chapter five

February 29, 2012 (off camera)

Summer was much more antsy than usual as she paced around her apartment, moving back and forth from the window to look out the peephole on her door. It was quite obvious that she was expecting company and it was definitely someone that had put a gigantic smile on her face that hadn't slipped one bit in the last couple weeks since they met.

What had begun with some innocent flirtation over Twitter, a place that was rapidly becoming more like a dating site than anything else, had ended up turning into a few days of suspended bliss before she'd had to travel to Charlotte. Since then she'd been eagerly anticipating their next rendezvous, hoping that things were going to get more serious than just casual sex, since she was really starting to develop more than a little crush on him. Some of that might have been because they'd spent Valentine's Day together, even though she'd expected to be completely alone that day due to the fact that she'd broken up with Adam a couple weeks before.

Dressed in a pair of skinny leg jeans with ripped out knees and her favorite Devil's Rejects baby doll tee, she knew she looked good. Not too dressy, not too casual. Her hair was tamed, braided and resting over her shoulder as she once again paced towards the door.

"Hurry up..." she whispered, feeling like she was going to explode. Almost as if on command, the buzzer at the door rang and there he stood on the other side of the peephole, or at least she thought it was him. It was hard to tell as whoever it was had a bouquet of flowers in front of their face. Whoever it was dressed like him, a pair of jeans and an untucked loose fitting button down black shirt.

"She better be in there. I'm not carrying these tulips around all over New York City," the voice on the other side said. A bit of brown hair was visible over the top of the flowers as well.

She squealed in delight at the muffled sound of his voice and jerked the door open. "KYLE!" Her face broke out in a huge grin as she resisted the urge to leap on him and bowl him over. Instead she bounced from one foot to the other, looking at the flowers in his hands, "ohmygodyougotmeflowers?" The words came out in a breathless rush as she stood there, frozen and staring at him, simply drinking in the sight of him. He was so cute, she just couldn't get enough of him.

"Well I didn't get them for me." He gave her a wink, handing them off to her before flashing a very familiar smile to her. Kyle Kilmeade, the person who ran the SVW News Twitter account along with updating their website for them, stood a hair under six feet tall with chocolate brown hair and pale complexion. After handing her the flowers, he decided to beat her to the punch and scooped her up in a hug that lifted her off the ground. "I take it you missed me?"

Her arms went around his neck and she kissed him on the cheek. "Did I ever! You're even more addictive than chocolate!"

"I'll take your word for it." He placed her back on the floor, and headed into the apartment he had spent several days in just one week prior. "I would have been here earlier, but I made a promise to go see a couple people and I don't like not keeping my word. I saw what you had to say on Velocity." A grin swept over his face. "You didn't want to tell the world that we spent most of a week in your bed testing out the springs, huh?"

"I didn't think it was any of their business," she said primly, following him inside and closing the door behind them. "I didn't..." her smile faltered a little as she looked at the flowers and then back at him, "I didn't want to start any rumors that might hurt your reputation or mine."

"It's alright, Kasey. I'm not mad about it or anything, I promise." He took the flowers back from her and placed them in a propped position in one of the living room chairs. "I'm not worried about my reputation anyway. As you might have noticed, people either really like me or they really don't. I prefer to spend my time and energy with the ones that like me. You feel me?"

"I do, really. I just..." she shrugged, "whatever, it doesn't matter now. You're here and I've got you all to myself until I have to go to Philadelphia!" She looked around the room and then back at him with a sly smirk on her face. "What do you wanna do?"

"Well...." He couldn't help but chuckle as he took her hand, and pulled her with him towards the sofa and plopped down. Then pulling her on top of him, he slid his arms around her body and pressed a rather warm kiss to her lips, lingering for a few seconds even after it ended. "That was for starters. Been thinking about doing that for a while now." Another kiss would follow that one, as his arms tightened around her, holding her on his lap.

Giggling, she kissed the end of his nose and then rested her forehead against his. "I really did miss you... and that, too. I'm totally up for a repeat of the last time you visited, if that's what you wanna do."

"Oh, that's definitely on the agenda. But I did want to talk with you about something. I mentioned a surprise, and that was kinda it." He stole yet another kiss before brushing the hair away from her neck to dot kisses there. "I wanted to talk with you..." Another kiss along her jaw. "About you and me."

She sighed in contentment, totally melting in his arms, "about you and me?" She echoed, sounding both puzzled and hopeful at the same time.

"Yeah..." He whispered before even pressing a kiss to her earlobe just to get a grin out of her before looking back into her eyes. "Well I've been doing all this thinking lately. And like I told you, I had been spending some time with a couple of other girls I promised I would see before I came to see you last. And while they were fun and I certainly enjoyed myself, I...still kept thinking back to you from time to time." He clasped his hands behind her, engaging her in another kiss, this one a bit more lurid as his tongue tasted hers for a moment. "You ever have that happen to you?"

