Author's note: For this chapter I have switched to omniscient narrator. All characters will be referred to by their correct names.
Jacob and Cassandra's date wasn't really going well. But each was so wrapped up in their own guilt, pain and sadness that they didn't really notice that the other was so quiet. Their kisses were sad and they clung to each other's hands when they walked.
Finally Jacob had noticed Cassandra hadn't said a word in about twenty minutes and had mostly moved the food around on her plate.
"Don't like it?" He asked softly. If he was honest, he hadn't tasted a bite of his own food nor was he even sure what he'd ordered.
"I thought it would be better." She shrugged. "I had a big lunch. Why don't we just go?"
He nodded, it was time to just rip that band aid off. The Uber ride back to their building was quiet and they stood in the lobby not quite sure what to do.
"Coffee?" Cassandra asked, tilting her head toward the staircase. It would be easier to tell him all of this in her apartment, no roommates to make things awkward.
He took a deep breath and nodded. Her apartment was the better choice. Jones and Flynn wouldn't be wandering in at a bad moment. He knew what he had to tell her was going to upset her and she didn't need witnesses.
That is if he had the guts to tell her.
And as Cassandra walked ahead of him, she was thinking the same thing. If she didn't chicken out.
Entering her apartment, she hung her coat on the rack just inside and Jacob did the same thing.
They turned and looked at each other, both of them not quite sure what to say. But then Jacob stopped and tilted his head.
"Do you hear something?"
Cassandra blinked, she heard it too. Giggling? Oh no, she was not . . . .Cassandra realized her dead bolt hadn't been set. That meant . . . Eve!
"She seriously . . . ." Cassandra stormed off in the direction of the noise, which was coming from her kitchen. Jacob following closely behind.
Cassandra had been filled with a variety of emotions tonight: pain, heartbreak, guilt and a lingering resentment of Eve and the man she thought was Jacob. And as she got closer to her kitchen and saw Eve's shirt on the floor, that resentment grew stronger.
Then she saw what was going on in her kitchen. Chocolate syrup and what looked like brownie batter were everywhere. Including all over the shirtless couple on the kitchen island who were still kissing oblivious to the fact that they had company. Behind her, Jacob bit back a laugh but Cassandra let her emotions switch from grief to full blown rage. How dare they in her kitchen?
Eve heard the laugh and opened her eyes, shrieking when she realized that she was not alone and only in her bra. She shoved Flynn and they both tumbled to the other side of the island.
"What the hell? I mean what the actual hell?" Cassandra was shouting. "My kitchen!"
"We. . . um. . . were making brownies," Eve said, peeking over the top of the island, the man with her doing the same.
"Making brownies? Is that what you call that? And you had the nerve to give me a lecture about sleeping with Flynn? Have you absolutely no shame either of you? I mean seriously Eve, my kitchen!"
Cassandra was so upset that she totally forgot about the farce. And Jacob, finally putting two and two together, was frozen in place, staring at her mouth open in shock.
Eve started motioning to Cassandra that she'd just blown it but Cassandra kept ranting. Finally she trailed off on a note about not cleaning up this mess.
That's when Flynn, blinking, said, "I thought you were Eve."
Cassandra blinked, horror crossing her features when she realized what she'd done.
Eve cleared her throat. "Enough with this shit. I'm Eve Baird and she's Cassandra Cillian. We switched, it's a long story."
Instead of looking upset, Flynn beamed at her. "Splendid! We switched too! I'm Flynn Carsen and he's Jacob Stone!"
"Seriously?" Eve said turning to look at him.
And Cassandra burst into tears and fled the room. Jacob was still frozen in place, staring after her.
"Oh for god's sake, Jacob or whoever the hell you are. Go after her!" Eve yelled, finally breaking Jacob from his spell and he tore off after Cassandra.
After Jacob rushed out of the room, Eve was left to stare at Flynn. "So you're Flynn and she's been with Jacob the whole time . . .well I'll be damned."
Flynn beamed. "And you're Eve and I have to say that it suits you far better."
Eve laughed, "nice to meet you Flynn."
"Same here, Eve."
And then he kissed her.
Jacob caught up with Cassandra in the hallway where she was leaning against the railing of the staircase, sobbing.
