Chapter 48 The interview

Chapter 48 The interview
" You're doing the thing with your mouth," Ethan said, watching her from the doorway.  
Emily didn't look up from the mirror. "What thing?"  
"The thing where you press your lips together when you're about to lie to a reporter."  
Emily turned. "I'm not lying. I'm just... curating."  
Ethan crossed his arms. "Right. Curating."  
The interview was in an hour. Big magazine. Cover story. "The Woman Who Said No To Paris."  
Liam was at Diane's. The apartment was too quiet.  
"You don't have to do this alone," Ethan said.  
"I know," Emily said. "But I want to. As me."  
Ethan nodded. "Okay. Then go be you. Loud. Honest. Impossible."  
Emily hugged him quick. "Stop making me cry before hair and makeup."  
"Wouldn't dream of it," Ethan said.  

The studio was bright and cold.  
"Ms. Hart, let's start easy," the reporter said, recorder on the table. "Why'd you turn down the buyout?"  
Emily took a breath. "Because I didn't build Emi's to sell it. I built it to keep it."  
"And the board seat? Working with your ex?"  
Emily didn't flinch. "Working with Ethan is messy. It's also the best decision I've made. He's a good dad. He's trying. We're trying."  
The reporter blinked. "That's... candid."  
"I'm tired of pretending it's not hard," Emily said. "The hard part is the real part."  
"Last question. What do you want people to know?"  
Emily thought of Liam's drawing. Of burnt pancakes. Of the schedule with pizza stains.  
"That you can say no," she said. "And you can still win. And you can still choose each other after."  

She got home at 7.  
Ethan was on the floor, folding laundry.  
"How'd it go?" he asked, not looking up.  
"I told them about us," Emily said.  
Ethan paused. "All of us?"  
"The messy parts," Emily said. "The trying parts."  
Ethan set the shirt down. "And?"  
"And I think it was okay," Emily said.  
Ethan stood and pulled her in. "I'm proud of you."  
"I was scared," Emily admitted into his shirt.  
"I know," Ethan said. "You did it anyway."  

Her phone buzzed. The article draft.  
She read the headline out loud: "She Built It. She Kept It. She Chose It."  
Ethan whistled. "Damn, Hart."  
"They quoted the part about you," Emily said.  
"What part?"  
"'He's learning how to stay.' "  
Ethan went quiet. "You said that?"  
"I meant it," Emily said.  
Ethan kissed her. Slow. Like he had all the time in the world.  
When they broke apart he said, "Liam's coming home tomorrow. Diane says he's got a new song to teach us."  
"About the fish?" Emily asked.  
"About the fish," Ethan confirmed.  
Emily smiled. "Good."  
They ate leftovers on the couch. No TV.  
"Rule 7," Ethan said.  
"Good: I didn't run from the interview," Emily said. "Hard: I said too much. Better: You didn't run either."  
Ethan squeezed her hand. "Good: You told the truth. Hard: I heard people are already commenting. Better: I don't care what they say. I care what we say to each other."  
Emily leaned into him. "We're okay?"  
"We're okay," Ethan said. "More than okay."  
The article went live at midnight.  
By morning it had 20k shares.  
The comments were loud. Some mean. Some kind.  
Emily didn't read them.  
Ethan didn't either.  
Instead they made pancakes.  
Liam came home with a new verse.  
"We save the fish!" he sang, off key.  
"We save the fish," Emily and Ethan sang back.  
Later, after he was asleep, Emily found Ethan in the kitchen.  
He was taping something to the fridge.  
It was a printout of the article.  
Under it he wrote with a sharpie: Rule 8. We choose us. Out loud.  
Emily read it twice.  
"Yeah?" Ethan asked.  
"Yeah," Emily said.  
She added her name under his.  
Outside it was still loud.  
Inside, they were louder.