A/N: Sorry for all this waiting, but this chapter will be worth it. I just had to get that Macey/Cam moment in there. It just seemed like the thing Cam needed to get her confidence up, and Macey definitely needed it. Enjoy this chapter! Hopefully a new one will be out in two weeks!

Chapter 38

I walked through the door walking tall and confident, but now there were butterflies in my stomach and my palms were sweating. I felt the corner of my mouth start twitching as I tried to smile at Zach across the room. I probably looked like a rabid bunny, but he still smiled brightly at me. His smile made the butterflies grow tenfold and my knees were shaking in my high heels. It felt impossible to finish crossing the room over to him without falling. Luckily Zach was still on the fireplace so I could sit down.

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah. Just a little girl talk."

"Ah girl talk." He looked at me skeptically. "Anything about me?"

"Maybe a few things." He pressed his leg against mine and dipped his head so his hair fell just barely in front of his face. He was irresistible but I needed to talk first.

"Why did Jonas assume you would be down here?" He backed up a little but his leg was still firmly against mine.

"Well… he kind of already knows about us." Of course Jonas knew. He saw everything. Afterall he was the first person to tell me we had chemistry.

"How long?"

"Since Miami. He heard us making out on the couch." My face instantly heated up. I thought we were being sneaky but of course Jonas knew.

"Why didn't he say anything?" Zach shrugged.

"He didn't want to make us do something we didn't want to do yet." I felt like I just got punched in my gut. Was he saying he didn't want to do this?

"Zach we-"
"Do you want to dance?" He flashed me a grin. "I'm sorry were you saying something?" I swallowed the bile climbing up my throat.

"No. Dancing sounds great right now." He grabbed my hand and led me out to the floor. Wasn't this what I had wanted all last year? A boy that wanted to dance with me and make me feel like I wasn't competing with anyone. Yet it still wasn't perfect because I couldn't get the nerves to talk. I guess if you don't make it official you can't get hurt.

Zach rested his hands on my waist and pulled me closer. The closer we got the less I thought. Every sway all I could think about was how happy I was to have him here. And when he spun me around I didn't have a single thought.

"Have I told you how gorgeous you are?" And that compliment pushed me over the edge. I started smiling deliriously.

"No you haven't."

"Are you sure? Because I think the first thing I would have done was compliment you on how amazing you look tonight." He looked down at me dress and gave me a little spin to take it all in. When he pulled me back in he was ready for small talk.

"How has your night been?"

"Much better now." His smile dropped a little into a thin line.

"And how was it going before I got here? You looked like you were crying."

"Oh… that." He stopped dancing, waiting for my explanation.

"It had just been a pretty rotten night and I missed you. Josh was about to ruin his relationship with DeeDee."

"Wait. How was he going to do that?"

"He was fighting with her and saw me and he's drunk right now." Zach's face hardened.

"Did he kiss you?"

"What? No. He tried coming on to me but I told him it would be a mistake. They're good together and he was going to flush it all away." He started dancing lightly with me but he scanned the party over my shoulder, looking for Josh. Then I got angry. I blame it on the week of no actual status of a relationship, but I wanted to snap.

"Are you jealous? Because I don't think you have a reason to be jealous." He shook his head confused.

"Of course I'm jealous. It's your ex boyfriend who has been drinking." Why does everything have to be so complicated when Josh came around?

"Do you think I would be that person that would ruin a relationship to be with a guy who I don't even like anymore?" I stopped dancing and made him look at me. "Don't you trust me?" She took a deep breath but his mouth twitched at the corner.

"I trust you Gallagher Girl, but I think I can still be jealous of the ex." I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Why though? It's not like we have declared anything about this. I don't know what this even is. We never said if we could date other people or anything. And it's not like we've really tried to talk about it." His face dropped but he still had a hold of my hand.

"Come on." He pulled on my hand through the party.

"Zach where are we going?" He didn't say a word. He was strong and silent pulling me away from everyone at the party. He knocked on a door and when the coast was clear he opened it, pulling me inside after him. Only a lamp in the corner illuminated the room but I could clearly see the stone faced expression.

"You think I haven't made an attempt to do anything about us? Why do you think I just drove ten hours in the cold? Cammie it's already snowing but I'm crazy enough to drive through it to see you." His words hit me like a ton of bricks. They weren't exactly angry, but they were filled with a fire.

"Why would you do that?" He shook his head and gave a breathy laugh.

"You were the only person on my mind while I was away. Once Jonas said he was making a drive I didn't even think twice about staying there. I wanted to see you." There was a foot between us and I wanted to reach out to touch him. But something was still hanging in the air between us.

"What are we, Zach?" I could see him smile in the dim light from the room.

"You know it was funny talking with your mom. I think she would get along with Joe, they said a lot of the same things." Was he really talking about my mom right now?

"Seriously Zach. I want to know."

"I know." He gave me a smug smile before continuing. "See both asked me what we were. They wanted to know if we were seeing other people or if we were going on dates. They had a lot of questions but there was only one thing I knew. I told them I knew what I wanted, I was just waiting for you to decide." I swallowed the lump in my throat.

"What do you want?" He closed the distance between us and rested his forehead on mine.

