On Saturday night, Jordan was getting ready to go home for the evening, when Lucy walked down the stairs dressed in an exquisite designer gown.
"I didn't realize you were going out tonight, Miss Stuart. You look . . . lovely."
"Thank you," Lucy beamed. "I'm glad I caught you before you left. Do you have any plans tonight?"
Jordan was surprised at the question. "No."
"Well, I decided to take your advice. I'm going to Eileen's party. I'm going to let her know that I'm still her friend and that I support her."
"I'm glad to hear it," Jordan replied.
"Good, because I want to ask you to come with me."
"Me, Miss Stuart? But why?" Jordan asked, taken aback by the request.
"Craig's out of town and I need someone to come with me. It's bad enough that I'm showing up uninvited, I can't show up without a date as well," Lucy replied half-jokingly and Jordan supressed a smile. "Please say you'll come with me."
Jordan sighed. He knew it was out of place, but he couldn't say no.
At the reception hall, Eileen and Hector were introducing their families before the rest of their guests arrived. The Townsends and the Burgesses had belonged to the same social circles for years. They had heard of each other, of course, but had only met briefly before.
Everyone knew that Victoria Burgess had come from an old family, who had a considerable amount of money. Her husband had also done well, but very little was publically known about his background.
"I'm glad we finally got a chance to meet personally," Arthur said sincerely. "It looks like we're going to be family soon. I look forward to getting to know you better."
Meanwhile, the guests were starting to arrive. Hector and Eileen decided they should leave their parents and mingle with their guests.
As Eileen looked around the room she noticed someone who wasn't on the guest list. "Did you invite her?" Eileen asked Hector, motioning towards Lauren who was standing on the other side of the room
"No," Hector replied. "I forgot all about her since she quit working at the office. Maybe Laurie's decided to come and brought her as his date."
"I doubt it," Eileen replied with a frown.
Hector shrugged and changed the subject. "Have you seen Chad yet? I thought he'd be here by now."
"Are you sure we have enough time to stop?" Chad asked Andrew as they stepped out of the taxi and walked up to the bar. "It's almost 7."
"These things never start on time." Andrew replied. "They expect people to be a little late."
"Ok," Chad gave in. "I guess we have enough time for a quick drink before we hit the party."
Andrew smiled to himself. So far everything was going perfectly. He had started formulating the plan to get back at Hector shortly after he had seen him the night before. Working over the details had kept him awake all night.
Earlier that afternoon Andrew had left a message for Chad at the hotel, claiming to be a friend of Eileen's family and offered to share a cab with Chad to the party. As he waited for Chad's response, Andrew had been very nervous. He starting thinking about all the ways his plan could go wrong and started to have second thoughts. But so far Chad had been very friendly and willing to go along, so Andrew was starting to relax.
"Hi there, Andy. How are you doing tonight?" the barmaid, Vanessa, greeted him as they walked into the bar.
"Not bad," he replied as he took a seat and Vanessa poured him a drink. "Vanessa, this is Chad."
"Hello. What can I get for you tonight?" Vanessa asked.
After Chad ordered a drink, Andrew told Vanessa to add it to his bill.
As Andrew and Chad chatted, Andrew made sure that the drinks kept coming. They talked a little about themselves, but Andrew tried to keep the conversation focused on Hector. Andrew knew there had to be something in Hector's past that he could use against him and how better to find out what that something was than from his best man?
Chad had plenty to say about his old friend, but nothing that interested Andrew. All of his stories were from their college days and nothing more scandalous than the usual college hijinks.
Andrew decided to try a different approach and subtlely hinted at his suspicions that Hector was marrying Eileen for the wrong reasons, but Chad seemed to miss the hint.
Eileen was mingling with her guests when she saw Cassandra enter the room. She excused herself and went over to say hello.
"Cassandra, I'm so glad you could make it. I want you to meet my fiance, Hector."
Eileen caught Hector's eye from across the room and motioned for him to come over. As soon as he joined them, Eileen made the introductions.
"Hector, this is my friend Cassandra. We met in the night class I was taking."
"A fellow psychic-in-training?" Hector asked with a grin before offering Cassandra a handshake. "It's nice to meet you."
When Cassandra touched Hector's hand it felt clammy and ice cold to her. When she felt a cold shiver go down her spine, she pulled her hand away from him suddenly.
A moment of awkward silence passed between the group as Cassandra tried to recover from the experience and Hector and Eileen tried to make sense of her reaction. Hector quickly got over his surprise and tried to make light of it by trying to start a friendly conversation.
When Hector's attempts at conversation with Cassandra only received terse responses, he looked for a way to leave politely. He found a diversion at that moment as Lawrence entered the room with Audrey.
"Well, look who decided to show up," Hector remarked with surprise. When he saw the woman Lawrence was with he let out a low whistle. "No wonder he didn't want me to fix him up on a blind date. It looks like he can do pretty well on his own."
Eileen stared at the couple for a moment, feeling... well, she wasn't sure what. She didn't have time to sort out her feelings before she noticed Cassandra stagger and nearly lose her balance.
Hector stepped forward to lend a supporting arm, but Cassandra pulled away from him and made her way to the nearest chair. She looked up again at the man, Lawrence, who had just walked in. She was sure that they had never met before, but she had the strongest impression that she knew him somehow. The familiarity made her nauseous.
Eileen stood next to her and asked, "Are you ok?"
"Yes," Cassandra said weakly. "Just suddenly, I don't feel so well."
"I'll get a glass of water," Hector offered and walked off.
"I'm sorry, Eileen, but I think I'd better go home. I'm getting too many strange vibes."
"What kind of vibes?" Eileen asked with interest.
Cassandra shook her head and spoke absently. "I don't know. I . . . Don't marry Hector."
"What?" Eileen said, struck nearly speechless by Cassandra's statement.
"And him. Lawrence," Cassandra said, changing the subject. "I see what you meant when you said you thought he was familiar. I could swear I know him."
"Really?" Eileen asked, watching Lawrence with Audrey. Cassandra's comments reminded her of the dreams she used to have about the strange man who reminded her of Lawrence.
Hector returned in time to catch the end of the conversation. "Laurie's just the common type. He's one of those guys who reminds you of someone else."
Cassandra nodded, unconvinced. Silently, she stared at the glass of water that Hector had set in front of her, but she didn't touch it.
"Is there anything I can do for you?" Hector asked. He could tell that Cassandra didn't like him for some reason. He was suddenly eager to get away from her, but he didn't want to seem impolite. "Do you need someone to take you home?"
"No. Thank you," Cassandra replied. "I'll call my sister and ask her to pick me up."
"Ok," Hector said before turning to Eileen, who was watching Lawrence and Audrey. "Let's go say hi to Lawrence and find out who his date is."
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