Chapter 28

"I have to tell you something."

Peyton quirked a perfectly shaped brow while eating her cereal, both women sitting down together for the first time in over 2 weeks. She'd been spending all of her free time with Randy, staying at his place, but still called to check up on Cassidy frequently. Cassidy assured her she was fine and Peyton started believing her, especially when Randy asked her to start staying the night. He assured Peyton that Cassidy was perfectly safe because Chief Lawler had her street patrolled at least 10 times every night. Not to mention both of her phones had tracers, so even if Cassidy was attacked again, it wouldn't take long for the police to arrive. As much as she hated the idea of leaving Cassidy alone, Peyton couldn't resist Randy and knew she was falling hard and fast for him.

"Do I even want to know?" Peyton asked resignedly, pushing away her cereal.

"Yes and no." Cassidy answered truthfully, already finished with her own bowl and stood up from the table to set it in the sink. "I still don't believe it happened."

"So out with it. Stop stalling." Peyton ordered, not moving to take her bowl to the sink, grey eyes locked on her best friend. "What did you do, Cassidy?"

Cassidy's cheeks flushed at the memory of her encounter with Jon, letting her gaze wander over to the couch briefly and then lowered it to the floor. "I sort of…slept with someone." There was no sort of about it and Cassidy wanted him again.

Peyton blinked, not quite sure she heard that and pretended to clean her ears out with her pinky. "Repeat that." She commanded, pointing to her ear. "Because I know I didn't hear you right."

"I slept with someone." Cassidy repeated sarcastically, not believing it'd been a week since she last saw Jon and felt his lips against hers. She missed him and hated herself for it. "And you're going to flip when I tell you who it was."

"That sounds really portentous." Peyton remarked, leaning against the kitchen counter. "So lay it on me, who was it and when did it happen?" She wanted details, a hint of excitement in her voice.

Shutting the water off from rinsing her dish, Cassidy opened the dishwasher and slid her bowl in, suddenly regretting bringing this up. She had to confide in someone though. Elissa Lopez was out of the question, along with Trista, because they would tell Jon's fellow coworkers. Peyton was her best friend and, even though Cassidy vowed to take this to the grave, she simply couldn't keep it bottled up inside. The only detail she would leave out was where they had sex, even though Peyton hadn't been sleeping at the house lately.

"3 weeks ago." Cassidy couldn't believe it'd been that long and grabbed a glass out of the cupboard, filling it with water. "And it was-" She was cut off when a knock sounded at the front door.

"I'll get it, this conversation isn't over." Peyton informed her, walking out of the kitchen to answer the door and blinked when a single white envelope was slid into her hand from the mailman. "Thanks. Sidy, you got a card from someone."

"What?" Cassidy had followed her to the front door and took the envelope, raising a brow. Who the hell would send her a card?

Opening it, Cassidy smiled at the bouquet of red roses splayed on the front with the words 'Get Well Soon' beneath it. She opened the card and saw one word in deep red lettering, the smile vanishing from her face. DON'T. Shaking her head, Cassidy closed the card instantly and let it float from her hand to the coffee table, wondering who would send her that.

"What did it say?" Peyton asked, eyeing the card suspiciously.

"It's from Madelyn. Such a sweet girl." Cassidy lied smoothly and sat on the couch, feeling Peyton take the seat beside her. "It was Jon."

Peyton was instantly confused. "What was Jon? Jon who?" For some reason, her mind wasn't registering who Cassidy was talking about and blamed it on lack of sleep.

"Good." Cassidy shut her eyes and flopped back against the couch. "The guy who rescued me. The guy I told you I just wanted to know a little more about. He paid me a visit 3 weeks ago while you were out with Randy. We exchanged harsh words and then…we had sex…"

Realization hit Peyton like a ton of a bricks and her mouth dropped open, staring at her best friend like she'd completely lost her mind. "WHAT?! Cassidy, are you INSANE? Did you not hear what Elissa and Trista told you about him?! Did he hurt you? I swear to god, I'll rip his balls off and feed them to him if he did!'

