Hunt

Chapter 5

Last Chapter:

Casey knew it there was a long line for her to sign autographs. It was an exciting but a nervous feeling for Casey as she signed each copy and took a few pictures with people. Something she could definitely get used to!

XOXO

"Do you think he's going to propose tonight?" Sally's friend Jane asked her as the two of them painted on their canvas.

"I don't know anymore. Lately, Derek's been all up and down. Maybe he's stressed at work. I don't know." she said wiping a piece of hair out of her face with the top part of her wrist.

"What else could it be, Sal? He wants to take you to a romantic dinner which he hasn't done in…what? Since the two of you started dating?"

Sally smiled and her and her friend stopped painting.

"Not even then did he do that." she said as the two laughed. "Oh, I can't wait for tonight! I hope it's tonight! You know I've been planning our wedding since he asked me to move in with him?"

"What?" her friend asked laughing. Sally nodded excitedly.

"Hey, I have every right to have my one very pathetic girl moment for a guy!" she said laughing. "I mean I have everything set up perfectly. The dress, the location, the invitations, where I'm getting my cake, the theme, the color scheme, the bridesmaid dresses, even the food! Shows you how badly I want to be a Venturi right? You have no idea how hard it's been hiding it from Derek. I have to hide it in the one place he would never look." she said.

"Where?"

"In a box titled Sentimental. Derek's as scared of that box as he is as finding tampons in the medicine cabinet." she said laughing.

"Well, I think you would be a great Mrs. Venturi." her friend said laughing. "You would be an even better Mrs. Venturi if you made me your made of honor."

Sally smiled again before she continued painting.

XOXO

Casey was in the shower enjoying the warm water through her hair. It felt good considering she barely slept at all that night. Meeting Derek had apparently impacted her life more than she thought he would. I mean seeing him now was harder than it was leaving him. It could have been the fact that it had been so long and now she finally had to confront what scared her away. She finally had to face her fears head on and be brave for once in her life. Casey finally decided that she spent enough time just standing and thinking in the shower. It was time to get out. She had important things to do like meet the casting director and start talking about possible candidates for the roles. So, Casey got out of the shower and felt the nice breeze of the summer weather coming through her hotel bathroom window. She wrapped the towel nice and tight around herself before walking over to the window and opening it and a little more so she could get a good look of the street outside. The taxi horns were honking loudly and the streets were covered with tourists and people headed to their jobs. The air smelt fresh and clean even in the midst of all the taxi smog. But Casey couldn't help but smile at all the excitement that crowded the streets of the city.

Casey put her robe on and started brushing her hair. She wondered then what Derek was doing at that very moment…wherever he was…

XOXO

"Dude, I can't work with her!" Derek said to one of his friends at the hockey rink. The six of them were in the middle of an amateur hockey game, for Derek needed to unwind and sadly the bar wasn't open yet.

"Is she hot?" he asked.

Derek had to think about his answer so it would sound a little better than:

"She's bangin."

*Sigh*

"I don't know, I just can't do it. I mean sure it would be different if I didn't have Sally and things didn't end the way they did."

Derek could talk to his friends about Casey because frankly they couldn't care less about Derek and who he was with in the past. They only cared about how it was and would you do it again?

"Derek, this is perfect."

"In, what way?"

"She's come back in your life, the both of you obviously still have something for eachother. Since you're with Sally, and this Casey chick knows that, there will be no strings attached and you get some tail."

"You don't know her, man. If you want anything like that from Case, then you have to commit your life to fulfilling her wishes and sell your soul."

"I would be more than happy to fulfill any woman's wishes."

"For the first time? Yeah, man…we know." The guys all laughed.

XOXO

"Why is it impossible to get a taxi in New York?" Casey asked waving her hand out in the air.

"Because this is the most populated city in the United States. Let's just walk."

"But, I've never been in a taxi before."

"And all of a sudden you have the desire to?"

Casey laughed.

"It's all part of the New York experience."

"Then you need to get out more." Naomi said laughing.

Once they finally got a cab, Naomi and Casey were brought to a tiny café for lunch.

"Hey, tonight do you want to go to this awesome club that's a few blocks over?" Naomi asked before she took a bite out of her grilled cheese sandwich.

