I’m a little surprised at how bright Cassie’s house is as I walk up to it. It’s almost ten thirty at night and it looks like every single light in the house is on. I didn’t call her before I left my house to come over here and I had a few doubts that maybe she wouldn’t be home but I guess I don’t have to worry too much about that.

I let myself into her house and immediately I’m met with the sound of the television. It’s pretty loud considering the time at night and the fact that I can hear it perfectly from across the house. I guess I won’t have to be searching too hard for Cassie.

Something seems off when I near the den and the sounds coming from the TV sound suspiciously like some pro wrestling show. Cassie is the absolute last person who would watch something like that.

Things get a bit weirder when I round the corner of the den and instead of Cassie, I’m met with a vaguely familiar looking guy sprawled out on the couch. He looks over at me when I step into the room.

“Who are you?” I blurt out before I can manage a more polite way to figure out who the hell this guy is.

The guy doesn’t seem put off at all by my words. “Jordan.”

I run the name through my head a couple times before it clicks who this is. “You’re Cassie’s stepbrother.”

“Yeah. Justin, right?”

“Right.” I step further into the room and offer him my hand. “Nice to meet you.”

He shakes my hand and nods. “You too.”

I glance towards the TV. “Are you just up in LA visiting? Cassie never mentioned you were coming.”

“Yeah I decided this morning to come up for a bit. I don’t know how long I’ll stay.”

Jordan seems more interested in the TV than making small talk so I back out of the room. “Nice to meet you,” I say again and Jordan nods at me and utters a “you too”.

The first place I check for Cassie is her room and when she’s not there, I go for the next most obvious spot, her sewing room. The door is shut and I knock on it as I ease it open.

Cassie doesn’t look up from her sewing machine when I step into the room. “Jordan, I’m in the middle-”

“Hey,” I interrupt her and her head jerks up.

“Oh. Hi.”

I close the door behind me and cross the room to her. She looks exhausted and worn out and I have a feeling that Jordan may be partly to blame for that.

“I didn’t know you were coming over,” she says when I reach her.

“I was going to call but then I didn’t,” I reply, going to stand behind her. I begin to massage her shoulders and she leans her head back to rest on my chest. “So Jordan’s here, huh?”

A sigh escapes her. “He just showed up this afternoon. No call, no warning. Nothing.”

“How long is he going to stay?”

“I don’t know. I can only handle him for so long.”

I work my hands across her shoulders until they meet at the base of her neck. “You could call your Mom. See if she knows why he’s out here.”

“He’s out here because he has nothing better to do. All my mom will do is tell me to let him stay with me because he’s family.”

I lean down and plant a kiss on the top of her head. “He’ll probably only be here for a couple days.”

“I hope so.”

“You look exhausted,” I say after a minute of silence. “You should go to bed.”

She twists her head to look at me. “Are you staying over?”

“Is that okay?”

She gets up from her chair and wraps her arms around me in a hug. “Yeah,” she replies, burying her head in my neck. “You can keep me from killing him.”

I laugh and run my hands up and down her back. “You’re so dramatic.” I kiss her temple and then pull back and grab her hand. “Come on.”

She follows me out of the room and then pulls me in the direction of the den. She comes to a halt in the doorway.

“Jordan, we’re going to bed. Want to turn it down?”

He picks up the remote and the noise from the TV reduces. “Your mom just called.”

“When?”

“Like five minutes ago.” He tosses the cordless phone towards her and she catches it. “I said you were with Justin and she wants you to call her back.”

Cassie tenses up beside me and I run my hand up and down her side, hoping to relax her a bit.

“Do you need anything before I go to bed?” she asks, her voice sounding a bit strained.

“I’m cool.”

“Okay. Can you turn off the lights before you go to bed?”

He nods and then Cassie turns abruptly. She’s barely halfway up the stairs before she’s on the phone calling her mom. By time we’re in her room, she’s already arguing with her and I sit on the edge of the bed as I listen to her side of the conversation.

“If you knew he was coming out here, why didn’t you call and tell me?...Because all he’s done since he got here is watch my TV, talk on my phone, and eat my food! And he’s going to do that until he leaves, which could be in weeks! I can’t deal with him, Mom!” She runs and hand through her hair and goes over to the doors to the balcony. “He’s NOT my family. He’s Grant’s kid. And I don’t have time to deal with him mooching off of me.”

From where I am, I can see Cassie getting more and more agitated and I have the biggest urge to go over and just hang up the phone for her. But I realize how much drama that would cause with her mom so I stay sitting.

“He’s just sitting downstairs with the TV blaring and I’m sure it’s going to stay that way all night. How am I supposed to sleep?” She stops for a second and her eyes widen a bit. “What does THAT mean? Who cares if he’s over here?...Yeah, Mom, I guess it doesn’t matter if the TV’s on all night because I’m going to be having wild sex all night long…What? That’s exactly what you’re implying!”

