Chapter 22
The next day was busy, Thomas woke up early in the morning, “Mom, mom, mom! Come on, Julie is in the kitchen and she cooked, everyone’s here.”
“I know…wait what? Ok I’m on my way,” she stood fast, got ready, came down to greeted everyone.
Thomas looked excited when Charlie came in to get him, they were going out until the party was set. After they left everyone started working to getting everything ready.
His friends from his class came with their parents, Mr. Thompson was there with Julie, he was recording the party he was going back to work for Thomas that afternoon. Cassidy was with her friends and Jesse. Olivia, her father and Stanley were there with friends.
Charlie brought Thomas back from their trip surprised to see his friends were over, he ran out of the car surprised, “mom, what’s going on?”
Everyone screamed, “happy birthday!”
Afterward Cassandra went inside to get his cake, Thomas was eager waiting for his cake. They sang, “make a wish,” someone said.
“I wish I could see my dad, at least once,” he whispered. Thomas blew his candles and everyone cheered. The party was over and everyone was content.
After everyone left, Thomas went to his mom, “can I get another piece?”
“Of course,” she served him a piece, “but eat it in the kitchen,” everyone had left, including her parents only Julie was came up the drive way, she just arrived from the airport she dropped Mr. Thompson off.
After they finished cleaning Julie went upstairs to sleep they had a lot to do the upcoming few days before they left for San Diego.
The day came when they had to move, Cassandra was in the airport with her son. Julie was gone to pick up the rest of the family. What came next she didn’t expect.
Thomas was coming through the passenger line he was arriving, she left taking her son with her, so he would see them. At least Thomas didn’t notice them leaving.
“Mommy, where are we going? I thought we had to stay.”
“I thought we could go this little gift shop, come on…” she looked around, I know I saw one around here… somewhere, “here it is” she walked in pulling Thomas’ hand.
Cassandra looked outside to look for Thomas, nowhere in sight she sighed relieved to see that he was gone. She was going to be more careful, well for now just until she left.
“Mom can we get this?” Thomas was holding up a large basket filled with goodies, “or how about this?” he went to the toys, “no wait! This, please, please, mommy I won’t ask for anything else.”
Cassandra saw her son’s face lit up when she got it for him, “good now we should go back and wait for your grandparents.”
Thomas took his mother’s hand and pulled her away from the gift shop, Julie caught sight of them, everyone was there already. “Cassandra over here! Hurry we’re almost up!”
Cassandra looked at her watch nervously, they were due to aboard the plane in only a few minutes. “No kidding, we are late!”
They were running to get on board, Cassandra was carrying Thomas on her arms thinking it would be safer, her parents went in first then it was Stanley, Julie, Cassandra and Thomas.
“Cassidy!” Cassidy turned, it was Jesse!
Jesse, you made it, I thought you weren’t going to make it on time,“ she ran to him and they said their goodbye’s. Cassidy left to board the plane teary eyed, but not before Jesse told her to check her messages.
Cassidy went inside the plane and she held her cell phone to her ear, and her eyes went wide, and suddenly her teary eyes became happy as she heard.
“Cassidy, we’ll see each other soon I’ve transferred to be with you, I have an uncle who I’m going to stay with. Well…don’t worry about us, we’ll be fine.”
The flight attendant told her she had to turn her cell phone off, she did as she was told and sat in her seat. Cassandra looked at her, with a smile, “so… what happened?”
“Nothing…besides Jesse is going to be moving to San Diego, he is going to be staying with his uncle, and we’ll keep seeing each other. Isn’t it fascinating?”
Cassandra nodded, and remembered that a few days ago Cassidy wanted nothing to do with him, now they went gaga over each other. Not that she didn’t before but it was the first time that she had truly admitted to liking him.
A few hours they would be arriving to their destination, San Diego was beautiful, Cassandra slept for some time until they were on top of the city. Thomas was nudging her to wake up and take a look out side.
She could see the ocean, and the people looked like ants. Thomas was excited to be watching everything from up in the highest limit.
Cassandra let Thomas to keep looking out the window while, she had to check her phone. Mr. Swan had called, he wanted to make sure she arrived. The company called her and said they needed her to call and confirm if she would be able to b there the next day.
She decided to call Mr. Swan first, she could get tips from him as well to make a great impression. The reporters wanted to interview her, after she called him she called the company. They were happy to hear from her and Mr. Swan would meet her the end of the week to take some photo shots.
The company needed her the next day because she would go because the reporters would interview her the next day. She couldn’t believe it was going to be so soon. She had the place and the time written in her schedule, she was going to be working a lot.
“And I heard you have a child, we offer free childcare for our workers, so you can be comfortable to work with us. If you want you can come early to see what you think about it.”
“Thanks, I think I can go take a look at it today before I have to go to work tomorrow,” she agreed to go that afternoon, after arriving and resting a bit. When they arrived home Thomas went to look at his new room, he was surprised at how different it all was.
Cassandra wanted to keep listening to the rest of her messages, she was glad to have looked for a place that was filled with the furniture she needed.
