Jag Älskar Dig (I Love You)

The next morning, Giana was awoken by her roommate poking her. "Stoooop!" She whined and then lashed a half hearted kick at Emma.
"Doctor time. Up," Emma said.
Giana rubbed her left arm. Not her burned arm but the one that was being used to draw blood to check her blood cell counts. "I really hope there's no blood draws."
As Giana got ready, Emma laughed, "Uh, maybe not. I'm sure they'll have you do that oxygen mask thing or a nebulizer."

"I can do just a nebulizer," Giana said brightly. "So, you have any decorating stuff to do today?" As Emma called a yes, she noticed her phone buzz. There were a few texts but she noticed Haley from yesterday had texted her.
So. Should I break down and give Gabe your #? He's up to bribing me with 100 bucks.
Letting this soak in, she said aloud, "Well, I suppose a hockey captain asking for my number is better than a fucking earthquake or natural disaster. Or less crazy."
"What?" Emma called with a laugh. "Are you talking to yourself?"
"I dunno," Giana laughed back and saw the next text. "Hey! Guess who texted me!"

Emma blinked when Giana came out from her room. "Uhh...not anyone from my family?"
"Ted Willingham!" Giana replied. "Called to check in!"
"Right! Your lawyer brother's roommate from Harvard. So did he finally pick his law major back up and pick a firm or is he doing a political campaign?" Emma asked curiously. "He should swing by and hang out some weekend."
Laughing, she said, "No clue about campaigns. When are Senator elections going on?"
Snorting, Emma said, "You're asking the interior designer. You're the one whose got the law, business and politics in the family."
"Whose an anthropologist who taught English," Giana replied automatically. "AKA not ambitious. Plus we're from the U of M. Not that we're dumb but we're not Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Duke..."

"You're smarter than me. Quit stalling and go to the car," Emma laughed as they started to walk out the door and to the elevator. "Plus you got that knack for writing. God knows how many times Ted sat you down so you two could brainstorm his political press secretary stuff when he came to visit."
Giana locked the door and called, "I'm not a Crimson campus newspaper guy like he was! Or I wasn't Summa like Ted and Chris both were."
"Oh whatever, you were cum laude," Emma laughed. "And I bet you could've done summa if you didn't do cheerleading."

"Hey Ems," a guy called from down the hallway. Oh. Em. Gee, Giana thought. It had to be that Nathan guy. Emma looked pissed!
Quickly Giana kept a straight face as a guy with the same build as the U of M hockey players approached. He's not bad looking, she thought as he flashed Emma a smile. Though the poor guy doesn't know Emma hates being called Ems by guys she doesn't like. "Hello, how are you?" Giana asked politely instead because she knew Emma wouldn't.
Nathan grinned. "You must be the new roommate. Hope you're feeling better."
"Getting there, yeah. Though the slow part is moving everything here since it's either in Minnesota or got destroyed," Giana said.
He made a face. "And I thought Nova Scotia could get bad with the cold and snow."

"Nathan," Emma said in a cool, cutting sort of tone. "We really need to be going. She has a doctor's appointment."
Flashing a comforting sort of smile, Giana said, "Though its nice to meet you," she said pushing her roommate into the elevator. As Emma blatantly ignored Nathan, Giana helpfully mouthed no Ems yet, and slashed at her throat. He nodded up and down as the door slid shut.

"Wow. You made him out to be, like, evil or something," Giana said. "He's nice enough. Not bad looking."
Emma rolled her eyes. "Pul-eeze. You think the best of everyone."
"Minnesota nice. Suck it up Colorado girl," Giana shot back. "Plus at least I'm sure Nathan can refrain from chasing my ex boyfriend around and throwing beer at him like a certain Bjugstad classmate of ours did."
Giggling, Emma admitted, "I forgot Nick Bjugstad and Nate Schmidt did that to Adam. That's awesome. Though Bjugstad was just sticking up for his summer school classmate."
Wrinkling her nose, Giana asked, "How is a guy interested in a date worse than slightly wild jocks chucking beer at people?"

