Last night of March, Jeremy Cassidy was enjoying another Friday night out in one of Las Vegas hottest Casino spots. He was coolly taking his winning streaks in baccarat as his friends Steven McKinley, Matt Hawkins and Chris Dalton were all losing to him one round after another. Fortunate for Matt and Chris, their dates Olivia and Jen came to their rescue by inviting them to play slots instead.
"Hey why don't we try hooking up with lovely ladies?" Steven suggested as he enviously watched their two pals walked away with their dates. "See that redhead over the bar? She's been giving you the vibe all night and her friend is just my type."
"Well if you're interested then go over there," Jeremy said nonchalantly. "I'll just play poker."
"What? You're passing up a chance with that hot redhead?" Steven asked in disbelief. "Dude sometimes I wonder if you're that same guy I knew from high school."
"Right, that was a high school phase. I've long graduated from that." Jeremy said dismissing his friend's suggestion. "Don't you ever get tired of fooling around and casual sex?"
Steven didn't even bother to answer.
Jeremy can only shake his head as he watched him go and make a move on his blonde prospect.
Jeremy wouldn't deny that he had long mastered the art of hooking up with no strings attached. No gainsaying he had given his share to that kind of trash---but that was during his younger days. Three years ago, he finally reached that point where hourglass shaped bodies no longer turn him on, where sex with no emotions involved leaves him nothing but sole emptiness.
Through out the years he had discovered a shocking truth that he was actually a sucker for over-the-moon kind of romance and that he was actually a true blue Romeo at heart. Sure, he had been in loved before, it was just that he haven't experience yet that kind of crazy, intense love where he could just go marry the woman at the spur of the moment. He hadn't been with anyone he loved enough to be willing to die for---that's the romantic intensity he was looking for. Unfortunately he hasn't come across it yet. Perhaps those women he had previously dated were just a couple of "Rosalines",
It really pissed him off that some people kept on branding him as the "ultimate womanizer" when he had long outgrown that phase in his life. He was utterly sick of his business partner Eric Catcher incessantly chewing him up for his unfavorable history with women. Eric would always go paranoid that he will ruin every business deal with a woman client by sleeping with her. Well can he really help it if women flirt with him all the time even though he wasn't reciprocating?
Jeremy got up and was about to make his way to the poker table when a lady coming out of the slots' section caught his eye. He found her so breathtakingly beautiful he couldn't keep his stare of her. She was like an angel amidst the bright lights of the Casino. She was his Juliet.
Yes. She was his Juliet. She was Katherine Williams. When was the last time they saw each other? Nine years ago? Yes. Nine long years with no contact at all. All he knew was that after their high school graduation, Kat and her family moved to New York. Quite recently, he heard about her divorce with her long time partner Gerard Evans.
It's been almost a decade since they were in High School and played the leads in their Senior High production of Romeo and Juliet. Too much had happened since then. Changes marked their way, things evolved around and yet there she was, still radiating certain tenderness, certain purity that Jeremy had always found attractive about her.
Before Jeremy knew it, he was murmuring to himself while gazing awed at Kat.
"So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows
As yonder lady o'er her fellow shows.
Did my heart love 'til now? Forswear it, sight,
For I never saw true beauty 'til this night."