Who Is This?

Chapter 5

"Oh, Cassie-bear, you two are so cute!"

"Don't call me that," Cassidy said flatly, and James laughed. Despite the disastrous results of their first lunch-date, he was the only work-friend that Cass had, so she'd decided to brave the possibilities and try again.

"So when are you meeting?" James persisted. Cassidy sighed and shrugged.

"Maybe never," She admitted. "He likes me over the phone, but a good chunk of my weirdness is filtered across phone lines. Maybe he'd be a bit less eager if he actually met me in person."

"Don't be ridiculous," James scoffed. "I know you in person, and I think you're amazing."

"Thanks, James, but an argument could be made that you are almost as weird as I am. Also, you're not a British man with a delicious, chocolate-y voice."

"Hey," James protested mildly. "I may not be British, but I think that an argument could also be made for my delicious, chocolate-y voice."

"Trust me, if you'd heard Tom's voice you wouldn't be saying that, you'd be thanking heavens above that you finally understood what a real delicious, chocolate-y voice was."

"Well then," James shifted in his seat, and Cass could hear the smirk in his voice as he said, "let me hear it."

"What?" Cassidy blinked, then shook her head quickly. "No way. He's already suffered through one phone call from one of my weird friends, I won't put him through another."

"Oh, come on, that was days ago," He pleaded. "Tommy's due for another one, I think."

"No. Absolutely not." Cass curled her hands around her phone protectively. "James. No."

"Cassie," He whined, trying to pry her phone from her hands. "You've talked about him so much, and now I need to simply hear his voice. That's all I ask, Cass, just to hear his voice."

Cassidy narrowed her eyes. If she was totally honest, she kind of really wanted to show off her handsome-sounding male friend to the person who'd told her that she seriously needed to improve her sex life. She puffed out her cheeks, indecisive for a moment, then sighed.

"Okay. Okay. How 'bout this. I will call him, and I will put him on speakerphone so you can hear his delicious, chocolate-y voice, and you will not say anything, alright?"

"Yes, yes, of course, I won't say a word, promise!" James said eagerly, and Cass heard him scoot his chair closer to hers as she said clearly, "Call Tom."

Her phone started ringing and she waited pensively for Tom to pick up, already regretting her decision to call him. As the ringing went on she became steadily more hopeful that he was busy, and that he wouldn't pick up, but her hopes were dashed by the calm "Hello," that came through the speakers of her phone.

James nudged her excitedly, and she suddenly realised that she actually had to reply. Yeah, she wasn't so good at the whole 'conversation' thing.

"Oh, um, hey?" She said, nerves making her voice lift at the end of the sentence, which had the effect of making it sound like a question.

"Cass, how's it going?" Tom asked happily, and Cassidy fought the smile that threatened to break across her face as James elbowed her energetically.

"It's, um, good, thanks," she grinned, mentally cursing herself for not being able to make it through one sentence without saying 'um'. "How are you going? How's, uh, banking?"

"Banking ... Oh! Right, yes, banking."

"Yes. Banking. You know, your job?" Cass said, raising an eyebrow, and she heard James giggle slightly.