Perfect Match (23 page)

The truth is Rick and I became really good friends. Not as friends as Ben and I, because I knew Ben since I was in school and we shared a lot together and we grow up together so our friendship was tougher than that, but I liked Rick. And I hated the fact that he was still hoping for something with Monica because it was just a crush since Monica and Ben were that great. I couldn’t even picture Monica and Ben apart. They were the greatest couple I’ve ever seen. They looked like one of those couples you see in magazine or on the red carpet, all full of confidence and aware of how great they are. So it was just bad for Rick to keep wishing he’d get to date Monica.

After about a month after Kate left my bosses announced me I have to go to New York to convince some potential clients to invest in our company. Yeah, that was the last thing I needed. Going to New York. Of course Kate and I still talked on the phone daily. She said everything was going great in London and that she barely realized how much she missed everything. She was so happy there. I thought it was just selfish for me to want her here, because she belonged there, in a rainy frame and surrounded by her family and old friends.

“Hey, Ems…” I started crossing my arms over my chest and she stopped talking on the phone as she saw me in front of her desk. She smiled nicely at me and waited for me to speak. “I am supposed to go next week in New York to close a deal with some clients.”

“So nice!” she interrupted me, and I smiled. “What am I supposed to do when you won’t be here?”

“Actually…” I took a pause for effect, because I knew she was curious and I liked teasing her. “I was thinking about…” she frowned at me and I laughed. “Why don’t you come with me?”

“What?” she asked a little higher and a few colleagues looked at us. “Sorry,” she whispered and I laughed again. “In New York?” she asked still whispering.

“Yeah… Aren’t you my secretary? Plus best friend and the greatest person I’ve ever met?”

“I thought you were the greatest person you’ve ever met,” she teased and I glared at her.

“Well yeah, but you know… I’m an exception. So you’re the second greatest person I’ve ever met,” I assured her with a smirk. “Whatcha say?”

“I don’t know. Do you need me there?”

“No, Emma, I don’t need you,” I said laughing and then I stopped when I realized how that sounded. “I
want
you there,” I added.

It seemed to be some kind of fight inside her head because she opened her mouth to say something a couple of times, but she didn’t seem to come to a conclusion. I just waited for her to figure it out that I couldn’t go to New York, one of her favorite places in the world, without her. I have no idea if she knew that I was aware of how much she liked New York even though she never been there. But once in a while she has wallpapers with New York or London on her laptop or phone so I couldn’t go there without her. Plus, it was a really good start for me to start making her realize that we could be good together.

“Okay, dammit!” she finally said with a smile who gave away her excitement. “Like I could say no to New York,” she muttered between her teeth.

“Like you could say no to me, Ems,” I corrected her and I noticed she suddenly blushed and I took that as a good sign.

I was going to New York with Emma. Well, that surely will be interesting, right?

Chapter 19

Sunrise in New York

~*~
E
mma
W
est
~*~

I have to admit the last few days have been interesting.

Firstly, because Matt was acting weird since Kate left and I couldn’t blame him. I was still grieving after she left to London. Without me. I mean, how could she? She was dating Matt freakin’ Nicholls and she came back to London? Okay, I get it, rain and hot accents on classy guys, and Harry Potter’s land, but we were talking about Matt Nicholls. You just can’t ditch him for London. Or Rio, New York, Paris, Spain or anything.

And it was weird not to talk to Matt because he was so sad, and he wasn’t in the mood for anything. I kind of felt like he was avoiding me, but seriously why would Matt avoid me? I was his friend. I guess he knew I would be there for him. But he was a guy, and guys never talk, and I could understand he preferred spending time with my brother and Ben. So I went to Monica’s for a few days just to give him space.

But it was weird to be away from him and I couldn’t hide that too much, since Gabrielle told me it was pretty obvious that I was thinking about Matt being single again. I didn’t want to tell Monica that, because she’d go into shipping us like she always does. FYI, I’d never double date with Monica and Ben. Never.

Secondly, Matt told me to go to New York with him.

New… York!