Laughing, Emma held the door open to the parking garage. "Just go to my car."
After getting inside the car, Giana pulled out Emma's interior design book that was on the elbow rest and started flipping through it. "Tell me what you think about the next page," Emma said as she started driving.
Giana flipped it to a nice scenic room. It looked like it would fit perfectly in Pottery Barn or some sort of nice home furnishing stores. "I like it but you know how limited I know about this crap-er stuff!" She laughed and shielded herself from possible swats. "I swear its not crap!"
Shaking her head, Emma said, "I'll let it slide this time."
To redeem herself, Gianna looked back at the photo. "Though I like this black ceramic piece. Is it from Oaxaca Mexico?"
"Of course. Thanks for that hint by the way. You and Leo's mom. It's a hit with a lot of my clients," Emma replied.

However an hour later, Gianna yelled, "YOU KNEW I WAS GETTING BLOOD DRAWN AND YOU FRIGGEN DISTRACTED ME WITH YOUR INTERIOR DESIGN STUFF!"
"Excuse me! I did not!" Emma shot back while laughing. "I'll buy you ice cream if you're going to keep screaming and crying."
Her phone buzzed so she peeked at her text from Haley. Now my bribe's up to $150.
"That your brother's old roommate?" Emma asked.
Haley's fiancé may know Nathan so just in case Giana lied to her roommate. "Uh, well. Ted's asking about IRG." Somehow she'd let her roommate know later about her new friend Haley who was due to marry some athlete but posed no threat to this whole anti Nathan business.
"Is that something about economics?" Emma scowled. "You know I don't know jack shit about that stuff."
"Ah, no. Iraqi Republican Guard," Giana said as they pulled into a parking lot for condos.

Shaking her head, Emma grabbed her interior design books and her huge bag. "So this girl is Elaine Portman. In her early thirties, her and her husband have old money from banking. Her husband Ian's a banker, she runs a few charities."
"Okay," Giana said and got out of the car. "Here, let me take some things."

Once they were at the door, a brunette woman that seemed to be dripping in designer clothes and jewelry answered. "Emma!" Elaine cried. "My life saver! I can't decide what drapes to put up!"
Right away the two set upon deciding between different drapes that seemed fine to Giana. Apparently one seemed too drab, the other too flashy, another seemed cheap-looking. Better keep my mouth shut, Giana laughed to herself.
"What's your opinion. Emma your new partner's so quiet," Elaine noted, smiling at her. "I don't think I've seen you before."
As Giana just smiled, Emma said, "This dork doesn't know anything about interior design. She may be all cute and cheerleader like but she's a brain that graduated college in two years. Her name's Giana."
"Thanks," Giana shot back. "Yeah, our assignments in college were a bit different."
Huffing out, Emma cried, "Just a bit?"
Jokingly, Giana nodded, “Just a little."
"As fucking if. My work shown on TV would be the HGTV with my home design work. You friggen read and watch tribunals and trials from the real bad people getting caught and put on trial!"
"Hmm," Elaine said in a disinterested sort of tone.
Taking the hint, she said, "I'm going to walk around outside for a bit. Just yell for me when you're done."
"Okay," Emma said as Elaine promptly forgot she was there.
Once she was free outside, Gianna laughed at Emma's client. "And people I'm an airhead like Real Housewives wannabe.

"Whose a Real Housewife?"
Giana looked up to see the guy from yesterday. Gabe, she recalled. "Hello," she greeted him. As a former cheerleader for the football and basketball games, she couldn't help but ask, "So, Haley struck me yesterday as the girlfriend of an athlete. Does her boyfriend play basketball?" Gabe laughed loudly so she shrugged. "I dunno."
"No. I'm laughing because he's a hockey player. We all play for the Avalanche," Gabe replied and suddenly a cocky grin spread across his face. "Actually I'm the captain."
Blinking, she said, "Oh that makes sense. That MacKinnon guy lives in our building."
"Your new roommate isn't a brunette haired girl named Emma, is it?" Gabe asked. When Giana laughed, he grinned wickedly, "Whatever you do, don't give MacKinnon any help. Just because he's a first overall pick, doesn't mean he gets everything handed to him now. Let your Emma friend blow him off."

