Entering the house, I was quite surprised at the scene I walked in on. An after party was the last thing I expected. I had almost forgotten what it was like to navigate a crowd of drunken bodies and had to quickly make a strategic plan to make my way through. Thankfully, it was quite easy to spot the one who had been calling my phone endlessly for the past hour, as she stood on the coffee table and swayed her body back and forth to the blaring music. I was caught off guard by her surprised reaction, especially the way she threw her arms around my neck and pulled me in for an extremely - and extremely public - kiss.

"Carter!" she squealed happily. "What are you doing here?"

If the smell of alcohol was not evident enough, it lingered behind in the taste of that kiss. "You called me-"

"I did?" she sank her teeth into her bottom lip in an attempt to muffle a laugh. "Don't tell my boyfriend that!"

"Your boyfriend?" I questioned, playing along with, well, whatever joke she was attempting. "He must be one lucky guy."

"Mmm," she mumbled against my neck, moving her lips up towards my ear, "He's the best."

"Just so we're clear..." I struggled to keep my focus as she kissed and nipped my skin, "You're not in any impending danger, correct?"

Her lips found their way to mine and she gave me a quick kiss. "Correct," she mumbled, "Not unless you want to get into some." With wide eyes, she gasped. "Oh my god! I love this song!"

TJ turned around and walked back towards the small crowd. I watched with curiosity as she danced and interacted with those around her. It was odd to see her so carefree; given how she was only hours ago, it made me slightly worried.

♪

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said from the other end of the call, "I'm fine."

"Baby, come on. I thought we agreed to not use the I'm fine excuse anymore," I held up a finger to Jeff, signalling that I needed a minute, as I turned towards the window. "Does this have anything to do with last week?"

"No, it's not that. It's just stupid, Carter."

"You can tell me. But if you don't want to, I understand. I just hate hearing the hurt in your voice."

TJ sniffled. "I hate what I'm wearing... I look ugly in everything I've tried on... And Gwen isn't here to help me. See, I told you it was stupid."

"No, baby, it's not stupid. I just can't imagine you looking anything but beautiful."

"That was corny," she muttered. "You're my boyfriend. You have to say stuff like that."

"Maybe. But it's true." I grinned at her remark. "Where's Gwen? Why isn't she there?"

"Gwen's at some family thing or sick or something." The shakiness was evident in her voice. She was unable to hold it in for much longer before the impending breakdown exposed itself. "I don't wanna go to this," she sobbed.

"Do you want me to come over?"

She was silent for a brief moment. "You have your meeting."

"I'll reschedule-"

"No - you can't," she was quick with her interjection. "It's fine. I'll figure something out."

♪

My attention was so focused on the sight in front of me, as she danced and spun around in her strapless dress, I barely noticed Weston's presence beside me.

"What the hell has gotten into her tonight?"

Weston shrugged. "I have no idea," he said, stealing a glance towards the commotion on display in the middle of the living room. "She locked herself in her room for, I don't know, two hours? Maybe three? We were all worried she was about to bail. But then your friends showed up and not too long after, she finally left the room all dressed and ready. And she was obviously sober at that point."

After she hung up the phone, I knew I had to do something - anything - to try and help her. TJ never said it, but I knew she felt obligated to attend the event they had gone to tonight. And, not being able to ignore the fact that she had just been crying to me on the phone moments ago, I fired off a text to Nadine and Elijah asking for a favour. I only found out the success of my little mission once I received a thank you text and a promise to call me once she had left the event.

Of course, that one call turned into about fifty, but it was the thought that counted.

"So, she drank a lot at the event then?"

Weston shrugged. "Beats me. I wasn't with her."

That was odd. I thought the two of them were normally thick as thieves. TJ always said that Weston was the one she hung out with those types of events.

"You've never seen her drunk on tequila, have you?" he asked.

"How do you know that's what she had?"

"Because she's acting like that." He took a sip of his drink. "Besides, she doesn't do any of that other shit anymore so it's the only explanation."

My ears perked hearing Weston's comment but his attention was already pulled towards the female companion beside him before I could question what he meant. That was probably for the best - I wouldn't want to have to split the night between worrying about my drunk girlfriend and whether every comment made by him had some underlying meaning.

TJ stumbled her way towards the table. I watched with a cautious eye as she picked up a bottle and began to pour herself another drink.

"Come on," I stepped forward. "I think it's time for bed."

TJ pouted her bottom lip. "One more song?"

"Fine. One more song and then I'm taking you to bed."

"Mmm, I like the sound of that," she purred. "But I'll only let you take me to bed if," she poked her finger against my chest, "you dance with me."

