The doorbell rang at the girls' house that night and nobody was there except Mercedes, and she ran to answer it with Charity in her arms. She flew open the door. "Bethany!"
"Oh Mercedes, hi. Hi, Charity," Bethany said.
"Oh, come in."
"Thanks. Hey, where's Brian?"
"Oh, I don't know. I left him in here a little while ago and he just disappeared."
"What happened?"
"Bethany, I told him about Chase."
"You just told him?"
"Yeah."
"You should have told him sooner," Bethany said putting her bag down.
"I know. I've already heard that one."
"Sorry, but it's true." Bethany walked into the kitchen. "Hey, where's Cassandra?" Bethany turned to see Mercedes' face become solemn. "What's wrong?" Bethany began to laugh. "Did you finally put her in mental house?"
"That's not funny!" Mercedes yelled.
Bethany stopped laughing. "What's wrong?"
"Cassandra's dead!"
"No she's not. She was here the last time I was here-"
"She recently died."
"But how?"
"She drowned."
"But she was an excellent swimmer."
"She slipped and hit her head on the diving board."
"Oh God, I'm so sorry." Bethany saw Mercedes begin to shake. "Oh girl, don't. Be careful." She went quickly over to her and took Charity from her arms. "I'm so sorry."
"It's okay."
"No it's not," Mercedes said, slumping down in the nearest chair. "I have until this weekend to compose myself and be okay."
"But why?"
"Because the funeral is practically this weekend!"
"Oh God."
"Will you stay for it?"
"Of course, girl."
Cassandra sat on Nick's bed staring at the wall, not thinking about anything in particular, when the door opened. She looked up to see Nick dressed in a black tuxedo and carrying a rectangular box. "Nick?"
"Are you doing anything tonight, Sweetie?" he asked with a smile.
"I don't think so. Why?"
"Are you up to going out tonight?"
"Where?"
"Oh, no where special. Just together."
"Um, sure-"
"Great! Here." He handed her the box and she eyed it. "Open it. I had everything taken care of."
She slowly opened the box and pulled out a dress. It was a deep, reddish purple dress. It was made out of an elastic fabric so it had no zipper or straps. Instead of sequence, the dress was garnished with diamonds. "Nick-"
"They're real diamonds," he said. "Go change."
Cassandra didn't say anything else. She went into Nick's closet and changed into the dress. "Oh my God," she gasped. She walked out of the closet.
"You look so beautiful," he said. "Wait, something's missing." He pulled out a box from his pocket. She opened it and saw a gold ring covered in diamonds. He took it and slipped it on her finger. He looked at her again. "There's still something missing." He pulled out another box from inside his jacket. She opened it and found a diamond necklace. She held up her hair and Nick clasped it around her neck.
She gently touched it and looked at the ring. "Nick, I can't accept any of this-"
"There still one more thing missing." He pulled out one last box from inside his jacket and opened it. Laying in the box, were a pair of dangling, diamond earrings. He handed them to her and she put them on.
"Nick I-"
"Don't say anything. You look beautiful. Just how I remember you."
"Nick, these things are gorgeous. But I can't-"
"Just accept them for tonight. Promise me that."
She paused for a minute. "Okay. Just for tonight."
"Good. Let's go."
Nick took Cassandra up to the beach. They walked down the beach for a while, the tail on Cassandra's dress leaving a trail in the sand. They finally stopped at a green silk blanket in the sand with a bottle of champagne and two candles.
"What is all of this?" she asked.
"Here, sit," he said pointing to the blanket.
She slowly sat down. "Ouch. These diamonds aren't the easiest thing to sit on."
He laughed. "This is to celebrate us being back together again. Now and forever."
She smiled. "What did you have planned?"
He grinned. "Girl, if you only knew."
"I think that I do." A chill ran up her spine. "Do you know what it does to me when you call me girl?"
"Oh but I do. I want to bring back all of our good memories tonight, and I want to make love to you all night long."
"Really?"
He poured her some champagne and handed her the glass. "Yeah. Take all of our good times together, and multiply them by three thousand."
"Really?" she said again, not wanting to give into him too early. She laughed to herself and bit her lip.
"You know," he said, "everytime I close my eyes, you're all that I see. Nobody but you can make me feel this way, and when we're together, we've got it going on!"
Cassandra laughed. "Yes we do. It's just sometimes I wish you would quit playing games with my heart although, as long as you love me, I'll always give you all I have to give. I know that in our relationship, we've just had to roll with it but in the end, I wanna be with you."
"Darlin', I want it that way. It's gotta be you, always, and I need you tonight. I'll be the one for you."
"Nick, no one else comes close to you."
He laughed. "I know! I'd go anywhere for you and I promise, now that you're back with me again, I'll never break your heart."
"That's the way I like it!"
He took a sip of his champagne and changed the subject. "Do you remember that bed of roses that I made for you? That one hot night?"
"Yeah..."
"You know when I touch you, you get that burning sensation all through your body in a second?"
She nodded.
"I'm going to give you that feeling only all night long. You've never seen romance until tonight."
She started to shake. "Nick-"
"Let me ask you one last question."
"Go ahead," she said weakly.
"Do you remember the feel of my skin hovering over you like a blanket?"
She sighed. "Of course I do. I could never forget. I want that feeling again."
He smiled, took her champagne glass and set it aside. He dropped his jacket in the sand and leaned over and kissed her hard. He held on to her back and laid her down on the blanket.
"So much for taking things slow," she said smiling as she took off his tie.
"Girl, you know me. Slow and gentle."
"Yes I do. It's been a while though."
"Don't worry about it. I love you."
"I love you, too."
"Loving you comes as naturally to me as breathing." Nick dropped his head and breathed out on Cassandra's neck then planted his lips on her collarbone. "I promise you intensity," he whispered. "After I'm done, you'll beg for more."
She unbuttoned Nick's shirt and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him down closer to her. "Passion," she said.
He began to pull down her dress until, after a minute, he had it off. "Heat."
"Sensuality."
"Eroticism." He kicked off his shoes as she slowly pulled off his dress pants.
"Voluptuous," she said.
Their bodies ached for each other as Nick traced a line of kisses from her mouth all the way down her stomach. "Ferocity."
"Endless," she whispered.
He laughed. "You got me on that one. Hold on, I'm thinking."
She pulled him back up to her face and kissed his mouth as hard as she could.
"Eternal," he said.
"Touch."
"Hunger."
"Caress."
"Crave." He wrapped his arms around her and pushed his body down on hers as she wrapped the blanket around them both.
Linden walked into a pale blue room. She looked around. She didn't know where she was or exactly how she got there, but in the back of her mind, she knew that she needed to be there. She walked out of the room and into another and gasped at what she saw. Sitting on the couch with a blank expression on his face was Anthony and he was holding Taylor. "Anthony-"
"I know I say this to you everyday, Taylor," Anthony said, "but I wish that your mommy was here."
"But I am-"
"Your mother was the best thing that ever happened to me."
Linden sat next to him.
"She was beautiful and was so funny. She had the worst temper. Even dropping a dime would set her off, but it was so cute."
"Hey! I do not!"
"She would wave her arms and jump up and down and she would squeak when she yelled. A trait that I thought was rather cute but I hope that you don't inherit."
"What the-" Linden stopped and looked at her arms that were in the air. "Damn it!" She looked around the room where she was. "I never want to leave you again, Anthony. I don't want to go anywhere else. I'm going to go find Nick and Isabella and tell them that they may never see me again."