From Crush to Husband (complete)

5 - Going Public

5 – Going Public

After our family lunch on Sunday, Alex dropped me of at mine. He told me be was going to meet the guys to tell them we are together, we had agreed to not mention the contract, he seems to think it doesn’t matter.  I’m still so shocked that he is going along with this. I mean I know what is at stake, but he is taking it totally seriously. He almost seems happy that this happening.

I head up to my apartment and I’m greeted with Lana and Neve sitting in my lounge. Beth hovering around the kitchen. I’m a little shocked to see them, but I’ve got enough on my plate with my upcoming relationship. I head straight to the kitchen to get a coffee, the wine going to my head a little bit. I need to have a clear head for this conversation.

Beth joins me in the lounge with Lana and Neve, I just sit down drink my coffee and look at them. They look nervous, Beth strikes up conversation asking how my lunch was with Alex. I told her it was nice as Lana gasps, clearly shocked I went out with Alex.

“Cassie, we are really sorry about Friday. We weren’t thinking, after Ryan dropped me off, he made me realise what a s**t friend I’ve been.” She goes on and on apologising. Neve is quiet but soon starts saying the same as Lana. I forgave them but I have not forgotten it. They said they would make it up to me, I started thinking about Alex and what he said. He’s telling the guys that we are together, how do I drop this bombshell?

“Me and Alex are dating" I blurted out as I stood and walked to the kitchen. The girls shrieked with excitement.

“Totally knew you like him and he is so smitten with you. Ryan said he freaked on Friday night when he called him. He was so worried about you.” Lana says as they follow me through to the kitchen.

 I started thinking, I’ve been doing a lot of that recently, and my headache just gets worse. Why would he have freaked out that much? Why would he have been worried? All before the contract was known about.

“He’s fancied you for ages Cassie. Ryan told me. He was just to shy and nervous about asking you out.” Lana tells me Neve agreeing saying Josh has said the same thing.

“Since when?” I asked to both of them

“Years by the way Ryan sounded. I’m not sure to be honest but when we met up with the guys the times you weren’t there, he always asked about you. Asked if you were seeing anyone and that time you were dating the bloke you knew, the supplier guy, he was so jealous.” Lana says as we head back to get comfy on the sofa.

We had decided to call for a takeaway for an early dinner as we couldn’t be bothered cooking and having a movie afternoon. The four of us getting along better, almost like nothing had happened during this weekend. The girls had just left, it wasn’t that late but Lana was meeting Ryan for drinks and Neve had a shift at the hospital early morning. I was tidying up the lounge and Beth was getting ready to go to see Frankie, so I was alone when the door went. I looked through the peep hole to Alex standing on the other side of the door.

“Hey” I say as I opened the door letting him in.

“Hey, have the girls been to see you?" he asks as he takes off his jacket and sits on my sofa. I sit beside him and tell them about my day after he dropped me off. He seems happy that we got it sorted out. He told me about what the guys thought about our “relationship", the guys were happy for us, he seems pretty laid back about it all.

“The girls told me something tonight, but I’m not believing them" I said as I got myself ready to have this conversation.

“What would that be?” he asks looking at me confused.

I go on to tell him what they told me, about him always asking where I was, if I was single and him being jealous when I dated Dan, the supplier guy. We didn’t date for long, he was a bit off a jackass.  “So, is any of that true?” I ask as he stayed silent, looking straight ahead as if my blank tv screen was the most interesting thing.

“Mm... I... yeah. It’s all true.” He says as he scratches the back of his head. “I have fancied you since we were young. When we danced at my cousins wedding, I realised then how pretty you were, and you grew up to be, well, hot as f**k. I always got jealous when I seen you at the club our out with the girls and random guys would be chatting to you.” He admits it. He’s fancied me for years and he thinks I’m hot!

“Why did you never say anything?” I whisper, he must have been too embarrassed to act on it.  I’m starting to realise my feelings for him have never gone away, I was pretending I hated him when I was liking him, and I was jealous of all the girls he was with wishing I was one of them.

“Scared I suppose. Scared of you rejecting me. Lana used to say you had a crush on me years ago, but I never believed her.” He tells me

“It’s true I did have a crush on you. For a very long time. I kind of think I still do" I say in a whisper.

