When that never happened, Emory was more than heartbroken. He was livid, overwhelmed, and saddled with a role he had never wanted.
Cameron couldn’t help but feel a bit of animosity towards the man. How different would the start of their relationship have been if Emory weren’t the CEO of a Fortune 500 company?
Then again, Cameron still would have had his own issues, so perhaps it was best they both had things to work on, as Shay was all too quick to point out on one of their weekly calls.
“I’m truly so happy for you, Camy, but I do miss talking to you,” Shay said.
“I know. I told you we could talk more than once a week if–”
“No, no,” she interrupted, and Cameron was thankful she couldn’t see him rolling his eyes. “I like that you’re getting out, making new friends, and spending lots of time mooning over your fated mate. I’m just complaining,” Shay said, her voice filled with sisterly warmth.
“You’ve always been as busy, if not busier than I am now, and you made time for our calls for years,” Cameron pushed, curling up in his usual phone conversation position, but this time on Emory’s couch.
He had been spending more and more evenings at Emory’s place, oftentimes doing his own thing on the couch while Emory worked his disgustingly long hours in his office. Sometimes Ronan would come up and join him, or Christopher would stop by to discuss something with Emory, and he’d watch an episode or play a video game with Cameron.
Shay sucked her teeth in a dismissive way. “Yeah, but I wasn’t basically moved in with a significant other. Once you two are married, I’m sure we’ll up our weekly calls to twice a week or more, but for now, it’s all good.”
Married. Yeah, that was something Cameron had been thinking more about and discussing with Shay in bits and pieces.
“I’ve talked about it once or twice with Emory, but you know as well as I do it’s not a sure thing.”
“You’d better be talking about the ceremonial act of getting married, not about you two in general, because I am not going to hash this out with you again. I’d much rather tell you about my new grant to study jaguar feces.”
Cameron kicked his feet up on the side of the couch, something he never would have dared do even a month before. After he and Emory had defiled the couch for the eighth time, though, he finally felt comfortable enough to disrespect the pricey furniture with his fuzzy socks.
“I’d love to hear about your research. Please, truly, let’s talk about anything that’s not me.”
“Well, my hypothesis is that we can predict when a wild jaguar is going to go into heat almost three weeks in advance based on this one marker in their feces!” Shay said proudly, and Cameron buckled in for a long download on heat-predicting technology.
Shay waited until right before Cameron hung up to announce, “Oh, and remember that professional boxer? It turns out she was just really anxious, and she tends to talk over people when she’s anxious. It’s sweet, really. She slid back into my DMs and apologized profusely, and even sent me roses. I hate roses, but that’s beside the point.”
“And the point is…?”
“Oh, that we’re fucking. I think I’ve decided I'm demisexual. Romantic inclination still TBD.”
Cameron nearly choked on the tea Emory had made for him halfway through Shay’s thesis on elusive heat indicators in panda bears.
“Shay! That’s amazing! Your self-discovery, I mean. Or, well…I’m hoping the professional boxer is amazing, too?”
“She is!” Shay said, her voice lighting up the same way it did when she talked about tiger pheromones. “She’s really funny when she relaxes a bit, and she’s teaching me some boxing moves.”
Cameron watched as Emory approached him with a slice of takeout pizza on an expensive-looking plate. Cameron waiteduntil he caught Emory’s eye before saying, “So just to be clear, you double checked all the closets for aquariums?”
He smiled to himself as his fated mate burst out laughing and his sister hung up on him. He hadn’t gotten to do his weekly panicked tirade with her about his upcoming trip to meet Emory’s family, but they’d spent far too much time talking about him over the years. He was more than happy to let Shay off the hook for the night.
“I’ll be rightnext door if you need anything. Either of you,” Ronan said, squeezing Cameron’s shoulder as they walked up the path to Emory’s family estate.
Saying anything was “right next door” seemed a bit generous. The estate spanned approximately two city blocks, holding not just his mother’s mansion but also six smaller–but still giant by usual standards–houses where the aunts and uncles lived. Ronan’s family lived on the other side of a large stone wall that sectioned off the property.
“I’m sure it’s going to be fine,” Cameron murmured, not wanting to alert Emory to how anxious he was. He was currently walking ahead of them, finishing up a business call.
“It probably is going to be stressful. I know you know that and have been preparing for that, but remember that whatever happens, it’s just words. They have no power over you and Emory’s relationships, not even Emory’s mother does. Besides, from everything Emory’s said, she’s thrilled to meet you. I know the whole ‘not wanting cubs’ thing is a sticking point for some of his relatives, but truly, his parents have always been relatively low-key about it,” Ronan said, kicking a loose rock off the path and onto the neatly manicured grass. “After Emory’s dad died,his mother became pretty low-key about everything. Emory might not see it that way, but I genuinely think her only priority is not losing Emory as well. There’s no chance she would do something to compromise their relationship.”
Cameron nodded, having already walked through these talking points with Christopher and Ronan multiple times. He’d even gone over it with Shay at two am that morning when he’d called her in a panic. She’d assured him it would all be worth it when he got to mate, marry, and live happily ever after with Emory. She had, of course, said this in a falsetto voice which had done little to assuage Cameron’s nerves.
Everyone was convinced that Emory was in love with Cameron and that this week would move them to the next step of their relationship.
Cameron couldn’t be sure about Emory’s feelings, but as far as his own were concerned, he’d never felt more comfortable, safe, or anywhere near as happy as he did with Emory. Not even with Shay. Even so, he couldn’t shake the niggling doubt that if this week went tits up, he could lose Emory and everything they’d been working towards.
