Chapter Nine
Asher
“My man, you fucked up,” Miles said.
“Yep. Royally and then some,” Marcus added.
I heard their words but right then, they didn’t register. What the hell just happened?
“Aren’t you going to go after her?” Cassie asked.
“What?” And just like that, my brain came back online. Oh shit. I jumped up, dropped some money on the table, and took off after Emma. Once outside, I double-timed it back to the building, but didn’t see her anywhere. Damn.
I scanned my badge in the elevator, hoping she was in the office to get her backpack. It was empty and her bag was gone.
“Fuck.” I pulled my cell out and dialed her number. Voice mail. Ending the call without leaving a message, I made my way to the garage.
Why had Emma reacted so strongly to my worrying about her? Everyone at the table had stared at me when she got up and walked out. Miles said I’d fucked up, but how? I was only expressing my concern about her safety. Protecting those I care about is in my DNA.
I tried calling her again when I got home. Again, voice mail. This time, I left a message. “Emma, it’s Asher. I get that you’re upset with me, and we should talk about why. Call me, please. At least let me know you got home safe.”
That was all I could do at the moment. Well, I could get her address and go see if she was okay, but that was a bit stalkerish. All right, a lot. I marched into my kitchen and pulled a beer out of the fridge.
Thirty minutes later, my phone pinged, and I picked it up.
“I’m fine. No need to check up on me. I am an adult.”
I read the message three times. When did I say she wasn’t an adult? What now? I had no idea. This might not be the time to hash this out. I needed to give her time to think, to calm down. I texted her back: “I’m glad you’re home and okay. See you Monday.”
That was the best I could come up with at the moment. It was going to be a long weekend. Tomorrow I’d chat with Miles and Marcus to figure out what I’d done, because I wanted to fix this situation.
***
I barely slept all night long and finally accepted that sleep was out of reach when my phone vibrated late the next morning. A call from Marcus with an invite for lunch with the guys that afternoon.
The front door was open, and I called out before walking in. Marcus responded and told me to grab a beer from the fridge. They were all out on the patio.
Everyone was already there. Miles, Lucas, Josh, and Dean. Marcus shook my hand, and I raised my beer in an air toast to the other guys around the table. “Where’s Cassie?”
“She went into town to do some shopping. Said she needed some girl time.”
I nodded. Usually Marcus kept Cassie close. I pulled out a chair and sat down at the table.
“Did you talk to Emma?” Miles asked. No small talk. Get right to the point.
“I left her a voice mail, and she texted me she was home.”
“That’s all you did?” Lucas shook his head. “You’re an idiot.”
“What?” I took a long pull of my beer.
“Marcus and Miles told us what happened last night,” Josh said.
I should’ve known. Now the shit was going to come from all sides.
“And Lucas is right; you’re an idiot,” Dean commented.
So it begins…
“Now, wait a second. Why are you jumping in my face? I was only concerned for Emma’s safety.”
I looked each man in the eye. Okay, no sympathy here.
“Never tell an independent woman she can’t take care of herself,” Lucas said. “At least, don’t act like a—what did she call you—Neanderthal.”
And every one of the traitors raised their beer bottles in agreement.
“What do you know about it?” I took another long drink of my beer.
“I know women.” Lucas sat back in his chair, his expression a cross between a smirk and a grin.
I laughed. “We’ve all been out with multiple women. Emma is…” What? Different? Yes, but in a good way. She didn’t hesitate to put me in my place last night, and…what? It was more than her standing up to me. Something I couldn’t quite explain.
“Have you ever told any woman you work with or have dated what to do with her life, her personal life, this soon after meeting her? Have you even asked Emma out on a date?” Marcus leaned back.
raised his arms and laced his fingers behind his head.
“Well?” he prompted when I didn’t answer right away. “Have you?”
I sat back in the chair. Shit. I shook my head. Why had I reacted so strongly to Emma last night? Was it because I was attracted to her? Maybe, but I’d been attracted to other women and never told them what to do.
“What was even worse, if that’s possible,” Miles said, “she wanted to take the conversation private, and you refused.”
He was right. I had. Damn, damn, damn, what the hell was wrong with me? I knew better than to be confrontational with a woman, but I’d done it with Emma. Fear for what I saw as a lack of situational awareness had overridden my judgment.
“You were damn lucky Emma didn’t kick you in the nuts. She looked mad enough,” Marcus commented.
Wincing, I took another sip of my beer. “You saw her last night.” I looked from Marcus to Miles. “She was a thousand miles away in her thoughts. Anything could have happened to her.”