"I thought you were a captain? Aren't captains supposed to look after their team?" She teased.
"No, we give the new ones a hard time," Gabe replied proudly.
Joking, she said, "Remind me not to play for your team if I magically gain the hockey skills for the NHL."
"C'mon, you'd love me as a captain," he teased back.

Taking a chance, she said, "You know, someone said you were trying to bribe people for my number." If it blew up in her face, than oh well. She wasn't in Colorado to try to hook up with some hockey player.
"No," Gabe said as straight faced as possible. "But I'll still take your number."
Giana had a hunch that he was utterly and totally lying but didn't make a comment on it. "Fine," she laughed and handed over her phone. He handed her his own phone and started putting in his number. However Giana looked at his phone. "Hey. I can speak a few languages, sort of understand a few others but I don't know what the hell this is."

"That's right, you don't speak Swedish," Gabe replied and changed his phone.
"No Swedish," she replied. " There are Scandinavians in Minnesota but I'm Italian, Welsh and German. All I know is someone eats lefse bread and lutefisk during the Christmas holidays," she said.
"So what other languages do you speak? Giana Russo," he flashed a perfect smile at her.
"English of course, Spanish, Tagalog," she replied. "I can sort of understand Serbian, Bosnian, Kinyarwanda, little bit of Arabic and Kurdish. But that's from my anthropology stuff."
He seemed thoughtful. "You said anthropology?" Was he disappointed she wasn't some sort of model like that Hannah chick from yesterday? Or into interior design or event planning?

"Sounds fun," Gabe grinned. "And different."
Poking fun at what everyone assumed she did, she joked to Gabe. "Yeah. Everyone assumes fashion, model, interior design, something like that but then you should see the faces I get when I tell them I graduated cum laude in two years for anthropology."
"You're cute as hell but you don't seem dumb," Gabe replied.
"That's a relief," Giana laughed as a warm flush went over her.

"GIANNA RUSSO!" Emma stormed towards her as Giana took a few steps back. "I know damn well who you are!" She spat and shook a finger in Gabe's face. "What the fuck are you two plotting?"
"Relax roomie," Giana laughed. "He just told me if MacKinnon wants you so bad then no one helps."
Emma snorted. "What fucking ever!" Gabe laughed loudly which was a bad move on his part. "Screw you. Let's go Giana!" She said and accidently forgot about her slightly sore left arm.
"OW!" Giana protested while laughing. "C'mon! I suppose he knows that MacKinnon guy-,"
"The hell are you doing?" Gabe snapped over her and brought Giana to the safety of his side. "She's hurt!"
Emma clasped a hand over her mouth. "Giana," Emma breathed. "I'm so sorry!"
Reluctantly, Giana left Gabe's side to stand in the middle of them. "Relax the both of you. Be nice Emma. Gabe, don't worry. Emma's not scary, you should see my cum laude Harvard graduated lawyer brother when he's in one of his trial speech rants."

As Emma laughed, Gabe seemed to have softened a little. "So when I call her for lunch or something, you won't scream at her?" He asked.
Emma raised her eyebrows and said, "Oh. Uh, um...sure?"
"Good," Gabe said and turned his full attention to Giana. "I've got practice and some meetings but I'll call you later."
"Alright," she said and tried to crack another joke. "Talk to you later I guess. She owes me ice cream cause I got blood drawn."

His lips slightly turned up as Emma led her away laughing. "Sorry," Emma murmured in a lower voice. "I'll buy you two ice creams after grabbing your arm."
"No big deal," Giana said with a shrug. "Gabe seems nice enough."
"Right. No big deal. You already snagged a date and you haven't been here more than a week!" Emma joked.
Again, she shrugged. "He helped with my coat yesterday and didn't go cross eyed with confusion when I mentioned cum laude for my college degree."
Emma laughed in delight. "Okay. Okay...maybe Gabe isn't too bad. Maybe he's okay."

Notes