Casey sat in the middle of her old, soft couch. She had the TV on in front of her and a bowl of pasta in her lap. On the coffee table lay her phone, of which she stared at the screen intently.
It was open on the text message she'd received from Seb on the way home. She knew he already had her number from the time he'd called her after the release of the photos. But now, far more significantly, she was in possession of his private number.
This meant that he trusted her enough to let her have it. It felt like she was in some sort of very exclusive club. She also couldn't help but smirk at the fact that they'd managed to somehow exchange numbers without actually exchanging numbers.
The next question was: should she reply? If she was going to, she had to do it reasonably quickly. She couldn't wait for hours and then reply later. That would make it painfully obvious that she had been thinking about it all night. She leaned back and looked at the ceiling.
"Goddddddd," she groaned in exasperation. Nope, she wasn't going to do it. She didn't have anything substantial to say anyway. Hey eyes flicked back to her phone again as she immediately ignored her own decision and began trying to think of some witty response.
She typed something out quickly and hit send before she could change her mind. It would have to do.
---
Seb stared vacantly at the television in front of him. He wasn't really watching it, but there was nothing else to do. Still, it was better than being out at some event with people in his face. His phone buzzed and he reached over for it curiously.
"You'd make a really shit stalker"
He smiled to himself and hit reply.
"Are you sure? How was your bowl of pasta?"
He hit send and waited for the little 'R' to appear next to the message to notify him that she'd read the message.
Back at Casey's apartment, her eyes bulged and she looked around irrationally. How the hell did he know what she had for dinner?
"Okay. I was wrong. Where's the camera?"
Seb grinned and typed his reply.
"Who needs cameras when you have a functioning memory?"
Casey stared at the latest message for a moment before it clicked. She laughed to herself, remembering now that they had discussed their favourite home cooked meals back at the club in China, and how that was what she was going to make on her first night back home. He'd somehow remembered such an insignificant detail.
"Huh. So you can actually remember what you're told"
"Selectively..."
She replied with a laughing emoji.
"So are you enjoying your evening at home?"
"YES! By the way, I found your shirt in my bags. I forgot to give it back... sorry."
"I forgive you. I've only got another 9,999 of them."
Casey laughed, she thought better than to mention she was wearing it at that moment. Though now she wasn't really sure what else to say. She didn't want to seem too intrusive by asking what he was up to. She sighed, setting down her phone, and tried to distract herself from thinking about him.
---
The next morning, she awoke feeling totally refreshed and energetic. It was awesome to sleep in complete peace in her own bed every now and then.
She spent the day running a few errands in town before cleaning up her apartment and thoroughly washing all of her uniforms. She finally finished by around five o' clock and wandered around her apartment looking for something else to do.
As she passed by the kitchen counter she picked up her phone and was surprised to see a new message. She'd missed the notification. It was Seb.
"Are you busy tonight?"
She felt her breath hitch in her throat and stared at her screen blankly for a moment before typing back.
"Couldn't be any less busy."
"Do you want to do something?"
She didn't want to sound too eager. She also still didn't entirely believe Evan's theory that Seb was interested in anything more than friendship.
"Sure?"
Without waiting to hear what he had in mind, she bolted to her room and got ready to take a shower. Before she jumped in, she quickly checked for his reply.
"I'll pick you up in an hour. What's the address?"
She had to think for a second to remember her own address. Shaking her head to herself, she finally typed it out before throwing the phone down and launching herself into the bathroom.
---
Seb had no idea what he was doing as he cruised down the quiet highway towards Casey's apartment. He had no plan at all, he just couldn't bare to waste another rare night off when he could be spending it in the way he really wanted to.
His GPS instructed him to turn off into a side-street and he did so, running a hand through his hair. After a few more turns, the robotic voice told him he'd arrived. He pulled up outside a small set of apartments and turned off the ignition. Well, he couldn't change his mind now about whether or not he should be doing this.
He opened the door and jumped out, striding across the lane and jogging up the stairs to the entrance. He pulled out his phone and sent Casey a quick message to let her know he was there before leaning against one of the pillars at the top of the steps.
A minute or so later the front door swung open and she stepped outside, spotting him instantly and beaming at him.
His insides felt like they were rearranging themselves. She looked so happy to see him.
"Hello again," she said brightly, turning to pull the door shut behind her.
"Hey!" he grinned, pushing himself off the pillar.
"So what's the plan?" she asked as they fell into step and headed down towards his car.
He pulled his keys from his pocket and looked at her, "Actually, I have no plan at all."
She watched a smile creep over his face as he unlocked the car and they both climbed in.
"Alright then Mr. Mystery," she laughed, shooting him a suspicious look.
"I'm serious, I've got nothing, all ideas welcome," he admitted, starting the ignition and pulling out into the street. He pulled the car around and turned back towards the way he came in.
She watched the trees whip past the car as she wondered where he was driving to, "Well, what do you normally like to do on a Saturday night?" she asked, leaning her head back in her chair and watching him drive, "Hit all the hottest clubs, no doubt?"
