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All that was to say that he didn't give Luke a reason to doubt him. He went to the bathroom once and quickly passed by Cassandra without looking in her direction in his paranoia. Luke was still trying to pretend that he was asleep, his eyes shut tightly, but Steven knew better. He knew that his friend was lying in wait for him to do something that he wasn't supposed to do. Knowing that Luke knew something was up, should have been enough for him to rethink what he was doing in the first place. Unfortunately, it did not.
The next morning, Steven did not feel like he had gotten that much sleep. There was probably a time round five or six in the morning where he had dozed off because he was just exhausted, but he woke up feeling like it hadn’t been that long at all. When he looked at the time, it was seven o'clock. He had his first meeting at eight, and he wanted to look at a couple of things before everyone else got there. Steven liked to be fully in the know when he did a business deal. That meant that a lot of times Steven had to take care of things himself.
Luke was still acting out of sorts, and Cassandra was as well. Steven saw their time together going so differently. Instead, it seemed like there was going to be a little bit more weird awkwardness between them all. Something had to be said eventually. It was obviously affecting the relationship, but he wasn't going to say anything and apparently neither was his friend.
Luke looked as tired as Steven did. He figured that since he had tried to stay up so late and catch them in the middle of something, he must not have gotten much sleep himself. Cassandra, on the other hand, looked like she had slept like the dead. She had a big smile on her face and instead of letting them quietly ruminate on how bad they felt, she was more content to mess with them and giggle about it like it was funny. It was just another side of Cassandra that he got to see and admire. He never knew what to think when it came to Cassandra. She kept him on his toes if nothing else.
“What did you guys do last night? Did you go out drinking after I went to sleep?”
Steven wasn't going to answer that. It was none of her business what they were doing, and he certainly didn't want to say it out loud. He hadn’t slept because of her. It was always because of Cassandra now, all of his discomforts that were physical and mental. “No, it was hard to sleep Coed. I don't think I have shared a bed with someone like that in a very long time,” Steven admitted.
“From what I hear, Steven, you share your bed with lots of people,” Cassandra quipped back.
Steven was more than a little shocked that she had said such a thing in front of her brother. Steven could have done without her saying anything about his love life in front of Luke. He didn’t need to know that they talked about things like that. He was far too paranoid and painfully aware of it all.
“That may be so, Cassandra, but I usually don't spend it with a man. That was new.”
Initially, he felt bad about saying it, but as soon as he saw how red her face got, he knew that he had made his point. He wasn’t the only one that was a little messed up from the night before.
Luke was definitely listening to the conversation, and he shrunk away like he wanted to be invisible and hear it all. It reminded Steven of the time when he had tried to overhear something in the car. It was getting too dangerous to talk to Cassandra when she was so quick to say too much.
Steven silently asked Cassandra what she was doing, but she just got the most innocent look and smiled back at him like she had done nothing wrong. Why did it feel like she was tempting fate?
The rest of the day was spent in meetings and looking at potential buildings for a new business he wanted to start. Steven tried to focus on work, it kept his eyes from going places that they weren't supposed to be, and held him for most of the day. The meetings started running late though, and it was decided that they should again get a hotel, and he started to get nervous. The more they were cooped up together, the higher the chance that he would be found out. So, he had to pretend like he didn't care about Cassandra at all. He did though, so it just made everything more confusing.
He protested about getting a hotel at all, saying that they were not sharing again and needed to sleep. Steven was tired because he hadn’t gotten any sleep the night before, but staying another night in the hotel wasn't going to help his sleep problem. He needed sleep, he needed to get some space without Cassandra so he could take care of things and breathe again. It had been a long trip.
When Luke suggested that he was too tired to keep going, Steven reminded his friend that he had more than enough money, and they could just get a cab to drive them back. He wasn’t worried about the cost. He needed to breathe again. It was far more important.
Luke called him a puddin pop, and Steven felt his face going red. He had to take the title because it was better than the alternative. He didn’t want his friend to hear that it was his sister keeping him up at night and making him on edge. He would not understand or sympathize, Steven was quite sure of that.
So, he had to go along with it, and Steven felt doomed to another night of uncomfortable yearning. He still hadn’t been able to get used to it, and his mind was already trying to find ways to alleviate it.
Chapter 24
Cassandra
She just knew that it was finally the moment, the one she had been waiting for. Cassandra had paced back and forth in her room for what felt like hours. When she looked at the clock and it had only been half of an hour, she groaned. Why was she so worked up in the moment? It was just Steven. She was just going over there to say hi. It wasn’t like they had to do anything. That's what Cassandra kept telling herself anyway. She tried to play the scenario back in her head over and over again, but each time it became less and less important. Luke was sort of dating her best friend. Wasn't that the same thing?
To Cassandra it felt like it was. She felt like her brother was just going to have to get over it. Sure, it had gotten really ugly after she started dating Nelson, married him, then had a kid with him. It was Luke that wouldn't let it go. The more Cassandra thought about it, the more she realized that it wasn't right that her brother tried to tell her that she couldn't be with Steven. They felt something for each other. Why wasn't that enough? Cassandra was rooting for Luke and Aaliyah. She hardly thought that it would be strange, just a natural occurrence because they were around each other more than strangers. Weren’t they both due a good relationship?
Cassandra kept repeating it to herself, until she worked up enough to finally go. She was shaking inside literally and figuratively, but it had to be done. She had her hand on the door when it suddenly opened, and her brother was standing there.
“Luke, what are you doing here?” While she tried to keep her voice even and not sound too surprised or disappointed, that was easier said than done. Cassandra couldn't help her true emotions showing through. Luke asked her if she was okay, and she lied and said that she was fine. Cassandra was definitely not fine. She would have done anything to have him leave so that she could finally go do what she had scraped up the courage to do. She didn’t want to have a heart to heart with her brother. She wanted to betray him with as little guilt as possible.
“I was just coming to check on you. I kept hearing all of these weird noises coming from your room. The walls are super thin here. Are you sure that you're alright?”
Cassandra agreed that she was fine, but it was quite obvious that she wasn't. Her hands were shaking, her insides we're vibrating with the effort of it all. Why did nothing work out the way she wanted it to? It didn't have to be so complicated, but her life tended to turn out that way nonetheless.
“I am fine. It has been a weird day. I was going to go to sleep soon. What are you still doing up? You look like you haven't slept in a couple of days.”
Luke said that he was having trouble getting to sleep, but that she shouldn't worry about it too much. “I am probably going to go for a walk in a little while. These hotel rooms make me feel so closed in. Does it make you feel that way too?”
Cassandra said that she was fine. “It is better when we all have our own room.”
Luke said that he totally agreed with that. “Staying with a couple other people in a tiny place was definitely something new. I didn't get any sleep last night because of that. I'm about to lie down after my walk, are you?”
Cassandra nodded with the sentiment, even though she was not prepared to go to sleep at all. Cassandra had something else on her mind. Her brother would be going to sleep soon. She just had to wait a little bit longer.
