Chapter 222: Tough Time

It was Thursday.

Over the last few weeks, Thursdays had quickly become Derek’s favorite amongst the days of the week.

Thursdays had come to mean rest, sleep...Emily in his arms.

But it was Thursday night, and Derek was feeling none of the joy that he usually associated with the day. Instead there was disappointment, cold and bitter.

And there was rage, most of it directed at his uncle. But at the end of the day, those emotions did not matter. Disappointment, rage, sadness... they were useless. Because no matter how much Derek felt them, no matter how much he raged, no matter how much he detested his uncle in that moment.

That did not change anything. He was still not going to be getting any sleep that night.

There would be no Emily. And come morning, he would still be alone. No calming scent to sniff, and no Emily in his arms. That night, Derek did not even bother trying to get into bed. Instead, the moment that he made it back to his penthouse. He stormed upstairs, opened the bedroom door and headed straight for his walk-in closet. He picked out his swimming trunks, changed into them and then made his way to the rooftop pool.

This time there was no joy in Derek as he swam, no room for relaxation, no calmness. He was not swimming for pleasure, and nor was he swimming to try to get himself into a somewhat restful state.

He was just doing it to try and get rid of his rage. At the end of what turned out to be a two hour swim, Derek had no idea whether or not it had worked, because as far as he could tell. He was still as angry as when he had gotten into the water. The only difference was that

he was now too tired to express it, and so he dragged himself over to the lounge chairs and just sat there.

He wanted to scream, to kick, but the water had taken all of that out of him, and so Derek just sat, panting heavily. As he did so, he stared over at the phone that he had deposited on the lawn chair next to his. The little black rectangle sat unassumingly.

It’s screen dark taunting him. Derek wanted a message from Emily, or even better a call. He also wanted to be the one to send her a message or the one to call her. But Derek knew that communication in either direction would not be happening.

They had already risked a lot by communicating with each other at the store. But that had been an emergency. If Emily had not said anything, they most likely would have been caught that night. But now the emergency had passed. There was no need to tempt fate.

He had already jinxed things by asking her to buy milk. Texting her when he had known that he was not supposed to.

But the need to talk to Emily, to hear her voice was so strong that Derek felt it like a physical pain. Like somebody had sucker punched him in the gut. But it was a pain that he had to endure, and so he did. Once he got a bit of energy back,

Derek headed downstairs.

And as had become his norm, when he needed a bit of comfort, he grabbed Emily’s coat. He spent the night on the couch, just holding it close. When morning finally came, and Derek had to let go of the coat. He did so reluctantly.

In a few short hours, he would be seeing Emily at work. That should have meant that her coat would not be necessary. But for Derek, he was certain that seeing Emily would be even worse because it would feel like a taunt. He would be able to look at her, but he would not be able to hold her close. To feel the warmth of her against him, to breathe in her calming scent.

It would be a new form of torture.

When Derek made it to the office, he realized that he had been absolutely right in his assessment of his interactions with Emily that day being a form of torture. But even if he had realized that it would not be pleasant. He had not accounted for just how bad the whole ordeal was going to be.

Emily was distant, professional, and Derek himself was doing the same, both of them cautious.

The night before had been a close call, a very close call, and they did not want to arouse suspicion by acting too familiar with each other. By the time lunch rolled around and Emily led him to the park where they ate sometimes.

Derek wanted nothing more than to throw an arm around her shoulders and pull her close. But he managed to quell that urge. They sat side by side on a park bench, both of them pecking at their lunches. Their shoulders pressed together, their thighs practically melded to one another. To the outside observer, it did not seem so strange, especially given that they had chosen the smallest bench that they could find. "I do not think we should meet up for the rest of this week," Emily said, not looking at him, instead staring at something off in the distance. Derek’s heart sank not because he had not expected the words. But because Emily had just voiced what he himself had been thinking ever since he had warded off his uncle’s curious snooping.

With a sigh he tossed some breadcrumbs at a nearby pigeon.

"You are right. I have been thinking the same thing," He told her.

"My uncle might not have caught anything yesterday, but there’s no guarantee that all of his suspicions were laid to rest,"

"If we move too soon, we might fall into a trap. For all we know, even if he does not come himself, he might have somebody else on the job keeping an eye on me and on the penthouse," Derek said and Emily nodded.

"I guess that the two of us will only be seeing each other at work for a while," She said. And Derek could only nod, watching as the pigeons made quick work of the breadcrumbs.

They were in for a rough time.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read