“Why are you two still sleeping together?” Cassidy shouted the injustice to the ceiling, her parents sitting on her couch with their clothes hanging off them, buttons all in the wrong place. How in the world did she come from these two people?
Steven poked his head out from the hallway, his hands full of Cassidy’s bed sheets. Of course he had to be the nice guy and think of getting those out of here without her touching them. “Washer or trash?” he asked, knowing it was a serious question for her.
“Oh Cass, don’t throw them out,” her mom said. “Sheets aren’t cheap.”
“Which is why you should buy me new ones.” She held back another round of gags as she thought about her parents’ naked butts on her pretty Hufflepuff bedspread. Those poor badgers and what they’d just been through.
“What? We bought you every set of bed sheets since you were—”
Cassidy’s dad put his hand on Mom’s knee and looked at Cassidy. “I’ll go out and get you some right now.”
“Don’t you think you’re getting out of this,” she said, crossing her arms. “You guys have to stop… whatever this is.” She waved her hand between them, disgust curling her lip. Her parents were notorious for hating each other so much they cheated all the time, but loving each other too much to stay away. It was the most dysfunctional thing Cassidy had ever seen and partly why she’d been so awkward in the dating game. She had no idea how to treat someone she was interested in.
“Cass, we’re not doing anything either of us have a problem with,” her mom said. Cassidy tossed her hands into the air and flopped into the loveseat, kicking her legs up and resting her chin on her knees. Unbelievable.
Steven’s heavy feet announced his entrance into the living room, a cautious look in his eyes and a stuffed garbage bag swinging next to his right leg.
“I’ll head out and get you some new sheets,” he offered—always the knight on a white horse kind of guy, even if he did break her heart. “Do you have a full or a queen?”
“Queen,” Cassidy, her mom, and her dad all said in unison. Cassidy swallowed back that plate of cookies that was bound to make another appearance if her parents didn’t get their pervy butts out of her place in the next minute.
Her dad must’ve caught onto how much he wasn’t wanted and grabbed at his coat next to the laundry basket they’d tipped over. “Hold up, Steve. I’ll go with you.” A pair of Cassidy’s Rogue underwear clung tight to the hood of his jacket, and she wasn’t going to say anything. He could walk around like that as penance for his behavior.
“Replace my Harry Potter sheets with something equally as awesome!” she called after them. As soon as the door shut, she shivered out her heebies, banishing every thought of her parents’ naked body parts doing unspeakable things right next to her brand-new Loki stand-up. The poor guy; he hadn’t even seen Cassidy naked yet.
“You don’t have to do that in front of me, you know,” her mom said, leaning back into the cushions and fixing the buttons on her shirt. “I am a woman with desires, just like you.”
“Ew, Mom. It’s not that.” She ran a frustrated hand across her forehead. “It’s with Dad. In my bed.”
“Like you and Steven never did it in our be—”
“What are you doing here, anyway?” she said, cutting her mother off before they got into the lackluster details of Cassidy’s own sex life. And, for the record, she had never done anything in her parents’ bed. Gag.
Her mom waved her hand toward the kitchen. “I had that ten key you said you needed. I used the spare key.”
“Which I’m taking back.”
“After a couple of hours, I got bored waiting for you. Your father called, said he was in the area. We had some wine, reminisced…”
“I know how the story ends.” Cassidy pulled at her sweater sleeves, ready to bury herself inside the loose fabric. If she had sheets on her bed, she’d be in there right now, trying to sleep this day away.
“Where were you?” her mom asked, kicking her bare feet up on the coffee table and making Cassidy’s OCD go into hyperdrive. “Working late? Did you get dinner?”
“Yes and yes,” she grumbled into her knees. Unfortunately work and dinner had been the best parts of her day so far. Her eyes fell to her toes, and she ran her thumb over the smooth black and orange polish she’d used to be festive.
“You work too much,” her mom said, resting her head on her hand, her blonde hair a fluffy mess. For someone who’d just been caught red-handed with a booty call, she didn’t look the least bit embarrassed.
“You don’t work enough.”
Her mom laughed and nudged her. “Feel like getting out this weekend? We can hit the clubs.”
