Before You(9)

“Huh… let me think about it.” He turned away from her, looked out the window, and then quickly spun back toward her. “Nope, definitely not. Now that I have you in my grasp, I’m unwilling to let you leave. You’ll just have to suffer through a month of me, faults and all.” He chuckled. “Let’s go inside.”

Cam jumped out of the car and waved to her from his position near the front bumper. “Come on. What are you waiting for?”

“I need to grab a couple things out of the trunk.”

Cam darted up the first few steps to the second level of apartments. “Hurry up! I want to show you my place.”

“Wait, isn’t the guy supposed to carry my bags?”

“Just get what you need and I’ll go back down later to get the rest. Besides, I don’t want to offend your feminist sensibilities by doing it for you.”

“What feminist sensibilities? Camden Donovan, get down here and carry my bags before I call your mother and tell her what an ass you’re being!”

“Fine, Bre,” he moped as he walked back to the truck. “You really know how to kill the moment. I can’t believe you just threatened to call my mom.”

Shoving him lightly in the shoulder, Bre shot him an amused sideways look. “I have to keep you on your toes somehow. Nothing puts the fear of God into you like threatening to tell your mother. You’re such a mama’s boy.”

“No. I’m doing it because she likes you better than me. She didn’t even care when I moved to LA because she still had you.”

“That’s not true.”

“It is. You’re my better half, so I don’t blame her for it. I totally understand.”

“Oh, please. Now you’re being cheesy.”

Walking into the apartment, Bre surveyed the small one bedroom residence. In typical Cam style, the place was a total mess. Plates were stacked haphazardly in the sink. An open pizza box was on the coffee table along with a couple empty beer bottles.

“Wow, Cam! I really do think I should call your mom now. I would say I’m shocked you didn’t bother to straighten your place before I came, but I’m not.” Bre plopped down on the sofa and sniffed. “What the heck is that smell?” Finding some discarded socks, she flung them at Cam, hitting him in the chest. “You do realize this place is gross, don’t you? I can’t believe you didn’t bother to clean for me. You’re supposed to be trying to impress me, not make me run away.”

“What?” Cam shrugged. “You should have seen it yesterday. This is clean in comparison.”

“If you think this is clean, you need to hire someone to come in and do it for you. Your definition of clean is seriously twisted.”

“Fine. I’ll ask Jax who cleans his place tomorrow. Just pretend like it’s not there.” Cam sat down on the sofa next to Bre, stretching his arm out behind her along the back of the sofa.

“Thanks.” Bre leaned in and kissed Cam on the cheek.

“So what did you think about the band? We’re good, right?”

“Goodness. Where did you lose your modesty?” Bre started looking around, moving pillows on the sofa. “It has to be here somewhere, maybe next to your dirty socks or under the pizza box.”

Cam chuckled, shaking his head. “I get it. You think my place is disgusting, but tell me what you thought about the band.”

“Cam, you guys were awesome, beyond awesome. I’m impressed.”

“Really? You’re not just saying that to make me feel better?” Cam’s face beamed, and she returned his enthusiastic smile.

“Since when am I one to parse words? I told you your high school band was frighteningly bad.”

Cam pushed Bre’s hair from her face. “We were, weren’t we? I didn’t have much to work with growing up in a small mountain town.”

“No, you didn’t. Brian’s drum playing skills were atrocious. Lacking rhythm is a fatal flaw in a drum player.”

Cam burst out laughing. “I can’t say much for Sam’s singing, either. He sounded like a mix between opera and heavy metal, if that’s even possible.”

“He needed to stick to the church choir, where his voice was drowned out by others,” Bre said, holding her hands over her ears and shivering at the memory of Cam’s performance at his high school graduation party.

“God, I missed you, Bre,” Cam said, pulling her into an embrace. “So what did you think about the guys?”

“I only met Jax, but he seemed nice?” Bre framed her answer as a question, not entirely certain how she wanted to describe Jax. Nice didn’t seem accurate, but explaining her impression of Jax wasn’t at the top of her list of things she wanted share with Cam.