Page 18 of Fall
"Yes, that Steven. Can you believe he had the audacity to keep messaging me? Read this crap. Wait, let me scroll backso you can read the message trail from back before the afternoon he dumped me."
“How about you read it to us,” I tell her, grateful for the distraction.
"It reads… okay here's where it started." She takes a beat and clears her throat. Steven goes, ‘If you're not busy, I'm alone tonight. My parents are out, and my brother is leaving soon.' So I answer with, ‘I'm a little busy withmy girlfriends tonight. Sorry about that. But I'm looking forward to seeing you tomorrow at the Spring Carnival.' I was such an idiot. Anyway, the next day he goes, ‘I think we're looking for different things, Cassandra. We should start seeing other people.''
“That guy was such a fucking asshole,” I mutter, growing angry again for my friend. “Transparent and full of himself. I’m glad younever gave him another chance.”
"Well, he just texted me after all this time. Can you believe this shit? He must think I'm the most desperate girl in West Jersey. His message says, ‘Wanna hang out?'"
“What a dumbass,” Tammy Lou says. “No apology, nohow are you doing?”
Cassandra shakes her head. “Not one damn word,” she answers, and starts to type something on her phone.
“Hey. What do you think you’re doing? Don’t reply, girl,” I tell her firmly. “Delete it. Or just block him. That son of a bitch doesn’t deserve a response.”
“He just sent another text. It says, ‘Do you want to play, babe?’”
"You're kidding me, right?" Tammy Lou shouts out in a giggle. "If he were standing here right now, I'd beat his ass."
“That’s a little extreme, don’tyou think?” she laughs out. “I mean, he’s still on my Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and we’re a match on that dating app I was telling you guys about. I think he was drafted into the NFL from Clemson U.”
"Come on, now," I say. "That boy is so not worth it."
“I know.”
“Listen to us,” Tammy Lou adds. “First of all, what dating app?”
“Subtly Singles.You know, with stresson thesubpart. It’s a dating site where subs meet doms and stuff.” Her head tilts to one side and her eyes narrow, her lips in a one-sided pout as though she’s trying to recollecting something. “Wait, did I mention I talked to this guy in one of their virtual dungeons who wanted to buy me for a night for something like fifty grand? Trust me, I now know where to go if I’m ever hard up for cash.”
“Where the hell do you find these things?” Tammy Lou muses through a giggle, shaking her head. “Anyway, on the subject of Steven, please don’t go all starry eyed-on him just because he might’ve signed a big, fat pro-football contract.”
Cassandra’s face goes soft. “But he’s so big and broad… and he has those perfect dimples I could never say no to.”
I’ve seen that look before.She’ll cave if we don’t stop her.
Tammy Lou takes a long sip of her iced tea then sets down the glass. "If it were me, I'd reply with something like, ‘Sure, I'll play with you, baby. Just meet me on the corner of screw you and go fuck yourself.' That motherfucker needs to get a grip."
“You’d better watch your language around Mr. Romano,” Cassandra warns her. “Right Natalia? Mr. Romano’sno joke.”
“I’d like to watch more than my language around your dad,” Tammy Lou confesses, her voice thick and teasingly suggestive.
"God, this again?" I whine, cupping my hands over my ear to make my point. She's been girl-crushing on my dad since we've been friends, and she's not given up yet. "First of all, yuck. He's my father. He's about to hit fifty, and he's way too old foryou."
“Bitch, please. He doesn’t look like fifty. I’d totally kick it with an older man. So experienced,” she teases.
“Shush. And second… did you hear me when I said he’s my dad? The answer is no, Tams. Just no.”
“But he’s so big and broad… and he has those perfect dimples I could never say no to,” she says, mimicking Cassandra’s words and high-pitched tone.
“Oh hellno. You realize my dad’s at home, right?” I remind her. “He could be standing on the other side of that door right now. What would you do if he walks in and hears you, huh?”
“I dunno,” she admits. “Fall into his arms...let him throw me over one shoulder and take me away caveman style… whatever he wants.”
“Your dadiskinda hot,” Cassandra says, adding fuel to Tammy Lou’s fire. “Butyour new bodyguard is way hotter. What’s his name again? Vino? Vito?”
“It’s Vinny. But on the subject of my dad... stop.”
“But he’s so manly… and big… and firm,” Tammy Lou goes at it again.
