Chapter 12
Drea rang the doorbell of the shotgun duplex, taking in the vibrant exterior colors typical of New Orleans houses, a detail of the city that always made her feel at home.
It figured Cassie lived in a place bursting with rich colors, purple and yellow in this case.
It matched her personality. And her hair, Drea thought, grinning.
Cassie opened the door with a big smile. “Hi.” She looked comfortable in a fuzzy sage sweater hanging off one shoulder. It reminded Drea of the outfit she wore the day they played pool at Rosie’s.
“Hey.” Drea felt a little out of her element, which was odd for her. Something about moving her work relationship with Cassie to more of an out-of-the-office friendship seemed risky and new to Drea. Especially after the other night at her place.
She stepped inside as Cassie shut the door behind her. She took a couple of steps before stopping at the sight. The entire front room was covered in fall leaves, pumpkins, and all kinds of craft supplies. It was like a craft store had vomited all over the living room.
Cassie gestured at the mess. “Welcome to my workshop.”
Drea raised her eyebrows as she scanned the room. “Please tell me this comes with wine.”
Cassie laughed. “That can be arranged.”
Drea knelt by the metal arch lying on the hardwood floor and riffled through some of the leaf choices. She picked up one of the miniature pumpkins and tossed it to herself as she assessed the situation.
“Here you go.” Cassie handed her a glass of red wine.
“Thank you.” Drea took a sip, grateful for the comfort it always brought her.
“So, you sure you’re up for this? There’s still time to run.” Cassie shot her a challenging look.
“I can handle it if you can,” Drea shot back.
They held each other’s gaze for a moment, a spark of electricity in the air, before Cassie seemed to back down, shifting her attention to the floor. “I was thinking you could work on the altar while I start the table centerpieces.” Cassie placed a hand on her hip. “How are you with a glue gun?”
Drea held her palm up at Cassie. “I got this.”
Cassie arched an eyebrow but said nothing. She grabbed the glue gun off the desk behind her and handed it to Drea.
Drea took the pumpkin in her other hand and spun it on the floor like a top. Out of nowhere, a black, furry blur appeared at the pumpkin, hit it left then right, and chased it out of the room. Drea barely had time to jerk her hand out of the way.
“What the hell was that?”
Cassie stared in the direction where the blur had run off. “That was Digit.” As if on cue, a black-and-white cat walked into the room looking bored with the pumpkin in its mouth. “He’s developed a bit of an affinity for the pumpkins.”
Digit walked over to Drea, dropped the pumpkin by her hand, and made a trill sound. Drea’s jaw dropped. “He fetches?”
“Yeeeaaahhh. I think he thinks he’s a dog or something.”
Drea rolled the pumpkin across the floor and Digit scrambled after it, then brought it back to her with another trill.
“Wow.”
“You don’t have to keep doing that. He’ll go all night. Molly can play with him when she gets home.”
“Oh, I was wondering if I might meet her tonight.”
“No, she’s doing a fall party tonight before the holiday craziness starts.” Cassie swept the hair off her forehead as it started to cover her eye.
Drea picked a few different types of leaves out of the large plastic bag in front of her. “Do you have a preference for how I do this?”
Cassie shook her head. “No, I trust you. You’re the artist after all.” She put some music on and they worked without speaking for a while as a mixture of EDM, pop, and R&B played.
When édith Piaf started to sing, Drea caught Cassie’s eye. “Interesting choice. Wouldn’t have pegged you for a Piaf fan.”
Cassie shrugged as color appeared on her cheeks. “I like a lot of things.” She started to tie a bow in the twine she had just wrapped around a mason jar, then stopped. “What kind of music do you like?”
Drea sipped her wine. “Country. All day, all night.”
Cassie’s brow furrowed. “Really?”
Drea grinned. “No.”
Cassie laughed, and Drea turned back to her work, pleased by the sound.
A little while later, Drea stood up, brushing the crafting detritus from her jeans, and raised the altar adorned in leaves for Cassie to see. “What do you think?”
Cassie’s eyes lit up. “That looks incredible.”
“Good.” Drea leaned it against the wall and took in the various pieces around Cassie. Mason jars, a ball of twine, wood slices, floral accessories, and pumpkins. “What can I help with?”
Cassie paused at tying another bow and glanced at the chaos around her. “If you want to put a stalk of dried wheat in each of the mason jars with bows on them, I’ll finish these last few jars and then I just need to glue them to the wood slices.”
