“Weren't you just a little bit afraid he might fall for me?” Cassie eyed her carefully, and was pleased to see the older woman squirm at the question.
“Not really. We talked about it. You're really not his type, Cass.”
“Actually, given everything I know, I'd say that's a compliment.” Cassie looked at her coolly. And then she decided to deliver a small blow to the opponent. “You're not alone, you know. You're not the only one with an arrangement with Desmond.” She said it very confidently, and it was easy to see that she had made Nancy more than a little nervous. Her livelihood and her future depended on her “arrangement” with Desmond.
“What's that supposed to mean?”
‘There are others like you… with houses… with contracts… with arrangements… Desmond's not a man to be satisfied with one woman.” Cassie was rewarded with a look of terror.
‘That's ridiculous. Who told you that?”
“Someone who knows. He told me that there are quite a number of others. You know, kind of like a little competition.”
“I don't believe you.” But her words reeked of bravado.
“I didn't believe any of it, Nancy. I do now though. Nice to see you,” she smiled. “Say hello to Desmond.” And with that, she hurried back into the building. She didn't want anything to eat anymore. Nancy Firestone had ruined her appetite. She felt sick when she went back to find Billy in the hangar.
“Where's my dinner?” They both had to be in a meeting in less than half an hour, and he was starving.
“I ate it on the way back,” she quipped, but she was looking deathly pale. He noticed it immediately and was worried.
“You okay, Cass? You look like you've seen a ghost. Did someone call about your dad?”
“No, he's okay. I talked to my mother this morning.”
“So what happened?” She hesitated for a long moment, and then sat down in a chair, and told him about Nancy Firestone, and everything she'd told her.
‘That sonofabitch,” he commented through tightened lips. “He really plays quite a game, doesn't he? Too bad he has to go around ruining other people's lives. It would be nice if he stuck to his own kind.”
“I guess he does, at least some of the time.” Nancy Firestone had certainly not been the friend she'd thought her. “All I want to do after the tour is leave LA, and go home for a while. I think I've about done it here. This is a little racy for me.” She looked drained as she looked up at him and he nodded. He felt sorry for her, she didn't deserve this.
And for Cassie, it explained why they never made love anymore and why he'd never had any real interest in her after the honeymoon. He had just gone on seeing Nancy, and God only knew who else. Maybe she was lucky he hadn't bothered spending time in bed with her. Maybe she'd have felt worse now if they had. She suspected she would have. What she felt now was betrayed, and more than a little foolish. The worst part was that she had really believed him. The bastard.
“So what do we do now?” Billy asked, worried about her. He kept wondering if, because of Desmond's betrayal of her, she would throw in the towel, with or without a contract. But she didn't do things that way. She had every intention of finishing what she'd started. And Billy admired her for it.
“We finish the race, kid. That's what we came here for. The rest was all icing on the cake anyway.” And (or Cassie, for a while now, the cake had been poisoned. But nobody had ever called Cassie O'Malley a quitter.
“Good girl.” Billy gave her a hug, and took her out for a quick dinner. But she hardly touched it.
There was a press conference every week after that, and Desmond made a point of being friendly to her publicly. There was lots of bantering, some funny little stories about her, and a small show of affection. It was all very touching, if you didn't know what was really happening. And it was surprisingly believable, to anyone who didn't know them.
Cassie seemed more serious than previously, but that was easily explained by the pressures of the upcoming tour. She had an important task set before her. She was training hard, and Desmond reminded the press frequently that she had spent the entire summer taking care of her father.
“How's your dad, Cass?” one of the reporters asked her.
“He's doing great.” And then she thanked America for their gifts and cards and letters. “It really helped him. He's flying again, with a co-pilot now,” she said proudly. They ate it up. Just the way they ate everything Desmond had fed them. She knew the game now. And Billy marveled at how good at it she was when he watched her.
“You okay?” he asked her in an undertone after one of their press conferences. Desmond had been particularly nice to her, and Billy could see afterward that he had really upset her.
“Yeah. I'm okay,” she said, but he knew how hurt she was. And how betrayed she felt. She hated the hypocrisy of it, the pure sham of it. She had nightmares at night. And once from the next room, where he slept, he heard her crying.