After she settled, she went on to check her messages and Thomas went to sleep he’d been too excited to go to sleep the night before.
The next message surprised her, it was Thomas? How dare he keep calling her? It was hard enough to have to forget him… what he did all those years ago. She decided she was simply going to ignore his calls.
Cassandra was going to change her number anyways, after all she had told him before he would never find or hear from her or her son again. But somehow she wished it didn’t have to be this way. Why was she feeling like it was all a lie?
She turned to look at Thomas whom was peacefully sleeping on the couch, she bent over to carry him. But couldn’t he was to heavy, suddenly she remembered the day Thomas helped her carry her son to the taxi that day when he was too heavy for her.
Cassandra turned red when she remembered the kiss, she returned it! For a moment she had returned it! She shook her head trying to concentrate, her son was sleeping on the couch, but she doubted he was going to be easy to carry up all those stairs without falling with him. She couldn’t leave him there it wasn’t comfortable to sleep.
She brought large blankets and pillows down stairs, and put them on the floor, it would be easier to carry him and just put him down, she did and ended up finding it easier.
Thomas moved a little to the side and Cassandra sat still, making no noise to keep Thomas from waking up. He rolled over and fell asleep again. Phew! That was close.
Thomas was still sleeping and Cassandra got up slowly when she saw it was safe to move without waking him.
She took her phone with her went up stairs and decided to call her mother and Julie to tell them she just got settled in, they agreed to meet later at a restaurant.
“Sure.”
“What is Thomas doing?”
“He’s sleeping in the living room, he was so tired, he couldn’t sleep last night because of the excitement and now he is sleeping soundly.”
“Good, remember we agreed to take our grandson out for the weekend. So try not to make any plans for him this weekend, at least I want to take him to the beach and your father rented a yacht for that weekend. So Thomas is going to have some fun with his grandparents.”
“Ok,” she her mind was elsewhere, but she didn’t want to tell her mother, what she was thinking about. She felt nervous when she saw Thomas at the airport, but she couldn’t go back not again!
“Sweety are you there? I think you must be tired you really have been doing a lot the last few days, all about the company the moving and Thomas.”
Cassandra sighed, “you’re right I’m going to rest up a bit, and then I will go up to the company, and I’ll meet you guys for dinner,” her mother sounded pleased to hear that she would make it.
A while later she went to the office and decided to look around they showed her the child care center which contained of many activities for the children, and in the third floor was her office, the view was magnificent.
She wasn’t just going to be the face for the many advertisements for the company, she was going to be working there as a company publicist, she preferred that job over the modeling one hands down. But after being so successful she had to admit she loved it!
Cassandra could see she was going to be happy working for the company, she was going to be in charge, she had always wanted to do this and now she had her chance.
Meanwhile, Thomas had arrived at his parents house he wanted to surprise them. His mother opened the door and she had never looked so happy, “Thomas! Come in,”
Thomas was surprised to see his brother back, “hey big bro I just finished my training, how about you? What have you been up to?”
Thomas was astounded, “I wanted to surprise you guys and I end up being surprised, I have a lot to talk to you a lot has happened around here, and I think you would enjoy some of it!”
“Well I have time, why don’t you just tell me?” Both Thomas and Nicholas sat at the dinner table. Thomas went on to explain what had happened when he was gone, “so you did have a son?”
Thomas was explaining that he was there to see his son, he wanted to recuperate for lost time, “if I should have known I had a son, I wouldn’t have abandoned him.”
Nicholas knew that something was bothering his brother, but he knew better than to ask him about it in front of their parents.
Both of the parents decided to go out, “we’ve been doing this for weeks now, once a week me and your mother,” the father explained, “no crazy parties ok boys.” Mr. Johnson joked as they left.
They waved as they saw their parents leave, Nicholas turned to look at Thomas sitting down on the sofa. Nicholas decided to sit next to him, “so what’s troubling you? I mean, you found your son, and I’m certain you know it’s yours or you wouldn’t decide to keep looking for him if it wasn’t so.”
“I don’t know what I’m going to say to him, he thinks I’m dead, and his mother won’t let me see him. Which I can’t really blame her, I left them when they needed me the most.”
“Well I may not know that much of what occurred, but I know you left thinking she had been with another man, does she know that? You might have to prove it to her but…who made you think that about her, in the first place?”
“Rebecca, but I should have seen it, she had…feelings for me and she did everything to separate us. The worse part is that Cassandra thinks I feel something for Rebecca.”
“Than prove her otherwise.”
“Trust me I did…try, but Cassandra walked in on us when Rebecca kissed me and after that forget it, if everything was bad, now it’s worse, I didn’t think it could get any worse but it did.”
“Well, I can probably talk to her, and explain I’m sure…”
“No, she’s just going to think I put you up to it, and it won’t really help me…but tomorrow I will talk to her. She’s just not answering my calls, but I will find her.”
“Find her? What do you mean?”
“She doesn’t live there, her friend does and I will go there tomorrow to see if she can meet me there, and I know she goes there, that’s where my son’s birthday was celebrated. He just turned five.”
