Chapter 16
They arrived, and Cassandra tried carrying him he was heavy and Thomas finally woke up. “Mommy is it over?”
“Yes, sweetheart, it’s over.”
Thomas was looking at his mother, “mommy, if you are Charlie’s girlfriend does that mean he is your boyfriend?”
“We can talk about this in the morning ok sweetheart, I’m tired and you have to go to school tomorrow, ok goodnight up to your room.”
“Aw man, but can you tell me tomorrow? Before school.”
Cassandra smiled, “maybe if it’s not too late,” Thomas ran up stairs excited for the next day.
Julie turned to her, “Cassandra you’re not mad at me are you?”
“No, I know it must have been hard for you… can I tell you something?”
“Sure.”
“Well it’s more of a confession, when I was pregnant I did find out that your hours were cut from the coffee shop, so I went to one of our neighbors and I would do errands for her, I had a job, I didn’t intend to live there for free.”
“Mrs. Donahue? She was the cranky old lady, that lived in the corner.”
“I know but she was paying me to drive her around, and run errands for her. I would work part time for her, she paid me everyday, I would pay some bills, don’t you remember when they were going to cut the gas but they didn’t?”
“That was… oh my god so it is true! I thought it was strange, how they never cut the gas or the electricity or even the phone or the cable, I remember we owed a lot. How did you do it? I thought she was a grouchy. Well I guess it’s the same with Mrs. Johnson.”
“I think it was because her son liked you, but I didn’t think you would, you see he was always ready to see you walk out the door, and cross the street, and he was always interested in knowing about you.”
“I remember him, I think he waved once, but seriously? Why would she think that, we never even spoke to each other, no wait there was once when he came to the coffee shop and I remember how nervous he was, he said, ‘you look nice today.’”
“Well it proves it! His mother was jealous because her little boy was growing up, just as Mrs. Johnson was with… well you know.”
Julie looked at her, “don’t worry I’m sure Charlie is a nice guy, and hopefully he’ll be the one, to help you forget about him.”
“But, I don’t think I could forget him.”
“You know someone once told me, it’s not about forgetting the person, it’s about learning about the experience with the person you were with before. You don’t forget the your first love. You’ll grow stronger, and smarter when that special someone comes around you’ll know because you’ll feel it.”
“Who told you that?”
“My mother, you know before I forget the last time we spoke I found out she was visiting the family. Well you know how close we were right? One of my cousins is pregnant and it’s great because she thought she couldn’t have a baby. My mom is staying over until the baby’s born, and says she‘s bringing pictures.”
“That’s great! I was wondering what had happened to your mother, and how is your cousin? She must be so happy.”
“She’s fine, my mother is happy because she’s finally visiting the family. But I want t surprise them for a visit, Mr. Kendall took me to work at the same time as he was teaching me, and I saved up some money.”
“When are you leaving?”
“In two months, that’s around the time the baby will be born and I wanted to surprise them, so I‘m not telling her I‘ll be over, I‘m just showing up.”
“Ok that’s great, at least you’ll be here for my son’s birthday, we’re celebrating it at my parents house, next week.”
“Yeah, I wanted to be here for his birthday, anyways talk to you tomorrow, I’m so tired… oh yeah have fun in your first date… I know you’re not really in love with him but… I just want you and your son to be happy, well good night, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Julie went up stairs, and Cassandra went to the kitchen and she saw her phone on the kitchen counter. She had missed calls which surprised her, everyone was at her sister’s party why would they call her.
Cassandra checked the missed calls and saw that it was all from one number, Thomas! Now what? Was he going to start lying to her again? She erased his calls, and his messages. She had, had enough lies!
************************************************************************
Thomas had gone to his parents house, and his mother was waiting for him, “son I need to talk to you, Jacob called and told me what was going on. It worries me that you have to leave like this, after finding out, Cassandra’s son could be yours…”
“He’s mine! All this years we have both been believing this lies, but I’ll have to clear my name, if I don’t do it now, I can do it when I come back, but… I don’t think she can forgive me.”
Sandra looked at her son, and she stayed silent for a moment, “you know I feel guilty because I’ve judged her before I even really got to know her… I know it’s probably too late, but I hope if he really is your son…”
“He is! But he things his father died, you have no idea how much I wish I could tell him that his father, isn’t dead, that I am his father, and…”
“I hope you’re right! I just don’t want to see you suffer like the first time when you found out what Cassandra did behind your back. If he isn’t your son you have to be strong enough to continue on with your life, I want you to live your life, as you are suppose to.”
“I know mom, but I need my son…”
“Ok I’ve told you he may or may not be your son, I just want you to think of the possibility. You can’t live your life, thinking you have a son if you don’t!”
Thomas stayed silent, he hadn’t thought about that, and knowing that his mother was right crushed him to bits.
