Page 50 of Past

A slamming door snaps me from the moment of just listening to him speaking kindly to me, and when I turn, I see Lily has left the room.Elliot walks away from me and leaves the room to find Lily, like I would expect him to. I’m left standing in the room with Harley and Luke, their younger brother, who is standing at the door.

“Elliot’s such a fucking idiot,” Luke says, and I couldn’t agree with him more.

"I'm glad you’re feeling better." Emilia smiles next to me, snapping me back from my memories. I think to myself how glad I am too. Three days I was in bed, recovering, and while I feel a little weak still, it's not too bad. I was still sick for over a week, but I wasn’t as hot and cold all the time.

"Me too." I exhale, not wanting to think any more about those few days. I don’t like being sick or needing any help.

"Thanks for helping me so Elliot could rest," I tell her.

The last two weeks have been awful as the whole family got ill, and Elliot hasn’t left my side. Elliot, Jake, and Harley were the only ones who didn’t get ill. So Blake’s mum has been looking after them all, and Elliot looked after us. Harley was stuck looking after Jake, so he wasn’t around Maisy or Seb. Emilia finally kicked Elliot out when I felt better and told him to have a shower and get some rest. Izzy and Blake got better a little quicker than I did, and Gage is now ill. Gage went home to his mother’s, and she is looking after him.

"No problem. The poor guy looked close to passing out when I got home." She chuckles. I’m surprised Emilia didn’t get ill, she helped us all out.

"I really like him." I laugh nervously.

"You mean you love him," Emilia corrects me, and I scowl at her before heading into the Ann Summers shop in front of me.

I can hear Emilia laugh behind me as I walk ahead, and I see a nice matching lacy black bra and knickers.

"I have to have these," I say, finding my size.

"They are sexy," Emilia admits, helping me look. She finds my size before I do and hands them over.

"So? How's your dating life?" I ask, trying to distract her. Emilia’s face goes pale for a second before she fakes a smile.

"Good. Eric is my dad’s new wife's son, and even if he is my stepbrother, it's not weird,"she mutters, and I really don’t think she believes those words.

"Sure it's not; you’re not related and you didn’t grow up with him. So is he good in bed?" I ask, and a woman next to me raises her perfectly fake eyebrows.We are in a sex toy shop, and she is judging me for talking about sex. Can I not get a break anywhere?

"I haven't slept with him yet. Our family is weird, and no sex before marriage," she mutters.

"You’re a virgin?" I ask way too loudly, as I'm in shock, and everyone looks over at us now. Emilia goes red before dragging me to the counter.

While I pay, she whispers, "No, but my family doesn't know that. Look, it's just very complicated."

"I’ll say," I whisper back, making her chuckle. I pay for our things, and we walk out.

"So Eric is okay with waiting?" I ask.

Emilia shifts a little nervously before saying, "To be honest with you, I don't know or really care."

"But you like him, right?" I haven't heard her really say many nice things about him yet. I’ve seen the man once when he picked her up. He is huge, with no hair and very dark skin. He is slightly attractive, but the three tattoos on the one side of his face kind of ruin it. I haven’t said anything, but I don’t see him as being her type. He looks like he would eat her for dinner, and not in the fun way.

"Yeah, sure. He is fine," she says quickly before changing she subject again.I let her because I can’t push her to talk to me. She knows I’m here if she needs help.

"So what are you getting Elliot for his birthday?"

I groan out loud before answering. "I'm not sure. I mean, we haven't been dating long, so I don't know him well enough to buy him something I know he will like."

"Well, what do you know that he likes?"

I don't answer while we walk and I think. The only thing I can think of is stars and his Harley Davidson, but how do I turn that into a gift?

"Stars and bikes," I mutter.I can’t remember anything else he has told me he likes. I guess his favourite colour is black, and he likes to wear leather. I know he spends way too much time at the gym or swimming, but I don’t know much else. I’ve seen the gym they have at their home, and there isn’t anything that they are missing.

"What?"she asks. I leave out the bike this time; there isn’t anything I can do with that.

"He likes stars," I say.

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