“Got it.” Drea knelt a few feet from Cassie and started separating the mounds of wheat into the different jars.
She stopped at the sound of Cassie sucking air through her teeth, and glanced over to see Cassie shaking her hand in the air for a moment with the glue gun in the other hand.
Cassie blew on her hand for a second, then grabbed a pumpkin and placed it on the wood slice in front of her.
Drea returned her attention to the wheat in her hand and put a few stalks in different jars, lost in the meditative state of the repeated steps until Cassie yelled. “Mother fu . . .”
Drea looked up to see Cassie sucking on the side of her finger, the glue gun still in the other hand. She stood up, walked over to Cassie, and knelt beside her. “Hand me the gun,” she said with an outstretched hand.
Cassie turned to her, still trying to assuage the pain in her finger.
Drea motioned Cassie to give it to her. “Come on.”
Cassie reluctantly handed it over.
“Let me see.” Drea nodded at Cassie’s finger.
Cassie tilted her hand toward Drea, who took it and held it closer to her eyes to see the damage. She suppressed a shiver at Cassie’s nearness, at the warmth coming from her skin.
“You’ll be okay.” She let go of Cassie’s hand and Cassie slowly took it back. Drea picked up the pumpkin in front of her, put glue on the wood slice, and held the pumpkin on the glue for a few seconds. She nodded at the jars that Cassie had just finished. “Hand me one of those.”
They continued working like that sitting side by side for a few centerpieces, Cassie handing pieces to Drea as the music added a mellow soundtrack to the rhythm of their flow.
Drea kept busy with the decorations, trying not to focus on how close she and Cassie were sitting, but when the music paused between songs, an awkward silence filled the room.
Cassie must have felt it too because she started talking to fill the gap. “I guess this is not how you envisioned your fall going. A non-wedding person elbows deep in wedding planning.”
Drea bent over to glue another jar down. “It is pretty close to my idea of hell freezing over.”
“So, why? Why are you doing all of this?” There was no judgment in Cassie’s voice, only curiosity.
Drea sat back. She had asked herself that question many times, but the most obvious and true answer was all she was prepared to share. “Because you needed help.”
Cassie held her gaze, her furrowed brow relaxing. Everything around them seemed to fall away. Drea swallowed, waiting for the fate of the moment to reveal itself.
Cassie opened her mouth as if to ask another question, but as the next song picked up, the moment ended. She grabbed one of the centerpieces, stood up, and walked over to the corner of the room. “I’ll put the finished ones over here.”
Something made Drea want to continue the connection, rather than return to joking and chitchat like usual. “Are you and Molly close?”
“Yeah. She’s ten years older, so she was always more like a mom to me than a sister, but then . . .” Cassie paused as she looked at the decorations in her hand, but seemed to be elsewhere.
“But then?” Drea offered gently.
Cassie raised her eyes, hesitation gripping her. She grabbed her wrist and took a breath before continuing. “My parents died when I was eleven. Molly had always taken care of me growing up, but she basically raised me from that point on. So, yeah, we’re close.” She forced a weak smile.
“I’m sorry.” Seeing the pain in Cassie’s eyes made Drea wish she hadn’t pushed the topic.
“Thanks.” She shrugged. “It’s been a while.”
One thing Drea knew for sure was there was no timeline on grief. She tried to think of a different topic that would take away whatever pain Cassie was feeling. “So, did you say you were a wedding person? Or no, you want to marry a bunch of cakes.” She flashed Cassie a mischievous grin.
Cassie chuckled and stooped to pick up another completed centerpiece.
“Molly is the wedding person.” She frowned.
“Well, usually.” A smile appeared as she continued, “She’s always been a hopeless romantic, but she did practice what she preached with Eva, her ex.
” She shook her head. “God, I’m still not used to that word.
They were together for nearly twenty years, and they were the one example I’ve had of a stable relationship. That love really did exist, ya know?”
Drea thought of the examples in her own life.
A stable relationship and love? For her, those didn’t always go hand in hand.
Her parents had a stable relationship, but she had never witnessed much love between them.
No, Sam and Anna had been her one example.
Memories of their wedding, then the devastation following Anna’s death swirled in her mind.
She grabbed her glass of wine and took a long sip so Cassie wouldn’t see the tears welling in her eyes, the pause giving her time to blink back the emotion.
“But no, I’m not a wedding person,” Cassie continued. “I’m hopeful that I will meet some amazing woman one day who blows me away and who I can count on, but I don’t need some elaborate day to prove to others that I’ve met my person. I just need her.”