Page 4 of Shattered Echoes

My lawyer left earlier that day because he had to be in another meeting. Miguel, still holding my hand, faced his manager and said, “You know, I didn’t think he was going to agree to this. I was terrified to have you reach out to him, seeing that I only make pop music. I thought he’d be picky with the kinds of artists he collaborates with.”

“Exactly,” the manager concurred.

The corners of my mouth upturned in a smile. “I don’t discriminate on any music genre. I appreciate it all. Truth is, I was still going to work with you. I’ve had it in mind for a while.” The shock on both their faces told me they couldn’t believe their ears.

And just as we were still speaking, I spotted this cute girl. She had this long, bleached-white hair that flowed to the half of her back.

Her eyes shone so brightly. They were almost purple, and I had never seen that shade of eye color before. I thought she was possibly wearing contacts. She was petite–one of the tiniest girls I’d ever met, and that made her super adorable. She looked like a dream. A fairytale. At that moment, I wondered what she was doing there. I thought she may have been a pop star too. She looked the part.

“Hi!” she greeted when she walked up to us.

I couldn't even utter a word in reply, my eyes never leaving her face.

She turned to the manager. “I wanted to tell you that my producer was looking for you.”

“I’ll be right there,” he replied in dismissal.

She made to walk away but looked over at me, and that's when I saw the interest in her gaze as she looked me up and down slowly.

I smirked at that realization. Who would want to give up this flipping gorgeous woman? She looked like she could be a lot of fun, too. So, why not?

“Hey,” she said, looking directly at me.

“Hey! I'm Antonio,” I said in response.

“Call me Cassie.” She smiled warmly.

——

My mind also drifts back to the first time I dealt with abuse from her. We’d been together for about four months.

I walked into the gym with my girl, Cassie, holding hands reassuringly. We walked straight down to the exercise area as I set down our gym bags and water bottles. I helped her get the dumbbell she wanted to start with. I began with my stretches. We both then focused on our workouts.

About an hour into the workout session, I took a water break, and by my side was a lady who was struggling to place her weight on the rack after several reps.

“Let me give you a hand,” I said to her and quickly helped her place the barbell in its rack.

“Thank you,” she mouthed as she got up.

I gave her a small nod of acknowledgment and strolled back to my workspace. My eyes met Cassie’s, shooting daggers. I couldn't possibly understand what was wrong. She didn't say a single word to me for the rest of the session, no matter how I engaged her.

But then we got home, and all hell broke loose. She was screaming at the top of her lungs, “You're a cheat. You're a fucking cheater!”

I had never been so confused in my life as I was at that moment.

“You think I didn't notice? You think I didn't see the way you were looking at that girl?”

“What? What girl?” My countenance shifted from that of confusion to frustration, because what did she even mean?

“Don’t treat me like a fucking child! I saw what you did there!” she screamed, throwing a vase in my direction. It missed my face by a millisecond and shattered when it hit the wall.

“Cassie! What the hell? What's the matter with you?” My heart was pounding against my chest for narrowly escaping that one.

“I didn't do shit with that girl. Hell, I don't even know her name. I only helped her with the weight. Damn it!” I explained as realization dawned on me.

But I'm still beyond shocked because I had never seen Cassie this angry before in the four months we’d been together. Granted, she'd been clingier in recent times, but I chalked it down to her just being her normal possessive self.

I even thought it was cute having her want to be around me all the time. But this…? This is insane. We'd had countless quarrels like this one, but none had ever started throwing things.

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