[ What? Two updates in two days? Hope you enjoy! ]

Although she had insisted she was fine, Alessio could not stop worrying about Casey while he was at work. He had been in the office all week and every other day in the evenings he was at the bar. He could not stop worrying.

"Hey Mr. Miller, there's a call for you from your home. Should I send it through?" His secretary said through the intercom.

"Yes please put it through." He responded with a small chuckle. He put his feet up on his desk and picked the phone up off the receiver. He turned in his office chair to face the skyline, the sun setting behind the Chicago skyscrapers.

"Is this the office of Alessio Miller?" Casey asked on the other end of the line.

"Why yes it is, and who may this be?" He chuckled in response.

"Just a lonely girl who's here for one more night wanting to see her boyfriend." She answered with a sigh, and he laughed.

"Well I am off in about an hour, and I'm thinking we can do dinner and have a nice evening before you leave in the morning." He responded as he heard a knock on the door. He turned in his chair and saw his secretary peeking in through the door. "One second babe." He said to Casey and put the headset against his chest. "Yes Lori?"

"There a couple suits out here demanding to see you for a few minutes. Should I let them in?" She told him, and he looked down at his calendar for the day.

"They're not on my schedule. Did they say why?" He asked her, looking through the frosted glass windows to see three men in suits waiting outside in the lobby in front of his office. He then looked back to Lori.

"No, they just said they needed to speak with you urgently." She responded. He then put the phone up to his ear.

"Hey babe, I'm gonna have to call you back." He said to Casey.

"Yeah, alright. I'll see you when you get home?" She responded, and he smiled.

"Of course. I love you." He told her, and he felt her smile through the phone.

"I love you too. I'll see you when you get home." She responded, and he hung up the phone. He looked back to Lori.

"I'm going to keep the intercom on because I have no clue who these guys are. I'll be recording just in case anything happens." He told her, and she nodded. She stepped aside and gestured for the men to come into his office. He stood up out of respect as Lori closed his office door, and he came around the desk.

"Good evening, Mr. Miller." One of them said to him, and he nodded curtly and shook their hands.

"Gentlemen." He greeted with suspicion..

"Sorry we come to you unexpectedly, but we have some business to discuss with you." Another one said.

"It would be nice to get some names first, since you obviously know mine." He responded, sitting back down in his seat.

"I'm sorry. Cooper Jackson, this is George Ritcher, and that's Ron Wessley. We're from Orlando and we were hoping to talk business with you." Cooper Jackson said, finally introducing himself. "And I promise we'll make it quick." He added. The talk of Orlando intrigued him, so he was curious as to what he had to say.

"Alright, hit me. What kind of business are we talking about?" He asked, leaning back in his chair and putting his feet back up on the desk.

"Well we were hoping to start a chain of your one of a kind bar." The man introduced as George said, and he sat up, furrowing his brow.

"I'm sorry boys but Howl at the Moon is Chicago native and will only be a Chicago bar. Now if that is all, I have a dinner date." Alessio answered curtly. That was when he stood up to grab his suit jacket and his coat.

"Think about it, Mr. Miller. Double the income of what you get here in Chicago. And you'd be able to live in Florida with that dinner date of yours." Cooper piped back in, and that kind of caught his attention.

"Walk and talk with me gentlemen." Alessio said, putting his coat on and grabbing his keys and briefcase. He ended the intercom discreetly and led the three of them out of his office, locking the door behind him. "Have a good weekend, Lori." He told his secretary, and she nodded with a smile.

"So what do you say, Mr. Miller? Are you in?" Ron asked.

"I'm sorry boys but I still have my company to run here as well." Alessio said as they got into the elevator to head to the ground floor.

"Don't you have a branch in Orlando, Mr. Miller?" Cooper questioned.

"Yes, but my job is here at HQ. I'm sorry gentlemen but the answer is going to be a no. That is, unless you can get my mother on board. I would love to work in Orlando, but my mother needs me here running headquarters." He explained to the three of them with a sigh.

"I guess we'll just have to change her mind." George sighed as the elevator doors opened.

"Good luck with that. You gentlemen have a nice evening." He said curtly as he got off the elevator and briskly walked to the front doors. The three of them looked to one another.

"We've got to get that brilliant minded son of a bitch down in Orlando."

--

"How was work?" Casey asked as they ordered drinks at their favorite bar. They decided they just wanted to have a good drink and eat greasy bar food instead of going somewhere fancy.

"It was boring up until the end. Three men approached me about expanding Howl at the Moon to Orlando and I have no idea why. I told them that I was interested but Howl at the Moon is a Chicago only bar." Alessio explained. She was excited at the beginning but then felt a dagger dig in her chest. He saw her shoulders drop and he grabbed her hand. "I would love to come work in Orlando so we could see each other all the time, but my home is here in Chicago."

"I guess it just doesn't seem like that." She said softly as she sipped at her beer.

