From the glance in my rearview mirror, I look as cool and collected as can be but inside my stomach is churning. Meeting the family is a piece of cake. Meeting the best friend is an entirely different matter. The best friend can be the deal breaker. The best friend has the most influence and them liking you is imperative. I MUST make a good impression with the best friend.

I took extra care with my experience today, making sure to shave and dress in a casual, but respectable, outfit. I don’t want this girl to think I’m a slob. Cassie laughed at me when I asked her if she thought I should get a haircut before I met Hannah. She doesn’t get this anxiety because I kind of just forced Trace and Rachel on her when she wasn’t prepared. But I’ve been hearing about Hannah ever since I met Cassie and how close they are, blah, blah, blah. I get the feeling that Cassie values this girl’s opinion over any one else’s so I cannot screw this up.

Within seconds of ringing the bell, Cassie’s opening the front door. She’s just wearing a pair of jeans and a zip up hoodie but she looks amazing. Lately I can’t get enough of her. The night of her opening…well let’s just say that was spectacular and ever since then I’ve wanted to spend every minute with her. She spent the entire day at work yesterday though so I didn’t really get the chance. Now I’m kind of wishing Hannah wasn’t here so we could just be alone together.

“Hey,” she says, stepping close to hug me. I squeeze her back tightly and breathe in. After weeks of wondering, I snooped through her bathroom to figure out what it was that she always smelt like. When I found a massive stash of everything cherry blossom from Bath and Body Works, I had my answer. I had already sent Rachel to go get some of it from the store to keep at my place so she has her stuff when she stays over. And not that I’d ever tell anyone this, but sometimes I’ll just go smell it because it reminds me of her.

“I’m on time,” I say into her hair.

She laughs and hits me lightly on the back. “Stop feeling bad about being late to the opening. I’m late for most of my life and you don’t hear me apologizing for it.”

That’s true. I pull back so I can kiss her. She has some sort of fruity lip stuff on and I lick the remnants of it off my lips when I pull back. “So?”

She smiles brightly and pulls back, grabbing my hand in the process. “Hannah’s in the kitchen.”

I follow her through her house and find myself taking a deep breath before stepping through the doorway. Sitting at one of the barstools by the island counter is a redheaded girl. She’s sitting perfectly straight and has these glasses on and if it wasn’t for the freckles across her nose and the fact that she’s wearing pajama pants, I would have found her completely intimidating.

“Hi,” she says before Cassie can even introduce us. “Hannah.”

She jumps up from the stool and I’m surprised at how short she is. She’s pushing five feet if that. I shake her outstretched hand. “It’s nice to meet you. Cassie’s always talking about you.”

Hannah’s eyes narrow a bit and they cut to Cassie for a second before a smirk settles on her mouth. “She always talks about me because she has a big crush on me.”

I laugh a bit and move to the fridge to grab myself something to drink. “So do you guys have big plans for today?”

“We were going to sit outside and tan,” Cassie says and my eyebrows raise at her. For anyone else, I wouldn’t think twice about sitting outside and tanning. But both look as though they could get a burn on a rainy day. Besides, Cassie has this peaches and cream skin that I’m completely in love with and I don’t want anything to change it.

“Do they make SPF 100?” I ask, taking a sip of water.

Cassie hits me in the stomach, making me choke a bit on my drink. “We’re not THAT pale.”

I manage to swallow and then laugh. “Hey, I’m looking out for your well being. Just don’t complain to me tonight when you’re burnt to a crisp.”

“This is what I tell her over and over,” Hannah says, drawing my attention to her. “She makes me sit outside with her all the time and we always burn.”

“The burn turns into a tan,” Cassie says, folding her arms over her chest.

“The burn turns into skin cancer,” I respond, receiving a roll of the eyes from Cassie.

She huffs and holds out her arm to me. “If you could completely see your veins through your skin, you’d want to tan too.”

If we were alone, I would show her just how much I love her skin but for now, I’m limited to just run my fingers over the smooth skin of the inside of her arm. “Your skin is beautiful just the way it is.”

She tries to hide it but I can see her smile coming through. “We’re still going to tan. Do you want to sit outside with us?”

“Sure. And I’d like to take you ladies to dinner tonight too.”

Both Cassie and Hannah’s face brighten and Hannah gives Cassie a small nod. A bit of relief goes through me. That looked like the nod of approval.

