Swipe of Fate

Chapter 15

It's Wednesday, so that officially means the next chapter of Swipe of Fate is out. I've loved reading all your comments as the readership grows, and it means so much that you all have stuck around this long. Drama impending.

It came to my attention pretty soon after the I-love-you's were spoken that Max and I were getting serious. 

On his birthday, his mom and grandfather even came up to visit and have lunch with us. 

I felt so special he had decided to introduce me to his family. I can't say that it was perfect, that I felt immediately at home. 

But Max's family liked me. They said we were an adorable couple, took pictures of us together and shared in our mutual happiness. I believed them when they said we were a cute couple because we were, and that's all I thought you needed.

When I met Max's mom and grandfather, I forgot completely that there had ever been anyone else. Max was mine, and I was his. It was so simple. Who was Ethan Parke? I didn't care because I was too happy and healthy to care.

But seeing Cassie completely destroyed my short-lived bliss. Max invited me to a production his theater group was putting on in one of the academic buildings. I asked Max if Cassie would be there, and of course she would.

I met Max outside. It was beginning to get cold outside. The seasons were changing.

"Hey, boyfriend," I greeted happily, enveloping him with a hug and a kiss.

"Hey, girlfriend." Clearly we were in that annoying early stage of happiness I rioted to see anyone else in.

We walked into the building. 

Max wasn't in this show, but he was coming to support the team. I was pretending I was totally fine with the fact that I would see a girl who had slept with my basically abusive ex the nights before or after I did, but I felt nervous. 

I felt I was playing a role, and I was afraid I would get my lines wrong.

Luckily, the line was long and we got there late. So there was no time to mingle before the show. I watched like I was peering away into another world, the world of Cassie, so similar and yet different from my own.

I knew from Max that Cassie played a girl in a sham of a marriage; her husband always mistreated her and cheated on her with other women. 

On another day, it would have reminded me of my mother, but I was all eyes for any resemblance in the plot to the Ethan storyline of both of our lives.

The spotlight shined as Cassie walked onstage. She was tall, slender and I was strangely sad to find out, very beautiful. 

I had dissed her photographs with friends before, marveling at how Ethan could have me and choose her. But now I saw she was beautiful and talented and any guy would be lucky to be with her.

The room was small, and the performers could see every face in the room. 

I knew this because when Cassie looked upon the audience, for just a split second, I saw her eyes panic with shock and then very quickly intrigue as she glanced at me and Max together. And then, within the split second, she was back in character like it had never happened.

The play went on without a hitch. I was surprised by how, even within the show, her voice was one you'd fall in love with, rich and full of intrigue. 

She was, overall, intimidating and I didn't want to talk to her after the show. 

It didn't help that Max and I were laughing at very different jokes within the play. We didn't find the same things funny.