Page 36 of Beauty and the Nerd

“It’s easy to get an amazing shot with Emma, we’re getting ready to push the new line out, but it’s been taking me days to narrow down the photos to use because they’re all incredible,” Emerson said, and her dad grunted a bit pulling laughs from both of them.

“You’ll have to stop by my studio with Emma when you’re in town.

I don’t think your husband will mind if you come home with something he can enjoy with you that’s entirely different than what Emma will be in. ”

“Okay, and we’re wrapping up this conversation for now,” her dad said, but the look he gave her mom spoke volumes. “Have a safe flight home, honey. I’ll see you in a few weeks. Ben, take care of my little girl.”

“Always, Mr. Watkins,” Ben stated.

Her mom elbowed her dad prompting him to add, “I suppose you can call me Jack.”

“Thank you, sir,” Ben responded, and Emma laughed as they hung up the call, his hand cupping her cheek, his eyes beaming down at her.

“There’s no rush to make decisions on anything.

If you want to wait until we’re finished with school to get married, I’ll be okay with it.

I’d simply prefer to call you my fiancée than my girlfriend so everyone else knows this is more than just dating to me.

So they’re fully aware that we know what we want, and when we go to our favorite Thai place, they can start calling me Miss Emma’s fiancé. ”

“I like the sound of that, at least until you can be Mrs. Emma’s husband,” she mused smiling beneath his new kiss.

After lunch, she and Emerson settled in to look over the ads and webpage mockups while Ben and Lyle went over some work they would be handling come Monday.

She was glad he had tomorrow to get used to New York time again before then and hopefully they could go by their place because it sounded delicious.

Ben was in full agreement the next afternoon and they made their way into the little shop with his arm wrapped around her waist. Their waitress settled them into a table, catching sight of her ring and Emma laughed when half of the staff came over at her announcement.

She could only understand about half of what they were saying as they mixed English and Thai together, but the happiness they showed them made it completely worth it.

She hated that Ben had to get up early and leave her on Monday morning and by Wednesday, she was ready to go crazy with nothing to do.

Every time she tried to sit down to write, all she could do was stare at her ring, wanting to tell everyone they were engaged.

She just didn’t know if Ben would prefer to tell his parents before someone accidentally saw it if she posted it online and told them first.

A knock sounded on her door late Wednesday afternoon, and she squealed a bit finding Megan on the other side of it again. “I didn’t think you were coming until Monday!”

“I know that was the plan but then Ben sent me a message last night asking if I was busy this week because he knew you wanted to talk to me but hoped to do it in person. So here I am, now what the heck is going on? I mean, you look doubly glowy, so I don’t think if the two of you finally did it that it was bad,” Megan stated as she closed the door behind them while Megan pushed her suitcase to the side before turning to stare at her expectantly.

“Try complete and utter opposite of bad,” she said, unable to keep the smile off her lips or out of her eyes.

“Damn girl, it just doesn’t seem fair for you to be this gooey and swoony after losing your v-card,” Megan said giving her a mock glare.

“You know I’m happy that it apparently was so amazing, perhaps jealous, but happy all the same.

So, tell me, what do you need to talk about if it was that amazing? ”

“This,” Emma stated, holding up her left hand to show off the ring on it.

“Oh my god! Holy shit Emma! He didn’t even tell me he’d bought it,” Megan gasped, pulling her hand up to see the ring better. “That’s gorgeous. When on earth did he propose?”

“Our second to last night in Hawaii,” she admitted.

“So, like a week ago tomorrow? And you’re just now telling me?” Megan demanded.

“I wanted to do it in person. We texted my parents a photo from that night Saturday on our way home and they FaceTimed us, but they’d already seen the ring when Ben got their permission slash blessing for it.

I knew you were coming up next week and wanted you to be able to see the ring at the same time rather than just in a picture. ”

“It’s so freaking perfect for you,” Megan said as they moved over to the couch, and she relished the hug her friend gave her.