"I want to have a reason to be jealous of your ex boyfriends." His lips were hovering over mine and I was hesitant to meet him. He leaned forward and stopped a centimeter from mine. I closed the distance swiftly and his hand burned on my arm as it moved to brace my neck. It wasn't sloppy but it certainly wasn't soft or slow. Our lips moved together frantically and every move only brought us closer together. My hand was tangled in his hair when he pulled away.

"Cammie, is that what you want? Do you want to be my girlfriend and go public about everything?" I couldn't nod fast enough.

"Yes. I'm ready." I'm sure my smile was just as wide as his in that moment. There was a cheer outside of the door and horns going off. It felt like the whole world was cheering for us in that moment, saying 'This is it Cammie. Don't mess it up'.

00000000000000000

"Give it up Cam. You're not going to win this one." Analyzing the situation he was right. He was ahead but I could still pull it off with some luck.

"Not a chance. I still have some tricks up my sleeve." I looked at my thimble on the board and rolled the dice.

"Two. Yeah, you're not going to win by doing that. You just landed on my hotel." I threw my monopoly money at him and he chuckled.

"Come on Gallagher Girl. It's just Monopoly, that's how the game is played." I leaned towards him batting my eyelashes.

"But don't you think you could give your girlfriend a little sympathy." He glanced at me and then shook his head.

"Nope. That's just not how it goes." I scooted over to his shoulder and got right next to him.

"Come on. I'll give you a kiss for $100." He leaned forward and kissed my forehead.

"I'm not going to make my girlfriend a prostitute. No monopo-money for you." I stuck my bottom lip out and pouted.

"How about a $50. That's hardly any real monopo-money. That's like a kissing booth." He kissed each cheek before holding up the $50 between us. I smiled, putting the monopo-money in the gap between my dress and side with the other stash I had been sneaking from his side. He put a hand on my cheek and rubbed small circles on it. He leaned me closer and it was slow and sweet. He licked my lip for enterance and I was lost in another world. With my eyes closed there was swirling colors that brightened the higher his hand traveled up my side. He found the bit of skin where my dress eneded and started stroking the area. It made my skin instantly gooseflesh and he smirked against my lips. The connection sent my heart racing and I flexed my fingertips into his shoulders. He groaned and broke away.

"Gallagher Girl, I don't think we should be doing this here." While the gameroom was pretty empty, there still were stragglers milling around outside in the hall. I nodded.

"You're right. It's getting kind of late anyway. I was going to stay in one of the extra rooms." He nodded and looked around. "Do you want to stay with me?" He grinned ear to ear and held out his hand for me. I gladly took it and he swooped me up off the floor, twirling me around as we walked towards the doorway.

"Oh wait." He paused and turned quickly and found the skin on my side again and before I knew it the monopo-money was slipping out of the space. My eyes widened at my stash.

"Next time try to hide it a little flatter. You could feel the fold of the money." He grabbed my hand again like he didn't just blow my mind. My mouth opened and closed like a fish, hoping to have a comeback for him.

"It's okay Gallagher Girl. I know I leave you speechless." I let it be and let him guide me around. As we made our way towards the bar area I caught sight of Josh sitting with his arm around DeeDee. He caught my gaze and then looked at Zach before giving a small smile. I returned it when seeing how happy DeeDee looked.

We made our way into the empty room again where all my stuff was. I quickly kicked off my heels and instantly felt them swell up. I didn't realize how tired I was until I saw it was already past 2:00. My feet were tired, my eyes were heavy and now I just wanted to get out of this dress. I tried to reach for the zipped on my back, but I didn't want to stretch.

"Zach. Can you unzip me?"

He took the zipper gingerly only letting his fingers graze my skin. He respected me in ways that I couldn't even imagine. I was undressing in front of him and he made sure not to make any advances. He crossed the room again, digging through his small bag in the corner while I slipped on his t-shirt. I crawled on the bed to where he was sitting.

"I'll never be tired of seeing you in that shirt."

"Good because I think I'll keep it." He turned his head to kiss me lightly. He slid off the edge on to the floor. I looked at him quizzically.

"Um. What are you doing?" He pulled down a pillow.

"Well one other thing I promised your mom. See she was okay for me to stay here as long as I slept on the floor." He made a little area on the ground for him and turned onto his side and I turned off the light. It didn't feel right up here. I heard his rhythmic breathing, but I wanted to feel the rise and fall and hear his heartbeat. So I was feeling brave and grabbed the blanket off the bed and slid right onto the ground.

"Gallagher Girl, what are you doing?" He propped himself up on his elbow and I snuggled into the crook.

"I'm going to sleep." His eyes were wider and he tensed.

"You're mom isn't going to like this."

"You just promised that you would be on the floor. She didn't say anything about where I had to me." He fell back onto the pillow and wrapped his arm around me.

"Okay, well if she finds out, I'm blaming it on you. You are the bad influence in this relationship afterall." I held my hand to my chest.

"Me? I'm not the one with a motorcycle."

"Hey she liked my motorcycle. I think cheating at monopoly is a bad influence." I rolled my eyes.

"Well just call me Cammie the Corrupter then."

And that's a wrap for Chapter 38. 38! Never thought I would get here. Thank you so much for all of the support!