Chapter 21
Roger put the boxes on the floor in the living room, one in front of the chair and one next to it by the couch. He sat next to the one by the couch and Cass sat right next to him. Mark walked in with three beers and sat in the chair.
"You want me to open them Cass?" Mark asked as he handed them their beers.
"Yes, go ahead." She said as she pulled her knees up under her chin.
Mark opened the first box and pulled out a piece of paper from the top of the box. "It's a note from Giavanna." He looked at her.
"Well go ahead and read it." Cass shrugged.
Mark looked down at the note. "Cass, I did the best I could, but most of the clothes you had here just weren't salvageable. I'm real sorry. It was either covered in paint, soaked and stained form the case of wine, or just ripped up. I didn't bother to send it if it was trashed. Plus some of it just reeked of wine. I was afraid it would stink up what was left." Mark looked at Cass. She just sat there on the couch listening to him, but expressionless. "Your suitcases were all cut up. I think he used the utility knife we were using the other night to cut open the boxes.
"Unfortunately your new leather jacket was destroyed. Along with those boots we just got in Venice."
"Now that's just cruel. That was the greatest jacket. And great boots. I didn't even get to wear either of them. Maybe my skirt made it."
"Um," Mark continued, "I don't think so Cass. She goes on to say your skirt got a big slice in it."
Cass just shrugged and let out a sigh.
Mark kept reading. "It hurts to say, but your channel five wound up against the wall I think."
"What?" Roger asked him.
Cass let out a small laugh. "That's Chanel #5 Mark. It's perfume."
"Oh." He went back to the letter. "I put your jewelry in a envelope. Your necklace was busted, and I haven't been able to find your mom's cross yet. I'm real sorry Cass. Hopefully it will turn up when the villa is cleaned up. If I find it, I'll send it right out to you."
Roger looked at Cass. He could see tears welling up in her eyes. He silently reached over and took her hand and squeezed it.
"I found your glasses. I think they got stepped on. Bother lenses were busted along with the frames, so I just threw them out." Mark stopped reading and looked up at her. "Well at least you know you need new ones now. I love you Cass, you know that. And I'd do anything for you, but we gotta get you glasses soon. This sharing mine thing is making me crazy." He gave her a weak smile.
"Yeah Cass, Mark will do anything for you except let you wear his glasses." Roger gave Mark a playful but evil grin. "Oh and buy you cigarettes."
She laughed a little and that was Roger's goal. "You two are two much. Does it say anything else?"
"Yeah, here's the last part." Mark began to read again. "I did the best I could Cass, really. I'm sorry about all of it. I'm so glad you're okay. Call me if you need anything. Anything at all.
"I also figured you could use it more than my brother, so I sent you a little surprise. Also a big one in the other box. Don't worry I charged all of it to the company. Love you, Gia."
Cass got a small smile on her face. "Well at least tonight won't be a total loss."
"What do you mean?" Mark asked her.
"It means get me three shot glasses. You are about to have the smoothest, most incredible Norwegian Vodka that ever came out of a tiny little distillery ever. Gia had gotten this one for her brother, but we had a bottle of it once before. It's really good. And very hard to find. Even in Norway."
Mark set the glasses down as Roger started to pull the fist few things out of the box. The Vodka was wrapped up in a shirt.
"Well don't just look at it," Cass told him, "pour it and let's get drunk."
Roger poured three shots and handed one to her and one to Mark. Without waiting on them, Cass raised it, drank it back and slammed her shot glass down on the milk crate table. Roger followed her and with a moment's hesitation, so did Mark.
"Told you it was good." She said as she poured another round. "What else is in the box?" She asked Mark as she threw her second shot back.
"Um," Mark began, "looks like some more clothes." He pulled things out and showed her things a few at a time. She told him what to keep and what to toss as he held stuff out for her to see.
"Here's some CD's, looks like some are computer CD's and some are music. Some more regular computer disks. Some computer wires and stuff. Here's a bunch of pictures in this envelope." He handed them to Roger to hand to her, but he started looking at hem first.