"No he didn't, but I was a completely different person with him. I'm the one who kissed him. I'm the one who initiated everything. Hell, I even gave orders and he did them, no questions asked. I was a dominatrix in a way and…I can't get it out of my head. I can't get HIM out of my head." Cassidy took a breath, having said all of that in a rush of words so Peyton would calm down. "When we finished, I told him we'd got it out of our systems and to leave. Walked in my room and slammed the door shut. Didn't give him a chance to say anything back and he did."

"Wait a minute, back up a second…" Peyton had a hard time believing any of this considering she'd never seen Cassidy give an order to anyone. "You're actually telling me you dominated a volatile asshole who is possibly 3 times your size? And then you sent him packing when you two finished?"

"Pretty much."

Peyton couldn't help it and burst out laughing, holding her stomach. That was the funniest thing she'd ever heard! Peyton had only seen a picture of Jon, never meeting the man in person, but just his picture alone intimidated her. So to picture a petite woman like Cassidy dominating a well over 6 foot monster was hysterical. Her laughter slowly died down when Peyton noticed Cassidy wasn't laughing with her, seeing the troubled look in her azure eyes.

"There's more." It wasn't a question.

Cassidy nodded, lowering her eyes. "He confronted me a week ago at work. It was the night I stayed late and you had to take that trip to the Gulf for your story." Peyton had been gone the whole week and had only returned a few days ago.

"What happened?"

"He wanted to know why I hadn't posted his story. He found out somehow that Trista told us about his past and figured I'd drag up the past to make it a big story along with Madelyn's." Cassidy shook her head sadly. "I would never do something like that. He was just a little boy when his parents were killed…and I could feel the pain coming from him. I could see it in his eyes. He treats people like crap because it's all he knows. He tried getting me to have sex with him again and I told him no - repeatedly. I told him I would not be one of those women who bow down to him and just let him take me. And then I completely contradicted myself by kissing him."

Peyton could tell this was eating away at Cassidy and didn't know what to do for her, what to say. It was obvious Cassidy cared a great deal for Jon, which was understandable since he did save her. All Peyton wanted was for Cassidy to be happy, but she also didn't want her friend waking up one morning with a broken heart.

"Why did you kiss him?"

"I don't know." That was the truth. "I saw all the sadness in his eyes and told him to let me help him feel. It was the best kiss I've ever experienced in my life. But he wanted more and I wouldn't give it to him. So he got pissed, told me there were other women out there who wanted him and I told him go for it. Then I left. Haven't seen him since."

"Sounds like a real winner." Peyton muttered sarcastically, raising a brow when the doorbell rang again and looked at Cassidy. "The mail already came…"

"Maybe it's FedEx or something. I'll get it." Cassidy stood from the couch and walked over to see who it was. This time she had to sign for a white thin package from FedEx. Something wasn't right, she thought, eyeballing the package and decided to open it later on, slapping it on the coffee table returning to her conversation with Peyton. "I wasn't going to tell you about Jon, but you're my best friend and I can't keep anything from you. So tell me what to do about this because I feel like I'm losing my mind. And I really don't want to lose my mind over a guy."

"Sounds to me like you've already done that, Sidy." Peyton said frankly and curled her legs up beneath her to sit on them. "I mean, first you dream about him, then you want to know more information about him, then you have sex with him…and the kiss you two shared. Sounds like you've already went too deep with this to back out."

Cassidy sighed, not liking what she heard and couldn't disagree. "So I'm just supposed to sit here with my thumb up my ass and wait for him to come to me again? Or for us to run into each other? No." She refused to do that. "I'll find a way to stop it because I won't give my heart to someone who will crush it."

