Perfect Timing
Kimberly had a plan and she knew exactly what she was doing. She walked with Nick into the girls' house. He thought that they were just going to check up on Cassandra, but Kimberly knew that it would be much more. "Oh Nick!" Kimberly exclaimed. "Don't look!"
But Nick looked over and cringed. "No," he said. "No way. Not my Cassie or my best friend!" He watched as Cassandra and Brian were locked heavily into a kiss and he watched as Brian leaned her down on the couch and covered her with his body.
Kimberly grabbed Nick's arm and started dragging him towards the stairs. "Come on, Honey," she said. "Let's go upstairs."
Nick was reluctant but finally let her drag him up to Cassandra's room. "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God," Nick kept repeating.
Kimberly turned his face to hers. "Nick, stop it!" she snapped.
He stopped, looked her in the eyes, then looked down. "I'm in somebody's dreams," Nick said. "This couldn't possibly be happening. I must be in someone's dreams!"
"You're not Nick. Your beloved wife is stabbing you in the back. You know that I would never do that to you."
"I know you wouldn't," Nick confessed, slumping down on to the bed. "But I knew that Cassie would move on someday, I just didn't think that it would be so soon."
"Nick, hello! Brian is a married man!"
"Oh my God, you're right! That bitch!"
Kimberly smiled. "Exactly, now-"
"But as sexist as it may sound, she's my bitch," Nick said and pouted.
Fine, Kimberly thought. He wants to do this the hard way. Kimberly leaned over and kissed Nick, realizing that it was the first real kiss that they had ever shared. Kimberly could tell that Nick was in to it because he kept deepening the kiss.
"Now," Kevin said sitting down, "what do you want to tell me?"
"Oh God," Emalia said. "It's nothing, really."
"No, tell me. I want you to know that you can be open with me. You're going to be my wife, remember?"
"Of course I remember," Emalia said, feeling bad, but she knew that it was too late to feel bad.
"So what is it?"
"Well, there's kind of something that I have to tell you."
"What?"
"There's something that you don't know."
Emalia looked straight at Kevin, took a deep breath, and started her story.
"Brian," Cassandra whispered.
"Yes?" he said back as he was kissing her neck.
"I-" But she couldn't finish. She didn't know what she was going to say. She was almost completely numb to everything that was happening. She knew that Brian's hands were slowly unbuttoning her shirt and that he was slowly sliding his hands upward and that he was kissing her, but she didn't feel anything anymore. The feelings that she had once maybe felt for Brian were disappearing, but she didn't know how to handle it or what to do. It was just too weird. His kisses were the total opposite of the way that Nick used to kiss, but she couldn't quite figure out how.
"Is there something wrong?" Brian said as his hands slipped down and then back up again, just like she knew that they would.
"Oh, I don't know," she mumbled. It didn't faze Brian nor did he barely hear what she said. He only continued to kiss her.
"Nick," Kimberly breathed. "I want you so bad," she managed to gasp in. Nick didn't respond. He only kissed her back. Kimberly knew exactly what she was doing again. Nick would take her and fall in love with her, and she would take him someplace far away from here tomorrow morning. Then Kimberly would show Cassandra. She would show her everything down to the last detail.
Nick leaned Kimberly back on the bed and she reached up and yanked his shirt off. She kissed him and kissed him and he continued to kiss her back. All he could think of was what he had just witnessed between his wife and his best friend. He wasn't even paying attention to Kimberly. I can't believe it, Nick thought to himself as he kissed Kimberly. How could this have happened? What have I done wrong? Oh yeah, I'm dead. He opened his eyes and looked down at Kimberly. Her eyes were closed and she was still kissing him. He could feel her hands reaching down to his pants and starting to unbutton them. Maybe it's time to move on.
Kimberly looked up at Nick and was surprised to see that he was smiling at her.
"I want you, too," Nick whispered back.
Good, Kimberly thought and smiled back and kissed him again as he began to lift up her shirt.
Three days later, Mercedes and Eric returned. Mercedes had tried to persuade Henry and Carla to give her a little more time with Chase but they had calmly refused and had told them to leave. When she had returned and Brian had questioned her on her unexpected leave, she had just told him that she had had an emergency with her parents and that was the end of it. But he knew that she was lying to him. Mercedes was now standing in the kitchen attempting to make breakfast but she couldn't get her mind off of Chase and how his so-called parents had treated her. But she knew that they could give him a much more luxurious life than she could.
