You Took My Heart by Surprise

“How did you find this place?” Sergio posed as he finished his plate of food, his brown eyes peeking up from his spot on the floor towards Emilie who sat on the couch, playing with her food. It had been a little awkward, Emilie couldn’t really look at him, let alone speak to him, but he hadn’t even been tempted to leave. He wanted to spend time with her and her being shy, like she had been at the start of their relationship, wasn’t going to prove to be a stumbling block for him.

“Isla’s brother, Antonio” Emilie mused “He’s an estate agent and he set me up with this place, mostly because I was getting under Isla’s feet” she noted.

“You moved in with Isla?” Sergio followed up, tilting his head in interest.

“She and Cristiano broke up” Emilie shrugged “She needed a place, I needed a place, it seemed like a good idea before she and Cristiano managed to put things back together again. They’re very touchy feely and given my….situation, it wasn’t something I was a big fan of seeing” she added, her voice faltering slightly.

“Em…”

“It’s fine” Emilie murmured, knowing what he was going to say “We made the right call” she added.

Sergio let out a small sigh. “Did we?” he murmured.

“Sergio” Emilie warned “You said that we didn’t have to talk about it” she added.

“I know” he noted “But we need to. This thing is going to be hard enough without us skirting around the elephant in the room, Emmy” he added.

Emilie shifted a little in her seat before she leant forwards, setting the half eaten plate of food onto the table. “Fine” she murmured “I shouldn’t have said what I said, it was a rash and stupid thing to say, but it doesn’t change the way I felt about you. I was scared, terrified of screwing up the best thing I had, and I did it anyway. It was best that it happened when it did, before there was something to really ruin” she noted gently.

She had given it a lot of thought, in the 8 weeks that had passed since their breakup, it had been all she had been able to think about, but she knew in the end it was the right thing. She wasn’t going to stop being nervous, even if it did ruin their relationship, and she was pleased that it had ended when it had as opposed to after they were married or after the birth of their baby. They’d only hurt themselves when it had ended the way it had.

Sergio listened to her, mulling over her words for a second, before he shook his head. “We never should have broken up, Em” he murmured.

“Sergio…”

“What happened that night was no different to at least 10 nights in the year that we were together, you were being you, the same nervous and shy girl that I fell for, and it was a combination of things that led to me behaving like I did. Something had clearly gotten at you, but I was too busy moping about the defeat to notice and I said things that, if I had been thinking right, I’d never have said” he insisted gently.

Emilie shook her head. “But you did say them” she noted “And you did storm off and tell me to leave my engagement ring behind, so I did. It was the right call, Sergio, I was never going to stop worrying about you walking away and it was best for us that you did. I was going to find a way to wreck it” she noted, her hands fiddling with the bottom of her pajama shirt.

“Why did you want to wreck it?” Sergio posed.

Emilie shrugged. “It’s just in my nature, I guess. You know how I am about people” she noted with a little look towards him.

“I thought you’d stopped being like that with me” he noted gently, his dark eyes looking up at her.

“Evidently not” Emilie replied, shaking her head slightly.

“Emilie…”

“It’s irrelevant anyway, Sergio” she interjected “It’s been 8 weeks and you already have another girlfriend, so nothing I say here matters” she added.

Sergio sighed.

“How long did you wait, by the way?” Emilie added, her voice a little sharp “Had I even moved my things out?” she posed.

Sergio shook his head. “It’s been 4 weeks” he admitted.

Emilie sighed. “Why did you come here tonight, Sergio?” she posed gently.

“I told you. I needed to go somewhere which wasn’t home” he replied softly.

“And I should never have let you across the threshold” Emilie murmured as she moved to collect their dinner things, moving to place them in the kitchen.

“Em” Sergio complained, following after her.

“You shouldn’t have come here” Emilie murmured “It’s not fair” she added.

“Emilie” he protested.

“You moved on, Sergio” Emilie murmured “You put things back together with Pilar, and you can’t play it both ways. I love that you want to be here for the baby, I wouldn’t have it any other way, but I can’t be the person you go to when you get hurt or sad, it’s not fair to me. We ended this, me and you is done with, and I don’t want to be involved in that part of your life now” she explained softly, her blue eyes barely making an attempt to look at him.

“Emilie, I just wanted to talk, to spend some time with you” he noted gently.

“And I can’t do that” Emilie refuted softly “Sergio, I can’t be your friend again, not after all that we’ve done together. You’ve got Pilar, you should really focus on that. Her place is where you should have gone tonight, not here” she noted.

Sergio sighed.

“I can’t be your friend, Sergio” Emilie reiterated softly “I can’t pretend that I am not hurting still” she added.

“I never meant for you to get hurt” Sergio protested feebly.

“I never meant to hurt you either” Emilie replied “But we did it anyway, and now we’ve just got to adapt for the sack of bump” she noted, her hand gently brushing over the slight bump which was only just visible beneath her shirt. “Go home, Sergio” she added, moving to scrape some of the leftover food into a plastic container.

Sergio stared at her for a moment before he ducked in, pressing a kiss against her cheek as he mumbled another small apology.

Emilie’s blue eyes closed a little as he stepped back. A small part of her wanted to tell him not to go, that he should stay with her, but she knew it wasn’t fair. He’d moved on and it wasn’t fair of her to try and pull him back into something they’d already proved didn’t quite work right.