“I thought Ben was crazy when he asked if I knew your ring size or if I could help him figure it out but watching you two together here even compared to back home, I knew you all were never going to last long before this came about. I can’t imagine getting married anytime soon, but I also don’t have someone like Ben that knows exactly what I need, in bed just as well as out of it I’m guessing. ”

She laughed at the way Megan’s brow lifted and her blush made her friend’s eyes widen further. “Better.”

“No way, we all swore the girl was lying. It is not possible for it to be better than what she described,” Megan argued.

“I can confirm it is. His kisses are awesome but he’s even better with his mouth in other places.

I would have come home on cloud nine after just that, add in the proposal and I’ve felt like I’m in another world entirely.

Combine all of that with the fact that the ring itself is everything I could have ever wanted and all I’ve wanted to do is post every single picture from that night online. ”

“Before we get into the ring part, can I just say that I’m seriously honored you would hold off until you could tell me in person, but I’m also sensing that there’s something else holding you back from posting about it.”

Emma let out a sigh, explaining about the rift between Ben and his mom, and not knowing what would happen if she did post it.

“The last thing I want is to make things worse and I’m sure if I asked Ben about he, he’d tell me to just go ahead and post whatever I want, but I really don’t want to put an even wider gulf between them.

I can’t imagine if my parents didn’t like Ben when I love him as much as I do. ”

“That’s because you want to see the best in people, Em.

You want to believe that they’re going to put someone they love ahead of them because that’s what you do, but not everyone is like that girl.

Sometimes it’s just because they’re not mature enough to do it, other times it’s because they’re just complete and total scum like Carter, and sometimes, they either don’t care or only care about themselves.

From what Ben’s said about his mom, I think she may fall into that latter category.

Before you, Ben did what she wanted or at least gave the impression of doing what she wanted, such as not bringing others over to the house she didn’t like.

“Even if they were still friends, she wasn’t seeing it and clearly he didn’t tell her about sleeping with crazy,” Megan added making her laugh to herself a hint.

“I think with you, she saw the writing on the wall and tried to bite first, hoping it’d scare you off.

When it made Ben fight back, put you first, she knew it was a losing battle, but she wasn’t about to admit it.

She needs to be the most important thing to her family.

I mean, Ben said she’s acted rude to the twins’ friends before, not nearly to the extent she did it with you, but it wasn’t completely out of character for, so most likely, it’s not something that you’re going to be able to affect no matter how nice or kind you are in return. ”

“Shawna told me that too, I just…I’ve only told her a few things about Ben’s mom during my sessions, and she said she definitely can’t diagnose someone without speaking directly with them, but she wouldn’t be surprised if his mom didn’t have some type of personality disorder.

One of the things we did talk about was how Daphne asked if I like Ben because he was kind of like my dad and then his mom made a comment that she wouldn’t have been happy married to someone like her father.

Ben told me that he was apparently abusive, and an alcoholic and Shawna said children of alcoholics and addicts can have trouble with self-esteem and she might unconsciously put that onto her kids, so him showing up with me could trigger that.

Or that she could have a fear of abandonment and Ben choosing me over her need for things to look a certain way, be her idea of perfection, caused her to lash out. ”

“And even with all of that, you still want her to like you because you love Ben and want him to have a relationship with his parents like you have with yours. It’s really sweet of you Emma, but it’s not your job to fix her.”

“Ben told my parents that until she apologizes and fixes herself, he’s not going to have anything to do with her. Told them he’s certain she needs therapy.”

“Then stop worrying about her feelings and do what makes you happy, if that’s posting photos of your engagement out there then do it.

But you sure as heck better show me all of them, and explain about the ring being everything,” Megan said and when she told her what it was and how Ben found it, her friend let out a little sigh, shaking her head although she smiled fully at her.

“I swear, if I had a Ben, maybe I’d actually want something serious.

You have no idea how few decent guys are actually out there. ”

“I’ve met a few, just not ones that I’d like more than Ben,” Emma mused before pulling up the pictures from their engagement to show her with a huge grin on her lips.