Chapter 11: About This Girlfriend
***
(MC POV)
I almost dropped the sandwich I was holding. In fact, I was just moments away until my teeth were about to sink into it, and the taste of this delectable homemade sandwich would invade my mouth.
I felt my appetite had diminished by quite a bit and upon glancing up at her I felt it dwindle further. Still, the corner of my sandwich was practically in my mouth, so in the end, I decided to bite down and chew, albeit quite slowly.
I looked up once more to gauge her current expression and when I did so our eyes met which only widened her sly smile. She propped her head up upon her right hand and her eyes were semi-closed which only added to that sly feeling she was emitting.
But her pupils had some kind of feeling to it. Whenever I looked directly into them I felt as if she would find any and every flaw that I could produce.
'Damn it, everything was going so well! I thought she had forgotten! What should I say? Should I just talk about her normally? But, from this look, she's giving me I feel like something bad might happen if I give an answer she doesn't like!'
"Ethan~… you're awfully quiet, I wonder~, why is that?"
"...It's nothing, there's no need to worry!"
I spoke without much thought to reassure her as I used what few seconds it might bring to try and figure out how I should handle it. However, it didn't really help too much as nothing new appeared in my mind.
"Oh? Then you'll have no problem telling me about this woman you met, right?
Ethan, I'm just curious about her. Aren't we friends? Come on, why don't you tell me a bit about her?
I wanna know a little about this mysterious woman who managed to swoop in and capture Ethan's heart. It's not too difficult to do now, is it?"
I gave a wry smile in response as I looked up at her.
'Ah fuck it, why am I even that worried about it? Some weird feeling that something might happen? Why would I even have that feeling? Emma has been nothing but nice to me. It's not like the moment I tell her about my girlfriend, my world's gonna end.
I still can't shake off that odd feeling entirely though, so I just won't give out the details about it.
Yeah, that seems good.'
Finally making up my mind I put on a relaxed expression.
"Alright! Alright! Fine! Fine! I'll tell you about her. You really love to hear about my love life, don't you? In fact, isn't that also mostly how our relationship started?"
Her cheeks slightly blushed a feint red.
"Yes, I remember you being depressed for a little while at the time. If I was still younger I might've taken my chance to try and be with you. My own home life isn't the most envious after all, but enough about me.
I wanna hear about your girlfriend! You have to at least tell me her name!"
"Hey, get this, my girlfriend is actually someone I've already known for a long time! Her name's Racheal and it turned out to be my childhood friend from so many years ago.
I happened to meet her the next day after I was drinking with you. To be honest at the time I didn't know it was going to progress so quickly so fast. Not a single day had passed by before she asked me out. It was like she wasn't willing to let her chance slip away.
In the past, I used to have a crush on her, but throughout the years I got a little more and more worried about her response. So in the end, I didn't confess to not ruin our friendship.
BUT! Turns out that she had a crush on me too! She was going through the same thing I did, but she really regretted not saying anything, so here we are now!"
I was actually starting to get into it in the end.
"Whoa! You had this much history with her and neither of you confessed before you were separated? That's pretty sad, how come you never told me about this? I feel like there's still so much to know about you. Why didn't you tell me about your new girlfriend sooner?"
'Huh, seems like all those bad thoughts were probably just me overthinking in the end. There really wasn't a need to be so worried!'
"Well… I kinda having a bit too much fun together with her reminiscing and all. Sorry!"
When I spoke about having fun she looked a bit irritated for a moment.
"Wow! You were having "too much fun," huh? I can't believe you forgot about me. I was at your place just the day before too!"
'She seemed a little agitated about me having fun with someone else, so maybe she is a little jealous.'
I spoke with a smirk to see how she would react.
"Yeah! Time flew by when I was with her those last couple of days; it was really quite fun!"
"Ha…ha…was it now? I'm happy for you, t-truly."
I could see her smile twitching occasionally. Was she angry? It kinda felt like it a little, but I just summed it up to her being jealous.
I felt like I was starting to turn the tables on her a little. I leaned forward and my shyness from earlier had vanished as I felt I had obtained her weakness at the moment.
I looked directly into her eyes and spoke with a slightly smug smile.
"Hey~ Emma, are you by any chance actually… jealous?"
We maintained eye contact for a couple moments more before a slight pink blush appeared around her cheeks, but she didn't break our eye contact. Instead, a self-deprecating smile replaced her previous one.
"So what if I am? Believe it or not, you're one of the very few people I can call a friend, even if it is mostly based off of alcohol. I don't know why, but it seems quite difficult for me to get to know many others. So, sorry that I kind of wish to have you for myself."
