A Dramatic Entrance

Brandon had spent the last couple of days trying to keep himself as occupied as possible, just in case he started slipping into a downward spiral of thinking about how everything had gone wrong. He had tried to avoid even going home, just in case having too much time on his hands there led him to realize that Amber wasn't in bed beside him, or that there were still half-finished crossword puzzles in the living room. Work had been the one place where it had been the easiest to distract himself. He had thrown himself into meetings and into accomplishing as much as possible, just so that he never had a minute of downtime. He had been in the middle of discussing their current sales and marketing strategy when the door to his office had burst open.

If anything, Jeremy had realized the length and frequency of these meetings with his boss were not normal. He had just been starting to get used to the fact that Brandon Finn could be a very hands-off leader when it came to trusting his senior managers with leading their teams, but over the last few days he seemed to be playing a much more active role in each department. And so, over the last couple of days, Jeremy had gotten very used to sitting in this office and helping to pick apart and justify everything that they were doing. In all honesty, it had started to become exhausting and redundant. He hadn't been expecting for an interruption to finally shake this one up, and he especially hadn't been expecting to see Cassidy walk through the door. He grinned at her, thinking back to the last time he had seen her, and suddenly realizing how much he was looking forward to their date this upcoming weekend. "Hi."

Brandon shook his head at the new arrival in his office, "Cassidy, now's really not a good time. If it's that important, you can let Gwen know to schedule some time for us to meet later."

Given the sheer number of times that Brandon had seen Amber fire Cassidy, only to then ignore it and carry on the way that they always had, he was having a hard time believing that she truly was on an indefinite leave. He knew that it was entirely inappropriate to have this conversation with another person in the room, and he would have loved to continue to avoid having this conversation in the first place, but right now it seemed entirely unavoidable. Besides, he was having a hard time letting go of the idea that Amber would have released Cassidy in any way. Part of what had made him feel better about the entire situation was that he knew that Amber would at least have someone there to keep her company, someone who knew about their situation with the baby, and someone who would be fully supportive of her in any way possible. The thought of Amber not having that support system was making him feel even worse than he had before. "She wouldn't do that to you," he said finally.

"Currently?" he questioned, ignoring her statement that they needed each other. Brandon had already determined that over the last few days as he kept remembering how much of a different person he seemed to be without Amber in his life. He knew that he had been acting differently, that he was regressing into the person that he had been when she first left, the person that he really had hoped to never be again. It just hurt to be without her and he was taking it out on everyone around him. "Currently I'm in the middle of a meeting, and apparently being pulled into a conversation that I don't want to have. She'll be fine, Cassidy. She was the one who said she would call me when she was ready to talk."

Jeremy had realized very quickly that Cassidy wasn't here for business purposes, but without a clear path to the door, and without having been dismissed by his boss to leave, he wasn't sure he could get out of the office quickly enough to have this be any less awkward.

Brandon sighed, feeling a range of sympathy and disappointment in how badly things seemed to be going. He hadn't wanted Amber to be happy that they were on their break or whatever it was, but he hadn't wanted her to still feel so hurt by the entire thing. He wanted to go to her and apologize, tell her that everything was going to be okay and have that be the end of it, but he wanted to respect her wishes for space. He followed her gaze over to Jeremy and frowned, noting how unprofessional this had all suddenly become. "Have Gwen reschedule our meeting for half an hour from now. Just tell her to move things around if needed."

Jeremy nodded, smiling at Cassidy on his way out. Considering the fact that this meeting had already eaten up most of his morning and now was threatening to challenge the run for longest meeting ever, he figured that his best bet was just to wait in the small seating area outside of the office. He didn't think he was really going to be getting much work done at his desk right now anyway. Relaying Brandon's instruction's to Gwen, he took a seat and busied himself with his phone, contemplating typing out a quick message to Cassidy about their date on Saturday.

Brandon turned to Cassidy the second the door closed behind Jeremy, "This is entirely unprofessional. You don't have right to just barge into my office whenever you feel like, especially now. Amber asked for her space and I'm giving that to her. When she wants to fix it, then she knows where I am. That's the end of it, she's the one who wanted a break from it, I wanted to work through our problems so we didn't get to this point. I made a mistake, Cassidy, and I don't know how to fix it if she won't speak to me."

Amber had needed space because he had done something stupid, that much he knew. Brandon hadn't wanted to imagine how it would have felt if the roles had been reversed because she was right, things had been different with them and he wouldn't have expected that from her at this point. He hadn't really expected it from himself either. But he had tried to do the right thing and tell her about it, but that had ultimately been the catalyst that ended it all in the first place. "I'm trying to fight for her," he said, thinking of their call the night before. He had told her to come home, to come back and let him fix everything, but she hadn't been willing to do it. He didn't blame her for that, he probably wouldn't have wanted to come home either if he was in her place. He hadn't actually shown that things were different, he supposed, nor had he proven to her how much he loved her.

"How am I supposed to keep fighting for someone who won't let me in? She said I needed to think about what I really wanted, and I didn't need the time to think about it. I just need her to talk to me."

He knew that if he could just get Amber to open up and hear him out that things would be different. It was a power that he knew that he had over him, much as she held the same power over him. Unfortunately, the ability to make her cry was another power he seemed to have.

He surveyed Cassidy for a second, knowing that he hadn't expected her to have an answer on how he could just fix everything in one fell swoop. It was nice to hear, he admitted, that he had someone on his side in all of this, even if he didn't think that he necessarily deserved it. "Thank you," he told her, knowing that he would have naturally assumed that Cassidy would have sided with Amber on this, that she would have thought that he had done something that was unforgivable and that Amber was just in being so angry with it. "For all of it."

Brandon tried to figure out if it was too soon now to call her or if tonight was too soon to just drop by unannounced, but he realized that he wasn't really sure where Amber was staying in the first place, it had never occurred to him to ask. "Do you know where she's staying?"

"No, it's okay. I'll figure it out." This was actually a lot like what they used to do, he had to admit. Brandon just hoped that he still knew her well enough to figure out where she might be, and if that didn't work out, he hoped that she might be willing to answer the phone when he called. He spent a moment thinking about what Cassidy had said about them being perfect for each other because they both had freaked out and made mistakes, and part of him wished that they were like this, or at the very least that he wasn't like this. It had been stupid to let Gwen kiss him, and it had been even worse to second guess whether or not he wanted to be in a serious relationship with Amber, one that was soon going to involve them becoming parents.

He smiled back at her, "Thank you again. And have fun on your date this weekend."