Page 33 of The Unlucky Waitress

Should I be happy about this? How could I be when even though I know I shouldn’t, Cassidy still ran through my mind from time to time?

I stopped going to the club, trying to give her some space. I want to talk to her, hear her laugh, see her, touch her, kiss her. I wonder if she thinks of me, what she thinks of me. It’s so maddening to be so out of control of how I feel yet sometimes it makes me smile to myself.

To think that people want to feel this way... God, what’s wrong with me?

It doesn't matter anyway, I convince myself, driving home. Whatever that was is over now. The resort isn’t happening and I don’t actually have to see Cassidy ever again, not that she’d want to see me.

Pulling into my driveway I think about the last time I saw her. I waited for her to scream and shout, maybe even try to hit me, but she didn't. Instead, she spoke in circles, pretending to understand. Days have gone by since then and I am certain the reality of the situation has set in. I have no doubt she hates me. It’s fair.

I unlock the door and walk in. The lights are on.

“Hello?” I call out to hear if there is someone in the house.

“Hi, Ethan,” Cassidy says, walking through my living room as if she somehow belonged there.

15

Cassidy

“Cassidy, how did you get in here? Why are you here?” Ethan asks, more confused than upset.

He looksaround as if to figure out how I had come in and it dawns on me how strange this must be for him, to find me in his home uninvited. But this couldn’t wait any longer, I had to see him, talk to him, at least try…

I have beensingle-mindedly thinking about what he had said the last time we saw each other since then, and I couldn’t wait to talk to him anymore. I had to see him, even if it meant coming into his home and waiting for him like a complete nut job.

He looks at me again,still confused, and I know he has thousands of questions going through his mind, but he isn’t going to ask any of them. He is waiting impatiently for me to explain myself.

“I needto talk to you, Ethan. You stopped coming to the club so I begged your driver to let me in,” I say, hoping he won’t ask me to leave.

Ethan shookhis head and paced the room. Looking back at me as if expecting me to disappear. No such luck. I’m really here.

“I wantto talk to you about what happened,” I start. “I just want to make sure you haven’t given up on your idea. The more I think about it the more I realize just how brilliant it is.”

I have been thinking about him every day. An hour didn't go by without him making his way into my thoughts and now here he is.

"Cassidy, I don't understand your obsession with this. I just really wish you'd let it go," Ethan says irritably.

He looks exhausted, drained and even as he argues, I can tell his conviction is worn.

"Think about it, Ethan, it works. It worked on me, I know it will work on many other people too," I plead.

Ethan stares at me for a moment then sits down across from me, his shoulders slouched forward and his hands in his hair.

"I don't get it," he says. "I don't get you. After everything that's happened. I thought you’d be furious," Ethan looks up at me. "But you're happy. You think this is great."

I nod my head and sigh, everything I've said before seems to have gone in one ear and out the other. Ethan still didn't get it.

"After everything I had been through, when I was with you I was happy again, which is really something," I explain. "It’s quite the gift if you ask me, to make someone happy, make them feel so good."

Ethan sighs and looks at me again in disbelief.

"You honestly think people will be lined up to be manipulated and tricked into some fleeting emotion?" Ethan asks, laughing. “It was a mistake from the start. The bet just made it all abundantly clear to me.”

Ethan sighs, resigned and defeated, by what he sees as a failure. Maybe he’s too close to it to realize what a great idea this is, but I can’t give up on it or the many people he could help with this.

“While I still believe just about anything can be bought and sold, not everything should be. Love falls into the latter category,” Ethan says. “I’m sorry you went through all this trouble, but I’m just not interested in investing in something I already know is going to blow up in my face.”

I thought of all people he would be able to see it from a different perspective. It was his idea, after all.

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