EMIT (THE EMIT SAGA) (48 page)

“It’s fine. This is my boyfriend, Daniel. Daniel this is Eden, Billy’s sister, and Paul, Eden’s boyfriend. And you know Billy,” I said in such a sarcastic tone that Eden was surprised.

“Hello Eden, Paul,” Daniel said, ignoring Billy. Eden glanced from Billy to Daniel to me confused by the apparent animosity.

“Is there something going on here?” she asked.

“I was going to call you, but I got hit by a car and honestly, I forgot, but I need to tell you something about Billy.”

Billy was getting agitated and flustered. “Nothing happened. I don’t know why you’re bringing it up,” he snapped.

As I talked, my voice cracked with hatred, “How dare you? You almost raped me.”

Eden gasped, “What are you talking about?”

“I went to the movies with Billy one night and he attacked me. Daniel saved me.”

“Oh my God,” said Eden, staring at Billy in disbelief.

“She’s lying,” Billy countered. “She’s making this all up.”

Paul stood silent not knowing what to do.

“No she’s not, you jerk,” Daniel said. “I wanted her to call the police, but she refused.”

“Eden, the only reason I didn’t call was because we’re friends
. You really should tell your parents. He needs help. I can’t be the first girl he’s tried taking advantage of and one of these days he’s going to hurt someone, if he hasn’t already.”

Eden stared at me and didn’t know what to say.

Billy looked disgusted and said, “Don’t believe her. She’s crazy. She came on to me and I turned her down, so now she’s out for revenge.”

I laughed and wanted to get away from him. “Eden, have fun in California. Email me when you can.” As we walked away, I called out,” Get help, Billy, you need it.”

Eden and Paul stood there in shock. My legs were shaking from the heated exchange.

“You really should’ve pressed charges,” said Daniel.

“It would’ve been his word against mine.”

“You forget. We have it recorded.”

“And what would I’ve said to the police as to why I recorded my date? What would I have said to my parents about the surveillance in our apartment?”

“We would have figured out something,” Daniel answered.

“It’s over. I never want to think of Billy again. How come he looked so scared of you?”

“I paid him a visit and had a little chat with him,” Daniel snickered. Whatever he had said or done, Billy deserved it.

“So where are we going?” I asked, as we entered the park.

“To the Boathouse.”

“I love that place. Can we go for a boat ride? You’ll have to do all the work though.”

“No problem, I rowed in school.”

“Of course you did, but that was a hundred years ago,” I chided.

“You’re going overboard,” he retorted and hugged me. 

Musicians and performers were everywhere. Hand in hand, we talked and teased each other until we all the way to the restaurant.

Daniel requested a table on the deck and we sat in the wicker chairs overlooking the water. The table next to us was celebrating something. They were clinking champagne glasses.

“You can’t legally drink!”

“I do have an ID that says I’m twenty one if I need it for work, but I’m not much of a drinker. One wine or one beer is really my limit.”

Looking at the lake and the boats, I saw the gondolier and remembered that at Daniel’s school everybody wore a boater hat. “Instead of a row boat, how about a gondola ride? You’ll feel right at home with that hat,” I joked.

Daniel smirked. “You are so funny.”

“I’m kidding. If we do a gondola ride, you can relax too.” Daniel agreed and left to make arrangements.

After we ate, we walked around until it was time for our ride. Daniel said he booked an hour.

Gliding effortlessly through the water, cradled in Daniel’s arm, I had no worries.

“So do you miss the boater hats?” I teased.

“Sometimes,” he answered.

“Do you think Harrow still has the same traditions? You were there so long ago.”

“Little has changed. They pride themselves on tradition.”

I told him all about my grandparents, my Aunt Lucy and Uncle Blake, my two crazy cousins, David and Liam and all about Emma and her brothers, Lane and Damian. Daniel might like them since they were theoretically the same age. I’d been emailing Emma all about Daniel and she couldn’t wait to meet him.

Walking back home, I had a text from Lily inviting us to join her and Chad at some party. There was also a voicemail from Mom to call home.

“Hi what’s up?”
She wanted me come home and have dinner with her and Dad.

Having heard my side of the conversation, Daniel knew. “Dinner with your parents, huh?”

“Yeah, but I’ll see you right after. I got a text from Lily about a party. What do you think?”

“Whatever you want to do is fine with me.”

At my building, Daniel said he had some packing to do and would wait for my call.

Mom was in the kitchen cooking, so I ran up to see Dad. Newspapers were flung all over the bed and he was talking on the phone. He smiled and patted the bed for me to sit and wait.

When his call was done, he asked, “What have you been doing all day?”

“Daniel took me for lunch at the Boathouse and then we took a gondola ride.”

“That sounds like fun,” Dad answered. “Is he joining us for dinner?”

“Mom never told me to invite him.”

“We wanted to talk to both of you about London,” Dad added, confused.

“I’ll go downstairs and ask her.”

The salad spinner was whizzing and Mom was so deep in thought that she jumped when I entered the room. “Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yes, I
’m thinking about a new project at work.”

“
Dad asked if Daniel was coming for dinner, but you never mentioned it.”

“I didn’t?” I shook my head. “Yes, please invite him. I thought I had. Between Dad, you leaving for London and my job, I’m all over the place.”

I called Daniel and he jokingly said he was nervous to come over.

When I went back to see Dad, I found that he was sleeping. Tiptoeing out, I went into my room to finish packing. I picked a week’s worth of things since I could do laundry at Nana’s. I needed to leave room in my luggage to go shopping in London. My favorite store there was Topshop. The New York store didn’t have a lot of the things that the London
store had.

