Come Around

After her first day back at work after her vacation, Cassie let herself into Rian and Alex's new house. The boys were still trying to get moved in, so it came as a surprise when she found the place to be quiet. Her eyes scanned the area in front of her and fell on Alex's keys hanging alone on the key hooks near the door. She hung her keys next to his and wandered through the house.

"Hey," she said, finding him as she walked into the living room.

Upon hearing her voice, he turned and smiled, taking in her simple outfit that consisted of jeans and a zip up hooded sweatshirt. Her glasses adorned her face and her hair was pulled back into a ponytail.

"Hey. You look really cute today," he said, standing and pressing his lips to hers.

"Are you kidding?" she asked as they parted, "I look like crap," she said, kissing him once more before unzipping her hoodie and taking it off, revealing a plain green v neck.

He frowned and took the sweatshirt from her, laying it across the back of the couch, "I was being serious," he said as he sat back down, "How was work?"

"Fine," she said, sitting on the couch next to him, turning her body sideways so she was facing him.

"Why were you smoking?" he asked.

Cassie sighed, "It was just a long day. There was a lot of work waiting for me on my desk," she explained.

"Why?"

"Because I trained everyone to do their own jobs, not mine. Nessa took care of some of it, but she couldn't be expected to do my job, Angie's job and her own job. She's only one person. And Justin's not doing shit. I think he's on his way out," she said.

Alex raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?" he asked.

"I don't think he's going to work there very much longer. Nessa and I had a long talk today about the last three weeks."

"Bad?" he asked

She shrugged, "Just weird. Like he doesn't really seem to care anymore. Even today, he didn't really say much to me, and we usually have some kind of meeting after I go on vacation. But he just left me to work," she said.

"Did you have a lot of work to do? Maybe he just wanted you to be able to get it done," Alex suggested.

"Not so much that I couldn't leave at a decent time," she said.

"But you did go in pretty early," he pointed out.

Cassie cringed slightly, "You're not mad, are you? I figured it would be better if I went in early instead of staying late so we could hang out tonight," she said.

"I'm not mad. I was a little disappointed when my alarm went off around the time you usually get up and I was alone. I wanted to kiss you and tell you to have a good day," he said, "And honestly, I don't understand why you didn't just take the whole month off. You only ended up working, what, three days the first week of the month and you're only working two days this week because of New Year's Eve."

"An entire month off is asking a lot," she said, "Three weeks was pushing it, really. If I didn't have a ton of vacation time rolled over from previous years already, Justin probably would've told me to go take a flying leap."

Alex rolled his eyes, "Justin can go take a flying leap," he said.

"And I'm sorry you didn't get to kiss me this morning. You can kiss me now, if you'd like," she said.

Without a moments hesitation, Alex leaned over and crashed his lips into hers. Her hand found it's way to his cheek and rested there. As the kiss intensified, his arms wrapped around her, pulling her closer until she was straddling his lap.

After nearly fifteen minutes and somehow becoming horizontal, Alex pulled back, taking in a deep breath. Cassie looked up at him inquisitively, but he simply hovered above her, staring into her eyes.

"Let's go buy paint," he said finally.

"What?" Cassie asked, confusion playing across her face.

"So we can paint my room," he said, lifting himself up off the couch, "Rian, Zack and I got all my stuff into one of the spare rooms because I wanted to paint my room a different color," he explained.

"Okay," Cassie said slowly as she sat up, "But why now? I was enjoying kissing you," she said.

"Fuck, I always enjoy kissing you. But if we didn't stop right then, we probably wouldn't have stopped for awhile because it probably would've led to something else. And then we would end up not leaving the house tonight," Alex said.

"I'm not seeing the problem," she said.

He laughed quietly, "You're starting to sound like me," he said, "I want you to help me pick out a color. And if we don't go tonight, we won't have the chance until the weekend," he explained, taking Cassie's hand and pulling her up off the couch.

"Alright," she sighed, adjusting her shirt and fixing her ponytail.

The drive was silent. Cassie stared out the window, her face giving away that she was thinking about something. After stealing several glances at her, Alex was about to say something when she spoke.

"Can I ask you a question?" she said.

"Shoot," he replied.

She drew in a deep breath, "How many of the girls who were at your birthday party have you messed around with?" she asked.

"One," he said, keeping his eyes on the road in front of him.

With a loud sigh, she turned her entire body in her seat, "Don't lie to me, Alex," she said softly, "I deserve better than that."

"You've told me more than once that you don't want to know things like that. And honestly, it shouldn't even matter. I'm not cheating on you. So why are you even asking?" he said, his tone remaining calm and even.

She turned herself back to the front of the car and stared down at her hands, "It's just something someone said to me," she said quietly, "It's been in the back of my mind and," she shrugged, "I don't know."

"What'd they say?"

Cassie sighed, "Just basically that I shouldn't trust you, I guess. He asked if I knew how many of the girls there you'd messed around with. The same thing I just asked you," she said.

"Who asked you that?"

"I don't know," she lied, "I told you some dude I didn't know had upset me. That's what he said."

Now it was Alex's turn to sigh, and he did so heavily, "Cassandra, do you really want to know the answer? Because I'll tell you if you do," he said.

"No," she shook her head after a thinking for a minute, "No, I don't want to know."

They were both silent until he pulled into a parking spot. After turning off the car, he looked at her, "Do you still trust me?" he asked.

"You haven't given me a reason not to," she replied.

He nodded and leaned over, kissing her lips softly, "I don't want to ever give you a reason to stop trusting me," he said.