Darling, I'm a nightmare dressed like a daydream.

✎ㅤ. . .ㅤ𝑯𝑬𝑨𝑫𝑪𝑨𝑵𝑶𝑵 𝑸𝑼𝑬𝑺𝑻𝑰𝑶𝑵𝑺.

When Dean was handed the key and the note, he couldn't have moved faster to that hotel room. The thing his match loved was 'tattoos', but under the scribble, he could just about make out his own name in a familiar script. Who else would have written his name down? It might have been aggressively scored out, but the fact that he had been her first thought gave him hope; maybe he really could fix this.

Dean swept into the room and dropped to his knees in front of her and god how she'd missed him. More than she'd realised. Here he was, on his knees, apologising to her. It almost didn't feel real.

"What better time to make them than on Valentine's Day?" Sapphire grinned, ordering them a shot each to start. Holding hers up, she added, "To bad decisions."

"To bad decisions." Rose echoed, throwing the shot back with a slight grimace at the burn. "Is there a particular bad decision you had in mind for tonight?"

Michelle snorted, not bothering to hide it. "Right. right." Taking a sip of her glass, she shrugged. "I believe in women's rights and wrongs, but girl you are lying." Though it wasn't her business.

Michelle was right. She was lying. "Let me live in peace with my denial, Michelle." Rose grumbled as she took a sip of her own drink before changing the subject and hoping the other woman would play along. "Have I told you I love your dress? Because I do."

"He is, and you know, it's cool and all, but he hasn't adhered to the dress code at all." Logan paused, as if he were processing the worst thing in the world. "At all."

'Don't speak of the devil at all and the devil shall appear' Rose thought as Logan materialised seemingly from nowhere. Given the possible choices though, he was the more welcome option. Even if she didn't care about the dress code. "Wow, I didn't realise you lived and died by the dress code. On a scale of sneakers in the office to a white dress as a weddibng guest, how bad is it?"

"Dean's here," Jesse repeated. He had been witness to the Dean-and-Rose saga for long enough to know that she didn't mean that. He tried his best not to smile, though, out of respect for her denial. "Good for us. Well, except for Logan, I think. Dean's definitely not dressed on theme."

Not for the first time, Rose wished that Jesse would just take the hint and drop a conversation topic. Talking about Dean really wasn't helping quell the swirl of conflicting and overwhelming emotions she was feeling at the thought of seeing him. On the one hand she was excited, hopeful even, and on the other, she was angry and hurt. He'd left them, her, in silence for months while he was doing god knows what and now he's back and she's expected to act like none of it happened and run into his arms? No. She felt the tell tale prickle of tears forming and tried to blink them away as she spoke - she had cried enough over Dean Dawson and she'd be damned if she did it again, especially in public. "Uh-huh, he never was one to play by the rules. Especially Logan's rules." She took a shaky breath. "Can we not talk about him anymore, please?"

"We could still kill him," Tessa offered. "You know, if you want."

Tessa's quip caught Rose off guard enough to make her smile evern as she shook her head. "There are way too many witnesses."

Watching her speak to someone irrelevant about someone equally as irrelevant, Scottie couldn't help but wonder at how diabolical the press would find it if he made a move on Sienna's cousin. "Hey... If you need someone to make him jealous?" He chimed in with a charming smile.

Rose rolled her eyes, she'd heard plenty of stories about her cousins co-star. The UES might thrive on drama, but getting swept up in a Friday Night Bites co-star mess with her cousin and Scottie Takeda was one drama Rose felt she didn't need. "Scottie, no. I'm not participating in whatever publicity stunt you're trying to pull this week."

The fact that Dean and Rose couldn't seem to get their shit together was honestly devastating, but with all the shit he had been dealing with this year and the news from Logan about him and Isobel, Jake just wasn't sure how much more his heart could handle. "Can't you just... go talk to him?"

The deeply annoying thing is, that Jake was right. She could just go talk to Dean. But why should she? She wasn't the one who went MIA for months, leaving the silence to eat her alive. It was the principle of it. "Nope." She said, popping the 'p'. "Why should I? He hasn't spoken to me for months. If he wanted to, he would have."

Sienna wanted Rose to know before she saw for herself. If it were Sienna, she would want to know. "Don't worry about it, you look so good, if there is a time to run into him, it's now."

Rose took a breath that was supposed to be steadying and smoothed her suddenly clammy palms over her dress and offered her cousin a small smile. "Thanks, Sienna. I just didn't think it would be tonight. You know? You look amazing though."

"In my experience, only two things equal a 'Happy Valentine's Day' and that's kissing or tequila. Which one do you want?"

"Tequila please. Even if it only ever leads to bad decisions."