"Life support." she manages to say into the phone. "They put him on life support."

"Jesus." she hears muffled movement on the other end of the line. "Fuck. I'm so sorry, babe. Do— do you need anything? I can go and get you— I mean, is there... is there anything I can do?" she looks over at her father as he lays on the hospital bed, his body looking small and fragile; a stark contrast to the man she's known her whole life. She nods her head no into the phone before she realizes Matt can't see her.

"No, no it's fine." she rushes. "I— there's nothing we can do. Now we just... wait." wait for what, she isn't sure. Something good— anything better than what they've gotten these last few months.

"He'll beat this." her boyfriend assures her on the other end of the line. "He's strong. I should know."

Emilia laughs. If Matt notices how hallow it sounds, he doesn't say anything. "I mean, you didn't exactly do a good job at keeping your foot out of your mouth, did you?"

Matt chuckles lightly at the memory, but Emilia can only offer a brief huff. The first time he had met her father didn't exactly... go as they hoped it would. Matt's nerves have a habit of making him say the wrong things at the wrong time, something Emilia's father later learned and grew use to. After 3 months of them being together.

"Yeah, he didn't like me much." Matt recalls, the memory now humoring her rather than mortifying her. She imagines his lips tugged into a soft smile and his brown hair tossed to its usual side as he speaks again. "When he wakes up he can finally have a swing at me. That'll make him feel better."

Emilia closes her eyes briefly at the "when" Matt uses, recalling the way those around her have already begun using past tense verbs when referring to her father. Sometimes when she's been thinking about it for too long, she doesn't know which is worse. "Maybe— shit, hold on," he hushes into the phone. "In a second!"

His sudden outburst startles her, making her move her phone away from her ear. Her headache from earlier seems to reemerge in that moment, Matt's voice being much too loud and sharp for her right now.

"Sorry babe, I gotta go. Apparently I've been in the restroom for too long. " she can see him rolling his eyes now. "Maybe I can stop by later today? How long are you going to be at the hos—"

"—no," Emilia rushes to say. She pauses at Matt's silence, clearing her throat and softening her voice when she realizes she may have spoken too harshly. "I want to be alone today, if that's alright?"

"Oh I— yeah, yeah." Matt fumbles. He never pushes her. It's one of the things that made her fall in love with him. "Well, if you need anything just—" another string of knocks interrupt him. "shit, I'm sorry babe I gotta go."

"It's okay. Go before Miss Germanotta leaves me without a boyfriend, too." she can sense his amused smile, soft and weary. He always loved her dark humor, though he has been more on the fence about it lately with jokes such as these. "Bye, Matt."

"Bye, I love you." he tries.

"You too." she replies mindlessly as she continues to stare at her father. It's more than she's given him in the last couple weeks, and when she doesn't hear anything besides the call ending she knows it was more than he was expecting.

///

By the end of the day she's a bottle and a half of wine in when she decides to call Matt and ask him to come over. He's still at work when he answers, taking no longer than 20 minutes to arrive at her apartment. A part of her begins to wonder if he had stayed at work a little later than usual in case she called, but when she opens the door to greet him, and he meets her with earnest eyes and a pizza box in hand, she realizes she doesn't care. He's here. And she desperately needs to feel something more than misery.

And Matt understands that. He knows that there's little he can do to help her in this situation, so anything he can do, he doesn't appear to second guess. He loves her, just as she loves him. The look in his eyes as she reaches her orgasm only confirms it even further for her. It allows her to lose herself in the moment and forget how empty she's felt since her father's accident.

He waits until after they're done having sex to bring it up. She's re-emerged from the bathroom, freshly showered. He greets her with a smile, setting down the reheated pizza slices on the sitting room's table and offering her a plate as she takes a seat.

"How are you guys going to do this, Em?" he almost whispers. It's not the best way to start this conversation, but she can tell from the way he picks at the pepperoni on his slice that it was the only way he knew how go about this. "Life support... is a lot of money. Money none of us have."

