Chapter Text
Emily rummaged through the fruit bowl in the kitchen, feeling peckish. Dinner wouldn’t be for another few hours and her stomach grumbled rather loudly under her corset.
She heard muted laughter just outside the door, and Lavinia and Sue came in with an array of parcels wrapped in paper.
“Jesus, did you buy the whole General Store?” Emily asked as the girls put down their things.
Lavinia took the pin out of her bonnet, pulled it off her head and rested it on the table next to the biggest package, pointing from one to the other. “Roast for supper, veggies for soup tomorrow, and they fiiiiinally had oranges again, so I bought them out.”
“You were gone a long time,” Emily said. “It took you that long to food shop?”
“No, we also went to Betty’s,” Lavinia explained. “I got a new scarf, new shawl, and she’s working on this amaaazing new dress for Sue, you have to see.” She turned to Sue and clutched her forearm. “You’re going to look so beautiful!”
“As always,” Emily muttered under her breath.
“Emily!” For a second, Emily thought that maybe she’d heard, but Lavinia snatched the empty water bucket from the table and scoffed. “You were supposed to get more water before dinner! We’ll have nothing to boil the potatoes in now.”
“Oops,” Emily said. It was genuine, too. She’d been upstairs working on a poem since breakfast ended, and time just sort of slipped away.
Lavinia groaned. “Ugh. Fine.” She grabbed the bucket. “I’ll get it…again.” She gave Emily a dirty look before turning on her heel and heading out the back door.
They were left alone.
Sue couldn’t help but notice Emily’s averted gaze and the heavy, awkward silence that suddenly surrounded them.
“What’s the matter?”
Emily looked distressed. She opened her mouth to speak, but closed it again. And she looked back down at the floor instead of meeting Sue’s eyes.
“I figured something out today.”
“Oh?” Sue inquired. “What’s that?”
“You haven’t kissed me in 187 days,” Emily finally murmured quietly, her eyes still on the floor.
Sue didn’t know what to say. So she said just that.
“I…I don’t know what you want me to say to that, Emily. I mean…what do you expect me to say?”
“You don’t have to say anything,” Emily replied firmly, finally looking up at Sue and shaking her head. “I just wanted you to know that.”
She picked up an orange from the table, then turned to the staircase, and treaded up just a touch heavier than usual.