The Girl Next Door | Baby Daddy

6.3 | Messy.

"Hey, I'm back." Ben said unenthusiastically as he opened the already unlocked front door of his apartment. He tossed his bag carelessly onto the couch as he headed immediately towards his bedroom.

"Hey, bro! Where are you going? You just got back!" Danny called after him, chasing after him from the kitchen. Ben had scooped up Emma and was sitting with her close against his chest in his room, his head rested on top of hers. "Hey, man, what's wrong?"

"I screwed up. Really bad. Like, insurmountably bad." Ben reported to his brother meekly.

"Hey, man, there will be another promotion. Probably even a better one!" Danny insisted, but this didn't comfort Ben at all, especially since he had completely forgotten about the job. It hadn't even been in the back of his mind since the argument between them.

"It's not about that. I don't even care about the job anymore. I blew it with Cassie." He summarized. "Danny, I screwed up so bad. She's never gonna forgive me."

"Dude," Danny started, sitting on the bed next to his brother, "This is Cassie we're talking about. You've been best friends for almost twenty years. You're Ben and Cassie! You always have been, and you always will be!"

"Okay, well how do I get back to "Ben and Cassie" after standing her up to sleep with Zoey while Cassie was at dinner being harassed by my boss?" Ben questioned and Danny's smile became forced as he was trying to remain optimistic.

"Yeah... I got nothing, bro." He surrendered apologetically.

"God, I don't know why I even did it. I guess, I started getting what you said about Cassie in my head and I freaked out. Danny, she's perfect. But she's not just some girl I met at a bar, or picked up wheeling around Emma's stroller. She's my best friend, and I'm so worried that the second I tell her I have feelings for her, our friendship will never be the same. After this weekend, I don't think she'll ever feel the same about me."

"I'm so sorry, bro."

"I screwed it up. Just like I screw everything else up!"

"Ben, I think you need to tell her you have feelings for her." Danny told him, nudging his brother in the shoulder. "What do you have to lose?"

###

A knock on the door signaled that Ravi had finally gotten to my apartment. I had texted him as soon as we were back in New York and asked him to come over. I knew I had to tell him the truth about the trip to Miami. I owed it to him to tell him that I had lied to him about going to Florida with Riley.

I hurried to the door, the hardwood floors cold on my bare feet. I straightened my New York Yankees t-shirt and wiped my sweaty palms on my dark wash skinny jeans before slowly opening the door, trying to seem like I hadn't been anxiously awaiting Ravi's arrival.

"Hey." I greeted when I was standing before Ravi.

"Hi, Cassie." He answered back, as unenthusiastically as me as I stepped out of the way so he could enter into the apartment, nervously sliding his hands in his front pockets, hanging his head.

"I really needed to talk to you." I said, nervously fidgeting with the fake wedding ring on my finger I hadn't even realized I was still wearing.

"Yeah, I needed to talk to you as well." Ravi responded as he sat on the couch, anxiously rubbing his hands together.

"I guess I'll start?" I sat on the other end of the couch, intentionally keeping my distance from him since I was about to expose I had told him a massive lie. "So, you know how I told you I was going to Miami with Riley?"