Page 82 of A Little Bit Extra

We chat for a few more minutes as I tell her about the interview on Saturday and that she can’t go posting things on Facebook yet until that’s live. She understands, thankfully, but that doesn’t stop me from reminding her one more time before we hang up. We promise to talk a little more, and try to strengthen our relationship. We’ll see.

“I’m assuming Annie told your mom?” Emmett asks from behind my shoulder.

I nod and swivel back around to face him. Emmett gestures for my mug with the coffee pot, seeing that I already need a refill. I slide my mug toward him.

“Yeah, went about as well as I expected,” I tell him. It’s the truth too. Mom took the news okay and, like Annie predicted, was in a better mood after I told her about Emmett and the interview.

Emmett walks around the island and presses a kiss on my forehead. “Good. I’m going to get ready for the day. Feel free to come join me.” He winks, knowing that I will most definitely be joining him in the shower.

We still need to drive to the studio separately, so I arrive before him. I go to find Carla, like normal, and begin my tasks for the day. The interview this weekend has me so on edge that my mind feels occupied, leaving no room for other thoughts. The interview itself doesn’t make me nervous; I just have to hold Emmett’s hand. No one should even prompt me to speak. I am nervous about Emmett’s parents and what will come from them. Emmett doesn’t want to talk about it. He always just says ‘Whatever it is, we will handle it together.’

My feet carry me to the cafeteria without me realizing it. I take my phone out of my pocket and it is indeed lunch. I open the door and find Lucy sitting at a table with Lane and Max at the back of the cafeteria. She’s facing the wall, so she doesn’t see me, but Lane and Max do, so they wave at me to come to them.

As a result, Lucy turns around. Her eyes light up with joy as she catches sight of me, prompting her to stand up and make her way toward me. She greets me with a warm hug, her cheerful "hello" filling the air as we make our way back to the table where Max and Lane sit.

Once we sit down, I turn to Lucy. “What are you doing here?”

“After you texted me about the movie, I wanted to congratulate you in person and I had about an hour to kill until I had to be at the diner.”

Right, I accepted the role in the movie this morning. Carla's response was unsurprising; she informed me she had already accepted the role on my behalf, fully expecting my agreement. She’s not wrong. We have a group chat with the seven of us: me, Emmett, Lucy, Tyler, Max, Lane, and Marcy. I let the group know I accepted the role in the movie via text. I had to follow up with a brief explanation because Lane, Tyler, and Max did not know I was even offered the role. They were in the same boat as me, knowing about the movie because of their job, but still in the dark.

“Oh, thanks. I still don’t know much about it, but Carla assured me I’ll know soon.” I'm beginning to suspect that Carla is the only one who knows anything about this movie, and she's not saying a word.

After lunch, I walk Lucy out of the cafeteria.

I give her a hug. “Thanks for stopping by Luce, it means a lot. And we will hang out soon, okay? I promise.”

“I know. Okay, well, I have to go before Dave calls my phone and asks where I’m at.”

I give her one last hug and wave goodbye as she gets in her car and drives across the street to the diner.

I head back inside the studio to complete my tasks for the day.

The rest of the week is the same. Same routine, different day. Each night I go over to Emmett’s and we do a little bit of preparing for the interview. I’m thankful because I‘m getting more nervous as Saturday comes closer.

When Saturday comes up in our nightly conversations, we talk about the kinds of things that might come up in the interview. He tells me they might ask my opinion on a few things. What are these things? When I ask, he says they might ask about our relationship or how I feel about him quitting acting.

If I can get through it without passing out or cursing, then I call it a success.

I’ve been texting my mom and Annie more often this week, too. My mom is already trying to plan for when we can all see each other, even though we literally just talked about it the other day. Annie is planning to move here within the next few weeks before her semester starts in September, so we talk about that. I already plan to help her move in and get settled. I tell her Emmett already has Max, Lane, and Tyler looped in, so we have extra hands.

We lay in bed Friday night and I can’t help but think about how much my life is about to change.

The world is about to know about Emmett and me. The world is about to know about me, little old me, who apparently is starring in some new short film. That won’t be in the interview, since it’s about Emmett, but they will ask about his writing and what he plans to do next. Emmett still hasn’t told me anything about what his current project is. I know he has something in the works and his schedule is going to get busy again, but he won’t tell me more. He deflects and kisses me, which I want to say I’m strong enough to resist, but once his lips hit mine, I’m a goner. I figure he will tell me when he wants, and for now I’ll enjoy him and his body and all the fun things we do in the late hours of the night.

I never knew I’d find someone who completes me the way Emmett does. He likes to rub it in my face that he knew from the moment he laid eyes on me I was meant to be his. I like to tell him he’s full of shit, which always causes us to laugh because we know it’s me that’s full of shit. He knows now how painful it was for me to resist him. Even though I tried hard to keep my heart closed and push him away, it didn’t work.

In the end, he wore me down enough to find his way into my life. Little by little, without me noticing, he found a little space to occupy in my brain and now I can’t imagine my days without him. When you find someone you love, it's as if the world suddenly becomes brighter and more vibrant. When you think about what you’ll be doing a year from now, you’re no longer alone. In those dreams, it's never just you; it's always the two of you, intertwined.

I’m not scared of a lot of things, but I am scared for our relationship to change. When we become public, we will have less privacy and the world will think they know us. Emmett has been doing a great job of preparing me for a life where cameras follow us constantly. There are ways to be private, like now in his apartment, but whenever we travel or leave the house, we will always be in the public eye.

We’ll adapt though, I’m confident about that. There is one detail that I am sure of—Emmett's love for me is everlasting, and my love for him knows no bounds.

Emmett is holding me, my back to his chest. His lips brush my ear as he leans closer. “I know your mind is going a hundred miles an hour right now, but try to get some sleep. We have our first date tomorrow night. I love you.” He plants a kiss on my cheek and settles back on his pillow.

“I love you too,” I reply and smile. Our first date, I almost forgot. With this past week being super hectic and the interview in the morning, it slipped my mind that Emmett wants to take me somewhere public for our first official date.

That night, I dream about our first date and wake up the next morning brimming with excitement to shout to the world my love for Emmett Davis and how proud I am of him for pursuing his dreams.

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