"A club? Nah, I really shouldn't. I mean tomorrow we have that meeting and I need to look composed and not like I've been out all night."

"Casey. When do you ever live? I don't want to go alone, please come with me." Naomi asked giving her a puppy dog pout.

"I can't." Casey said breaking down.

"Pweeease?"

"Fine but I'm not drinking anything."

"Whatever." Naomi said laughing.

After lunch the girls decided to do a little window shopping back to their hotel. Naomi stopped in just about every store and by the time they got back to the hotel, their legs were killing them.

"I think I'm going to go down to the spa. There might be cute boys." Naomi said with a grin.

"If I do recall you have a boyfriend still…" Casey said hinting as she looked at Naomi in her bathing suit and a towel wrapped around her.

"You mean had a boyfriend."

"Oh, no. What happened?"

"Sean was being a douche, as usual. I've been with him for 3 very long years and I'm happy to say it's over. I can't deal with it anymore. I'm always worried that he's off scamming on some other chick or that his right hand is holding a beer whilst the left is holding a bong. I have started a new life that Sean has not been invited into."

"Good for you. There is nothing wrong with a strong, independent woman taking care of herself."

"Yeah…but I'm going to miss the sex." she said laughing. "He was really good at doing this one thing where he l-"

"Naomi! Please!" Casey said laughing. Naomi just shrugged.

"Anyway, I'm off to rebound. Miss me not, darling." Casey laughed at her boy crazy friend. Naomi may have seemed like the loose one but in reality, she was much more reserved. She only gave it up to the men that she was in long term relationships with. And, even then there were only two main men in her life since the day she started dating. "Why don't you come with me? I'm sure there's enough boys to go around." Naomi said smirking.

"I don't know. I mean I havn-"

"Casey. You're running out of excuses. Put on your bathing suit and lets go."

Casey obliged eventually and the two went down to the pool/spa. It was pretty crowded consider it being summer and all, but there were still a couple lounge chairs open, so Casey and Naomi made their way over to the chairs and marked them as their own.

Since the pool was indoor, the room had a lot of windows looking out onto the busy New York streets that let the bright sun in. Naomi had her sunglasses over her eyes and Casey had them on top of her head as she read her magazine.

"I'll take the blonde. Maybe the brunette if you want the blonde."

"Can you keep it in your pants for one hour, Naomi?" Casey asked laughing.

"Fine! I'll take the blonde."

"Fine." Casey said laughing. She set down her magazine and looked at the few good looking men that occupied the pool area. "He's not bad." she said pointing.

"Ohh. Good choice. He has nice upper arms." she said. "And apparently...his boyfriend thinks so too." The girls heads turned sideways in unison as they looked at him.

"How about him?" Casey said turning her gaze to the right. Naomi checked him out too.

"Nice body. Good hair. Seems straight."

"And apparently his girlfriend thinks so too. Naomi, this is hopeless. Love isn't something you have to look for! Love comes unexpected."

"Good. Hence the quote. "Expect the unexpected." Someone is out there for you, Casey. I was trying to speed up the process of finding him for you. Ohh, look at him."

Casey looked at where Naomi was pointing. The guy was lifting himself out of the pool. You could see his muscles flex as he used his body strength. Once he was out, he ran his hands through his hair and walked over to his chair and picked up his towel.

"He is gorgeous." Naomi said watching him dry off. "Go get his number." she said looking at Casey.

"Are you kidding? He's way…way, too…"

"What?...Muscular?...Charming?...Tall? Tan?"

"Naomi he's just…out of my league."

"Casey. You were on TV! You wrote a book that is becoming an amazing movie. You are technically very rich and you're fun to hang with. Just go talk to him."

She hesitated before finally agreeing with a "Fine." Casey put down her magazine and got off her chair. She was walking towards him trying to be graceful. She was shaking inside but tried keeping a pleasant smile on her face.

"Casey, look out!" Naomi said as Casey ran into someone when she was looking at the good looking guy. The tray of drinks hit her in the head and then caused Casey to tumble backwards into the pool with a big splash. It was like it had all gone in slow motion. But every cloud has a silver lining and in this case it was the gorgeous man guy who had jumped into the pool to help Casey.

