|
|
Post by Cassidy Miller on Oct 16, 2015 2:17:18 GMT
Cassidy Miller was an intuitive person. She said that she got it from her mother, who - with six kids, always seemed to know what was going on in her house. But she didn't have to be Madame Cleo to figure out that not all was right when Amber had come into work and nonchalantly informed her that Cooper and Madison were engaged. She hadn't wanted to push the blonde on the matter, but had a feeling that someone needed to talk. With her 'Bramber senses' tingling, she knew she wanted to talk to Brandon. But how? Last time, after she had barged in to one of his meetings, she had been forbidden from going to Finn Industries to see anyone other than Jeremy by Amber. And it hadn't been one of Amber's empty threats either, that much she had taken note of.
Opportunity presented itself when Amber needed to work late and told Cassidy she didn't have to stay. Normally, Cassidy would have insisted on staying at her boss's side through the late work night, but instead had agreed and gone home - or at least left the office.
On her way to the Penthouse, she stopped at an eatery to pick up something and then continued on her way. She knocked on the door and when Brandon answered, she smiled brightly. "Hi Brandon! Amber had to work late, something went wrong with the new issue, but she sent me home. So I thought I'd come by and say hi, and bring you food - you don't eat carbs, so I just got grilled chicken and vegetables so...it's not very exciting. How are you? You're wearing the cuff links I got you, right on," she rambled, failing miserably at seeming casual.
|
|
|
|
Post by Brandon Finn on Oct 18, 2015 5:11:39 GMT
There weren't a lot of things that made Brandon feel as though he was behind. Generally speaking, he had always prided himself on his own confidence with his decisions. Maybe it was narcissistic, but it just had been something that he had gotten used to;. He assumed that it was his confidence that had been shaken recently when Cooper Benson and Madison Walker had announced their engagement. It wasn't that he wasn't happy for them, in fact, he was glad that perhaps his closest friend was so happy. It was the words that had been used in the announcement that kept lingering. Cooper had mentioned that when a person knew what they wanted then it didn't make sense to wait to act. After what equated to nearly fifteen years of having known Amber, and maybe five years of an actual relationship with her, he knew what he wanted. But it was hard to act and especially hard to get the timing right.
It wasn't even that he was necessarily bothered by it, it was more that he was worried about what Amber was thinking. He didn't want her thinking that he didn't want to marry her some day, or that he didn't have any intentions of spending the rest of his life with her, it was just hard to figure out when they should move forward. When they first rekindled their relationship, there were a lot of things that he knew that he was going to have to work past, and then as soon as they finally found their groove, she had found out that she was pregnant. It didn't seem like the right time to propose then either as he worried that she would assume that he was only asking her because it was the "right" thing to do. And so he was still waiting to figure it all out.
He had just gotten home himself when there had been a knock on the door. He smiled at Cassidy and gave a nod of understanding about Amber working late, "Hi Cassidy," he greeted, letting her into the apartment. "Thank you for the food, but you really didn't have to. If Amber made you do it you can tell her that I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."
|
|
|
|
Post by Cassidy Miller on Oct 18, 2015 5:28:30 GMT
Cassidy stepped inside, placing the food down and shaking her head. "No, she didn't tell me to," she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "She told me to go home. This was a whim, really. Sort of a 'hey, you know who I haven't talked to in a while?' kind of bright idea that popped into my head. Genius, I know, because I bet you were thinking your life was lacking in some good ol' Cass, too," she grinned. "Happy New Year, by the way, I haven't seen you since before the big ball dropped. Maybe that's another reason I came by, haven't seen you since last year now, technically. Should old acquaintance be forgot, or something like that," she was rambling, she was incredibly bad at seeming casual when she really wasn't at all. "Amber told me that Cooper and Maddy got engaged, that's kind of nuts, huh?"
She nodded and pursed her lips for a moment before gesturing to the food. "That might have gotten cold on the walk over," she pointed out and then nodded. "So how are you?" she asked him with a bright smile. "You doing good? Work good? Things with the baby good? I need to stop saying the word 'good.'"
|
|
|
|
Post by Brandon Finn on Oct 18, 2015 15:42:19 GMT
It wasn't that Brandon wasn't happy to see Cassidy, she had been a good source of advice for him over the past few months. She had been indirectly responsible for a lot of things that he was really appreciative of, namely for facilitating the end of their brief break-up. But when it really came down to it, he and Cassidy didn't just spend time together, at least not without Amber around. He couldn't help but look at her a bit skeptically, but it suddenly made more sense when she mentioned the engagement of their friends. Maybe it was bothering Amber more than she let on, at least if Cassidy had felt that it was necessary to stop by and discuss it. He wasn't sure whether or not he even knew what he would say to Cassidy about it, or especially Amber.