"What if you already have, Cassidy?" Peyton murmured quietly, reaching over to take her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "There is no what if about it. You already have." She corrected, pulling Cassidy into a tight embrace as soon as tears slid down her friend's cheeks. "I'm sorry sweetie, I'm so sorry…"

"I can't stop thinking about him. He's invading my dreams and I can't shake him, no matter what I do." Cassidy cried, needing some kind of comfort and silently wished it was Jon holding her instead of Peyton. "What am I going to do, Pey?"

"I don't know, Sidy. I honestly don't know."

They talked for a little while longer and Peyton had to leave to meet up with Randy since they hadn't seen each other in over a week. That trip had been hard for Peyton, but she'd gotten through it and was on the verge of saving the poor creatures in the Gulf of Mexico. Donations were being made to contribute to save them, which Peyton was also part of when she had a pause in the story or simply needed a break. Cassidy decided on making some chicken wings from the freezer for lunch -She had plans to have dinner at the Lopez's later that night- and popped them in the oven, not really having an appetite lately. She knew she had to eat though or else Peyton would jump down her throat about it. Sitting down on the couch, Cassidy picked up the white package she'd gotten earlier and furrowed her brows together, wondering who sent it. The 'Get Well Soon' still troubled her, especially since it held such a simple one word message.

Shaking her head, Cassidy proceeded to tear open the FedEx package and reached inside, sliding out two more cards. This was too weird. Flipping the first baby blue colored card over, Cassidy slid it out and smiled at the words 'Thinking of You' on the front in calligraphy black writing. Just like earlier with the 'Get Well Soon' card, as soon as Cassidy flipped it open to read what it said, there was one word in bold lettering. THINK. A gnawing feeling formed in the pit of her stomach as Cassidy set it aside, starting to wonder if this was Jon's doing. Who else would be thinking of her? With burning curiosity, Cassidy hastily ripped open the third card with slightly juddering hands and felt tears sting her eyes. The words 'Missing You' were in the middle of a big red heart in the middle of this card. The single bold word YOU'RE was the writing in this one, just like the others.

"Don't think you're…" Cassidy muttered, saying all of them together completely mystified. "Don't think I'm what?"

Tossing the cards on the coffee table on top of the 'Get Well Soon' one, Cassidy stood up to walk in her kitchen when the doorbell rang again. Muttering under her breath, Cassidy ignored it for the moment and pulled her wings out of the oven, the smell alone making her nauseous. If this was Jon, he really had a bizarre sense of humor by sending her cards of all things. After Cassidy ate while watching a movie, she went to take a shower to get ready to head over to Elissa's. It was a little past 4 PM when she stepped out, having an hour to get ready and sifted through her closet, wondering what to wear. Halloween was a few days away, so she decided to go with something in that spirit and wore a long sleeved shirt since it was chilly at night nowadays. Pulling the orange top on, it was outlined in black pumpkins, something she'd gotten on clearance at a clothing store last year. Cassidy hadn't worn it yet and decided there was no time like the present. She pulled on black slacks, wearing her black and orange flats that had pumpkins adorned all over them. Another clearance item she snagged up along with the top.

Looking in the mirror, Cassidy decided not to wear makeup and left her strawberry blonde hair down, putting two pumpkin clips in on each side to keep it out of her face. Walking out with a black jacket, Cassidy slipped it on and stopped when her gaze caught something out of the corner of her eye. There was something leaning against her door INSIDE the house. Frowning deeply, she walked over and saw a black rose with another card leaning against it, immediately turning around in case someone was behind her. Who had opened her LOCKED door and placed this against it while she was in the shower? Shaking again, Cassidy picked up the card and ignored the black rose, tempted to rip it up. Then she thought about the other three cards and knew this had to be the final word that would finish the message. Opening it, Cassidy felt her knees weaken as the words 'My Condolences' flashed before her eyes. She flipped it open and immediately dropped the card, stumbling back covering her mouth with her hand.

FORGOTTEN was the bold word.