"Eve . . ." Jacob shook his head. "Cassandra, please look at me."
Her voice was very small. "I'm not sure what to do."
Jacob nodded. "I know, I don't know whether to laugh or cry myself. But you're Cassandra, my Cassandra and you always have been." His voice was full of wonder.
"And you're Jacob." Cassandra sniffled, finally raising her head.
"Your Jacob," he said, reaching out and putting a hand on her arm. She didn't resist as he slid the hand down to take her hand in his. "Come down to my place, I don't want to have this talk in the stairwell."
She nodded and followed him, their hands still entwined. And for once in this miserable day, they both thought maybe it would be okay after all.
Jacob lead her into his room, closing and locking the door behind him. That last thing he needed was Jones coming home if they talked in the living room. He'd dreamed about having Eve . . .Cassandra here in this room, but it wasn't exactly how he'd pictured it.
Cassandra was standing in the middle of the room, arms crossed, hugging herself. He walked closer, putting one hand on her crossed arms.
"Why?" He whispered. "You are so beautiful, why would you . . . ."
"I made a mistake," Cassandra sniffled. "I accidentally clicked on the wrong photo. And before I could tell you I made a mistake, you were going on about my golden beauty!"
"Oh God," Jacob started to laugh though his laughter had an edge of hysteria. "I was so intimidated by that photo!"
"Really?" And Cassandra was laughing too, with that same touch of hysteria. "Is that why?"
He nodded. "Eve is . .. she's stunning, yes. But she's so . . . ."
"She's very nice," Cassandra defended her friend. "But I could see why she might be a little intimidating."
"I panicked," Jacob ran his free hand through his hair, leaving the other on Cassandra's arms. "She's not my type. But she is Flynn's. And I kinda thought maybe he might be hers too. So I used his photo."
"You weren't wrong . . . I mean about them being obviously each other's types. He's not mine."
"Yeah?"
She nodded, this time smiling and lowering her arms. His hand fell away but as she stepped forward, he put his hand on her waist and she put her arms around his neck.
"You're my type, Jacob Stone. And you always were. Why didn't I know?"
He chuckled moving his other hand to her waist and pulled her tighter. "We did. We always knew. I cared nothing for her. I mean I felt bad about potentially hurting her because she cares so much for you and for Flynn. But you, it was always you for me."
She nodded. "I felt the same way. Nothing at all for him beyond thinking he was sweet and feeling bad for hurting him because he's your friend and Eve likes him so much. But I knew you, I always knew you."
"I was going to tell you tonight," he sighed. "I was afraid you'd hate me."
"Same," Cassandra said. "Exactly the same. I'm surprised you're not angry. I'm surprised I'm not angry. I just feel relief."
"I can't . . .I can't be angry at you for doing what I did. I still kinda hate myself for putting us through this. But I can't . . . I love you, Cassandra. I was going to tell you that too."
"Oh, Jacob," she whispered his name like a prayer. "I love you too. I was going to tell you that too."
He leaned down and kissed her. His kisses usually made her forget everything but the feeling of him surrounding her. But this time it was different, it was if she was finally complete. There were no lies between them anymore. She was Cassandra and he was Jacob. All of the guilt and the pain she'd carried around for so long fell away and she was able to give him everything she was.
Kissing her just wasn't enough for him, not in that moment. He pulled her closer and without really thinking about it, his hand was working the zipper on the back of her dress.
She broke away from the kiss, short of breath.
"The other night, the only reason I stopped . . . ."
"Was because I called you Flynn," Cassandra realized.
"Everything else I said was true though. I usually don't move this fast. But," he reached a hand out to stroke her cheek. "This is so much more than want. I need you."
She nodded and the hand that had stilled on her zipper finished pulling. She started working the buttons on his shirt and whispered, "make love to me, Jacob."
Sometime later, he was drawing circles absently on her bare arm as they lay entwined on his bed. Neither was really inclined to move from the circle of each others' arms now that they'd given everything to each other.
But Cassandra finally giggled when her stomach growled.
Jacob laughed. "You didn't eat dinner."
She shook her head, "no. And I'm hungry."
Jacob bit his lip in thought. "I honestly don't know what I have in my kitchen."
"Kitchen . . ." Suddenly Cassandra's eyes went wide as she remembered what had happened that evening. "My kitchen!"