"Are you okay?" He asked helping her stand up.

"I…uh…" she said. Naomi rushed over to the pool to help Casey out but the guy lifted her out himself and made sure she could stand properly.

"Casey. Are you okay? She's bleeding." she said and Casey grabbed the top of her head. You would say that it was kind of like that scene in The Parent Trap but only Dennis Quaid was far more graceful if you could believe it. Casey touched the top part of her forehead where there was a little bit of blood.

"I'll go get a band aid!" Naomi said running to fetch one in the lobby.

"That looked like it hurt." he said looking down into Casey's eyes.

"I couldn't tell." she said with a casual chuckle. The guy smiled his perfect smile down at Casey but she couldn't exactly swoon since she saw double but with blur as it's sidekick.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't see you." the girl who ran into Casey said.

"She'll be fine. Can you go get some towels?" he asked her.

"Of course!" she said racing away.

Naomi returned with a first aid kit and started applying some peroxide to the cut before putting two thin white colored bandage strips over the cut.

"Thanks, Naomi." Casey slowly sat up. "And, thank you." she said to the man that pulled her out of the water.

"No problem. I'm a volunteer firefighter so I might as well start saving people somewhere."

"One of New York's bravest?" she asked with a smile.

"Bravest? I'm not sure about that. I'm afraid of spiders." he said which made Casey laugh kindly as the man smiled embarassed.

"Um, don't you think you should tell the nice man your name." Naomi said hinting at Casey.

"Uh, yeah. I'm...Casey." she said.

"Caleb. You know you should really go sit down. You don't want to overwork the body."

"Are you sure about that?" Naomi said inappropriately looking the man up and down.

Casey elbowed Naomi before grabbing her arm.

"You're right." Casey agreed to the man. "Really, you've been a major help. I could have drowned." she said with a smile.

"It was my pleasure." he said with a smile as Casey pulled Naomi back to their chairs.

XOXO

A Few Hours Later

"He was so cute, right? What did his chiseled arms feel like? How amazing were his eyes? What was it like being that close to him?" Naomi asked.

"Very Cute. Very Chiseled. Perfect eyes and intoxicating." she said smiling.

"Are you ready?" Naomi asked.

"Yeah. But I'm not bar hopping or leaving with strange men!"

"I know! I know! Now, let's go. The night is ours!"

XOXO

"Der-ek! Stop hitting me in the head with your hockey stick!"

"Derek, knock it off." George commanded of his son as the family rode to the ice rink that was a few towns over.

"Can we get hot chocolate like last time?" Marti asked sweetly.

"Yeah!" Lizzie and Edwin said together.

"I'm just looking forward to working on my toe loop."

"Ha! If you think I'm going to start calling you Casey Comaneci, think again!"

"Derek, Nadia Comaneci is a Romanian Gymnast, not a skater."

"Same dif."

"Yeah, well when it comes to Hockey, you're hardly a Sidney Crosby."

"Don't act like you know anything about Hockey. Are we almost there?"

"We're almost there."

The car pulled into a parking space and after they paid for admission Derek and Casey went ahead and fought to get on the ice first.

"Move!" Casey said pushing him out of the way as she finally got on the ice.

"Are you done being a witch? It's not Halloween, Casey." Derek said to her as he slid on the ice with a puck and his hockey stick.

"Are you done being a jerk?"

"I bet you can't skate like her." Derek said pointing to a girl who had her own white figure skates with leg warmers and a sparkly leotard. She even had a white matching sweater to go along with it.

"Derek, she's been skating for like years."

"I'll make a deal with you." he said.

"What kind of deal?" she asked looking at him with curious eyes.

"If you can do a somewhat suitable layback spin like she's doing right now, I will teach you the trick of getting a puck past a goalie."

"And when exactly would me getting a puck past a goalie suit me in everyday life?"

"Hey, if you don't think you can do it, fine." he said skating away.

"Wait! Wait. I'll do it just to prove you wrong."

A/N-HAPPY NEW YEAR! Some awesome Dasey will be coming shortly. BTW, a layback looks like this.

Just type in youtube (dot) com slash watch?v=e0NXeRt00jc

Since they won't let me post the link.