Desire ch. 11 - Surprise Emily

[itztigress3]

Chapter 11 -  Surprise Emily
POV: Zac
Word Count: 1883 (Shorty chapter)

June 29, 2009; Monday

The previous week most of us had worked on some renovations upstairs, I had begged Craig for two hours to keep Emily occupied all week for us, so in her words we tortured her by putting them in the conference room going through thousands of pictures to determine what should and should not be added to the website in the future and then they had to scan and organize them all. She had started before but things had gotten in the way. She really wanted to help us, but our design was a surprise for her, so we couldn’t do that. She had enjoyed spending time with Craig but hated the task. Here we were on Monday and our efforts were going to be shown.

The three of us were waiting on her by the steps, having called her from the conference room. She came out and walked to us and paused.

“Did I do something bad?”

“No.” we said.

Craig followed her and everyone else was up-stairs already.

“We just want your opinion on something; you have a better idea for organization.” Taylor said.

She followed us up-stairs, which really hadn’t changed much we did paint the hallway and Taylor and Isaac had rearranged and painted their offices. But, mine was the one we changed completely.

“Nice colors.” She said.

“We wanted to brighten up the hallway and some of the rooms.” Isaac said.

“Good, it was rather dark up here.”

We stopped at my office door.

“Why am I not shocked that it’s your office you need help with?” She asked.

“I am not that bad!” I said.

She smiled and we walked to the door. Inside were cameras and the other employees who helped us fix this room. We had not told her but we had been talking about giving her a proper office but none of the existing rooms had a good view of the space she oversaw. So, we took four feet from the storage closet on the top floor, moving the items to another area and expanded my office to accommodate myself and her. I had used the four extra feet and ran a desk the length of the room because it would give me ample space for drawing, graphical work, or whatever I wanted to do. It also gave ample space for storage for us both. My computer was left on the far end with a smaller desk jutting out in front of the window to allow me to watch the floor as well.  On the right side was a brand new desk for her complete with an updated computer and all her files were here too.

She walked into the room and they yelled surprise, she actually backed into me and I put my arms around her.

“Surprise Emily.”

The walls had been painted light blue with white accents, and we’d hung up pictures of us on the walls along with various items from my old items and hers.

She was very quiet for several minutes.

“You did this for me?”

“Yes. We took your broom closet comments to heart actually. We felt bad.” Isaac said.

“We’ve looked at every single space including the conference rooms and we felt none were appropriate. Then Zac mentioned needing extra room and we kind of clicked on this idea.”

She turned and there were tears in her eyes.

“One more thing…” I said.

Isaac removed the white paper from the window, where my name was before. Her name was now there as well, above mine. That did it; there was no holding them back she actually cried. But she didn’t realize that the title under her name did not say Warehouse Manager. It wasn’t until the others had returned to work that Craig noticed and pointed it out.

“Zac, I think whoever did this messed up. My title is wrong.” Emily said.

The three of us looked up; we’d been on the couch. “No. It’s right.” We said.

She looked at the window again and then back to us. “But…”

“You’ve done such a good job at managing the warehouse that we decided to move you up. General Manager oversees most everything and Stephanie will take your place as warehouse manager. It also frees you up to travel or do whatever we need.” Isaac said.

“We know you’ll keep everyone on task and really, you’ve been doing that job the last year anyway.” Isaac said.

“It’s right Emily. We trust you and we know that you’ll do the best job.”

She smiled and we all got hugs and I got kisses too. She spent the afternoon setting up her desk, once Taylor and Isaac went to their rooms she looked over at me. I was setting up the art stuff. I felt her behind me though.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. You deserve a space that’s decent and given your new responsibilities a better place.”

She smiled. “You also just gave me brand new places to break in.”

I giggled. “Yeah, I thought of that too.”

She patted my shoulders before going back to her desk and finishing her task. She seemed upset when we brought up the idea of the writing retreat; she’d get quite and wouldn’t comment on it. Her only words to me were that it wasn’t fair to ask me to stay home. I wasn’t sure how to handle it and I was confused as to what her exact issue was.


