Chapter Eleven: Confusion

She was mad, he could tell.

If she were a cartoon there would be steam pouring out of her ears.

She was mad but she was trying to pretend that she wasn't.

Ever since 'Washingtongate' she had been trying so hard to be the 'perfect' girlfriend. He knew she had been holding back, keeping in all the things that were irritating her because she wanted to be right for him. Apparently in her mind she had to make up for hurting him by pretending that everything was okay all the time.

And now he had stood her up, accidentally of course, but stood her up all the same and she was trying so hard to pretend that she wasn't mad that it almost made him laugh.

"I'm sorry Kate I though you said meet at the cinema at 7 and then dinner after," he said as he watched her stand at the dresser, painstakingly taking out the pins that held her hair up in an elegant bun.

"If I'd said meet at the cinema at 7 then I would've been there at 7," she muttered under her breath, "It's fine Castle," she said louder so he could hear.

"It's not fine," he said coming to stand behind her, his hands hovering over her shoulders.

It had been awkward every sine he had proposed to her on the swings. She had turned both the job and his proposal down, but had agreed to move into the loft with a promise of marriage when she thought they were ready. They had been tiptoeing around one another ever since and while he had found it easy to read her in the past he was now uncertain and couldn't tell if touching her right now would be the right thing to do.

"You can be mad if you want to you know," he said, still standing behind her.

"I'm not mad," she said now moving on to taking off her jewellery, "We just got our wires crossed is all."

It wasn't okay for her to be so reserved. Usually if she was mad at him he knew it. It was normal in fact for her to be irritated and to let him know. It meant things were all right in the world. Holding in her anger because she thought if she got mad at him it would ruin their relationship was not right and he was determined to make things right.

"You can be mad you know," he said, "I left you standing there for an hour and you went to all this effort," he indicated her outfit, "I mean doing your hair alone must have taken an hour and now it was all wasted because I got the times confused."

She moved towards the walk in wardrobe, unzipping her dress as she went. He followed her inside and watched as she stepped out of the garment and hung it up. She walked past him now in her underwear and went to her side of the bed where her pyjamas were stored underneath her pillow.

"Yeah well next time," she shrugged with a forced calmness.

She was gorgeous, all long limbs and golden skin and he was momentarily distracted as she stretched to pull the oversized t-shirt on over her head. Shaking his head he moved closer to her.

"Yeah but if only I hadn't forgotten my phone," he said, "That must have been so frustrating, you calling and calling to find out where I was and it was here on the kitchen table. Imagine all the confusion could have been prevented if I'd just remembered to put my phone in my pocket."

He could tell he was getting to her. Her fists clenched and unclenched at her sides and he could tell by the tense set of her jaw that she was gritting her teeth.

"And if you hadn't left your keys inside then you would've have had to wait for me in the hall," he said, "I mean as if it wasn't bad enough that I'd stood you up and forgotten my keys you then had to sit out in the hall for me to finally get back here and let you in."

"It's not like we didn't confirm the time a thousand times," she exploded finally and he was so relieved that he smiled, "Oh you think it's funny? That I had to sit at the table and have the waiters and diners looking at me with pity. Look at that poor girl, her date stood her up," she mimicked stalking closer to him so she was in his space.

"Oh that must have been terrible," he said still smiling.

"And of course you forgot your phone so I couldn't even contact you," she yelled, "Would it kill you for once in your life to be organised?"

"Oh I'm the worst," he said and he could tell his flippant attitude was riling her up even more.

"And then I had to sit outside like I was one of Richard Castle's floozies, so desperate for him that I would wait hours on the floor of his hallway until he was home," her cheeks were flushed and her chest heaved as she ended her tirade. In normal circumstances he would have been a little afraid at the mutinous look on her face but he was just so happy that she was allowing herself to get mad at him that he couldn't stop himself from leaning forward and brushing a quick kiss to her lips.

"Welcome back sweetheart," he chuckled.

A/N: The pet names thing has also intrigued me about these two. While I can't see them using them a lot out of the two of them I think Castle would be the more likely one to use them. What do you guys think? Kate or Castle and if they were to use them what do you think they would be?