Trust and Faith

Getting to Know You

It had been over a week since Kassi arrived in New York and it was nonstop the whole time. The meeting with everyone the first day went well and it seemed like everyone was on the same page. The restaurant/bar would be a huge spot for fans of the guys' TV show, Impractical Jokers. It would have lots of memorabilia from the show displayed around, the menu would include names of things from the show and it would be a place that the guys could premiere new episodes of their show or do other events. Kassi was slowly piecing together who these guys were now. She had heard of the show, it certainly was very popular. Personally she had never seen it but made a note to herself to check it out so she was up to speed when it was time to build the place. The four guys certainly had a global brand started and she hoped this restaurant could build their popularity even more.

Kassi had just finished her second cup of coffee for the day inside the empty space that would be turned into the Impractical Jokers Bar and Grille. Today she was supposed to be meeting with Doug, the manger of the guys, to sign off on the last of the paperwork. She also had to try and get in touch with the right people to pull the proper permits with the city to start construction. However right now she was looking around trying to brainstorm ideas on how the place should look. John was gone for a couple days for the grand opening of a bar he did in Vegas so it was just her for the next two days. She hoped by the time he got back she would have a plan in place to have him approve.
Too lost in thought, she didn't even hear someone enter the room. Standing at the opposite end of where Kassi sat was Brain leaning against one of the walls. He stayed very quiet in the background just watching her. She was sipping her coffee and looked to be in deep thought. Brian was very good at reading people and just by the way she seemed it looked to him like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. He was rather impressed with her at the meeting last week, girl definitely knew her stuff and he had total confidence that she wouldn't let them down.
This was the first time he was seeing her again, since the guys were busy touring all last week. He had gotten back last night and throughout the entire trip he could not get her out of his head. Brian had no idea what was up with this gorgeous brunette but a very large part of him wanted to know everything there was to know about her. Having these thoughts was making him feel very uneasy though. Brain Quinn did not do relationships anymore. The last two serious ones he had been in ended horribly with him getting his heart broken. Brian Quinn did hookups, Brian Quinn did not do feelings.
Kassi decided to top off her coffee so got up to head to the bar where she had set up a small coffee pot. Once she stood up that's when she realized she wasn't alone like she had thought. "Ohh...umm Brian. Hi!" She exclaimed a bit startled, " I didn't know anyone else was here."
"Yeah sorry I just walked in." Brian answered obviously not wanting to admit he had been staring at her like a creep.
"You're here early." She stated. She didn't expert the other guys for a few more hours. The plan was to present her ideas so far and see if they liked the direction she was going with. Sal had mentioned that he used to own a bar years ago so she was especially excited for his input.
"Still recovering from jet lag so had trouble sleeping, figured I would get here early and look around." Brian explained with a somewhat worried look on his face.
Kassi picked up on his uneasiness about the condition of the space, " Yeah.." she started lookin around, "There's certainly a lot of work to do." She still sensed how uneasy he was seeming about the whole thing. "Trust me though, when I'm done with this place, you are not going to even recognize it. I've worked with a lot less. You're in good hands, I promise."  She smiled.
" I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what your hands can do." He said then immediately regretting once he realized how that sounded. The look on Kassi's face couldn't be described in any other way than just pure shock. "Oh God, I'm sorry! That came out weird, what I meant was..."
Kassi started to laugh, it was the first time she was seeing this man uneasy, " It's fine! I know what you meant!" She said giggling. " How about some coffee to shake off that jet lag?" She asked with a flirty smile.
"Coffee sounds great." He smiled back watching her walk away. "Course She has a great ass, why wouldn't she??" Brian thought to himself as he watched the way her jeans fit her curves perfectly.
Kassi returned with two steaming cups of coffee, "How you like it?" She asked.
"Blacks fine, thanks." He said accepting the coffee. "So...How you liking New York so far?" He asked trying to make small talk, Brian hated small talk but he was interested in learning more about her and couldn't think of how to go about it.
Kassi shrugged as she stirred sugar into her coffee, "Definitely different from home, haven't seen much of it but from what I have seen, it seems okay."
"And where is home exactly?" He asked.
"Plum Island." She answered then laughed when she saw the confused look on his face. No one ever knew where it was when she told people. "It's a very very small town about 20 miles from Boston" she explained. Just then her IPad starting ringing signaling an incoming Skype call. "Sorry!" She apologized grabbing it to answer, "One sec."
Once it connected two cute little faces appeared on the screen. "Mommy!" The older one shouted when he saw his mom on the screen.
"Hi babies!" Kassi exclaimed feeling her heart already breaking from missing her boys so much. "Are you being good for daddy?" She asked. Both boys nodded yes. Austin being older did most of the talking while her little guy Tommy kept waving and saying "Hi Mommy".
"Alright guys I gotta get back to work. Have daddy call again later tonight okay? Love you boys!" She said blowing kisses to the screen.
"Bye mama!" Both boys said bye in unison and Kassi ended the call. She missed them so much already, she had no idea how she was going to keep this up for 3 months.
"You're a mom." Brian stated.
Kassi looked up with a somewhat sad smile, "I'm a mom. So hard being away from them. They drive me insane but they are my entire world."
Brian felt a ping of disappointment; with kids came a dad in the picture usually. "So how does your husband feel about you being gone so long?"
Kassi looked at Brian and she didn't know why but she smiled very flirty at him, "Ex-husband, we spilt last year."
"Really?" Brian said smiling back, "Well I'm sorry to hear that." He wasn't but her being a single mom certainly changed things; he made sure to never get involved with a woman that had that much responsibility. Kids usually meant commitment and that wasn't something he was after.
Kassi turned slightly in her seat to plug in her IPad to charge when something catch Brian's eye that he hadn't seen before. On her left shoulder was a tattoo that grabbed his attention. It was a firefighter shield with angel wings coming off of it. "Wow!" He said studying it a little closer, "That's an awesome tat."
Kassi reached back and rubbed her hand over it, "Oh thanks, it's for my dad. He died in a fire saving a little kid."
Brian couldn't believe his ears, out of all the professions for her dad to have, "Your Dad was a fireman?!" He said.
"Yeah, He was for over 20 years. I was so proud of him. Most amazing job in the world." She said with a sad smile. She could feel a couple tears building deep in her eyes and tried her best to blink them away.
Brian sat absolutely speechless. What were the odds? He was about to tell her that he used to be one as well when he was startled with a hard slap on the shoulder; turning around he saw his three best friends standing behind him. "Hey guys." He greeted, a little disappointed his alone time with Kassi had come to an end.
"Hi there!" Kassi greeted them, "Happy you all are here, I have some great ideas to throw at you today, I think you'll really like them! Let me grab my notes out back and we can get started." She said as she headed for the office behind the bar.
Once Kassi was out of sight, the other Jokers sat down next to Brian. "What are you doing here so early?" Sal asked.
"Just wanted to check out the space again. Plus I was having trouble sleeping so I figured I would just come here."
All three of his friends exchanged glances, "Q man I thought we talked about this." Joe said with a rarely serious look on his face.
"Talk about what?" Brian asked, knowing exactly what they were talking about but getting annoyed by the interrogation.
"Buddy we know that look, you're into her. Please don't try anything with her. She's working on this project for us. Last thing we need is a famous Q hookup and her quitting or having her godfather pull out of the deal." Murr said equally as serious as the other two.
"I don't know what you guys are talking about." Brian said. Great as if she wasn't irresistible before, now they are telling me I can't have her?!" He thought to himself as he waited for Kassi to return with whatever she had planned for this morning's meeting.