"Is that you?" Roger asked Cass.
"Yes. And Gia. We were on the Riviera. That was over last Christmas."
"Nice." Roger said as he showed the picture to Mark.
"Wow. Is that Giavanna? She's gorgeous."
"Yes she is. But she knows it too. Gets annoying sometimes."
"Holy shit Cass, is this on as topless beach?" Roger asked her.
"Let me see!" Mark grabbed at the pictures.
"What are you two, twelve or something?" She poured a third shot for herself and Roger. "Yes it's a topless beach, it's the French Riviera. We've gone there for Christmas the last three years." She threw back her shot and hit the table with her glass again. "What else is in the box?" She tried to get Mark back on track.
"A bunch of papers. Some folders. One says research. This one says 'Invs. Prop.' It looks like it sat in a wine puddle, but she dried it out."
"Toss it. I was thinking about investing in some property. Tax reasons. I was looking into some stuff in Italy. Not now!" She drank back her forth shot.
"There are a couple of books."
"Well at least I've got something to read."
"Here's another picture." Mark said as he pulled two small framed pictures out of a shirt it was wrapped up in.
"That's my mother. That other one is the two of us, on her birthday. About a month before she died."
"Wow, you really do look a lot like her, you know Cass?" Mark said to her as he sat the two frames on the table next to his untouched second shot.
"You really do." Roger added.
"So I've been told. What else?"
"Um, some more papers, an address book and I think this must be your jewelry in this envelope. Here's another envelope. Must be more jewelry." He set the two envelopes on the floor beside him.
"What does it say on that one?" Roger asked.
"What? Oh," Mark said as he turned it over. "It says 'Cass, I'm sorry. I tied off the ends so no more beads fall off, but I can't find them all. If they turn up I'll send them, but I'm afraid they rolled into the floor vent'."
Mark could tell she was unsure of what was in the envelope, but he could also tell she was getting drunk at this point. "Do you want me to open it?"
Cass nodded as she poured a fifth shot for herself. Mark's second and Roger's fourth shots still sat untouched.
"I think it's a bracelet or part of one, with a cross on it." Mark carefully pulled out of the envelope a string of soft pink colored beads with a silver cross attached. "Some of the loose beads are in the envelope."
Roger grinned at Mark and let out a small laugh. "It's not a braclet dummy, it's a rosary."
"Oh. Like I'm supposed to know that." Mark said at Roger as he handed the beads to Cass.
"It was my mom's." She told them as she looked at what was left of the rosary. "It's rose quartz. She always loved pink. She got it on her first communion from my grandparents. She gave it to me on mine. It's from the Vatican. My grandparents got it for her there. It had been blessed by the Pope. Guess it didn't do it much good." She shrugged, but was still holding the rosary in her left hand. "It was a really big deal to my mom though." She was starting to slur a little as she handed Roger his drink from before and she drank back her fifth shot.
Roger drank his shot and then put the cap on the vodka bottle. He handed the bottle to Mark. "Go put that in the freezer, it will be better cold."
Mark got the hint and took the bottle to the kitchen as Cass continued. "Yeah, she used to drag me with her every week while she went to confession. Didn't matter where we were, we still went to confession. And mass. Sometimes twice a week. I could always tell when she and Carlton or she and Andre were fighting. It meant back to confession for the second time that week.
"She always had that Rosary with her till she gave it to me." She shrugged again, still holding onto the rosary tightly.
Roger was watching her and he saw her notice Mark's till untouched shot. Before she moved for it, he reached over and picked it up. "You don't want this right Marky?" Roger swallowed it before Mark could answer or Cass could say anything about it.
She leaned into Roger a little more as she slid down the couch a little. "Well it won't do me much good now, but I guess that doesn't matter much. It's not like I use it all that much you know?" Cass laughed.
"What do you mean?" Mark asked her.
"Well can't you just see it?" She said to both of them. "It's not like I've been to mass all that often lately. I mean I did mass over Easter last year, but that was 'cause of Gia." She laughed a little and Mark knew she was drunk and remembered they still hadn't eaten anything since lunch. Then he remembered the painkillers too.
