A/N Okay, a slight longer chapter, but it does answer the question as to what's in the velvet boxes!
Just as a reminder, there are a few people in this chapter that we haven't heard from in awhile, so just a quick little who's who!
Ginny – nursing student, was friends with Mimi and worked at the Cat Scratch with her. Now lives in her old apartment on the third floor.
Leslie – lives next door to Ginny.
Andrew - Social worker who works at Life Support. Also a drummer who has known Roger for years and used to play with him. Dates Jolean who's twin sister is Joellen who worked at the Life and was dating Mark for awhile.
That should cover it! Just don't want anyone getting confused.
~~Kelby
Chapter 74
After taking his pills, Roger crawled back into bed. Cass felt the bed move and rolled over closer to him, curling her body around him for warmth. He smiled down at her, gently running his fingers along her face before stoking her hair. She mumbled something in her sleep and nuzzled into his neck. He couldn't help but smile at her. He knew he'd never get over how amazing she was. He grinned to himself thinking about her Christmas present sitting under their tree. Thinking about that and listening to her breath lulled him back to sleep.
Cass' eyes fluttered open and she stretched her arms over her head.
"Morning Baby." Roger said kissing her on the neck, moving up to her mouth. "Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas Baby!" She kissed him back, sitting up. "What time is it?"
"Almost 11:30."
"Oh God! We need to get up! Did you take your pills?"
"Yes, I took my pills. You never moved or woke up."
"Well we were up really late. I bet Marky's not even up yet!"
"I bet he's hungover as hell."
"Come on! Let's get up! And get Mark up! And open presents!" She yanked on his arm.
"Okay, Okay. What are you seven?" He laughed getting out of bed.
"No just excited!" She dragged him across the loft to Mark's room. She opened the door to his room and jumped on his bed, followed by Roger. "Marky! Wake up!"
Mark's only response was a groan as he pulled a pillow over his head. Roger just laughed at him. From under the pillow they heard him talking. "Yesterday you both told me you loved me. This isn't love."
"But Marky it's Christmas! And we do love you!" She kissed him, bouncing on his bed.
"Yeah Marky." Roger said, imitating Cass and bouncing on the bed. "It's Christmas and we do love you Marky." He made little kissy noises at him.
"No, you both hate me. If you loved me you'd let me sleep."
"Truthfully, if we really loved you we never would have let you drink that much last night in the first place." Roger laughed.
"Oh like you were in any shape to stop him last night." Cass laughed at him, leaning on Mark and pulling the pillow off his face. "Come on Marky! It's Christmas!"
"I'm Jewish." Mark said, pulling the pillow back over his head.
"Okay. Enough messing around. Hungover or not, we're having Christmas!" Cass stood up. "Roger get him! We're having Christmas."
Laughing, Roger grabbed Mark and picked him up as he started to yell to be put down. "Sorry buddy. She wants Christmas."
"Okay, okay. Just put me down Roger!" Roger complied and tossed him onto the couch still laughing as Cass made them tea.
"Here go." She brought in the tea. "Merry Christmas boys!"
"Merry Christmas Baby."
"Okay, enough." Mark said. "You got me up, now give me my Playstation."
"Oh there's that Christmas spirit." Cass laughed. "I told you I didn't get you a Playstation." She grinned. "But you need to wait till everybody gets here."
"If I have to wait, why did I have to get up?" Mark asked from the couch.
"Well we could have let you sleep and then just let Maureen get you up when she gets here. That's always fun when you have a hangover." Roger told him.
"Fun for you maybe."
"Actually I was referring to me." He laughed.
"Behave you two. Here you can have your stockings." She pulled them down and handed them over. Roger and Mark dumped them out and started in on the chocolate oranges and M&M's.
Around twenty minutes later Collins, Jason and Jen showed up bringing coffee and cinnamon rolls. A few minutes later Maureen and Joanne got there. After everyone got settled they started to exchange presents with Maureen playing chief elf.
