Chapter 1
The Cold Shoulder
Dominic was working in his office finishing up some paper work when he heard "Dinner is here!" A young woman called out as she came in through the door of Santini Air.
Her name is Cassie Terry, a young woman of 24, with long and strait auburn hair, which lay loosely over her shoulders. Her complication was light in color; she was defiantly not a sun worshiper. Her brown eyes were kept behind a simple pair of eye glasses, and she was wearing a pair of jeans and a loose fitting tee shirt with little to no make up. Cassie was a simple Plain-Jane type of a woman but her true beauty lay with in. She was carrying a medium size box that sent out an aroma that makes the taste buds water.
"Hey Cassie," Dominic Santini called from the office at the back of the hanger. He came rushing up to Cassie, "Here let me take that."
"Thanks,' Dom, Cassie replied as she handed him the box and then turned back to the door and went out again. A few moments later she came back in carrying a bowl of salad and a grocery bag filled with paper plates, plastic cups, plastic cutlery, and napkins.
Dom was standing over a folding table that had been set up in preparation for Cassie's arrival. On the table sat the box, which Dom had opened to reveal two casserole dishes inside, one smaller then the other. He leaned over the box and took in the aroma coming from the foil-covered dishes.
"Ah home cooking!" Dom exclaimed with a big smile on his face.
Cassie set the bowl and sack on the table next to the box and proceeded to pull out their contents and set them out on the table. Dom turned to her, a wide grin on his face that showed the gap between his front teeth, "Cassie you always out do yourself."
Cassie returned the smile and replied, "Maybe so Dom, but you are worth it." Then she turned back to arranging the cutlery and removing the cover from over the salad. Dom moved to the box and pulled out the warm casserole dishes.
Cassie looked around the hanger and commented, "So, where's the cold shoulder?"
The smile on Dom's face vanished for a moment. He knew she was referring to String, he looked at Cassie with a tinge of sadness in his eyes, and shrugged his shoulders. "I don't think he's going to be here this time." He then looked down at the casserole dishes and rubbed his hands together, as a smile quickly returned to his face and he exclaimed, "What do we have today?"
Cassie smiled and replied, "Bells Rice and a tossed spinach salad with poppy seed dressing." After a brief pause she added, "and I made something special for String too."
"Oh!" Dom remarked as his eyebrows rise, "What's the occasion?"
"Everyone needs a friend who does nice things for them and Hawke doesn't have enough," Cassie answered. She kind of liked Hawke and felt sorry for him and wanted to do something to help him to be a happier person. He always seemed to be so sad. She shrugged her shoulders and points to the small casserole dish covered with aluminum foil. "You can save this for him. It's easy to warm up."
Dom smiled and asked, "What's in it?" Knowing String was a very picky eater.
"It's a vegetarian dish made of rice, sour cream monetary jack cheese and chili peppers." She replied. Then with a knowing smile on her face, she pointed to the larger casserole dish and added, "But that one is for us and it has chicken in it."
Cassie then remembered that there was another young man who worked for Dominic and that he often joined them when she brought in dinner, "Is Rick going to join us today?" Rick was Dom's grunt man. He helped clean up, answer the phone and run errands.
"Yeah!" Dom replied, "He will be her soon."
"Should we wait for him?" Cassie asks as she looked towards the hanger door, as if she thought he would come waking in now.
"Naw!" Dom replied, with his gaped tooth grin, "We can't let it get cold." Then a thought came to Dominic. "Hey! Let me go grab a couple of beers to go with dinner." He turned and headed towards his office where he kept a small refrigerator.
"Wait Dom," Cassie called out. Realizing she had left a thermos of punch out in the car. She didn't like being around when any alcoholic beverages were consumed. "I brought some punch for us to drink," she quickly explained as she hurried back out the door with a shy smile on her face.
Dom stopped his progress towards the office and watched as she hurried out the door. Almost as quickly as she had gone out, she was rushing back in carrying an insulated gallon jug. She set it on the table and retrieved a plastic cup from the supplies she had brought and filled it with some punch and handed it to Dominic. "Now, taste this and tell me what you think." She watched his face in hopes he would like the punch and be willing to forgo his beer.
Dom took the cup from Cassie and looked down into the cup, it looked like orange juice. He raised the cup and took a drink. Then his eyes opened wide with delight and a smile quickly stretched across his face and he exclaimed, "Hey, that is good. What's in it?"
"Orange juice and lemonade with a little sugar and almond extract," Cassie replied, relieved that he liked it. She teasingly shook her finger at Dominic and said with a motherly tone, "And it's a lot better for you then beer." As she pointed the same finger towards his office.