He laughed, "As much as I obviously love doing that, how about we just order food in and watch shit TV or something."
Casey smirked and nodded, "I can settle for that."
She breathed a silent sigh of relief as she turned to look back out her window. She felt more in her comfort zone now. This was something she did all the time with Evan and it wasn't weird. It didn't have to be weird with Seb either.
---
"Okay, so... what in God's name are you even allowed to eat?" Casey asked as she sunk into the plush leather couch in Seb's sprawling apartment. She had her phone in her hand and was scrolling through a food delivery app.
Seb was standing at the kitchen counter, pouring 2 drinks. He raised an eyebrow and tried to suppress a smile.
"I can eat anything, thank you very much," he retorted, carrying the glasses over to the coffee table.
"I think Heikki would strongly disagree with that statement," she replied confidently.
"I thought everybody knew that Heikki is really just a glorified umbrella-holder?" he said, pushing her glass towards her and sitting on her left. He leaned toward her and placed his hand around hers to adjust the direction of the phone so that he could see it too. He held it there as she scrolled down through the options slowly.
She was flustered for a second as she mentally processed his sudden proximity, but continued scrolling through the options of nearby restaurants that would deliver to his location. Neither she nor Seb showed any promise of being quick decision-makers.
"Okay, okay. This is the new plan," she announced after several more minutes of fruitless browsing, "You have to pick..." she thought for a moment, "...the food, and I will pick what to watch."
He nodded in agreement as she handed him the phone entirely before reaching forward to grab the remote control for the TV, quickly locating a streaming app.
Meanwhile, he proceeded to choose an Italian restaurant and selected a pasta for himself before handing the phone over to Casey to choose her meal. She reviewed the pending order, "That doesn't look like a lean meal to me, Seb," she teased.
"When not in Rome," he grinned back at her mischievously before leaning back into the couch and reading a movie synopsis she had up on the screen.
She quickly chose a pizza and finalised the order before throwing the phone back to him.
"Okay..." she sighed, focusing again on the TV screen.
"How about this?" she asked, looking back over her shoulder at him. She had selected the movie "Divergent".
"I think the agreement was that you had to choose, so that we can blame you if it's bad," he pointed out.
Casey narrowed her eyes at him, "You better hope this is the best pizza of my life too then."
Seb laughed and placed his hands around the back of his head, relaxing into the couch. He watched her hit the "rent" button and wait for the download to finish enough to start the movie.
Casey then realised she had to make an almost instant decision of how to sit. Fuck it. She'd done this a million times with Ev, she could do the same with Seb. She was pretty sure by now that he wouldn't put up much protest. She pulled her legs up onto the couch and leaned back, falling nicely into place against his side.
She fell further into him as he leaned over to a side-table and grabbed another remote with the tips of his fingers. He pressed something and the lights in the apartment dimmed just like they would at a theatre. She was still struggling to fully comprehend exactly what she was doing, and whom she was doing it with. As the movie began getting underway though, she tried to shut out her internal monologue and absorb the story instead.
"Did you bring my shirt back?" Seb mumbled a few minutes in, turning his head enough that his cheek was brushing against her forehead.
She made a hissing noise, "Oooh... yeah, no. You're probably never going to see that again."
He laughed lightly and turned back to the screen, "I see."
They sat like that for a good twenty more minutes, just watching the movie peacefully, before the apartment bell rung to announce the arrival of their food. Seb groaned and squeezed her knee momentarily before pulling himself up and jogging to the intercom.
"Yeah," he said before pausing, "It's level 5."
He hung up the intercom and wandered over to the door. Casey leaned forward to pause the movie and then stood up too. She stretched briefly and headed into the kitchen to grab plates and cutlery. After she grabbed what she needed, she bumped the draw closed with her hip and walked back out into the lounge room as Seb was setting the food down on the coffee table.
"The driver didn't recognise me," he breathed excitedly.
She laughed and began unpacking and distributing their meals on to plates. He watched on eagerly and took the plate she handed to him. She then sat back on the couch with her legs crossed and her plate in her lap and reached forward to resume the movie. They quickly finished their food and took another quick break to clear away the plates.
Afterwards, Seb dimmed the lights again as Casey returned from the kitchen. He sat back down and waited for her to rejoin him before hitting the play button. She took her spot back next to him and pulled her legs up again, her knees resting against his leg.
Feeling a little more bold, Seb reached over took one of her hands in his and rested it on his lap. He tried not to show any reaction as she laced their fingers together and propped her chin on his shoulder, "What do you think of the movie so far?" she murmured in his ear.
Her lips were so close to his neck that he could feel her breathing gently.
"It's not awful," he said, a grin spreading across his face as he turned towards her slightly.
She laughed quietly and leaned forward, kissing his cheek. She lingered against his skin for a moment, not really caring anymore if she should be doing what she was doing.
His breathing hitched and he bowed his head a little. He was furiously considering the urge to turn just a few inches further and kiss her, but he hesitated too long and before he could figure out what he was doing, she'd laid her head back down on his shoulder.
He looked back at the movie, having totally lost track of what was going on, and breathed out slowly.