"But can't you see it. Walk in, sit down." She did a messy version of crossing herself. "Forgive me father for I have sinned, it's been a really long, long time since my last confession. You better pull up a chair, this is gonna take awhile!" She laughed. "Oh yeah, that would be good. Me going back to confession after everything I've been doing over the years." She laughed another soft, drunken laugh.
Roger knew she was upset. "You?" He smiled at her. "What about me? The closest I've come to a Hail Mary in probably 15 years is a Giants game on TV. Forget the actual having sex and stuff, the impure thoughts alone thing would have me stuck in that stupid little booth for days! Not to mention everything else I could tell him. Wouldn't that be funny to watch the look on some old priest face during some of those stories?"
"Yeah, funny. We should do that someday."
"What?" Roger looked at her like she was not just drunk, but crazy too. "Go to confession? Are you nuts?"
"It might be fun, you know? Go terrorize a couple of priests. It's not like they didn't terrorize us as kids."
"I suppose that's true." Roger laughed at her.
"Is the vodka cold yet?"
"No not yet." Roger told her, glancing over at Mark.
"Oh. Where are those Oreo's? I'm hungry. Do you guys still want to go out to eat?"
"Um, you sure you're up for that Cass?" Mark asked her. He had a feeling if they even tried to get any food, Roger would be caring her again before they hit the front stoop.
"Of course I'm up for that. I might just need another one of those painkillers for my arm first."
Roger looked at Mark, who had that worried mother hen look on his face. Out of Cass' line of vision he shook his head at Mark. "You just took one before when we were in the kitchen. Give it a little more time to kick in. Why don't we eat something first?"
"Okay, how about Oreo's?"
"How about the burritos instead?" Mark asked. "I'll go down to Jen's and heat some up. I got vegetarian ones for you and beef and chicken for us." Mark stood up and handed Roger the TV remote. "I'll be back in a few minutes, okay?"
"Okay." She said as she slid the rest of the way down on the couch and rested her head in Roger's lap. He turned on the TV and started to play with her hair. "Maybe we'll go to dinner tomorrow night." She said as she closed her eyes.
"Yeah, maybe Cass." Roger told her as he stoked her hair. "Maybe."
******
Mark opened the apartment door and walked in with the plate of burritos. He sat them on the milk crate as he sat down on the couch next to Roger.
"Okay, I know I don't cook often, or ever actually, but since when does it take thirty minutes to nuke a couple of five minute burritos?" Roger asked as he picked up a burrito and one of the paper towels Mark had taken from Jen's kitchen.
"Burritos do only take about five minutes. It's Jen's need to know everything that is going on that takes the other twenty-five. Where's Cass?" Mark asked as he bit into one of the other burritos.
"After like ten minutes she was out cold so I put her in bed. She's out for the night."
"That's what I figured. Probably not the best idea letting her drink while taking painkillers. Plus all this other shit going on too."
"Probably not the best idea letting her drink or take the pain killers because of all this other shit going on."
"True."
"How many of those pills does she have left?"
"After today? Not that many. Maybe she should sort of run out a little early. I mean she's got no idea how many were in the bottle anyway."
"Yeah, that might be a good idea." Roger leaned back on the couch. "We sort of talked about some stuff today."
Mark stopped mid bite into his burrito. "What did she say?" He asked wide- eyed.
"Not much. She's really pissed at her dad. Says she doesn't care if she ever sees him again. She's pretty convinced he knew what was going on. That all of them had to of at least suspected something. She says she's never going back there again."
"Well, we'll never starve as long as she lives with us." Mark said as he finished his burrito, trying hard to find a good side. "You wanna split her burrito?"
"Sure."
"Did she freak out again?" He asked as he went to the kitchen for a knife.
"No, not really. She's gonna go see Elizabeth thought. Friday night I guess."
"Really? How did you convince her to go? What's the cover story so I know? You know I'm a lousy liar. Maybe you better keep me out of it. She'll smell fear and lies on me and either run the other way or gouge my eyes out to find out the truth." He cut the burrito, then pushed Roger's half toward him.