July 3, 2009

I was in our office while she had a meeting with Stephanie and the warehouse crew in the conference room. We had confirmed we were going to the retreat and we were driving down and doing a fan club special stream for the drive. But, when we confirmed it Emily had seemed a bit disappointed and down. I was thinking about telling them I was staying home.

Taylor came into the office. “What’s up?”

“Nothing much really.”

He sat down on my stool and rolled over next to me. “Is that Emily?”

“Yeah, I realized I’d never drawn her before. I figured it would be a good photo to hang on the wall beside her desk.”

“I think she’ll love it. Natalie loved the drawing of Penny and Ezra you did for Christmas.”

“I know.”

“So…what’s up with Emily? She’s been very quite.”

“She keeps telling me she’s not upset, but I know she is.”

“About what? The office? The pictures?”

“The song writing invite. Has Natalie ever been mad, upset, or even jealous when we fool’s banquet or other events and women show up?”

He whistled. “Not that she’s ever told me.”

I frowned, did Emily not trust me? She said she knew I didn’t do anything but did she really believe that?

“She seemed upset about the women being there, but I can’t control that.”

Tay leaned back against the desk and giggled.

“Zac, she’s not upset because they were there. She’s upset because you never told her they were. I heard you before we left say that it was all men, we didn’t expect them. So, you didn’t tell her when they showed up and she found out by a tweet post from Gabby who had a picture of her and Julie hugging on you. People assumed they or one of them was your girlfriend.”

“But she knew they weren’t.”

“Zachary, I understand you wanted privacy after the divorce and I can understand that.  But you have been basically living with her since it was finalized and it does seem serious.  It is not that Emily does not love or trust you, but really you shouldn’t have let Gabby post anything without first telling Emily they were there.”

“She said she was fine with me going to this one, but I don’t think she is Taylor. Added, I don’t think that it’s all because of that. She’s been really quite the last few weeks.”

“You don’t have to go Zac.”

“She said it’s not right to ask me to stay, they asked for Hanson not two-thirds.”

He sat there a moment. “You know Ike made a point about the driving stream thing, we can’t drive safely and chatter. So, what if you asked her to come with us? You can spend a week at the ranch and then you two can cut off and go somewhere for the next week. Ike is staying a week and I’m there two only because Natalie is taking the kids to her parents.”

“Would they mind if I brought her? I mean she’s not a singer or part of a band.”

“I don’t think they would mind, added we can say she is driving us so we can do the stream thing. I think they’d be fine with it. It would let her see what you do and ease her mind a bit.”

I called Carrick right then, he was hosting the event and asked if we could bring an extra person, he said he didn’t care as long as the person didn’t mind sharing with me as Tay and Ike had a room and I was alone currently. I assured him the person wouldn’t mind and hung-up.

“You didn’t tell him the person was a girl.”

“She won’t mind sharing with me.”

He laughed. “I hope not.”

“Are you coming over the fourth?”

“Yep.”

“Ok.” He said.

He left the room and when Emily came up I asked her about going with us and about driving down for us. Ensuring that she wouldn’t drive the whole 12 hours, but most of it, and she agreed for both. She particularly liked the idea of the two of us going somewhere alone afterwards. It also seemed like she perked up when she realized she wouldn’t be home alone for two weeks. Maybe it wasn’t the fact that women were there, but more because she wouldn’t be alone. Her phone had not stopped ringing late and there were times during the day she didn’t answer either. While she was preoccupied with rearranging the schedule I set up the second week, Cancun would be great and they had an opening for a very private villa, so I booked it and then booked the flight from El Paso. I left a little earlier, needed to pay a bill anyway and I took the time alone to come by the jewelry store where I picked up the ring I’d ordered after we got home. She would love it I was sure; I hide the ring in my suitcase so she wouldn’t see it even if she packed the bag.

Taylor’s July 4^th party went very great as usual. Emily was quite happy, while we made the plans for the trip and how to set up the camera’s she ended up packing for us. The drive would be long and we wouldn’t stream the full 12 hours, because that was insane and we couldn’t make Emily drive that long either.

The drive to the ranch went very well. The stream went well and it seemed like fans were responding well to the stream also. Taylor actually included Emily by showing them who was driving for us and she was nice enough to wave to the fans. We arrived at Sonic Ranch at midnight Sunday.