"I'm good," he said with a small smile. "Everything is going really well. How are you, Cassidy?" He hesitated, wondering whether or not he should just cut to the chase. Ultimately he decided to wait and see if she had something that she wanted to say.
|
|
|
|
Post by Cassidy Miller on Oct 18, 2015 17:51:20 GMT
Cassidy nodded, smiling brightly at him. "Well that's good. Me? Oh, you know, I'm swell. Can't complain, well I could but my mother always taught me not to," she nodded, chewing on her lip for a moment. "Amber doesn't know I'm here," she reiterated. "And she didn't say anything to me, really. I mean, she mentioned the engagement and left it at that. But I did the math - like the actual math of how long those two have been together." She nodded, "Not that I don't think it's great, you know, they're a cute couple, whatever. I didn't ask Amber about it, because I don't know - she gets all touchy with me on personal subjects ever since I barged into your office that day - go figure. But my Bramber senses were tingling. So I came by," she admitted. "I'm intuitive like that. So I brought you chicken, and my sage brand of quirky wisdom and thought you might want to talk."
She paused for a moment and nodded, "You know, I would've just stopped by during lunch today, but she threatened to fire me if I did that again, and I think she's serious. I'm not sure if that extends to barging into the Penthouse, so maybe don't tell her I was ever here."
|
|
|
|
Post by Brandon Finn on Oct 18, 2015 20:47:49 GMT
Brandon had done the math too. Actually, he had done a lot of thinking about his friends' relationships lately, whether or not he really wanted to. First there was Riley and Adam, which as much as he still struggled with the past between himself and the other man, he had tried recently to try and set it aside. Riley had become a friend of his in a very bizarre manner and he realized that he actually cared about whether or not she was happy. Apparently Adam made her happy and so he had stomached it to the best of his ability. In terms of their relationship, knowing that they had gone to law school together seemed to make the brevity of their actual romantic relationship seem like less of a big deal. They were college sweethearts, so to speak, and he wasn't sure that he could fault them for their rush into a relationship, an engagement, and soon a marriage. Cooper and Madison were different. Their relationship felt like it had just started and here they were already taking the next step. He couldn't help but feel like some pressure was placed on him to stop floundering in his relationship with Amber, whether or not they were taking a different sort of step together with the fact that they were having a baby.
"Talk?" he questioned. "About someone else's engagement or about the fact that Amber's probably wondering when our own is coming now?" The truth was that he couldn't blame Amber if she had been questioning it. All things considered: the length of their relationship, the fact that they were having a baby, and the fact that they had loved each other since they were teenagers, they should have been first.
|
|
|
|
Post by Cassidy Miller on Oct 18, 2015 21:15:33 GMT
Cassidy ticked her eyebrow up at Brandon and shook her head. “Brandon,” she started slowly. “Amber’s fine.” It was a lie, she didn’t know where Amber stood on her patience level for a proposal. “I just thought that you…” she paused and then decided some straight shooting was her best option. “I’ve known Amber for…not very long compared to you. But I know her pretty well,” she explained. “I’m not an idiot, I’ve known that she wanted to marry you for a long time.”
She pursed her lips for a moment and nodded. “But I know that her impetus to get married isn’t that all of your friends are getting married first,” she told him. “It’s because of how much she loves you. And you love her. And I just think that maybe, if I were you, I’d be thinking that proposing immediately might be a good idea.”
“But fifteen years, I think that’s a pretty incredible love story, Brandon. And I can’t believe I’m saying this because you know I’m a big supporter of you two getting married, but I think that you both deserve better than a rush job as part of a contest on a scoreboard that doesn’t exist,” she nodded. “That’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.”
|
|
|
|
Post by Brandon Finn on Oct 18, 2015 21:42:29 GMT
If he would have placed a bet on it, Brandon would have thought that Cassidy would have told him to just go for it and stop waiting for "the right time" to propose to Amber. He was sure that he could come up with any number of reasons why it wasn't the right time at any time. When she first came back to New York it was because she had just lost her first husband and he was having a hard time wrapping his mind around the fact that she had gotten married. He had justified waiting because he knew that he rushed into his first few engagements and didn't want to do it again. Time had been needed for him to figure out what he really wanted in a relationship, and whether or not he could be the right person for her. Then with everything that had happened with Alayna's kid, and then Amber finding out that she was pregnant, there really just hadn't been an opportune moment.
