Chapter 380

“I told her she shouldn’t,” Cattie said with a shrug, looking at me as she came down the stairs. “But she kind of insisted.”

My girlfriend was dressed down super casually, a pair of my athletic shorts slung a little low on her hips and a simple T-shirt, with her black hair back in a braid. She must have changed after they got back from their lunch with Dayana earlier, and since she was coming with us to the therapy appointments solely as emotional support she didn’t exactly need to dress to impress.

Cassidy, currently in my arms and squeezing me tightly, had probably changed as well. But she’d gone in the other direction.

I’d walked in the front door ready for tension and, likely, some more tears. I knew Cassidy was going to still be feeling her guilt no matter what I’d said earlier, and that helped and didn’t help at the same time with how I was feeling. What I hadn’t been prepared for was my fiancee meeting me at the front door like a 1950s housewife, wearing a super cute summer dress and in full, fresh makeup. She’d styled her hair to perfection, was wearing her pair of red heels to match the dress, and had a cold beer freshly poured and ready for me.

She’d looked stunning and perfect in the most Televisiony way. And she’d almost immediately broken into tears that sent her thick mascara trailing down her face, her bright red lips trembling as she tried to hold her smile. And then the beer had ended up forgotten on the little side table where we usually dropped our keys, and she’d been in my arms and crying softly as she murmured more apologies and I’d held her tight.

“I’ll get your shirt dry cleaned, I’m sorry I’m ruining it, “ she cried now.

“Hey, Catherine,” I said, taking one arm from around Cass and opening our embrace up to include her.

“Hey, Tiger,” Cattie mumbled, joining and hugging us both as she leaned her head onto my shoulder. “Sorry we fucked up today.”

“Shhh,” I hushed them both. “It was ... well, it’s not OK, but it’s not as bad as this.”

“I feel like I fuck everything up,” Cass said, her face still pressed to my chest. “I couldn’t even get this right.”

“What... is this?” I asked.

Cass grunted, and Cattie rolled her lips in as she smiled a little, glancing down at Cass. “I honestly don’t know. She wanted to dress up for you, that’s all.”

“Because if I can’t be smart like you, I could at least be hot for you,” Cass groaned.

“Baby, you’re always hot for me,” I sighed. “In more ways than one.”

That got a soft snort out of Cattie, who immediately covered her mouth with one hand.

“And today wasn’t about smarts, it was about bad communication. Which is kind of our problem, so ... are we really surprised?”

“ ... no,” Cass mumbled. Then she pulled back and Cattie and I had to repress breaking out into laughs because Cass’s face was a mess, and she’d left an imprint on the front of my shirt that looked an awful lot like a clown had flown face first into a window. She took one look at our expressions, sniffed hard, and then rolled her eyes. “OK, I thought I wouldn’t start crying for at least a few minutes.”

“You wanted to give him a messy blowjob at the door, didn’t you,” Cattie guessed.

Cass actually blushed as she bit her lower lip and looked up at me. “Maybe. I know you like that.”

“I do, but-” I half-chuckled and half-sighed. “Not today, Cassidy. Plus we don’t have that much time before we need to go.”

“I know, I figured it would be fast because Zenya and Becca told us you’d gotten teased a bunch today,” Cass said. “And fucking my face might be some catharsis or something.”

“Can we just blanket agree that I don’t really want to take out any frustration or anger on you in a physical way in general, let alone sexually?” I asked. “We can have rough sex because it’s fun, not because we need to work shit out with each other.”