"Oh this one's for me!" She squealed, ripping open the paper to find a tight little red sweater. "Oh I love it!"
"So you mentioned about four times that day in the store." Joanne added.
"Okay moving on." She picked up the next one. "Marky. Oh big box."
Mark opened the paper. "Yes! Playstation II with games! I love you Cass!"
"Cool! I love you too!" Jason added jumping up and looking through the games. "Let's hook it up!" He and Mark moved toward the TV.
"Forget it!" Jen told him. "You can wait till later." She turned to Cass. "I thought you said you didn't get him a Playstation?"
Cass shrugged. "I lied. I mean could you resist that when he does the pathetic puppy face?"
"No, I guess not." Jen, along with everyone else laughed.
"Hey it's a talent." Mark told them. "Okay Mo, who's next?"
"Um," she picked up the small box. "This one's for Cass from Roger." She handed it to her, with a big stupid grin on her face.
Roger suddenly realized everyone had stupid looking grins on their faces. He knew they all knew now. He watched as Cass lifted the red lid off and took the little velvet box out. Luckily he thought Cass didn't notice everyone sitting there staring at her.
She opened the hinged box. "Oh Roger! It's beautiful! I love it!" She leaned forward and hugged him. Taking it out of the box.
"Let me see!" Maureen bounced up and down.
Cass took the necklace out of the box and held up the delicate gold cross on the chain. "I love it! It's gorgeous!"
Roger was quite proud of himself. "You were always grabbing at your neck and I finally figured out what you were doing. Looking for your necklace. And I remember you said you lost your mom's cross."
"I love it!"
As she leaned into kiss him he looked over her shoulder and saw a very disappointed Maureen. He almost had to laugh. They finished up all the presents and Cass went into the kitchen with Jen. Roger pulled Mark closer to him and whispered. "What did you tell everybody?"
"Well no, not exactly." Mark stuttered.
"It's not his fault Roger." Jason whispered. "We had to tell Mo. Who of course told Jen and Joanne."
"So when are you going to do it?" Maureen asked.
"Yeah when?" Jason asked.
"Will you guys cut it out! And stop staring at her every time I open my mouth! You're making me crazy."
Cass and Jen came back in and joined them as the looks flew around the group. Cass had ordered all the food for dinner, but Jen had taken over the needed cooking. Mark and Jason hooked up the Playstation in Mark's room and sat in there playing. Roger was playing his guitar while Cass and Collins played chess on his new set. About then the phone rang.
"I'll get it." Maureen said from right by the phone. "Hello."
"Oh hi. No this is Maureen, he's sitting right here." She looked up from the phone and called across the room. "Roger it's your mom." Still holding the phone she looked at him, definitely excited. "Oh Roger did you tell her we know Cass is gonna have a boy?"
He walked over and pulled the telephone from her. "No Mo, I thought I'd let you tell her by yelling it across the room."
"Oh sorry." She walked over and sat down by a laughing Collins, Cass, Jen and Joanne.
"Hi Mom. You get all that?" Roger laughed into the phone.
***************
"Are we going to do anything tonight?" Cass asked.
"Well the Iguana's closed." Collins said. "We can find another bar, or go to the Life."
"I'm up for staying here." Mark said grabbing a soda.
"What Marky? You going to give up your search for a social life now that you have a Playstation?" Collins teased.
"Can you see it now?" Maureen asked. "Hey baby, I got a Playstation in my room. You wanna come over?" She winked.
"Don't knock him." Roger told her. "It got Jason in there." He started laughing.
"Hey!" Collins and Jason called out.
"Oh very funny." Mark turned to Jason. "Come on let's see if we can get to level nine."
"I thought we had ice cream. Where's the ice cream?"
"I think Jason finished yesterday." Collins said staring at his chessboard.
"Oh. What about the Oreo's? Or bananas and chocolate sauce?"
"Cass are you hungry or something?" Roger laughed.
"Well, no. Sort of, maybe I guess."
"There's a ton of food left from dinner. Which you hardly ate any of by the way." Jen pointed out.