Brian quietly walked up behind her and touched her shoulder. "Honey-"
"Chase?" she whispered.
"Who's Chase?"
Mercedes whipped around, dropping the spatula that she was holding. "Brian!"
"Honey, who's Chase?"
"Chase? Uh, I don't know. I said...space. I said space."
"Space?"
"Yeah, I was, uh, just thinking that we need more space in our house."
"Huh?"
"N-Nothing! It's okay. Don't worry about it!"
"Okay," Brian said. "I'll be reading the paper and awaiting breakfast, it smells pretty good!" Brian quickly smiled at her and walked away over to the kitchen table.
God, Mercedes thought. That was close. She let out a sigh, picked up the spatula, washed it off, and turned back to her cooking.
Cassandra dragged herself out of her bed and dragged herself down to the bathroom. She and Brian had gone pretty far the other night, and she felt really bad about it. She flung her arm at the light switch and fell over the sink looking at herself in the mirror. She looked pale and she felt sick. She tried to stand up straight but when she did, a wave of nausea hit her and she collapsed to her knees. "What is wrong with me?" she said aloud. Her head felt light and dizzy. The nausea finally overtook her and she leaned over the toilet and threw up.
Mercedes turned around and saw Cassandra emerge in the kitchen, very pale and not walking straight. Mercedes went over to her. "Are you okay?" she asked her.
"I-I just feel so sick," Cassandra barely answered.
"Like a virus sick?"
"No. Sick-sick. My stomach is killing me."
"Do you know where you could have gotten it from?"
"No, I don't. It's been happening for a couple days, maybe. But just in the morning. It feels better after I eat something. Maybe I should just eat something."
"Cassandra, come here and sit down," Mercedes said, motioning for her to sit down on the stool next to the kitchen counter.
"What? Are you going to give me something?"
"Yeah, information."
"Huh?"
"Cassandra, I think that you're pregnant."
Cassandra jumped. "T-That's not possible."
"Okay, you've been having morning sickness? That's a sign. And let's face it, Nick didn't die too long ago. There is a possibility. You could have been pregnant for a while and not know it."
Cassandra shook her head. "Oh, Nick, yeah. There's no way."
"I may be wrong. I'll go out and get you a pregnancy test today. Okay?"
"Whatever." Cassandra felt worse. This wasn't possible. She dragged herself upstairs and into her bed. She had a partial wonderful feeling inside of her that she may be carrying her husband's child but there was also something inside of her that wasn't sure, about anything.
Cassandra sat up in her bed when she heard a knock at her door. It seemed like she had just fallen asleep but when she looked over at her clock, she noticed that it was three hours since she had fallen asleep. "Come in," she mumbled.
"Hey," said Mercedes walking in. "I got it."
"Got what?"
"The test."
"Oh," said Cassandra and fell back onto her pillows. She rolled slowly over and stood up out of her bed. She took it from Mercedes. "Thanks."
"Do you, um, need any, um, help?"
"Ah, no. I think that I can handle it." Mercedes looked down and Cassandra walked by her and into the bathroom.
Five minutes later, Cassandra was leaning against the wall waiting for the timer to go off. "Please, God," Cassandra mumbled. "Please, don't let me be." The timer went off. Cassandra slowly walked over to the sink, looked down and sighed loudly. Cassandra walked back into her room where Mercedes was waiting on her bed. She stood up when Cassandra came in.
"Well?" Mercedes asked.
"I'm-" Cassandra started but Brian walked in and interrupted her.
"I came to tell you guys that lunch is ready and everyone is waiting for you guys. Did I interrupt something.?"
"Oh it's nothing-"
"I thought that Cassie was pregnant," Mercedes said.
Brian and Cassandra exchanged glances. Brian swallowed. "Are you?"
"As I was going to say, I'm not pregnant."
"Are you okay with that?" Mercedes asked.
"Yeah, yeah, I am," Cassandra responded.
Mercedes smiled. "Well okay then. Let's go eat."
"You guys go on ahead," Cassandra said. "I'll be right down."
