Disclaimer: I do not own Undateable or any of its characters.

This story is based off of Bridgit Mendler's (who plays Candace) song 5:15.

May 23, 2015 - I'm still shaking and unbelievably happy! I posted a link to this story on my Twitter (TriciaTAvenido) and Adam Sztykiel, the creator of Undateable himself, FAVED MY TWEET! OMG! OMG! OMG! So worth staying up until 4am in the morning to finish this story all in one go! OMG!

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5:15

Candace stood outside her front door, her luggage sitting by her feet. She looked out into the distance. Nothing. She stuck her hand into her pocket and took out her phone to check the time. It was 5:14.

She had been so careful, timing everything down to the last minute, packing and dressing and getting everything done so that she could catch her flight.

She had sat in her living room with her luggage around her, just waiting for him to knock on her door, to stop her. She had waited and waited until time was running out.

By 4:59 she was out the door, she had no choice.

By 5:00 she was standing outside her door, waiting either for him or the taxi to the airport to show up first.

If he showed up first, then that would be it, that would be the game changer. She would drop everything for him without a second's thought, but if he didn't...

She really didn't want to think about that, but if he didn't...

If he didn't, then she would step inside the taxi and never look back as it took her far away from all this, from him.

Maybe none of it had ever been real. After all, it had all been too good to be true. He had been too good to be true. He was the perfect gentleman, completely devoted to her in every possible way as much as she had been completely devoted to him, but as time passed, so did her infatuation for him. They call it puppy love, a fleeting thing, something the young are prone to.

That had always been one of the things, maybe one of the main things. It's not that she was that much younger than him, only by a few years, but it was enough for him to always tease her about it. But so what if she didn't get some of his pop culture references? She got him. What else mattered? While his friends got on his back for being too soft, too giving, too kind, those were exactly all the qualities that made her so in love with him.

But there's a new city and a new life waiting for her full of promises of a bright new future she never even dared to dream about lest it not come true. Meanwhile, with him, too many promises had already been broken, and if they made promises to each other now, who's to say that those, too, wouldn't just fall to the wayside?

But as she stood outside her door at 5:00, she promised herself that she would wait for him just 15 minutes more. Despite everything, she owed him that much. 5:15, that would be her cut off. She would wait for him until 5:15, not one minute more. If he wasn't there by then, then that was it, she was gone. And if by some miracle he did show up and missed her by just a hair's breath, then he would have no choice but to catch her at the next city.

She never thought that she would ever feel this way about him, she had been so in love with him.

But maybe it had finally gotten to the point where she was sick and tired of puppy love, simply had enough of it, and wanted to break out of it.

Candace checked her phone again. It was 5:15. He wasn't there.

Candace felt her heart sink and a heavy numbness wash over her. She had been so sure that he would be there, that no matter what, he'd find some way to be there because he was hers and she was his. They belonged together. A mutual friend of theirs even said that they were perfect for each other, and they were, right down to their harmonizing. It was silly and cheesy, but they literally made beautiful music together, and it was so good and...never to happen ever again.

Candace bowed down to pick up her luggage and saw a droplet of water splatter onto the surface of one of them.

She never imagined that he would make her cry. She fell for him because he was the one person who seemed incapable of hurting anyone or anything, and yet now she was the one he had hurt the most.

Candace covered her mouth with her hand. If she kept her back turned to the street, at least no one could see her crying, but if someone heard her sobs...She just couldn't let anyone hear her sob.

Her body shook from the effort of crying while trying not to be found out, and after a while, she wiped the palms of her hands hard against her damp eyes, took a deep breath to compose herself, and turned back around to face the world.

One door may have closed, but she had another waiting for her. She had to remember that. She had to focus on that because she knew that it was the only thing that would keep her going from now on.

She bent down to pick up her luggage again when a blur of movement caught the corner of her eye.

It was him. He was running and still far away, but it was definitely him.

Candace covered her mouth with her hands and started to cry again, but for a completely different reason. The heaviness lifted from her, replaced by sheer and utter joy at just the sight of him.

His eyes met hers and she could see the relief in them, the gratefulness he had for her still being there, for him not being too late.

When he finally got to her, he was panting and breathless. He looked like he was about to pass out, but right when Candace was about to reach out to him and ask if he was okay, he took her face into her hands and kissed her, hard. It wasn't the soft, quick kiss she had surprised him with a long time ago, their very first kiss. This kiss was different. It was hungry and needy and desperate. This was him telling her that he had every intention of progressing this kiss into something far more serious once they were behind closed doors. This was him claiming her as his, and telling her that there was no way in hell that she was going anywhere, and most definitely not without him.

When they finally broke apart from sheer lack of air, he pulled her into him and she held tightly onto him, still just relieved that he came.

"I'm so sorry," he said next to her ear. "I love you. God, I love you," he said, squeezing her tighter.

"I love you, too," she told him, pulling away just enough to look him in the eyes. "I always have, I always will," she smiled up at him.

Justin smiled back down at her, wiping the tears away from her cheek before bowing his head back down to kiss her again, less desperately, but no less sweet.

Just as they pulled away from each other, Candace's taxi pulled up.

Candace and Justin exchanged a look.

"You can still go, you know?" he told her. "I won't stop you from pursuing your dreams, just as long as I'm a part of them in some way."

"You know if I go we can't go on like this. It's one or the other."

"No, it isn't. There's always a way."

"But I want to be wherever you are."

"So I'll go to you."

"But what about the bar?"

"It's just a bar."

"You know it's not just that," Candace said shaking her head. "Besides, I don't want to leave. Detroit is my home. It doesn't feel right going anywhere else."

"You can't do this. I won't let you do this. The bar was my dream, now it's your turn to go after yours."

"I already have," Candace smiled at him before giving him a quick kiss on the lips.

Justin smiled back. "Well, then. Let me take care of this for you," he said before jogging towards the taxi, speaking to the driver for a bit, and giving him a few dollar bills, and with that the driver was gone.

Justin jogged back to Candace. "So we're really doing this?" he asked, smiling down at her.

"We're really doing this," she smiled back at him.

"Well then, my lady, let me get your bags for you."

"I would so appreciate it," she replied as Justin grabbed her bags while she unlocked her door.

"You are going to tip me, right?" Justin asked jokingly.

"Oh, I'll do way more than that," Candace promised, kissing him as hard and deep as he had kissed her earlier, surprising Justin just like she had with their first kiss. She was still kissing him when they slipped inside the house and shut the door behind them.

Later, and later still, Candace would always tell Justin she never knew how much he had meant to her until 5:15.

The End