"Yeah! Well maybe so," Dom grumbled. He enjoyed a cold beer at the end of the day.
Cassie could hear the disappointment in Dom's voice and she looked down at her feet. "Look Dom," she said, "I know I have no right to tell you what to drink." Then she looked back up looking at Dom over the top of her glasses and said, "But could we please keep the beer in the fridge until after I leave?" She watched his face with hope that he would accept her suggestion.
"Oh, Cassie," Dom replied, he could see the pleading look in her eyes and knew that her request was not truly bias towards anyone who drank alcohol. It was just something that didn't settle with her for some reason. He didn't understand, but he was willing to accommodate. His big gaped tooth smile returned to his face and he took another drink of the punch. "This really does taste good."
"What tastes good?"
Both Dom and Cassie where startled and turned towards the hanger door, where the voice of Stringfellow Hawk had come from. Hawke was wearing sunglasses that hid his blue eyes, blue jeans and an inexpensive polo type maroon shirt. He walked over to where Dominic was standing by the table and removed the sun glasses and put them in his shirt pocket.
"String! I see you decided make it," Dom exclaimed.
String turned to look at Cassie and offered a quick but monotone, "Hi," in her direction, then just as quickly he turned back to Dom and asked, "Made it for what?"
Dom frowned at String. He had told him that Cassie was bringing dinner for them today and had made a point of inviting him to join in. "What do you mean, 'made it for what'?" Dom responded sarcastically as he rolled his eyes and threw his hands into the air in exasperation. Then he gestured with one hand towards Cassie and the other towards the table and the food sitting on it, "Why Cassie's good home cooking," he exclaimed. "And she even made something special just for you." He pointed to the smaller casserole dish.
"Why," Hawke asked, as he walked passed Cassie and on into the office, where he retrieved a beer from the refrigerator. Then he returned to the doorway of the office and leaned up against the doorframe, opened his beer and took a drink.
"Because it's the nice thing to do," Cassie remarked. As usual he was quick to irritate her. "No one said you had to eat it," she bit back. She then turned her back to him and started putting some food on a plate. String remained in the doorway watching Cassie and Dom dish up their plates and move over to a desk where they sat down together eat chat with each other, with no attempt to including Hawke in their conversation.
After another drink or two of his beer, Hawke wandered over to the folding table and lifted a corner of the foil covering the smaller casserole dish. "What in it?" he asked with a monotone voice.
Cassie and Dom turned from their conversation to look at him. Cassie replied, "Oh a little arsenic rounded off with a large dose of cayenne pepper."
Dom shook his head as he considered these two. Sometimes, he thought they acted like they were siblings. They both cared for the wellbeing of the other and yet treated each other in ways they knew would antagonize the other.
Hawke knew Cassie well enough to know that there was no arsenic or cayenne pepper in the food she had prepared for him. "What else?" String asked, as he turned to look at Cassie with his stone poker face.
Cassie shrugged her shoulders as she returned Hawks stare, and rattled off the true ingredients in the casserole. "Rice, Monterey Jack Cheese, sour cream and green chilies." Then she pointed at the tossed salad and added, "That's a spinach salad with mandarin oranges, sugar toasted almonds and cheese with poppy seed dressing to go on top. But just for you I put in a little cyanide."
She turned back to Dominic and picked up their conversation where they had left off."
Dom looked over the top of Cassie's head to where String was standing, a glint of humor in his eyes and encouragingly suggested, "Come on, String, try it. It's really good." He turned back to his plate and forked a mouth full of food into his mouth and chewed while exclaiming, "Mmmmm." Then, in hopes that String would not feel to much pressure to eat the food, he quickly returned his attention to Cassie and their conversation.
With a small twitch of a smile showing at one corner of his mouth, Hawke turned back to the table and finished removing the aluminum foil off the casserole dish. Picking up a paper plate, he dished some out for himself, and then walked back into Dom's office to eat it. As he ate his exceptional hearing allowed him to listen in on the conversation between Dominic and Cassie.
Moments later, Dominic and Cassie's conversation was interrupted as the door to the hanger opened and Rick walked in. Rick was wearing his usual pair of dark grey overalls.
"Smells great," he exclaimed walking quickly towards the folding table and the food. As he passed the desk where Dominic and Cassie were sitting, he asked, "Did you guys leave any for me?"
Cassie offered him a big smile and responded, "Always." Then she turned towards the open door of Dom's office where she could see Hawke sitting with his back towards them and raised her voice so he could hear her, and declared, "I'm glad someone appreciates my cooking."
Instantly Cassie heard a reprove from Dominic, "Hey! What about me?" he exclaimed. "I like your cooking!"