She nodded, "pretty much nonstop since you had to leave, except when I'm training or sleeping... well," she frowned for a second, "actually, maybe that's not true. I think I did dream about you but that was more like a really, really awesome flashback." She grinned, reaching up with one hand and running it through his hair, "so, you'd been doing all this thinking and then what?"

"Then there was some more thinking. I got to tell you, I haven't had an actual girlfriend in a while. Been kinda bouncing around and seeing what there was out there." He gave her thigh a pat as he held her. "And of the girls I've been spending time with, there's definitely just one who I kinda feel the closest to. And started thinking about whether or not I was cut out for relationships again. Like I said, it's been a while." He reminded before returning to kiss her lips again.

"Okay," she said slowly, "if you wanna take things slow... that's okay by me. I mean, I've only been with two guys EVER and one was a total psychopath. And the other one," she sighed, "well Adam was really sweet and everything but he was just... um, it wasn't a good match." Desperate to assure him that she wouldn't be mad if he wanted to keep things casual, she took a breath and then kept talking, "I really like you, Kyle. You're smart and funny and super cute and I'm totally willing to wait if you're not ready for something serious or whatever."

He just nodded as he listened, shaking his head. "I just don't want you thinking I'm some kind of player or something. It's why I told you about the other two, because I didn't want to hide things or make you wonder what I was up to. I wasn't trying to make either of you jealous or anything, just being honest." He looked back into her eyes, flashing a little smirk. "I like spending time with you. I look forward to seeing you. I even made you the wallpaper on my phone." He fished out his smartphone, and showed her the background. It was a picture taken of her curled up in bed with him from his last visit. "You recognize her, right?"

She blushed. Nodding, "yeah, I do. You really made me your background?"

"Well there you are. I know that's got to be you, because that's me lying under you. Besides it's a nice image to look at every time I need to use my phone." He gave her a wink, as he opened up the photos and let her look through the gallery of pictures he had taken of them during his last visit. Some decent, some not. "You got your own album in here."

"Oh my God... tell me you didn't show those to anyone," she was almost crimson now, totally flustered as some of the photos were quite racy. "So, uhm, what are you trying to tell me, Kyle?"

"No one sees the things on my phone but me, promise." He held up two fingers as though he were giving a Boy Scout oath. "As for what I am trying to say, it's like this. I'm not positive I am ready to be in a relationship, because it's been a while since I've been in one. But when I feel like I am ready to be in one, the girl in those pictures you just saw, while also being sexy and incredibly gorgeous, she is the one I'm going to want."

Her eyes widened, that sunny smile returning to her lips, "you know, that's probably the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. Don't worry," she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, giving him a few soft little pecks before she reached his lips, whispering against them, "I can wait until you're ready." She felt a bit disappointed, but at the same time, as least he was being honest with her. That was a lot more than most of the guys she knew would have done.

"I don't know how long I'm going to take, but I don't think it will be a long wait. Hell, it could happen in 24 hours. I'm just waiting for this little voice in my head to say it's time, if that makes sense. I know we've both had bad experiences in dating, you've told me about yours. Right now though, I just want to spend time with you. I didn't come all the way from Chicago JUST to bring you flowers." He leaned into her, burying kisses against her neck before he whispered into her ear. "Right now, I just want you..."

"Mmmmmm," she practically purred at the sound of those words, overcome with joy, "want you too," she whispered back, her fingers going towards the buttons on his shirt, "pretty much right now would be awesome."

"Meet me in your bedroom in like two minutes? I need to visit the facilities real quick." He grinned, feeling a bit silly before pressing another kiss against her lips, tasting her again.

Giggling, she got up off him and cast one lingering look over her shoulder before she made her way into her bedroom. The little break would give her enough time to ditch the stuffed animal she slept with before they got down to the fun stuff. Picking up the yellow Care Bear, she gave it a hug, whispering to it, "he really does like me," before she tossed it inside her closet and shut the door. Settling herself down on her bed, she waited for him to join her.

Meanwhile, Kyle closed the door to the bathroom and fished out the phone he had just shown. Sorting through messages, he opened a new one before typing in a message. Looking back at the door, he looked torn. Pulling his shirt off over his head and tossing it aside to get ready, he looked back at the phone in his hand with the message waiting to be sent. "Why does it always have to be the ones I'm falling for?"

He hung his head in defeat, tapping the button on the screen to send the message. The animation showed the message leaving his phone. It read "I got this."

And it was sent to Anthony Gambini.