Emmett threw himself down in bed; his shitty bed back in his shitty apartment. Disappointing.

Emmett had ridden with Edan to the airport. An overly sentimental move, to be sure. He’d needed a taxi just to make it back to his car at the hotel. Spending a little more time with him though, doing something together that wasn’t sex or work… That had been nice, right?

Admittedly, Emmett still wound up taking advantage of Edan’s tinted windows, sucking the guy off from the passenger seat once they’d parked. Edan had seemed to appreciate it. He'd held Emmett’s hand as they walked through the parking lot to the main building.

"I'll call you when I get to my hotel?" Edan had asked at the edge of the security line.

"I should be home by then." It came as no surprise that they lived in the same city, or close enough to it. Had to be near the agencies. Twenty minutes of distance wasn't bad, especially compared to flying away in a plane.

There had been plenty of people around but Emmett hadn't let Edan get away before he'd pulled him into another deep kiss. It could have been like one of those romantic movie finales, swelling music and spinning camera.

It wasn't though. Some asshole shouted at them to move out of the way and Emmett responded with a raised middle finger. Edan had dragged him away before he could start a fight and gave him one last tight hug before getting in line.

It felt more like one of those kids and animals movies; the animal waiting uncomprehending for the owner to turn around and call them to their side.

You're being pathetic. He'd managed to tell himself before turning away. That stinging ring on his arm was the promise. He just had to hope it wouldn’t be broken.

The drive back home had been boring. He’d stopped a few times for food, coffee and the occasional breath of fresh air. One time he just pulled to the side of the road to give his eyes a break. He’d come too close to falling asleep.

At last he made it home. The shitty apartment. The shitty bed.

He threw his suitcase in the corner of the room unopened. That could be a problem for another day, or another week. Whenever he had to take another extended trip.

For now, rest…

Maybe.

He glanced at the phone by his bedside. How soon might the call come? Hopefully not long…

--

"Don't frown so much Emmett. You'll get wrinkles before your time. What are you looking so dour for?"

Tiffany, his agent. She was going back and forth between clacking her keyboard and flipping through folders. She was fresh faced and bright and could have been a model herself if more of the industry accepted a rounder, shorter figure.

Emmett always felt grim sitting across the desk from her, especially since she was wearing her pastel pink blazer today. His all black ensemble just made things easy, especially when he was in a bad mood.

"I slept through a call I'd been waiting on." He folded his arms and laid his head down on the desk. An unlit cigarette hanging between his lips. He'd been about to light it when Tiffany called him into the office and he was still hoping he'd have a moment to wander off and have a puff.

"Not a job I hope." She stood, hands on her hips, the most unimposing figure. When he gave a shake of his head her cheer returned. "I was happy to see you take a little extra work for once." Emmett only grumbled so Tiffany left the topic alone, though she did give him a nudge to get off of her desk. “What call did you miss?”

Emmett pushed himself back in his chair, slouching to an extreme degree. “A guy I met at the beach shoot.” He noticed Tiffany’s eyes light up for a moment at the offered gossip though she managed to hold on to her professionalism. “We were…” What do I even call it? “...messing around but he had to leave for some shoot out of the country. I missed his call.” Emmett slumped even lower into the chair just thinking about it. “He’s gonna think I was just leading him on.”

"You tried to call him back?"

Emmett only looked more disappointed.

"Did you leave a message?"

"I muttered some sort of nonsense…"

"Then that's all you can do for now." She had a couple of folders still in hand but she set them aside. "You can look at the shoot photos next time, though I did already put a couple in your portfolio. There were a few designers I wanted you to see today too, but I think I'll push that to tomorrow. You're not going to book anything while you're looking so pathetic."

“Oh, thanks.” Emmett answered with sarcasm though he was mostly relieved.

"I don't want to tell you what to do with your paycheck, but I think you should get yourself a cellphone. And I should be the second person you share the number with." She gave a little wink that could have charmed anyone.

Her charms could have melted even a heart of stone. “I could kiss you, Tiffany.” Emmett stood, his chest feeling tight with emotion.

“Please don’t. You smell like smoke and I don’t want to be forced to fire you.”