Presque Vu

Chapter 14

Cassie came by with a big bag of takeout after she got off work, ostensibly to be Raina's guinea pig for her presentation. But when she asked Raina if she had heard from either of the brothers again, Raina realized that somehow she had left Cassie completely out of the loop and spent the next hour catching her up. It felt good to get it all of her chest, to have someone to talk to. She really needed someone to help her get her head back on straight.

"Telling Jared you're seeing someone else is not the same thing as telling him you're sleeping with his brother." Cassie pointed out. "And you know it. That's why you're having panic attacks again if you ask me."

Rain groaned. "Attack. It was just the one. And Shannon was completely chill about the situation...."

"...which he also doesn't know the full truth of," she scolded."Come on Raina. Just tell them. You've come this far. It's going to be so much worse if they find out on their own. They might not mind as much as you think they will."

Raina started clearing the takeout containers while Cassie put her feet up. "Jared is already not happy there's someone else. He's kind of possessive I think. Which is ridiculous because it's not like we're pretending he's not seeing anyone else. I bet he has a whole little harem on call."

Cassie tucked a pillow under her heels. "Does he? Do you know that? Did he tell you that or are you just making more assumptions?"

"He didn't deny it," Raina answered as she sat down next to Cassie. She and Jared were doing such a ridiculous dance around each other and she knew it. She just didn't know how to break the cycle. "We'll figure it out, Cassie. I mean, you're probably right, we should all sit down and have a talk but I don't think anyone is really ready for that. At least Jared and I aren't." She reached over and picked her tablet up off the table and opened her presentation notes. "So are you going to help me with this or what?"

Cassie left just before midnight. Raina felt drained from a day that had started off rough and seemed to stretch on forever but at least she was confident about her final tomorrow afternoon. She checked her phone before getting ready for bed and noticed several text messages from Shannon that must have come in while she was working. He wanted her to call, and the most recent message was only about twenty minutes old so she figured he was probably still up. She thought about just taking a shower and going to bed, she was exhausted, but thought maybe she had enough time for a short conversation. She dialed his number.

"Hey Rainy Girl," he greeted her. He sounded sunny and happy and Raina immediately started to smile.

"Hey Shannon, what's up?"

"Not much now. Rehearsed kind of late tonight, we've got the tour coming up soon but I'm just hanging back at home now." I guess that's what Jared was referring to when he said he was pretty busy the next few days, Raina thought. "I was just thinking about you. Did you say that big final thing was tomorrow?"

"Yeah, it is. Tomorrow afternoon. Cassie just left a few minutes ago as a matter of fact, she's been helping me get ready all night."

"I was just thinking if it goes well .... and I'm sure it will..."Shannon added hastily, "then maybe we can go out to celebrate? I mean I'm sure your friends or classmates or someone is taking you tomorrow night but maybe this weekend?"

Clearly, Shannon thought she had a much more active social life than she did. "No, Cassie was over here helping me tonight but she and her husband have plans tomorrow, it's her mother-in-law's birthday. I'll probably just buy myself an extra nice bottle of wine on the way home or something."

There was a long pause on the line. "Raina, I don't want to sound like an ass, but don't you have anyone else? Cassie is the only person in your life you ever mention."