The Accidental Wife (Emily and Julian)

I look at Rosie the moment the elevator stops between the third and the fourth floor and the look on her face tells me that she is on the verge of panicking. I quickly press the emergency button while keeping my eyes on her. "Rosie, I need you to take deep breaths, okay? Can you do that for me?" I tell her as I keep pressing on the emergency button. "A-Are we going to die here?" she stutters, looking frantically around her.

"No, cupcake. We're not going to die. We're going to get out of here," I assure her as I take her hand in mine. "Listen, stand here in the middle." I gently bring here to the middle of the elevator. "I want you to stretch your arms beside you. Can you do that?" nods and do I does as she is told.

She

She

slowly

"See the space between your hand and the wall? You have a lot of space, cupcake. The walls aren't going to close in on you," I try to calm her down.

"Hello," I hear somebody say through the speaker, so I quickly rush towards it.

"Hello, there are two people stuck in the elevator. We need to get out of here. One of us is claustrophobic," frantically say, worried about Rosie.

"We've already informed the technician and he's going to start working on solving the problem now," he tells me. "Hurry up, please," Rosie whimpers and when I look at her face, I notice how her eyes are brimming with tears.

"Hey, let's sit down, yeah?" I say as the two of us sit on the floor. I wipe her tears with my thumb, then reach for her hand again. "Please distract me," she shakily says, and I nod.

you "Okay, listen. Close your eyes and tell me about your favorite scenes from the million books you've read. Do you think can do that? Personally, I think you can do anything. I have always loved how you never let fear take control of you," I say, rubbing circles on her hands with my thumbs. I'm glad I'm with her, because if I weren't, she would have fainted.

"There's this scene in an enemies to lovers book that I really love. The guy is supposed to be her neighbor whom she never got along with, but one day, he saw her crying as she struggled to unlock her door and she broke down in front of him. He unlocked her door, took her inside her apartment, helped h I her wash her face then made her some chamomile tea to calm down without asking her what was wrong," she recounts the scene to me. "Sounds like he is secretly in love with her." I know the type of books she likes and she is a s**ker for romantic novels, so I'm sure that neighbor turned out to be the love interest.

"He was very much in love with her," she tells me. "He was always grumpy with her because she had a boyfriend and he hated how he didn't have a chance with her. When he found her crying it was because she caught her boyfriend and best friend in bed," she tells me. Her eyes are still closed, but she's not heaving anymore and I'm thankful for that.

"Please tell me the neighbor treated her right."

"More than you can ever imagine. It's like they were made for each other," she tells me with a smile that makes my heart swell.

Slowly, she opens her eyes and for a moment, I fear that she may break down again.

"I know that you said we needed boundaries, and I really respect your boundaries, but do you... do you think you can just hold me for a minute?" Her voice is soft and small.

"Oh Rosie, f**k the boundaries," I mutter, pulling her into my embrace without giving it a second thought. She quickly latches her arms around my neck and takes a trembling breath. I want to tell her that I hate what I said, and I want to take it all back, but I don't know how to do that. "I miss you, Silas," she whimpers in my arms and my heart clenches in

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"I miss you too, Rosie. I swear I miss you." I kiss her temple as I tighten my hold on her.

"I want you to know something," she says, looking at me with glossy eyes. Is she going to cry again? I don't want her to cry again. "You're not like Everest. What we have or had isn't like my friendship with him. It is so much better."

What do I tell her? Do I admit my feelings for her? Now isn't the right moment. I don'

This doesn't sit right with me.

"Maybe we should put everything behind us," I suggest, and she nods vigorously.

want to exploit ther vulnerability.

"Please." The look she has in her eyes makes me want to crash my lips against hers, but I'm petrified of losing her again. "Do you want to tell me about another scene? Do you want distraction?" I ask her, placing a strand of her hair behind her ear. "I don't need another distraction, but I can tell you if you want," she offers with a small smile on her pink lips.

"I wou-"I don't get to complete my sentence because the elevator shakes violently, making me pull her quickly against me and cover her head with my arms, expecting the worst which is the fall of the elevator. I sigh in relief the moment I feel it working normally again and I look at her. "We're getting out, cupcake." I stand up and pull her with me. "We're so sorry for the inconvenience," the security guard says once the door opens. Rosie practically jumps out with her hand on her chest.

"Is it safe if we use it now?" I ask him.

it's safe," he assures us, but Rosie shakes her head.

"Yes, it's

"Rosie,

you live on the fifth floor. No way in hell are you going to use the stairs daily," I tell her. "I can use them today at least. I don't want to use the elevator tonight," she replies. "You take it and I will just use the stairs. "Nope. Do you wanna take the stairs? Let's take them," I say, taking her hand in mind as we head towards the stairs. know I'm being irrational and you don't need to humor me." She looks apologetic. "Rosie, taking this flight of stairs is nothing compared to what the coach puts us through. I just don't want you to develop a fear of elevators. That's why I wanted you to take it tonight," I explain as we start climbing the stairs.

She

She stays silent until we reach the first floor and stops moving. "I think you're right. Maybe we should take the elevator." I watch the way her throat bobs as she talks. She is scared. It's so easy to see how fear is written all over her beautiful face. "You can do it, Rosie," I encourage her. She takes a deep breath as we both walk towards the elevator. She presses on the call button and once it arrives, we both walk inside. I reach for her hand and the way she immediately intertwines our hands together makes me the happiest man on earth. Once we reach my floor, she breathes

asio

of relief and quickly walks out.

The moment we walk inside my apartment, she looks at me with a wide smile on her face and raises her arms up as she squeals, "I did it!"

I find myself chuckling at her reaction. "You did it!" I high-five her. I want to pick her up and kiss the hell out of her lips. I want to have her legs wrapped around my torso as I press her back against the wall and kiss her long neck down to her delicate collarbones.

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0*

"Let me get you your gift," I say and walk towards the small dining table I have and take the bag that is on it. "Here you go, cupcake."

+3

She takes the bag from me and gasps when she sees what's inside. I watch as she takes the books out of the bag and reads the titles.

"They're the same book I lost in the explosion," she whispers, looking at me with teary eyes.

"I will take them back if you cry," I joke and she laughs but tears still fall from her eyes. "I never want to lose you, Silas," she murmurs and reaches to hug me. I wrap my arms around her body and kiss her cheek. "You won't. I can't really live without you, cupcake." I want her to take the hint. I need her to understand that she is not just a friend to me.

"Same here, icing," she says and I look at her in confusion.

"Icing?"

*

"If I'm a cupcake, then you're the icing. You know since cupcakes have icing," she says, looking into my eyes as we she pulls herself away from the hug.