"There's no story. We're just going. I asked her to go see Elizabeth and she's going. I told Jason to call her, tell her we'd be by Friday night. I gotta bartend tomorrow."
"We?" Mark squeezed his burrito so hard at that statement half of it started to gush out the cut open end. "You're going with her? There? Willingly? And she's going? And she knows why you're going? She knows why we want her to see Elizabeth? And she's going? Willingly?"
"Jesus Mark you're making a mess." Roger handed him back the paper towel. "Yes I'm going. Let's not make a federal case out of it okay? And yes, I told her who and what Elizabeth is. She knows and I guess she's all right with it. I mean she's going."
"Wow. How did you do that? What did you say to her? When I brought up the Women Center she about bit my head off."
"I dunno." Roger was playing with the other half of the burrito on the plate. "I just asked her to go."
"That's it, you just asked her?"
"Uh huh. We were just talking."
"Uh huh?"
"And I told her she needed to talk to somebody other than the current two idiots she's been talking too. Somebody that had a clue as to what to do. Then I asked her to go see Elizabeth."
"That was it?" Mark was still amazed.
"Yeah, that was it." Roger took a bite out of his half of the burrito.
"Wow. That never would have worked for me. She would have gotten out of it. I know it. I can't believe I've known her all these years and you met her, what, five days ago and you manage to pull that off. How did you do that? What's wrong?" Mark stopped when he saw the look on Roger's face.
"What is this?" Roger asked with a mouthful of food then swallowed hard.
"A burrito."
"I know that, but what kind?"
Mark started to laugh. "Well, it's the one I made for Cass. It's tofu." He kept laughing.
"Oh." Roger paused and looked at it for a second. "I guess it's okay, now that I know what it is. Does she always eat like this?"
"Buddy wait till you see. It's amazing. By the end of that summer I was eating meatless everything with a side of hippie style health food stuff. Of course that was just to off set the coffee, bagels, ice cream and alcohol. But everything came with stuff like soybeans and sprouts. I still can't believe she got me to eat some of that stuff."
"Not to mention running." Roger laughed at him.
"Yeah, running too. I don't know how she does it. She just gets to you, you know?"
"Mark," he gave him a dah-ha look. "I'm sitting here eating a tofu burrito. Trust me, I've noticed." Roger laughed as he finished the rest of his dinner.
Mark laughed again. "I still can't believe you got the only person I know who is at least, if not more stubborn than you, to agree to something I know she doesn't want to do."
"Yeah well, we were just talking about it and I asked her to go. That's what we were doing on the couch. Talking."
"Right." Mark grinned at him. "Sure you were."
"We were!" Roger could feel his neck getting hot. "Really. That's all we were doing. Just talking."
"Give me a break. I've known you way too long to believe that. You've never 'just talked' with any girl on a couch, in the dark, since you were like twelve."
"Give me a break asshole, that's not true." Roger laughed.
"Trust me, I lived vicariously through your life from like fourth grade on with that stuff. That's true. And I've been on a couch in the dark with this girl in particular." Mark gave Roger the hugest grin. "So no, I don't believe you."
"Well it's the truth. I'm not saying I wouldn't mind," Roger cracked a grin, "but now is not the time Jerkoff. Show a little sensitivity. There's a lot of issues involved. On both sides."
"Okay, maybe I believe you, but only because of that part. If it wasn't for that, forget it, not for a second."
"Yeah well, I haven't touched her."
"Yet." Mark felt the need to add.
"Drop it Mark." Roger was starting to get annoyed and started channel surfing as Mark started straitening up the stuff that had come out of Cass' box. "Hey, is that those pictures? The ones of her and Giavanna?" He asked Mark.
"Yeah."
Roger reached at the envelope, but Mark grabbed it first and held it back out of his reach.
"You want to know if there's any of her on that topless beach!" Mark teased him. "You pig! I thought you had issues?"
"I got issues, but I'm not dead yet!" With that Roger dove at Mark and wrestled the pictures out of his hand.