At first I thought he was joking about me going with him. I could understand why his boss would send him there, because he had persuasion skills and he was charming, but I never thought he’d want me there. Technically, I was allowed to go since I was his secretary, but it was New York!

So the next few days I was only talking about New York and he had nothing to do but listen to all my babbling with a smile on his face. He never mentioned Kate those days and it felt weird, but it was like nothing ever came between us. Not that Kate was between us, because I liked her. She had texted me when she landed in London and told me everything about the weather, and the cute guy from the airport who helped her with her luggage.

Of course we had a night flight to New York. I always hated flying and I promised myself I won’t sleep, not even for a minute. And I should’ve known Matt would laugh for half an hour because I was afraid of night flights and people glared at him because he was annoying. No, he was not. In fact, Matt is never annoying and what’s annoying is the fact that he’s always perfect.

When he finally stopped laughing he told me I had nothing to fear, and that he was right there. He took my hand in his and my heart stopped for a second. I had the impression he was acting a little bit different since Kate left that he looked at me differently, but that couldn’t be.

We talked about a lot of things that night and I knew he was tired because he spent all day at the office, while I took a day off to have everything done, and now I was making him stay awake because I was frightened. I am always afraid to travel by plane, to be truthful. But at night is worse.

“Emma… Just breathe,” Matt teased me when I squeezed his hand because we had turbulence now. I hated them!

“I am… breathing,” I whispered and he laughed. Good thing he’s laughing.

“You’re so cute,” he said and I felt my cheeks burning. You just don’t say something like that in a plane when someone’s frightened to death. “Ems, c’mon, are you five?” he asked still laughing placing his hand around my shoulders and pulling me closer to him. “Plus, you know I won’t let
anyone
hurt you. Especially a stupid plane.”

“Oh, thank you, Superman I can relax now,” I replied sarcastically.

“I am a little offended that you think of me as a guy who wears his underwear over his pants,” Matt whispered in my ear and I laughed. “I’m sure you pictured me naked though, right?”

“But of course!” I replied and he laughed. “You should get some sleep.”

“Nope, I’m good,” he said and immediately yawned. “I’m not tired,” he told me with a smile. “I have to stay awake to protect you from the big, bad plane,” he said then laughed again.

“I’m sorry, some of us actually are trying to sleep,” a bald man who sat behind Matt told him and he muttered a sorry then started laughing like nothing happened.

Yeah, that was just Matt. And this was going to be a long flight.

*

When we landed in New York I felt so relieved and Matt started laughing and complained about that fact he could barely feel his hand because I’ve squeezed it so hard.

It was 11 AM when we landed and I was eager to see everything and JFK seemed so perfect, like in the movies. Only that the movies were shoot back in L.A. and they were made to look like JFK, but that wasn’t actually true. But now I was in New York. With Matt, who was now having trouble with our luggage, but I was too excited to give him a hand. We stopped a cab and Matt said we were going to stay at the Empire, because the company was paying for it. Seriously? The
Empire
?

I wanted to see everything from the cab and of course it was a terrible traffic in New York, especially on 5
^th
Avenue and I hated that I didn’t sleep in the plane because I felt my eyes closing while I was staring on the window. Matt was sitting next to me with his hand in mine and his eyes were closed. Yeah, he’d never understand why I love New York.

We finally arrived at the hotel about half an hour later and I could tell Matt was so tired, he hasn’t slept at all in over 30 hours and I felt really bad for making him stay awake the whole flight. He went to the reception and while I waited, I realized how tired I was.

Our room was at the fourth floor and in the elevator we haven’t said anything because we could barely move. He was the first who entered the room and somewhere inside of me I hated him for it, because I wanted to be the first who saw everything, but I was too tired to argue.

“Um… Yeah, I forgot about that one,” Matt started. “I booked the room before I told you about it, so I got only one bed. Do you mind? I can go and… Book another room for you or anything?”

“Don’t be stupid, Nicholls,” I told him pushing him out of the way and making my way towards the king size bed in the center in the room and letting myself fall into the wonderful mattress. “You really have to try this. And I don’t mind, we’ve slept in the same bed a lot of times.”

