“You have a pretty high pedestal for someone who is doing the same thing that gets held against me. You wanted to talk down on me for being with Cassandra, marrying her, now you are having sex with her? You are having sex with my wife.”
The last bit was not a question, it was a statement. Steven knew that Nelson had seen him, they’d locked eyes. It was quite clear to both of them that Steven was partaking with Nelson’s wife. He wasn’t going to deny it, but he did tell him that she wasn’t going to be his wife for much longer.
“I can drag it out,” Nelson threatened.
Steven just shrugged. “I don’t really care if she is married or not. She’s married now and it hasn’t slowed me down at all.”
Nelson looked like he wanted to attack him and one of Steven’s assistants asked him if he wanted them to get security. Steven scoffed, not for Nelson. Not in a million years. He asked him to leave so he could get back to work, but Nelson wasn’t done threatening him. He said that he would bring up the one thing that really had Steven worried. He wasn’t too worried about Cassandra’s marital status, and he wasn’t worried about what Nelson thought or said. He did care about his best friend and how he found out that he and Cassandra were together. It was not going to be by Nelson telling him in the rudest way possible. Steven knew how that would end up.
“You go around Luke, he is liable to attack you again. You know that, don’t you? He knows that there was some cheating going on as well, not just the one time but many times. Cassandra doesn’t even know, but her brother does. He isn’t going to care what you have to say. You would be telling him to your own detriment.” Steven relayed. He didn’t mention that it would probably start a whole bunch of problems for him too. It would possibly be worth it, as badly as he wanted Nelson to get what was owed to him.
Nelson left after a few choice words, and Steven worried if he’d have the guts to tell Luke what he’d threatened. Luke needed to find out in a better way than that. He didn’t want to have it out with Luke, but it would be better if he learned it from him. Steven couldn’t help thinking that if Nelson was allowed to tell it as his story, Luke would never forgive him. Cassandra needed to tell her brother soon, before Nelson made everything more difficult.
Chapter 38
Cassandra
Aaliyah popped over while Cassandra was trying to get the nerve to call her brother. It was a distraction, one that she needed, and Cassandra was happy to stop for a few minutes.
“Where have you been hiding lately? I haven’t seen you much. I even tried you at work, but they said that you were gone early. Is there something going on with you and my brother?” Cassandra said, only partially joking. She really did think that the two of them could be adorable if given the chance. If her brother was smitten and in love, maybe he wouldn’t be so quick to knock the love she had for Steven.
Wait, did she just think about it as love?
“I don’t think you want to know.”
“Is it about my brother?”
Aaliyah said that it most certainly wasn’t and that threw Cassandra off. Finally, she had to know what was going on, and her friend told her that she had started her own freelancing business.
“Wait, what?”
Aaliyah was embarrassed, and Cassandra was still trying to figure out what it all meant. She didn’t see why starting a business was an embarrassment, but it was to Aaliyah. She had never believed that she could, but after seeing Cassandra get it together, she’d finally decided to try it herself. She had a love of art, drawing and designing, so she wanted to try something in that field.
“I don’t want you to be mad at me.”
Cassandra waved her off. “Why would I ever be mad at you? I am so happy for you. I know that you don’t want to work for that gross lawyer forever. Get your own thing going, and you won’t have to ever worry about it.”
Aaliyah giggled, but she was still unsure. Cassandra made sure she knew that she really was happy for her. It was the best news she had heard in a while. It was a different sort of scenario than she had thought it would be. She had thought that it was going to be about Luke. She was almost sad that it wasn’t.
“Why do you keep insisting that something is going on between me and your brother?”
Cassandra shrugged, but still looked guilty. “I don’t know. I guess it would be awesome if we were sisters, don’t you think?”
Aaliyah admitted that she did like Luke, but she also said that they had a lot of differences.
“So, you don’t like him?”
Aaliyah didn’t say yes or no. “I am just saying that we are very different, and it might not be in the cards for us. You never know.”
Cassandra thought that her friend was talking in circles and since Cassandra had to bounce what was going on with her to someone, she wanted it to be Aaliyah.
“I think I have made a big mistake, Aaliyah.”
Aaliyah scoffed, “You fell for Steven. You had to have seen that coming, right?”
Cassandra didn’t like how transparent it was, but Aaliyah had always seen right through her. “Yeah, I guess I did. We both tried to deny it, stay away from each other, but it just couldn’t be stopped.”
Aaliyah told her that she was grinning from ear to ear, and Cassandra was sure that it was because of how happy she was. It filled every inch of her with hope for a new day. That’s all she had lately was hope.