When Nina woke up the next morning, she found him still sleeping beside her. She watched him. She was starting to feel things, too. She'd never been a romantic or anything of the like. But she was beginning to have warm feelings in her heart for the man. His playful demeanor that she completely saw past. His thick dark hair and wide smile. The complete devotion he obviously had for his job and his city. He slowly started to wake up. He opened an eye to her and smiled. "Hey," he whispered. He put an arm on her hip and leaned in for a kiss.

"Hey," she replied. His lips and hand started roaming. Another point that she had to add to her warm thoughts list.

Time moved on. They saw each other more often. Dinners or movies, nights staying in. As the weeks went on, each touch was longer, each word softer, and she caught him staring a whole lot more. She did her amount of staring as well though. Things were easy, relaxed, and most important: drama free. The benefits of casual, but with more time spent together and not seeing anyone else. They missed the point where they became exclusive and morphed into a couple. They just kept on being them. All the while keeping it out of the office and quiet from everyone they worked with. Not on purpose, it just never came up. Until one day, months after it had all started, and Mike showed up at her apartment after work.

"You home?" He called, as he walked in the door.

"Would I have buzzed you in if I wasn't?" She replied from the kitchen. He rolled his eyes and went towards her voice.

"It's a figure of speech."

"Asking if I'm home is a figure of speech. Since when?" She glanced up at him as he stepped into the kitchen and looked her over.

"What the hell are you doing?" He asked. The kitchen was an absolute mess. There were mixing bowls, egg shells, flour, and other randomness strewn about. Nina herself was covered in flour, batter, and had a mixing bowl in her arms. She was stirring it, but having a hard time about it.

"Baking," she told him.

"You don't bake," he informed her. He walked up and looked into her mixing bowl. It contained...there weren't quite words to explain what it contained. It may have at one time been batter, but it looked more like a gray cement with bugs stuck in it.

"I hadn't made cookies in a few years, I thought maybe I could do it now." She looked up at him. He wiped a glob of batter from her nose and grinned.

"Sweetheart, that," he pointed to the bowl, "will never be cookies." He took the bowl from her and tossed the entire thing in the sink. Then he took a towel and wiped her face. "Go clean yourself up, I'll..." he swept his eyes around the room. "Take care of all this."

"But I have to make something to take with us tonight."

"Why?"

"Because we're about to go to dinner with a bunch of people that don't know about us, and the least I can do is bring cookies. Besides, it's polite to bring something when you go to someone's house for dinner."

"I think with what we're celebrating people won't be-" he stopped at her raised eye. "Okay, so they'll notice. So what?"

"Well we've been doing a good job at keeping this off the gossip network."

"That was before," he shrugged and started cleaning up.

"Before what?" She asked. He didn't reply, and after awhile she gave up and went to wash.

When she got out of the shower she noticed that he'd turned on his favorite Frank CD, and it made her smile. She went into her room and found a simple dress to wear that evening. It was the beginning of summer, and she was excited to wear a light dress. It was a blush strawberry piece with spaghetti straps that fell just below her knees. She went back to the bathroom to blow dry her hair and as she did, Mike entered the room and sat himself on her bed.

Nina finished her hair and stepped into the bedroom again. Mike looked her over approvingly. "You look good," he said.

"Thank you, are you going to get dressed now?"

"Thought I'd go like this," he said.

"No. You wore that to work, and it's too dressy for a dinner party."

"Fine, as soon as you're ready we'll go to my place so I can change."

"Fine," she replied. She walked past the bed and he snagged her arm and yanked her down beside him. "What?"

"You look good," he said again. She laughed.

"You're..." she shook her head. When her laughter faded, she scooted back on the bed and took his hand in hers. She wove her fingers through his and placed her other hand around his arm. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Do what?"

"Go tonight. This party. It's gonna be people you work with..."

"Yea...and your partner will be there. Your point?"

"My point is...people will say things. People will think things."

"Yea," he nodded.

"Things like...couple...dating...involved..."

"Yea," he said again.

"You okay with that?"

"Are you okay with it? Why you making a big deal outta this?"

"Because we've avoided these people, every time we get invited out, one of us doesn't go...or we both don't go...now we're going. We're showing up together. I'm all for it, I just want you to be."

"I'm for it. Let's go," he said. "I still need to change." He stood up and brought her to her feet. "You ready?"

"Five minutes." He left the room and she pulled her shoes on, thinking it all over. He sounded convincing, but there still seemed to be something not being said. She walked to the living room.

"Do we have to take a gift to this party?" He asked.

"It's a housewarming, or well, apartment warming. I got a bottle of wine for us to give them, that should be good enough."

He grinned. "See? Knew there was a reason I was taking you along." He went to the player to turn the CD off. She moved over and placed a hand over his, stopping him.

"What did you mean earlier?"

"When?" He asked.

"When you said, 'that was before'?"

"Y'know...before."

"Before what?"

He pulled his hand free of hers. "Geez, Nina, do we have to do this?" He set his jaw in frustration.

"Sorry," she said quietly. She looked at him. "I didn't mean to piss you off, I'm sorry. Let's go, okay?" Feeling stupid for giving him a hard time, she was ready to drop it. Stupid fights weren't their way of doing things. No, they played it cool. Uncomplicated.

He stood still as she went to get her jacket and purse. When she walked by again, he took her hand. He didn't look at her for a minute, then he met her eyes. "Before," he said gently. "As in, before things changed."

"What's changed?"

He contemplated her question a moment, then put an arm around her waist and pulled her tight against him and kissed her. When he released her he whispered down on her, "You know what."

She reclaimed her breath from the kiss and exhaled, "Yea," she nodded. "I know."

Neither said anything more. It didn't need saying, but Frank sang anyway, "Who knows where the road will lead us. Only a fool would say. But if you'll let me love you, it's for sure. I'm gonna love you, all the way, all the way."

The End

Songs included by Frank Sinatra, "A Lovely Way To Spend An Evening", "Call Me Irresponsible", and "All The Way". Story titled from "My Way," by Frank Sinatra.