Dean stormed out of the room. Only when he left he realized how far-reaching the situation was. He hadn't really thought about it until then. And when it came to him, he needed to escape, to get away from it. It made him feel a little suffocating. It came too soon. They've been together only for something more than a month. The things were fine as they were, he didn't want anything to change. Or, actually, he did. Just in a different way.
His girlfriend was still inside; she had no intentions of following him. He said he would come back, after all. The discussion was not over yet. She probably thought it would go differently. She made her point clear; no ambiguity could arise from her speech, so why did he seem confused? Why didn't he tell her his genuine opinion right away? Why did he leave and, maybe unconsciously, make her feel guilty? She didn't have much chance to look him in the eye and try to find out what he was thinking; he left almost immediately. Actually, after she broke the news to him, he stayed sitting on the side of the bed for a short time, then he stood up and, without a sufficient explanation, left the room.
But getting away from the crime scene didn't suffice. He went farther. Only when he found himself standing on the street in front of a highway he stopped from escaping. He needed to sort out his priorities and decide what it was that he wanted. It wasn't too late to make a decision, he still had a choice. But before he could choose which road to take, he needed to know all the facts. Only then he could decide whether what Cassie told him was good or bad news. He took a deep breath and turned around. But he didn't return to his room. He went somewhere else.
Renee left. It was time for Dean to pay attention to his girlfriend, but he kept staring at the door. It was not fully closed. It didn't seem to bother Cassie, yet Dean wondered why Renee left it open. It probably wasn't intentional; she simply didn't use enough strength to close it and then she didn't notice there was a gap between the door and the wall. When she stepped out of the room, she didn't look back to be able to see it but kept walking away. She wanted to get away from there.
Dean, with his eyes on the door, slowly walked toward it. Then he looked outside, as if he hoped to find somebody there. Nobody was in sight. Dean sensed that something was wrong. There were no real hints, but everything felt out of place to him. When he returned inside and finally got the door closed, he saw Cassie sitting on the bed, looking back at him, trying to figure out what caused his strange behavior and lack of attention.
"Are you okay?" he asked, as if she was the one whose actions were odd.
"Yeah," she replied. She decided not to ask him any questions and focus on the topic she had in mind instead. She planned everything ahead. She prepared her argument well, since she knew that Dean was a challenging opponent in talking. She was decent, but she realized that if they ever got into a fight, she had no chance of winning. Fortunately, this conversation could not result in an argument. At least that was her opinion.
"I've got a job offer," she went straight to the main point.
Dean's heart started to beat faster. His mind was a little slow in receiving and evaluating the new information but his reflexes worked well. Until now, there was an unnecessary distance between the two of them, created by Dean standing beside the wall. He started walking and stopped only in front of Cassie. Then he sat down and faced her, getting ready for what she was about to say, for he knew there was more to come.
"I know we haven't been a couple for long," she started, "so it would be fair if I made the decision on my own, but I believe I should give you a chance to have a say, because it involves you as well. The way I see it, what we have is a kind of a long-distance relationship and it certainly has its ups and downs. It works but it doesn't feel very serious." She made a pause to see if he had something to say to that. He didn't seem to want to add anything, so she went on, "Now there's a chance to change it. If I take the job, it can help us evolve as a couple, or it can destroy our relationship," she listed the possibilities.
"What do you think?" he surprised her with a question, but he didn't really pay attention to it or anticipated her answer.
"I think it'll get us to a new level," she admitted, and hoped he would agree.
"So where is it?" he wanted to know.
She smiled and then replied, "In Vegas."
"In Vegas . . ." he repeated, but those words made no sense to him. His mind was refusing to accept the whole conversation and take part in it. He seemed absent. He had only a blurred idea of what was going on. "In Vegas . . ." he pronounced the words again, hoping their meaning would stop hiding from him. But something inside of him kept rejecting everything he received by his senses.
"Yes . . ." Cassie got ready to explain why it was a good thing. "I know it'd be different to live in the same city, but when you travel so much, we don't get to see each other often and it's quite annoying, to be honest. This is a great opportunity to spend more time together. I mean, I can refuse the offer, but it seems to me that it would be stupid, since it could actually help our situation. That way, we could have an actual relationship, with everything," she said and winked at him. "So what do you think? I should accept it, shouldn't I?" she asked hesitantly, and hoped to find support in him. But he was different than usual; he was quiet, and he was really hard to read.
He sat quietly next to her, absently looking at the door. After a few seconds, he remembered, though, that she posed him a question. She wanted to know what he was thinking, if he considered it to be good news. And more importantly, whether he wanted to spend all his free time with her or not.
"Yeah," he replied slowly, which made his answer sound hesitant. Two different thinking processes were going on his mind. One was being suppressed and viewed as not so important, but still quite upsetting and influential since it fuelled the other one. The one that kept his mind busy, thinking and rethinking, trying to find a reason why it was so.
Suddenly he stood up, mumbled, "I'll be back," and then he was gone.
He headed back to the hotel, but to a different room. He took an elevator to the eighth floor, and then he turned right to find the room number 16. He knocked twice and waited anxiously to get inside.
"That was fast," she noted.
Dean did not respond to that; he walked farther inside and found himself a comfortable chair to sit in. For about five seconds, he simply stared at her. She was confused, but he didn't care to explain. Not yet. He wanted to observe first. He wanted to make sure his assumptions were correct. He thought about it again. He revised all the hints and finally came to a conclusion. There could be no doubts.
A deep sigh came out of his mouth as he let his head fall backwards. A smile formed on his face, but it soon grew into a laughter. For once, it was nice to be the one in knowledge. And while his behavior might have seemed strange and unreasonable to her, it made perfect sense to him. This time he knew exactly what was going on. He eagerly stood up and looked at her again.
"It's me, isn't it?" he asked her a simple question. He didn't need an answer though, he knew he was right.
"What?" she pretended not to know what he was talking about, but her fast heartbeat failed her effort.
"You love me," he explained with a smile on his face. "You said it's never been Seth, so it must be me. You have feelings for me. Am I right, Renee?"