"Well I'm not hungry for that. Is the deli across from the life open?"
"One of them must be." Roger told her, standing up. "There's only about a dozen delis in a three block area."
"Good." She grinned. "Then it won't be hard to find ice cream and Oreo's."
"And chips, get chips." Jason called from Mark's room. "With french onion dip."
"I guess I'm talking you for ice cream." He went to their room for their jackets. "It's twelve degrees out, but we're going for ice cream."
"And Oreo's." She grinned putting on her jacket.
"Don't forget chips." Jason called as they walked out the door.
"You think he's finally gonna do it? I can't take much more of this." Maureen said with her usual dramatic flare.
"Well your making Roger crazy Mo!" Jen told her.
"You're not much better!"
"Everybody just relax. Technically we shouldn't even know any of this." Collins told them all.
****************
Roger pushed open the deli door for Cass as they walked out into the light falling snow. "You're sure we've got everything? They have any junk food left in there?"
"Oh you are so funny Davis."
"I'm serious Babe. You got the munchies? You smoking weed down in Jen's apartment or something?" He teased her.
"No, it just sounded good. Not all at he same time." She grinned sliding her arm around him
He pulled her close as they walked. "You have a good Christmas Baby?"
"Yes I did. It was wonderful I love my necklace. Today was perfect." She hugged him. "What about you? Did you have a good Christmas?"
"Yeah, pretty good." He grinned at her. Okay Davis you can do this.
"Only pretty good?" She looked up at him. "Can I make it better?"
"Maybe." He looked at her as they rounded the corner onto 11th Street. He stopped walking and set down the bag of groceries on the step to the building. "Cass, I, um…" He trailed off, taking her hand as he faced her.
"What Roger?"
"I, ah, um I got something else for you." He reached into his pocket, running his fingers over the velvet box. "I love you Cass, you know that. I really, love you. And the baby. More than I could ever tell you. I never thought I'd live this long Cass, and I only got so much time left. I don't know how much, but I want to spend all of it with you. All of it." He pulled the box out of his pocket. "I, um, here." He thrust the box forward.
Cass just looked at it for a second before taking it. She held it in her hand as if afraid to open it. Roger reached over and pulled open the box. He heard her gasp.
"Roger, I…"
"He took a deep breath and spit the words out real fast. "Cass you wanna get married?" When he finished he realized that he was sweating even though it was so cold out.
"I…"
"Baby, I know I've got a lot of baggage. I can't change any of that, but I love you."
"I love you too."
"Baby I want to be with you forever, at least as long as my forever is."
"Me too." She looked up at him.
"So do you wanna marry me?"
She kept looking in his eyes as she nodded. "Uh huh."
"Really?" He sounded almost surprised.
"Yes." She answered in a raspy whisper, still holding his gaze.
He knew he had a huge stupid grin on his face. Roger finally looked down and realized she was still holding the open box. He reached down and pulled the ring out with one hand and took her glove off with the other. He could feel her hand shaking as he slid the platinum set diamond onto her finger. "I love you Cass." He pulled her close and kissed her. She tried to say it back to him but ended up mumbling it as she kissed him back. Her hands went around his neck as he lifted her almost off the ground.
The street was quiet with the snow falling. The few cars that passed neither of them heard. The silence that surrounded them was only broken by the screechy voice yelling from above.
"Well?" Maureen screamed down from the open window.
Their kiss was broken as Cass started laughing. When they looked up all three windows across the front of the loft were open with two people each leaning out of them. "Sorry!" Mark yelled down, dragging Maureen, who had most of her body out the window back inside the building.
"Close the damn windows!" Roger yelled up at them as Cass laughed.
"Sorry Rog!" Jason yelled out.
"But what did she say?" Jennifer was hollering out the window as Jason pulled on her shoulder.
"I guess I should tell you, they sort of knew." Roger explained to Cass. "I mean they weren't supposed to, it just sort of happened. Mark flipped out, and called Collins and then to fix that I sorta had to tell them which lead to well, Jen and Mo, and you know how that goes. Sorry."