"You think I don't know that?" she snaps. Wincing at the bite in her tone, she reaches for the wine glass Matt must have refilled while she was in the shower. "I think about it all the time, all day long. I don't even— " she pauses to settle herself. "I don't even know where to begin finding the money."

Matt looks at her a bit uneasy before looking away, taking a bite out of his slice before he speaks again. "I might."

She stops what she's doing for just a moment before moving to take another sip of wine, knowing better than to hang onto whatever it is Matt is about to say.

But the wine is starting to have an effect on her body. She feels loose— the alcohol pumping through her veins finally seeming to relax her.

Alright. She'll bite.

"What?" Matt leans back against the couch, still avoiding her gaze.

"You're going to hate it." he treads lightly. "But, I really think it could work."

She thinks she might have grown annoyed at his prolonging if she had more options. Less wine. "What is it?"

He swallows the food in his mouth, taking a deep breath in preparation for whatever it is he's going to pitch.

"Germanotta broke up with her latest girlfriend." he announces, and despite his best efforts the woman's name still seems to ignite a sour taste in his mouth just at the mere mention of it.

But Emilia is use to that.

What she isn't use to is the way in which he's currently referring to her... romantic conquests.

She's heard her fair share of complaints about Matt's job over the course of their relationship, but nothing ever gets grieved more than the CEO.

She's old money. That much became clear when Emilia googled her all those months ago when Matt first mentioned her. Yes, one of. Some have been inherited, some she has built herself. But what stood out to Emilia the most upon her... research, was how young she was. Only two years older than Emilia, if she recalls correctly. She had platinum blonde hair, a strong chin, sharp jaw, high cheekbones, piercing green eyes and an impeccable sense of style. Her track record has proven her to be every bit of the shark her parents groomed her to be before they passed and she inherited everything.

It was fun to gossip with Matt about her on occasion, Emilia can admit that. Placing bets on how long her newest relationship would last, how long it would take her to get a new girlfriend, if the next would finally be the time she proposes again.

Matt is looking at her intently, studying her expressions carefully. Waiting for a response, any sort of reaction from her, really. But she's not in the mood to guess whatever this is about. She's not in the mood to do anything.

Clearly, Matt doesn't get that. So he presses on.

"She's single." he tries to spell it out for her. "And, she's fucking loaded."

Suddenly, everything becomes crystal clear.

Oh. Oh.

The realization of what Matt is insinuating settles in, and Emilia cannot help the heap of laughter that erupts from her throat. "Surely you're joking." Emilia speaks, her voice laced with disbelief. "Matt. You're joking. Say you're joking right now."

"I'm not." he twists his body to fully face her on the couch, either pretending or simply
not noticing the way she moves her leg away when his knee accidentally touches hers. "I've been seeing this shit for almost a year now, Em. Anything her girlfriend's want, they get. The money, the connections, the gigs, no questions asked. I swear, she's either completely blind or just doesn't fucking care. When she's into someone, they get whatever they want." she still isn't convinced. But her silence does nothing but spur Matt on, his determination to sell this as a good idea apparent. "You wouldn't have to worry about hospital bills anymore. She actually owns the fucking hospital your dad's in, I checked. So anything he needs or can potentially get, he will. If you were her girlfriend... it would be a done deal."

"Yeah, except for one little thing. I'm straight." Emilia reminds him as if that should be the most obvious thing to Matt. That aside, Emilia knows that Stefani is a real, living, breathing human being. Gossiping about her is one thing, but deceiving her the way this plan calls for her to do is just... cruel. No one deserves to have their heart played with like this. No matter how easily relationships come and go for them.

But Emilia doesn't voice this. And as much as she hates to admit it, that wasn't the first thing that crossed her mind when Matt first started babbling on about this. Her mother's nervous breakdown and ongoing, unwavering grief. Her brother's stress. All things the things that money could easily help subside. The look on Matt's face tells her that he knows the wheels are turning in her head. That she's actually considering this.

"Technicality." Matt brushes off. "Besides, you don't have to actually be into her. You just have to convince her that you are."