I guess I’m now being brought up in the conversation. I never have figured out what Isabelle has against me, but I feel like she never misses an opportunity to bash me. Cassie doesn’t need this and I sure as hell don’t need it so I get up and go over to her.

“Hang up,” I say. She stares up at me and I repeat my words. “Hang up. You don’t need this.”

“I have to go, Mom,” she states and then hangs up the phone and lets her arm drop to her side. I take the phone from her and toss it onto the bed and then bring up my hands and run them over her hair.

“Just ignore what she says, okay?”

She nods but her chin is already trembling. “She’s such a bitch.”

The last thing I want is for her to be crying over how stupid her mom is so I kiss her quickly and bend my knees so I’m eye to eye with her. “I know. But you gotta just ignore it. What she says or thinks doesn’t matter.” I kiss her again, this time for longer. “Okay?”

She nods, her head dropping down. Her shoulders heave with a large sigh and I step forward to hug her. “What do you need to do to get ready for bed?”

“I just need to change.”

“Go do that and I’m going to go turn off some lights so you’re electricity bill this month doesn’t break you.”

I get the first smile out of her all night. “Okay. Don’t be long though. We have a lot of wild sex to get to.”

She’s obviously joking considering she looks like she’s about to pass out from exhaustion but I go along with it anyways. “When don’t we?” I say, giving her a quick kiss and then leave her room, planning on turning off the lights quickly so I can get back to her as fast as I can.

* * *

I’m completely in my own world, pinning a hem, when two hands go over my eyes and a voice in my ear goes, “Guess who.”

I twist my head around to see Justin standing behind me. “What are you doing here?”

“I just finished golfing with Trace and I was nearby so I thought I’d come see what you were doing. What are you doing?”

“I’m trying to get this hem right,” I say, turning back to the fabric in front of me. “It won’t work the way it’s supposed to.”

Much to my irritation, Justin pulls my hands away from the dress. “Take a break.”

A particularly annoying habit of Justin’s is that when he wants some attention, he won’t leave you alone until you give him what he wants. I really want to get this hem done but with the look I can see in his eyes, I have a feeling that won’t be happening anytime soon.

“So Jordan left this morning?”

I sigh and take my eyes away from the unfinished dress. It’ll have to wait. “Yep.”

“How glad are you to be rid of him after two weeks?”

I groan and shut my eyes. “So glad you have no idea. I need to do some major grocery shopping though. He cleaned me out.”

“You know, Elodie, Chris, and Emma are awesome. But Jordan…I really couldn’t handle him.”

“I know. He’s a lazy ass who contributes nothing to society. But he’s gone now.”

“Now we can actually go to your house again. We won’t have to hide out at mine.” He smiles. “Not that I minded having you over every night. I could definitely get used to having a roomie like you.”

I brush off his words and change the subject before he starts talking about something crazy like moving in together or something. “What are you doing tonight?”

He cocks his head to one side and gives me a look like I’m forgetting something. “Allie’s birthday, remember?”

Shit. So I am forgetting something. He had told me about his friend’s girlfriend’s birthday party a couple weeks ago and I had said I’d go and then completely forgotten about it. Going on tonight is the last thing I want to do. “Oh right.”

“You forgot, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.” I check my watch and sigh when I see it’s already four thirty. “What time is it at?”

“Eight. I thought we could go back to your place now and you could change and then we could go grab a bite to eat before the party.”

He has this all planned out and I realize there’s no way I can get out of going at this point. “How late is it going to go?”

He shrugs. “Late probably. We don’t have to stay forever. I told her we’d be there though so we should probably stay for at least a few hours. It’s not like you have anywhere to be tomorrow morning. We’ll stop for coffee on the way if you want.”

I stifle a groan and nod. Going out tonight was my last intention tonight. I don’t even know this girl whose birthday it is. But because Justin knows her and she invited him, I automatically have to go too. These couple obligation things can really become a pain in the ass. “I just don’t want to stay out really late.”

“We won’t,” he replies. “So are you ready to go right away?”

“No. Why didn’t you call before just showing up?”

He’s silent for a minute and the carefree look has fallen from his face. “I thought you might enjoy the break,” he finally says slowly. “Why are you in such a shitty mood?”

I drop my head and rub my temples. “I’m tired. I just wanted to have a night at home where I don’t have to worry that Jordan is going to destroy something. I wasn’t planning on going out.”

“You can have any other night to just sit at home. I told you about this two weeks ago.” He crosses his arms over his chest. “Look if you really don’t want to go then forget about it. I’ll just go by myself. I just thought you would want to have a night to go out and finally meet all these people that want to meet you.”

