Page 41 of Cass

“Memorial Day?” She turns to me. “That was over six months ago. How long has this been going on?”

I take a deep breath. “Since Thanksgiving…”

“That’s not so bad.”

“Two years ago.”

Darian screams, “Two years ago? This whole time? Nearly the entire time I’ve been with Jackson?”

I shamefully nod. “Except when he was in New York City. Nothing went on while he was gone.”

She runs her hands through her hair. “Oh my god.” She starts pacing as her wheels start turning. “So,you’rethe woman he didn’t want to leave to go to New York?”

“Yes, but I wouldn’t allow that to happen. I pushed him away so that he would go. I knew it was his dream. I wanted him to go. I begged him to go.”

“That’s why we all of a sudden met Dennis the giant, and that’s why Trevor had a meltdown that day?”

I shamefully nod. “Yes.”

“And last week, when you told me you met someone you can never have because his family and society wouldn’t accept it, you were referring to Trevor?”

I quietly nod again.

“Well, you were right about that.”

“You told me not to care about what other people thought.”

“At the time, I didn’t know it was my stepson who was sticking his dick into you.” I cringe at her crassness.

Reagan is still smiling. “So, how is said dick? How’s the sex?”

Darian narrows her eyes at Reagan. “Not now. You’re not helping.”

She turns to me. “Explain this to me? How did the untamable Cassandra Blackstone find herself in this position?”

“Look, Dare, it honestly just started off as some harmless fun. We were occasionally fooling around. Nothing serious. A night here, a night there, when each of us were lonely, in Mexico…”

Reagan starts laughing. “Holy shit. Trevor told us that he had the hottest sex of his life in a guard tower on the beach in Mexico. That was you, wasn’t it?”

I bite my lip to stifle my smile. She bursts out laughing.

“He said it was the hottest sex of his life?”

Darian looks like her head is going to explode. “Are we seriously talking about this right now?”

I shake my head a few times. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“Can you please continue with this story?”

“Yes. So like I was saying, it was harmless fun. I don’t know how to articulate it other than to say we’re kindred spirits.”

I hold up my hands before she can interrupt. “Obviously I know there’s a huge age difference, but we really do have a lot in common. There was never any conversation about being in a relationship. We weren’t in one. I just eventually sort of stopped wanting to see anyone else, and the same thing happened for him. But when he said he wasn’t going to New York, I put an end to it. I hurt him, but I ended it.”

Darian is deep in thought. “I remember him being hurt. Why didn’t you ever tell me? Aren’t we best friends? We don’t have secrets like this?”

“It wasn’t about you, Dare. It was about Jackson. I didn’t want to ask you to keep anything from him, and in the past, there was never any reason for him to know.”

She gulps. “Until now?”

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