startled both of them.

Unfortunately, she was the one who felt the brunt of the act more.

Quickly coming to her aid, Nicholas cradled her temples before massaging both sides. "What is it? Do you have a headache?"

She pouted. "I thought I told you to wait downstairs."

"You're being ridiculous. If it's because you don't want me to see your panda eyes, you're already too late. Did you forget who tucked you in last night?"

The brunette groaned.

He laughed as she frantically gripped his forearms and held her head as a result of another slice of pain.

She smacked her lips and on cue her stomach turned in an unflattering way. Breakfast was probably the last thing it needed but she was going to have one anyway. Maybe Nicholas would cook whatever she wanted - he was good at fried eggs and bacon.

Scratch that - he was good at everything.

As if he read her mind, the man gave her a pitiful once over before ushering her out the bathroom. "Let's get you some food."

A smile blossomed on her face at the sound of that but it fell at the thought of having to brave those stairs.

Just as they reached the top of them, Emily opened her arms with pouting lips. "Carry me."

With an expression which spoke volumes to how much he was enjoying this side of her, he picked her up bridal style before making his way down effortlessly.

"You're awfully light. You need to stop dieting and start eating more." He reprimanded then placed her down into a chair in the kitchen.

Dramatically, the aforementioned collapsed on top of the table.

She smoothly propped her head against her arms and looked at him sideways.

"I'll eat more if you cook for me every day. I really love your meals."

Stunned by the heat of her gaze, he coughed. "Are you sure you don't have a fever?"

Going to inspect her, he felt that her cheeks weren't out of the ordinary flushed despite their shade.

"I don't," she exhaled heavily. "But I do feel like there's a battle going on in my stomach. Have you seen the season finale of Game of Thrones? It's to that level."

He chuckled before moving towards the refrigerator. "Don't exaggerate."

"I'm not," she stressed. "Did you see the way Arya stuck that knife into the night king? That's me right now."

"Shit ending," Nicholas finally succumbed to the discussion and she raised an eyebrow at him to continue. "Jon should've been the one to do it. After all, we had to sit through eight seasons of him being the one foreshadowed to do so. Can't believe two sane adult men wrote, edited and approved that bullshit. Heck, even I could've done a better job."

Emily choked up against her will.

It struck a jarring note to her brain but it wasn't anything she couldn't handle.

Wiping at her eyes, she sighed. "At least I'm not the only one who thinks so. I figure that even on my deathbed I'll still be thinking about how one of the best series to date ended up in flames."

He spared her a look which said something along the lines of 'you're telling me' before turning on the stove. "How does eggs and bacon sound?"

"You're a mind reader I swear."

"I'm afraid not," he shook his head causally. "It's thanks to the fact that you've been hinting at the bacon the moment I opened the fridge door. Way to be subtle, sweetheart."

She smiled against her arm. "I learnt from the best."

"And by that, are you making reference to me?" He pointed at her with a threatening whisk making her have to stifle her laughter at how funny he looked.

"Why, of course not."

Nicholas gave her a look that displayed how much he didn't buy that.

"You can close your eyes for five minutes. I'll be done before you know it."

"Why?" She mumbled.

He paused looking at her weirdly. "Because you look like the light is still affecting you."

"Oh."

At how silly she was being he couldn't help but shake his head in despair of her. He looked away when she followed his instructions and closed her eyes but as soon as he did they reopened to admire his side profile.

Silently, she watched him - the man looking like the sun had offered him some of its rays because of how much he was glowing. He only looked that magnificently radiant during three states; after he showered, worked out or when he's been sexually satiated by her in bed. Her cheeks heated at the image of him in the last option and it unknowingly lifted her spirits.

Just as her eyes lingered from his jawline to his plump lips, his gaze lingered sideways most likely being to check on her but she'd been so preoccupied by his beauty that she was slow in snapping her eyes shut.

She heard him sigh.

"If you didn't want to nap for a while you could've just said so." He scolded.

Emily reopened her eyes with a sheepish smile. "Sorry. It's just that you're so distracting."

"How? I'm literally doing the bare minimum."

"Exactly," she pointed out, attention being drawn to the bulge of his arms muscles as he took a hold of the pan. "And it's so unfair."

"Is today National Compliment Day or something?"

Wearing a petulant pout, she sat up slowly. "I'm just making the effort to admire you more. At least vocally. Why, you don't like it?"

