Come Around

Cassie scribbled notes on the paper in front of her before sticking it in a file folder and dropping it on the floor next to her and moving on to the next thing in the stack. She'd been trying to find the top of her desk for the past two hours but had only put a dent in the mess she found when she walked into the office.

"When was the last time I was here?" she mumbled more to herself than anyone else as she dropped a small stack of papers in the trash can.

"Friday, I think," a voice said from behind her, "That was the day you did the All Time Low interview, right?"

Cassie spun around in her chair slowly. The voice belonged to Vanessa, one of the few people who had been there since before Cassie, and someone she had worked closely with on plenty of occasions. The two were friendly and shared a frustration over other people not doing their jobs. And while that appeared to be what was going on with Cassie's desk, it was far from what it really was.

"Why is there so much crap on my desk that isn't even mine? Are we the only people who actually know how to do our jobs?" Cassie asked, "And really, if someone has a question, how hard is it to send me an e-mail or call me? That's the whole point of having the contact list," she ranted.

Vanessa laughed and pulled a chair over to the desk, "We are among the few who know what we're doing around here," she said, helping Cassie sort out some of the junk. "And you can blame Justin for half of this."

"Figures," Cassie mumbled, picking up a pile of papers and marching into her manager's office.

He was focused on his computer screen and didn't even look up when she walked in. His office was tidy, as always, which only made Cassie more frustrated. Breathing in loudly, she dropped the stack of papers on Justin's desk.

"Why do you hate me?" she asked, falling into the chair that was in front of the desk.

He laughed, "I don't hate you, Cassandra."

Her eyebrow arched, "Then what is the meaning of all of the crap on my desk?"

Justin tore his gaze from the computer screen and looked at Cassie, "Believe it or not, there's a surprise at the bottom of all that stuff," he said, turning his attention back to the screen, "You know how I love to make people miserable before giving them something I know they want."

"You can be quite the bastard at times," she said, standing, "This better be worth it."

Leaving the part of the mess she brought with her on Justin's desk, she went back to her desk and began to, once again, search for the hard surface of her desk. Nearly two hours later, she screamed excitedly, earning her dirty looks from everyone around her with the exception of Vanessa, who knew what she was screaming about, and Angie, who had recently arrived and was rarely surprised by her friend.

Cassie ran into Justin's office and tackled him.

"Ahh sexual harassment!" he yelled, laughing. She let go of him and stood up, grinning like a crazy woman. "Do you still think I'm a bastard?" Justin asked.

"Of course I do," Cassie replied, "But I'm willing to put that aside for a minute to tell you that I'm ridiculously excited that you're finally letting me interview The Used again, after practically begging for the last year."

"Not only are you interviewing them, you're spending a couple days in the studio with them," he said, holding a folder out to her, "Here's your itinerary. You leave tomorrow afternoon."

Cassie flipped through the papers inside the folder as she walked back to her desk. After sitting down, she studied them closely, making sure she didn't miss anything.

"Dude, your phone has been buzzing for like three minutes and it's driving me up the wall. Could you please check your text messages?" Angie said from the desk behind her.

Cassie spun around, "Justin is sending me to interview The Used again," she said.

"That's super. Now check your phone before I throw it out the window."

"Yes ma'am," Cassie said, opening the top drawer of her desk and pulling her phone out. She pressed the center button and read the message, her face twisting in confusion.

What are you doing this weekend?

The area code was the same as her parents', which narrowed down the possibilities of who it could be. Curious, she replied to the message. Who is this?

Within seconds, her phone buzzed again. Does it matter?

She sighed and spun around to face Angie again, "Hey, did you give my number to anyone?" she asked.

"Rian asked me for it yesterday. I figured you wouldn't mind so I gave it to him," she replied.

Staring at her phone, Cassie nodded and spun back around. It was so obviously not Rian who was texting her.

How did you get my number, Alex?

After five minutes of no response, Cassie grew impatient. She opened the the last text message she received and pressed the call button. It rang a twice before he answered.

"Let's hang out this weekend," he said, not bothering with a standard greeting.

"Can't," Cassie replied.

Alex laughed, "Can't, or won't?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes, "I'm going out of town for a few days."

"Ooh," Alex said, "Take me with you."

"No."

"What? Why not?" he asked.

"It's work, not play," she said.

"Then I promise to be on my best behavior," Alex said.

"Nice try, Alex, but no. How did you get my number anyway? I know I didn't give it you," Cassie said.

Even though she couldn't see him, she could hear the grin in his voice when he avoided her question, "Why won't you take me with you?" he asked.

"I hardly know you."

"And what better way for us to get to know each other than spending a few days together out of our natural habitats. We can see how each other react under stress and pressure."

"You've seen how I react under stress, Alex. You caused it when we first met, remember?"

"Ouch," he said.

Cassie sighed, "I'm hanging up."

"Wait!" Alex said and Cassie made a noise, "Can we meet for dinner tonight? All of us. You can bring your friend-"

"Angie," Cassie said.

"Angie," he repeated, "And I'll bring the guys. We can all get to know each other a little better. It'll be fun. What do you say?"

"Hold on."

The connection was fuzzy for minute. Cassie had her hand over the mouthpiece and Alex could hear her talking to someone, her voice muffled.

"On one condition," she said, bringing the phone back to her face.

"And what's that?" he asked.

She grinned, "Tell me how you got my number. I have my suspicions, I just want to know if I'm right."

He hesitated and the line was silent for a minute, "Promise you won't get mad?" he finally said.

"That doesn't sound like it's going anywhere good," she said.

"Well, I," he started, "Wait, do you promise?"

Cassie sighed, "Just spit it out, Gaskarth."

"Okay, I realized I forgot to ask you for your number yesterday after we hung out. So I sent your friend a text from Rian's phone and asked her for it."

Cassie did her best to stay calm, though she could feel the heat rising in her body.

"So you decided to trick my best friend into thinking my old best friend wanted to get ahold of me in order to get my number?" she asked and he said nothing. "That's the Alex I don't like. Why couldn't you just be honest, ask Rian to ask Angie to ask me if I minded if you had my phone number?"

"Well, see, that's the thing," he said, "Rian and I had kind of just gotten into a little bit of an argument over you."

Cassandra groaned, not really wanting to ask the next question but did anyway, "What about?"

Alex hesitated again, "He thinks, um, I guess let me start from the beginning."

"This sounds like something better talked about in person," Cassie said as she gathered a few things and stood, tossing her purse over her shoulder, "Meet me at Pinkberry."