“Thomas, I just think you should be prepared. All you can do right now is prepare your self no matter what, and don’t ever forget you’re not alone.”
“I know mom. Now I wanted to tell you that I’m gonna have to leave, there’s been a problem at the company, we’re having problems with the bank, but it looks like it’s not the first time they’ve done it.”
“What do you mean?”
“There’s been other businesses that have been closed down because of the same problem with the same bank, maybe if we can get the old owners to come forth and talk about their problems with the bank…”
“You’ll get them to, you’ll see, now you have to think about that. When you come back, you’ll be ready to sit down with Cassandra and talk about your chances of being her son’s father.”
“Mom, he is my son, I don’t think you’ve been listening, I spoke to her about it, but she doesn’t want me to see my son.”
“Well, then did he tell you why?”
“No, that is something I’ll need to talk to her when I come back, she even tried to protect him from me, in the plane.”
“What? Why would she protect him from you?”
“I don’t know, but I think that if Thomas sees me he would recognize me.”
“Why do you think he might recognize you? Shouldn’t he have recognized you in the first place, when he saw you at the event?”
“I was wearing a mask, and he was asleep in the plane by the time I was sitting in front of him, but Cassandra was nervous, like she didn’t want to see me there, like it was a bad moment.”
“Well, of course if she didn’t want to see you there, then I guess you‘re right...”
“Mom, I don’t have my passport, have you seen it?”
Mrs. Johnson, handed him the passport, “here it is, good thing you had the suitcase delivered, or you wouldn’t have had it with you, next time sweety don’t just jump in the plane, you can’t do that.”
“I know mom,” he kissed his mother as he was leaving, “where’s dad?”
“Here I am, goodbye son, I know everything will be ok.”
Thomas hugged his parents, and left to the airport, he called Jacob to tell him he would arrive in a few hours.
Jacob was waiting for him when he arrived, “Thomas I already spoke to the lawyer, and the bank wants to close down our…”
“What they can’t do that! And what does the lawyer say about it, is he going to stop it?”
“Yes, the papers were sent today, and he says that if this goes to court he has the old business owners by his side, and they’ll talk about the problems they went through with the same bank.”
“I knew we couldn’t trust the bank’s loan, but what about Mr. Thompson?”
“Actually, Mr. Thompson wants to talk to you about it, he says he has a plan, to make money to pay off the entire loan with in the next month and not just that also we’ll have enough to last us.”
“Perfect why don’t you set an urgent appointment with?…”
“I knew you were going to say this, I already did, I’m sorry Thomas but we have to be there in fifteen minutes.”
“Ok the sooner the better,” they drove to the office, and when they got there the lawyer was on the phone, and he signaled them to come in.
Mr. Thompson was there he look surprised when he saw Thomas, “Mr. Thompson, this is Mr. Johnson, he’s…”
“I know you from somewhere, ok Mr. Johnson, as I was explaining to Mr. Jefferson, I had some business plans here and I think they’ll work out perfectly, if you want I can start now or I can wait for your lawyer.”
The lawyer came in, and he had a smile on his face, “I have some good news, not only is the foreclosure stopped, but now we have a whole year to pay it.”
They were happy, Thomas looked at Mr. Thompson, “I’d still like to hear your idea, because the sooner we pay the loan the better, I don’t want to have any more problems with the lenders.”
Mr. Thompson set up his presentation, and when they heard his plans they decided to try it out, he was going to be in charge of their finances, until they were sure that they were making enough, to support their business, without the need of getting more loans.
After Mr. Thompson finished and they were getting ready to go, Jacob and Thomas were talking to each other, they thought everyone had left.
“So, what do you think Thomas? We did it again.”
“Yes, we did…” he was looking out the window looking at the scenery, and he sat back down. He wasn’t listening to what his friend was saying.
“Thomas we did it! We should celebrate… Thomas are you ok? You seem like you have a lot in your mind.”
“I was thinking about Cassandra, how she was protecting her son from me, why would she think that she had to protect him from me? But what’s worse is that boyfriend of hers, he was being all Mr. Tough Guy, who does he think he is? And I don’t think he is a good example for my son, I mean he isn’t even stable, my son needs a stable place to live, and that man is traveling a…”
“I’m sorry, I have to stop you there, but I think I know who you’re talking about does this Cassandra have a friend named Julie? How is she by the way? You know the last time I saw her she was…”
Thomas and Jacob turned to look at Mr. Thompson who turned red, “I’m sorry you guys, I’ll leave I didn’t want to butt in your conversation, but at least I know now why I felt I knew…”
“Wait a minute you know Cassandra? How do you know her?”
