There was a time, years ago, when one Jack Barakat would have been rather baffled to wake in a strange place; in a bed that didn't belong to him, or a room he didn't recognize. Yet thanks to years of constantly being on the road, playing shows night after night, hitting bar after bar, he'd become relatively desensitized to the situations when they arose. Which, something he would ever admit to himself, occurred quite frequently.

So, when he slowly opened his eyes against the harsh sunlight pouring in the bedroom that morning, he wasn't the least bit surprised to notice he was not in fact in his bedroom. Now the only question was...whose was it?

After rubbing the sleep from his eyes he managed to pull on his jeans and locate his shirt while he wracked his brain of the previous night's events. Whoever's bedroom he was in was conveniently absent from the room, which saved Jack from that awkward re-meeting of the girl who'd so graciously taken him home. It was bad enough he couldn't remember her name but now he couldn't even remember what she looked like.

Quietly as he could, he poked his head out of the bedroom door that opened into a long hallway. He checked both directions and then hastily pulled his shirt on over his head as he ventured out of the room. There was a light on in the next door over and he could hear running water. Awesome, he thought, she was in the shower. Feeling that the coast was clear, he slowly tiptoed past.
He found his shoes and leather jacket strewn across the living room, but unfortunately for Jack, he didn't notice that the shower had been shut off while he'd been putting them on.

"Baby?"

That single term of endearment called from down the hall made Jack's blood run cold. The classic sneak-out routine was about to crash and burn if he didn't get the hell out of there. Without looking back, he tore out the front door of the apartment to the sound of his name being screamed at an incredible volume-- and not in the way he usually liked it.
___

It was exactly 9:47AM and Cassie Jensen was late for work. As she hurried out of her apartment, she tried not to think about how much screaming would come her way once she got to the office, as she was definitely sure to get some. This New Year's eve promised to be one of the busiest days of the year and she'd accidentally slept in. She was so dead.
"Come on!" she groaned in frustration at her keys, which were currently jammed in her door lock. At this rate she was going to have a stack of paperwork to the ceiling on her desk by the time she got there.

With one furious tug, her keys came free but their sudden release caught Cassie off guard and she lost her footing. She hit the floor with a resounding crash, dropping her keys, cell phone, and worst of all; the entirety of her messenger bag. Thankfully she'd retained enough sense to hang onto her coffee. But with no time to be concerned with how much it hurt when she fell, Cassie picked herself up and hurriedly scrambled across the hall, grabbing her belongings as she went.

Her run was actually more of a hobble as she struggled under the weight of her messenger bag and the throbbing in the leg she had recently fallen on. She furiously tugged the strap of her bag up as she ran for the elevator, cursing the fact she lived on the sixth floor as she did so. But in all of her hurry, she failed to notice the last door on the left being wrenched open. Cassie had only a split second to register that a tall, thin man with shaggy dark hair had suddenly crossed her path.

Jack Barakat didn't know what hit him--literally. One minute he was rushing out of the apartment and the next he was on his back, staring bewilderedly up at the ceiling. For a fleeting moment he wondered if the girl--he still couldn't remember her name--had actually caught up to him and tackled him. Quickly realizing that whatever had blindsided him came from his right and not from behind, he looked over.

"Shit, my coffee!" Clearly more concerned with her spilt beverage than the fact she'd just collided with someone, the young woman's attitude made Jack frown. It was just then that she looked up and their eyes locked. "Oh!" she started again, suddenly much more apologetic. "Hey, I'm really sorry, are you okay?"

For the first time in quite a long time Jack was at a total loss for words. To say the girl who had knocked him down was pretty would be a total understatement--even in her disheveled state. Her auburn hair was probably once in a tidy bun, but pieces of it had fallen around her face either in her hurry or from knocking into him. She didn't seem to have had time to tie her black peacoat closed, which gave him a brief view of a white button-down blouse and a black pencil skirt underneath. But it wasn't her boobs that grabbed his attention--surprisingly; it was her eyes. They were the most curious shade of green that he'd ever seen and he couldn't help but stare.

"Hello?" her voice dragged him out of his thoughts and he suddenly realized he'd been literally staring at her with his mouth hanging open like an idiot. "Hey, look, I'm sorry I'm really late for work but I'm sorry again for knocking you down."

Before Jack could get a single word in edgewise, the girl had collected her things--minus her spilled coffee--and was rushing for the elevator. This was actually a surprising task since she was wearing a pair of black stilettoes. It was in that moment that Jack realized he needed to be on that elevator too. Miss One Night Stand would have heard that ruckus in the hall and be about to open her front door any second.

"Wait!" Exasperatedly, he scrambled to his feet and grabbed the cellphone he'd dropped when he was knocked over. "Hang on a second!"

Too late. The doors closed shut and Jack almost had a heart attack when he heard the door directly behind him being opened.

"Jacky? Baby, what's going on?"

Jack grimaced and turned slowly on his heels, preparing for the worst. "Hey..." he forced a smile and chose his words carefully. "...you." Okay, so she wasn't that bad. She was blonde, had big tits, but that's kind of where the good traits stopped. Her nose had a funny shape and her teeth could definitely use some work. Jack wondered absently just how drunk he'd been last night while he was coming up with an excuse for her. "I...I was...just on my way out to get us breakfast!"

Her quizzical expression softened and she looked at him like one would look at a basket of puppies. "Aw! Baby you're so cute!"

After five minutes straight of her cooing about how sweet and thoughtful he was while she was (unfortunately) hugging him, he finally shook her off with the promise he'd be back later. Technically it wasn't a complete lie. He never said how much later it would be.

Once outside the apartment building he trudged through several inches of snow on the busy sidewalk and hailed a cab as fast as he could. He knew he was going to get the ass-chewing of a lifetime from his manager once he got back to the hotel, especially since he and his band were scheduled for an appearance on FUSE later that day. It wasn't until he was safely in the cab that he was able to look down at his phone for the missed calls and texts he was sure to have.

Something wasn't right. This wasn't his phone.
Realizing that he and the pretty girl in the hall must have accidentally grabbed each other's phones, Jack groaned loudly and clapped a hand to his face.