Chapter 19
Cassandra looked at her sister, “did you tell him you liked him as a friend?”
“Of course.”
“Do you like him?”
“I… don’t, I can’t!” Olivia came out of the library, and saw them talking on the living room.
She walked towards them, “hi sweety, what happened?”
“He kissed me, but wait that’s not the worse part after I was the one to agree to go out with him as a friend, I kissed him back! I don’t think I can show my face anymore…”
“Honey aren’t you exaggerating it a bit?”
“No mom, I’m confused too, like I know he must be too,” Olivia sat down next to her.
“Well why can’t you be in love with him? He seems to like you and you like him you should be happy, your in love!”
“But it’s not right, my friends, they like him, I mean even before he was popular with the girls, you should have seen they were all over him! Even with his old fashion clothes and…”
“That wasn’t old fashioned, it was just simple jeans and t shirts, you’re just making up excuses, so you won’t like him.”
“Ok, fine but you can’t say anything about his personality, you didn’t like him in the beginning either.”
“Ok… but you do and that is what matters, why are you so mad?”
“I wasn’t suppose to like him, my friend she likes him, now I find that I have feelings for him. I want to switch to another college, I know where.”
“But, it’s only one more month!”
“Wait, I know I’ll call my teachers and see if I can do it online, I know they’ll let me, I’ll just have to be present for one class, but I’ll never have to see him again.”
“Sweety, he’s a detective, and if he wants to he can figure it out, you have to face this, if you have feelings for him remember he asked you to be his girlfriend. Not your friend!”
“But mom...”
“You only have a month, I suggest you make it your best, I’m going to make some coffee, do you girls want any?”
“Sure,” they said at the same time, Olivia went to the kitchen.
“Mom, I’ll help you.” Cassandra followed her in to the kitchen, “mom, why do you think she’s…”
“Because of the boy she was dating last year, he broke her heart, she won’t talk about it. Now every guy who asks her out, she turns down.”
“Really?” Cassandra was hurt, how come she never told me? “What happened with this boy?”
“I don’t know, she changed completely towards him, she wouldn’t hear or talk about him.”
Cassidy walked into the kitchen, “I heard my name, what’s up?”
“I was telling your sister about the last guy you dated, sweety I think that is affecting you, that is why you have to face it.”
“I don’t want to talk about it, and I can’t do this, I wanted to help him get a girlfriend, I wasn’t suppose to be it!”
“Cassidy? Was he unfaithful?”
Cassidy’s eyes filled with tears, she nodded and cleared her throat.
“All I say is you’ll have to face it, sooner or later. I imagine this boy must have really hurt you, I wish I knew who’s done this to you, I’d give him a piece of my mind!”
“I don’t want to be reminded about…him, he reminds me of him, that’s why I can’t be with him. I kissed him…I’m not in love with him, he just reminded me…” she was afraid, and wished she believed her own words.
“Of him!”
“Exactly I know you’re right mom, but you should have seen we walked all over the mall, we had a great time. I’ll talk to him tomorrow, he’ll have to understand.”
They drank their coffee, she told them about their day, “changed his clothes, his hair, oh and he won’t have to wear glasses anymore.”
Olivia was looking at her thoughtful she was silently listening. Cassandra and Cassidy were chatting happily, they stopped and turned to look at her, “mom what happened?”
Olivia smiled, “nothing sweety, it’s been so long since I’ve seen both of my daughters like this.”
They kept chatting, after a while Olivia and Cassidy left. The next day Cassandra called the company in San Diego, and send in her summary.
She had some professional pictures taken, the company was going to use those to use, to put her as the face on the bill boards.
The next morning Thomas was happy running around, “mom can we go out with Charlie again?”
“I don’t know he’s been too busy… Thomas, let’s get ready for school.”
Thomas looked really happy, “am I gonna get to go to the field trip?”
“Yes, but I don’t think it’s today, it’s going to be next week, are you excited?” She smiled.
“Uh-huh,” Thomas nodded.
“Ok, hurry because I’m going to make you some pancakes today, before you go to school, ok sweety.”
“Ok, mommy,” Thomas ran to get ready, he came back down with his back pack over his shoulder.
Julie was awake, she came down stairs, “how did Cassidy’s date go?”
“She said she had fun going through the whole mall, but remember she said that she was going out with him, but as a friend?”
