Steven asked her what she meant by that, and Cassandra just smiled. “You know, you were a lot quieter when we were friends before. We never talked that much alone because you would get all weird. It’s nice, the way you are now. You don’t seem to have the same hang-ups as before.”
Steven was embarrassed by her words, and Cassandra wished she hadn’t said them. It didn’t last long though. Steven admitted that he was too shy before.
“I got over that.”
Cassandra nodded. “Yeah?”
He agreed again and Cassandra could feel his eyes on her. She looked away, catching Nelson’s expression and changing hers. She wasn’t supposed to be having a good time. She was supposed to be moving on with her life after deciding to get divorced. How could she do that if her ex was still around? How could she ever look ahead?
“You better not be too forward; Luke will kill you.”
He nodded and chuckled, though it sounded rather forced. “He seems to be coming around. Look at him talking to Nelson over there. I didn’t think that would ever happen.”
Cassandra pressed her lips together. “Of course it would be after it was too late.”
Steven asked her what she meant, and she shrugged. “You know, it’s just that Nelson and I are moving in different directions.”
Steven was hanging on her words and Cassandra suddenly looked at him. “Is there something that you want to ask me?”
Cassandra knew that there was and before she could say anything else, Steven asked her if they were still together. She told him that they wouldn’t be for too much longer. “Why do you want to know?”
He was about to answer when Luke wanted to know what they were talking about. Cassandra didn’t have an answer and she hoped that Steven wouldn’t say anything. He didn’t.
“Well, it’s time that you danced with your brother, Cassandra. You’ve been gone so long and it’s different now. You’re different, Nelson is different.”
Cassandra agreed to dance with Luke, but he was already buzzed up. He was not wasted, they hadn’t been there long enough, but he was well on his way to feeling good.
“It’s just been a while, brother. That’s all.”
“He seems scared, like I am going to knock him out or something.”
She giggled before she could stop herself. “He has always been that way when it comes to you, Luke.”
Luke agreed, “Only when he was feeling guilty about something. What does he have to feel guilty about?”
Cassandra didn’t answer for a time, but she knew that she was going to have to come out with it eventually. She was about to come up with something, when Nelson walked over and thought that she was telling him. He made that assumption, and it wasn’t until he was explaining how he had only cheated once, that Cassandra spoke up enough to stop him.
“I hadn’t said anything, Nelson.”
She turned to her brother. “It’s going to be fine, Luke. I was going to tell you when he left.”
Steven got closer, and he seemed to be happy about what she had to say. It wasn’t the right response, but Luke didn’t have a very acceptable one either. He was the one who showed the worst response. He went toward Nelson, yelling and cursing his name. Cassandra moved out of the way as he tacked her ex, and she was stunned by how the two men were acting.
She yelled at her brother, then her ex, and told them to stop fighting like petulant children. Luke was definitely the one who was stronger and doing more damage. Cassandra liked to see it, but another part of her wanted it to stop. He wasn’t worth it. Everyone was looking at them, and it wasn’t how Cassandra wanted to be remembered in Hartford. She already had a bit of a reputation; she didn’t want to make it worse than it already was.
“Steven, do something!” Cassandra begged Steven to get involved. He was watching it go down, his friend kicking the crap out of her ex. Cassandra was shocked more than anything. She wanted it to stop but hadn’t done all that much to make sure that it happened. She felt guilty about that, the not doing anything.
Steven broke it up, and Luke was only calmed down when he was reminded that they were in public, and his sister was standing there. Nelson was still her husband, though that was quickly about to change. He told Nelson that it was a good thing that Cassandra had wised up. “If I would have known, I would have gotten rid of you a long time ago.”
Cassandra sighed when it was over, and no one was hitting anyone else. Her first night back was a disaster, just how she knew it would be. Steven though, he was a wildcard. That she hadn’t seen coming. What was next with that?
Chapter 6
Steven
“It happened so fast, I didn’t know what you were doing, until you had launched on him,” Steven said, reliving it with a smile on his face. His friend gave him a dirty look and asked him if he knew about it.
Steven agreed that he didn’t know about it, but he had figured that something was off.