Cassie arched a brow as he cut himself off, seeming suddenly distracted and dazed. Weird. She couldn’t blame him there though, her own mind ran a mile a minute and she found herself always getting distracted mid sentence when a new thought or feeling took over. Maybe she and Dean weren’t so different!
Cassie scoffed at him, a gentle laugh falling from her lips, hair trailing around her, tickling her arms and chest as her body shook.
“You always say that, and you act a jerk, but then you show up here with sweet gifts and banter,” she reminded him, shrugging from her place on the ground.
Pushing herself up ever so slightly, she rested her weight into her elbows so she could take him in. She felt her too ride up ever so slightly, hair tickling her stomach, but opted to ignore it. She was insecure a thousand times over about her body, her scars, and the tiniest details — but after all the time she’d spent in the gym with Dean, rocking tiny shorts and sports bras, she highly doubted a little belly or ribcage would render the man speechless.
“I don’t get you,” she told him, candid and honest as ever. “You’re a great teacher. You’re super close with Scotty, who is literally a puppy. It’s like you want people to think you’re this total douche — or maybe you just want me to think it.”
Cocking her head to the side, she narrowed her eyes, suddenly gasping.
“Oh my God, that’s it, right? Like, you find me so annoying that being a total jerk to me is just easier than having to listen to me all day!”
Despite Cassie’s easy, open demeanour, the way she was lounging on a dusty landing mat like it was a beach towel, rather than a public space that had been filled with sweaty, screaming children not an hour ago, Dean stayed standing. Her body was lazy and lithe, and if Dean was a different kind of man, an easier man, he might have sat down next to her. They would’ve bumped shoulders as she giggled, heads bowed conspiratorially. Dean felt warm with the thought. He and Cassie were making good progress, maybe next time they crossed paths, he could offer her a smile. They’d be casual acquaintances, Dean was alright with that.
“I took it too far.” he shrugged. “I wanted to call a truce.”
He was not looking at the pale expanse of her stomach.
The tip of his shoe scuffed the floorboards as he looked down at the blonde, shrugging, “Maybe you see good in people where it isn’t there. Cassie-tinted glasses.”
He offered her a small smile, trying to ignore the uneasy feeling in his stomach. He was blowing this. Cassie’s sincerity had cut to the core of him, and suddenly, his words seemed thick in his throat, unable to work their way out. Say something charming, or clever. Say anything. Don’t lose her attention just yet.
“You’d talk to me even if I was the biggest dick on the planet - last week obviously was an outlier.” he said, “But I’ve heard they do Lego flowers now. Plenty of choice for next time I cock it up.”
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