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Cassie spent the days following her return, reorganizing her apartment. Everything reminded her of things and feelings she wanted to forget. After two weeks, and no change in the way her apartment made her feel, Cassie determined she needed to find a new place to live.
Sitting in a neighborhood deli with the classifieds in one hand and a blue highlighter in the other, Cassie scanned the newspaper for available apartments. She wanted something in the same area where she already lived and she wanted something she could afford. However, the second requirement would be hard to find. Cassie could not keep living off of her savings. Soon, she would have to find some way of making a living.
Luke was determined to eat at his favorite deli for lunch, or at least attempt to eat. His break would be another working lunch. Try as he might, Luke could not deny it. He was a workaholic. His strategy was to stop in, pick up his usual order and head back to the office. But, as Luke would say, fate had other plans.
Luke paid for his meal and turned around to head back to work. As he headed out the door, a familiar face caught his eye.He backtracked, and looked more intensely at the person who caused him to pause. Sitting alone in the corner of the deli was Cassie. She was poring over the newspaper with a highlighter. He watched her for a few minutes and observed how every few seconds she seemed to sigh in frustration.
Making up his mind, and pushing work to the back of his brain, Luke walked over to her table.
“I didn’t realized people still used those,” Luke said.
“Use what?” Cassie asked. Her head remained bent over the table.
“Newspapers,” Luke said pulling over an unoccupied chair and sitting down across from her.
The scraping of chair legs across the floor caught Cassie’s attention. “Hey, you can’t just sit down here. There are plenty of other...” Cassie stopped mid-sentence when she realized who was sitting across from her. “You, again.”
Luke smiled as he emptied the contents of his deli bag. “Yes, me again. Looks like fate is up to something.”
“Or, the more likely scenario is that you’re stalking me.” Cassie said.
“Trust me, I’m not stalking you. I came in for my favorite sandwich and then I was going to go back to work.”
“Was going? What’s stopping you from still going?” Cassie asked.
“Fate, and you.”
“Right, so fate has you tied down to the chair?”
“Look, so you don’t believe in fate but seriously two times in two weeks? Someone in the universe is saying hey, let’s see what happens when we stick two old classmates together.”
“Really? Does that line even work?” Cassie inquired.
Luke’s smile grew as he caught the faint hint of a smirk on Cassie’s face and a glint in her eye. She was amused, and for some reason he felt like he had accomplished something.
“It’s not supposed to be a line.” Luke said before taking a bite of his sandwich. “Do you remember the class we had together?”
“Which one? There were quite a few.”
“The one where you moved the chairs around so that guy, what was his name?” Luke began to rack his brain to remember their classmate’s name.
“Frank,” Cassie supplied.
“Yeah, so Frank didn’t sit on our side of the room?”
“As I recall Luke, that was all your idea.”
__________________________________________
Cassie and Dani were walking down the stairs discussing what they planned to do for their mid-semester presentation.
“I’m not sure what he wants from us, an organizational profile?” Dani asked.
“You don’t need to worry too much about it. I’ve had Professor Brandt before; he’s not a harsh grader.” Cassie said.
They reached the first floor and were standing by the exit.
“Thanks for the advice. I’ll see you on Wednesday.” Dani was about to walk out the door when Luke came jogging down.
“Hey wait you two.” He said as he reached the bottom of the stairs. “So, that cannot happen again,” Luke said referring to the three of them being grouped with Frank, an older undergrad whose opinions, comments and general personality irked them all. “I can’t sit next to him any more.”
“He can’t be that bad,” Cassie said.
“I agree with Luke. I had another class with him last semester and he is the same way. He gets way too into the topic, and on top of all that he smells bad.”
“Really, he smells bad?”
“No, he does. So what are we going to do?” Luke asked.
“Look he can’t be that bad. And I generally get along with everyone. Dani, why don’t you just scoot down a seat and sit next to Luke and I’ll sit next to you. That way Frank just ends up sitting next to me. Problem solved.”
“That works for me but you now have a problem.” Luke said.
“You guys he really can’t be that bad.”
“He is. I have to go to work I’ll see you guys later.” Dani waved and left out the door while Cassie and Luke walked to another class together.
Wednesday, Cassie sat in her new designated seat and waited for class to begin. Surprisingly, both Luke and Dani arrived early and sat down. Frank slid into class just before noon and sat down next to Cassie, who was vigorously writing in her notebook.
As the class discussion started, Cassie looked up from her notebook and tried to pay attention. But the smell of cigarettes distracted her from the conversation. She looked to her left at both Dani and Luke who had smirks on their faces.
Professor Brandt said something and Frank, who was sitting next to Cassie, nodded his head up and down and began to delve into a long drawn out discussion he was carrying on mostly with himself.
When class let out, Dani looked at Cassie and smiled, “I tried to warn you.”
The next week, Cassie arrived to class her standard twenty minutes early. What happened in the last class was not going to happen again. She moved the extra chair, where Frank would normally sit, across the room.
The classroom began to fill up and Dani and Luke came in and sat down. A few seconds later Frank walked in, looked around, and went to the opposite side of the room.
Luke smirked and Cassie smiled. “See you didn’t like it either.” Dani said.
“What are you talking about? The seats were already arranged like this.” Cassie tried to suppress the giggle that threatened to come out.
_________________________
“It may have been my idea, but you went along with it,” Luke said. “So what are you up to?” Luke asked fingering the newspaper that lay on the table in front of Cassie.
“I’m looking for a new apartment.”
“Is that part of your whole ‘new perspective on life’ thing?” Luke asked. He watched as Cassie’s once warm eyes instantly cooled.
“I think you should go back to work.” Cassie said.
“Why do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Push me away? All I’m trying to do is be a friend, and every time I ask a personal question you get defensive, build walls and shut down.”
Cassie slammed the highlighter onto the table, “You want to know why?”
“Yes. I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t.”
“A year and a half ago my boyfriend died.”
“I’m sorry, Cassie I didn’t know.”
“Yeah, well that’s not the half of it. He didn’t just die; he was murdered. Someone wanted him dead so they killed him. They shot him in the abdomen and left him in the alley to die.”
“Cassie, that’s not your fault.” Luke said trying to comfort her.
“It feels like it is. And what’s worse is the things I said to him before he died...”
“You couldn’t have known he was going to die that night.”
“That’s the funny thing. I should have expected it. He was a hired gun, worked for some of the slimiest low-down rotten people in New York. I should have expected it. I’m sorry I’ve got to go.” Cassie gathered her things and left quickly.
Luke was not expecting that. He was too upset by Cassie’s obvious pain to finish his lunch. So instead, he threw away the rest of his sandwich and headed back to work. On the cab-ride to the firm, Luke began to contemplate how he could help Cassie overcome the past.