"Cassandra?"
"Yeah." Cassandra answers the phone with one hand while typing haphazardly with the other. She's working on a paper about quantum mechanics - not really her thing, but a friend had asked for a favor, so here she is.
"Cassandra, honey, it's your mother."
She sighs. "Yeah, mom, I know. Caller ID, remember?"
"Alright. Well, I just thought I'd check up and make sure you're still ready for the reunion - everyone expects you to be there, and it would just be a shame if you missed it -"
"I already told you, mom, I'll be there."
"Oh. Well, good."
There's a brief pause.
"So, anything else interesting in your life lately?"
"Mom, I just talked to you last week."
"I know, I know, I just thought maybe you'd heard back from someone on that dating site you use -"
"It's Facebook, mom, it's not a dating site."
"Yes, well, anyway. I just think you should maybe change your profile picture - you know that isn't your most flattering one, and if you want to find a guy -"
"I don't!" Cassandra bursts out, switching the phone to speaker so she can type with both hands. "I don't need a boyfriend, okay mom? I'm 24, I'm not in a rush for anything."
"But honey, after the - the cancer scare, I just think -"
Cassandra's throat closes up. "It's gone." She says tightly. "It's gone, and it probably won't come back, and just so you know, living my life to the fullest does not mean I need to be in a relationship. With a guy or a girl."
Her mother makes a clucking noise. "You're still on about that -"
"If you say 'bi thing', I swear to god -" Cassandra warns, and her mom trails off.
"Well. I just thought I'd check in, but if you don't want to talk -"
"Mom. I do want to talk, just not about my dating life, okay?"
There's a pause, and then a melodramatic sigh. "Alright, sweetheart. I'll see you on Friday, then, for the reunion."
"See you then."
Cassandra hits end call with a sigh of relief. She loves her mother, she really does, but sometimes it's a little suffocating having her so close. At least she isn't living in the same house as her anymore - that was bad.
She takes a break from quantum mechanics to pour herself a glass of red wine - it's 7, after all, and it looks like the rest of her night is going to be spent on the paper. She tries not to think about the family reunion - they come every year, which, who actually needs to see their entire family every year? And they're always terrible, and there's always a new person with a ring or a baby or some other Great Life Accomplishment in the eyes of her mother, never mind the fact that Cassandra almost won the Fields medal last year. She would've, she's certain, except that she had to drop out due to long amounts of chemo and not being able to write without hallucinations.
She shakes her head, and switches on the tv in the background while she goes back to typing.
She's three hours and ten pages in when she's too exhausted to write anymore, so she shuts down her laptop and settles onto the couch to watch tv. She's flipping through channels for something to watch when an ad for Enterprise Rent-A-Car comes on. She almost skips past it, until the smooth voice-over announces "We'll pick you up - anywhere, anytime."
She freezes, her thumb still hovering over the next channel button. Actually, this might be the godsend she's been looking for.
She grabs her phone and dials the number on the screen.
"Enterprise Rent-A-Car, how may I help you?"
"Hi, um, so you can send a car to pick me up anywhere, right?"
"That's correct, Ma'am."
"Perfect. I'll need a car Friday at 5, at 4501 Hallaway Crescent."
"Name?"
"Cassandra Cillian."
"Alright, Cassandra, I have you down for Friday at 5 pm. Anything else I can help you with?"
"Actually..." She squirms. "Could you make sure the driver's a guy?" She squeezes her eyes shut in embarrassment. This way, at least, she can get her mother off her back.
"Of course." The person doesn't even sound surprised - what kind of weird things do customers usually ask for, anyway?
"Okay. Thanks."
She hangs up and goes back to her wine and flipping through channels. God, she really hopes this works.
"Oh, Cassandra, sweetie!"
Cassandra turns around to see one of her great-aunts - Mabel? Margaret? - rushing towards her full-force with wide arms. She forces a smile to her face (it's too late to duck away now) and accepts the onslaught of a hug.
The dreaded Friday had come, and now Cassandra's stuck between some relatives that she doesn't recognize and some that she wishes she never had to see again.
"How have you been, honey?" Great-Aunt Mabel (she's pretty sure it's Mabel) gushes into her hair, while Cassandra gasps for breath through the crushing hug.
"I'm good, thanks. How are you?"
"Oh, I am just fantastic. Fred - that's my new husband, we just got married back in May - insisted on coming up for the whole weekend and renting a fancy room at a hotel, so I'm just divine."
"Oh, that's - that's great." Cassandra manages to extricate herself from the hug, although with much difficulty, and resists the urge to immediately go douse herself in the entire amount of hand sanitizer that she'd packed - which is a lot. Sweaty relatives are no joke.
"Oh, and your mother has just been telling me the sweetest things about you..."
The next few hours are the longest of her life, complete with no less than three new engagements (all complete with the most ridiculously expensive rings Cassandra had ever seen), two crying babies that are all but hurled into Cassandra's arms (reminding her, again, why she is WAY too young for children), and seventeen questions of so, what's going on in your life? (Which, obviously, is a thinly-veiled question of are you dating anyone yet?) She just replies with a brief smile and a oh, you know, math stuff.
Finally, 5 pm arrives, and just when she's getting sucked into yet another round of remember that time when, she spots a car pull up with a little Enterprise Rent-A-Car sticker on the back window. Thank god.
She waves the driver over when he gets out, and holy shit, she had not expected him to be this hot.
Ignoring the flush that is no doubt taking over her face, she instead takes a step towards him.
"Hi, I'm Jake, from -" He starts, and Cassandra quickly steps in behind him, ducking so that his arm ends up draped around her.
"Everyone, this is Jake." She blurts quickly. "Jake, this is everyone."
She's met with blank stares and dropped-jaws.
"Well, Jake and I really need to get going." She says, underlaying it with as much innuendo as she can without throwing up from complete humiliation. "It was nice seeing you all again!"
Before Jake can say anything, she turns and all but drags him along with her.
"So." He says when they reach the car and she allows his arm to fall off her shoulder.
"I'm really sorry about that." Cassandra blurts immediately. "It's just, my family is kind of insane, and they've been going on and on about me getting a boyfriend, and I figured this was the easiest way to get them off my back -"
"It's alright, darlin'." He says, and - is he laughing? "I've been in that situation more than a couple times myself."
"Really?" Cassandra sighs. "Oh, thank god. Families, right?"
"Yeah." He grins, then opens the door for her - a little extra something for the audience that's surely still watching them, but it makes Cassandra smile nonetheless.
"Thanks." She says, as she slips into the passenger seat, continuing her sentence as he goes around the car and ducks into the driver's seat. "Seriously. If it weren't for you, I would probably have like, dropped a baby by now." He just glances over at her with raised eyebrows as he starts the car. "I'm terrible with babies." She explains. "And there are way too many at them at family reunions just getting thrown at you. Like, forgive me if I don't want a tiny human being screaming and wriggling and puking all over me."
Jake chuckles. "I get that. Before they turn at least two, they all look the same."
"Right?" Cassandra turns in her seat to look at him. "They all look like potatoes!"
He laughs again, and Cassandra can't help but feel weirdly comfortable in a way she hasn't in a long time. It's what prompts her, when the car finally stops moving, to hold her breath and open her mouth to ask something that she definitely wouldn't have done, well, pretty much any other time. Ever. But Jake beats her to the punch.
"So, Cassandra - this might be a little sudden, but would you like to go out to dinner with me sometime?"
She bites her lip to stop the smile from slipping out and taking over her face. She isn't entirely successful. "I'd love to."
She punches her number into his phone, and sits in her living room staring out the window long after he drives off.
So, maybe this Friday wasn't so bad after all.