“Sounds good,” Cassie says. “I’m going to go grab some sunscreen. I’ll be back.”

She exits the kitchen, Hannah and me alone. Before I can even come up with something to say, Hannah speaks up, her head tilted to one side quizzically.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Why do you call her Cassie?”

My eyebrows draw together at her awkward question and I stare at her for a second, trying to figure out if she’s joking. “Because that’s her name?” It comes out as a question and I hope I don’t sound like a complete moron.

“Her name’s Cassandra. The only person she let’s call her anything else is Elodie. Ever since I’ve known her she’s never let anyone call her Cassie.”

Well that’s brand new information. She’s never said she doesn’t like being called Cassie. Shit, I think I called her that the very first time I met her. Why has she never said anything?

Before I can respond, Cassie is breezing back into the room and tossing a bottle of sunscreen on the counter.

“Are you sitting out there in your pajamas?” she asks Hannah.

“No. I’m going to go change quickly.”

I wait until we’re alone before turning to Cassie. “You don’t like being called Cassie?”

She looks surprised. “What?”

“Hannah says that you never let anyone call you Cassie. Why didn’t you tell me? I feel like an idiot for calling you a name you hate.”

She laughs at my obvious anxiety and wraps her arms around me. “I never used to like people calling me that but ever since you did it’s grown on me.”

My lips twitch into a smile. “Really?”

She moves up onto her toes and presses a light kiss onto the corner of mouth. “Mm hmm. Don’t worry about it, okay?”

“Okay,” I agree and move my mouth a bit to the left so I can capture her lips with my own. I kiss her only for a short moment before pulling back. I don’t want to be standing here making out with her and have Hannah walk in on us and get uncomfortable. I keep my one arm around her waist and reach out to grab the sunscreen.

“Only 30?” I ask, examining it.

“I want to get some color,” she replies.

I pick up her hand and kiss the back of it. “I love your skin the color it is. It’s really hot out today. I don’t want you to burn.”

“Then you’ll just have to let me know if I start getting pink,” she replies and then pulls away from me. I watch her with a smile as she grabs a couple bottles of water from the fridge and sets them on the counter. Without looking at me, she says, “Stop looking at me like that.”

My eyebrows rise. “Like what?”

She turns to look at me and smirks. “Like you’re undressing me with your eyes.”

I can’t help but let out a laugh at her words. So maybe I was doing that just a little. But it’s hard not to in her form fitting clothing. “Hard not to when you’re so damn hot.”

She giggles and tosses the first and then the second water bottle to me. “Save it for later. You are going to sleep over tonight, right?”

My smile widens. “I’m all for that plan.”

* * *

I always thought I was in pretty good shape. Not that I’d ever be able to run a marathon but I can run up a few flights of stairs and not be winded. And to me, that’s a good indication of fitness. That standard is quickly going down the toilet as I struggle to keep up with Justin. I should have never told him I wanted to work out because as soon as the words exited my mouth, he was making me change and dragging me outside to jog through the hills surrounding his house. At this point, I have an intense admiration for anyone goes running outside. The treadmill is a piece of cake compared to this. The sweltering heat is just an added bonus I guess.

“How you doing back there?” Justin calls over his shoulder and I silently curse him for not even being out of breath. At this point I feel like an out of shape blob next to him.

My legs feel like jello but I force them to keep moving so I don’t fall even further behind. “Fine. Can we stop soon?”

“There’s a spot up here we can stop. Race you!”

He’s seriously like a child and I’m not going to encourage this so I let him sprint ahead of me. Once he turns the corner and is out of sight, I slow down to a walk, wiping the sweat from my forehead. I am so not attractive right now. This is not how I wanted to be spending my first day away from the store in a week. I was thinking Justin and I would spend some quality time together, maybe go for a swim and get some take out. This was not what I pictured when I came over to his house today.

I round the corner and spot him leaning against a tree. He shakes his head when he sees me.

“It’s like you weren’t even trying to catch up, Cass,” he says, making a show of checking his watch. “I’ve been chilling here for hours.”

“This is brutal,” I complain as I lean over and try to catch my breath. “How are you not out of breath?”

“I do this four times a week,” he says, stretching out his shoulders. “Once you get used to it, it feels great.”