Roger put the boxes on the floor in the living room, one in front of the chair and one next to it by the couch. He sat next to the one by the couch and Cass sat right next to him. Mark walked in with three beers and sat in the chair.
"You want me to open them Cass?" Mark asked as he handed them their beers.
"Yes, go ahead." She said as she pulled her knees up under her chin.
Mark opened the first box and pulled out a piece of paper from the top of the box. "It's a note from Giavanna." He looked at her.
"Well go ahead and read it." Cass shrugged.
Mark looked down at the note. "Cass, I did the best I could, but most of the clothes you had here just weren't salvageable. I'm real sorry. It was either covered in paint, soaked and stained form the case of wine, or just ripped up. I didn't bother to send it if it was trashed. Plus some of it just reeked of wine. I was afraid it would stink up what was left." Mark looked at Cass. She just sat there on the couch listening to him, but expressionless. "Your suitcases were all cut up. I think he used the utility knife we were using the other night to cut open the boxes.
"Unfortunately your new leather jacket was destroyed. Along with those boots we just got in Venice."
"Now that's just cruel. That was the greatest jacket. And great boots. I didn't even get to wear either of them. Maybe my skirt made it."
"Um," Mark continued, "I don't think so Cass. She goes on to say your skirt got a big slice in it."
Cass just shrugged and let out a sigh.
Mark kept reading. "It hurts to say, but your channel five wound up against the wall I think."
"What?" Roger asked him.
Cass let out a small laugh. "That's Chanel #5 Mark. It's perfume."
"Oh." He went back to the letter. "I put your jewelry in a envelope. Your necklace was busted, and I haven't been able to find your mom's cross yet. I'm real sorry Cass. Hopefully it will turn up when the villa is cleaned up. If I find it, I'll send it right out to you."
Roger looked at Cass. He could see tears welling up in her eyes. He silently reached over and took her hand and squeezed it.
"I found your glasses. I think they got stepped on. Bother lenses were busted along with the frames, so I just threw them out." Mark stopped reading and looked up at her. "Well at least you know you need new ones now. I love you Cass, you know that. And I'd do anything for you, but we gotta get you glasses soon. This sharing mine thing is making me crazy." He gave her a weak smile.
"Yeah Cass, Mark will do anything for you except let you wear his glasses." Roger gave Mark a playful but evil grin. "Oh and buy you cigarettes."
She laughed a little and that was Roger's goal. "You two are two much. Does it say anything else?"
"Yeah, here's the last part." Mark began to read again. "I did the best I could Cass, really. I'm sorry about all of it. I'm so glad you're okay. Call me if you need anything. Anything at all.
"I also figured you could use it more than my brother, so I sent you a little surprise. Also a big one in the other box. Don't worry I charged all of it to the company. Love you, Gia."
Cass got a small smile on her face. "Well at least tonight won't be a total loss."
"What do you mean?" Mark asked her.
"It means get me three shot glasses. You are about to have the smoothest, most incredible Norwegian Vodka that ever came out of a tiny little distillery ever. Gia had gotten this one for her brother, but we had a bottle of it once before. It's really good. And very hard to find. Even in Norway."
Mark set the glasses down as Roger started to pull the fist few things out of the box. The Vodka was wrapped up in a shirt.
"Well don't just look at it," Cass told him, "pour it and let's get drunk."
Roger poured three shots and handed one to her and one to Mark. Without waiting on them, Cass raised it, drank it back and slammed her shot glass down on the milk crate table. Roger followed her and with a moment's hesitation, so did Mark.
"Told you it was good." She said as she poured another round. "What else is in the box?" She asked Mark as she threw her second shot back.
"Um," Mark began, "looks like some more clothes." He pulled things out and showed her things a few at a time. She told him what to keep and what to toss as he held stuff out for her to see.
"Here's some CD's, looks like some are computer CD's and some are music. Some more regular computer disks. Some computer wires and stuff. Here's a bunch of pictures in this envelope." He handed them to Roger to hand to her, but he started looking at hem first.
"Is that you?" Roger asked Cass.
