Emerson stared me down and then turned away. She was eerily calm as she started driving us home again.
“Don't cry about it,” she snapped. “They never deserved you anyway.”
I didn’t know how she managed to hurt me with her tone and comfort me in the same sentence, but it was one of Emerson’s superpowers.
I leaned back and focused on calming myself down.
“At least now I'm all yours,” I teased, but Emerson didn't even crack a smile.
So I started to overthink it, wondering if she was disappointed in me. I was the one who’d made a big deal about keeping my job there only to get fired.
When she signaled to turn, I realized this wasn’t the route home, so I looked to her for an explanation.
“I know a place,” she said, her eyes briefly shifting to me and nothing else, and I wished she still had her hand on my leg as I just nodded.
When we left the city, I started to get a little bit concerned. The cityscape was slowly disappearing as we traveled up a winding road, and we were mostly surrounded by darkness.
My hand found her arm, and I squeezed it.
Her head swerved to me.
“Eyes on the road!”
I couldn't see it because I squeezed my eyes shut, but somehow I knew she was smirking at me.
“Don’t tell me you’re afraid of driving in the dark.”
“On windy hills in the middle of nowhere, yes, I am!”
She let out a chuckle that made me start to forget why I was even upset in the first place. And then she shocked me even further when she took my hand in hers and squeezed.
“I think it’s safer if you keep both hands on the wheel.”
“Pearl.”
“Please?”
“Pearl, I'm going less than twenty-five miles per hour.”
I forced open my eyes and was hit with mostly darkness, save for our headlights. A frightened squeak was pulled out of me, and I forced my eyes shut again as I shook Emerson's hand away.
She let out another chuckle.
“I’m so glad I’m entertaining,” I said sarcastically.
“You would be a lot more entertaining if I could shove my fingers inside that pretty little pussy while I drive, but I’mguessing that would be against your both-hands-on-the-wheel rule.”
I didn’t trust myself to answer that one.
The car started to slow, but I didn't dare open my eyes as she parked.
“All right, we're here.”
I peeled open my eyes and gasped at the sight.
She had managed to bring me to a place with a view that outshone both her office’s and her penthouse’s. From our covered viewing area, surrounded by trees and bushes, we could look out over the cliffs and see the city skyline.
It was beautiful to look in on the city instead of being lost inside it. I knew it was massive, but it was easy to forget it until I was looking at it from far away.
