I blow on the open, paper coffee cups in the cardboard holder that I was able to swipe from the lobby and knock on Cassie’s door.

This is pretty much exactly like old times. I remember sleeping over at Cassie’s plenty, but I wasn’t there to hang out with her. I was there to stay up all night smoking weed and playing around with her brother’s guitar collection. I did wake her up lots of times in the morning, though, by knocking on her door with a hot cup of coffee and a pasty from the place down the road.

Cassie finally opens the door a crack to check who it is before opening up all the way for me to step inside.

I think she put on this dress just for me. Her round, perfect ass invites me into the room as she walks away from the door and perches on the edge of the bed, pulling on some strappy flat sandals.

“Hey,” she says, her long hair cascading down her shoulders. If I didn’t know we’d just spent the night together, I wouldn’t believe it if someone told me.

I woke up with the biggest hardon I think I’ve ever had, and all I wanted was to roll over and make her cum again and again.

“I brought coffee,” I offer, putting the tray down on the dresser, “but it doesn’t look like you’re in the mood. Should I have brought champagne? It’s a little bit early for me to start drinking, but I won’t judge if you want to.” I’m kidding around with her of course, but I check the time on my phone to tease her. “Damn, it really is early to hit the bottle, Cass. Everything okay in your personal life?”

“I’m sorry,” she sighs, “it’s just...have you seen the news this morning?”

“No,” I say, my chest tightening slightly, “everything alright?”

“Yeah. No. I mean, I don’t know.” She goes over to the dresser and picks up one of the coffees. She knows which one is for her - she always liked her coffee light and sweet, where I like mine black, a straight shot of unmitigated caffeine. “Thank you for this,” she says, taking a sip. “Not too hot. Just how I like it.” She forces a smile.

There’s an uneasy rumbling inside my chest, like I’ve eaten a cyanide pill and the poison is just starting to enter my bloodstream. There’s either something really fucking bad in the news that I’m not aware of, or she regrets what happened last night between us. And from the way she was panting and moaning all night, I don’t think she could regret what we did.

“What’s going on, Cass?” I ask, taking a step toward her.

“It’s…it’s this.”

She crosses the room and grabs her phone off the small desk in the corner, swiping at the glass before shoving the phone into my hands and walking away nervously, chewing on her thumb.

I look down and see the headline.

Beauty queen slams love. I chuckle to myself and toss the phone back to her.

“It’s not funny,” she whines, though there’s a little glimmer of lightness in her voice. “This is a total disaster.”

“Look,” I say, taking a sip of coffee and leaning against the dresser, “the way I see it, there’s no such thing as bad press. And you did say love is stupid, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, I said it, but I didn’t mean it. And it doesn’t matter what I said or didn’t say, or mean or don’t mean.”

“Okay, okay,” I say, putting my hands out. She’s combustible, and so damn cute when she’s annoyed. “So what are we gonna do about it?”

She takes a big breath, emptying her lungs into the room.

“My manager has a meeting set up with me and the pageant organizers this morning. We’re going to figure something out.”

“Can’t you just say the whole thing is a crock of shit?”

“I don’t know if it would really do much at this point to deny it, but when I get to the meeting they’ll have a better idea of how to move forward.”

“Drop out of the pageant,” I say, crossing the room and taking her in my arms. She softens, her arms wrapping around my neck. Cassie looks up at me with those deep, piercing blue eyes of hers. So fucking pretty, but such a fucking dirty girl.

“You want me to quit and do what, exactly?” she says, her fingers coming to the neckline of my black t-shirt, the kind that was like a damn uniform when I was a roadie.

“Shack up with me for the week,” I say, putting my hands on her waist, “I promise it’ll be a lot more fun than anything you could do out there.”

She gives me a small smile and looks up at me, backing away slowly.

“We need to cool off for a bit,” she says, “for the sake of the contest. I’m already in hot water. I’m really sorry.”

“You really gonna let these people dictate your actions, baby?” I ask. This is pretty fucking cold of her, but if it’s what she needs, I’ll pretend I’m cool with it.

She sighs deeply, peering down at her phone before looking back up at me.

“I’m sorry,” she repeats.

“Fine,” I say, scrubbing the side of my face, “that’s just that much more time after this whole thing is over that you have to agree to hang out with me.”

“We can hang out any time,” she replies, tapping at something on her phone and smiling up at me. But her smile quickly becomes a scowl.

“Shit. The meeting’s been moved up.”

“To when?”

She rushes toward the door and shoos me out in front of her.

“To five minutes ago.”

“Let me escort you to your meeting,” I say, putting my arm through hers. “It would only be proper.”

I watch her hesitate, the gears moving in her head. Better to show up with a guy working at the contest, an upstanding pillar of society, or better to eschew me slightly disheveled presence entirely and go at it alone?

“I don’t know,” she says, thinking for a moment, “alright, yeah. It’ll give me a little bit of authority if I show up with you. That sounds bad, but it’s true. And anyway, the article didn’t mention you specifically, or anything.”

“Right, thank goodness the article didn’t mention me,” I say sarcastically as we begin down the hall.

Just being near her feels so damn good. I glance over at her and watch her as we make our way to the elevators.

I’ve always thought of her as someone who I didn’t quite know how to place. As my best friend’s sister, she was off-limits. It’s just something you don’t do - and on top of being Mark’s sister, a girl like Cassie Blake is just a girl you don’t mess with. A girl like that can get you into a lot of goddamn trouble.

But we’re adults now, and I have my shit together. If I’d had my shit together back in the day, what happened last night would have happened a long damn time ago. I’d have had her every damn night, tasting the sweetness of her lips, feeling her curves and throwing her against the wall every time she had that look in her eye.

But I just couldn’t do it. Not then. I’d wanted it. I sometimes think about what it would have been like to be with her back then. Really be with her.

“What do you think the article would have said if it had mentioned you?” she asks, getting a little bit closer to me, linking her arm through mine a little bit tighter.

“I think the article would have been very kind to me,” I say, shrugging my shoulders as I look over at her.

“Kind to you, and yet unflattering toward me?” she says, arching an eyebrow. “Okay, so what would it have said?”

“Hm, let’s see...beauty queen Cassie Blake spotted with a gorgeous mystery man. Cassie Blake is about to go for the ride of her life. Cassie Blake is the prettiest girl who ever came out of Stone Creek, New York.”

Cassie smirks at me as we get to the elevators. She slips her arm away from me and hits the call button.

“That’s very interesting,” she says, “so you think you’re gorgeous?”

“And you think you’re pretty?”

The elevator dings and I cock my head toward it.

“Let’s go, princess.”