22. Cassidy
Chapter twenty-two
Cassidy
“ L ook at you. You’re glowing,” Mel declares when we meet outside the coffee shop for a long awaited in-person catch-up. “Must be all the orgasms. I’m jealous.” She pulls me in for a comforting hug, surrounding me with her honey-like perfume. “It suits you, Cass.”
“Hey, it’s not all fun and games. It’s exhausting keeping two men satisfied.” I smirk, which gives me away.
She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, right. Shall we go in?”
I follow her inside and we place our coffee orders at the counter before finding a table in the window.
“I’ve been rubbish at staying in touch. Texts and quick voice notes just don’t cut it. How are you?” I ask her as we wait for our drinks to come.
She lifts her shoulders in a shrug. “I’m doing okay. Busy with work. Still avoiding the dating apps. But you’ve given me hope. If you can find two men willing to fulfil your every fantasy, surely I’ll find one, right?” Her brow lifts.
“No one you’ve got your eye on?”
“No, but I’ll keep looking. I want to be swept off my feet. I don’t want to deal with all the red flags and the ick of online dating. Why can’t a handsome young man just come and knock on my door one night and seduce me?”
“You never know. It might happen. And you’ve just given me an idea for a sexy short story. Want me to write it for you and we can see if it comes true?”
“Sounds like a better plan than the dating apps,” she says wryly. The barista shouts our names to signal our coffees are ready. “I’ll grab the drinks.”
I watch as she gets up and heads to the counter. She’s always impeccably dressed. Today she’s wearing a cream silk wrap blouse and brown suede pencil skirt and her blonde locks flow loose down past her shoulders. I really do need to base a main character on her. A frisson of excitement sparks inside me as snippets of the story idea come to mind.
“Any news on the divorce?” she asks as she places my latte in front of me before gracefully sitting down and crossing her legs.
“All the paperwork’s in. It’s just a waiting game now. I keep wondering if I should reach out to Grant and ask to meet up?”
“Why do you want to do that?” Her brows knit together.
“I don’t want to do it. I just think it’s the right thing to do. To get closure. So I can put it all behind me and move on with Tom and Jack. Wish him well and finish it all amicably.”
“Cass.” She reaches out to place a hand on my bicep. “Do you really think seeing that man is going to give you closure?” I get a sick kind of appreciation from her refusing to speak his name. She knows the history. We’ve spent many an evening sharing the woes of our failed marriages over a bottle of wine. “From everything you’ve told me about him, honey, he isn’t going to go out of his way to help you feel good about it all. He’s only in it for himself.”
She has a solid point. What am I really hoping to achieve?
“You’re right. He won’t give me his blessing to go forward and be happy. And I don’t bloody need it either. I’m just tripping myself up and getting in my own way. I just…” I pause, staring out the window at the busy street while I try to gather my thoughts. “... I guess I just need some kind of sign or momentous occasion to show me that it’s time to properly put it behind me and go all in with Tom and Jack.”
She gives a grimace. “Your soon to be ex-husband does not deserve that power over you. You get to decide. Let the sign you’re looking for be those two sexy guys that want to worship you.”
“You’re so wise,” I whisper.
She answers with a chuckle. “Only when it’s someone else's life. Bit trickier with my own.” She rolls her eyes. “Seriously, please give yourself permission to be happy. You did so much work with therapy and getting away from him. Just let him go and be his fucked-up self somewhere else. Send him well wishes telepathically if you need to, but don’t invite him back into your life. If I could get away with not seeing my ex ever again, I would snap at the chance.”
“I forgot you still have to see yours on the regular. I’m sorry.”
She shrugs. “It’s fine. Now Zack is eighteen, I don’t have much to do with his dad anymore.” I take a moment’s gratitude that my split from Grant has been fairly straightforward. No pets or kids to entangle us further, thank goodness.
“How is Zack?” I ask, and we sip our drinks as we catch up on each other’s lives.