Chapter 7
Cassandra looked at the time it was time for him to get out of his class, she had to go get him
“Mother I have to leave but I already signed the papers so you can give them to Mr. Swan.”
“Ok sweety.”
Cassandra left to Thomas’ school he was waiting for her outside, and there were other cars in front waiting to pick their kids.
Thomas saw her coming and stood up and waved his hands, “mommy I’m right here.”
Cassandra looked at him, “ok, honey hold on, I see you,” she was
Cassandra called Mrs. Shultz to tell her not to come. She would be with Thomas all day today, and they would go to the park where she would talked to him, about going away for some days.
When Thomas heard about his mother getting a job he seemed disappointed, Cassandra remembered when she was a little girl and she wanted to spend more time with her mother.
“But you don’t have to worry because mommy is going to spend more time with you, and you will be going with mommy on every event, that means we’ll spend more time together, and we’ll go to more trips together.”
“Really?”
“Of course, we are you’ll see we’ll have fun and we I can buy you a camera for you to take pictures.”
Thomas always wanted to have a camera, and he was excited to know he would finally get one. He hugged her, “thank you mommy. I love ya!”
“Ha, ha, ha I love you too, hon.”
Mr. Thompson and Julie were on their way to the house, but Julie wanted to spend more time with him. She didn’t know why she felt the need to but, “Mr. Thompson, I’d like to talk to you about yesterday, I know it must have been uncomfortable to tell me how you felt but…”
“Don’t worry about it, I have gotten over it!” He was looking up front, couldn’t bring himself to face her.
Julie wasn’t expecting that, “good, could I turn the radio on?”
“Sure, go ahead,” Mr. Thompson seemed not to care, he was looking up front while she turned on the radio. Only the music was playing, as they silently drove away.
When they got home Cassandra’s car was already there, Mr. Thompson finally turned to her, he sighed.
“Your new tutor will arrive tomorrow he is a great tutor, he tutored me. Anyways he will start teaching you on your level, he knows where you are at.”
Julie wasn’t looking back at him, “ok, I guess this is goodbye then…” she turned to him, and extended her hand, “goodbye Mr. Thompson, I think I should go inside now my friend is waiting for me thank you Mr. Thompson you were a great tutor yourself.”
They shook hands, Julie felt her heart sink but she didn’t want to show it, and smiled as he smiled back at her, “you’re a great student I‘m sure you will catch on quickly.” he watched her walk inside and drove off.
“Hi Julie, guess what?” Thomas seemed excited, and Cassandra was in the kitchen.
Julie didn’t want to ruin their happiness, so smiling she looked at the little boy “what’s up?”
“Mommy says I’m gonna take trips with her and she is buying me a camera, I’m gonna take pictures.”
Cassandra came into view, “are you guys going somewhere?” Julie was surprised.
“Not now, but I need to talk to you, Thomas can you leave us alone for a little bit?”
“Ok, mommy, can I go play outside?”
“Ok, but not in the pool, ok?”
Thomas smiled big and wide, “ok, mom,” he ran out after grabbing his ball from his room, he waved as he ran out side.
Cassandra saw him playing with his ball in the back yard, kicking it and happy running after it. She went to sit with Julie, and brought her a coffee, “so let’s talk, how did your date go yesterday?”
Julie drank from her coffee and set it back down, she looked at her, “the truth is that it didn’t go so well at all, but I figured out there’s someone else who likes me.”
“What? Who?” The conversation grew interesting, she sat across from her waiting for her to answer.
“I don’t know, I just met the guy, and then he… confuses me because I don’t know what I feel or felt, and it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter because we can’t be together.”
“But, I thought…”
“Looks like he got a job offer, elsewhere because he already quit this one, I don’t know how I feel for him.”
“Was he your secret admirer?”
Julie told Cassandra everything that happened that day, how she was struggling to get away from Jason, and how Mr. Thompson saved her from him. Cassandra was amazed to hear that how Mr. Thompson stopped Jason.
Julie kept going, “I was thankful, so I invited Mr. Thompson for a cup of coffee. I wanted to appreciated somehow, I don’t know what would have happened if he wasn’t there to protect me.”
“But tell me how did he get there? Was he watching you?” Cassandra seemed eager to know how it ended.
“You know what? I don’t know, but he told me he saw me and he was near by, I invited him to a coffee, and once I paid and we got out of the coffee shop, he said he had feelings for me, since the first day, but…”
Julie looked out the big window facing the back yard, where Thomas was playing, and she looked back at Cassandra, who took another sip of her coffee,
“Even he isn’t sure of his feelings, but I can’t blame him, he said he might be falling for me and that he can’t control himself.”