"What?" Jacob looked confused as Cassandra sat up suddenly , pushing out of his arms and off the bed, looking around the floor for her clothes. "What about your kitchen . . . . Ohhh."
"Yes! We left them. There in my kitchen. Doing God knows what." Cassandra made a face and shuddered. "Probably what we were doing. On my kitchen island. Oh God."
"Cassie," and Jacob smiled, deciding that was even better than the Evie nickname. "Sweetheart, calm down. I know Flynn and he's not gonna do that in your place."
Cassandra shot him a look. "They were already halfway there!"
"I'm sure they got carried away. They probably talked and then cleaned up the mess they made. But tell you what, we'll get dressed and we'll go up and check."
Cassandra nodded and then leaned over and kissed him tenderly. "Thank you."
Jacob had managed to calm Cassandra down from most of her hysteria about the state of her kitchen before they emerged from his bedroom.
They weren't alone in the apartment, Ezekiel was sitting on the couch his laptop open.
"Oh, hello Ezekiel," Cassandra said awkwardly.
Jacob cleared his throat. "We were just . . . ."
"Oh, I know what you were doing, you might wanna keep it down just a notch there, uh Flynn."
Cassandra blushed very red. Jacob groaned. "You can drop it, Jones. The girls know who we are."
"Oh, good!" Ezekiel said. "I was getting sick of playing who's who. And you know that she's . . . ."
Stone had been about to share the fact that the girls switched and now he circled to the front of the sofa. "That she's what?"
"Not Eve? Come on, mate. How the hell slow are you?"
Stone's face flushed with anger. "What?"
Ezekiel looked over to a blushing and confused Cassandra. "You did tell him right?"
"Yes, tonight. But how . . . ."
"You people are adorable. Seriously? Have none of you ever heard of the Internet?" Ezekiel had been typing while he was talking and turned his laptop around. To display Cassandra's Linked In account. Which included her photo.
"And Eve Baird? The pr director of a major museum? She has photos all over the net. Social media, newspaper articles, the website of the museum. Wow."
Stone was red, but Cassandra knew it wasn't from blushing. "You knew this whole time?"
"Yeah, pretty much. It wasn't difficult."
"And you didn't think to tell me?"
"Hey, hey, what are you getting mad at me for? It wasn't any of my business. You were the ones played this stupid game not me. I have to say it was highly entertaining wondering how long you all could keep this up . . . ."
"Jones, I swear to God, I am going to . . . ." Cassandra laid a hand on Jacob's arm, stopping him in mid sentence. She started laughing.
He looked at her sideways and something about the look on her face calmed him.
"We're the idiots, Jacob." She shook her head, rolling her eyes. "I think we just need to laugh. And find out what happened in my kitchen."
"Why do I have a feeling I don't want to know what happened in your kitchen?" Ezekiel asked as Flynn opened the door, his hand in Eve's.
"It's fine, all spic and span." Flynn grinned. "Oh hello Jones. Did you know the girls switched too? Isn't that fascinating?"
Ezekiel looked at both couples, slammed his laptop shut. "I am surrounded by idiots." And stomped off to his room.
"What's his deal?" Eve asked.
"Don't ask," Jacob added. "So her kitchen is clean? She's been a little freaked out."
Eve nodded. "We cleaned it all up. I am so sorry Cassandra. We got carried away. We really had planned on making going away brownies for everyone . . . ." And then Eve's face fell. "You're still leaving."
Jacob put his arm around Cassandra. He was coming back, but Flynn had already put in for Boston.
Flynn turned to Eve. "Did I ever tell you I love traveling?"
And Eve threw her arms around him and kissed him.
Jacob and Cassandra exchanged smiles and he pulled her in for a hug, kissing her forehead.
When Eve broke away from Flynn, she looked at the other couple. "So you guys are good?"
"Wonderful," Cassandra said.
"So I was thinking," Eve laughed. "Out for going away cheesecake?"
"Oooh," Cassandra said grabbing Jacob's hand. "Now you're speaking my language."
The End
Thank you so much for being patient when the story got away from me and I ended up having to wrap it up after Christmas. I hope you had a wonderful holiday season! Comments and reviews would make my day.