"I'm a shit liar." Emilia finally speaks. "She'd see right through me." at the brightening of Matt's face, she jumps to shut it down. "I— no, no. I can't believe I'm even entertaining this, Matt. There's no way this would even work. And you've seen the women she dates. I'm nothing like them."

Her legs aren't long and shapely, nor her stomach toned and tanned. Her hair isn't blonde and she's almost positive her laugh would make the woman wince.

"You can be a good liar when you need to be." Matt says. He means it well, she knows. The fire in his eyes proving he is feeling nothing but determination and even excitement at the way she is no longer completely shutting this idea down. "And yes, she's smart. You don't stay where she's at if you aren't. But her flings, they're... an Achilles heel. Everyone in her inner circle knows it."

"You're not in her inner circle." Emilia deadpans, wanting to have any reasonable doubt that this is not the way to go.

"No I'm not but not only do I have a reliable source of information, I happen to not be blind. She's lonely, Em. And you... you could be exactly what she needs." he smiles, pleased with himself. "You could be something new. A nice change, a challenge even. If you play it cool." he pleads, and she has to muster the strength to not look away. This is him trying to help, she realizes. The look on his face resembles that of a puppy ready to please and be of use in any way that they can. There's nothing he can do, and she knows it kills him. So this is what he can do. For her, for her family.

And Emilia is too exhausted to deal with the repercussions of a man's bruised ego right now.

So she enlightens him.

"Okay," she starts, mildly cautious. "How would I even meet her? She doesn't exactly hang around our kinda've scene mate." to Matt, however, the fact that she is now asking questions proves to do exactly what she thought it would for him.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Matt's smile does nothing but assure her that she's just put down a deposit for her room in hell.

"I work for her, remember? I'll find out what events are lined up for her to attend." he says. "And a couple of people at work owe me favors, so it shouldn't be hard to get you on the list of whatever it ends up being."

There it is. That eager to please, puppy eyed look again. Emilia tries to pay it no mind, wanting this day to be over with already.

But, thousands of dollars.

She'll go over it in her head hundreds of times later. Question what it was exactly that made her answer the way she did. Whether it was her headache or exhaustion, her desperation. She'll have plenty of time to hate herself over this or convince herself that this was necessary. Hell, maybe she'll do both.

She feels her chest concave as she prepares to make a decision she knows she won't be able to come back from. "Alright."

Matt blinks, taken aback. "Alright as in yes I'll do it or alright get out of my apartment?" he questions, and she doesn't blame him. Up until a few moments ago she treated his idea as something completely ridiculous. Laughable, even.

But the longer she thinks about it, the more reckless she feels. What does she have to lose, really? Nothing more than this entire situation has already promised her. If it doesn't work, she'll figure something out. But this very well could work— and anything that gives her some kind of hope is worth trying.

"I'm in." she clarifies. "If for some miraculous fucking reason she'll even consider having me." she decides to say to lighten the mood, and to be quite honest, settle herself down. Because this is the first time in months that she's even had a sense of hope. It's as if she's been stranded in the ocean and someone has finally sailed by and tossed her a life preserver.

Maybe Matt is fucking brilliant after all.

//

Things don't ever go as planned for her, it seems. Because if they did, her father wouldn't have gotten into a terrible car accident. Her mother wouldn't have piles of hospital bills. Her brother wouldn't have to deal with the potential loss of a parent as he's juggling a newborn and a new job. And she wouldn't be running into Stefani Germanotta looking a god damn mess in the middle of the fucking week.

On the other side of the café, Emilia stands by the pick up counter. She sees Stefani before the blonde sees her. And in that short amount of time, Emilia is surprised by what she sees.

She hopes that she doesn't have to make the first move. She hasn't thought it through enough. At all. She hopes her current state is enough to catch the woman's attention for more than the initial shock of it. And as stupid as it is, she hopes she is nothing like the woman Matt has described the past eight months.

That's probably why she looks away first when their eyes meet for the very first time, giving Stefani a once-over before meeting her eyes once more with a smile she finds herself not really needing to force. After w soft beat she lets them drift away to look out onto the passing people, most of which, like her, were not expecting it to rain today. This is it, she tells herself. She does her best to settle her nerves, letting out a deep breath as she reaches for her tea and makes her way to an empty table.

