Page 52 of The Captain

Then I took the drinks out and set them on her nightstand.

I stepped back and surveyed the area, smiling at the setup. Moving the box off the bed, I then went out and grabbed Cassie. She smiled at me, and I said, “Ready?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. I’m slightly scared.”

“Don’t be scared,” I said, then I opened the door and led her in. What she saw under those starry lights was the tray with snacks on the bed, the laptop propped for a movie, a tiny bouquet of red roses on her nightstand next to the drinks, and candles lit on the desk to give the room a romantic feel.

“I’m new at this, so don’t judge me too hard,” I said, stepping further into the room and pulling her with me. Her silence made me nervous, so I kept speaking. “I just thought about how I wanted to have a fun hang out night with you—no work, no tutoring, or school talk, just…” I shrugged and felt my hands growing damp with every second of her not speaking. “Us. Hanging out.”

“Muscles,” she mused, looking around at the room. “Are you trying to make me fall for you?”

A relieved breath whooshed out of me, and I nodded. “Yes. I am.”

She bit her lip and pointed at the drinks. “Juice boxes? Nice touch.”

I grinned. “I tried.”

I watched as a blush worked its way over her cheeks and smiled. I think I nailed it. “Okay, what are we watching?” she asked as she carefully climbed onto the farthest side of the bed, leaving space for me.

I kicked my shoes and pants off, tugged my shirt off, and left it all in a neat pile by the bed. Cassie eyed me as I crawled in, careful not to disrupt the food.

“Like what you see, Sunshine?” I asked, fully expecting sass back.

But when she stayed silent for a few moments longer, I glanced over to see her still staring at me. She licked her lips, and I saw the moment she got brave. When her eyes met mine, she said, “Yes. I do.”

Damn. Just a hang out. Not going there…yet.

“Good,” I replied, trying to act nonchalantly at the way she was ogling me.

I grabbed the laptop and cued up a movie, smiling at her gasp of delight. “I love this one!”

It was one of the more popular movies from the nineties, that if you watched it, you couldn’t help but love it. “It’s a good doomsday movie.”

She slapped my shoulder. “He’s actually crazy, you know that, right?”

“His whole family would have died if he wasn’t,” I pointed out, loving that she was into this with me.

I didn’t know how tonight would go, if she would revert to the hate that we loved to pretend we had for each other, or if she would kick me out of her apartment the moment she saw me, or, hell, if my sister had been there, if she would have told me to get lost for that reason.

I wondered briefly about her coming to the game. “So, did Mick have to drag you to the game?” I asked, my eyes on the screen, but my attention was fully on her. I grabbed a grape from the tray of food and popped it into my mouth to distract myself.

“Um, yeah,” she replied, her own eyes on the movie. Her hand reached for a piece of chocolate.

“Did you say anything about my tutoring?”

She smirked at my question. I could just barely see it out of the corner of my eye. “No. She didn’t ask. She’s…got a lot going on.”

So did Cassie, with work and school and her thesis, plus tutoring me on top of that, but I didn’t bring any of that up. “Ah. Well, next game maybe.”

“Next game?” she asked, finally turning her head to look at me. “Next game, what?”

“You can tell her,” I said, a grin desperately tugged at my lips, but I held it back.

“Tell her what?”

Her tone made it even harder to hold back. “You could wear my jersey; we could announce we’re together.”

“Oh yeah, you think it’s that easy?”

---