"It's okay. We'd have to tell them anyway. Besides it explains why they have all been acting so weird all day." She laughed.
"Are you gonna tell us what's going on?" Maureen yelled.
Maybe you better tell them before Mo hurts herself." Cass laughed.
"Maybe." Roger laughed. "Okay." He looked up at the windows where they all still were. "We're gonna get married." He yelled up at the windows.
The six of them all started yelling and whistling out the windows. "We better go inside." Cass laughed. "Either somebody's going to get hurt or arrested."
"Whatever you want Baby." He told her as they started to walk up the steps. He had already opened the door when he remembered to go back and pick up the bag of groceries off the bottom step.
**************
It took a few minutes for them to make it up to the fourth floor. Every few steps, Roger would stop and kiss her. When they finally reached the loft everyone was waiting for them. "God it's freezing in here." Cass exclaimed walking in the door.
"That's because they had all the windows open." Roger told her, laughing.
By then they were surrounded by everyone, talking at once and Cass was getting pulled around by Jen and Maureen who kept going on and on.
"Let me see!"
"He picked that out on his own?"
"Oh my God, I still don't believe it." The two of them rambled on.
Mark looked guiltily at Roger. "Sorry. You know how they get. I tried to keep her quiet, but she bit me."
Roger looked up and started laughing. "She bit you?"
"Hey it's not funny. I was trying to help you out."
"Thanks, I appreciate that." He laughed as the girls moved back over towards them. "You bit him?" He looked at Maureen as Cass gave them a strange look.
"It was a strategic maneuver." She blew it off. "So, details. When are you getting married? And where? And what about a reception? And a dress? And who gets to be in it? Come on tell us!"
Cass and Roger started laughing. "Yeah Mo," he told her, "we figured all that out on the walk up the stairs.
Everybody laughed at that. Around then Ginny showed up at the loft. "Hey! I thought you were having a Christmas party up here?" She said dropping two bags of chips and dip on the counter.
They were filling her in on everything that happened when the phone rang. Jason, sitting the closest, answered it. "Who's this?" He asked. "Yeah, hold on a second." He covered the phone with his hand. "Cass, it's your father. You want to talk to him?"
"He's calling now?" She looked at her watch. "He must be in the states. Yes, I'll talk to him." She picked up the new cordless phone she had gotten them for Christmas when she realized it wasn't charged yet, she took the phone from Jason and dragged it towards their room where Roger was standing in the doorway. She moved past him into the room. "Close the door." She whispered, motioning for him to come sit on the bed with her.
"Hey." Cass said into the phone. "Where are you?"
"LA. I called to tell you Merry Christmas."
"Thanks. You too." Cass told him.
"I, uh, wanted to get you something for Christmas. Something you need. I was thinking about a car. Sound good sweetie?"
"I live in New York Carlton. Cars aren't exactly practical. I don't want a car."
"Cassiopeia how are you getting around? The subway? Be reasonable."
"I am being reasonable. Subways and cabs are way more practical than a car. Besides parking is too difficult."
"Are you still living in that dump?"
"Yes. It's coming along nicely. The renovations are almost finished."
"You're wasting your money."
"It's my money to waste."
"Well if you don't want a car for Chirstmas what do you want?"
"World peace?"
"Very funny. Look I'm going to send you a check. No wait. I'll send you a pre paid debit card. That way you don't have to worry about the bank or anything."
"You don't have to." She told him.
"No, I want to. I'll have one of the girls send it out tomorrow. Ten thousand dolars. Buy some decent thinks for that place you live in. Maybe an alarm. And a gun."
"It's not that bad of a place. But thanks."
"I miss you, you know. You're okay though? Those guys are taking good care of you?"
"They have names Carlton." She looked down at her ring, playing with it on her finger before looking down at Roger who had lain down on the bed behind her. "And yes, they are taking very good care of me. I'm fine. We all are." She smiled at Roger.