“Yeah. I would never have guessed. You always seem to come across like you hated me" he says as he chuckles.

“Pretending to hate you" I shrug and laugh nervously. I turn to look at him as he turns to look at me. He smiles, what a god he is. That smile just made my panties wet. He’s so sexy it has to be a crime.

“I want to kiss you so bad" he says as he moves closer to me. He lays his hand on my cheek, brushing it gently with his thumb. I lean into his touch, it feels nice. My heart is racing, I close my eyes as Alex moves his lips gently over mine, I move my lips in sync with his, he pulls me closer to his chest still with a hand on my cheek, the other hand goes around my waist as he picks me up to straddle him. He deepens the kiss pushing his tongue in, brushing it against mine. A moan soon escaping from me, my heart is racing, I gently push away from him to catch my breath, my cheeks are flushed as I hide my face in his chest, he wraps his arms around me tight as I feel his boner through his trousers. I gasp as I push away from him and sit back in my original seat on the couch.

“Well, that was unexpected” he says as he adjusts himself in his pants. I just chuckle and hide my face in my hands, embarrassed that I let it go that far. I’m not completely naive, I may be a 22 year old virgin but I have dated guys before, just haven’t done full on s*x you know. I always wanted to it to be special but none of the other guys were special enough.

We sit in silence for a little bit, Alex being the first one go break it.  “Come here" he says as he opens his arm for me to lean into to. He hugs me into his side and kissing my hair. “this is nice" he says as he plays with my hair, I hum in response. “you have gone quiet babe. You ok?” he asks as I sit up to look at him. He just called me babe. I blush like crazy.

“Just...mmm.. I don’t know. I’m confused. Scared. It’s all f*****g crazy" I say as I throw my hands in the air.

“Yeah its crazy, but what are you confused and scare about?” he asks as he reaches for my hand.

“Scared I’m going to be left heartbroken, confused at the way you are making me feel.” I tell him truthfully.

“I get that. And totally understand why this is all scary. I’m scared too but we need to work on this together. Even if there was no contract I would have eventually realised my feelings for you. In a way I’m thankful to our grandfathers for pushing us together.” He says as he pulls me into his side again, kissing my forehead. “anything else on your mind?” he asks as wraps his arms around me.

“Yeah... kind of... worried.” I say as I snuggle into his side. Which is so comfy, I can feel all his muscles. And by god are they amazing to touch.

“Worried? What about?” He days as he strokes my arm.

“s*x" I mumble into his chest

“I didn’t hear you right.” he says as he pushes me up from his chest and makes me look into his eyes.  I blush and repeat what I said, he chuckles and kisses my lips and says

“I’m not going to push you for that. I will wait, even if I must wait until our wedding night. We will get there ok?” he says as he caresses my face. I nod, not sure if I would get my words out. “I know you have not done it before so I will wait babe, I will be your first and last.” He says as he pulls me in to his arms.

“How can you when that’s all you do? You have a reputation you know. Girls literally throw themselves at you all the time and you love it, even on Friday you were snogging two different girls." I say as I try to keep it together. I can’t show him how weak I am.

“Cassie, I want this to work, I promise I will stay faithful and wait for you. You and the business are far more important than me getting laid. I have a hand that will be enough until you are ready" he says seriously but chuckles at the end.

As it’s getting late, Alex heads home and says he’ll see me on the office in the morning, leaving me and brain to work overtime on this whole situation.

The working week went by quickly, a few meetings with clients and the design team. Alex has been amazing though, he’s so calm about this whole situation. We’ve been to lunch together at the works canteen, he’s stopping by my office more and more with coffee and cakes. He’s stealing kisses a lot as well, a few times I’ve walked past him he’s slapped my ass playfully.

Its Friday morning and we’ve just had our normal weekly catch up with the heads of all departments in the conference room. My dad called me to his office, as I was heading there Alex comes up behind me and wraps his arm around my waist.

“Hey babe" he says as we walk together.

“Hi" I say to him, all shy. As people are walking by whispering to each other. I’ve been getting funny looks from most of the female staff all week and its beginning to piss me off. I think Alex has noticed as well, maybe that’s why he’s being openly affectionate and showing PDA.

