Glide With The Breeze

Cassie woke up to her phone beeping, indicating that she had a new text message. She groaned and rolled onto her side, feeling around the night table until she finally found her phone. With her free hand she rubbed her eyes until her vision cleared enough to read the message and then dropped her phone back on the night table with a sigh.

Next to her, Alex shifted. His arm slid over her side and draped across her stomach. She rolled onto her back once again, which was only just starting to be an uncomfortable position if she laid that way for too long. Alex pushed his hair away from his eyes and blinked a few times.

"What was that about?" he asked.

"Vanessa," she said, "telling me not to come in until after lunch."

A grin crept across his face. "Good. I get you for that much longer," he said.

"No, not good," she replied.

"Not good?" he repeated.

"No," Cassie said.

"Why is it not good?" he asked. "What's not good about getting to spend more time with me?" He inched toward her and went to kiss her jaw but she waved him away.

"It means that she's doing something she doesn't want me to know about," Cassie said matter-of-factly. "And that's usually not a good thing."

Alex frowned. "Like what?" he asked.

Before Cassie could answer, her phone rang. She sighed again before reaching for and then answering it. "Hello?" she said.

"What's Vanessa doing? Why doesn't she want me to come in until after lunch?" Angie asked.

"I don't have the slightest clue. I got the same text message," Cassie said.

"Oh, dear God. This can't be good," Angie said and hung up.

Cassie looked at her phone questioningly and then put it back on the night table. "Angie got the same text," she told Alex.

He raised his eyebrows and rolled onto his side, moving closer to Cassie before propping himself up on his elbow. "What do you think she's doing?" he asked.

Cassie shrugged and inhaled deeply. She held it in for a moment and then exhaled, blowing her bangs that desperately needed to be cut up off her face and then turned her head to look at Alex. "I really have no idea. None," she said.

When Alex reached over and pushed her bangs to the side, she flinched a little. His eyebrows drew together as he frowned. "You're stressing," he said.

"No shit, Sherlock," she said to him.

"Your doctor said that stress isn't good for you or the baby," he told her. "She said that she'll take you out of work and put you on bed rest if you stress too much."

"Yeah, I was there, in the room, when she said that," she snapped.

Alex sighed and his frown grew. "What if," he said, "we get your mind off whatever it is Vanessa might be doing?" he asked.

"And how do you propose we go about that?"

"I have a few things in mind," he said, his frown slowly turning into a sly grin as he bent down and pressed his lips to hers. But she pushed him away almost immediately.

"I'm really not in the mood, Alex," she said.

He slid his hand slowly down her side until he reached the hem of her shirt. His fingers, slightly cold, slid underneath her shirt and grazed her bare skin. She jumped a little at his touch and inhaled sharply from the temperature of his fingers.

"Can you at least let me try to get you in the mood?" he asked.

*****

It was ten fifteen when Matt found himself at the door to Vanessa's office. It was open and she was alternating between focusing intently on her computer screen and writing on a large note pad on the desk in front of her. After a minute, he knocked on the door frame to get her attention.

Vanessa looked up from what she was doing. "Hi," she said, "Can I help you?"

"Yeah, I'm Matthew," he said. "Flyzik. You're Vanessa, right?" he asked.

Understanding suddenly washed over her face. "Yes," she said as she stood and walked toward him. "I'm sorry. I didn't recognize you. It's been awhile," she said, referring to the collared shirt and tie he wore. She extended her hand once she got closer. "You're early."

"Yeah, I've never been here before and I didn't know how easy it would be to find the place," he said as he shook her hand. "I can wait if you're not ready for me," he told her.

"No, no. Go ahead and have a seat. I'll just be a minute. Can I get you some water? Coffee? Anything?" she asked.

"I'm fine, thank you," he replied.

Vanessa nodded and closed her office door. "I'm so sorry about that, just now," she said as she walked back to her desk. "I've been staring at this article that was sent to me for approval and there's something wrong or missing from it and I'm just not quite sure what it is," she explained.

"Don't worry about it. Like you said, I'm really early. So, please, take your time," he said politely.

A tiny smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she looked at her computer screen for a moment. She looked down at the note pad and wrote something down and then hit the power button on the computer monitor. She flipped the top page of the pad of paper over and looked up at Matt once again.

"Maybe a little break will help me," she said. "Fresh eyes and all."

Matt nodded at her. "I brought a copy of my resume," he said, handing a piece of paper across the desk to her.

She took it from him and looked it over. "This is not exactly going to be a normal interview," she said, looking up at him. "Basically, the job is yours if you want it," she told him.

"I'm sorry," he said, "I don't understand. I don't mean to be rude, but why do you want me, specifically, for this job?" he asked.

