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“Sounds nice.” I wish I could get back to the yelling now that she’s so timid.
“Let’s go then.” Walking to the back door, I hold it open and scan all around me as I’m doing it.
“There aren’t any chairs to sit on, but I thought we could just take a spot here on the steps if that's okay with you?” I ask, placing the food down and waiting for her to take a seat on the top step next to it.
“I was joking about you being the chef.” Cassandra gives me a half-smile as I sit myself down on the step below her. Being that bit taller at six feet, it still puts us almost at eye level.
“I wasn’t joking when I said I will if you need me to be,” I reply, putting a piece of cheese on a cracker and handing it to her. For the first time since she walked in the door this morning, I see her cheeks blush slightly. Interesting.
“Do all your clients get the full not-five-star treatment?” She looks out at the trees so she doesn’t have to look me in the face.
“Only the lucky ones.” I laugh at her, trying to break the embarrassment she must still be feeling from the nightmare.
“Really, and how many lucky ones have there been before me?” A slight sense of humor is peeking out now, which I’d like to see much more of.
“Hmmm, let me see.” I hold my finger up to my chin, pondering the question.
“Ugghhh, so I’m not special if you need to count them.” She turns her head back to look at me.
“Zero, the answer would be zero. Which means you are special.” I can feel the electricity starting to crackle around us as we both just try to push down the weirdness that we’re feeling between us.
This time it’s me breaking the connection and looking out into the yard, trying to change the topic.
“So, tell me a bit about your life before all this. I mean, way before the senator. What did your life look like?”
“I thought you would know all my history. Don’t they tell you everything, including the color of underwear I have on?”
Now that’s a visual I really do not need at all.
“That’s not what I want to know. I can read all that shit until I’m blue in the face. I want to know the real you. The person inside you, regardless of the name on the outside.” I hold back also saying how much I’d like to know about the color of her underwear but only if she is modelling it.
“I’m not that exciting to know. Just an average woman living in a world that I don’t belong in, by the looks of things,” she says, swirling her iced tea in the glass in front of her.
“I call bullshit on the part about not being exciting. But that world is definitely not one we want you nearby. Let me be the judge of the rest. Start talking, woman, where did you grow up?”
CASSIE
Should I really be sharing all this with him?
I don’t know what the rules are, but for some reason, I just want to. I need to talk to someone and try to get my mind off what is happening, and Ghost is the only person I'll have for a long time. Not that it will be a burden. He’s easy on the eyes, and when he isn’t trying to be all macho on me, I think he has this soft caring side of him that I’m not sure he means to show me.
“I grew up in Philadelphia for the first eighteen years of my life with my parents. I had a twin brother who died at birth, and my mom had to have emergency surgery to try to save me. It meant that she couldn’t have any more children after that. They loved me, but we all felt like there was a hole in my family that we could never fill.”
“I’m sorry about your brother, did he have a name?”
My mouth drops at the question. “No person has ever asked me that. In all the years I have shared my story, no one ever cared to ask.” My heart twinges for my twin I never knew.
Ghost’s reaction to that shows anger at the lack of people’s empathy in life. “I care. Please tell me his name.” Looking at him I can tell he truly does.
“Eli. His name was Eli.” A single tear runs down my face for the brother I wish were here with me.
Lifting his glass toward me, he says, “Cheers to Eli, wherever he may be.” For the first time in what feels like forever I’m smiling, like truly smiling. I raise my glass to clink with his, the warmth of the afternoon sun soaking into my bones and the kindheartedness of Ghost settling in my heart.
“Cheers to Eli, together with Mom and Dad again.” The thought makes me happy that none of them are on their own.
“Tell me about your parents’ deaths?” His interested look on his face surprises me.
“Didn’t you get around to reading that part?”
