Chapter 13 - Roomies? Roomies.
The morning after his injury, Ryan was already starting to find that the pain had faded to a dull but constant ache. He couldn’t bear weight on that leg though – and after spending more time reading over the paperwork the doctors had provided him with, he figured it might be several weeks before he could. They wanted to perform surgery once the swelling had gone down, and at the moment the swelling was being controlled by the unwieldy brace that went from his upper leg to just before his ankle.
As comfortable as Emma’s chair had been, Ryan was also aware of the fact that he’d not be able to sleep on it long term. It was also clear that until he had the surgery, it wasn’t going to be smart of him to navigate stairs – which meant he couldn’t access his own apartment. Before Luke had gone on what should have been their morning run, Ryan had him drop off his laptop and phone – he needed to start figuring out how he was going to deal with the next few weeks.
And so, when Emma soon stumbled out of her own room a few hours later, she found Ryan still on the chair, but now with his laptop balanced on his lap and his glasses perched on his nose. “You wear glasses?” She questioned sleepily as she rubbed the gunk out of her eyes.
Looking up from the laptop, Ryan smirked in her direction. “Good morning to you too, sunshine.” She hadn’t bothered to change out of her pajamas yet. It was some sort of cottony material matching outfit that left little to the imagination. Tiny little straps holding up just as skimpy a top, and pants that were just barely being held up by her hips – and if he was correct – she wasn’t wearing a bra. Feeling his pants begin to tighten, Ryan was quick to shift the laptop down a bit.
He chuckled soft when her immediate response was to flip him off, and after a moment she wandered over closer to him, leaning against the side of the chair to peer over his shoulder. “What you up to this early?” She brought a hand to her face as she yawned again.
Cutting his eyes over to where she was practically leaning against him, Ryan turned his eyes back to the computer screen, hoping like hell his cheeks weren’t as flushed as they felt like they were. “I. Uh. Was looking for places that sell beds and mattresses and alla that, and deliver them.”
Yawning again and shaking her head a bit, Emma murmured at him, “Whatcha doin’ that for? You got a good bed the team provided you with upstairs, dontcha? Couldn’t you just tell them you need a different one?”
Giving her a small smile, Ryan answered, “Can’t get to that one at the moment. Or much of any of my stuff for that matter. So, since I don’t want to impose on you any longer than I already have, I figured I’d commandeer Gabi’s office and use that as a bedroom until I can navigate stairs again.” Tilting his head a bit, he opened another tab in his browser, and added as an afterthought, “I should find some place that delivers earplugs too, otherwise those two might permanently scar me.”
Leaning even closer to him, oblivious to the fact that her chest was pressed against his shoulder, Emma reached over and mussed up Ryan’s hair, asking, “Why dontcha just have the bed delivered here? It’s not like I don’t have the room.”
Doing everything he could to contain the blush and subtly shift away from her, Ryan nonetheless knew his voice was quaking a bit when he answered quick, “I couldn’t ask that of you.”
She must have heard the quake because she took a step back and looked at him funny. “You okay? You look a little red.” Glancing around the room, Emma’s eyes finally settled on the box fan she’d brought out the previous night. “Oh, that’s why! It’s not on and you couldn’t reach it to turn on.” She went over to the fan in question and bent over to turn on the dial, leaving Ryan staring at her ass while she did. When she finally got the fan on a speed she deemed appropriate, Emma turned around again, yawned, and told Ryan, “You didn’t ask. I offered.” She paused for a long moment then shrugged a bit, adding in a softer voice, “Though what you see here is what you get.”
And I like what I’m seeing! Proclaimed the little voice in the back of Ryan’s head while he tried to convince his mouth to function properly. After what seemed like an eternity, but was likely only a matter of seconds, he finally replied, “At least let me offer you money towards your rent and food and such while I’m here, if we’re going to do that.”
“You don’t need to do that.” Emma started before Ryan interrupted.
“Yes. I do. If I’m going to impose on you, disrupt your life and such, the least I can offer is financial compensation for that.” Ryan pushed his glasses further up his nose and stared at her, not necessarily trying to intimidate her, but also trying to show her that this wasn’t a point he was willing to concede to her, either.
Holding his gaze for a long moment, Emma finally rolled her eyes and shrugged. “Has anyone ever told you what a stubborn pain in the ass you are?”
“Yes. Gabi. Often.” He retorted immediately and at that a grin broke across her face.
“I knew there was a reason I liked her so much!”
~*~
Barely five minutes after Ryan had wandered off, crutches and all, on what he proclaimed were ‘errands’, Emma’s doorbell rang to find a sullen looking Nebraskan rocking back and forth on his feet. “Can we talk?”
Almost immediately, Emma shook her head to the negative, telling him softly, but resolutely, “I’ve got nothing to say to you right now, Trent. Anything I say will make matters worse. We will be friends again, good friends, I’d imagine, but right now, I just need space.”
Sighing softly with eyes almost seeming to glisten a bit, Trent nodded his head at her, and then perhaps surprising them both, he leaned down to kiss her forehead. He turned on his heels to head back to his own apartment, leaving Emma standing there with her mouth agape.
He’d gotten maybe 10 feet away before Emma called out to him, “Trent. Wait. There’s something you should know.” And when he turned to glance back over his shoulder at her, she took a deep breath and told him, “Ryan is moving in here. For at least as long as he can’t navigate stairs. I just wanted you to hear that from me, and know there’s nothing more to it than that.”