But he still thought that Cassidy's advice would have been to propose now, since like she said, it had been fifteen years. But she wasn't saying that he should propose now, and it was making him feel a little conflicted when it came down to it. "It's not a contest," he argued. "And no offense, Cassidy, but I'm not sure why it's any concern of yours, really. You've been telling us to get over ourselves and get married for a long time. Why change your mind now?" He paused for a moment, trying desperately not to get angry with her for seemingly no reason, but he was finding himself much more emotionally invested than he originally anticipated. "I wasn't even planning on proposing to her now. I just don't want her to think that it's never coming."
|
|
|
|
Post by Cassidy Miller on Oct 18, 2015 22:36:23 GMT
"it's not my business," she admitted quickly. "But you're both important to me, you're both basically the only thing close to family that I have within a 200 mile radius. I just don't..." she took a deep breath. "I don't know," she shook her head. "Maybe I shouldn't have come over. And yeah - I do want you guys to get married, I think it's going to be really great." She looked at him and shrugged, "But if you think that she's worried about that, then you should talk to her." Frowning, she looked at him. "Maybe I overstepped by coming here, I do that a lot. If you think I'm not still you're biggest cheerleader, I am - hands down. Team Brandon all the way."
"It's not that I don't want you two to get married, Brandon. It would never be that." Biting her lip, she shook her head. "I can go."
|
|
|
|
Post by Brandon Finn on Oct 18, 2015 23:18:49 GMT
Brandon sighed, "No, I'm sorry. I know that you care, I really do." He hadn't meant to make her feel as though she was overstepping. When it came down to it, Cassidy had proven herself to be a lot more than just Amber's assistant. She was going to be Aunt Cassidy to their son and she was the one who was really responsible for even getting Amber to go to their reunion in the first place, which had really been the catalyst for getting them back together. Cassidy was a lot more than just an employee and he realized that he needed to stop treating her as such.
"You're right," he conceded. "I have been feeling like I needed to just do it. For a multitude of reasons. Part of me feels like we should have been the first ones to get engaged, and I feel like it's the right thing to do for her and our future son. But another part of me feels like it should be something special, not just something to do for the sake of having it done. I can't say that I haven't thought about how I wanted to do it, and it none of my ideas ever included rushing through it."
|
|
|
|
Post by Cassidy Miller on Oct 18, 2015 23:27:41 GMT
Cassidy smiled softly at Brandon, shaking her head at him. "You should go with the second part of you," she advised him. "I adore you two, I think you're both the greatest. And so I think you deserve for it to be special," she nodded. "And just as a warning, asking your pregnant hormonal girlfriend to marry you because it feels like it's the right thing to do is a real great way to wind up sleeping on the couch," she admitted. "You two have always moved at your own speed and done things in your own order. Amber knows that you love her, I don't think that right now she needs a ring to be sure of that."
She shook her head. "If you want to propose to her and make it special and you want to do it tomorrow, I will turn this entire city upside down to help you make it happen, Brandon. But if you think you want to wait and take your time and do it when it feels right, well - then you call me when you're ready and I'll help you with that, too. I just wanted to make sure that you knew I had your back, but also someone to remind you that your girlfriend's not sitting around waiting on a ring. She's not that type, if she was you'd probably have several not-so-subtle hints by now."
|
|
|
|
Post by Brandon Finn on Oct 19, 2015 0:07:55 GMT
Hearing Cassidy's agreement with what had been his gut instinct had filled him with an unexpected sense of relief. And she really did make an incredibly valid point about the fact that Amber's hormones were probably running rampant, which again reminded him that this wasn't the best time to ask her to marry him either. The more he thought about it and the more he talked about it with Cassidy, the more he became comfortable with the fact that he was absolutely going to ask Amber to marry him. And that thought even made him excited about it, which in turn made him want to do it the right way.
He smiled at her, "Thank you." It wasn't clear to him exactly what he was thanking her for, whether it was for pushing him to talk this out with her or if it was because he knew that she was going to be instrumental of making it happen when it was time. "I know that she's not waiting for it, but I just hope that she doesn't think that it's never coming."
|
|
|
|
Post by Cassidy Miller on Oct 19, 2015 0:43:10 GMT
Cassidy grinned at Brandon. "So, you know, maybe you should talk to her about that part if you're worried about it." Smiling brightly, she nodded, "And you're welcome, I think it's important to remind people that you've got their backs, you know?" She nodded and looked down at her feet for a moment before smiling at him. "Anyway, I should probably get going. I'm starving - for carbohydrates - you weirdo." She grinned at Brandon, beaming up at him. "I feel like maybe Amber keeping me in New York for holidays is deliberate. Maybe she knows things would fall about without me here," she teased. Reaching for her bag and nodded at him. "You good?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Brandon Finn on Oct 19, 2015 0:49:30 GMT
Brandon nodded, "I'm good. Thanks, Cassidy." It was nice, he had to admit, to be reminded that ultimately Cassidy was on his team and was there to help him in whatever he needed. When he and Amber had briefly broken up, it had been Cassidy who had declared herself to be "Team Brandon" and he needed to not take that for granted. "Go, eat carbs. I'll be sure to talk to Amber about it when she gets home."
|
|