“We’ve all done that. When a solution to a problem pops into our head, we go for it, but you don’t know her well enough yet to know how locked in her mind might’ve been,” Josh said.
“We’re men,” I replied.
Groans floated around the patio.
“Like we can’t be attacked,” Dean said, looking around the table. “Should we throw him in the pool to wake him up?”
“What? It’s the truth.” I had no idea what their problem was. While I agreed men could be attacked, we were built to defend ourselves.
“Listen to yourself, Asher.” Marcus raised his hands to mimic air quotes. “We’re men. She’s a woman. She needs to be taken care of. She should do what I say.”
“When you say it like that…” Like what? Marcus was repeating everything I’d said almost verbatim. “That wasn’t what I meant. I want to protect Emma.” My instincts had been on high alert last night; I could see it now.
“Ah, there it is. The protective male,” Miles said.
I stared at Marcus. “You can’t tell me you don’t safeguard Cassie.”
“I do. But I’m subtle about it, and she’s agreed to the dynamic. Above all, I don’t go around telling her what she can and cannot do.”
“What would you do if Cassie told you she was so focused on a problem while in public that she didn’t pay attention?” I challenged.
“One, Cassie and I have been together longer than, what, a week? And two, that’s not what Emma said,” Marcus retorted.
I kept my attention on Marcus as the other guys all sat back in their chairs.
“She seems to think just because she hasn’t been harmed, it won’t happen.
She said as much. My sister calls it optimism bias.
When you and Miles made the argument that it could happen, Emma countered with, ‘…but it’s never happened.
And I’m careful’. Great. She’s careful, but wishful thinking doesn’t eliminate or mitigate the danger.
Hell, that pink haze, pie in the sky shit has gotten people killed. ” These guys were driving me nuts.
“She’s an adult, Asher. You have to trust her.”
Trust her? I was very aware I had trust issues, thanks to an ex-wife who cheated on me. That was before I came to work at Fantasies, Inc., but the wound was still there. “I do trust her to do her job.”
“There it is,” Lucas commented.
“What?” How many times had I asked that today? What was I missing?
“Trust her to know what’s best for her,” Lucas said. “She’s managed to live her entire life without you telling her what she can and can’t do. How do you think she’s made it this far? You’ve known her all of a whole week, and you’re already trying to clip her wings.”
Was I? I sat back in my chair and contemplated their words as my mind replayed last night. I caught Emma’s muttered quip as she was leaving. She’d called me a Neanderthal, and after my friends’ succinct analysis, she wasn’t wrong. “Aww, fuck.”
Dean raised a hand and pointed skyward. “And the lightbulb comes on,” he said, laughter in his voice.
Every head/desk gif I’d viewed in the past flashed across my memory.
How could I be so stupid? I’d called her out in public, in front of Marcus, Cassie, and Miles, who were damn near strangers to her.
Hell, I was damn near a stranger. I was lucky she didn’t quit on the spot or as Marcus had remarked, kicked me in the nuts.
If it had been anatomically possible, I would’ve kicked my own ass. I was better than this; I knew I was.
Emma had gotten under my skin like no one else, not even my ex. And Marcus was right: I had royally screwed up. Now, I had to figure out how to fix this.
“What do I do?”
At least my friends could help me get out of this mess. I hoped.
I looked around the table. One chin propped on a hand. One shaking head. Another shaking head. One skeptical, even to the cocked eyebrow.
Marcus leaned forward, lifted his beer, took a sip, and pointed the bottle in my direction. “I’d start with an apology,” he offered.
Miles lifted his chin from his raised hand. “Then explain you were only thinking about her safety and protection,” he added.
From Lucas, the first of the shaking head twins. “Also, let her know you believe she can take care of herself in any situation. You were only concerned because you know how stupid men can be,” he said with a grin. “Definitely mention how stupid men are. She’ll agree with that.”
“Case in point: How you acted on Friday,” Josh, the second of the shaking head twins, commented, his grin as wide as Lucas’s.
“I gotta second the suggestion about mentioning how stupid men are. That move has saved many a man’s life.” Dean lifted his bottle of beer, reached across the table and clinked my bottle in a toast, then raised the bottle again with a knowing wink.
I nodded, processing their advice. I was going to fix this with Emma, even if it meant going down on my knees. Of course, I’d do that in private. No sense in letting the guys rib me more than they were already doing.
I’d make this up to Emma, because I did believe she was a capable woman. And if I had any chance with her romantically, I needed to fix this.
If she’d let me.