There wasn't any opportunity for me to object as TJ wrapped her arms around my neck and began to move her body to the beat of the music. In comparison to those around us, she appeared quite sober. Which was a terrifying realization to come to.

"Do you want to know a secret?"

"Sure."

"You have to pinkie promise not to tell anyone."

"I won't tell."

She leaned closer. "Not even Carter."

Unsure of whether the joke from earlier was continuing or not, I decided it was best to keep playing along. "I promise."

"I think he would make a really good dad one day."

"Y-you do?"

She nodded, smiling from ear to ear. "In fact, I hope our kid gets his cute little button nose," she tapped her finger against the tip of mine.

Our kid.

"What made you bring this up?"

"I dunno," she stepped back and drunkenly swayed back and forth to the music. "I think about it a lot."

"How much is a lot?"

"Mmmm..." pondering my question, she turned her head up towards the ceiling, before slowly letting her eyes fall back down to meet mine. "Like... once a day?"

"You think about how I would be a good dad once a day?"

TJ laughed. "Not you, silly. My boyfriend."

My mouth ran dry as I forced a smile and tried to process what she had just said. She thought about me being a dad - and a good dad at that. And to top it all off, she mentioned our kid. Not mine. Not hers. Not a random one. But ours.

"It's so hot in here," TJ whined.

It took a second for my brain to snap into reality and realize she had begun to pull the zipper down. "Woah, woah, woah," I reached forward and held up the front of her dress. "What the fuck are you doing?"

"I'm hot!" She looked over her shoulder. "The zipper's stuck! I can't get it down!"

"Good!" I grabbed hold of her hand and stopped her from succeeding at her task. I was quick to zip back up her dress before anyone near us noticed what she was attempting to do. But it wasn't long before TJ tried to go for round two. "That's it," I grumbled. Bending down, I wrapped my arms around her legs and lifted the weight of her body and tossed her over my shoulder.

"Woah!" TJ squealed. "Where are we going?"

"Bed."

"Bye TJ!" Patrick called.

"Bye!" TJ cheerfully replied.

As I turned and headed down the hall to her room, I felt a hand pull up the back of my shirt.

"I can see your butt crack!" TJ giggled. "You have such a cute little bum!"

I resisted the urge to laugh at her childish comments as I kicked the door to her bedroom open. "You think you're funny, don't you?"

"Duh! I'm fucking hilarious, baby."

I placed her down on the bed, laying her on her back. "You are something, that's for sure."

Her hand grabbed a fistful of my shirt and she pulled me closer. "Kiss."

I positioned my hands on either side of her head and pressed into the mattress, dipping lower down to meet her lips for a kiss. A beautiful moan filled the otherwise silent room. I intended to make it short and sweet. But she was too intoxicating to resist. TJ placed a hand on the back of my neck, keeping me close.

Grateful she had broken the kiss, I did my best to calm my urges - I couldn't let things go any further while she was in this current state.

She looped her finger through the ring that hung from my chain. "Do you ever take this off?"

"No."

"That makes me happy."

"Do you take yours off?"

TJ glanced down at her hand. "No. I like wearing it."

"That makes me happy."

"I want to get naked now." She giggled, which I assumed was in response to my shocked expression. "Psst," she whispered, "You know you've seen me naked before... right?"

I rolled my eyes at her sarcastic comment. "You have interesting timing sometimes, that's all."

"Well, you wouldn't let me get naked out there!"

Damn. She really wasn't going to let that go.

Climbing off the bed, I grabbed her hands to pull her up with me. "Fine, let me help you, then," I said, turning her to face the mirror as I stood behind her. "Wow, this zipper really is stuck!"

"I told you!" she whined. "You know what putting this dress on reminded me of?"

"What's that?"

"When we were both at that stupid after party at that museum with all those snobby people and you and I snuck off. Remember?"

I noticed the way her face lit up as she recalled the memory - as did mine. "Yeah, I do. We found that little room in the back."

"That was way before we ever started dating. I went home that night thinking about how much I liked you."

"You did?"

She nodded. "I felt special that night - a room full of people and you made me feel like you only had eyes for me."

"That's because I did," I placed a kiss against her neck. "Still do."

"I can't even remember what we talked about - I just know I thought about how easy it was to talk to you. And then you tried to get me to dance with you," her cheeks tinted red. "It was nice. And we didn't even fuck!" There was the vulgarity we were missing with her story - that's my girl. "That's how I knew I liked you... because I actually enjoyed having a conversation with you."

