you loved me so good I could cry

One

Calum had finally found a boyfriend. Calum wasn't bothered about being single for a while, but his best friends are good best friends and have constantly been hanging shit on him for it. Point is, Calum has been seeing this guy for two months and they (Calum's bandmates and closest friends on planet earth) are yet to meet him. Calum, the sneak, didn't say anything at all for a month. Then even after they officially became boyfriends, he was still being vague. The thing is: Luke, Ashton and Michael were like brothers in every sense of the word. Therefore, they were going to be overwhelming and a bit intrusive the first time they met the guy. It's really like meeting the family.

They were having a quadrupole date, so, a dinner party, and they originally suggested Michael's because he had the biggest and nicest house but Michael had to craft some bullshit excuse as to why not. The actual reason why not was because Crystal straight up refused to have someone she'd never met in her house for an evening, for security and privacy reasons. Calum was being elusive as fuck, and the head of a mafia was not going to have someone who she only knew the first name of in her house. It was at Luke and Sierra's instead.

"I'm really nervous," Crystal says as Michael is driving the two of them to Luke's house.
"It'll be fine, promise," Michael tries to reassure her.
"We don't know that. He could be FBI. All we know is that his name is Ethan and he's from San Francisco," Crystal replies.
"He could also just as easily be a florist. You've known Calum, Luke and Ashton for years and none of them have suspected a thing. I really don't think you need worry about Calum's new boyfriend."

"Hello! Welcome!" Sierra cheers, throwing the door open for Michael and Crystal as they reach the front door.
"Hey," Crystal grins, burying her anxiety in a much deeper place. Besides, she had weapons on her. She had a clutch made of a solid enough metal she could easily concuss someone with it and a fake lipstick with a blade in it. She can't imagine anything worse than a fight in her fiancé's bandmates house but she was confident enough from years of training that things would go alright.
"Your thoughts are loud, stop stressing and thinking of work, relax," Michael mumbles to her, noticing how all of Crystal's words and emotions were empty.
"I'll try," she murmurs back as they walk through the house to the balcony where everyone was sitting around the, currently off, gas fire.

"Hi all," Michael gives a casual smile to the group. They were the last ones to arrive. There were various gestures and words of greetings but the attention was obviously on Ethan. He looked about the same age as Calum, maybe a fraction older, and was sitting close to his boyfriend's side. He looked fit and in shape, had a decent amount of muscles but wouldn't pass as a bodybuilder. He was tall with a shaved head and small dimples in both cheeks.
"Michael, Crystal, this is Ethan. Ethan, this is Michael and Crystal," Calum introduces, gesturing loosely between them.
"Nice to meet you," Crystal smiles. Michael just nods a little and piggybacks off his fiancé's introduction.
"Same to you," Ethan says quietly, but Crystal hates the look he's giving her. It's unsettling.

There's some light conversation before dinner and in that time, a short twenty minutes, Crystal decides that she does not like or trust Ethan whatsoever. He's exceptionally vague about himself. He mostly asks questions and anything he does answer he gives an answer about his childhood that gives them precisely no information about who he actually is.
"I don't trust him," Crystal murmurs to her fiancé quietly as they head to the dining table.
"Please don't be paranoid, he seems nice," Michael begs quietly.
"My job is deducing liars for a living. He's hiding something," she insists.
"That's a euphemism if I've ever heard one," Michael breathes out.

"So Ethan," Ashton starts eagerly, "what is it you do for a living? You seem reluctant to share, can't be crazier than the nonsense we call a job."
"Oh, I," Ethan is caught a little off guard but Calum sends him a reassuring look, "I'm just hesitant to share because of security reasons." Crystal sends Michael a knowing look but the younger of the two ignores it. "I'm a cop, we're not always very popular so I don't like to advertise it."
"Oh that's cool," Ashton grins, "I'm sure you've got some crazy stories. How long have you been doing that?"