He walked over and gave her a kiss to the forehead. "Of course I do. Thank you."

A plate of the meal he fixed came before her afterwards and she dug in after a very touched, "Thank you."

"Last night you did some pretty crazy stuff," he started with a certain glint in his eyes which made Emily hesitant to ask.

But she did so anyway.

"What?" Eyes widened in fear, she halted her eating. "What did I do?"

She knew from experience that she could be what people considered an emotional drunk. If that had been the case last night, the humiliation she would feel knowing Valentina and Chase had been there to witness one of her worst states was gonna swallow her whole.

Nicholas smirked at the look in her eyes.

"Nothing much," he said and her shoulders dropped in relief.

"Just complained a whole lot about how Santa didn't give you any gifts for Christmas while crying the entire time."

"Oh, my God," she uttered in mortification.

"Don't get me wrong, it was cute." He bit the bottom of his lips.

"You're gonna say that because you see almost everything I do through rose-colored glasses."

He shrugged.

"That's what happens when you're the one who loves more."

She blinked, an awful feeling reaching her gut.

"Nicholas..."

"But if I'm being completely honest you waking up in the middle of the night to puke was indeed a handful. You almost fell down the toilet at the first try."

Her hands gave way and her head met the table with a thud.

Sounds like she had a marvellous time ruining everything.

In panic, Nicholas tried to get her up and check if she was alright but she had already done so willingly.

She lifted her head to look apologetically in his warm brown eyes. "I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry," he rebutted seriously and brought a hand to squeeze at her shoulders. "I saw that you were drinking past your limit but still did nothing about it. Now you have to be battling a crappy hangover because of it."

"I didn't want you to," she sighed.

"I know."

"Then there's nothing to be sorry about is there?" She asked him with raised eyebrows.

He nodded. "You're right."

She took another bite of her bread before he asked a question making her pause.

"But are you that worried about the possibility of Valentina and Chase?"

An impulsive frown gripped her face and she couldn't fight it.

"You know how much Valentina has been through..."

"Yes."

"And you know the type of person Chase is."

"I do."

"I don't want him being near her." She ended with firm eyes.

The responding arch of his eyebrows was a statement in and of itself. He was taken aback. It was probably because of the fire in her tone.

"I understand where you're coming from but last night I realized that at the end of the day it's not for us to decide."

Obviously not liking the sound of that, she huffed before taking a harsh bite into her bread.

"I know it might be hard to believe, especially after meeting him in person, but Chase isn't all that he seems. He's highly sensitive. If your friend isn't interested, he'll know not to cross the line."

"That's not what I'm worried about," she confessed. "I'm worried about the chances of her actually being interested in him but masking it behind backhanded comments."

He leant back in his chair. "And there's still nothing we can do about it."

Her silence acted as her defeat.

"I still haven't dealt with Jason for what he did to her apartment. I don't want to add another to the lot, especially when he has some relation to you."

"Then don't," he said strongly, "We're talking about something that hasn't happened yet. And to judge accordingly because of its probability is quite silly, Em."

"I-"

A phone ringing cut what she was about to say.

The woman gave him a look as she stood up and grabbed the device after realizing it was hers.

Her brows raised in surprise at the coincidence when she saw Valentina's name.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Emily, don't freak out."

She breathed deeply into the speaker before turning to look at Nicholas who watched her attentively after she said, "You telling me not to freak out makes me want to freak out even more."

'Who is it?' He mouthed.

'Valentina' she replied back.

He looked concerned, probably because of the piece of the conversation he had heard.

Well, that was the case for both of them.

'What does she want?' Emily read his lips slowly before shrugging.

'I don't know' she replied.

"Are you sure you're in a state to hear this? I mean, it's pretty early. Have you taken anything for your hangover yet-"

"Come on, Val. Just spit it out."

The girl paused before quickly whispering something.

"What?" Emily frowned. "I didn't quite hear that."

"I said I slept with Chase!"

Giving Nicholas a look that confirmed what he swore he heard because of the loudspeaker, a curse slipped from Emily's lips.

"For fuck's sake."

***

A/N:

Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes last week. I've never gotten so many before and the spam was outrageous (but a tolerable kind of course).

I'm currently working very very hard on the rest of the Hollywood series. ๐Ÿ‘€

To the point of being more of an insomniac than I already am.

That's all I'll be revealing for now haha.

Anyway, thanks for your continuous support. Continue to stay safe. โ™ก

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