"Well, good, I guess. Do you need anything?"
"No. Wait yes. I want my jewelry. All of it. Especially Mama's. Before Gigi sinks her greedy little claws into any of it."
"Your aunt is not going to do anything to your mother's jewelry."
"Oh please! She's wanted her jewelry for years. You said you're in LA right? Just pack everything up and send somebody out here with it."
"That's a lot of jewelry for your current neighborhood. Besides you never wear any of it."
"They have safety deposit boxes in New York Carlton. And whether I wear it or not, it's mine. I inherited it from Mama and I want it. More importantly I don't want Gigi anywhere near it."
"Okay." He sighed. "I'll take care of it. I think I've got someone going out there right after New Years. I'll set it up and let you know."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome. I should go. Merry Christmas."
"You too. Bye." With that she hung up the phone.
Roger had been rubbing her shoulders while she talked. "You okay Baby?"
"Yes." She leaned back against him.
"What was all that about cars and jewelry?" He asked as he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer on the bed.
"He wanted to buy me a car. I told him no." She shrugged. "He's sending me a pre paid debit card instead." She shrugged.
"Oh." He propped himself up on his elbow.
"As for the jewelry, he's sending me mine. Everything I got form my mother."
"I noticed you didn't mention anything about us to him." He said as he intertwined their fingers and played with her ring.
"Well it's none of his business." She rolled onto her back, looking up at him. "He doesn't need to know anything. I don't want him around trying to ruin everything."
"Okay, whatever you want Baby."
"I just want you. Forever."
"You got it." He grinned down at her.
"I still can't believe you want to get married."
"Honestly, neither can I, but I do. Wherever, whenever, and however you want." He kissed her quick.
"Really?"
"Really. I'll take you to the courthouse tomorrow if you want. Just you, me and Mark. I'll do whatever you want."
"I love you Roger." She held him tight.
"I love you too Baby." He kissed her again. "So what do you want?"
"Just you."
"We established that. I mean to get married. What do you want?"
She thought about it for a second. "What I really want is just to marry you. But what I'd like is a wedding sort of. I'd like just one thing in my life to be semi normal."
"Okay. So what do you want to do?"
"Well," she smiled up at him, playing with her ring. "I'm not exactly thinking four hundred people and a sit down dinner. But maybe a little more than you, me and Mark. Like maybe us and our friends. And maybe a small party. And a dress. I'd kind of like a real dress. But that means we have to do it soon. Before I explode to the size of a house. Or else wait till after the baby's born."
"I kinda want to do it before the baby's born." He told her.
"Really?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Then we'd have to do it soon." She looked up at him.
"Then we will. Party, friends, dress soon. It sounds kinda expensive though. You may have to settle for the Life Café. But if that's what you want, you got it Baby."
Well, maybe we can do better than Life Café. We'll let my father pay for it." She grinned. "He's supposed to anyway."
"Wouldn't that require telling and maybe inviting him as well as seeing him?"
"Or we use the pre paid debit card he's sending me for Christmas. That should cover a dress and one hell of a dinner."
"How much is he sending you?" He asked surprised.
"Ten thousand dollars. I told you he wanted to get me a car."
"Oh." He didn't really know what to say.
"Look, he's sending the money, we might as well use it."
Roger just looked at her. He didn't like taking money from her father. He didn't like that Cass paid for everything already anyway. But she wanted a wedding. If it took swallowing whatever pride he had to get her that, he could do it. "Okay. If we gotta use your dad's money to give you a wedding, that's what we'll do." He kissed her forehead.
**************
They lay on the bed, talking for awhile longer. They could hear everyone out in the other room talking. Talking about them. "We should go back out there." Cass told him.
He kissed her again, running his hand up her back under her shirt. "But I'd rather stay in here. With you."
"But everybody's out there. Waiting."
"Let them wait." He told her, kissing her again.
"Izzy won't like that." She told him, hearing Izzy's voice out in the living room.
