Props and Mayhem

Jaime chuckled uncomfortably after Emme’s confession. “I know.”
Emme twisted hair around her finger, waiting for him to say something. Then she realized that she was angry at him. “Why did you send that to me in the first place? You can’t break up with me and then do that!”
“Emme, I do love you. I don’t want you to think that I don’t.”
“Why does it matter if you don’t want to be with me, anyway? You make no sense.” Emme fell back on the bed with a thump. “I think you need to make up your mind.”
He sighed. “I’ll explain. I didn’t break up with you because I don’t like you. I do want to be with you, I promise. The relationship would be really hard on us, though. I mean, I’m on tour all the time… You know.”
Emme turned her face towards the wall and mumbled, “we could have made it work.”
Jaime paused. “Maybe.”
“I feel like a soap opera,” Emme remarked with a little laugh. Then she grew serious. “If we’ve broken up, you can’t keep sending me things like this. It’s not fair.” Emme wanted the presents and the attention, but she knew that she’d never get over Jaime if they kept this up. She didn’t have Jayne’s street smarts, but she wasn’t stupid, either.
There was a silence. “I want to make it work.”
“I know you do,” sighed Emme. “You basically said that.”
“If you think we could make it work--” Jaime began hesitantly.
Emme’s heart stopped beating. Well, it didn’t really, but it sure felt like it. What was he implying?
“—If you think it could work, we could try again…”
Emme could imagine his expression at the moment, and she melted a little. Everything he did was so adorable. She had to steel herself against it. “I want to. You know I do. But—“
“I think you’re the one who needs to make up her mind, you know. One minute you’re saying we can do this, and the next you’re throwing around maybes,” interrupted Jaime. He sounded indignant, and Emme could imagine him gesticulating.
Emme chewed her lip. “I am the one who needs to make up her mind. And I will. But, Jaime, what you did hurt me. I’ll be honest. I mean, who knows if I’ll be able to truat you,” she added rationally. “I’ll be paranoid, just waiting for you to break it off again.”
“No, I wouldn’t! We’re going to try again, aren’t we?”
It felt so strange to have a guy pleading with her. Some girls liked it, Emme knew, but she was just kind of uncomfortable. “Maybe. But I need time to think, that’s all. I’ll let you know soon, I swear.”
They hung up, Jaime sounding both cross and surprised, probably that she hadn’t agreed to date him immediately.
Emme wished school started the next morning that Christmas break was over. She actually needed school and homework to distract her again. She was spending way too much time thinking about Jaime.