Chapter 203: Too Comfortable
After their in bed talk where the two of them had shared information about their fathers, things should have gotten awkward. But to Emily’s pleasant surprise, the talk actually helped.
For Emily, it had felt like carving up a tiny piece of her soul.
Then offering it up to Derek without knowing how he would react. For all that she had known in that moment, he could have grabbed that fragile piece of her, and shattered it to bits. But instead, Derek had held her in his arms while she told him about her dad. Then afterwards, he had shared about his own father.
When he had been talking, Emily had recognized that for what it was. Derek trusting her with a piece of himself. Just as she had trusted him with a piece of herself. And that small session where they were open with each other was enough to shift things, and do so in a positive way. Emily had never noticed it before. After all, she was getting her sleep when she was with Derek. How could she be anything other than happy to be in his presence? But after they had shared a little bit about their fathers, it seemed like things between the two of them were somehow lighter.
That was the best word that she could think to describe it. Over the last few weeks that they had been sleeping with one another. They had steadily been getting more free than they had ever been when in each other’s company. That was a given. Especially if you were going to sleep with someone on a regular basis. But even though they had been open to each other in most ways. In certain ways they had been closed off.
It had almost felt like a relationship in the beginning. When two people were not exactly sure of each other, and were more cautious around one another. That stage when they knew each other enough to know that they liked certain aspects of each other. But they were not sure if they would still be liked well enough if they showed off certain parts of their personality, without crafting them to look more acceptable in society, and to run less of a risk of scaring their partner away.
That had been the stage that they had been at, but ever since the talk, things had changed and Emily was absolutely loving it.
The first time that Emily had realized that things between them had well and truly changed. It had been because she had done something completely human but also very embarrassing. Emily Molson, for the first time in the two years that she and Derek Haven had known each other, had farted in front of him.
And it had not been one of those farts that could be disguised with a sound like a cough, or maybe suddenly clapping your hands. It had been one of those super annoyingly loud ones that sounded like a balloon losing air. The longer it had dragged on, the more mortified she had been. Her eyes wide, she had stared over at Derek, prepared to have him looking at her with disgust on his face. For a whole three seconds, Derek had just stared at her. And then, when Emily had expected the admonishment to come. His shoulders had started shaking, the next thing that she had known.