It Starts Here / 𝗯𝘅𝗯 (✓)

17: Weddings and I love you

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Twenty-four years old

It's a Wednesday when Cass shows up unannounced at their doorstep and asks if she can stay for dinner.

Ares is gracious enough to say no before closing the door in her face, but then Felix asks who was at the door and he knows it was worth nothing. "Nobody."

Felix sighs. "Please tell me you didn't close the door in Cass' face again—"

"Open the door!" Cass pounds on the wood and Ares thinks he rolls his eyes in sync with Felix. 

"Open the door, Ares."

Ares tries his best not to feel ridiculous when he pouts at Felix. "But it's date night."

Felix rolls his eyes again, but Ares notes that he's holding back a smile. "Every day is a date night to you—just open the door, please."

Ares makes a big deal out of turning back around to do as told. Cass is still standing there, now with her eyebrows raised and he almost closes the door again, but then she has a foot inside the apartment and he doesn't think it's worth the fight.

"Do you not know what a phone is?" Ares says. 

"I was just nearby and thought I'd drop by!" she explains, taking off her scarf and shoes. 

"Yes, it seems to have become a habit of yours," Ares mumbles as Felix calls from the kitchen, "We were just about to eat! Perfect timing!" and Ares says, "You mean horrible timing?" and Felix says, "I know what I said," right as Cass pointedly looks at Ares and says, "He knows what he means."

Ares watches Cass walk into the kitchen and mutters, "But it's date night."

Following Cass, he watches as she takes off her jacket, leaving it on the back of the couch before taking a seat by the kitchen table they bought last month. It's awkwardly too big for the room (Felix assured Ares that it was the perfect size, no need to measure anything, and look at them now), but Cass still compliments it. Ares doesn't fail to notice Felix sending him a look like Cass is the one you would ever ask for advice when it comes to interior design.

"You're having tacos?" Cass gasps when Felix pulls them out of the oven. She points at the oven gloves he's wearing. "I bought those for you—but I really did have a perfect timing. I haven't had tacos in ages."

Now, Ares notices that she's wearing the sweater Felix knitted for her birthday last year when she sits by the table. At the sight of the wretched sleeves, he comments, "Did you seriously already wreck your sweater?"

Cass follows his eyes to the sleeves. "We got a cat last month, remember? She's everywhere in my closet, like Ashton didn't buy her a whole cat house." She shakes her head at the audacity. "Now I know why Mama never let us have any pets growing up—my clothes are that devil's favorite chewing toys."

"Speak for yourself," Ares snorts, grabbing an extra plate before Felix has the chance. "I had a goldfish, remember?"

"Fish don't count."

"Fish don't count," he mimics her, voice high-pitched. "You're just jealous."

"I still haven't met her," Felix says, pointedly ignoring their bickering as he pulls out a chair across from Cass. He thanks Ares when he gets the rest of the food and puts it on the table and Felix gestures to it all. "See, the food can even be on the table—" Ares rolls his eyes— "but have you found a name for the cat yet? Last time you called you weren't sure."