#interaction.ty

It was unusual to go so long without seeing her best friend, the two normally attached at the hip and not going weeks without talking to the other, but Emmy knew that Tyler was still getting over the fact that she'd gotten married without telling her, initially, and she knew that what the other was feeling was fair. It'd been a mistake not to tell her best friend until after the fact and she was willing to let the other stew for as long as the woman wanted to — she deserved that much, at least. It still didn't stop her from knocking on the other woman's door when she was in the neighborhood dropping her ring off at Silver Lining to get slightly resized, hand noticeably vacant of a ring as it rapped against the font door of the other at a steady pace until it opened. She could've used her key, but there was something about making Ty physically answer the door and acknowledge her that made it worth the wait. "You know, I almost forgot what your face looked like," Emmy started, wandering into the house as soon as the door opened. She focused on greeting the dogs that swerved in and out of her steps, threatening to trip her over their excitement. "How long do you think I've got in purgatory before you decide to like me again?"

Despite the fact that her best friend gave her blessing to Emmy to be as happy as she wanted with the woman she married, she still found herself subconsciously separating the two permanent parts of her life, trying to balance spending time with them both while also running the kitchen at Amelie's until she found a suitable head chef, which was often the priority that won out at the end of the day. But, she tried her best to give the two most important people in her life as much attention as she could and that day, despite not having a particular plan in mind, she was determined to give Ty the full and undivided attention that she'd promised. "Put forty on the pump and grab me a pack while you're in there?" Emmy nodded toward the gas station as she handed Tyler a fifty and a twenty, not expecting change by the time the grumbling woman returned. "And get yourself something special, sweetheart." An amused chuckle fell from her lips, knowing the other would argue having to walk into the gas station the entire way there. "Then you can tell me what you've got in mind for today, because I'm all yours."

She hadn't seen her best friend in a few days and there wasn't a part of her that could deny that the avoidance hadn't been a little bit on purpose. Even now, as the impulsively purchased white dress remained tossed over the chair where she'd toss it during a post marital bliss journey from the front door to her bedroom and the ring rested heavy on her left hand, she wanted nothing more than to crawl back into bed and avoid answering her door and ever seeing her best friend in person again. Emmy knew Ty wasn't someone that was willing to be ignored and the door opened before she even had time to get past her living room area, freezing in the middle of the room as she watched Ty break the bubble that had been contained since the last Tuesday of the spring festival. "Make yourself at home," Emmy noted, waving her hand toward her space teasingly, knowing Ty would do just that. She glanced down at what she was wearing, still in the comfy joggers she'd worn to bed, though she had at least dressed the top half of herself. "I just have to finish getting dressed, then we can go pick out cool shit for your new and improved living room. I think we should definitely go with the circus wallpaper."

She struggled in between the fleeting feelings of her throat closing up and vomiting — both only fleeting because they bounced back and forth so quickly between each other that sometimes, she thought that maybe she'd just get it over with and both would happen at once, successfully suffocating her in her own nervous panic. They were already committed. They'd already signed the papers ages ago, making everything as official as it could get, and yet, the thought of standing in front of almost every person they'd ever known, in dresses they'd picked and planned for, talking about said commitment was enough to make her want to run. Except, she knew Tyler would want nothing more than for that to happen, and that very, stubborn thought caused her to stay planted in the room they were currently getting ready in. The burgundy dress pulled tightly around her waist made her feel like every breath was quite possibly her last and Emmy already knew she was going to have to reapply the makeup she was currently putting on. "I don't know if I can do this," She admitted softly, peering at Ty through the mirror.

The steam rose out of the pan she had cooking on the stove a little too quickly, alerting the fire alarm in the kitchen before she even had a chance to do anything about it. The loud beeping of the alarm was enough to drive her insane — if the thought of dinner with two people who, for some reason, considered themselves mortal enemies hadn't already driven her to insanity. Groaning, she plucked the pan off of the stove and chucked it into the sink, giving up on the sauce she was prepping in favor of just serving everything that was already finished, which was already more than enough food for the three of them. Part of her wished she would have invited Jeanie along, if for nothing else than to get some type of amusement from what would inevitably be her downfall. Instead, she risked spending the night alone with her best friend and her wife, the stress of which already had her craving the brand new cigarette pack now residing in her jacket pocket hanging by the entryway. Fanning the space near the alarm with an oven mitt, Emmy was thankful when it shut off and she was able to hear her own thoughts again, offering Verda a grateful smile when she caught the other's presence in the kitchen. "Everything's finished. I think. It just needs..." She trailed off, the doorbell ringing catching her attention. "Speak of the devil." Her heart thrummed wildly against her chest as she pressed a soft kiss to Ver's cheek as she passed by. "I'll set the table if you can get the door? She might need permission to cross your doorway," Emmy couldn't help but joke nervously, her fingers giving the other's arm a gentle squeeze before she turned her attention back to loading her arms with as many dishes as she could carry and moving them to the dining table.

"Got your favorite; bagels with a side of misery and despair." She'd been spending a lot of time in Claret Park which would have been out of the ordinary for Emmy if it weren't for the fact that she recently impulsively married someone who just so happened to own a house there. Dropping the paper bag onto the counter in front of Tyler, she set a cup carrier containing two coffees labeled with Lucky Joe's next to it. "Okay, I'm kidding, it's just cream cheese. But I did get you some extra caffeine in hopes that you didn't wake up on the wrong side of bed today, but if you did, it would help you fix it." Caffeine had never let her down and as far as she was concerned, it could solve all of the world's problems. Plopping herself onto a kitchen stool, Emmy continued, "So, do you wanna tell me about your week or should I tell you about mine first?"

Her best friend making herself at home in the kitchen of her restaurant wasn’t an oddity for anyone who worked for Emmy or anyone who had ever worked there period. She knew what people had assumed at first, what some still whispered when they thought she was out of earshot. It amused her, mostly, that people would look at her interactions with Tyler and think, yeah, that looks like a couple for sure, when all she could see was someone she would go to the ends of the earth for, someone she loved, but thankfully had realized she didn’t love love, despite her entire meltdown just a few months prior where she had thought otherwise. That fleeting curiosity had come and gone, replaced with the logic of what they were and what she didn’t want them to stop being. 

“You know, you can’t just hang out here all day whenever you want. Some of us have actual work to do,” Emmy teased, swatting Ty away from the area she was cleaning up in preparation for a fresh cutting board. “One day I’m actually going to make use of your idle hands, you know.”

Plopping down on a velvet couch tucked into a corner, she handed Ty her festive-flavored drink, taking a sip of her own as soon as she was stable, humming in appreciation of how good the alcohol tasted at ten in the morning. “Is it bad that I don’t even care about the brunch?” Normally Emmy was all about food and only a fool would say no to a plate full of bread and cheese, a chef’s two greatest weaknesses, but there was something about alcohol and an empty stomach that took care of all of the uncertainty she was feeling about the visit she’d just had from Verda a few days earlier. “Have you checked out the flash sheet for the tattoo sale on Friday? I dare you to get the dumbest one they have, preferably on your ass.”