“Do you know what this meeting is about?” I ask him just as we round the corner to my dad’s office.

“No clue. Will soon find out. After you hot stuff" he says as he opens the door for me. I walk through shaking my head at his behaviour.

“Dad, Doug.“ I greet our fathers as they are sitting at the table in my dads office.

“Come, sit down. We need to discuss this" he ushers us in and point to the file on the table.

“And this is" I say as I take a seat and Alex sits beside me, putting arm on the back of my chair and playing with the ends of my hair.

“It’s about the small details of the contract.” Doug says as he opens it up and takes out certain papers.

“You need to either agree to move into Alex’s house as its big enough or buy a place together which ever suits best. Also, this is about the shares you will receive once you’re married. And this is suggestions that your grandfathers have for venues for the ceremony and locations for your honeymoon.” He says as he shows us different clauses within the contract.

Alex and I had already discussed moving in together a month before our wedding, but Alex has been pushing for it to be sooner, he says it would make sense and we could spend more time together. I wasn’t against the idea of doing it sooner, I’m still coming to terms with us dating officially and the gossip flying around the office would sky rocket if we moved in together straight away.

We told our fathers what we had discussed previously and I think they are just as shocked at how well we are taking this agreement, we told them that the business was important to us just as it is to them. We also shared with them, that we have had both secretly fancied each the but hadn’t told anyone. They weren’t as surprised to hear that, we must have been obvious to people looking at us.

We left dads office agreeing to sign the full contract next week, we had checked our schedules to see when we were all free to attend that meeting. Alex escorted me back to my office, which in itself would have been a pleasant gesture if it wasn’t for the Admin team bitches making snide remarks as we walked past them. Alex heard them, and stopped abruptly, holding me by my waist.

“Do you ladies not have anything better to do than gossip about your bosses relationships. I suggest you all get back to work before I send you to a disciplinary meeting” he says to all of the women standing in ear shot. Annie, one of Alex’s’ regular sluts, walked past me and whispered in my ear.

“You better keep an eye on him. He will not stay faithful to you, you are nothing but a geek, below average, daddies girl who will not be able to satisfy him” I gasp as she says it. Alex clearly seen what Annie was doing and pulled me by the hand, past her and to my office, he closes the door behind him and wraps his arms around my waist pulling me close.

“Do not listen to any of them. They are all just jealous because we are together.” he says as he kisses my hair.

“But what they are saying is true.” I whisper back to him

“What are they saying? I wasn’t actually listening. I just know what they are all like, listen to any gossip they want and in general being bitches.” He said

“It doesn’t matter. I will try to ignore them.” I tell him pushing out of his arms and going to sit at my desk.  He comes up and rests bum on my desk beside me.

“Cassie. Come on, we agreed no secrets and to talk about this. We need to be open with each other” he says as he pulls me up so I’m standing between his legs.

I huff and sigh, debating telling him what Annie said. He is right we agreed to be open with one another, no secrets so we can progress with the relationship. For a guy who slept around and hadn’t had a serious relationship before, he sure knew what he was doing and talking about. I wonder if he has been reading woman’s magazines to get tips or been speaking to his mum.

“Annie, she said some things to me. And I know that the others all think the same. It’s making me doubt myself.” I say looking up to him

“Like what? What did they say?” he is getting angry now. So, I bit the bullet and told him word for word what Annie whispered in my ear. He was so angry, he slammed his hand down on my desk, making me jump.  He stormed out my office slamming my door behind him. I wasn’t sure if I should follow him to calm him down or leave him be, let him cool off.  I decided to go after him and I didn’t need to look very far.

I went around the corner from my office to see him and Annie in the corridor shouting and screaming at each other. Annie was very animated with whatever she was saying arms flying around her head. Alex was standing with his arms folded across his chest, he was a few steps away from her. It looked like, at one point, that Annie was going to slap Alex until Jenny came up behind me. She patted my shoulder and moved me to the side, I leaned up against the wall hugging myself. No tears yet, surprisingly, they are there but not falling yet.

Jenny walked over to them, I couldn’t really tell what they were saying, but Alex looked back and seen me looking upset. I heard him yell very loudly,

“Get used to the idea, I’m with Cassie, no one will come between us”