Circumstances

I rushed over to Cam's apartment and he opened the door the moment I knocked.
"Cam what's-"

"My parents died." I froze and Cam wavered slightly, moving to refill his whiskey glass. I watched the movements in silent shock. I tried to process the information that had been so bluntly delivered.

"Maybe you've had enough. It'll only make things worse-" He didn't move, and I slowly moved over, covering his hand with mine and gently easing the glass out of it. He turned round and I hugged him again. He held me tightly, crying a little.

"When did you find out..?"

"The other day. I was calling my sister to find out what had happened...someone....some...." He took another couple of minutes to regain his composure before speaking again. I felt awful, but a part of my brain was actually celebrating the fact that Alice wasn't his girlfriend.

"Someone killed them. It was no accident."

"Do you think Kiet-"

"Maybe." I sighed and he let me go, rubbing a hand over his eyes.

"I'm so sorry Cam." He smiled tearfully.

"Thank you. Sorry for...dragging you over here again, I just-"

"Hey. I wouldn't want you to be alone at a time like this." He nodded and stood there, my sympathy for him was almost unbearable, he shifted slightly, and obviously didn't know what to do.

"Come here." I took his hand and pulled him into his bedroom. I made him get partially undressed and slide into the covers, I lied with him and asked him to tell me about them. He told me stories quietly, my head on his chest for hours until we fell asleep.

In the morning I woke up, Cam was still asleep. I watched him for a while, this moment felt far more intimate than the heated kisses we'd shared before, and it didn't even scare me anymore.
He woke up after a while and I rolled over to face him.

"Hey. How are you?"

"Better...thank you for last night. It helped, a lot." I smiled.

"I'm glad." I was suddenly very aware of his hand stroking my arm gently.

"I don't wanna deal with the case today. You can do whatever you want, but I'm gonna go do something. If you wanna come...that'd be cool but if not-"

"What did you have in mind?"

"Not sure, just go to places we don't usually go to in the city, relax for once."

"Sounds great." Our eyes met and he leant forward and planted a chaste kiss on my lips. I felt a deep blush surge through me and he smiled lightly.

"You're so sweet." I laughed slightly and he kissed me again, pulling me closer. I was even more embarrassed when his hand moved up my back, he must have felt my racing heartbeat and I fought down a moan.

"Sorry I...." I frowned and he moved away.

"What's wrong?"

"I...you don't have to do this just because of my problems at the moment. I know that last time you didn't-" I moved up onto my knees and kissed him again.

"I'm not doing it because of that." He smiled and his hands slid round my hips, his grip getting tighter the more we kissed. I pulled back, panting heavily and we just looked at one another for a while.

"Wasn't expecting that..." He breathed throatily, making me giggle.

"Me either to be honest." I wanted to carry on, his bare torso and swollen lips called to me in a way I didn't know was possible. It felt so alien, so strange being with a guy. But when I straddled his hips and kissed him again, the way he held me, his smell, the way his stubble scratched me. It was so good that it made perfect sense.

When he got up to get showered and dressed I stayed in his bed, too comfortable to move. It was so worth it for the sight of him in a towel when he walked back out. He caught me staring and smirked. I glared at him and headed to the shower myself.

When I came out he did the same thing to me.

I laughed at him as he reached for his usual attire.

"Nooooo, no no no."

"What?"

"You are not wearing a suit on a chill day. Wear jeans!"

"I don't think I have any." I rummaged through his extensive wardrobe and pulled out one pair. He sighed but pulled them on and, after finding no t-shirts at all, he pulled on a more casual shirt and rolled the sleeves up. I re-dressed in the clothes I had been wearing, cringing slightly at the i

We went to an art gallery, examined and gave opinions on the hundreds of paintings and sculptures there. I found that I liked the sullen ones, ones with scratchy, blurred, slightly abstracted styles. Cam liked a set of metal sculptures which I thought were pretty cool. His favourite was this bizarre, surrealist painting that he rattled off some spiel about how it was reminiscent of a time of sexual repression and was actually a highly erotically charged image. A woman next to him heard him and try got talking about brush strokes and colours - it bored me, quite frankly. And like the philistine I am I moved on, deciding wether or not I liked the paintings simply from if I found them appealing or not. I didn't care why I liked them, just wether or not I did.

We had lunch out at this awesome Mexican place that was really small and secluded. We ate way too much and still ordered another plate of nachos. When we left we practically had to waddle to the cab. We went to the Coney Island beach and lied in the sun, relaxing after so much food.

"I love the sea...I forgot how much." Cam rolled onto his stomach and smiled at me.

"Me too. Thank you for today."

"No, thank you." I ducked down shyly and kissed him. I could feel him smiling against me.

His drivers picked us up and took us back to his house. He settled on the couch and sighed.

"I'm sure your parents knew you loved them." Cam nodded.

"They did. We were good. I'm glad of that." He looked at me when he said the last sentence and I nodded.

"How were they killed?"

"Shot. They wouldn't have known anything, thank god."

"It's ok to feel sad." Cam hugged him tightly as he crawled onto his lap.

"Thank you. You act older than me sometimes."

"If I'd've lost my mum I wouldn't have known what to do with myself. Besides..you're not that much older than me." Cam chuckled.

"Thanks, well, I feel it." Oli kissed just below his ear.

"I guess I'm here to make you feel young again, then." He winked and Cam laughed. Those eyes crinkled up beautifully. They kissed gently. They both wanted more but t wasn't the time. So instead, Oli left reluctantly and returned to his small home.

"Hey! How's everyone tonight?"

"Hi baby! How was your day? Crack some codes?" Oli chuckled at his mum and kissed her head.

"It was great." That night, the girls asleep, he and his mother sat watching tv on their tiny little set.

"So how was your date?"

"What?"

"I presume you've met someone?" Oli couldn't hide his smile and his mum sat up, excited.

"Who is he? He?"

"He, yeah. He's...awesome."

"What's his name? What does he look like? What does he do?"

"One question at a time, woman, please!" She laughed and leant on the back of the sofa, watching him happily.

"His name is Cam. I met him...through work. He works with the FBI and police and things."

"He sounds impressive. How old is he?"

"He's 24." She popped up her eyebrows.

"Don't you get taken advantage of. You're young."

"Not inside, you know that." She sighed.

"I know, but you'll always be my baby." He smiled.

"So you were with him today?"

"Yeah, sorry I wasn't here to help more-"

"It was lovely to be with the girls, besides - I want you to have a life, Oli. You work so much, you're finally starting to turn things round. And if this Cam is special and makes you happy I want you to hold onto him." Oli thanked her before going to bed.