Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Emmett felt when the tension left Jonah’s shoulders, and once the conversation moved into lighter territory, his smile came back. There was still a little tension around his eyes, and the scent of grief hadn’t disappeared entirely, but he was improving, little by little.
When lunch was over and everyone dispersed back to their offices, Jonah took Emmett’s hand, lacing their fingers together, and Emmett absolutely melted at the gesture. It still felt like the wrong time to ask about making their relationship real, but he loved the easy way Jonah latched onto him.
“So… you aren’t mad at me, right?” he asked hesitantly.
Jonah shook his head. “I wanted to be–”
Emmett whined, his tail drooping, but before he could explain his reasoning, Jonah continued.
“But I knew from the start you were only trying to help. I was just worried people were going to pity me, and it’d make things awkward. Lunch was nice, though. I had no idea there were other humans at Spellbound.” He looked around with a frown. “Where’d Roz go?”
Emmett looked around as well, confused. “She was right behind us.”
They backtracked together, and Isaac looked amused when he tipped his head toward the terrace again. “Missing someone?”
Roz was still sitting on a bench off to one side, her gaze glued to her phone as she chewed on her lip. She didn’t notice Emmet and Jonah approach, and there were no lights to flicker to get her attention.
Emmett, being nosy, leaned over her phone to see what she was looking at. She snatched the screen away so fast, he only saw the name in the text conversation before it was gone again.
“Are you texting Tasha?”
Roz glared at him, shoving her phone into her pocket. “None of your business. Jonah, I need to go to the IT floor to update them on how things are going. Do me a favor and check my computer to make sure the update is progressing like it should.”
Jonah nodded, watching in amusement as she flew off without a backward glance. Emmett cocked his head at him.
“Why would she be texting Tasha? Does she think there’s a security problem?”
“Not as far as I’m aware,” Jonah replied, but he had this smirk on his face that Emmett felt was him hiding something. He poked the little human’s side, pouting at him.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Jonah raised an eyebrow at him. “Unlike some people, I know how to keep a secret. Now, come on. I’ve got work to do, and I’m sure you do, too.”
“I know how to keep a secret!” he complained as they waved to Isaac and Maverick again on their way out and headed for the elevator.
Jonah just snickered at his response and tugged him along.
He pestered the stubborn man the entire way down to the Cyber Security floor, but Jonah didn’t break.
He just grinned and headed for Roz’s office, checking on it like she’d requested before going back to the computers he’d been working on before.
“Jonahhh,” Emmett whined.
Once they were in the storage room Jonah was working out of, Jonah sighed and spun around, pointing a finger at him with a stubborn look on his face. He opened his mouth like he was going to scold Emmett, then seemed to think better of it and changed his mind.
“Want to go out tonight? It’s a weekend, and I won’t have to head home early, so…”
His face only twitched a little when he said it, and Emmett could tell he was trying to be positive, even though it was hard. Emmett didn’t point it out, his tail wagging happily as he nodded in eager agreement.
“Absolutely! There are a few places I’ve wanted to bring you, but–”
“No,” Jonah cut him off with a sharp shake of his head. “You’ve planned every outing so far. It’s my turn.”
Emmett’s stomach flipped, and he beamed at the smaller man. “Alright. Anything in particular you had in mind?”
Uncertainty flashed across Jonah’s face, which Emmett got. Jonah wasn’t exactly familiar with the city aside from the places Emmett had brought him, but before Emmett could make any suggestions, Jonah lifted his chin stubbornly and gave him a determined look.
“I’ll figure it out. I’ll meet you after work, alright?” His voice softened. “No more sending people to check on me. I promise, I’m okay.”
Emmett nodded slowly. He’d only wanted to help. If the visits were making things more difficult for Jonah, then he’d tell people to back off. He probably wouldn’t be able to stop himself from checking in once or twice, but Jonah hadn’t seemed to notice before and what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt–
“That includes you,” Jonah cut off his train of thought as he turned to go sit in front of one of the computers again. “I know you were sneaking around to check on me. Go do your actual work and I’ll see you later.”
If Jonah would have looked at him, he would’ve gotten the full force of the puppy dog eyes.
Emmett got the feeling that was the exact reason Jonah turned his back and didn’t even look over his shoulder when he sent him away.
Shoulders slumping, Emmett admitted defeat. He wanted to help, not make Jonah mad.
Didn’t mean he was willing to just walk away though.
He crept over to Jonah’s desk, sneaking an affectionate lick to his cheek before jogging off to the security floor.
