When Emma didn’t actually reply, Avery sighed.
“Have fun on your trip,” she said. “Try to get some work done instead of just making out the whole time.”
“This is why I didn’t tell you,” Emma said.
“I know,” Avery said. “But you still love me.”
“Do I?” Emma asked. She immediately felt bad, threw herself back over the threshold for another hug. “I do.” She squeezed her sister tight. “Okay, I’m going now.”
20
EMMA
Emma spent half the flight to Calgary going over her notes for the trip: their itinerary, the locations they were scouting, the restaurants she’d researched. She only stopped when Jo leaned over and touched her shoulder gently.
“How’s the trip look?” Jo asked.
“Oh, everything’s set, boss,” Emma said. “The car service will be waiting by the time we get our bags, and we’ll head immediately to the hotel to check in. We’ll have to grab lunch pretty quickly before...”
She trailed off, noticing Jo looking at her with something like a smirk on her face.
“Did you not want to know about the trip?” Emma asked.
“You’ve been going over everything for an hour, Emma,” Jo said. “Take a break. It’s a two-day trip. I know the itinerary. I know everything’s going to be fine and you don’t need to go over it for the fifteenth time.”
Emma colored slightly. She liked to be prepared was all.
“I appreciate you being thorough,” Jo said. “But balance thatagainst stress, because I promise there’s nothing to be stressed over. It’s going to be an easy trip.”
It was their last trip together. Emma’s chest clenched, and she remembered their most recent trip, to upfronts. Remembered her asthma attack and the way it had kicked up rumors about them. It had been months since she’d seen an article about herself. Emma didn’t know why whoever was leaking had suddenly stopped after Barry Davis’s visit, or if maybe they just really thought Jo and Emma had broken up.
Did the leak notice how Emma and Jo sometimes seemed like they were on eggshells around each other now? She didn’t know if anyone else could even tell, but she could. They were good, for the most part, but when they talked about Jo moving on, Emma getting promoted, there was always this undercurrent of something Emma didn’t really understand.
But whatever. Emma could relax. For the rest of the flight, she and Jo watched sitcoms on the TVs in the backs of the seats in front of them. Jo’s nose crinkled when she laughed. Emma wasn’t stressed at all.
—
As Emma had saidthere would be, there was a car waiting to take them straight to their hotel, where their rooms were across the hall from each other. Emma unpacked her suitcase and changed into warmer clothes. December in Calgary had her happily bundled into layers.
Not much later, there was a knock on her door. Emma checked the peephole to see Jo, her hair in a thick braid over one shoulder. When Emma opened the door, Jo grinned at her.
“Lunch?” she said.
She was dressed for the weather, too, a scarf around her neck and knee-high boots. She held a herringbone coat folded over one arm.
“Sure,” Emma said. “Let me grab my coat.”
“I know you’re all about the food when we go on trips,” Jo said as Emma retrieved her coat. “Did you run across that Vietnamese place a few blocks away?”
“Absolutely,” Emma said, too excited at the prospect of Vietnamese to be embarrassed about her restaurant-researching habit she’d thought was private. “I wanted to try that one the most.”
Jo led the way out of the hotel, Emma at her side. When they found the restaurant, the smell from the sidewalk had Emma’s mouth watering. It only got better inside.
Emma had never eaten out with Jo like this without staying eagle-eyed, ready to avoid cameras or push through a crowd to get Jo back to the car. Today, she didn’t have to worry about paparazzi. No one in the restaurant glanced their way.
Instead, Emma got to focus on how delicious the spring rolls were, how absolutely wonderful the pho broth was. It was a perfect meal for a day that probably didn’t count as blustery by Calgary’s standards, but was colder than it ever got in LA. Jo added a hefty spoonful of hot oil to her pho, but Emma declined.
From the moment she’d knocked on Emma’s door, Jo had been calm and loose. It took Emma the whole day to fully let her guard down. Jo was never recognized. There were never any cameras in their faces or peeking out across the street. While they worked, Jo asked Emma questions, took her opinion into consideration at every site they visited.