“She’s Julie’s friend, and well me and Julie spend some time together, I was her tutor, actually she was one of my best students, but…” he noticed he sad too much, “nevermind, I just had some things to take care of and I was thinking of… her…”
“I see you like her, well I guess so, I don’t know but I couldn’t see her with…” he noticed that they were interested, in what he was saying, and then he recognized Thomas.
“I knew it! Your confused but you like her.”
“I know where I’ve seen you…” his face went pale, “but I thought you were… dead. You’re… were Cassandra’s…”
“Does she say I’m dead to everyone?”
“Well, she wasn’t talking to me she was talking to…” he remembered that Cassandra wanted to keep it a secret from her son, he overheard them once when he came to tutor Julie.
“Thomas, she told him I died, I know, well I found out, but I’m not sure if he’s really my son.”
“Thomas you’re Thomas? Well all I can tell you is you and her must have a lot to talk about, you know she really had it hard you know.”
“I know but…”
“Thomas this is probably none of my business, but I need to tell you what she thinks about you. She’s probably going to be mad, but if it’s true what she thinks of you do her a favor and don’t go back to her at all.”
Thomas looked hurt, but shocked at the same time, “ok what does she think about me?”
“Cassandra has this idea that you abandoned her knowing that she was pregnant, Julie was taking care of her after that until she had her baby, and they were working at this coffee shop.
But the worse part is when she was kicked out of her own house, and she was calling her friends for help, she found out Rebecca was your girl friend…”
“I know that and believe me, I’ve been trying to tell her not to believe her, I… don’t know what to do, I can’t forget her, but I can’t see my son and tell him that I’m his father.”
“You know it’s not about forgetting the person, it’s about learning about the experience with the person you were with before. You don’t forget the your first love. You’ll grow stronger, and smarter if she is that special someone comes around you’ll know because you’ll feel it.”
“Looks like you heard that from someone.”
Mr. Thompson cleared his throat, “well yeah, you know I give advice but I don’t take my own advice, I feel like I’m going to be less professional if I go after her, I mean I was her tutor I can’t…” he turned and noticed he had said too much
“Ok you guys I have to go, but I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“No wait! Thomas he must know where Cassandra lives.”
“I thought you already knew, in that case don’t expect me to tell you, if Cassandra didn’t tell you, I can’t so forget about it, you’ll have to ask her.”
The next day, Thomas woke up for his day of school, and he ran to his mother’s room, but he was surprised when he didn’t find her there.
Suddenly he heard noises coming from the hall way, “mommy is that you?” Thomas ran to meet Julie in the hall way.
Julie looked surprised, “no sweety, it’s me, isn’t your mom in her bedroom?”
Thomas looked sad and shook his head, “no, I looked all over but I didn’t see her… where is she Julie?”
“I think she’s probably in the kitchen, I’ll go check ok, she probably cooking,” she went down stairs, without waiting for a reply and she found her there, sleeping on the chair.
“Cassandra? Are you ok?”
“Julie? Oh my god, I thought I was… you know what I wasn’t sleepy yesterday, so I guess I fell asleep here. Is Thomas awake?”
“Yes, I told him you were here, probably cooking for him, why don’t you get ready and I can cook something today?”
“Ok, where’s Thomas is he getting ready for school?”
“I think so.”
“Ok I’ll tell him,” she went up stairs and when Thomas hugged her as soon as he saw her, “come on sweety it’s time to get ready, you don’t want to be late for school.”
“Mommy and after school are we going to go out with Charlie?”
Cassandra had forgotten about it, “yes sweety, we will, now hurry and…”
“Ok!” Thomas ran to his room and he looked so excited, he liked Charlie, he heard once that if a mother had a boyfriend than he could be your daddy.”
When he was on his way to school, he was happy and he kept looking at his mother, but he wouldn’t say anything.
Cassandra looked at him, “are you excited sweety?”
Thomas nod his head, “mommy is Charlie gonna be my daddy? The kids in my class said that if you have a boyfriend then he is going to be my other daddy is it true?”
Cassandra looked surprised, “Thomas I have to tell you something, me and Charlie we’re just friends, he’s not my boyfriend. We’re buddies, like Julie is to me.”
“But he asked you to be his girlfriend, remember?”
“Yes, honey I guess you’re right, but you shouldn’t call him daddy, ok?”
“Ok, I guess he doesn’t like to be called daddy then huh mommy?”
Cassandra nodded, “that’s right, and he’s not really your daddy, but he is a good friend ok?”
Thomas looked confused, “ok mommy, but after you marry him, can I call him daddy?”
Cassandra looked at her son, “sweety, he’s not your father, I don’t know if I will marry him yet, but what I can tell you is that he can always be your friend, and that is what matters, ok?”
“Ok mommy,” Cassandra drove into his school, “bye mommy,” Thomas got off, and he waved goodbye as he walked to class. Cassandra waved back, and drove away when she saw him walk into his class.