'Eh? Really? What about me makes me so different? Wait, have me for herself? What? That doesn't make much sense, does it? I don't think having a girlfriend would change our current relationship that much, would it?
Hmm, is it possible that she's been interfering with my love life!? Maybe those "coincidences" where she happens to stumble into Hannah and me in the elevator aren't "coincidences" at all!
But that's probably a bit of a stretch. How did I even think of such an absurd idea? It would mean that she might've had that idea before even Diana died and at that time I barely even spoke to her!'
"Emma, you don't have many friends? I thought you would have plenty considering the way you act around me."
She went quiet for a moment before changing the topic.
"...So how did you happen to meet this girlfriend of yours?"
"Ah, heheh, it was actually really stupid. I woke up with the hangover I had from drinking with you and it didn't take long before I wanted to be cured.
So I left my house to go to someone I knew's home and knocked on it while covering my eyes. The door opened and I assumed it was the person I knew, but it happened to be someone else entirely!
That, of course, was Racheal, but I didn't know at the time. So I stood with my eyes covered in front of her door, but you'll never guess the first thing she did after all these years!
She actually kissed me as a greeting!-"
Suddenly, Emma stood up with a look that was a mix of shock, anger, and surprise.
"What!! H-how can she do that!?"
"W-whoa! Calm down, Emma! It was just a kiss; I felt as much confusion back then as you do now."
"How could she do that as a greeting, though? Especially since you two hadn't seen each other for however long?"
"I think she was just teasing me, probably thought I was still a virgin, and a simple kiss would make me spiral out of control. Unluckily for her, I could handle myself."
"Oh? Is that so? S what happened next?"
"Next? I hung out in her new house for a while and just talked to catch up while trying to wait out the hangover before we went shopping together. It was basically a date; we went to eat somewhere I knew before we went shopping, though. I had bought just some groceries, but she bought a set of women's clothing."
Her eyes sank a bit at the last part of my sentence.
"...You helped her pick out her clothes? Did you also enter the dressing room with her? Just…how close did you two get? It hadn't even been a day at that point."
"Ah..haha…"
Hearing her words, I held off from talking about actually going to the lingerie section and confirming that I did indeed enter with her. I felt that a wave of embarrassment would soon arrive if I really said anything and a gut feeling was discouraging me from saying it as well. I just had a feeling that something bad would probably happen if I really did say it.
Not to mention the fact that I had also touched her breasts in there. After a while, I did talk about her confession and how she confessed first.
The reaction that I was expecting from her this time was a little disappointing, at least in comparison to the ones she had earlier.
***
(Emma Anderson POV)
As Ethan was describing his days with this girl named Racheal I was brooding. Several of the actions that she's demonstrated so far are way too aggressive. How could such a woman be around Ethan?
'She's gone so far with him already? In just a single day, she's done so much? How dare she?!
Such a person acts too promiscuously! If she's like that with him on their first reunion who knows what she might've done?!
Ethan! My dear Ethan! I know you're probably leaving out details, aren't you? If she's willing to kiss you from the moment you meet again who knows what she might do with more time?!
You said you ate with her, you probably shared food with one another and maybe even drinks didn't you? At this point, I feel like every woman you come in contact with will have a taste of you indirectly! The only times I could do it was whenever you were drunk! It's not fair!
Tsk! Worse of all you even went into that changing room with her, didn't you?!
If you did then I know for sure you would get an erection! There's no way she wouldn't notice either! I bet she-...
Wait… a woman appearing out of nowhere? Suddenly, she appeared out of nowhere, coincidentally living in the house of someone he used to know, and basically sped through his love!
Hey, wait! Isn't this kind of suspicious? She is almost kind of like me, but… she succeeded. All the while, I'm still merely his boss and drinking friend, what a scam!.'
Unexpectedly, a noise started sounding out in beats. It slightly startled me and Ethan who had been explaining his second day with her. The second day didn't have anything too interesting to me in comparison to the first, however.
*Ring* *Ring*
*Ring* *Ring*
I looked for the source of that noise and immediately saw the screen of Ethan's phone light up.
It was obviously a call from someone, and what truly caught my eye was the caller's name or nickname of some kind which was displayed in huge characters.
[♥Girlfriend!♥]
'...Girlfriend…'
I stared quite intensely at his phone and more so at the name displayed with those hearts on either side. My eyes twitched and for a moment I wondered what my own contact looked like in his phone.
I glanced over at him for a moment and he nervously looked over at me for a moment but didn't hesitate a moment more after the 3rd time the ringtone played.
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