Chapter 150: Bye Roberta
Emily was not one of those people who had grown up lacking affection. Quite the opposite actually. Despite being down one parent, when it came to her emotional needs being met, Emily had never once felt cheated. Her mom was one of those people who gave affection freely.
From hugs to kisses, compliments, all that good stuff that a child needed to nourish them emotionally. Emily had gotten from childhood, and even as an adult her mom still lavished her with love. So hugs were nothing new to her. She had been hugged plenty of times in her lifetime.
But she had never been hugged by Derek Haven before. Emily had been his personal assistant for two years and somehow a hug had never come up. Sure, she had witnessed him hug plenty of people. The classic handshake that turns into a brief hug was pretty big when it came to celebrating signing deals.
So Emily had seen him give plenty of those. But when Derek had hugged her, she had realized that just as he had what she personally called his professional smiles. The ones he only ever gave during business meetings, and his own natural smile. The one that showed off his perfect teeth, and had his eyes lighting up. Derek also had a professional hug and a natural hug. And Emily was honored to have been able to experience Derek’s natural hug. It had felt amazing, as though she was wrapped up in the biggest, warmest cocoon there was.
A thick blanket made of pure muscle that had just enough give, for her to be able to burrow closer and be comfortable. Emily felt scandalous thinking it, but truth was truth, and she had to admit it to herself. Derek Haven’s hug felt better than her mom’s hug, which was not to say that her mom’s hugs were bad. It was just, there was something different about getting a hug from Derek. Maybe it was the way in which he was so much bigger and broader than Emily, or maybe it had been the way he had easily picked her up and spun her around. But whatever it was. It had made Emily feel as though she was new to the whole hugging business. In fact, when Derek had put her down, Emily had felt as though her brain were made of mush.
If a customer had come in soon after the hug had ended, Emily had no idea what she would have done. In fact, scratch that, she knew exactly what would have happened. Had she not already been on her way out, she would most certainly have been fired because in the state that she had been in. She would not have been able to utter a single, coherent sentence. Everything out of her mouth would have been gibberish. That was how much Derek’s hug had fried her brain, leaving only her heart to go off like a firework in her chest. Everything suddenly warm and tingly, making her want to just stand in place and grin like a lunatic.
But lucky for her, she had been able to regain her senses in time to make sure that Derek left and went to get ready for work. "Do not worry, I will be there. You know me, I am never late for work,"
She had told him as she had ushered him out the door.
And then she had begun her final task of helping the day staff to settle in, and officially relieve her of her duties. They had finished, and Emily, glad in her own clothes, was happy that she would never have to see the awful purple uniform again. But she would miss the Roberta name tag.
It was strange, but Roberta had felt like a shield. It had protected her from a lot of things. Whenever difficult customers were berating or insulting her, they would look at the name and be taking out their frustrations on someone called Roberta, and Emily would feel safer.
The fact that they were getting her name wrong, allowing her to distance herself from the situation, which in turn meant that she was able to keep her cool. Running a thumb over the name tag one last time, Emily handed it over to the manager. Then she signed off everything, proof that she had returned all that did not belong to her.