“I have a hard time believing that this could ever feel great,” I say, lowering myself down to the ground with small groan. “You’re going to have to carry me back.”

“After a couple minutes, you’ll feel fine.” He sits down next to me and I frown at how unaffected he is from the past twenty minutes of jogging. I will never be at that point.

I’m in the process of pulling my hair into a tighter ponytail when Justin pushes up his sunglasses to the top of his head and turns to look at me.

“So I have to ask you something I’ve been wondering.”

It better not be why I’m so out of shape. “What?”

“What’s the story with your ex boyfriends?”

I blanch a bit and my hands still, the elastic only half twisted around my hair. “Excuse me?”

If he sees my immediate tenseness, he doesn’t respond to it. “My past relationships are all over magazines but I know nothing about your ex boyfriends and I should, right?”

“You seriously want to talk about this now? Here?”

He shrugs like he sees no issue with it. “Sure. Is that a problem?”

“I…I guess not.” I finish tying up my hair and drop my arms into my lap. “What exactly do you need to know?”

“How many exs do you have?”

“Four.”

He digests this information with a nod and then fires out another one.

“Were the break ups messy?”

This is beginning to feel like an interview. “No.”

“How long was your longest relationship.”

So I thought this torturous run was going to be the low point of my day. But this interrogation is beating that. Call me stupid, but I really thought maybe we’d never have to discuss my past relationships. “Why do you need to know all this?” I find myself blurting out.

He gives me a look like I’m crazy. “Because it’s important. Is this like really touchy for you?”

“No it’s just…” I trail off and shake my head. “Nothing.”

“So how long.”

Okay, apparently we aren’t giving up on that question. I can feel my face heat up and it’s not from the running. “Five months.”

He coughs and then clears his throat. “Pardon?”

He thinks he heard me wrong but he really didn’t. I feel like Phoebe from Friends when Mike found out that she had never been in a long term relationship before. The look of disbelief on Justin’s face at my lack of long term relationship is stressing me out and I’m about to make up my own Vikram when he finally says something.

“Okay, I guess that makes sense.”

A bit of relief goes through me at his acceptance but it’s quickly replaced with some annoyance. “I’m sorry, why exactly does that make sense?”

He doesn’t pick up on my irritation or he wouldn’t have uttered his next words. “Because you have a phobia of commitment.”

My eyebrows shoot up at his bold words. Did he seriously just say that? “Excuse me?” Okay so I probably said that with more attitude than I needed to but seriously, why would he just throw that out there?

He smiles as if to soften his words but it’s already wounded me. “Don’t take it so personally.”

“How exactly do I NOT take that personally?” I ask and pull myself up, despite my protesting muscles. I begin to walk away from him but within seconds he’s by my side and grabbing my arm to halt me.

“Hey, don’t get so upset. I’m just saying what I’ve observed.”

I try and shake off his hand but his fingers remain curled around my forearm. Not looking at him, I stare out at the dirt path. “I do not have a phobia of commitment,” I mumble.

He chuckles but I’m failing to see what’s funny about this. “It took you an entire month to let me take you out on an official first date.”

I’m still refusing to look at him and I know it’s getting to him. “And that automatically means I have commitment phobia?”

“No. But it’s part of it. Don’t get mad, Cassie. I’m not ragging on you about it.”

I cut my eyes to him and then back to the path. I press my lips together and don’t say anything.

“Don’t be mad,” he says again, his hand sliding down from my arm to my hand. He curls his fingers around mine. “I’ve already decided I’m going to be the one to take anyway any of your qualms about commitment.”

I force myself to take a couple deep breaths and chill out. The heat and the fact that I’m tired are making me more irritated than I should be. I make a conscience effort to push away my bad mood.

“Let’s just not talk about it, okay?” I say, finally meeting his eyes.

He opens his mouth, shuts it again, and then nods. “Okay. I really didn’t mean to make you mad.”

I take another deep breath. “I’m not.”

“Are you ready to go again?”

I shake my head. “I’m not running anymore. I can’t make myself do it.”

“We can walk.” His hand still grasping mine, he pulls me back towards the path. “And when we get back to my house we can take a nice long shower.”

He pauses and I glance over at him.

“Together.”

I can’t help but smile and shake my head. The fact that I knew that was going to be his next word is scary. I’m getting to know him way too well.