A day or two after Cassandra’s revelation, Leanne decided she would definitely stay with the sexy nurse and keep her secret. She believed what happened to Angel truly was an accident, which was what the authorities suspected to be the case as well, according to Cassandra, only they believed the young call girl had tripped and fallen on her own.
The law punishing Cassandra wouldn’t bring the eager-for-opportunity call girl back, and if anything, Cass was punished enough just with the guilt she felt and that she had to carry with her for the rest of her life. She hadn’t meant for the girl to die.
“Who else knows about what happened?” Leanne asked Cassandra the next day as they were eating lunch.
“Just my mother and my son.”
“That’s it?” Leanne asked, surprised. “Brittany doesn’t know?”
Mouth full of salad, Cassandra simply shook her head.
“Did Brittany suspect you had anything to do with it?”
“I don’t think so. Naturally, she called me up all freaked out about it once she learned what happened. She did point out how it happened right after she told me where she worked, but I swore I had nothing to do with it and that seemed good enough for her. I hate like hell to lie to a friend, but sometimes we have to do what we have to do in life.”
“Why did you choose to tell me?”
“Because you’re living with me. I don’t know for how long, but I guess I just felt I could confide in you. I hope you don’t ever break that trust, Leanne.”
“I won’t. Is this why you want to move to Italy, though?”
“That and to be near my son. Mom really misses it there, too.”
Leanne chewed on her salami sandwich thoughtfully for a moment, then said, “Chances are you’re never going to even be questioned about the incident, let alone charged with anything. Didn’t you say it’s been over a year?”
“Yeah, but you just never know.”
“I think you’ll be ok. I can understand the emotional part of it that you’ll always have to live with – the guilt and the regrets and all that – but I think that even if someone went to the police right now and said you did it, nothing could be proven. After all, it was just an accident.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“Do you ever have nightmares?”
“For the first few months after it happened, I did. I still feel terrible about the whole thing. Yeah, she made a big mistake right along with my husband, but they didn’t deserve to die.”
They?
Cassandra rose from the table and snatched her chiming cell phone from the counter. Ten minutes later, with Cass still engrossed in her conversation with whoever was on the other end, Leanne pushed herself up and limped with her plate over to the sink. Then she hobbled into the living room and opened her laptop, where she looked up the name Leonardo Panelli. Nothing came up.
Realizing that Panelli was Cassandra’s maiden name, she wondered if she should simply come out and ask what her married name had been.
Her son, Leanne thought. Her son may still have his father’s last name. Then she caught herself. Why don’t I just ask Cass? Why don’t I just point out that she said ‘they’ and see if she made a mistake or not? Her answer was simple. Because your gut instinct tells you not to, that’s why.
She hoped that after Cassandra got off the phone, she would realize what she’d said, tell her she was mistaken and that she should’ve used the word ‘she’, but she never did. Instead, she said, “I’m all done now, hun. You can clean up.”
With a smile, Leanne obediently did so as part of their agreement after discussing their living arrangement. Nothing about sex or relationships had been agreed to or disagreed to, though neither of them seemed to be in a hurry to accomplish any particular goal either. They were content to simply take one day at a time. Sometimes things got intimate between them, other times they lived as typical roommates.
Also, as part of their agreement, Leanne was forbidden to bring the subject of Angel up with anyone other than Cassandra. This meant there would be no casual questions to try to obtain more information, if there was any, from Cassandra’s mother. Leanne would be left on her own to either be direct with Cassandra or come up with another way to learn whether or not there was anything more to the story she’d already told her. Something primal that was deep within her told her it was best not to press Cassandra for any additional information or to share anything with her that she may learn that she hadn’t already been told.
After the tall, dark, and mysterious nurse left for work, Leanne eagerly began her homework. However, she hit a dead end in doing so. The only thing she could think to look up were the names of Cassandra’s Facebook friends, only she had them hidden from the public. She didn’t recognize the one person who had commented on her profile and cover pictures but clicked through to their own page anyway. The person appeared to be a fellow nurse, and while she could view her friend list, none of the names seemed familiar at all.
A check of the news article, barely a few sentences long, confirmed what Cassandra said. So she hadn’t lied to her there. There really was a call girl, Angel Greenly, who slipped and died in a nearby nursery. Only they left out the part about her being a call girl.
Leanne spent the remainder of the day wondering about Cassandra and just where she was heading in life. Did she even have a future with the good-looking nurse, or should she only consider her as one who was helping her transition in life and would also tend to her sexual needs on occasion?
“Think that color would look good on me?” Cassandra asked Leanne as they browsed through some stores in a local mall.
“You’d look good in just about any color except for maybe pastels,” Leanne told her. “Dark or bold looks best on you, I think.”
“You think so?”
Leanne nodded. “Yeah, dark goes with your dark hair and eyes, bold contrasts nicely against them.”
“But what do pastels do?”
“They clash.”
“They clash?”
Leanne nodded again as Cassandra giggled.
Leanne had dropped the subject of Angel and stopped asking questions. She knew she was going to have to prove herself trustworthy anyway before she would have a better chance of asking questions that may actually be answered. Being told a secret was one thing; showing you could keep it was another.
They wandered into a pet store. “Oh, look at the cute baby rats!” Leanne exclaimed.
Leanne expected Cassandra to wrinkle her nose in distaste, but instead, she said, “I hear the critters are very smart and have their own personalities.”
“They do,” Leanne said.
“Have you had pet rats before?”
“Lots of times. I miss them.”
“Think we should add a pet to our little household?”
Leanne’s heart leaped with joy at the prospect. “Oh, could we? You’ll love having a rat!”
“Yeah, but we gotta get a cage and food and all that.”
Leanne shook her head. “Just food. I have a cage at my parents’ house. I’m sure they’d love to meet you too, so why not stop there on the way home with our new ratty?”
Cassandra laughed. “Whoa, slow down, ragazza! Are you sure?”
“I’m definitely sure. Who could resist that little cutie over there?” Leanne pointed to a crème colored rat almost devoid of markings. Cassandra looked thoughtful a moment longer, and just when Leanne thought she might be afraid to meet her parents for some reason, she agreed.
Leanne reached down into the large rat cage with high glass walls. She could just barely reach the creamy-colored rodent. She lifted the young rat out of the cage and held it up for Cassandra to see. “Aw,” said Leanne, “ain’t he cute?”
“Well, it’s definitely a he,” she agreed, eyeing its obvious genitals.
They giggled and patted the rat’s head just as a store employee approached them. The employee turned out to be the manager, whose name was Dawn, and they were looking to hire. Dawn was impressed with the way she so bravely handled the rats. “If you can handle snakes too,” then you’ve got a job if you’re interested.
“Oh, wow,” Leanne said, surprised by the sudden and unexpected offer. “Any tarantulas I’d have to handle?”
“Nope, none at all,” the plain-looking woman assured her.
“Hey, that’d be great for you,” said Cassandra. “Your leg is just about well enough to get around on and it’s close enough that you could walk or ride your bike to.”
“What would the hours be?” asked Leanne.
“I’m afraid it’s only part-time. We’d need you Monday through Wednesday from 9 AM to 3 PM.”
Leanne glanced at Cassandra. “That’d be perfect for you,” Cassandra said. “That way we could still have time together and you could still work for me.”
Leanne happily accepted.
“Well then,” said Dawn, “today’s Thursday. See you next Monday?”
“You bet,” Leanne said with a big smile. “See you then.”
“Great. We’ll go over all the paperwork then.”
ns216.73.216.79da2
