As the months wore on, Leanne’s affair with Dawn heated up. They began to see each other more and more. Most of the time, Dawn would come and pick her up when Cassandra was at work. The more time she spent with Dawn, the closer she felt to her. She knew that Dawn would gladly open not only her arms but also her home to her. The only problem was that she didn’t really want to leave Cassandra. Dawn was a better-suited person for her, but Cassandra was more fun and definitely much more attractive. Just watching Cassandra move about and listening to her voice when she spoke to her could turn her on in ways that Dawn couldn’t. She knew she was being foolish by staying with Cassandra, but for some reason, letting go simply wasn’t that easy. If anything, it had been much easier to let go of Kelli, even though she had been with Kelli a lot longer.
She felt like she was sneaking behind Cassandra’s back when she went out to see Dawn and wondered if her feelings were justified. After all, they weren’t in a full-time committed relationship where they? Sometimes Leanne just wasn’t sure exactly where they stood. But anybody who had intimate relations a few times a week was definitely more than friends or just roommates, and so she chose to keep Dawn a secret.
One night, she returned home five minutes later than she had planned. Cassandra had just gotten home only moments before she did.
“Where in the world have you been?” asked Cassandra. “I looked all over the house and even out back, yet you weren’t around. I was just beginning to really panic of wonder what in the world happened to you.”
“I’m sorry about that. I should’ve left a note.”
“So where were you?”
“Alexis came to pick me up and take me back to her place.”
“Oh, yeah? What did you do there?” Cassandra asked as she began to prepare herself a cup of cinnamon tea.
“We watched a movie.”
“What movie did you see?”
Leanne thought fast. “Just an old rerun.”
“Is that so?”
Leanne nodded, hoping she sounded convincing.
“And what was the old rerun?”
“Some old horror movie. I really can’t remember the name of it.” Leanne felt like she took too long to answer.
Cassandra poured an artificial sweetener into her tea.
“So how was work tonight?” Leanne asked, hoping to change the subject.
“Same old shit. I have a chance to transfer to another department within the hospital.”
“That would be great.”
“Indeed, it would be. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, Leanne, it’s that you’ve just got to take every opportunity that comes your way.”
And that’s exactly what Leanne continued to do. Whenever Leanne had an opportunity to get together with Dawn outside of the pet store, they were together. They watched movies, cooked dinner, and sometimes played games online. At first, Leanne wasn’t very comfortable about exchanging e-mails but after a while, she didn’t see the harm in it and felt pretty confident that Cassandra didn’t know her password in order to access her account.
Leanne hated it every time Dawn mentioned the idea of her moving in with her. She simply didn’t want to give up the best of both worlds. She knew it was selfish of her and that she was being unfair, but she loved the different things both women had to offer. Cassandra was dangerous yet exciting. Dawn was mellow yet intelligent. She knew that the smart thing to do would be to move out of Cassandra’s place and get away from her. After all, the woman had killed somebody right in front of her and who knows how many more she killed that she didn’t even know about? Get back and forth she went from the sexy nurse to the pleasant storekeeper. She simply couldn’t let go of Cassandra but she couldn’t bring herself to latch onto Dawn full-time either.
“Are you ready?” Cassandra asked Leanne after she had come upstairs from the basement, a place she seemed to be spending a lot of time in lately. Leanne had only been on one side of the basement to do laundry, but supposedly the other side was full of junk that Cassandra wanted to sort so she could either donate it or try to sell it.
“Yeah, just about,” said Leanne.
They were on their way to visit Cassandra’s mother. Leanne followed Cassandra out of the house, now able to walk without a limp. It had been a while since she’d seen the woman.
The afternoon was spent sitting at Rena’s kitchen table and it wasn’t long before Leanne was bored out of her mind. Cassandra and her mother mostly talked about things she wasn’t interested in or that she had no knowledge of. Rena almost acted as if she weren’t even there. Just when she thought they would never leave, they finally left after what seemed like hours. Now they could get home and she could e-mail Dawn.
Yet when Cassandra pulled out of her mother’s driveway, they didn’t return home to spend the rest of that Sunday hanging out together like they usually did. Instead, Cassandra wanted to go and browse some shops.
“Am I keeping you from anything?” Cassandra asked almost as if she sensed something was amiss.
“No, not at all.”
“You sure?”
“Sure I’m sure. Why do you ask?”
“Well, I guess you just seem like you’re in a hurry to get home or something.”
“Okay, I’ll come clean and I’ll be totally honest with you,” Leanne said.
“Uh-oh.”
Leanne chuckled, trying to lighten the mood. “To tell you honestly, your mother bores me to tears at times.”
A slight smile formed on Cassandra’s face even though she continued to stare straight ahead as she drove.
“Sorry, Cass, but I don’t know anything about crocheting and playing miniature golf.”
“Is that it?”
Was that a hint of skepticism and Cassandra’s voice or was Leanne simply being paranoid? “I’m sorry I didn’t have much to contribute to the conversation.”
Cassandra simply shrugged, still keeping an eye on the road.
“Are we going to have some time together after you check out the stores you want to check out?”
“Why?”
Why? What kind of a question was that?
“What do you mean, why? It’s Sunday.”
“Oh, I see,” said Cassandra in an almost sarcastic tone of voice.
Yes, something was definitely up.
“So I’m suddenly not allowed to want to spend time with you on Sundays?”
Cassandra laughed and told her she was just kidding. Okay, so maybe nothing was up after all. The sexy nurse looked through an electronics store at a very leisurely pace.
“Looking for anything in particular?” Leanne asked her.
“No, nothing in particular. Just wanted to check out some of the sales.”
After another small eternity, they finally left. Although the afternoon was getting late, now they could finally have some time together and maybe even some fun sex. The two had been experimenting with different positions lately and Cassandra made sure that Leanne was never bored. She just didn’t feel the sexual spark with Dawn that she felt with Cassandra. Dawn wasn’t very adventurous or imaginative and she often tired out quickly when she even had the desire to get together in the first place. If it weren’t for her award-winning personality, Leanne wouldn’t have any desire to go beyond employer and employee.
Instead of heading for home, Cassandra now headed for a boutique. “You’re really in a retail mood today,” Leanne couldn’t help but say.
“That I am,” agreed Cassandra. Only Cassandra never actually bought anything. Still, she took her time slowly browsing the aisles of the store. At one point, a screaming baby was close by and Leanne was damn near ready to scream right along with it.
Back in the parking lot again, Cassandra was shoving the key into the ignition when she suddenly stopped and turned to face Leanne. “Are you sure you’re not in a hurry to get home?”
“I told you I wasn’t. What’s the big deal?”
“You almost seem… I don’t know… in a hurry to get home.”
“If I were in a hurry, I would’ve told you. The only thing I was going to do earlier was e-mail a friend.”
“Oh, a friend?”
Leanne nodded.
“What friend?”
“Just someone I’ve seen come into the store that I work at, but they can wait.”
“Hmm… should you be mixing business with pleasure?” Cassandra asked.
Leanne almost wanted to say that it wasn’t like she was fucking the person, but since she actually was, it just didn’t seem like the right thing to say.
By the time they finally got home, the sun was beginning to set behind the stand of trees in back of the house. “After you e-mail your friend, come join me down in the basement. I want to ask your opinion on something.”
“Okay,” Leanne said, once again feeling pretty confident that Cassandra didn’t know about Dawn. She sent a quick e-mail to her apologizing for not getting back to her earlier and explained that she accompanied Cass to her mother’s house. After she clicked send, she logged out of her account and headed for the basement stairs.
It was the worst mistake of her life.
ns216.73.216.79da2
