38

Dancing with Emma was amazing. She was absolutely a different person in the club that night. Smiling, dancing, singing, and simply glowing all around. I have no idea what it was about the place, other than the fact that it really was a great club, but whatever it was I suddenly wished I could bottle it and always have it in stock when Emma was having a bad day.

The three of us danced until we couldn’t dance anymore and then we hitched a ride in another cab that took us back to the hotel. We practically fell into a booth of the all night diner in the hotel as we ordered up breakfast and as much coffee as the waitress could bring us.

“I’m so tired…” Emma said with a huge smile and an even bigger yawn as she put her elbow on the table and rested her cheek in her hand. “But it’s a good tired. I haven’t danced like that in a really long time.”

“Neither have I…” Nick said with his own smile. He was sitting across from me and Emma was on my side of the booth. I’d been watching him all night and even though he was hiding it pretty well, I could tell he was into Emma much more than he led on. Just the fact that he’d even snuck out of the hotel with us was saying a lot… no one else would have been able to get him to go, especially since the last time we’d done it ended up so badly. But a bat of Emma’s long eyelashes and suddenly he was goo in her hands. We’d all pretty much danced together as a group in the crowded club, but the few times that one of us paired up with Emma to dance I totally noticed how his hands moved along her body and how she reacted to him. There was definitely chemistry between the two of them, I just didn’t know how much Emma would be willing to take on considering how secretive her life was.

“Can y’all get into trouble for bein’ in the hotel restaurant without security?” she asked and I smiled at the way her accent came out more when she was tired.

“Nope…”

“Cool… so we’re officially safe.” Emma looked across the table to Nick, “And you were so worried… You should trust me more…”

Nick laughed and shook his head, “And why exactly should I trust you?”

She rose an eyebrow at him, “Why?”

“Yup, why?”

“Because I have a face you can trust…” she said it with a serious voice and for a moment I stopped looking through the dessert menu that was sitting on the table and looked up.

Emma sat staring across the table at Nick and he sat watching her, looking at her deep green eyes. They sat like that for at least a minute and then Nick nodded, “Works for me…”

I looked between the two of them in confusion then watched as Emma slid out of the booth and went to talk to our waitress. When I looked at Nick, his eyes were on Emma too, “What is she doing?”

I shook my head, “I’ve no idea…”

She came back with a smile and wiggled a pen between her fingers, “I needed a pen.”

“She needed a pen…” Nick repeated and looked at me with a laugh.

We passed the time with small talk about whatever came to mind and Emma did some of her famous “doodling” on the placemat in front of her until the food came. When the waitress brought the food we laughed at the sheer amount of food we’d ordered then began feasting. Well, Nick and I began eating and Emma kept drawing.

With a mouth full of pancake Nick asked her about the drawing, “What the hell are you drawing?”

“A design…”

“For what?”

I looked at him and shook my head, “Must you always talk with your mouth full, Asshole?”

He deliberately took a bite before answering me with a laugh, “Yes…”

I flipped him off and went back to eating while I watched Emma drawing. Nick hadn’t been paying any attention to what she was drawing because as far as I knew he didn’t know she was an artist. He probably thought she was just doodling a bunch of crap like I was known to do, and he ignored it. When she didn’t stop drawing to eat though and he couldn’t see the picture she was drawing because of the food on the table, he became curious.

“It’s a tattoo…” Emma said, her attention totally on the intricate drawing she’d been working on. It was an amazing piece of work, as usual, and I’d been watching her work on it the whole time.

“For who?”

“Whom…” she said with a slight smile and looked up at him before looking back at her placemat.

Nick rolled his eyes, “Whatever… Whom is it for?”

She laughed and looked up again, “Who is it for…” I laughed as I ate my breakfast and she winked at me. “It’s for you, actually. You need one on your arm, right there…” she said and pointed to a spot on his arm with her pen. “I’ve been thinking about it all night…”

I looked at the picture again and then looked at the spot where she’d pointed to on Nick’s arm. She was right, it would look great there. There was a pang of jealousy that I felt run through my body. I wanted her to draw me a tattoo. I was the one with the most after all. I was The Tattooed Guy of the group.

Almost as she’d read my mind, Emma turned and looked at me, “I’ve got one for you… It’s in my book upstairs though. I was going to show it to you earlier but we got sidetracked…”

She’d drawn mine before Nicks, something about that made me happy. I smiled, “Cool…”

She looked at the drawing one last time and then signed it with her initials and the date before showing it to me, “You like?”

“It’s awesome…” I nodded.

“Cool…” she said and handed the placemat across the table to Nick.

If there had been food in his mouth when he took the placemat it would have fallen out of his mouth and onto the table. I had to laugh as he looked at the picture and the shock registered on his face, he clearly didn’t know she was an artist. “Holy shit…”

Emma smiled and pulled her plate toward her as she finally picked up her fork, “I’ll tell you what it means later, but if I don’t eat soon I’m goin’ta pass out on you guys.”

We ate while Nick stared at the picture and occasionally looked up at us in shock. “How the hell did you? This… I…”

Emma laughed, “AJ likes to say I’m an artist…”

“She is…” I nodded and drank some of my coffee. “She’s absolutely amazing. That’s cool…” I said pointing to the placemat that was still in his hands. “But it’s nothing compared to some of her other stuff…”

“Whatever…” she said and rolled her eyes. “It’s not that big of a deal, I just had the idea while we were dancin’ and thought I’d put it down.” She laughed at herself for a second, “I’m totally twangin’ tonight aren’t I? Anyway, you don’t have to actually get it… it’s just an idea.”

“No, it’s awesome…” Nick said shaking his head. “I really like it…”

“Good…” she smiled at him.

“I just didn’t know you could draw like this… I mean, we’ve talked about doodling and comic books and shit… but this, I didn’t expect this…”

“Well, now you know…” she smiled. It was so simply put, and yet so much like her. I smiled and she looked at her watch with a yawn, “Four hours til we have to be on the bus. Eat up, boys… I want to get some sleep before attempting to sleep on the bus…”

“Whose bus are you riding in?” Nick asked as he finally put the placemat down and started to eat again.

She shrugged and took a cheese-fry from the plate in the middle of the table, “Y’all can fight over me…”