“True,” he said jumping in bed next to me and placing his hand around my waist, making my heart stop even though I thought I’d be too tired to feel anything. “Yeah, this is perfect.”

I nodded without another word and I closed my eyes and fell into a peaceful sleep.

*

I opened my eyes and the room was surrounded by darkness. For a minute I had no idea where I was or why I was so tired, and then I realized Matt’s arms around me and his head on my shoulder. I slowly turned to look at him in the dim light that came through the window. He looked so peaceful and beautiful. I bit my lip trying to stop all the images I had in my mind. Then I remembered I was in New York and I’d spent the day sleeping!

I got out of bed as soon as possible and took a really quick shower and dressed in jeans and a black blouse with a jacket on top and decided to go out. Maybe I should’ve woken Matt, but I knew he was tired and it was cruel to interrupt his sleep, so I went out by myself.

The truth is, New York was more impressive then I originally thought.

The air was completely different than in Los Angeles, especially since here was actually cold and there was still snow on the pavement. I looked around and 5
^th
Avenue was lightened and full of life. It was really interesting the streets were still crowded even though it was past 11 PM. I saw a Starbucks close enough so I walked there with my hands deep in my pockets, looking all around and trying to keep the images of a vivid New York in my mind forever.

After waiting in a line for 10 long, boring minutes I got my coffee and I couldn’t stay and drink it there on a wooden, lifeless table while New York was waiting for me to explore everything. I started walking on 5
^th
Avenue pulled my coat tighter around me and I hated that I didn’t have another jacket since I haven’t anticipated how cold it would be. I hated that Matt wasn’t here with me now. But I couldn’t wake him up because he’d think I’m insane for wanting to see New York at night and I knew he was supposed to go to a meeting in the morning. Just when I was about to head down the street I saw Matt getting out of our hotel.

“Emma, I’ve been worried sick!” he told me as he headed out of the Empire with his hands in his pockets. “How can you just go out by yourself at night in a city like New York?” he scolded me and I just shrugged my shoulders.

“Here, take my coffee,” I told him with a smile. His eyes widened and he was about to yell at me some more when I continued, “I’m sorry, I was just excited. I know you must’ve been worried and I’m sorry.”

“C’mon, Ems…” he sighed, and took a sip from my coffee. “This is actually my favorite, thank you.”

“I know,” I replied with a shy smile.

When I got in front of the desk to order my coffee I ordered Matt’s favorite instead because I hated he was sleeping and not here with me and somehow that made me feel like he was there.

“Why didn’t you wake me when you left?”

“Because you were tired, I made you stay awake the whole night… I knew you have a busy day tomorrow and I was so excited about seeing New York now, so… I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, but seriously, Emma, stop disappearing. And I wanna see New York, too. Stop being selfish, love,” he said and my heart stopped.

What? He
never
calls me things. He always calls me Ems or Emma, when he’s mad. And now since he was pretty mad, why was he… Okay, stop analyzing things, Emma!

“What you think about Times Square?” he asked taking my hand in his.

“Yeah, somehow there is where I was heading now.”

“Without me… Yeah, nice one, Ems,” he complained and I laughed.

“What are you gonna do tomorrow? I mean, you do have a lot of things to do…”

“First, I’m gonna be great, like I always am,” he replied with a smirk on his face and I sighed. “Second, I’ll complain about you keeping me up all night just to see New York… And maybe I’ll get to visit my cousin, George. What about you?”

“Have no idea. Maybe I’ll go see a movie on Broadway or something? Unless you want me to wait for you.”

“I actually prefer you to wait. I’ve never been to Broadway, so… Don’t go without me. Anywhere,” he ordered and I nodded.

We kept talking all the way to Times Square and my hand almost froze, but of course I didn’t say anything because I preferred holding his hand. We walked around Times Square, talking and commenting - mostly Matt - about the advertising and the upcoming movies. Then we went to a café to warm a little bit and Matt sat next to me on the cozy couch and had his hand on my shoulders and we talked about everything, laughing loudly and making the few clients that were still there stare at us.