He sounds like he’s getting annoyed and I’m beginning to feel bad for being such a downer. I’m just coming up with the words to apologize when I hear a voice coming from outside the open door of my office that makes me stop. I stand up abruptly and move past Justin, ignoring him as he questions me.

“Mom,” I say, halting her conversation with Kyle. “What are you doing here?”

She turns from Kyle to me. “Now, Cassandra, is that any way to greet your mother? Come give me a hug.”

I cross the showroom and let her hug me, giving Kyle a questioning look as I put my arms around her. He simply shrugs.

“What are you doing here?” I repeat, pulling away. “You never said you were coming to LA.”

“Grant is away on business so I thought I would visit you and Elodie. I thought you would enjoy the surprise…” she trails off and her eyes land on something behind me. “Oh. Hello, Justin.”

I turn to see that he’s come out of my office and is now standing somewhat uncomfortably in the doorway. “Hi, Isabelle. How are you?”

“Fine.” She doesn’t even bother asking him how he is and instantly my previous annoyance at Justin is directed to her. I move away from her and go to stand by him, pulling him a bit more into the showroom.

“So how long are you staying?” I ask, wrapping my arms around my stomach. It’s funny how simply my mother’s presence has the ability to make me uncomfortable in my own showroom.

“A week,” my mother replies and my shoulders instantly slump. “I thought I’d stay at your house since Elodie has her hands full with Emma already.”

I have to force a smile onto my face. This is the last thing I need right now. “Okay.”

“You never told me Kyle knew about interior design, Cassandra,” my mom says, turning back to Kyle with a smile on her face. “He was just saying how he helped with the interior decorating in here. I have to say again how wonderful it looks, Kyle.”

My irritation grows at her words. On her previous visit to the store, she had torn apart the interior design of my store, calling it too modern and tacky. But now that she knows Kyle had helped with the design she suddenly loves it? I think Kyle is great too but I can see exactly what my mom’s doing. She loves Kyle and thinks I should be with him. And she won’t even give Justin a chance.

“Thanks, Isabelle. I can’t take all the credit for it though. I just helped out here and there.”

“Oh hush. You’re being modest. I know talent when I see it. You know I can see why you and Cassandra get along so well. You have so much in common.”

I can feel Justin tensing beside me at this touchy subject and I’m ready to step in and change the subject but my mother speaks again, saying exactly what I was praying she wouldn’t. She says it to Kyle but her voice is loud enough so both Justin and I can hear.

“I still wish she had held off on jumping into a relationship so quickly when she moved here because the two of you would be so perfect together.”

“Mom!” I yell, making everyone jump. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

My mom looks completely shocked at my words and puts her hand on her chest. “Cassandra, watch your mouth.”

“No! You can’t just come in here and say things like that! You’re being completely unfair to Justin!”

She rolls her eyes and sighs. “I said nothing wrong. And you shouldn’t be speaking for Justin. If he has a problem, he can say it himself.”

I don’t want him to say it himself because I can tell that he’s absolutely on edge beside me. When my mom had made that idiotic statement about Kyle he had dropped my hand and his hand had curled into a fist at his side. This unspoken subject of Kyle and me is a sensitive one already and having my mom throw it out there is enough to infuriate him.

“No, Mom, you can’t-”

“With all due respect, Isabelle, you are being a complete bitch.”

Her mouth drops open and I shut my eyes at Justin’s quiet voice. This is not going to be pretty.

“Pardon me?”

“You show up here unannounced and make all these snide comments directed towards me? I have never done a damn thing but be polite and respectful to you and all I’ve ever gotten in return are rude comments.”

He takes a step forward and I reach out to grab his hand but he pulls it out of my grasp and points a finger at my mom. “If you want to hate me for no reason, fine. You don’t have to respect me or what I do. But at least have enough respect for your daughter and her choices to keep your mouth shut.”

My mom’s hand is on her chest like she’s about to have a heart attack and I’m not too far behind. This is bad.

Before anyone can say one more word, Justin’s already on his way to the door. He storms out without a word and the silence only lasts a brief moment before my mom destroys it.

“He has a lot of nerve, Cassandra! How dare he say those things to me!”

Now that his words were out in the open, I actually felt a bit liberated to agree with him. “You were out of line, Mom,” I say, trying to keep my voice under control. “You can’t just say things like that.”

“Oh, I hardly said anything. What do you possibly see in him?”

I can’t handle anymore of this so I stalk into my office, grab my bag and then walk back into the showroom.

“Stay with Elodie and Chris tonight or get a hotel. I can’t deal with this.”

“Cassandra…”

I don’t think I’ve ever ignored my mother so completely before but if I talk to her anymore, I’ll probably explode so I keep walking. She calls my name once more but I don’t turn around and instead push my way out of the door and away from the store.