You can finish your tea and just leave, she begins to tell herself. She can think of something else— anything else. This isn't her only option.

But it is. And before she can induce a headache, Stefani Germanotta is making her way towards her, eyes serious and even at the current distance between them, a striking shade of green.

"Excuse me." she feels a light touch at her shoulder. Emilia lifts her gaze after a soft beat, not quite expecting the eagerness and worry laced in Stefani's eyes when she does. "I noticed that the rain caught you— would you like to borrow my coat?"

Emilia looks down at the article of clothing in the woman's hand, perplexed by the offer. That jacket looks as though it costs more than her rent. What is she doing offering her, a complete bloody stranger, her jacket in the middle of this café?

It looks warm. The complete opposite of the wet and sticky clothes that she currently has on her body. She wasn't expecting the rain when she got up this morning, and her choice of outfit is a clear implication of that. Her black shorts are soaked and would most definitely leave a wet print of her ass if she were to get up off this chair, her plain white tee has managed to go completely see through, and her hair still has droplets spattering on her shoulders. If it weren't for the tea she bought moments ago, she is positive she'd still be shivering like a manic. Maybe that is what drew her in. Well, that and her see through shirt.

She tears her eyes away from the coat in Stefani's hands and meets green again.

"It's still raining outside. I think it would be wise to hold onto it, don't you?" What the fuck are you doing? Just take the fucking coat, she curses inwardly at herself. This isn't suppose to be a rejection— you have to intrigue her. Give her some, without giving too much. Be different than the other girls. Emilia goes over Matt's words of advice, but it all seems to have been no use at all now. She's been thrown off her game and only has seconds to recover and put on her best poker face as Stefani smiles.

This isn't how it was suppose to happen. They were suppose to meet at the charity event next week, Emilia was meant to be in the best dress she owns and make herself look the best she has in (quite honestly) months. But instead, she's trapped in a café in the middle of storm looking like a wet dog attempting to run off someone she is suppose to be seducing.

"I run warmer than most people." Stefani places the coat over her shoulders and takes a seat at the small table, Emilia's eyes following the movement the entire time. It's warm, just as she thought it would be. And she's confident— Emilia can give her that. It's tip toeing the line of cocky, to be quite honest. But it suits her, strangely enough. Just like the pristine suit she currently has on.

"Wow, you must think very highly of yourself." she pushes, not being able to help herself upon seeing the new found smugness on Stefani's face. What is she doing? Just take the fucking coat. "I never accepted your offer. Or asked you to join me, now that I think of it."

Stefani stills at that, and Emilia is surprised a second later by the small laughter the erupts from the woman's chest. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you or be presumptuous." the blonde says, and Emilia is taken aback by just how sincere it sounds. "I apologize if I made you uncomfortable. But I assure you, it wasn't my intention to be so... rude. It's just— it's a good coat. You should hold onto it. I'm sorry."

She doesn't know what to say. She wasn't expecting an apology— and one so sincere. Almost every single apology she has received in her life has been met with justification right after. Why they did what they did, why you should understand.

Stefani Germanotta is certainly the last person she expected to do something like this.

But— that doesn't mean anything.

She's making her way to leave, her body already turning to walk away and leave out into the pouring rain when Emilia snaps herself back into reality.

You're doing this for him.

"You didn't give me your number." she pipes up, surprising herself at how straight forward she is. Stefani stops in her movement to leave, turning back around and meeting her eyes. "How am I suppose to return your coat?"

A smile tugs at the corner of her lips, green eyes seeming to sparkle. Emilia convinces herself that the sudden heaviness on her chest is from the nerves of the situation.

"I'm Emilia." she offers her hand.

"Hi, Emilia. I'm Stefani."

She takes her hand and Emilia can't help but notice how soft and warm it is in her own.

an // yes, their meeting was inspired by gaga recently giving her fan that leather jacket. sue me!