Chapter 37

Again, I don't own any of these characters

The next morning, Bailey woke up and reached over to find the space next to her empty. She raised up and began to look around for Cody. The bathroom door was open, and she could see no lights were on inside of it. She was about to get up to look for him when the door to the bedroom opened and Cody came walking in. He was smiling and had too cups in his hand. He set them on the bedside table next to Bailey before crawling back into bed next to her.

"Where did you go?"

"I went downstairs to get us some hot chocolate. I should warn you, its snowing pretty good outside right now."

"Yeah?"

Cody smiled. "Uh huh...Which makes me glad I have somewhere warm to be..."

Bailey smiles. "Sounds good to me..."

"I also noticed something else..."

"What's that?"

"Zack wasn't sleeping on the couch..."

Bailey pauses. "Maybe he already got up for the day?"

Cody just looks at Bailey.

She shakes her head. "Yeah...what was I thinking?" She pauses again. "You don't think...?"

Cody smiled. "I can't be positive, but that would be my guess..."

Bailey smiles. "Well, good for them then..."

"Uh huh...And good for me...This is my chance for some payback after Zack's gift..."

Bailey shakes her head. "No, you won't..."

"But..."

"Cody, you leave them alone. We didn't like it when people were trying to get up into our private business, so we aren't going to do that to them..."

Cody sighs. "Fine..."

Bailey smiles. "Better..."

"I still can't believe he bought us that book...Does he think that's all we do?"

Bailey laughs. "I certainly hope not..."

Cody pauses. "So, what should we do with it?"

"I don't know..."

"I meant what I said back in New Haven. I don't want to have to look at a book to know what we're doing..."

Bailey smiled. "Trust me, Cody...we know what we're doing..."

"Yeah?"

"Definitely. But maybe we should have an open mind. Didn't our parents tell us that it was okay for us to experiment and figure out what we both liked?"

Cody pauses. "Well, yeah...and Dad did tell me to make sure that I never let it get boring..."

Bailey takes Cody's hand. "Cody, I know it will never get boring for us. We won't let it...What do you think we should do?"

Cody sighs. "I don't know...I just kind of like the thought that everything we've been doing, we've been discovering together...That what we've done has been our idea, not what some book has told us to do..."

Bailey smiled. "I like that thought too...Its kind of how our relationship has been on our terms and not what everyone thought. Maybe the way we make love should be too..."

Cody pauses. "But at the same time, I don't want us to miss out on anything that we would both really like..."

"That's one of the things I love about you. You're always willing to look at both sides of everything. Tell you what, lets put it up on the bookshelf and it will be there if we both feel we need it. But, Cody, we're both two pretty creative people. I'm sure many of the things in there we will eventually discover on our own anyways..."

Cody nods and then begins to laugh. "I can see our bookshelf now...A Tale of Two Cities...The Odyssey...Shakespeare's Sonnets...the Kama Sutra..."

Bailey begins to laugh too. "Maybe we should just keep it in our bedroom then..."

"You know we have to take it back to the ship with us, right?"

"Why?"

"Because even if we hide it here, its almost guaranteed that Mom will somehow find it..."

Bailey nods. "Good point..."

Cody leans in and kisses Bailey's cheek. "Thank you..."

"For what?"

"For always being here to listen to me and knowing the right thing to say and do..."

Bailey smiles. "For you, anytime..." Bailey pauses. "So, what's on our agenda for today?"

"Well, we're supposed to meet Mom and Grandma for breakfast or lunch or brunch...After that, we're wide open..."

"And you said it was snowing...Might be best to put off skating lessons until it stops..."

Cody thinks. "Well, we could use the spa...or go see a movie...or use our gift cards and take advantage of Day After Christmas Sales..."

Bailey smiles. "That would be the smart and prudent thing to do...We could get a lot more today then we would later..."

Cody nods. "True...But, if we do, we only get something if its something we both like, not just because its on sale..."

"Agreed..."

Cody smiled. "So, what would say to a warm shower to start this day off on the right foot?"

"Lead the way..."

Meanwhile, in the other room

Zack begins to stir and slowly he opens his eyes. After shaking the last remnants of sleep from them, he looks around. He notices Cassie asleep next to him, and he remembers her dragging him into her room last night. Fortunately, they had been so tired last night that they both almost immediately fell asleep.

As Zack begins to stretch, Cassie began to wake up as well. She looks over to see him stretching.

"Good morning..."

Zack turns and sees Cassie is awake. "Hey...good morning to you too..."

"How did you sleep?"

"Pretty good...but I think I was so tired, I would have slept through a freight train coming through the room..."

Cassie laughed. "I was the same way..."

"So...you slept okay too?"

Cassie nods. "Yeah..."

Zack pauses. "You know, I was kind of surprised you invited me in here last night...I wasn't expecting it..."

It was Cassie's turn to pause. "To be honest, neither was I..."

"Not that I'm complaining, but why did you?"

"I think it was something Ellie said..."

Zack looked confused. "You invited me to share your bed because of something my Grandma said?"

Cassie pauses and then begins to laugh. "That does sound weird, doesn't it?"

"Little bit..."

"Well, she told Bailey and me about your great uncles yesterday..."

"My great uncles?"

"Yeah, her brothers...Thomas and Mitchell...the ones who never came home from World War II..."

Zack nodded. "Okay..."

Cassie smiled. "By the way, I now know your middle name, Zachary Thomas..."

Zack shrugged. "Oh well, Cassandra Elizabeth..."

Cassie is surprised. "How did you know that?"

Zack smiled. "I have my ways..."

Cassie shook her head. "Anyways, Ellie was telling us about how she looks back now and wishes she could spend more time with her brothers and your grandfather...And how we should cherish every moment with you two..."

Zack nods. "Okay...But, I had no problem crashing on the couch. I told you when we first started dating that taking things slow was fine with me..."

"I know, and you've been really great about it...I guess I just wanted to see what it was like to wake up next to you..."

"And what did you discover?"

Cassie paused. "I liked it..."

Zack smiled. "Good...me too..."

Cassie smiled. "But we're still taking things slow..."

"As slow as you want...I'm in no hurry."

"Good. Just because Cody and Bailey..."

Zack interrupts her. "This isn't about them. This is about us...We aren't them."

Cassie smiled again. "I know..."

"What may be right for them might not be right for us..." Zack pauses and begins to shudder.

"What's wrong?"

"For a minute there, I sounded just like Cody..."

Cassie laughs. "Well, don't be. I'm not dating Cody, I'm dating Zack...I want you to be you..."

Zack laughs too. "You said it, not me..."

"Come on, we need to get moving anyways...We're supposed to meet your Mom and Grandma for breakfast..."

"Should I head on out back to the couch so it looks like I slept there?"

Cassie pauses. "Your choice...I don't care if Cody and Bailey know."

Zack smiled. "Me either..."

To be Continued...