Cassandra followed Blaine and Reese outside on the pretense of helping, but her offer seemed pointless considering they had already loaded his boxes onto the truck. Still she lingered outside waiting for them to start back towards the house before going back inside herself. She just wasn't in the mood to discuss her feelings for Blaine at the moment, especially with James.
Cassandra walked into the house with Blaine and Reese just in time to see James lift the bottle of potion to his mouth.
"James, don't!" she shouted out, but he already had the bottle to his lips and drank. She gasped in horror before darting back out of the house. This wasn't good.
Zara followed Thomas back to his office where they could talk in private about their plans for stopping the proposed building project.
"Thanks for agreeing to help me out with this, Zara. It means a lot to me that you're so dedicated to the cause."
"You're welcome," she replied, already overwhelmed that he would think to single her out. "I'm glad to do whatever I can. I'm just not sure why you chose me out of everyone"
"You aren't?" he replied, giving her a curious look. "I thought it would be obvious. I've seen the work you've done. You're smart, efficient, dedicated. You really should start taking on more leadership roles in the organization."
"I'm honored that you think so," she replied, then quickly changed the subject before she started blushing or acting like one of those ditzy, eyelash batting girls that she found so annoying. "So how can I help?"
"I'm sure everyone else can handle the site research and getting the word out. We need to work on a back up plan in case the usual methods don't get the job done."
"What sort of back up plan?" Zara asked, as Thomas picked up a file folder from his desk.
"We're going to look for some dirt on the big shots behind this project. If our campaign doesn't work, then the right piece of information might be just the leverage we need to make them back off."
"Isn't that . . . dishonest?"
Thomas shrugged. "Maybe, but sometimes the end justifies the means." He turned away from Zara and looked at the file folder. "Besides, these guys are corporate, I'm sure they're used to playing dirty. One works at a big hospital, the other is a big shot president of some company. I'm sure this housing they're planning is exclusive, only for their rich friends . . . But if you aren't up to this job, Zara, I can find someone else to do it."
Zara sighed. "Who are they?"
Thomas consulted his notes, "Edward Wilton and Lawrence Arrendale."
Cassie closed her eyes tightly and kept her back to the front door as she heard it open. She hoped it wasn't James coming outside. She couldn't fall in love with James.
"Are you ok?"
She breathed a sigh of relief to hear Blaine's voice. She ventured to open her eyes, but didn't turn around. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"Then what's wrong? Why did you freak out?"
"He wasn't supposed to drink that?"
"Why not? What's wrong with it?" he asked with concern.
Cassie hesitated, trying to think of a reasonable lie. "Nothing's wrong with it. It - it's just been a stressful day."
"I'm sorry. I guess springing this move on you suddenly hasn't helped."
She sighed and looked away, not wanting to admit that it had everything to do with him.
"But you know, once I'm out of here, I'm sure having one less person in the house will make things easier."
"No, not at all," she protested. "I've really liked having you here. It's been kind of difficult adjusting to Dad and Vanessa leaving and then my mom coming back home. Having you around kind of helped."
"I'm glad I could help. We can still hang out sometimes if you need someone to talk to, but things have just started getting serious between me and Reese and I'm really excited about seeing where this goes."
Cassie suddenly looked up. "Where is Reese?"
"Inside."
"With James?"
Blaine shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so . . . are you sure nothing's wrong?"
"I'm sure," she said, considering this turn of events. "I think everything's going to be fine."
No comments:
Post a Comment