"Screw Izzy." He said kissing her again.
"Yo Davis, get your ass out here!" Izzy yelled, banging on the wall.
"Told you." Cass laughed, sitting up.
"I gotta talk to him about his timing. It really sucks."
"Come on!" She laughed, pulling him up. They walked out and the excitement started up again added in by Ginny, Krystal and Leslie who had also shown up. Izzy had gone down to help Andrew bring up his drums.
"So, let me see." Krystal told Cass, grabbing her hand. "I still can't believe it." She shook her head.
"Friggin amazing." Ginny said popping open a beer Izzy had brought.
"So what are you going to do? And when?" Leslie asked her as Roger walked over for a beer.
"You won't believe this, but hey haven't bothered to figure that out yet." Maureen told her, almost disgusted.
"And I can't believe you bit Mark." Roger laughed, opening his beer. "And for your information Maureen, we did figure all that out." All the girls and Mark just looked at him as he continued. "Cass wants a wedding, so she get a wedding." With that he walked over to where Andrew was setting up his drums.
"Really?" Jen asked wide-eyed.
"Uh huh." Cass nodded, still not quite believing everything that had gone on that day.
As the girls talked and Cass relayed the conversation she and Roger had just had to them, Mark walked over to Roger. "Have you got any idea at all what you're doing?" Roger looked up at him with the stupidest look on his face. If Mark didn't know better, he would have thought Roger was already drunk.
"Nope." He just kept grinning. "Not a clue." He tuned his guitar some. "But I kinda like it that way for a change."
"You owe me so big Davis! After spending over 24 hours with Krystal's family, I tell her what's going on and she flips on me. Now for some reason she's pissed at me."
"Really?" Jason asked. "How long have you been going out with her Iz?"
"I don't know." He played with his bass. "Like nine years."
"Really. Can't imagine why she's giving you grief Iz." Andrew laughed.
"No, me either." Jason started laughing as well.
"Whatever. Are we playing or not?" Izzy ignored him, fiddling with his amp.
"Only if we can get lover boy's attention" Andrew motioned towards Roger who was talking to Mark. "Not that I have anything better to do anyways. Since my girlfriend and her crazy twin left me to go visit their insane family."
"Hey speaking of that," Jason asked him. "Do you know what really happened between Mark and Joellen?"
"No." Andrew shook his head. "I mean I know it wasn't like some big fight or anything. They just started seeing other people or something I guess. I don't know. Luckily, I'm not privy to all the inside sister stuff." He shrugged. "I guess it was no big deal."
"Oh. I was just wondering. I mean it just seems like Joellen just sort of disappeared."
"Yeah, she has a habit of doing that with the guys she dates. Plus she doesn't really like competition. And let's face it, with Mark, she had a two many people to compete with."
"Yeah, I know what you mean." He nodded, looking towards Roger and Mark who where still talking.
"I told you." Roger said, playing with the volume on the amp. "She wants a wedding and a party and a dress. Which means soon. Whatever she wants."
"Roger…"
"Mark…" Roger mocked him. "Look, what's wrong?"
"Nothing." Mark said looking from Roger to Cass. Both of them were grinning like idiots. "You know, this might be one of the few good ideas you've ever had."
"Thanks." He looked at him somewhat confused as he grinned. "I think."
"Rog, let's go!" Andrew called to him.
Roger flipped the last switch on the amp as he nodded. They started playing and played all night. Without complaint Roger did Christmas music. Even Izzy's beloved 80's music. They played all night till almost two in the morning. Then they sat around talking for another hour.
"I'm out of here." Andrew told them. "I'll pick my drums up later this week. Thanks Rog. And congratulations."
"Thanks. See you Andrew."
"Yeah we gotta go too. I'll pick my bass and amp up tomorrow before practice."
"Do I get a ride with your bass or do I still have to walk?"
"Funny jackass. Just be ready. Where's Krystal?" He looked around, not seeing her.
"She' laying down in our room. She has been for two hours." Roger laughed at him.