Mercedes and Brian walked out of the room and Cassandra sat down on her bed. She didn't know how she felt. There was relief within her that she wasn't pregnant, but she was also disappointed that she wasn't pregnant from her husband. She shrugged it off, stood up and walked downstairs where Nicole, Jonathan, Coreene, Kevin, Emalia, Brian and Mercedes were already eating lunch.
After lunch, none of them knew what to do. They all moved into the living room and turned on the television.
"I want to watch this channel," Brian said.
"Oh, I don't think so," Kevin said and changed the channel.
"No way!" Brian yelled and turned it back. Kevin and Brian fought back and forth between channels.
It went on for a couple of minutes until Mercedes grabbed the controller out of Brian's hand. "We are going to watch this," she said. Emalia, Nicole and Coreene agreed.
"No way," Brian said, giving her a look.
"Don't you dare give me that look!"
"Yes, Ma'am."
"Good," Mercedes said and everyone laughed, except Cassandra. She was staring at Emalia. Kevin had his arm around her and they were smiling together.
Did she tell Kevin yet? Cassandra thought. There's only one way to find out. Cassandra stood up and grabbed Emalia's arm. "Can we talk for a second?"
Emalia gave her a strange look. "Sure," she said and stood up. "I'll be right back, Kevin."
"Okay! Hurry back!" They smiled at each other and Cassandra lead Emalia up into the kitchen.
"Is...something wrong?" Emalia asked Cassandra.
"Like you don't know," Cassandra stated.
"I don't understand."
"You haven't told Kevin yet. Have you?"
"How would you know?"
"Because he wouldn't still be here so happy."
"How do you know?"
"Well I must know Kevin better than you do."
"You do not!"
"Then I'm going to tell him."
"You wouldn't dare!"
"I would."
"It's just not time. I have to be the one to tell him."
"Why?"
"Because! It's our relationship and it's my decision to tell him or not."
"And he's my good friend and I, don't want to see him hurt. But then I guess it's too late." Cassandra walked down into the living room and grabbed her purse.
"Where are you going?" Brian asked her.
"I'm going...out," Cassandra responded. She dug through her purse but couldn't seem to find what she was looking for.
"Cassie?" Kevin asked. "What on earth are you looking for?"
"Does anyone know where I left Nick's set of keys?"
"Why?"
"So I can use them."
"Um, I think the last time that I saw them were in his room."
"I guess that's the most logical place for them, now isn't it?"
"Why are you leaving?"
Cassandra glanced up into the kitchen where Emalia was still sitting. "I just need to get away for a while. But I'll be back tonight. Don't worry about dinner. I'll pick something up on the way home. There's just something that I need to do."
"But-"
"See ya." Cassandra walked out of the house and over to the guys house. It was so quiet. "Probably because Nick isn't causing trouble," she mumbled and ran up the stairs. She walked into his room and spotted the keys right away on his dresser. "I don't remember them being here," she said. When she picked up the keys and was heading out of the room, she noticed something sitting on Nick's bed. She walked over to the bed and noticed that there was a white rose sitting in the center of the bed with a note attached to it. She picked up the rose and opened the note.
"For you, Sweetie," the note said.
"This is strange," Cassandra said. Nevertheless, she took the rose and walked out to Nick's car. She put the rose and note on the passanger's seat and started the car but didn't go anywhere right away. She looked down at the rose and wondered who could have left it there and if it was actually meant for her. "But who else could it have been meant for? If Brian had left it, it would be in his room. If Kevin had left it, it would have been in his room also. So there's only one person that could have left it-" She stopped herself from even saying it outloud, but she couldn't stop herself from thinking it. Nick. "No, that's impossible." She put the car in gear and drove out of the driveway.
She didn't know where she was going, but suddenly a thought struck her. There was one place that she hadn't been and she felt that she needed to go there so she headed in its direction.
That night when Cassandra had returned Nick's car to the guys' driveway, she decided that she would stay in Nick's room tonight. The place that she had gone had left her with a lot of questions, a lot of thoughts and she felt that Nick's room was the safest place that she could be right now. She walked into the guys' house and found Kevin and Brian sitting on the couch watching television. "Finally decided on a show, huh?" Cassandra said walking into the living room.
"What? Very funny, Cassie," Kevin said and Cassandra laughed.
"Where's Emalia and Mercedes?"
"Oh they went back to your house to get some stuff, I guess."
"Oh. I'm going to go to bed. I've had a long day."
