I Get A Kick Out of You

Chapter 39

Ben walked into Cassie's house expecting her to be asleep. Instead, he could hear her on the phone with, who he presumed to be, Joel. There was quite a bit of arguing going on, but it didn't sound like it was about travel baseball or Ethan.

He decided to make himself present by walking into the bedroom, where she was. She was in her bra and underwear, frantically getting ready for something. When she saw Ben in the doorway, she put her phone to her shoulder and said, "Thank you for taking him to school."

As she put the phone back to her ear, he told her, "You're welcome. Erm...listen, we should talk." She nodded to him and, with the bottom of the phone facing away from her mouth, she said, "I know. I'm late for a meeting with my publisher, so how about lunch?"

She started to wiggle on a pair of black work pants. "Okay," he told her, "yeah. Where's your meeting? I'll make reservations for a place near you." As Cassie look annoyed by the person over the phone, she told him, "I'll text you. I've gotta go."

Her blouse was on quicker than he could comprehend and she was out the door even faster.

While he was at work, all he could think about was their talk. He had a script written out in his head, but it didn't seem good enough. He needs to make this right, he has to.

Time seemed to go by slow once it hit eleven o'clock. He was counting down the minutes to when he could leave. Once he got the intercom from MaryAnne that it was time to go, he bolted up from his seat and left.

Unfortunately, Cassie didn't show up at the time he had texted her. He waited at the bar, sipping on a coke for nearly twenty minutes before she came through the door.

"Hey, I'm so sorry," she told him. "Meeting ran long once my agent decided to get involved and I just...I need a drink." He chuckled and led her to their table. "What would you like?" He asked. "Hard cider?"

She nodded as she said, "You know me so well. Thank you." He pressed a kiss to her head—wondering if that might be an overstep?—then went to the bar. Since he was still working, he couldn't drink. So, he ordered himself another coke and got her a cider.

As soon as he set it down, she was chugging it. "Hey," he said, "if this is a bad time to talk about last night, we can just have a nice lunch and save it for later. Personally, I'd like to get it all out, but not if you're stressed out about work."

She gave him an adoring look, then took his hand on top of the table. "That's sweet, Ben, but I'm fine. Besides, I don't like leaving a fight unattended for too long, you know? Gives it time to brew up feelings you never had in the first place."

"Oh, I completely agree," he told her. "If I may, I'd like to go first?" When she gave him a nod, he squeezed her hand, then took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry," he started. "I totally overstepped a boundary last night and the night of the miscarriage. Ethan's not my son, I shouldn't be handling situations like he is. You've always treated Cill like he's your's, but you're respectful about it. You ask me permission before deciding on anything and I need to return the curtesy. I also had no right intervening with what is, or what will, go on between you and Joel. It's the lawyer in me, I suppose. Still, I didn't have the right."

Cassie smirked and waited to make sure he was done, before saying, "Thank you, Ben, that means a lot. And...look, I wasn't going to bring up what happened between you and Ethan at the hospital. I shouldn't have last night, but you just got me so angry!"

He nodded in understanding. She continued, "You were grieving, too. I mean...shit, Ben, we lost our kid. I wouldn't expect you to act like everything is okay. That night was filled with emotions on all ends so I didn't think anything of it when Ethan told me that. Sure, I was a little peeved, but not after I thought about it."