Disclaimer: I don't own Castle. The only profit being made is my own amusement (and hopefully yours).
May
On Memorial Day weekend, Castle invites the whole team out to the Hamptons for Alexis' graduation party. Josh isn't there; he has yet another full day of surgeries scheduled.
The water looks incredibly inviting, but she's a bit uncomfortable with the thought of him studying her in her bathing suit, finding the tiny tattoo on her hip that only her boyfriends have seen. So they sit on the sand under Ryan's rainbow umbrella (Ryan, of course, insists that Jenny picked it out). As Castle not-so-subtly keeps a careful eye on what Alexis and Ashley are doing in the waves, they chat about their favorite childhood memories of the beach. All of a sudden Castle asks, casual as can be, "So how's this compared to Asbury?"
She keeps forgetting how much he does and doesn't know about what happened with Tom. She knows he's fishing for information, so she answers, very carefully, "We ended up not going."
He looks surprised and a bit unsure of how to respond. "Oh. Too bad. Work?"
"Yeah." It's technically true. She had worked all weekend after he'd left her standing there in the hallway, completely humiliated and heartbroken. She refuses to tell him that she'd ended it with Tom just several minutes earlier; it isn't really fair that she should have to be the one to make the first step twice. And after all, she thinks, she's already given him enough hints—codes and riddles about some apple cart and he'll only let you down.
Later that afternoon they'll be strolling along the shore. He'll pick her up, bridal-style, and toss her into the waves, T-shirt and shorts and flip-flops and all. She'll threaten to shoot him but honestly, this is what she meant when she talked about feeling alive.