"I guess so," Brian said. "You were out all day long! Where did you go?"
"If it's okay, I kind of don't want to talk about it."
"All right," Kevin said. "Good night, Cassie."
"Good night, guys," she said.
"Good night," Brian said, and she walked up the stairs and into Nick's room.
"Aww, staying in Nick's room tonight, are we?" Kimberly said as she watched Cassandra go into one of Nick's drawers and pull out a dark green t-shirt. "You're so predictable. I knew that you were going to pull out that shirt. And I knew that eventually you would go to that place."
Cassandra walked into Nick's closet, got changed and jumped into the bed.
"Well," Kimberly said. "Let's make your night." She sat down on the end of the bed, watched Cassandra, and concentrated.
When Cassandra opened her eyes, she was sitting in a chair in a dimly lit room. Just then, a person began walking towards her. "Hello?"
"Hello, Cassandra," they said.
"I'm sorry, I don't know who you are."
"Oh, but you do." They walked into the light and Cassandra could see clearly who the person was.
"Kimberly?"
"The one and only."
"What do you want? And where am I?"
"Oh, Honey, I'm in your dreams and I'm here to show you how your little, faithful puppy dog, Nicky, stays busy now that you're not around."
"What are you talking about?"
Kimberly smiled. "Just wait." All of a sudden, it was like Cassandra was watching a movie. She didn't know where it was coming from, or how she was seeing it, but she saw it. It was Kimberly and Nick and they were lying together on her bed.
"Nick," Kimberly breathed. "I want you so bad," she managed to gasp in. Nick didn't respond. He only kissed her back. Nick leaned Kimberly back on the bed and she reached up and yanked his shirt off. She kissed him and kissed him and he continued to kiss her back. He looked down at Kimberly. Her eyes were closed and she was still kissing him. Her hands reached down to his pants and started to unbutton them. Kimberly looked up at Nick and he was smiling at her.
"I want you, too," Nick whispered back.
Kimberly smiled back and kissed him again as he began to lift up her shirt.
"Stop!" Cassandra screamed and stood up and the images ceased.
"What's the matter?"
"You slut!" Cassandra yelled. "Why are you trying to move in on my husband?"
"Oh girl, you have it all wrong!" Kimberly said sincerely, putting her arm around Cassandra. "He moved in on me! It was all him! I'm just trying to show you that your husband isn't very faithful after death. He's the one that you should be mad at."
"And I am! Don't get me wrong-"
"But I will not lie to you. If he comes on to me, I'm not going to resist it. I've waited a long time, Cassandra. And it's my turn now." With that, Kimberly walked out of the room and Cassandra slumped back down into the chair.
When Cassandra woke up the next morning, she was mad. She threw off the covers and jumped out of the bed. She tore off Nick's shirt, threw it across the room and ran to get her own clothes. After she was dressed, tears fell from her eyes. "Whatever," she sobbed. "I can't believe this. That...that...bastard!" she yelled as she hurled her wedding rings from her finger to the other side of the room. She reached up to her neck to rip off her diamond heart necklace, but it wasn't there. "I must have not put it on yesterday. Oh, I have to get out of here," was the last thing that she said to herself before storming out of the room.
When she walked down the stairs, she remembered that she had left that white rose in Nick's car. So she walked out to Nick's car but when she opened the passanger's door, the rose wasn't there. "That's strange," she mumbled. She walked back into the house and into the kitchen where Brian, Kevin, and Emalia were eating and Mercedes was feeding Charity. "Hey guys."
"Good morning," Kevin said to her.
"Yeah, did you guys go into Nick's car at all either last night or this morning?"
"No," Brian said.
"Nope," Kevin said and Emalia and Mercedes just shook their heads.
"Why?" Mercedes asked.
"Because I left a rose on the seat."
"Why would we go into his car? A rose from who?" Kevin asked.
"Him," Cassandra mumbled.
"What did you say?"
"I said that I don't know."
"Oh."
"Yeah. Well, okay guys. I'm going back over to yell at my husband now-"
"Excuse me?"
"I said that I'm going back to my house now."
"No you didn't."
"Yes, I did."
"No, you didn't!" Brian protested.
"Does it matter what I said?" Cassandra said and turned and walked away.
"What's wrong with her?" Emalia asked.
"Bad night, I guess," Kevin said and the three of them nodded in agreement.