"May I help you?" Well, that was odd, Dean thought to himself. When he heard that Cassie was with her friend, he imagined a female of the same age as Cassie, a brunette. Not too tall, not too short. Always smiling as Cassie was. Friendly. But the person that opened the door was a young male, a little shorter than Dean, looking rather suspiciously.

"Is Cassie here?"

Dean wasn't able to sound normal; he felt strange and he wanted to know who this guy was. And why was Cassie at his place? Dean had no right to be jealous, yet he was. And he certainly didn't like this random person. Fortunately, he somehow managed to avoid asking the question that lingered on his mind – Who the fuck are you?

"Cass," the guy shouted, still keeping his eyes on the uninvited guest. The suspicion was mutual. "You know this guy?"

Dean could hear her certain steps.

"Dean," she said happily. Dean thought he would keep his cool and stay confident, not showing any affection, but he couldn't. It didn't matter that he was standing beside a complete stranger when he saw her face. It's been such a long time. And Dean suddenly realized – as if he has only been told – that it would be the last time.

She didn't hold back at all. She hugged him, excited to see him. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Looking for you," he replied quietly. The guy didn't need to be a part of the conversation.

"How did you know where I'd be?"

"Josh and Levi told me."

"You were at the wedding?" She probably really didn't think he would come. Now that she knew he did, she was incredibly happy. "Come inside," she said, like it was her house.

The real owner of the house just accepted the situation.

Dean whispered, "I'd rather go somewhere else. Just you and I."

Cassie sensed Dean had a problem with her companion. "Pete's cool."

"Pete?" The disdain was evident.

She nodded. Their relation clearly wasn't important to her. But Dean wanted to know. Family member? Friend? Boyfriend?

"I'd still prefer being alone with you."

"Okay," Cassie surrendered. No; she understood. If this was their last time ever, asking for privacy wasn't that much.

"Pete." The guy looked back. "I'll be right back." She gave him a kiss on the cheek, which didn't explain anything to Dean. But at least she didn't kiss him on his mouth.

About coming back, Dean thought that maybe he'd be able to change her mind about that, too.

Cassie went to take her purse, but since Pete – oh, how Dean hated him – followed her to the living room, Dean waited alone. He wanted to be gone from this house as soon as possible. Cassie came to him, wearing the same clothes as before. Jeans and a two-colored tank top. Now they were ready to leave.

"Where now?" Cassie asked when she stepped out of the door. Their destination wasn't clear yet.

"Anywhere you want."

"I don't care. But it's getting late, so." Not that she was tired or would get scared walking in a dark city, she just wanted Dean to know that she didn't plan on staying long.

"How about this," Dean came with an idea. "We go to my hotel room, then we stop by at Josh's wedding, and finally I return you to this nobody."

"No," she refused.

"No to what?"

"All of it."

"You mind being alone with me?" Of course he minded her rejection of the first part of the offer the most.

"No," she replied shortly.

So far they only got to a bench on the same street as was the house of this Pete guy. Cassie sat down and Dean felt obliged to do the same. "You really don't wanna go somewhere else?" It was dark outside and this street was quiet. No traffic and no people. Just Cassie and Dean and the street lighting. Now that Dean realized these conditions, it wasn't that bad. Just the closeness of the house they just left bothered him.

"How's the wedding?" Cassie asked after the moment of silence.

"All right, I guess." He asked, "Why didn't you go?"

"I did."

"Okay. Why did you leave so early?"

"I don't like weddings."

Dean chuckled. "Why? Because there's always somebody to remind you you're next?"

"If anything, Levi's next," she joked. "But hey, how come you came?"

"I promised it to you."

"I don't dwell on promises," uttered Cassie. "I never thought you did."

"I don't know, Cass. If you knew what I had to go through just to get here . . . it'd be a wasted opportunity not to come. But I almost didn't come . . . a couple of times."

"You were going back and forth." She looked up at the night sky. "Renee knows you're here?"