"Yes. And Gia. We were on the Riviera. That was over last Christmas."
"Nice." Roger said as he showed the picture to Mark.
"Wow. Is that Giavanna? She's gorgeous."
"Yes she is. But she knows it too. Gets annoying sometimes."
"Holy shit Cass, is this on as topless beach?" Roger asked her.
"Let me see!" Mark grabbed at the pictures.
"What are you two, twelve or something?" She poured a third shot for herself and Roger. "Yes it's a topless beach, it's the French Riviera. We've gone there for Christmas the last three years." She threw back her shot and hit the table with her glass again. "What else is in the box?" She tried to get Mark back on track.
"A bunch of papers. Some folders. One says research. This one says 'Invs. Prop.' It looks like it sat in a wine puddle, but she dried it out."
"Toss it. I was thinking about investing in some property. Tax reasons. I was looking into some stuff in Italy. Not now!" She drank back her forth shot.
"There are a couple of books."
"Well at least I've got something to read."
"Here's another picture." Mark said as he pulled two small framed pictures out of a shirt it was wrapped up in.
"That's my mother. That other one is the two of us, on her birthday. About a month before she died."
"Wow, you really do look a lot like her, you know Cass?" Mark said to her as he sat the two frames on the table next to his untouched second shot.
"You really do." Roger added.
"So I've been told. What else?"
"Um, some more papers, an address book and I think this must be your jewelry in this envelope. Here's another envelope. Must be more jewelry." He set the two envelopes on the floor beside him.
"What does it say on that one?" Roger asked.
"What? Oh," Mark said as he turned it over. "It says 'Cass, I'm sorry. I tied off the ends so no more beads fall off, but I can't find them all. If they turn up I'll send them, but I'm afraid they rolled into the floor vent'."
Mark could tell she was unsure of what was in the envelope, but he could also tell she was getting drunk at this point. "Do you want me to open it?"
Cass nodded as she poured a fifth shot for herself. Mark's second and Roger's fourth shots still sat untouched.
"I think it's a bracelet or part of one, with a cross on it." Mark carefully pulled out of the envelope a string of soft pink colored beads with a silver cross attached. "Some of the loose beads are in the envelope."
Roger grinned at Mark and let out a small laugh. "It's not a braclet dummy, it's a rosary."
"Oh. Like I'm supposed to know that." Mark said at Roger as he handed the beads to Cass.
"It was my mom's." She told them as she looked at what was left of the rosary. "It's rose quartz. She always loved pink. She got it on her first communion from my grandparents. She gave it to me on mine. It's from the Vatican. My grandparents got it for her there. It had been blessed by the Pope. Guess it didn't do it much good." She shrugged, but was still holding the rosary in her left hand. "It was a really big deal to my mom though." She was starting to slur a little as she handed Roger his drink from before and she drank back her fifth shot.
Roger drank his shot and then put the cap on the vodka bottle. He handed the bottle to Mark. "Go put that in the freezer, it will be better cold."
Mark got the hint and took the bottle to the kitchen as Cass continued. "Yeah, she used to drag me with her every week while she went to confession. Didn't matter where we were, we still went to confession. And mass. Sometimes twice a week. I could always tell when she and Carlton or she and Andre were fighting. It meant back to confession for the second time that week.
"She always had that Rosary with her till she gave it to me." She shrugged again, still holding onto the rosary tightly.
Roger was watching her and he saw her notice Mark's till untouched shot. Before she moved for it, he reached over and picked it up. "You don't want this right Marky?" Roger swallowed it before Mark could answer or Cass could say anything about it.
She leaned into Roger a little more as she slid down the couch a little. "Well it won't do me much good now, but I guess that doesn't matter much. It's not like I use it all that much you know?" Cass laughed.
"What do you mean?" Mark asked her.
"Well can't you just see it?" She said to both of them. "It's not like I've been to mass all that often lately. I mean I did mass over Easter last year, but that was 'cause of Gia." She laughed a little and Mark knew she was drunk and remembered they still hadn't eaten anything since lunch. Then he remembered the painkillers too.
