11

"Thanks for the drink again," Emma smiled, as she stepped out of his apartment with him.

"We should do this some other time," Henry suggested.

They had spoken for a few minutes, until Emma requested to go to sleep because she had a long day at work.

"Good night," Emma said, in a sleepy voice yawning.

Henry went back inside his apartment after Emma had gone to hers. He sat in front of his laptop, typing in Emma's name on the search bar of his search engine.

He scrolled down as the page loaded. He could see Emma's i*******m, her F******k and all other information that people provided online.

He could see where she worked and where she had schooled. Emma wasn't one who had a lot of posts on social media but she posted the important once and was an average user.

Henry did that for a couple more minutes, having been intrigued by her. He was determined to find out everything about her and get to know her more.

*************************************

Emma and Eric sat by the lake as they watched the sunset. Eric was reading a draft of Emma's novel while Emma watched the sunset like it was the first time.

She brought out her phone to take a picture and posted it on her i*******m with a caption"nature in its purest form".

Henry had turned on his notification and was immediately notified when Emma posted.

"Why won't Sarah tell Lewis about how she feels?" Henry asked dropping the novel to the side.

"Maybe because it's not the easy."

"They fell in love at first sight, does that even happen. It's just a myth."

"You can't say that. Love happens in unexpected ways."

"How does it end? Do they end up together?"

"I guess you will have to wait to see," Emma said.

"The character has some similarities with me though. Been wondering."

Emma looked straight ahead to the depths of the lake.

She smiled "it's probably a coincidence." Emma knew it was no mere coincidence and that the character was based on him but there was no way she was telling him.

Emma turned to face Eric "is it good?" she asked. "Honest opinion please, I just really want to know. I won't feel bad if it's otherwise."

"It's good, really good."

"Are you serious?" Emma asked, her imposter syndrome kicking in.

"I am serious, it is."

Emma smiled, turning back towards the lake.

After a few moment, Emma spoke disrupting the silence.

"Who is she?" She asked.

Eric was oblivious to what she was asking at first. Emma turned towards him. "Who is the girl?"

"What girl?" he asked.

"The one who hurt you this much," She said. "You say all these things about love and I just can not help but think there is more to it."

Eric stood from where he was sitting and walked forward towards the lake.

"Just because I say all those things doesn't mean I was hurt by someone. It's just my opinion."

Emma walked closer to where he was, standing next to him.

"I know but I have also known you a while to know that it's all just a facade."

Eric stayed quiet for a while before finally speaking up.

"It was about a year ago. I really liked her, a lot. She knew that and I didn't know she was taking advantage of me and that it wasn't me she loved."

Eric was going to add "it was my money she loved" but he couldn't.

"I had all these things planned with her. I had my future planned around her and I was going to tell her to get married to me."

Emma looked up at Eric's face. It was the first time she was seeing this wave of emotion in him . His face fell and sadness lingered across it.

"What happened?" Emma asked curiously.

It was  the day I was to propose. I was going to meet at an hotel. I found a note she left for me. Telling me how she used me and how it was all a plan for her."

"I am sorry that happened to you. That's terrible."

"I was excited when we moved to a new city, I needed it to help me move on from the past."

"Seemed like it scarred you though."

"It's not something I will forget anytime soon."

Emma now knew why he said all those stuffs and why he was scared of commitment.

Emma remembered when they had talked about relationships and how he had said he had never had any that lasted so long. Did he lie? Emma thought.

"You didn't mention her when I asked about your past relationships."

"I try to forget about her ever being a part of my life. I thought I could be different from her and the first time I made that decision, it ended badly."

"I am sorry."

Eric smiled. "Don't be, it's past now."

"But just because there was one bad experience of love doesn't mean we should close our hearts to love and not let people in."

"Love is a lot of things Emma," he said, turning to look at him.

"Remember to never give it enough power unless it will destroy you."

"That's not true."

"It is true, Emma."

"When love is in control. It breaks rather than mend."

"If it had so little power, leaving would be easy. It wouldn't be so hard to let go and forget."

Emma watched as Eric spoke. She wasn't still im support of all that he was saying and her ideologies about love are not going to change.

"Love gives life so much colour, why don't you see it that way."

"If you say love breaks. It  mends even the worst of all heart. So, don't say it doesn't mend."

"If you say so," Eric said.

"Not if I say so, that's what it is."

"Stop fighting love, Eric. It comes like a thief in the night, you never expect it to show up but it does."

"And then it takes everything away from you and could even kill you," Eric said.