"Izzy went to get her and leave as Collins moved into his seat, yawning.
"You guys can stay here if you want, leave Mark on the couch. He won't know the difference anyway." He motioned towards the passed out Mark at the other end of the couch.
"Naw, that's okay. I'd rather sleep in, instead of be here when the invasion hits tomorrow."
"What are you talking about?" Roger laughed quietly, trying not to wake Cass who was leaning against him, fast asleep.
"Noon tomorrow all the girls are coming over to get Cass and plan your wedding." Jason laughed.
"Yeah," Collins told him. "Joanne and Jen are on vacation the rest of this week. Mo's off tomorrow and Thursday and Krystal is on Christmas break like us."
"Great." Roger said somewhat unenthusiastically.
"Oh buddy, you have no idea." Jason laughed. "I mean girls and a wedding. You're doomed." He shrugged.
"What's the big deal?"
Collins laughed as Jason explained. "Don't you realized girls live for weddings? I mean most of them start planning these things around sixth grade. If it's not theirs, they'll impose their wedding plans on their friends.
"And look at who we're talking about here. Two lesbians, with little hope of a 'real' wedding. Krystal who's been waiting on Izzy for almost a decade. And then there's my sister."
"How do you know all this stuff?" Roger asked him.
"Please! I've known I was gay since night grade. My sister hated everyone in our small little town. I was her best girlfriend. I had to fix her hair, shop with her and look at all her stupid magazines. That's how I know all this. It's also why my father assumed I turned out gay, but that's not the point. The point is, out of all those girls, Cass is the only one with the chance of a wedding and the financial resources to have the wedding they all dream of."
"He's right." Collins laughed. "You may be getting married, but Mo, Joanne, Jen and Krystal are getting a wedding."
"And what about her?" Roger asked pointing at the still sleeping Cass.
"Cass?" Jason asked. "She's not like them. I doubt she grew up dreaming of all this stuff like them. Probably not one of her junior high priorities."
"True." Collins agreed. "She may want a wedding, but what she really wants is to marry you. Not completely sure why, but to each their own I guess." He grinned. "Come on, let's go home." He and Jason stood, said goodbye and left.
Roger just sat on the couch for a few more minutes. Cass was sound asleep in one corner, her legs over his lap, and Mark was passed out at the other end of the couch. He watched her sleep for a minute before brushing her hair off her face.
She was so beautiful. He was right, he really didn't have the slightest idea what he was doing, and he didn't care. This was the first time in a really long time that things felt so right. That's why none of this bothered him. At all.
Roger gently inched forward while working his arm behind her back. In one movement he scooped her up and stood up, carrying her to their room.
"What's going on?" She mumbled into his shoulder.
"Nothing Baby, go back to sleep." He laid her down on the bed and puled off her shoes before sliding her jeans off and covering her up with the blanket. She mumbled something he didn't understand. He just grinned and kissed her on the forehead. "Shhh, Baby go to sleep."
He stood up and went back into the living room. Mark was leaned up against the arm of the couch, sound asleep and glasses askew on his face. Roger knew Mark hadn't had that much to drink so he figured it was more a combination of a few beers and Mark being really tired. "Marky." He gently shook him as he hoisted him off the couch. "Marky wake up."
"Where'd everybody go?" He asked sleepily.
Roger laughed and adjusted Mark's glasses. "They all went home. It's really late." He walked him to his bedroom door. "You okay Marky?"
"Yeah, I'm just really tired." He yawned. "Night Rog."
"Night buddy." He grinned at him as he turned back towards his room.
"Hey Rog?"
"Yeah?" He turned back around.
"I, uh, I just wanted to tell you, I, uh, I'm real glad for you and Cass. I think it's a good thing."
"Thanks." He pulled him close and hugged him. "You know you're my best friend Mark and nothing will ever change that right?"
"Yeah, I know." Mark told him, hugging him back. "You too."
"Go to bed." Roger said as he let go of him and started towards his room.