It was Nora who had finally decided that enough was enough and invited both Miles and Bass over with the hope of forcing them to make up.
"What's he doing here?" Miles grumbled out unhappily as his girlfriend let Bass into her apartment.
"You two are going to get over this now so that I don't have to listen to you complaining anymore," she insisted as she stared pointedly over at Miles.
"If I have to be in the same room as him, then I'm not nearly drunk enough," he grumbled out in response before downing what was left of his drink. He turned his attention to the model as he added, "You're a real prick, you know that?"
"You're pissed, I get it, but you do realize that she's old enough to make her own decisions, right?" Bass questioned.
Miles didn't want to hear it, especially since he had found out that Nora was all for the relationship and had even encouraged Bass to pursue his niece.
"You told me that you were going to stay away from Charlie," Miles pointed out once again. "I know you were running out of girls who you hadn't already ensured wouldn't voluntarily come within ten yards of you, but that doesn't mean that you could go after her."
"I like her Miles," Bass insisted. "I wasn't expecting this anymore than you were."
The other man let out a choked chuckle at that. "I saw you going after her coming from the beginning."
"So then why are you so pissed?" The model demanded.
"Because I asked you to stay away from one person, Bass!" Miles shouted out. "Is it really that hard to stay away from her?"
"What if it is?" He questioned. "I didn't mean for this to happen, okay? I tried to follow your stupid rules, but I couldn't. So if you want to be pissed, then fine. Go ahead. I'll give you a free shot." With that the model stepped until he was standing right in front of his manager and spread his arms out from his sides, waiting for the blow to come. "I'll even let you go for the face."
Miles fiddled with his empty glass for a few moments as he stared up at the other man. Finally, he moved to stand up in front of him and took a step a little too close to effectively try to hit him. He stared the model down for a few seconds longer before he set his glass down on the table and told him, "I'll take a rain-check on that."
With that, Miles pushed past his confused looking friend to pour himself another drink.
"So you're telling me that you don't want to punch me right now?" Bass asked in surprise.
Miles hesitated and turned back around to face him. "Oh, I definitely want to punch you. If it weren't for Charlie, I already would have. With or without a free shot... A broken nose is bad for business though anyways, so I'll take a rain-check. But if you do anything to hurt her, I will hurt you ten times worse. You'll be the most disfigured model around."
"Deal," Bass agreed.
Miles hesitated with the bottle of scotch still in his hand for a moment longer before asking, "So are you drinking or what?"
Bass wasn't back when Charlie drifted off to sleep. She woke up again when he came back, at the sound of the bathroom door shutting. The only light in the room was coming from the small space between the wooden door and the floor. She forced herself upwards and reached over to grab her phone off of the bedside table. She glanced down at the screen to find that it was even later than she had been expecting.
He reemerged from the restroom as she was setting her phone back down.
Charlie sat up with heavy muscles and peered over at him, squinting a little from the light of the washroom which was shining behind him.
He wavered in the doorway for a moment. His mind was still a little fuzzy from the drinks he'd had before Nora had driven him home.
"You're back late," she commented. "Does that mean you and Miles are back on good terms again?"
He moved towards the bed as he responded, "He doesn't want to kill me anymore, if that's what you mean... At least not for now."
As he got into bed, she let out a small laugh. "I can smell your breath from here."
"You think I drank a lot, you should have seen your uncle," he insisted as he shifted closer to her under the covers.
As he wrapped an arm around her waist, she turned and smirked over at him. She brought her lips to his and stifled another laugh as she pulled away at the strength of the taste of alcohol on his mouth. He nuzzled closer, burying his face in her neck, then let out a contented sigh. "I guess this whole just sleeping thing isn't completely awful."
A/N: Please read and review! I've got the rest of the chapters written so there should be daily updates from now on. And another gigantic thanks goes out to RevolutionReader, KimberlyHavey, driver picks the music, LemonSupreme, Dark-Supernatural-Angel, Hollywoodlove09, IceonFire7, banneg, ToTheSkyAndBack, missing-a-place-vie-never-been, and the anonymous guest for reviewing last chapter! :D