Vanessa smiled at him. She had known the question would come up and she had prepared a perfect answer for it. "From what I've heard from various sources about your style of management--a no bullshit, get the job done kind of attitude while still being laid back--you would be a perfect fit. I told you that this is an assistant position, and that probably seems like a huge step down to you, but in a office setting, and especially in this case, an assistant is someone who assists another person, or people, by managing their time. It's not all that different from what you've been doing with All Time Low for the past few years, except you won't be constantly on the road for long periods of time. And, as I said last night, this would be temporary while you're not on tour, with, and I didn't tell you this last night, the option to return to the position any time you're not on tour and the option to make it a permanent position should you choose to stop touring for whatever reason," she said. Matt raised an eyebrow at her and she smiled again. "This," she said, choosing a file folder from the stack next to her computer and sliding it across the desk to him, "is what I'm offering you."

*****

"How much of a pain the ass do you think it would be to move the desk to that room downstairs?" Cassie yelled from the bathroom while she was getting ready.

Alex didn't respond to her immediately and after a few moments he was standing in the door way to the bathroom. "What?" he asked.

"That desk," she said again, referring to the one in their room that Alex had just been sitting at. "I want to move it to that room downstairs. How difficult do you think it would be?" she asked.

"Wait, why do you want to move it downstairs?" he asked, leaning against the door frame.

She put down the makeup brush and turned to look at him. "A couple reasons, actually," she said. "For one, I figured we would put the crib there for the first few weeks or a month after the baby's born. I mean, we've put the whole nursery idea on hold because we haven't decided if we're moving yet, so, obviously, we need to have somewhere for the baby to sleep. And two, I figure, maybe in about another month or so, I'll start working from home more. You know, less stress. I was thinking we could turn that room into an office so I have a place to work," she said.

"Alright," he said, "I'll see what I can do. Maybe Zack's muscles can help."

Cassie smiled and walked toward him. "You're the best," she said, planting a kiss on his lips while simultaneously grabbing his sides and turning his body so she could get out of the bathroom. The red light on her phone was blinking, indicating she had a new message, so she grabbed it from the night table. "Angie's going to be here in a couple minutes," she said, sliding her phone into her pocket after reading the message.

"Why are you guys going now?" he asked, grabbing his notebook and pen from the desk before following her out of the room and down the stairs. "I thought Vanessa said to come in after lunch."

"Because Angie and I don't have time for whatever games Vanessa is playing right now. We have a lot of work to do. You know, deadlines to meet and whatnot," she explained. Outside, a car honked. "That's her. I gotta go," she said and gave Alex a quick kiss.

He caught her arm as she turned to walk away from him. "Wait," he said and she turned back to look at him with a look that told him to make it quick. "I've been thinking," he said. "Maybe you should talk to Nathan."

A confused look fell across her face. "What?" she asked.

"I know the guy's a jerk and he doesn't deserve it but sometimes even the jerks realize they really screwed up and they just want a chance to apologize," he said.

Cassie shook her head. "I really don't have time for this right now. You know how Angie gets when she has to wait. Can we talk about this later?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah, sure," Alex said and let go of her arm. "I love you," he said as she pulled the door open.

"Love you, too," she said, closing the door behind her and walking quickly to Angie's car. When she got inside, she put on her seat belt and stared at Angie for a minute while she drove. "I don't even know what just happened," she said.

She recounted the conversation she'd just had with Alex to Angie and before she knew it, they were walking into the office. Vanessa's door was closed and the girls exchanged a look before sitting at their desks and getting to work. It was only a few minutes later that the door to Vanessa's office opened and Vanessa was standing in the door way.

"I'm pretty sure it's still before lunch," she said. "What are you two doing here?"

"We figured 'after lunch' was subjective," Cassie said, not looking up.

"Right," Vanessa said, "Well, have you eaten?" she asked and Cassie, still not looking up from what she was doing, help up a sandwich, still wrapped in parchment paper. "If you haven't eaten, then it couldn't possibly be after lunch," she said to them.

With a heavy sigh, Cassie finally looked up. "Is there a problem, Vanessa?" she asked. "Angie and I have deadlines to meet just like everyone else and we have a lot of work to do in order to meet those deadlines."

"There's no problem," Vanessa said. "No problem at all. In fact, I have some great news for you." Cassie looked at her skeptically. "I hired your assistant," she said.

Cassie's eyebrows drew together in confusion. Without another word, Vanessa stepped out of the doorway, allowing Matt to step into it. The look of surprise on his face matched Cassie's almost perfectly. It was clear that Vanessa had no told him who exactly he would be working with.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me."