"But can't you see it. Walk in, sit down." She did a messy version of crossing herself. "Forgive me father for I have sinned, it's been a really long, long time since my last confession. You better pull up a chair, this is gonna take awhile!" She laughed. "Oh yeah, that would be good. Me going back to confession after everything I've been doing over the years." She laughed another soft, drunken laugh.
Roger knew she was upset. "You?" He smiled at her. "What about me? The closest I've come to a Hail Mary in probably 15 years is a Giants game on TV. Forget the actual having sex and stuff, the impure thoughts alone thing would have me stuck in that stupid little booth for days! Not to mention everything else I could tell him. Wouldn't that be funny to watch the look on some old priest face during some of those stories?"
"Yeah, funny. We should do that someday."
"What?" Roger looked at her like she was not just drunk, but crazy too. "Go to confession? Are you nuts?"
"It might be fun, you know? Go terrorize a couple of priests. It's not like they didn't terrorize us as kids."
"I suppose that's true." Roger laughed at her.
"Is the vodka cold yet?"
"No not yet." Roger told her, glancing over at Mark.
"Oh. Where are those Oreo's? I'm hungry. Do you guys still want to go out to eat?"
"Um, you sure you're up for that Cass?" Mark asked her. He had a feeling if they even tried to get any food, Roger would be caring her again before they hit the front stoop.
"Of course I'm up for that. I might just need another one of those painkillers for my arm first."
Roger looked at Mark, who had that worried mother hen look on his face. Out of Cass' line of vision he shook his head at Mark. "You just took one before when we were in the kitchen. Give it a little more time to kick in. Why don't we eat something first?"
"Okay, how about Oreo's?"
"How about the burritos instead?" Mark asked. "I'll go down to Jen's and heat some up. I got vegetarian ones for you and beef and chicken for us." Mark stood up and handed Roger the TV remote. "I'll be back in a few minutes, okay?"
"Okay." She said as she slid the rest of the way down on the couch and rested her head in Roger's lap. He turned on the TV and started to play with her hair. "Maybe we'll go to dinner tomorrow night." She said as she closed her eyes.
"Yeah, maybe Cass." Roger told her as he stoked her hair. "Maybe."
******
Mark opened the apartment door and walked in with the plate of burritos. He sat them on the milk crate as he sat down on the couch next to Roger.
"Okay, I know I don't cook often, or ever actually, but since when does it take thirty minutes to nuke a couple of five minute burritos?" Roger asked as he picked up a burrito and one of the paper towels Mark had taken from Jen's kitchen.
"Burritos do only take about five minutes. It's Jen's need to know everything that is going on that takes the other twenty-five. Where's Cass?" Mark asked as he bit into one of the other burritos.
"After like ten minutes she was out cold so I put her in bed. She's out for the night."
"That's what I figured. Probably not the best idea letting her drink while taking painkillers. Plus all this other shit going on too."
"Probably not the best idea letting her drink or take the pain killers because of all this other shit going on."
"True."
"How many of those pills does she have left?"
"After today? Not that many. Maybe she should sort of run out a little early. I mean she's got no idea how many were in the bottle anyway."
"Yeah, that might be a good idea." Roger leaned back on the couch. "We sort of talked about some stuff today."
Mark stopped mid bite into his burrito. "What did she say?" He asked wide- eyed.
"Not much. She's really pissed at her dad. Says she doesn't care if she ever sees him again. She's pretty convinced he knew what was going on. That all of them had to of at least suspected something. She says she's never going back there again."
"Well, we'll never starve as long as she lives with us." Mark said as he finished his burrito, trying hard to find a good side. "You wanna split her burrito?"
"Sure."
"Did she freak out again?" He asked as he went to the kitchen for a knife.
"No, not really. She's gonna go see Elizabeth thought. Friday night I guess."
"Really? How did you convince her to go? What's the cover story so I know? You know I'm a lousy liar. Maybe you better keep me out of it. She'll smell fear and lies on me and either run the other way or gouge my eyes out to find out the truth." He cut the burrito, then pushed Roger's half toward him.
