She took a sip as Julie continued to stare at Emma’s outfit in dismay.Įmma sighed. The Incident had happened mid coffee-brew, which meant Emma was running on a caffeine deficit. You need it more.”Įmma started to give a dismissive nah, that’s okay, but on second thought, accepted the offering. “I don’t even understand what’s happening here,” Julie said, her voice mystified. “Hi, Em…aaahh,” Julie said, breaking off in horror as she took in Emma’s appearance.Įmma gave Julie a droll look.

But then, she didn’t need to look in the mirror to know that her look was one part too glamorous for the office, one part street rat.īesides, who needed a mirror when you had friends like Julie Greene?Įmma was digging through her bag for the badge that would let her pass through security at the Ravenna office building where she worked, when Julie strolled up behind her, Starbucks cup in hand, smile firmly in place as always. There were worse things than coming into work with your hair soaking wet and your makeup nonexistent, dressed in a hot-pink bridesmaid dress from your cousin’s wedding that was the only dry item in your closet thanks to its protective plastic covering.Įmma had barely bothered to look in the mirror before she’d dashed out of her apartment chased by a string of F-bombs from her frazzled landlord. She supposed one could argue there was nothing so little about the fact that her apartment had gone from completely normal to entirely flooded in less time than it took her to curl her eyelashes.Īnd as for the fact that said water catastrophe had resulted in her entire building losing power…well, that was pretty much just a straight-up apocalypse. Or perhaps snuck in the back door of her office building along with the water cooler delivery guy.īut Emma Sinclair was not a fan of letting life’s little hiccups inconvenience her. Whatever.Īt the very least, she probably should have waited until after the morning rush hour.

The trouble with love by lauren layne