—
Emma stayed distant allday. After Jo had sent her home, she dialed Evelyn. Ev had said she’d fly out if Jo didn’t call her back, and Jo knew it wasn’t an empty threat.
“I’ve got a bowl of popcorn ready,” Evelyn said when she picked up. “I’m ready for all the dirty details.”
Jo sighed. She was used to Evelyn’s teasing, but she’d had a terrible day. Evelyn seemed to figure that out.
“Okay,” Ev said, all traces of mocking gone from her voice. “Tell me what happened.”
Jo took a breath. She could tell her what happened without getting into feelings. Her hands shook, but she kept her voice steady as she told Evelyn about her father’s visit, about what he’d said to Emma, about what Jo had said to him.
“Then I had him thrown out of the building.”
Evelyn let out a whistle. “Damn, girl, it’s about time. We’ll get to this Emma stuff but honestly—I’m proud of you. Tossing your dad was long overdue.”
Jo knew.
“The Emma stuff,” she said, her voice still so quiet. “There’s more than that.”
“Yeah?”
“We almost kissed.” It was barely louder than a breath. “We would’ve kissed, Ev, had my phone not rung.”
Jo’s breath shuddered. She leaned back in her chair, exhausted though all she did was tell a story.
“Then what happened?” Evelyn’s voice was quiet.
“Then Emma fled and barely looked at me the rest of the day,” Jo said. “We talked about it yesterday morning. I made it clear nothing like that would ever happen again. I’m just—”
“Overwhelmed with emotions you didn’t know you had?” Evelyn said. “What—your dad insults Emma and suddenly you realize you’re in love with her?”
It was more than that. This had been building for longer than Jo wanted to admit. Emma had made the Emmys bearable even though she hadn’t attended. Jo had flushed at Emma pressed up against her on a picnic bench after the baseball game, that tongue curling around her ice-cream cone. Emma had calmed Jo, her pinkie hooking around Jo’s when she was worried about Ethan. Before that, Jo had been crushed every day that Emma didn’t speak to her more than necessary. Even dress shopping for the SAGs, Jo hadn’t been able to look at Emma because she was so beautiful.
It took her father’s revulsion to put everything together, but Jo had long been a mess for Emma.
She told Evelyn none of that. It made her feel too soft right now, too fragile.
“So what did Emma say when you talked about it?”
“She acted like it was fine. Like she was okay with it as a requirement of her as my assistant. It was awful.”
“Emma’s not an idiot,” Evelyn said. “I’m sure she does not think it’s a job requirement. She knows you a lot better than that.”
Jo ran a hand through her hair. Emma had said she wanted to be there for Jo. She had to mean it in an assistant way. Because if she meant—the thought made Jo’s breath catch. But Emma couldn’t want tobe therefor her as more than an assistant, and even if she did, it didn’t matter. It was inappropriate. Jo knew that. She knewthat, even if, thinking about it, she couldn’t come up with anything she’d do differently.
“Tell me about your day, will you?” Jo said. She was done thinking about her own life, thank you very much. “Distract me.”
Evelyn was Jo’s best friend for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was that without so much as a pause, she launched directly into a story about one of her clients. She didn’t mention Emma again for the rest of the conversation.
—
The next day, Emmacontinued her efforts to act like everything was normal, and Jo joined her. They were all forced smiles andIs there anything else, Ms. Jones?andNo, Ms. Kaplan, that’s all. Jo took herself to lunch to escape the suffocating cloud between her and Emma’s desks.
She returned from lunch to find Emma standing in her office door, blocking a woman from getting inside. The woman was Evelyn, because of course it was.
“Terrorizing my employees, are you?” Jo said.
The other two women stopped their stare down and noticed Jo.