“Hello, Knightley,” Emma said, walking to the refrigerator.
“Hello, Woodhouse,” he said, taking another moment to study his screen before looking up. When his gaze fell on Nadine, his forehead furrowed and the fork full of red peppers paused over his plate. “Nadine. I barely recognized you.”
Nadine beamed, but before she could say anything, Emma beat her to it. “Doesn’t she look fantastic? I took her to see Mateo and he just nailed it. Can you believe that’s her natural hair color? Well, I mean, most of it.”
“It looks… great,” Knightley replied.
There was so much pride swelling in Emma’s chest, it was like Knightley had paid her the compliment.
“And we got her a job, too. You’re looking at the new receptionist at Jolie Salon. She starts tomorrow.” Emma grabbed two sparkling waters from the refrigerator and gave one to Nadine. Suddenly, an idea struck her. “Oh! You should stay here tonight!”
Nadine had barely taken a sip of her water. “What?”
“The salon is so close you might as well stay over. You can take one of the guest rooms. Then we can order food and watch a movie down here on the big screen,” Emma said, motioning down the hall to the media room. “It will be so much fun!”
“Yes!” Then Nadine’s expression fell. “No.”
“No?”
“I can’t. My roommate is giving me our dorm room for an hour so I can FaceTime with Marty tonight.”
“Oh. Right.” Emma tried to mask the disappointment in her voice and failed miserably. She could feel Knightley’s astute gaze on her from across the island, but she avoided meeting it. “Well, you can always call from here.”
“It’s okay. I need to start that paper for Goddard, anyway. And if Marty thinks I’m out tonight, he’ll ask a bunch of questions and it’ll lead to a fight.” Nadine pushed her bottle of water away. “I should actually go. If I don’t leave now, I’ll never make it back to my dorm in time.”
“Okay,” Emma said, forcing a smile. “But don’t forget to wear those boots with your blue sweater tomorrow.”
Nadine’s forehead wrinkled. “The Lowee ones?”
“Low-a-vay,” Emma corrected her. “You can’t be nervous while wearing Loewe. It’s impossible.”
“You’re right,” Nadine said with a nod. “Nana always says to change your circumstances, you must change your attitude.”
Knightley smiled at her. “Eleanor Roosevelt.”
“No, her name is Erma Hecker.”
His face contorted with confusion, but he didn’t say anything as Nadine gave Emma a quick hug and disappeared up the stairs to the front door. A moment later they were enveloped by silence.
There was no reason for Emma to feel disappointed. She had spent the whole afternoon with Nadine and would definitely stop by the salon tomorrow to see how her first day was going. Still, the sudden tinge of loneliness in her chest was familiar and she hated it.
“So, where are we ordering from?” Knightley’s deep voice snapped her out of her train of thought.
She turned to shoot him a questioning look. He was staring back, the hard edges of his usual sardonic expression slightly softened. “What?”
“You said you wanted to order food and watch a movie.”
A smile tugged at her lips. “It’s Friday night. Don’t you have a hot date or something?”
“I’m standing here eating a plate of cold vegetables, Woodhouse. What do you think?”
Emma tasked Knightley with ordering delivery from their favorite Chinese restaurant down the block while she went upstairs and changed into her pajamas. By the time the food arrived, she was stationed on the wide sofa in the media room downstairs, wearing her favorite flannel pants and sweatshirt, with a mismatched pair of slipper socks donning her feet.
Knightley set out an array of takeout boxes on the ottoman while Emma flipped through the movie choices, finally landing on the one she was looking for. She thought she had gotten away with it too, but as soon as the opening credits began—a moving instrumental score over sweeping scenes of the English countryside—Knightley paused, an egg roll inches from his mouth.
“Is this a period piece?”
“Shhhh,” she said, taking a bite of lo mein.
