Presque Vu

Chapter 7

Cassidy opened the pizza box and sat it back down on the counter before handing an empty plate to Raina. "So," she asked, "what are you going to tell Jared?"

Raina had come over to Cassie and Aaron's for their weekly pizza and beer night (or just pizza for Cassie these days) and Cassie had grilled her for every detail about her encounters with Jared and Shannon. She had been hesitant to share at first, embarrassed by how intense things had gotten with Jared so quickly, but after Aaron had taken his beer and excused himself to go watch the game on TV, Cassie had slowly coaxed the details out of her. Raina expected her to be shocked, but if she had been, she hadn't shown it. "Why do I have to tell Jared anything? He's not my boyfriend. He hasn't even called me back."

Cassie set her slice down on her plate. "Raina you are asking for trouble. They're going to talk." Cassie got a sudden, horrified look on her face. "Oh God Raina, what if they already talked?"

"I guess it's okay then because Shannon didn't seem bothered any."

Cassie shook her head. "No, you don't understand what I'm saying. What if they already talked? What if," she looked at her plate, avoiding Raina's eyes "what if Shannon called to ask you out because Jared told him what a great time he had. If you catch my drift."

Raina wasn't sure how to process that. "Oh come on Cassie, this isn't high school. Surely they're not passing around the name of the 'easy girl' like horny teenagers. I'm sure they can find plenty of willing women."

"Case in point, I guess." Cassie immediately regretted saying it. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I'm just looking out for you."

Raina chose to ignore the affront. "I just don't know why it has to be a big thing. No one is dating anyone yet. It was dinner, a romp, and a coffee date. You wouldn't suggest I say anything if they didn't know each other."

"If they didn't know each other they wouldn't be any chance of them finding out accidentally and making a big mess. If you're so sure it's all so casual and not a big deal then what's the harm in speaking up?"

Raina didn't know how to make Cassie understand. It had been so long since anyone had taken that kind of an interest in her, at least anyone she might be interested in return. Now she had two men pursuing her, and not just any two, but Jared and Shannon Leto. She didn't know what she had done at that photo shoot that had grabbed their attention but she wasn't about to do anything to screw it up. Raina figured if she spoke up and one of them wasn't comfortable with the situation then the whole thing came crashing to a halt right there. She was willing to risk anything to keep this going a little longer. She needed this. Cassie had never lost anything, had never found herself broken, penniless, directionless, without a friend in the world. Raina didn't think she could make her understand this desperate need to protect herself from ever feeling that again. If it meant not upsetting one particular apple cart at peril of the whole truck falling on you later, then so be it. Who knew if the truck would even come?

"How about we revisit this discussion if either one of them ever calls me back?"

"Rainy, I think you're playing with fire here...." Cassie frowned at her.

"Cass. Enough. I get your point." Raina grabbed another beer out of the refrigerator. "I'll think about it okay?"

Raina could hear her phone chirping from the nightstand where she had left it before drifting off to sleep. Sleepily she rubbed her eyes and fumbled for the device, noting the time on her lock screen said it was just after 4 a.m. There was a text alert, and when she went into her messages she saw a series of them that had come in in the last hour, all from Jared. She scrolled back to the first one.