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« ch. 4 »

i woke up in tom's bed, head slightly throbbing and still exhausted. i rolled over and saw nothing but an empty bed next to me.

i dragged myself out of the bed, finding an extra toothbrush still unopened and in its packaging in tom's bathroom to use. after brushing my teeth, i slowly but surely made my way downstairs to the smell of bacon.

"aw, are you cooking for me? how sweet," i teased as i poured myself a cup of coffee. i leaned my head on tom's shoulder, eyelids still feeling quite heavy.

he grinned down at me before turning his gaze back to the sizzling bacon on the stove in front of him. "of course. there's also advil on the island if your head hurts or anything. i wasn't sure how well your body handled the aftermath of the wine last night."

i nodded and made my way to the counter to take a couple of the tablets. everything was quiet for a minute, despite the sizzle of the bacon. i finished my coffee in record time before stealing a piece of bacon off of the plate tom had began putting them on. "what exactly does this mean for us?" i was so incredibly curious as to what he wanted. i was even confused as to i wanted, honestly.

he glanced at me. "what do you want it to mean? i don't want you to think i'm trying to take advantage of you, callie, because you should trust me when i say that i would never do that to you. i know last night we said it was strictly business, and if that's what you want it to be then i completely understand. i just want you to be comfortable."

i didn't want 'strictly business.' i didn't want to be just friends with tom, either. i wasn't sure what i wanted, exactly, but i knew that i owed it to myself to not get caught up in his lifestyle and all of the media at this point in my life. it wasn't fair to myself to not allow myself to live and grow as a person on my own, but i also had this voice telling me in the back of the mind that tom was what i wanted; however, i couldn't let him know about that voice, so i just nodded. "strictly business is good.. what about jacqlyn, though? she's going to have her suspicions, especially if i start staying here more often."

he shrugged. "what about her? like you said, she'll find out eventually, and technically it was her idea in the first place. maybe the best thing to do is to just tell her. i don't want to have to hide anything from her."

i looked down at my feet and leaned against the counter before looking back up at tom. he was wearing sweatpants and a white shirt, and he could definitely pull off the 'just got out of bed' look with his hair. did he ever not look attractive?

"i don't want to have to hide anything either, but i just don't really know how she'll react. we'll tell her soon."

tom removed the last piece of bacon from the skillet, turned off the stove, and made his way over to me. his hands found their place around my waist and i wrapped my arms around his neck, enjoying the warm embrace. we stood like that for what seemed like forever; my head rested on his shoulder and i felt his breath as it blew down my spine. it was intimate without being sexual, and i enjoyed it probably more than i should have.

eventually, i pulled my head off his shoulder and pressed a quick kiss against his lips. "we wouldn't want our food to get cold, now would we?" he smiled down at me.

.

we invited jac over to have a movie marathon, per usual. in around two weeks, tom would have to head back to new york for about six days because they were doing reshoots for one of his new films, so the three of us planned to spend as much time together as possible. after filming more in new york, he would be home for a few days and then he would be off to europe to do promotions for the film, so we wanted to utilize the next two weeks in the best way we could.