It was late in the evening and Luke had a lot of things on his mind, mainly Cassie and Lyndsey. After the Cassie debacle, he and Lyndsey had a nice lunch. They talked about business for a few minutes with Lyndsey giving him a brief history of her uncle's entrepreneurial ventures. However, Luke could tell there was more to the story that Lyndsey was withholding. Overall, lunch had been refreshing. It felt good to not have to wonder whether or not someone was interested in him. Lyndsey was forward, and she made it blatantly obvious that she was open to having a less professional relationship with Luke-one that included nights out that were explicitly categorized as dates.

He appreciated Lyndsey's interest, but his thoughts always drifted back to Cassie. Though Luke had watched Cassie and Jade make a quick exit from the restaurant, he wondered if that was because of the large crowd of fans that had begun to amass around the singer or if it was because she saw him having lunch with another woman. He doubted it was the latter. Although, Lyndsey insisted that Cassie was jealous. He was inclined to trust her judgement because she was a woman. But it did not make sense. What Luke and Cassie had was strictly noncommittal. It was a no strings attached situation.

Luke sighed. He was getting a headache trying to work out his current predicament. He looked at the clock and saw that it was getting late. Gathering his things, Luke prepared to leave the office for the evening. As he walked outside and headed towards home, Luke made a split decision to go check on Cassie. After 30 minutes and one cab ride later, Luke found himself standing in the lobby of her building. He looked around indecisively before he pulled out his phone and called Cassie.

With the day she had, Cassie needed to relax, unwind and not think. While she sat in front of her piano, a glass of wine sat on a make-shift coaster of old piano books and sheet music. She concentrated on the piece of music in front of her. It was one she learned years ago, and a piece she still loved to play. However, she recently realized that though she had the notes correct, she was off on the dynamics. She was trying to retrain her muscles to play the song exactly as written. It felt a little bit like her life-she had all the individual components to be happy. But somewhere along the way she fucked it up and got the dynamics all wrong. Now life did not feel like it was what it was supposed to be and it seemed as if she were just trying to figure out how to get back to the basics. But learned behavior is strong, just like muscle memory, and it is hard to change.

As she took a pencil and erased some of the notes she had scribbled on the sheet music, her cell phone buzzed and jumped around on top of the piano making her jump.

"Hello," Cassie said after retrieving and answering her phone.

"Cassie, I'm in the lobby of your building. Are you home?" Luke asked.

"What are you doing here?" Cassie stood and began to pace. It was hard for her to remain still when she was on the phone.

"I uh...saw you at the restaurant earlier today."

"Oh."

"Yeah, and we hadn't really talked since Monday."

Cassie laughed nervously, "what would you have done if I weren't at home?"

"I didn't really think that far."

"I gathered. You can come one up." Cassie instructed.

"Okay." Luke said. He waved to the man at the front desk who nodded back before he headed to the elevator.

When he got to Cassie's floor, he saw her standing in her doorway holding a glass of wine. He slowly walked over to his friend.

"Hi again." Luke said when he was standing in front of her.

"Hey. Come on in." Cassie stepped aside and allowed Luke to enter.

"So, what brings you by here?" Cassie asked as she sat down and placed the glass on the coffee table.

Luke followed placed his briefcase on the floor by the door. "Nothing really." He walked over to the couch and sat down. "I saw you and Jade book it out of the restaurant earlier today. And I thought I'd come by."

Cassie raised an eyebrow at his explanation. "I see." She said. She took a deep breath debating on how to respond. It did not take long for her to make up her mind and continue the conversation. "We felt like the restaurant was too crowed, so we went to Alex's place instead. But, I uh...I saw you too. You had a lunch date."

"She's the niece of a client." Luke tried to explain.

"Luke it's fine." Cassie laughed nervously. She began to pull on a strand of hair. "You don't have to explain anything. We aren't exclusive. Hell, we aren't even dating. You can have lunch with whomever you choose. We left because of the people. Jade really didn't feel like dealing with them."

"I guess I've never been out with you guys when the reservations weren't already set." Luke said after thinking about the number of occasions he had gone to eat with Jade, Cassie, and their other friends.

"That's kind of what happens when your best friend is famous."

"So we are okay then?" Luke asked. He wanted to be certain.

Cassie nodded her head. "When have we ever not been?" She asked.

Luke smiled at Cassie's response. "You didn't answer the question."

"We're good Luke. We're fine."

Luke smirked, "That means you're still coming to the picnic with me on Monday?" He asked.

"Yes. I will be there to be your excuse to leave."

"Great. I'll come by in the morning to get you." Luke said standing.

"Is that the only reason you came over?" Cassie laughed as she stood.

"Yeah, for the most part."

"Luke, we could have had this conversation over the phone."

"Yeah well, I needed to see your face." Luke said seriously.

Cassie's smile slipped. She felt like he was staring into her soul, like he could see through the walls and glimpse all of the thoughts and feelings she kept hidden even from herself. "You've seen it. Is it what you expected?" Cassie tried to make a joke.

Luke resisted the urge to tell Cassie what he truly felt. He wanted her to know that her face, and everything about her was so much more than he expected, and that she was more than he could ever want. But he pushed all of those thoughts and feelings aside and settled for a simple response to her question. "Yes, exactly what I expected."

Cassie sighed. She could tell that there was more he wanted to say. She had spent enough time with the man to notice when he was holding back. However, Cassie was grateful that Luke was letting her off of the hook. "Good to know."

Luke picked up his briefcase and began walking to the door, but Cassie was not ready for him to go yet. "Leaving already?"

"I interrupted your evening."

"Luke, you could never interrupt my evening." Cassie tilted her head, "you're always welcome here," she said seriously. They both stood silently looking at each other and contemplating what Cassie truly meant by her statement. "Why don't you stay for dinner? I'm trying out this new crockpot jambalaya recipe. It's been cooking all day, and now that you're here, I don't really want to eat it alone."

Luke hesitated before making a decision. "I'll stay. I didn't really have any plans for dinner anyway." He threw his briefcase onto the couch before sitting back down.

"Great." Cassie grinned as she turned around and walked into the kitchen.

Luke watched her retreating figure. He found himself falling harder, and wanting more. It was time to start seriously consider how much more he could take. If he went any deeper into the rabbit hole, he was not sure he would be able to find his way out.