I finally managed to break the zipper free and pull it down. "That's good to hear because I was always worried I would be boring, or something, to you," I told her honestly, pressing another quick kiss to her skin. "Ready to get naked now?"

"I have to be careful when taking off this dress. Nadine warned me not to get it wrinkled."

"Is that so?"

TJ nodded. "She said if there was one wrinkle you would have to buy it for me."

"Do you like this dress?" I asked as I helped her slide the material down and step out, keeping a strong grip to ensure she did not tumble over.

"I love this dress," she said, rummaging through her drawer for clothing.

"Then consider it yours."

Her head poked through the top of the cotton shirt she was putting on and she stared at me with widened eyes. "Really?"

"If Nadine found something that you love, I want you to have it," I laid the dress across the ottoman at the end of the bed. "However, I have one condition. You have to get into bed."

TJ quickly scurried off and jumped onto the mattress, grinning from ear to ear. "Done!"

"Alright. A deals a deal. The dress is yours."

"I need to take my make-up off. Can you get me one of my wipes?"

"Sure." I made my way into the bathroom and searched her drawers. "Where is it?"

"In the bathroom!"

"I know that, baby. But what drawer?"

"Oh," she giggled, "The one on the left."

Following her instruction, I opened the overflowing drawer and dug my way through to find what she had requested. "Here we are," I announced, holding up the package of wipes as I walked back into the room.

TJ had sprawled her body out on the bed - clearly taking my one condition over the dress to heart. "Can you do it for me?"

Sitting down on the edge of the bed beside her, a smile played on my lips. She was a needy drunk off tequila - in an odd way, I found it quite endearing. "Of course," I said as I pulled out one of the wipes. Gently swiping it across the skin of her cheek I asked, "Is this alright?"

"Is it coming off?"

I checked to make sure. "Yes."

"Then you're doing it right!"

"I meant is the pressure alright."

"You're being nice and soft," she said, "I normally like it when you're rough with me but not when it comes to my face! Can't be rough with my delicate skin!"

Unable to hold back a laugh, I asked, "What on earth has gotten into you tonight?"

"Unfortunately, not you."

Cleaning off the last bit of make-up from her bottom lip, I got up from the bed and discarded the wipe. I let out a yawn as I removed the items from my pockets, placed my wallet, keys, and phone on the top of her dresser and got myself ready for bed.

"Can you teach me how to drive?"

Raising a brow at her sudden question, I pulled my shirt up and over my head. "Uh, yeah, sure."

"Did you know it's a big deal that I'm asking you?"

Looking over my shoulder, I hesitated on how to answer her. She was drunk. And those drunk loose lips of hers had already told me about how she thought I would be a good dad and how she hoped our future child would look. And my gut instinct told me that sober TJ wouldn't have shared that information. The last thing I wanted was for her to wake up tomorrow and regret what she told me - that was if she even remembered it.

"Oh," I responded, "Well, why don't you tell me in the morning?"

"You don't want to know now?"

"Uh," I unbuttoned my jeans and quickly discarded them to the side, "I just think you should wait until the morning."

"Are you mad at me?"

"No," I hesitated, worried I had said something wrong, "Of course not. Why would you think that?"

"Because I drank."

"I already told you, baby. You don't have to stop doing what you want because of me."

"Yeah but..." her voice trailed off as she stared into the distance. "I drank a lot," she turned her attention back towards me, "Like, a lot, a lot."

As I turned off the light and joined her in bed, a smile crossed my lips at the way she was speaking like she thought she had done some magnificent job at hiding it. "I can tell."

"You can? You mean, you've known this whole time?"

"Yes."

"Shit. I'm sorry."

I pulled her close. "It's alright. Is there a reason you drank so much tonight?"

TJ rested her head on my chest. "Yes."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No," she mumbled. "I mean, yes, I do. But, not tonight," her head lifted and her green eyes met mine. "I'm happy... and I don't want to go to bed sad."

"Are you okay?"

"I think so. It's weird to say that and mean it for once."

"Well, I'm glad to hear you at least mean it."

TJ smiled and rested her head back down. "I'm glad to say it. We can go to sleep now."

As much as I hated that exhaustion consumed my mind at this moment, my heavy eyelids were thankful for her words. The party was still evidently going on, as music could be heard in the distance. At least the locked door meant no one would be bothering us. We could both drift off to sleep and wake up feeling-

"Carter?" The sound of her soft spoken voice pulled me back into reality.

I did my best to muffle that yawn that escaped. "Yes, baby?"

"I'm so happy I get to fall in love with you."

oop. who had their money on TJ saying the L-word first?