"What do you expect me to do Casey? Drop everything and move?" He asked, looking to her with a scour on his face.

"I mean maybe at least consider it. I know it's hard to consider but we've been dating since August and at least somewhat together a little longer." She explained with a sigh.

"If I came to you and asked you to move so we could be together, would you?" Alessio asked, and she laughed.

"Yes! A million times yes. If I couldn't get traded, I'd quit and get a real job just so I can be with you." Casey responded to him, looking to him with shock in her eyes. "You wouldn't?" She asked.

"Casey..." He trailed, and she chuckled.

"I'll catch an earlier flight." She said softly, getting up from her seat at the bar. She might have been overreacting, and she understood that Chicago was his home, but she knew if there was true love, there were sacrifices she was willing to make that apparently he was not. They had been dating for a little over half a year and even though they were completely in love with one another, it just seemed that they were not going anywhere.

"Casey wait!" She heard Alessio yell as she got further down the street.

"What? All I seem to do is give and give and you just deflect." She responded as she whipped around to yell at him.

"Because I am head over heels for you Casey Radcliffe. When I ran into you in May, I knew you were the girl of my dreams. I would do anything for you Sunshine. Before I met you, I was in a very dark place and I didn't know if I would ever come out of it. The reason I don't want to move is because I am scared of how far I am in love with you. If I move, I am all in and as much as I want to be, I'm still healing and learning."

"Then let us learn and heal together! You're not the only who has been through hardships. I would move across the world to be with you. I'm scared as hell too but I'm in this for the long run. It just doesn't feel as if you are."

"I want to be. I know I need to be. I love you Casey Anne Radcliffe. I love your optimism and your fearlessness. I love your constant strive to be the best you can even at your worst. I know that long distance has been hard, and I was going to wait to do this tonight when we got home, but this is my promise to you. I promise to be the best man you could ever dream of. I will be there for your worst and your best times and I promise to be with you until the end. I love you Casey Radcliffe, and I promise to cherish you for the rest of time. Please, accept this promise ring. Please, accept me for me as I have for you."

Alessio finished his speech by pulling a ring out of his pocket. It was not an engagement, but it was a vow. She felt her heart pounding in her chest as she looked down between him and the promise ring that he held out to her. She wiped the tears away from her eyes and chuckled.

"I love you, Alessio Miller. I don't want to ever lose you." She said softly, and he wrapped his arms around her in relief.

"I love you too."

--

Casey had been on crutches for the last six weeks and it was torture. She had been in and out of rehab, and she was finally in the doctor's office to get cleared. Two months was a long time to be off her feet and she had no clue how she made it, but she did, and now she was leaving the doctor's office on two feet and pain free. She would be in physical therapy for the next two weeks before preseason before the She Believes Cup in March.

She arrived back at her shared home with Alex, who would not be coming back before they were in Arlington, Texas for their preseason camp. She opened the side door and set her keys down, bothered that Atlas was not coming to greet her. He was staying with her father while she was traveling the United States for preseason and the tournament to come. She looked up and around and saw a ton of candles lighting the counters. She had not seen Alessio since she left Chicago two months ago due to their busy schedules. They talked to one another almost every day though, and ever since their argument, their relationship was stronger. It had been good for them to get everything out into the open like they did because they were both so stubborn.

She walked down the hallway and found her door wide open, but it was darker than the rest of the house. She walked into the room and found her bed covered with rose petals and a ton of gifts sitting on the bed, and she put her hand up to her mouth in shock. She stepped further into the room and the door shut behind her, and she faced Alessio. His hair was down for once in a huge black main and he was dressed in a three piece suit with a bouquet of bright yellow sunflowers and deep, blood red roses.

"Hey sunshine." He said with the biggest smile on his face, and he set the flowers down just in time for her to run into his arms. "And I'm glad to see you back on your feet."

"I got cleared for full physical therapy today. But that's irrelevant. How are you here? How'd you get into my house?" She asked with a big laugh.

"I was able to get the week off work to discuss a business deal with some people here in Orlando." He told her, and she grinned. "And that's also irrelevant." He added, and they both laughed.

"So what's all this for?" She asked, looking at the bed. There was a Nike bag and a Victoria's Secret bag next to it. There were a couple candles in plain view and a small Tiffany blue bag in the front of it all. There were also her favorite snacks and candies.

"Because you deserve it and sorta late Valentine's Day." He responded, leading her over to the bed and sitting her down. "You don't have to open them all right now, but at least open this one." He said, holding out the little blue bag to her. She blushed and took the bag in her hands, pulling a long box out and opening it, finding a silver chain necklace with a nameplate on it with his name on it.

"I love it." She said softly, instantly putting it on with his help with the clasp.

"Good. I'm glad you do." He responded with a smirk. She kissed his lips and he smiled against hers.

"So you're all mine this week?" She asked, seductiveness in her voice.

"Yes ma'am, and I can't wait to spend it with you."