I asked my parents to watch the boys tonight so Cage and I can have an actual second date tonight. Neither of us felt like going out to dinner, so we're staying in at my place and I'm cooking.

I figured tonight would be a good night for us to talk about everything.

I don't want to continue with our relationship without having everything out in the open. I want him to get all the answers to his questions, not only that though, I want the answers to mine too.

I want to know what happened that night.

Why when I woke up he was gone without even a note.

I want us to work, to others, we might be moving along too fast. Considering we have only been in each other's lives again for a little over a month now. The truth is that I fell in love with him one night eight years ago. People might think it was just puppy love, teenagers having fun. It wasn't though it felt like more, he felt like home then. I was too young then to realize what that meant.

Cage is the one, as cliche as that may seem, I know it to be a fact.

Deciding I better get dinner going I grab a baking dish out of one of the lower cupboards. Drizzle some olive oil in the pan and then get some chicken thighs out of the fridge. I place them all in the pan then season them with salt, pepper, onion powder, and some fresh oregano.

I put that in the oven at three hundred and fifty degrees once it's preheated. When the chicken is about halfway done I start to get a pan of water boiling for fettuccine noodles.

I'm making chicken Alfredo with homemade garlic bread and a salad on the side. I know Cage has said he's liked my cooking before but everything I have ever made him was simple. It was all just stuff I threw together in less than thirty minutes. I guess I'll see if Cage likes my cooking tonight cause that Alfredo sauce? It's not coming from a jar.

Two hours later the food is done and I'm all dressed.

I'm wearing a cute rose blush skater dress, a simple long gold heart necklace that the boys got me for mothers day a few years back, and short light brown ugg boots.

There are perks to not going out to eat.

There's a knock at the door and I quickly finish setting the table, placing a fork down then I go get the door.

I open it to find Cage looking as handsome as ever. He's wearing dark blue jeans and I can see a blue, black, and white flannel sticking out from underneath his zipped-up Carhart coat.

"Hey, Rory you look gorgeous," He takes me in from head to toe, then leans down and kisses my cheek.

"Thank you, you look very handsome as well," That earns me a grin from him and then he comes inside shutting the door behind him.

"Something smells amazing. What did you make?"

"Homemade chicken Alfredo, garlic bread, and salad on the side." I take his coat from him and hang it up in the closet near the door.

He follows me into the kitchen, and I dish him up some food for him, once we both have our food I sit down across from him at my dark stained wood four-person table.

Cage takes a bite and groans.

Sounds like a groan of satisfaction.

"This is so good Sugar," Cage shovels another bite of food into his mouth and closes his eyes as he chews.

Sugar.

I never thought I would hear him call me that again. I think the reappearance of an old nickname would be a good way to bring up the past.

"Sugar. Never thought I would hear that again. Why did you call me that that night?" I take a sip of my white wine as I wait for him to answer.

Cage chuckles to himself and gets this far away look in his eyes like he's reminiscing an old memory.

"Your eyes," he must see the confusion on my face cause he continues speaking. "Back then I had a crush on you for years. I was captivated by your eyes from the second they locked on mine. I looked up all of the shades of gray your eyes could be and finally found the color one day. Sugar gray."

I'm stunned speechless.

There is no way Cage had a crush on me back in high school, no way. He never tried to talk to me once not only that I had seen him flirting with other girls before. If you like someone you don't flirt with other girls right? Plus I was basically invisible at our high school and that's something I should have gotten a medal for or whatever. I mean our high school only had like a thousand students or so. The fact that I was kind of nothing more than a shadow on a wall in that tiny school is unbelievable. Not that I minded I liked being nearly invisible. Everyone in high school was just so immature, I didn't know how to hold a conversation with any of them. I barely managed to with Molly and Nora and look at us now. Not friends which is fine by me.

"No way you liked me in high school."

"I did. I was too nervous to talk to you I tried before but each time my hands got all sweaty and I would get light-headed so I chickened out."

"I saw you flirt with other girls before. Also, how did you talk to me that night? You looked fine not like you were about to pass out."

"I was dumb back then and thought I could make you jealous by flirting with other girls in front of you. All it got me when you paid attention that is, was simply an eye roll. As for how I talked to you that night? Took me a drink and a guy pissing me off," Cage reaches across the table and grabs my hand, squeezing it.

I think back to that night and remember Cage showing up behind me after that guy, whatever his name was, was being a nuisance. Was that the guy who pissed him off? I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that Cage liked me back then.

I take my hand from his and pick up my fork, twisting some pasta on it and take a bite, giving myself some time to think of what to say.

I'm full of questions.

There's only one I want the answer to though.

I just don't want to come right out and ask. Shouldn't I work up to asking that? Or maybe I should just ask him right now?

"You can ask me whatever you want Rory."

"How, how did you...?"

"How did I know? It's written all over your face. Ask me whatever you want. You don't have to be scared to ask me anything."

"Why did you leave without at least leaving a note that night?" I blurt.

Cage gives me a questioning look back when I sat note.

"I did write a note."

"No, you didn't. I woke up and you were gone I looked around for a note but didn't see one," I stare down at my plate so he can't read the hurt in my eyes, and push my pasta around.

Funny how something I would normally tell the boys not to do I find myself doing.

How hypocritical of me.

"Rory look at me," Cage demands, I resist at first, except I can't fight the pull he has over me and direct my eyes to his. "I did leave a note before I left, I placed it next to you where I was sleeping. I even wrote my number down cause I wanted to see you again. A week went by and I didn't hear a word from you so I thought you didn't want to see me again. I thought about getting your number from one of your friends then decided I would just wait for you to call me. I didn't want to push you into doing anything you didn't want to do. A month went by and I started to feel guilty, that maybe I should have asked if you were sure you wanted to sleep with me."

"I started to think that maybe you regret sleeping with me and never wanted to speak to me again. That you just wanted to forget it ever happened. I spent the next three months after that night thinking about you wondering how you were and if maybe you hated me. By the fourth month, I knew I needed to stop obsessing over you cause clearly, you wanted nothing to do with me."

"You really left a note?" I feel tears starting to form in my eyes.

"Yeah, I did. Sugar, something really important came up. I'm sorry for leaving without saying goodbye you just looked so peaceful sleeping. Here's my number call me I really want to see you again. Cage."

Once Cage recites the note he left for me the tears I have been trying so hard to hold back fall. A sob burst out, all the pain I had been locking up deep down finally coming to the surface.

All this time I thought Cage left because he got what he wanted or something.

Cage jumps up out of his chair and rushes over to me, pulling me up and into his strong embrace.

"Shh shh. Please don't cry Sugar," Cage rubs one of his hands up and down my back trying to comfort me.

"I thought you were such an ass for leaving without telling me in some way. Now I find out you did leave a note and your number! Oh my gosh, I should have looked harder! If only I knew. Oh my gosh, I'm a horrible person I should have found a way to get in contact with you and told you about the twins sooner! You missed so much of Knox and Kohl's lives and it's all my fault!" The tears continue to flow down my cheeks and I'm almost losing my breath my body shaking sobs.

"Please stop crying. I don't like seeing you cry, I only ever want to see you happy, not sad. You're not a horrible person Sugar okay we're both at fault here. I could have, no I should have asked around for your number when you didn't contact me after our night. Yes, it sucks that I missed out on a lot of major times in the twin's lives but I'm here now and I won't miss out on anymore."

I pull back from Cage's chest and look up into his eyes, he's looking at me with nothing but love and worry in his gaze.

"I'm sorry Cage."

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