"There's no story. We're just going. I asked her to go see Elizabeth and she's going. I told Jason to call her, tell her we'd be by Friday night. I gotta bartend tomorrow."
"We?" Mark squeezed his burrito so hard at that statement half of it started to gush out the cut open end. "You're going with her? There? Willingly? And she's going? And she knows why you're going? She knows why we want her to see Elizabeth? And she's going? Willingly?"
"Jesus Mark you're making a mess." Roger handed him back the paper towel. "Yes I'm going. Let's not make a federal case out of it okay? And yes, I told her who and what Elizabeth is. She knows and I guess she's all right with it. I mean she's going."
"Wow. How did you do that? What did you say to her? When I brought up the Women Center she about bit my head off."
"I dunno." Roger was playing with the other half of the burrito on the plate. "I just asked her to go."
"That's it, you just asked her?"
"Uh huh. We were just talking."
"Uh huh?"
"And I told her she needed to talk to somebody other than the current two idiots she's been talking too. Somebody that had a clue as to what to do. Then I asked her to go see Elizabeth."
"That was it?" Mark was still amazed.
"Yeah, that was it." Roger took a bite out of his half of the burrito.
"Wow. That never would have worked for me. She would have gotten out of it. I know it. I can't believe I've known her all these years and you met her, what, five days ago and you manage to pull that off. How did you do that? What's wrong?" Mark stopped when he saw the look on Roger's face.
"What is this?" Roger asked with a mouthful of food then swallowed hard.
"A burrito."
"I know that, but what kind?"
Mark started to laugh. "Well, it's the one I made for Cass. It's tofu." He kept laughing.
"Oh." Roger paused and looked at it for a second. "I guess it's okay, now that I know what it is. Does she always eat like this?"
"Buddy wait till you see. It's amazing. By the end of that summer I was eating meatless everything with a side of hippie style health food stuff. Of course that was just to off set the coffee, bagels, ice cream and alcohol. But everything came with stuff like soybeans and sprouts. I still can't believe she got me to eat some of that stuff."
"Not to mention running." Roger laughed at him.
"Yeah, running too. I don't know how she does it. She just gets to you, you know?"
"Mark," he gave him a dah-ha look. "I'm sitting here eating a tofu burrito. Trust me, I've noticed." Roger laughed as he finished the rest of his dinner.
Mark laughed again. "I still can't believe you got the only person I know who is at least, if not more stubborn than you, to agree to something I know she doesn't want to do."
"Yeah well, we were just talking about it and I asked her to go. That's what we were doing on the couch. Talking."
"Right." Mark grinned at him. "Sure you were."
"We were!" Roger could feel his neck getting hot. "Really. That's all we were doing. Just talking."
"Give me a break. I've known you way too long to believe that. You've never 'just talked' with any girl on a couch, in the dark, since you were like twelve."
"Give me a break asshole, that's not true." Roger laughed.
"Trust me, I lived vicariously through your life from like fourth grade on with that stuff. That's true. And I've been on a couch in the dark with this girl in particular." Mark gave Roger the hugest grin. "So no, I don't believe you."
"Well it's the truth. I'm not saying I wouldn't mind," Roger cracked a grin, "but now is not the time Jerkoff. Show a little sensitivity. There's a lot of issues involved. On both sides."
"Okay, maybe I believe you, but only because of that part. If it wasn't for that, forget it, not for a second."
"Yeah well, I haven't touched her."
"Yet." Mark felt the need to add.
"Drop it Mark." Roger was starting to get annoyed and started channel surfing as Mark started straitening up the stuff that had come out of Cass' box. "Hey, is that those pictures? The ones of her and Giavanna?" He asked Mark.
"Yeah."
Roger reached at the envelope, but Mark grabbed it first and held it back out of his reach.
"You want to know if there's any of her on that topless beach!" Mark teased him. "You pig! I thought you had issues?"
"I got issues, but I'm not dead yet!" With that Roger dove at Mark and wrestled the pictures out of his hand.