A Bit of Tomorrow

Fifth

Cassy

I looked at myself on the mirror to check if my outfit was fine. It was seven in the evening and Mark was about to pick me up in thirty minutes. I decided to sit myself down on one of the couches and let the time pass by.

I went to check on to check my phone if there were any messages from Sarah, but there were none. I heaved a breath and opened my Instagram account. Scrolling mindlessly on the feed. There was nothing that interested me. Just the same celebrities living with the lush life they had.

I was in the middle of reading reviews about my new book when I heard the buzzer. It must've been Mark already so I didn't bother checking the monitor. I grabbed my coat and led my way outside. I saw him standing in front of the gate and he waved at me once he saw me approaching.

"Hi." I smiled at him, prolonging the last part of the greeting.

He then handed me flowers that he was hiding behind his back.

"Hello, Cassy." he greeted playfully saying my name.

"Awe, flowers! Thank you! Mark!" I exclaimed, hugging him in gratitude. It was my favorite kind, peonies.

Ever since meeting Mark, I've been tagging him along to places where we could find flowers, well that's because I have this profound love for them and I think he's already gotten the sign that peonies are my favorite. That's why he's always gotten me this every time he returned from travel after weeks.

"Come on, we got reservations." He said guiding me towards his car.

"Ooh, fancy" I teased, he chuckled and went on to open the car door for me but I was quick to stop him.

"I have hands, stop spoiling me." I rolled my eyes at him and opened the door to slide myself in. He laughed and shook his head and turned himself towards his seat.

"Yeah, yeah I know that." he spoke and drove the car to the streets. I set the flowers on the back seat to adjust myself.

"So, how's work?" I turned to him.

"Nothing much. I'll be traveling to China though." he spoke, shrugging his shoulders.

"Ooh, China." I teased again.

"Get me one of those scroll paintings once you get there, yeah?"

"Yeah, sure." he paused and glanced at me, he seemed like he wanted to ask me something but just brushed his curiosity away.

"I know you want to ask me about something so go ahead." I motioned, looking down.

He scrunched his forehead but asked anyway, "Is everything well for you?"

I heaved a deep breath and looked up. "Not really." I spoke as a lump started forming in my throat.

"You know you can tell me, right?" he tried consoling me.

I nodded and bit my lower lip, playing with the hem of my dress. Suddenly, I felt his hand cover mine which cause me to look up. "Stop being so hard on yourself, Cassy."

"It's just that, Sarah and I aren't in good terms and I'm leaving the company again." I spoke in between sighing. Talking when tears were threatening to spill was the hardest part.

"You have me." He looked straight into my eyes as if trying to suck my feelings away from me.

I broke the gaze and stared outside the window, biting on my nails.

"I know, focus on driving." I softly told him. Mark has also been very warm whenever I had problems. The only issue was that we didn't get to see each other that much. Still, I was grateful to have a friend like him.