“Don’t say ‘hit the clubs.’”
“I’m on this new site, Hook Me Up.”
“Been around for a while, Mom.”
“You will not believe the guys on here, Cass,” she said, whipping her phone out and spinning it around to show off pictures. “You should get a profile going.”
Cassidy mad-dashed for her phone on the coffee table and stuffed it into her bra. “Please… for the love of all that is holy, please tell me you are not giving me relationship advice.”
“Who said anything about a relationship?”
Only her mother would suggest sleeping around instead of settling. When her oldest brother, Adam, had announced his engagement to Elana, Mom raised her glass in a toast, eyeing their father, and saying, “Congrats on making this decision. I have ten to one odds on the whole thing falling apart within a year.”
She’d been cut off from the alcohol immediately afterward, and Cassidy was put in charge of making sure her mother stayed away from Elana’s family. She’d been mostly successful, minus the two minutes she lost track and found Mom telling Elana’s father he had a nice ass.
“You know, Steven’s filled out nicely,” she said, waggling her brows. “You gonna hit that?”
Cassidy ugh-ed into her hands and shook her head. “Been there, done that,” she said, mostly to end the conversation. It backfired badly.
“I’ve done your father many times.”
“O-kay, I think it’s time for you to go.”
“We can’t talk about sex?” Her mom’s hands flopped onto the couch in exasperation. “For Christ’s sake, Cass, you’re twenty-three years old. You should be having a lot more sex than I am.”
“Are we really gonna go there, Mom? Because I’ve kinda had the worst day, and I’ll probably say something very mean.”
She frowned, her feet dropping from the coffee table. Cassidy could almost see the distinct change in her mother’s face, going from promiscuous cougar to concerned mom in a split second. “What’s been going on, hun?”
The sudden interest in her well-being softened Cassidy’s heart, and she nearly spilled all her Halloween office party woes, but she caught the words before they came spewing from her lips.
“No,” she said. “No. I’m not doing this. I’m not having a heart-to-heart with you about my dating life. I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Seriously?” Cassidy let out a hollow laugh. “Mom, you’ve been preaching about love being a sham since I was twelve.”
Her brown eyes widened, her eyeliner smudged in the corners. “Are you… Cassidy, baby, are you in love?”
“What?” Cassidy choked on her heart beat. “No. No, no, no.”
“Who is he? Where’d you meet? Is that why you were late tonight?” She stopped, a sharp gasp passing her lips. She pointed to the door and dropped her voice to a whisper. “Is it Steven?”
Cassidy squeezed her eyes shut. “No… It’s no one. I’m not in love.” She couldn’t be. She didn’t know his name, hadn’t seen his face, had only spent four hours with the guy.
An incredible four hours.
Her fingers slowly rose to her neck, retracing the soft memory of his hand on her skin, the fun in his smile, the tease in his laugh.
She was not in love, but did she see it happening? Oh yeah. Yes, yes, yes.
Her mom was too silent for comfort, so Cassidy glanced over, shoulders slumping at the terrified look in her mom’s eyes.
“I’m not in love, Mom. Please don’t worry.”
A twitch pulled in the corner of her mouth. “I’m always worried.”
“Don’t worry about this.” The last thing she needed was her mom to give her another speech on protecting her heart, never trusting a man, and to never ever fall in love first.
Was it possible to fall in love with each other at the exact same time? That’s what Cassidy was really shooting for.
She blew out a long breath and felt around in between the couch cushions for the remote. Her mom was quiet while Cassidy effectively shut down any further conversation with Iron Man 3. Her mind started wandering about ten minutes in, fantasizing about finding her Westley. She’d like to think she could have one of those fairytale romances, like Cinderella and Prince Charming… or Pepper Potts and Tony Stark. Her mom seemed to think it was impossible, and considering her history with Cassidy’s dad, Cassidy couldn’t blame her.
But what if it was possible? What if the love of her life had been in her office building this whole time? Dressing in accidental couples costumes could’ve been the universe throwing them a very obvious bone.
She wanted so badly to prove her parents wrong, but with her luck, she wasn’t sure she’d ever get the opportunity again.