To his protest, she simply offered a gentle hand squeeze, a thin smile. Apologetic but not truly. Emily wasn’t about to let his and Katya’s fiery personalities clash so much that they burnt everything they’d all built to cinders. He rose from the couch, away from her, and Emily heard the exhale on the other side, fuzzing out the receiver with its strength. She felt strung out between these two. Where was poor Natalie?
Watching him pace and feeling the anger both was too much. Maybe he was strong enough to push back against the wolf, but pale purple quickly filtered through her irises. The wolf was confused though. Why why
why was everyone she loved fighting?
Emily knew what they’d done wrong, the wolf did not. The struggle. Before Emily answered she stood as well, reached out to brush a hand over Max’s shoulder.
"Go cool off." she told him firmly.
"Kill the the spider plant again, it’s getting unruly." Then, whatever he decided to do, she slid the balcony door aside and stepped out into the cool air. God she needed that, before the wolf came tearing out. Her hands were shaking a little. She shut the door behind her.
Fact was, Katya could’ve hung up on that outburst. She didn’t and for that Emily was grateful. It was more than they deserved at the moment.
Katya, I’m sorry. We’re sorry. Natalie called, explained and we talked, but- I- I wanted to tell you myself. I’m sorry we kept you both out of the loop, we didn’t even think- we just got so caught up in our own heads, working ourselves up to this. Just- Sorry. There are no excuses for it.
She had reasons, not excuses, but they weren’t relevant right now. Not when nobody was hearing each other. Even then, she could see where the discussions dead-ended.
Listen- Can we see you guys soon? In person? I owe Nat a hug and you and Max can have a proper go at each other, I don’t care, whatever you want. Just give us a chance to fix this.