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The Quintessential Q
Chapter Twenty Four
Just Desserts.
Emily strides through the door of Luke's she takes a small satisfaction in hearing it slam behind her. Stalking furiously to the bar, she reaches into her purse and pulls out a twenty that she had hoped not to use this evening. "Claude, could I get a coke, change for the phone and the number of the cab company?" Emily stews while Claude takes one look at her and decides it's don't mess with Miss Em night at the old blues club. He pours Emily a tall coke and goes over to the register to break the bill and get the number requested. Emily tries to figure out where exactly the evening had gone wrong. Dinner had been great. Dessert was looking good and then it all started to come apart...
Emily leans back in her chair and sighs. As the waiter silently removes the finished dinner plates. "Oh that was good."
"Did you save room for dessert?"
Emily wrinkles her nose. "Not really. But there is no way I'm leaving without at least a bite of that dessert...and a bit of yours." Emily laughs.
"I was thinking after this that perhaps we could go dancing or for a walk."
"Especially if dessert is as good as I think it's going to be." Emily nods. "But Luke's is out. I'm not allowed in there without a family escort." Emily jokes.
"A walk then." Nik suggests. The desserts are delivered to the table.
Emily takes in the rich confection before her. "A very long walk." Emily takes her dessert fork and slivers off a smidge of her dessert and savors it. "Oh my. I think I'm more of a chocoholic than I realized." She shaves off another bite and offers it to Nikolas.
Nik takes the bite and enjoys the chocolate but comments. "Too rich for my blood."
Emily laughs. "I didn't think that anything was too rich for your blood, Prince Nikolas." Emily makes a little bow with her head but the glint in her eye is at odds with the respectful nod. Emily takes another bite this time one of the chocolate covered cherries that top the dessert. "Oh you have to try this." She exclaims. "You haven't lived until you've tried chocolate covered cherry." Emily blushes faintly.
Emily's eyes narrow at the memory. Sometimes her mouth ran without her brain engaged but she didn't think Nikolas had picked up on the innuendo. There were certain advantages to hanging with a guy that was raised abroad and in isolation. Nikolas might not know all the movies and tv shows that everyone else did but he also didn't pick up on things. But damn if he hadn't ended up being as big a game player as any of them. "I don't need this ****." She mutters to herself. "I get enough of this at home." Emily looks up to see Claude looking at her out of the corner of his eye. Emily rolls her eyes and picks up her drink and change and goes to the backroom looking for a phone. She dials in the number of the cab company. "Carly would have this number memorized." Emily mutters. "Hello? DAMN. Don't they even bother to tell ya before they put you on hold anymore?" Leaning up against the wall, she remembers exactly when it started to get crystal clear what Nik's agenda had been....
Johnny who had been walking the house on a rare break, checking on the customers overhears Emily's comment as well and picks up on more than one meaning. "Emily, Mr Cassadine, I hope that everything met your expectations this evening."
Emily sets the fork down on her plate with the cherry still on it. "Met no, Exceeded -- oh yeah, It was great, Johnny." Emily feels the growing tension between her date and the owner of the restaurant and decides a strategic retreat is in order. "If you'll excuse me..." Emily rises and grabs her purse. "I feel the sudden need to powder my nose."
Emily snorts. "Powder my nose right. Just like something out of some gangster flick. Make sure the little lady doesn't hear something that might ruin things. HA! Well that didn't quite work. But how long exactly did it take to powder your nose and put on fresh lipstick? She'd felt the tension between Johnny and Nikolas and thought it was just leftovers from when Johnny had walked in on her and Nik before. What had happened after she came out of the ladies went way, way beyond that....
Johnny's fist clenched the back of the booth. He met Nik's glare unflinchingly as he taunted smoothly. "Congratulations of being gentleman enough to take her out to dinner before attempting to get in her panties, Cassadine. You're taking a step up in the world."
"You don't have to worry about Emily's needs anymore... beyond what she wants for an appetizer. You're out of the picture, Cook."
Johnny laughs. "I don't think you have any control over that. Emily is already planning our next adventure-- or hasn't she told you? Emily and I are going into business together. It was all planned after a going to church and having brunch. We have too many people in common for me to ever be out of the picture, Cassadine. Get used to it and get over it."
"Adventures like almost getting her blown up and then racing to the rescue like a knight out of one of her books?" Nikolas sneers. "Aren't you a little old for the way you've been... blanketing Emily with your attentions?"
Johnny's eyes narrow. "We still don't know who sent that bomb, Cassadine. And whatever our little tete a tete, I think that bombs are out of bounds. I really think that age should be too considering who you were knocking boots with but if you want to open that door I'm more than willing. My mother has been wondering if you've got a clean bill of health since your adventures with Mrs Robinson. Lord knows where she was before... oh that's right she was with your father." Johnny taunts in an even softer voice. "Keepin' it all in the family has a whole new meaning with you Cassadines, don't it?"
Emily is taken off of hold and is about to give the address to send the cab to when a masculine finger reaches over her shoulder and disconnects the call. Emily looks over her shoulder in annoyance at Nikolas. "You owe me .35 cents."
"I'll take you home." Nikolas insists.
"Why do you think I would want to get in a car with you?" Emily's eyes flame in fury. "What makes you think I want to do anything but slap the living snot right out of you? I told you. I wanted to go out with you. Not play these damn games. I thought that you were different. That tonight was different... something to build on. But instead I was just a piece in a game that you are playing with Johnny."
"You've made your position clear, Emily." Nikolas blocks Emily from leaving and from pulling away.
"You know I think that the board of health would have something to say about you holding pissing contests inside the restaurant, Johnny." Emily interjects furious at being the bone between these two men. "But since you two seem to be entertaining each other; I think I'll find something else to do. I didn't get all dressed up to go to the fights." Emily walks by the table without stopping and walks right out of the door.
"Emily, I'm sorry." The apology is dragged out of Nikolas. He brushes his hand through his hair. "Tonight didn't go the way I hoped, the way I planned."
"I think it went exactly the way you planned. You just weren't expecting me to walk. What was I suppose to do Nikolas be grateful to have you two acting like neanderthals? Was I suppose to be so flattered by your attentions that I forgot where my brain was?" Emily reaches into her purse and grabs another .35. She pumps it into the phone and dials the cab company again. Nik reaches over and disconnects the call while it is still ringing.
"I'll take you home, Emily." Nik insists again. "Your coat is still in my car along with Edward's dessert. The waitress handed it to me as I was trying to catch up with you before you left the restaurant. I want a chance to explain, to make things right."
"Explain what? That Johnny got your goat when he interrupted us before so you thought you'd rub his nose in our going out? Do you know how that makes me feel?" Emily's eyes fill with unshed tears. "I've made a fool of myself over and over where you are concerned but I really thought that this time was different."
"It is different." Nik grasps Emily's face and tilts it up so that she is looking directly in his eyes. "It is different. That's why I went a little crazy. I want this-- so much. I want to be alone with you, to spend time with you. Learn finally how your mind works. You always surprise me, Emily. You're so generous and kind."
"You had your chance tonight, Nikolas. Our chance to be alone, to spend time together and you used it to get in an arm wrestling contest with Johnny. You could have done that without me. You two could have settled on duels at dawn and I could have been home asleep. I would have rather been home asleep." Emily pulls away from Nikolas. "I won't be generous or kind about this, Nikolas. You know what my life is like at the mansion. How I've fought so long and hard to be strong enough to say this. I'm worth more than the way you treated me tonight."