She couldn’t make out what the expression on his face was, but his head nodded before he turned again, continuing on his way back to his apartment. Dragging a hand down her face, Emma watched him go until he was almost out of sight, and only then did she close the door and wander back into her bedroom, back to the article she’d been working on when Trent had rang her bell.
~*~
Almost 2 hours later, as Emma was finalizing her article on the previous days tryout session – now that the Blizzard had officially released the information about Ryan’s injury – she was interrupted by a loud knocking on her outside door. Furrowing her brow, Emma got up from her laptop, and headed to the door, getting more confused as she saw men from one of the local furniture chains outside. Opening the door, she inquired of them, “Hello gentlemen, can I help you?”
“Yes ma’am. This is 22-B, right? If so, we’ve got the stuff you ordered out in the truck. Just need to show us where to set it up, and we’ll be good to go.”
Emma blinked and stared at the man who spoke for a long moment, trying to remember when she had ordered anything. She sure as hell couldn’t afford new furniture at this point. Finally, she asked slowly, “What’s the name on the order?”
“A Mr. Ryan Perrault.”
Almost immediately, Emma smacked her hand to her forehead as this morning’s conversation trickled back into her head, long since distracted by her article and the conversation with Trent. Ryan. Who she had invited to stay with her. What in the world was she thinking?! But that wasn’t the problem of these delivery men, and shaking her head a bit, Emma beckoned them inside to show them the barren guest bedroom.
“Okay, and how are we positioning this stuff?”
Once again Emma was left furrowing her brow, pondering just how Ryan would want his bedroom set up. After another long moment, she held up a finger to ask them to give her a moment and went back into her own bedroom, grabbing her smartphone and firing off a quick text to Gabi along with a picture of the room. She could only hope her friend was in her office and not in the courtroom today, so she could reply quick.
And fortunately for her, that appeared to be the case as her phone buzzed a moment later. Reading the text, Emma pointed to the back wall and murmured, “Head of the bed back against that wall, foot of the bed towards this door.” Pausing again. “Is there anything else you guys need of me right now? If not, I’ve got some work I need to wrap up.”
“We’re fine here. We’ll holler out to you when we’re done so you can sign the paperwork and verify the order was delivered and assembled to your satisfaction.”
Emma nodded again and left the men to do their work as she headed back into her own room. She still wasn’t precisely sure where Ryan was – and with his number not in her phone, it wasn’t a question she could solve either. That would be something she’d rectify once he did show up again. If they were to be living together for any length of time, they needed to be able to reach each other in case of situations like this!
Giving the word document that held her article one more critical stare, Emma began to re-read it once more, making sure that it properly conveyed the seriousness of the injury, how this would be an adversity that the Blizzard would need to overcome. So deep was she into her thoughts that she almost didn’t hear the knocking on her door jamb from the delivery men, indicating they had already finished their work.
“We’re all done ma’am.”
Emma stood to follow them back into the other room and found that not only had Ryan ordered a bed, but also a night stand and small desk. Putting her hand appraisingly on the mattress, she found it to be softer than she was expecting – but not so soft as to be squishy. Turning around to face the men, she told them, “Everything looks to be in order here.” When they handed over the paperwork, she signed it, and then walked them back to her outside door.
No sooner had Emma gotten lost in her article once more, she heard a familiar tromping of footsteps thundering down the staircase – Luke was on the move. What surprised her though was when her own doorbell rang a few moments later. Heading to the outside door once again, she found both Perrault cousins waiting for her, Luke’s arms holding a large box and Ryan giving her a cheerful smile.
Holding the door open for them both, she questioned, “Dare I ask?”
“Microwave.” Ryan replied. “You’ve seen who the cook is in my family so.”
Luke rolled his eyes as he sat about unboxing the microwave and getting ready to place it on the rolling cart Emma had in the corner of her kitchen. “Remember, no metal, Tortue.”
Emma looked on bemused as Ryan gave his cousin an exasperated look and muttered at him, “Mange de la marde.”
“I’d rather not.” Luke retorted coolly, plugging the microwave in and then admiring his handiwork. Turning back towards Emma, he asked, “Does he have a key to this place yet? If not, I need to take my afternoon run anyways; I can head over to the home improvement store, get a copy made for him.”
Emma blinked, since Ryan needing a key hadn’t even occurred to her, but obviously, that was the case if he had to ring the bell to get in. They had much to discuss about these arrangements still. “Not yet. Here.” Reaching around Luke to grab her own key off the hanging rack, she offered it to him and he saluted them both before he turned and headed out again.
Left alone with Ryan once again, he maneuvered himself further into the room and asked, “Furniture delivery come?”
Replying as she started to walk back towards what would now be Ryan’s room, Emma answered, “Yeah, it did. I had to text your sister to see how you’d want it set up. I think it’s about time we exchanged telephone numbers, roomie.”
Following behind her, but at his own pace, Ryan quipped, “Does that mean I can expect naughty texts from you when I’m at prehab?”
Emma stopped short and Ryan almost couldn’t stop himself in time so not to run into her. “Naughty texts?” She turned around and stared at him, finding that he was trying hard to keep a smile off his face, but the corners of his lips were betraying him and quirking up. “Only in your dreams, hotshot.”
Finally letting the grin fill his face, Ryan shrugged his shoulders. “Can’t blame a boy for trying, can ya?”
Wondering once again exactly what she had gotten herself into, Emma could only shake her head once more, and mumble at him, “You are a piece of work.”