Julie looked surprised, “yes, why?”
“I think, they like each other, because yesterday after he kissed her, she kissed him back, and…”
Thomas came, “I’m ready, mommy!”
“That’s good sweety your pancakes are ready too, come and eat,” she served him, and came back to Julie, “do you want some? Come on so we can sit together and talk, I’ll take Thomas in like thirty minutes.”
“Ok,” they served themselves and they sat the other table, Thomas was eating and watching cartoons at the same time.
“Anyways, as I was saying, before she is jealous of the other girls as she said are all over him, and at the same time I’m confused. Last year she was dating someone who broke her heart, and I think she wants to see this man in him.”
“So she might be in love, but she might not be in love. What does she think about this?”
“That she is confused, didn’t want to face him today, she doesn’t want to talk about her ex, or what he did, but she still looks hurt. Cassidy said she would talk to him about it.”
“Well, I guess we can ask her about it today.”
Cassandra looked at the clock, “I have to take Thomas to school, but there’s some more pancakes, help yourself.”
Cassandra and Thomas left, while Julie stayed. Thomas looked so happy as he waved her goodbye.
Julie decided to go up stairs and wait for Olivia, while she was looking for a property in San Diego her phone rang.
“Hello Mrs. Hopkins, are you on your way?”
“Julie it’s me…”
“Mr. Thompson? How are you?”
“I’m fine, I just wanted to call you to congratulate you. I’m sorry I just called, but I just found out.”
“Thank you, Mr. Thompson, I really appreciated…”
“Listen I was calling because I was in town and I needed to talk to you, can you meet me?”
“I can’t right now, but where are you going to be later like at twelve, I can meet you then.”
“Ok, that’s fine, I’m going to be on the coffee shop, there was more that I wanted to say the last time, but…”
“I understand, but right now I have to go, I’m meeting Mrs. Hopkins today, and I have some work to do, but I’ll meet you there.”
“Ok, that’s fine I’ll see you later.”
She hang up the phone, it was strange she knew there had to be something else, to this call. Oh well I’ll just have to figure it out later.
Olivia came, and she had a file with her, “I think I’ve found the perfect place Julie tell me what you think about this.”
Julie took the file, and went through it, “I think it’s fine, Mrs. Hopkins I’ve been looking for more, and I’m printing out the files so that I can show them to you… I also wanted to ask you, have you thought what we’re going to do after we invest the money here?”
“I was thinking we could open a real estate management office, it’ll be a private management, meaning we’re going to manage the houses, that I’ve already have. And any that might belong to the company after.”
“I think that’s a great idea, I’ve also thought of putting money aside for emergencies, the houses that you already have, are any of them rented out?”
“Yes, I knew you’d want to know, I’ve brought the files of the houses that are, and aren’t yet rented out. You know my husband just found out what we were doing here. I bought shares to the company but he doesn’t know that, and I don’t want him to find out.
He thinks, investors bought the shares, I couldn’t let him do this. His company is loosing a lot of money, and I want us to help him.”
“Ok I think I can help with that. I am a business woman, and there is one way to save the company. He thinks there are investors who bought the shares, but he will have a meeting thinking this investors will come up.”
“But how do we do this? We can’t be there, he knows you work for me and…”
“What exactly does he think I do?”
“That you work for me, doing those events.”
They were making up a plan on how they would save the company. After wards they got in contact a realtor in San Diego. They decided to send them the contract they signed it, and faxed it over.
Cassandra drove up to the house, and saw her mother’s car, parked there. She had gone out to meet Mr. Swan, after dropping Thomas off, she needed to finish sending her files to the company in San Diego.
Cassandra decided to help them out the rest of the day, they probably had a lot to do, and they would need help. When she went to the office, her mother and Julie were working hard, “hey you guys need help?”
“We’re almost done, we already found a property in San Diego, we’re just sending the paperwork.”
“Really? That’s great are you guys almost done? I need to talk to you Julie, I saw someone from your past, and he told me he wanted to talk to you, I gave him your number. Did Mr. Thompson call you?”
“What?” Olivia was looking at her surprised, “yes, I forgot I’m suppose to meet him, at twelve, I still have time. We’ll be done by the time, and I’ll come back again when were done talking. Where did you see him?”
