Chapter 120: Elephant Ignored
It was still morning when Emily woke up. Late morning, mind you, but morning nonetheless. After stretching languidly, hearing her joints pop. Her mouth wide open, Emily stayed in bed for a bit, just blinking at the ceiling. She had been dreaming of suffocating slowly. Blocks of ice piled on top of her and then melted until she drowned.
The nightmare had made zero sense, but it had still terrified her. Getting out of bed, Emily went to open the curtains. Instantly the late morning sun was in her eyes, and she had to squint them to stop feeling as though she was being blinded every time she looked at the light. Eyes still closed, she made her way back to bed, and settled down. Then, thinking better of it, she got back up. She retrieved the key to her secret drawer, and opened it. Looking through her collection of embroidered materials Emily picked one at random and went back to bed with it.
The piece that she had settled on was one that was meant to look three dimensional. An effect that Emily was achieving through the use of wool. Settling down in bed, Emily got more comfortable and then she started her work. After making sure that the fabric felt just right. Emily punctured and pulled the thread. She punctured, pulled, punctured and pulled some more. It was easy to get lost in the process.
Over an hour passed with Emily her head back against the headboard, hard at work. She only ever paused to readjust herself so that she was more comfortable and then she carried on with her threading. Emily worked, and worked, the repetitive motion helping to clear her head.
And as she got more settled. Emily finally began to think on the issues bothering her.
And the main one happened to be that of Derek Haven. Derek had not come to the diner. He had broken the little routine that they had. Like it or not, Emily had gotten used to seeing him without even realizing it. His absence had really thrown her off balance.
Had he chosen not to come in, on any other night, Emily would have been able to just dust herself off, and carry on like nothing had happened. But instead, Derek had chosen to disappear on her, on the very night that she had finally decided to just go ahead and confront him, instead of dancing around the issue.
Of all the nights for him to not come in. He had chosen the one when Emily was going to address the elephant that sat in the room with them at the diner.
And as she sat in bed puncturing away all of her frustrations, Emily finally admitted something else to herself. She had not just been intending to get an explanation, and an apology from Derek. There was something else that she had wanted to do as well. And discussing her issue with Derek first, would have made way for her to talk to him about what it was, that was on her chest.
What Emily had wanted to talk to him about was nothing mind-blowing in the least. At least not to most people, but to her it was something important.
Had Derek come in that night, Emily had been planning to tell him two things, two truthful things.