“Well I know you don’t really know him, but can you guys be friends and get to know each other?”
“No, it wasn’t meant to be he told me that he is resigning from being my tutor, he got a business proposal and he’s taking it, today was the last day, he would ever see me.”
“Was? That’s it? I can’t believe it!”
“I was shocked just stood there and watched him leave, I must confess I couldn’t help but feel sad. After all he was a great tutor, but I’m going to have a new tutor tomorrow. Guess what? It was his tutor.”
Cassandra could see that her friend, wasn’t happy, “if he wouldn’t have to leave, do you think you could’ve gone out with him?”
“I don’t know, what I would have done but, it doesn’t matter now he is leaving, I couldn’t very well have stopped him… as I said before I barely knew him.”
They sat quietly and drank the rest of their coffee, Cassandra looked sad for her, she didn’t know what to say, but she felt the same way when she saw Thomas again.
Cassandra wanted her friend to be to know what had happen to her when she left, so she told her that she had gone to her mother’s that morning.
“Mr. Swan was there, and I asked him about the modeling job.”
“So now it’s certain that you will start working with him?”
“Yes, but there’s a catch…” she sighed, “Thomas, is one of the investor’s for Swan’s modeling agency, he will be hosting their next campaign, next month, where I am going to be at.”
“What? Are you serious? Are you nervous he might recognize you?”
“No,” she got her purse and took out the mask she would be wearing, “it’s going to be a masquerade ball, he won’t recognize me, but it’s only that day, he is leaving after that, and it’ll be for good.”
“When is he leaving?”
“Right after I guess, but it will be the last I get to see him, and I’m relieved, Mr. Swan already knows, and he will keep my secret safe, guess what?”
“What?” Julie seemed interested, and Thomas was coming in they turned to look at him.
“Mommy, I’m going to my room, I am tired.” he ran up stairs, with a cup of water in his hands, “can I watch tv?”
“Of course honey.” Thomas smiled wide as he went up stairs.
They saw his door close, and they kept going, “Mr. Swan is giving me an artistic name, well my mother chose it… Mystique, that‘s the name he will recognize me as.”
“So next month, that’s when you’ll start?”
“Yeah, we are going to be raising money, but first I’ll get trained, I told him I don’t have experience, but he thinks it’s fine because I will be ready for that day, the closest I’ll ever come to him again is on stage, with many people around, he’s not coming close to me.”
“Are you sure? Won’t this make it harder for you, to say goodbye?… well not literally, but you know what I mean.”
“I know, but this is only once every month, I have to give my son more time, he’s been alone all his life I was working all day, and for what? To come home when he was sleeping, and now that I have the chance. I want to be with him,” she couldn’t help it tears streamed down her cheeks.
“Ok, I get it, but why are you crying? Cassandra what’s going on?”
“I still can’t believe Thomas knew I was pregnant, but he never cared about his son, I mean if he stopped loving me, is one thing but to have left his own son, that’s another story, and I won’t forgive that!”
Julie hugged her, “Oh! Don’t cry that man doesn’t deserve it!” Cassandra cleared her tears from her face, and sat up straight again.
“You’re right, and you know what else? I told my mother that I’m quitting, after you finish your studies, you are the one who should be up there, not me!”
Cassandra could see that Julie was sad to see she was quitting, “I never wanted to work for my mother’s company and she had always known that.”
“Then why would she try to hire you? Don‘t you think she would have wanted you there?” Julie seemed surprised.
“Because it’s my mother, she just wanted to have me come back home, and that was her way of convincing me.”
“Ha, ha, ha, I guess your mother does know you best, but I never understood how was it she ever found you?”
“Well, you remember, that detective, right? That Mr. Campbell he found out where I worked, he was going to look for me that day when he knocked me down.”
“I remember.”
“Seems mother was looking for me, and it was all a misunderstanding they were mad but they never wanted to kick me out, Cassidy doesn’t like him either, he was looking into her too.”
“Why her?”
“Because she supposedly knew where to find me, but she didn’t like him spying on her, her friends liked him though. Cassidy called him a stuck up, snobbish, conceited guy.”
“That bad huh?”
“Yeah but he ended finding out where I worked and lived because he’d follow her. Mother didn‘t have any bad intentions, but it‘s not going to be the last she sees from him, he was invited to Cassidy‘s surprise party… he‘s going to be there.”
“Oh no, now that’s gonna surprise her alright.”
Cassandra seemed embarrassed, “I know… mother doesn’t know what to do either.”
“But what’s gonna happen once she sees him?”
“She is probably going to think that one of her friends brought him, with her, at least mom is not uninviting him, she already invited him, and as she says that’s that!”