Chapter 7-1
1012 Words
Chapter 7
“Cassie!” Perrin sprinted through the lobby crowd at the final performance of Turandot. Cassidy had worn her black turtleneck and the sunset sweater that Perrin had picked out for her so long ago to totally slay her future husband on their first blind date. She’d finished it with a flirty black skirt and the knee-high boots that made her look so fabulous.
Cassidy turned just as Perrin crashed into her. She kissed Cassidy hard on the lips.
“I hope Russell won’t be jealous, but I’m just so glad to see you.”
Cassidy reeled a bit, but went with the flow as she always did, “Glad to see you too. Wish Jo was here so that we could really make it a night out.”
“I know!” Perrin stamped her foot and noticed just how much of the local crowd was grimacing at their PDA, like public display of affection was a crime even in Seattle. So, she raised her voice enough to be clearly heard, “Just like that b***h to run away from us and get married.”
The crowd rippled away from them in a slow wave of evening gowns and suits. The mezzanine and two balconies offered prime views of the main floor. Sure enough, when Perrin looked up they were being the center of attention.
She spun in a whirl. She’d been inspired by the leprechaun outfit and made a Marilyn Monroe The Seven Year Itch pleated skirt of the flowiest bright yellow-and-green rayon to go with the green-and-yellow blazer, though she’d left the shirt off this time revealing skin down to her solar plexus. She finished the whirl and stumbled into Cassidy.
“Let ‘em dream,” she whispered. “Bet half the guys here will be fantasizing about us tonight, not knowing we’re both totally straight. Think they’d be disappointed if they knew?”
Cassidy offered one of her staid smiles.
“Sorry, you’re all jet-lagged. I haven’t a brain in my body. You sure you’re okay with sitting through an opera?”
“I’m here.”
Perrin gave her another hug, this time as if she were fragile, “You can always sleep on my shoulder, you just can’t weep there.”
Cassidy blinked at her as if finally coming awake while they climbed the sweeping grand staircase up to the mezzanine entry level.
“Uh, Perrin. What did I miss? You seem even more Perrin than usual.”
“I met a guy.”
“I’m shocked,” her tone was drier than one of her wines that she critiqued for a living.
“I met a nice guy.” Not the right reaction yet. “A nice guy with kids.”
“That’s sweet… Wait! You did what?” Cassidy finally caught up with the conversation.
“I know! Shocked the s**t out of me too. Oh, I’ve have to stop saying that in case I run into his kids.”
“Here? There are never kids at the opera.”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
Cassidy grabbed her arm and turned her toward the glass and steel rail of the mezzanine level. They leaned on the rail. Down below was the main lobby they’d just climbed up from, still milling with people. A wall of glass five or six stories high showed the outdoor steel scrims. Huge sheets of a fine mesh filled the gap between the opera hall and the next building over, starting twenty feet in the air and climbing to the very top of the structure. They were lit with a bright flow of dancing colors across the mesh. Like a slow kaleidoscope of spring colors.
“How do they do that?”
Cassidy glanced at it, then back at Perrin. “Magic. Who cares? Now spill. I’ve only been gone for five days. What in the world is up with you?”
Perrin clamped both hands on the top of the rail and sort of pumped herself back and forth. It was all she could do to control the energy bottled up inside her.
“He’s really nice. And so damn decent. You know Hogan?”
Cassidy looked at her in utter exasperation. “Maria’s Hogan? The man who married the woman who practically raised my husband? The one we all have dinner with every Tuesday evening? That Hogan?”
“Yeah, that one,” she loved that she was making Cassidy totally nuts. That would pay her back for being out of the country when Perrin needed her so badly. “Well, I think he may even be more decent than Hogan.”
“Uh,” Cassidy stopped as she thought about it. “I’m not sure that’s possible.”
Perrin slanted her best friend a look.
“Okay, prove it.”
For the first time Perrin focused on the three-story tall mobile that hung just out of reach. It was made of extension ladders and measuring tapes. It was filled with hammers, pliers, saws, bits and pieces of all the tools she’d been shown in the scenery shop. And a bunch of stuff that looked electrical.
“That’s a pretty crazy mobile, don’t you think?”
“Perrin!” Cassidy’s voice was practically a she-lion snarl. Maybe it was time to answer. But she couldn’t quite resist and answered the question with another question.
“You know how you told me after your first time with Russell that really great s*x is even way better with the right man?”
“Yea-ah… ” she drew it out cautiously.
“Despite every opportunity and encouragement, last night I may have had the best s*x of my life and… ”
“And what, Perrin?”
“We never even took our clothes off.”
Cassidy blinked at her.
Perrin could hear Cassidy analyzing this news. She had the same look that she did when she was tasting one of her wines, that discerning palate and mind that had made her one of the nation’s most successful food-and-wine critics before she quit to form the Washington Wine Cooperative.
Her best friend stared at her for the longest moment and then did exactly what Perrin had been hoping for, praying for, because otherwise she was totally losing her mind and she didn’t know if she was ready to be doing that.
Cassidy pulled Perrin into her arms and held her tightly. In her ear she whispered, “Oh, I hope so for your sake, Perrin. I really really do.”
“Hey,” Perrin pulled back and wiped at her friend’s cheek. “You know the rules, no crying or getting drunk unless we’re all together.”
Cassidy brushed at her eyes and offered a watery smile. “You were right.”
“I was? Is that a first?”
“Jo is in such deep s**t for running off and getting married on us.”
“We mustn’t tell her or Maria until they’re both back and we can all get together.”
“Deal,” Cassidy sealed it with a very un-Cassie-like smack on Perrin’s lips. Maybe after a year of being happily married she was finally loosening up a bit and cared less about what others thought.
- Writer