Nicholas saw how Thomas expression changed when he was talking about his son’s birthday. He explained how his investor was talking about it and how they knew each other.
“Do you have feelings for Cassandra now that you know the truth?”
Thomas thought for a moment, “I don’t know, every time I see her we have an argument, but…” he daydreamed about the kiss they had in the airport and how it felt.
“But?” Thomas didn’t answer he still had his fingers on his lips, and he had a sly grin on his face. Nicholas couldn’t take it he asked again with more enthusiasm. “But what Thomas?”
Thomas shook his head, “no it can’t be! I followed her in the airport, I had intentions of talking to my son., I didn’t know he thought I was dead then you see. My son was asleep on her lap that‘s why he hasn‘t really seen me, but the point is that yes we might have feelings for each other.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because that day we shared a passionate kiss, I don’t really know what got into me, but I could swear that for a moment she returned it,” Thomas seemed satisfied about that encounter.
Nicholas was smiling at him, “look at you, you really were keeping it a secret weren’t you?” Thomas didn’t answer he just smiled back, “Well how long ago was this?”
Thomas remembered, and he sighed, “of course that explains why she was so jealous. I thought she was just mad because of that misunderstanding, when she walked in on us she must have thought that I was…”
Nicholas was staring at him, and Thomas turned red, “look I wasn’t really doing anything I just wanted to know the truth, but Rebecca made it worse, by confusing our situation.”
“What situation was that?”
“I caught Cassandra talking to Rebecca, I think she was trying to find out who told me about her pregnancy, I tried to have Rebecca tell her the truth but she lied to our faces saying we dated.
After she left, I asked Rebecca to explain she had feelings for me, and planted a kiss just as Cassandra was…you know what she still has something against us, I have to get the truth from her somehow.”
“Why don’t you record her?” Thomas looked at him surprised, why hadn’t I thought about that? “you should do that before you have to go see her, that way there will be nothing more against you.”
Cassandra was happy, dinning out with the whole family, they decided to go to a buffet, which was great considering the fact that Thomas wanted to go out and explore.
He was no longer the peaceful sleeper, as soon as he woke up he wanted nothing else but to explore. A little jumping, full of life little boy she admitted to herself when she saw how he was as soon as he awoke.
After much ‘exploring’ they met the rest of the family at the restaurant. Julie went on to explain that she spoke to her mother, and she would soon be back they were to live together at the little house she was staying at.
Cassidy wanted to tell her family the news about her boyfriend but they had decided best to tell everyone, as soon as he arrived to San Diego. She had been day dreaming about the moment that her father was starting to catch up.
“Cassidy? Did you already transfer all your classes to your new school? You know it’s great that you want to get experience but I think you should study and I was even thinking of sending you to Europe to study aboard.”
Cassidy’s thoughts were suddenly gone, “what? But father, I want to study here, I was even planning on taking my time to see if I could do both study and work. Please daddy I don’t want to move to Europe, I don’t know anyone there, and…”
“Nonsense! I think it will do you good to know new people, new places, who knows maybe you will meet someone there and…”
“I’m sorry father, but I’m not going, please I think this is my time to start working for your company, and that’s what I want to do.”
Olivia was surprised, why is he doing this? What does he plan to do now? She couldn’t take it but she smiled, “sweety I think your daughter has a point, she needs to get to know the business close up and what better way to do it…”
“I’m just trying to think what’s best for her, and just going to a university is not enough this days, I want her to be well traveled and…”
“We moved, and you want to send her halfway around the planet?”
“Look think about it, I am just saying it’s for the best…”
Cassidy went pale, she knew her father was not the type to give up so easily, she decided not to say anything just yet but it made her wonder when was Jesse going to come?
The first few weeks had been busy for everyone, Cassandra did the interview with the reporters, and the company’s president was amused with her work. She had done a lot improvements since she got there. Thomas was going to his new school an d he loved it, he’d been going out with his grandparents more often. She would travel every month to do her modeling job. But she kept away from Thomas.
Stanley, was accepted into a fine arts university, when he told his family they celebrated, his father was now cooperative after seeing how truly good his son was as to be accepted into a university.
Jesse had arrived days later, and he and Cassidy were spending more time together, Mr. Hopkins didn’t take it that well before but soon agreed to give him a chance to know him. It was hard trusting after what had happened with Thomas. Another poor guy, after my daughter’s money.
At that Jesse decided to make his confession, “I’m not really poor, my family are millionaires sorry I didn’t tell you, it’s just that I had an experience with someone before let’s just say I learned the hard way when you’re rich you can’t really let anyone know because money can really change a person.”
Cassidy was surprised of his confession but happy that he decided to trust them with it at the same time.
Thomas didn’t know where to find Cassandra, after visiting Mrs. Shultz, all she told him was that she was retired and Cassandra moved. He remembered Cassandra’s words when she said he would never see or hear from her again. He couldn’t wait for Mr. Swan to call him to host his fashion shows.
She had to have left far away, but he had an idea of who could know, Mr. Swan was still in contact with her. Cassandra still worked for the same company, and they would have to see each other again some time.