“Mr. Swan’s office…” she sighed, he talked to her about Thomas, but she didn’t know what to do, for them it was already too late!
“What did he tell you?”
“He just wanted to talk to you, but he didn’t say about what.”
“Julie if you want just go meet him, sweety you can take your time with him, I know you must have a lot to talk about. It’s almost twelve, you should go.”
Julie looked at the clock hanging on the wall, and she left. Cassandra agreed to help if something came up. Olivia knew her daughter well and she knew there was something she hadn’t said.
“Honey, I know there’s something bothering you, do you want to talk about it?”
“I don’t know mother… he told me something about Thomas, it looks like he was working for him all this time, but he didn’t know it was him at first.”
“What did he say?” Olivia was surprised.
“Nothing he hasn’t told me before, but I don’t know if I could ever forgive him, even if I did… it’s not like I could tell Thomas, that I lied and his father never died, I can’t do that… it’ll affect him.”
Olivia looked thoughtful, “sweety you can still forgive him, but forgiving him doesn’t really mean he can see his son, it just means he’s forgiving for what he did, doesn’t mean you feel the same as you use to feel.”
“Mother you’re right, I already have forgiven him, but he wants to see his son, and I really can’t blame him. I understand it’s normal he wants to get to know him… but how could he? Thomas would recognize him in a second, and…”
“I know, it’ll affect him, so what do you want to do?”
“I don’t want to see him, near my son, and…” her phone rang it was from Thomas’ school. “Hello?… I understand, I’m on my way.”
“What happened?”
“That was Thomas’ school… he got into a fight with another boy in class. I have to go and see why.”
Olivia seemed surprised, “well sweety go ahead.”
When Cassandra arrived, the lady on the front desk, sent her to where her son was, the principal’s office! “Thomas are you ok sweetheart?“
Thomas had a scraped knee, and his hair looked messy, like his clothes, “I don’t want to talk about it!” his eyes filled with tears.
“Ms. Hopkins, we found your son fighting with another boy, he started arguing, but he won’t tell us what happened, an we were hoping he might tell you.”
Cassandra brought him new clothes, “Thomas why don’t you go and change? While I talk to your principal, and when you come back I want to know what happened? You never did this before.”
Thomas left the room, he walked out angry. The principal looked at her, “do you have any idea what could be troubling him?”
“I don’t, but I’ll find out.”
Thomas came back in with his new clothes on, and he sat next to her, Cassandra looked at Thomas, “sweety, what happened? You were so happy today when I dropped you off, remember?”
Thomas started to cry, and he seemed to hurt, “I don’t want to talk about it! I don’t have to talk about it if I don’t want to!”
“Where did you get that idea from? You do have to tell me.”
Thomas sighed, “but I don’t want to go to school anymore…”
Cassandra looked at her son, “why not?”
“Because…” he looked at her eyes were filled with tears, he felt uncomfortable to say it, “all the other kids have a dad, but… I don’t.”
Cassandra looked at her son, and she stayed silent for a moment, she pulled him close to embrace him. Her eyes filled with tears, “sweety, there are many kids without a dad, and some have no moms, but that doesn’t mean that they are alone, you have to go to school because one day you’ll be…”
“Did the other boy say this to you?”
Thomas wiped his eyes, and he nod his head, “yes…”
“Thomas why don’t you go to the lobby, and wait for me there? While I talk to your principal?”
Thomas looked up at his mother and silently stood up to leave, he opened the door and he turned to her, “ok…”
When the door was closed, she told the principal that they were going to move, but she wanted him to finish the semester. “His father is alive, but he left me before he was born… I never thought he would come back, and I told him that he died. I will talk to him, he’s really a good boy, but can I take him home today?”
The principal was surprised, “I had no idea, yeah sure go ahead.”
Cassandra came out and bent down to look at her son, “sweety, you’re going to come home with me today, ok?”
Thomas’ eyes were still filled with tears, “ok.”
The principal came out, “Thomas is going home today, his mother is picking him up, just get the sign out sheet ready…” he turned to Thomas and Cassandra, “Thomas, you don’t have to worry, because the boy who did this to you won’t do this to you again, he’s suspended which mean he’s not allowed to come to school, and he’s not going to the field trip.”
“Ok,” he stood and walked next to his mother as she signed him out.