He heard Jonah’s chuckle as he left and warmth spread through his chest, making him feel kind of floaty.
He was really looking forward to whatever Jonah planned for their date.
Unlike the Entertainment Division, the security office in the main building of Spellbound didn’t need as much correction.
There were no employees sneaking around hooking up in bathrooms, and they didn’t need to be told twice to go on patrols.
There wasn’t a ton going on since they mostly protected the executive offices and the higher ups knew how to behave.
Emmett found himself counting down the minutes until he could get back to Jonah.
He wasn’t normally bored at work, but knowing his favorite person was just a few floors down and he couldn’t go see him bothered him.
“Can I help you?” the guard at the security desk said, drawing Emmett’s attention away from the proposal Miles had sent him to look over.
He was unsure of formatting since he’d never made any formal suggestions before and Emmett was happy to help him smooth the proposal out before sending it to the higher ups.
When he noticed who was standing in front of the desk, his tail went wild, smacking against the desk and chair, it was whipping so hard.
The sound drew everyone’s attention, and if Emmett hadn’t been covered in fur, he would’ve been blushing as he reached behind him to pin his tail down.
It still wiggled, despite his best efforts, and Jonah looked like he was fighting a grin when he waved at him.
“I’m here to pick up Emmett. I can wait if he’s still busy,” Jonah explained to the guard, who was looking between Jonah and Emmett with a bemused smile.
“Not busy!” Emmett insisted, jumping out of his seat. He sent Miles a quick email with his suggestions to fix a few areas, then logged out and hurried to join Jonah, an eager grin on his face. “Date night?”
Jonah nodded, his cheeks turning a light shade of pink when the receptionist made a curious sound. When Jonah offered his hand, Emmett grabbed it immediately, grinning to himself as he practically dragged Jonah to the elevators.
“Slow down!” Jonah laughed. “We’ve got time.”
“Time for what, exactly?” Emmett pressed.
“To get where we need to go,” Jonah deadpanned, snickering at Emmett’s pout. Lifting onto his toes, he kissed Emmett’s cheek, causing him to absolutely melt. Why was he so cute? Was it all humans? Or just his in particular?
He was so excited for their date that he ended up smacking a few people with his tail and had to tuck himself into the corner of the elevator to prevent any injury. Jonah snickered the whole way downstairs and barely managed to keep a straight face as they got in his truck.
“We’ve got time, so I was thinking we’ll swing by your place and change,” Jonah suggested.
Emmett nodded slowly, considering his words carefully. “How much time do we have exactly?”
The heated look he got in response made him shiver, and he got the feeling Jonah agreed with his line of thinking without him saying it out loud. He couldn’t help the dismayed groan when Jonah shook his head.
“Not that much time. That’ll have to wait until after.”
“After what?” he tried again.
“You’ll see,” was Jonah’s only reply.
He didn’t break the whole way home, nor did he let Emmett distract him while they were changing, and he was still tight lipped even when they pulled up to a community center in the middle of the city an hour later.
Emmett cocked his head curiously. “The community center?”
Putting the truck into park, Jonah sighed, his cheeks bright red as he explained, “I can’t really afford anything fancy right now. I gave most of my first paycheck to my parents for rent, and spent the rest on necessities like gas and food.”
That didn’t surprise him. If Jonah had enough, he probably would’ve gone to stay at a hotel instead of trying to sleep in the back of his car. “I can always–”
“No,” Jonah cut him off, putting his hand up to stop him.
“You’ve done the majority of the date planning, and I want to treat you.
It might not be a fancy dinner or anything, but Taron suggested it and it sounded like fun.
I can afford this. Besides, it’ll help sell the fake dating thing, since the team we’re going to watch is Spellbound’s team. ”
Emmett masked his initial response to that comment, he didn’t want it to be a fake date, but he still wasn’t sure if it was the right time to bring that up to Jonah.
He needed more time to figure things out first before throwing a new relationship on top of it all.
It was better to just keep things how they were.
Not wanting Jonah to feel bad about the money thing, he put his hand on the smaller man’s shoulder, smiling brightly at him. “I’m sure whatever it is, it’ll be a good time. Taron’s a fun person. I’m sure he wouldn’t steer us wrong.”
Jonah relaxed, and when they exited the truck and met around the front, he extended a hand immediately. Emmett took it, his heart full and his stomach twisting with excitement. Jonah planned a date for them. Whatever it was, he was sure it would be awesome.