Brandan sat on the front porch steps of his house which overlooked Emma's little heaven.

He sat there in silence, in darkness.

It was unknown to him that he had messed up, once bloody again. And in the process had hurt Emma, losing his precious chance to mend everything between them.

He sighed, running his hands through his hair, and then, rubbed the back of his neck in an attempt to cool down the burning sensation he was feeling deep inside.

Emma and him, they already had so many pent up issues on the shelf, and he just had to add one more to all that. Now Brandan doubted if Emma would ever want to talk to him, forget talking--would she even want to see his face ever again?

The logical answer came as a big fat NO.

But his heart was determined to hold onto every little ounce of hope it could trace around.

What to do now?

Nothing, Brandan realized.

This would be the only way to stop making things worse than it already was. He would take what he got. And then, he would attempt to slowly make Emma and their children see that he was not that low class of a man anymore, that he could be a good father. The stunt he had committed yesterday surely proved the otherwise, but there must be a way to rectify this mistake, right?

Noises of children screaming and giggling came from inside the house, floating and hitting the right places in his chest successfully. He could hear the faint sound of Emma's musical, magical laughter which fell onto his ears like euphoria.

He was overwhelmed.

For the first time in life, Brandan felt jealous of Emma. And for the millionth time since the moment he found her, he craved to be somewhere--where his presence was not allowed.

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Elli was again in a hurry today, yesterday's meeting of submitting the progress report hadn't gone well. A earful of the moronic boss's taunts was what she got in reward.

She didn't really have the time to think about this Brandan problem. Her head was too wrapped up in office works. But she could tell Emma was stressing about something.

Brandan's arrival was a big stress itself but something new might have also happened which she wasn't still aware of. This woman - Emma had a particular bad habit of keeping all the problems and tensions locked to herself and not share with someone and let that someone take care of her.

But Elli would not take any shit of that "Everything's alright" from Emma, she thought. Tonight she was going to definitely corner her and get her to spill what was exactly bothering her.

Elli was passing by the fancy looking fence of Brandan's house when she felt something hot poured over her shoulder - on her white shirt. Immediately after recovering from the shock she jumped to the opposite direction and shrieked in rage.

Looking down at herself with wide eyes she discovered a good amount of coffee sipping down her shirt, making the white color change into a light brown immediately. It would definitely get nastily a shade deeper when dried.

She trembled as the heat of the damned coffee trickled down in the valley of her breasts.

Elli screamed in outrage. "What the f***!"

She screamed again and turned her head to see the irritating face of the freak who was responsible for this. Her eyes went wide and fury blazed into them seeing Oliver leaning against the fence from inside the yard, a cheeky smile gracing his face, an empty coffee mug in his hand.

Elli was too enraged to say anything. Seeing the obvious anger in her eyes Oliver's smile widened, he was deeply satisfied and didn't even attempt to hide it.

"Sorry. It slipped." He said simply, without a single hint of regret.

Elli kept glaring at him for a long minute. Oliver thought she would yell at him, call him names or even try to throw some punches with those malnourished hands but surprisingly - she was silent. And that silence seemed like the silence before a vivacious storm.

Oliver's smile faltered a little when her blazing anger only increased a digit more. But he soon smirked covering up the nervousness with dazzling confidence.

Neither Elli had the time to go back and change the shirt, nor the time to deal with the stupid asshole now. But she could always deal with him later, afterall where would he run away. That was the moment she was thankful that he was her neighbor.

"It's not over..." Elli paused.

Oliver said casually, "The name is Oliver."

Elli nodded. "OLIVER."

She took his name with so much vengeance... Oliver felt himself stiffen a bit. Elli left stomping furiously as she walked away while a very happy Oliver chuckled to himself.

Payback's a bitch.

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Brandan had just changed into a comfortable pair of trackpants and plopped down in the couch after a long day in the office. All day he had been grumpier than ever - the last person in the earth anyone would want to deal with. Even Oliver got a few round of blasts from him, at last Brandan began feeling like the burning hell in his stomach had succumbed to a time bomb, the worst thing was he had no idea when the bomb would go off and the moment he would break down finally with the explosion. He was with so much difficulty holding himself together - to not sprint at the direction of Emma's house and blow off the door, then like a caveman demand her to come back to him. Or even better, flung her over his shoulder and drag her to his home and in his life where she belonged.

With every ounce of his leftover sanity he controlled that crazy urge, because it would definitely ruin any chance to win her heart - that is if he had any left.

At last getting irritated to Brandan's sullen face, Oliver had begged him to go back home and take a nap. Brandan didn't protest. He came back home but not because to have a nap, it was because he would at least console himself at home that Emma was just across the street. That would have to do for now but how long this consoling and wallowing in self pity would work he hadn't any idea of that.

Brandan walked into the kitchen to make himself a coffee, maybe a little caffeine would help to make him function properly.

He might have taken a few sips of the steaming coffee when the chime of the doorbell made him stand up from the kitchen stool with annoyance. Must be Oliver, he guessed as he made his way to open the door.

Whom he saw standing at his front porch after opening the door... was the one he least expected but felt the most elated seeing.

For a moment he practically stood there with his mouth slightly open in shock, then suddenly snapping out of it when he realized that they were standing at the door for so long. Clearing his throat, half smiling in happiness - half frowning in confusion, he found his voice...

"Em... Emma! Armmm... come in."

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Till then, let me know how you felt about this one? Why Emma was in Brandan's house? What do you think is the reason?

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Love you all sweet friends and readers.

- Lara. :)