As I grabbed some shampoo from
the bathroom, I saw Lily coming up the stairs.

“Hey, how was your day?” she asked.

I told her what happened with Billy.

“I’m so glad Eden knows. What did Daniel say to him that he was so scared of him?”

“I don’t know and I really don’t care. I never want to think about Billy again,” I answered.

The doorbell rang and I ran downstairs to find Daniel in the foyer with Mom.

“Daniel, I’m sorry about forgetting to invite you before. I’ve been a little overwhelmed with things,” I overheard her saying.

Dad came down looking comfy in sweatpants and a T-shirt. Dad was in a silly mood and was telling us jokes that I thought were quite dumb. My parents finally got to the real reason for this dinner.

“Paige, since you’re staying with Nana, you can’t stay out really late every night. Nana will be worried sick and wait up until you get home. She has to rest, so please be considerate,” Mom rambled on. Glancing at Daniel, I shook my head. We planned on spending our days together so it’ll be fine to cut our nights short since I also wanted to spend time with my grandparents.

“How are you getting to the airport tomorrow?”

“I have a car service getting me. Can I pick Paige up since we’re on the same flight?”

“That would be great
. You’ll be able to help with her luggage. It’ll be hard with one arm. By the way Daniel, where are you staying?” asked Dad.

“With some friends from school.” Lily glanced over, but knew not to say anything.
After all the rules were explained and Daniel put on full notice, we were excused. We escaped to the den.

“That was intense,” breathed Lily.

“Yes, even while I’m in London, they’ll be ruling with an iron fist. Are you okay Daniel?”

“I’m fine.
They are just being good parents.”

“I know, but it
’s really stifling sometimes.”

We all watched TV and waited to hear from Chad.
I left my cell in my bedroom, so I ran upstairs to get it and checked Facebook .It was amazing how unimportant it was now.

Daphne and Grace had sent a few messages and from the wording, they were annoyed. They texted that a group of seniors going off to college were throwing a ‘Hello to College Bash’ at a local YMCA and asked if I want
ed to go with them. This must be the party that Lily was talking about. I called Daphne and she was happy to hear from me.

“I thought you ditched me,” she confessed.

“I’m sorry, it’s been such a crazy summer. My grandmother, my arm and now my dad, I’m sorry. I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”

“You left out one other thing… Daniel.”

“Yes, and Daniel.”

We talked for almost twenty minutes. “Come and bring Daniel and Lily. You’ll know a lot of people there. I saw Billy last night and he said that he and Carla were going. Did I tell you that they were dating?” Billy and Carla what a great pair! Since I had no interest in seeing Billy, I wouldn’t be going.

I filled Daphne in on all the details of what happened with Billy.

“That’s crazy.” Daphne was appalled.

“Please be careful around him.”

Promising to call as soon as I was back from London, I ran downstairs.

“Did you get lost?” asked Lily. Daniel looked up from a magazine.

“No. I had to call Daphne and after talking to her, I don’t want to go to that party. She said Billy was going and that he’s dating Carla. Do you believe it?”

“Wow. A match made in heaven.” Lily shook her head.

“Did you ever tell Chad what Billy did to me?”

“No. I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to,” Lily answered.

“Please tell him.
I don’t like Carla, but nobody deserves that. Maybe he’s different with her.”

“She pro
bably didn’t say no, so there wasn’t a problem,” Lily guessed.

“Let’s stop talking about Billy. I’m so sick of him.

When the doorman called, we went down to the lobby to meet Chad. It was funny how Reed’s name was never brought up.

“Lily text me and tell me what’s going on.”

“Okay. If we get tired of the party, maybe we’ll meet up with you,” said Lily.

“Sounds good. Have fun,” answered Daniel as Lily and Chad took off.

“Can we take a walk and then go to your place?” I asked.

Daniel’s eyebrows rose and he said jokingly, “I might not let you leave.”

“Oh yeah! Maybe I don’t want to leave.”

We wandered around talking and ended up at Lincoln Center.

I saw some military people walk by. “I can’t believe you’re in this crazy program, but eighteen year-olds enlist and go to war, so what’s the difference.”

“It wasn’t that easy to convince them. I first had to meet some stipulations.”

“Like what?”

“I had to go to college first.”

“Are you kidding? You’ve already been to college?” Daniel nodded. “Where?”

“I went to Yale. I’m sorry
, but I really forgot to tell you.”

“But how were you able to do that?”

“Let’s get some dessert and talk in my apartment. It’s not a good idea to talk out here.” Daniel dragged me into an ice cream parlor.

The whole way back to the Dakota, I just stared at him and wondered how much more was there that I didn’t know.

As Daniel scooped the ice cream into bowls, he told me all about it. “The agency had me go to the year 1970 to start school. When I finished, it was 1974.

“H
ow was that possible?”

“It was actually very easy. I went in for every four-month semester, left between each semester to go to a different year. I did that for four years and got my degree. After that, I was assigned a partner to learn everything about time travel.”

Just as I was going to ask a question my cell rang and it was Lily. The background noise was so loud that I could barely hear her. What I could make out was that the party was out of control and they wanted to meet us.

“Lily we’re at the Dakota. Do you want to come over and watch a movie with us?”

“Now you’ll be forced to behave,” Daniel said when I hung up.

“Really, what about you?”

“I always behave.”

“Sure you do,” I teased and we started kissing.