"Yes. I'd say that too many people know that I'm here. They were all like'No, you cannot go. It's so wrong and blah, blah, blah," he impersonated his friends, Seth in particular. That reminded him, "I had this really strange dream on the plane here. I was at Josh's wedding. You were there too," Dean said as by-the-way. "Seth stopped by."

Cassie chuckled. "What was he doing there?"

"He said he came to stop me from making a huge mistake. But he ended up kissing you."

"What?" she burst into laughter. Dean would expect a question like, why would I make out with Seth, but no, she had a different question on her mind. "Why would you dream about Seth and I kissing? Does it turn you on? That's a pretty weird fetish, you know."

For a second, Dean was speechless. "No!" he shouted a moment later.

Smile stayed on her face. "Seth, huh? Well, why not? I like him." It looked as if she was talking to herself rather than Dean. "Yeah, I wouldn't mind kissing Seth." Then she looked at Dean. "Relax, my dear. It's not like I'm gonna do it."

"He's engaged anyway," Dean uttered, sounding hurt.

"Don't be so jealous," she said, talking in a sweet, comforting voice. "Gosh, how does Renee handle your jealousy?" she wondered. "I guess that's not the right question. A better one would be, how do you handle her jealousy? Or is she not jealous at me? I know I would be," Cassie reasoned to herself.

"She's fine with you."

"Really?" That was hard to believe.

"Actually, I think that maybe, if we behave," Dean joked, "we can keep seeing each other. You know, probably not that often, but I think Renee would be okay if we hung out once in a while."

"Did she say that?" Really, really strange, suspicious, Cassie thought.

"Sort of."

"And you think it'd be okay?"

"Yeah, why not?"

Cassie smiled but shook her head.

She stood up. She made a few steps away from the bench, on which Dean kept sitting.

"Where are you going?"

She wasn't going anywhere. She stopped and came right back. "I should. I really should go somewhere."

"The wedding?" Dean guessed. He wasn't quite sure what she was talking about now.

"No," she sighed. "Leave the wedding topic. You're not getting me there, okay?" She put her hair behind her ear. The look on her face was a wondering one. "No. I mean leave. You know? Leave everything behind."

"Because of me?"

"No. Or, yes. Perhaps."

"I don't understand."

"You're weak," she said, which made Dean frown in confusion as much as in reaction to the possible offence.

Cassie laughed. "You're not weak," she changed her mind, or cleared the confusion that arose, and came to him to stroke his biceps. "You're blind," she said now. "Naïve. You think that it's okay if we keep doing this? That nobody will get hurt?" she asked.

Dean wasn't really following her. He needed her to speak more clearly.

"What is worse, I'm weak too. I'm not willing to give you up, even though I know it's wrong. I love you. I love you way too much to be able to live without you."

"You love me?"

She looked down and chuckled. Then she looked directly at him, at his innocent look. "Yes. But not in the way forget about Renee and stay with me." She stopped talking.

"Cass," Dean addressed her. She seemed scarcely aware of his presence. Her eyes were directed up at the sky. The stars above her head. "Do you ever wonder what life would be like if we never broke up?"

That question certainly wasn't unknown to her. "Yes. I'm not proud of these thoughts, but they do occur."

Dean wanted to know something else. He opened his mouth, but waited with talking until she was looking at him. "You were the one who initiated the break up," Dean started.

"I was the one who broke us up, yeah," she reminisced. She didn't sound very serious.

"That's how you decided then. But what if you were to make that decision now? I mean, back then we didn't know each other very well. We'd been together for just a few weeks so it wasn't a big loss. Now . . ."

She continued, "Now I know you and you know me. Now . . ." She was unable to say more.

"What would you do?"

There was a minute of silence. Dean explained it to himself that she was thinking about it. She was. But she wasn't hesitating; it was all clear to her.

"I would do the exact same thing."

Dean was unsure how to feel about this. Should he feel offended? Even after months together, knowing him, loving him . . . It seemed odd to him. Illogical.

Cassie saw his disillusion. She sat down next to him again. She let out a deep sigh before saying,

"Dean, the reason we broke up didn't disappear."

"You mean . . ."

"Renee. You love her."