The moment Felix walked out of the office, Cassie knew that she had made a big mistake. When he didn’t return to the office after an hour had passed, Cassie had grown concerned for his welfare and her job. So, she had called Annalisa on the office phone to find out if she knew about Felix’s location. Annalisa had said that she didn’t know anything about Felix’s whereabouts and Cassie had to stop herself from asking for Felix’s personal number so that she could call him directly. That would have been too weird. She had resorted to walking around the building asking if anyone knew of Felix’s whereabouts. Everyone had denied knowing where he was and although she had a feeling that some of them were lying to her, she knew that she daren’t push the matter further. In the end, she had left the office without ever knowing who the mystery woman was or were Felix had disappeared to.When she had resumed work on Friday, she had found Felix slaving away in front of his laptop. She had handed him
Felix looked the worst that Cassie had ever seen him. His usually tidy hair was now matted to his forehead with sweat, and the strands that weren’t plastered down, stuck up at odd angles, making it look like he had been caught in a downpour and then struck by lightning. Multiple creases blemished his usually meticulously ironed clothes. His normally straight posture had crumpled, and he stood hunched over as if trying to make himself as small as possible. His posture was both reminiscent and not reminiscent of Luther who stood hunched over but didn’t look small in the process.Looking past him, Cassie spotted an unfamiliar car that was undoubted, judging from how expensive it looked, parked outside her house with its engine still running and the driver’s door wide open. The death grip he had on a pastel-colored book had turned his knuckles white. A bloodied bandage was wrapped around his right hand. He looked so distressed, so vulnerable, that Cassie wanted to invite him in and ask wh
“Isabel made hot chocolate for everyone!” Aaron declared excitedly as he shuffled into the living room with two mugs in his hands. “Here. And sorry that there are no marshmallows in it. We’re all out.” He said handing a mug to Felix while Lily handed the other mug she was holding to Cassie.“Thank you.” Felix said. “I drove by a supermarket on the way here, I can go get some marshmallows if you’d like.”Cassie had to stop herself from chortling into her drink. During her first week of work, Felix’s response to her question about supermarkets had led her to believe that he hadn’t been to one before but he was now offering to drive to one in the middle of the night to grab a packet of marshmallows. It was completely out of character for him. Besides, there was no way she was going to let him drive while he was drunk and upset.“Thank you but that wouldn’t be necessary. They aren’t even supposed to be having this much sugar this late at night. It’s going to take forever to get them to be
With combined effort from the twins, Cassie, and Felix – which at the end of the day, was mostly effort from the adults as Aaron and Lily were more concerned with making bubbles than doing actual work – half of the ink had been removed from the walls. Isabel had left a little while after Cassie had woken up as she had to make it to her Hair Glam for her shift. At just before midday, they had started taking turns going into the shower, starting from the twins and then Felix. When Felix had slipped into the shower, Aaron and Lily began hounding Cassie for breakfast so she had paused her scrubbing to attend to their needs.Snowflake followed her around as she was rifling through the cabinets and fridge trying to think up what to prepare. The twins weren’t really picky eaters and would mostly be fine with cereal or leftovers but she had no idea what to expect from Felix. Whenever she went to get him lunch at Tech Town, he usually asked for a sandwich or salad, none of which she had the in
There were many events that had the ability to alter the employee-employer dynamic: suddenly becoming in-laws, blackmail and having sexual relationships. Cassie knew of these three things but had been completely unaware of the fourth – letting her employer cry on her shoulder in the middle of the night, sleep on her couch and then take her and her siblings out for ice cream. She hadn’t thought that she and Felix’s dynamic would change as he had said more words to her siblings than to her at the ice cream store but it had changed.She would have never been able to predict just how different things would be when she had been sitting across from him at Frozen Treats, slowly savoring the strawberry ice cream in front of her. She still couldn’t believe that he had remembered her preferred ice cream flavor. Or that he had reached over to wipe a dollop of ice cream from the corner of her mouth and her stupid body had just had to react by deciding to blush at the gesture. She had never been m
Cassie stared after Preston with a newfound feeling coursing through her veins – one that was an odd mixture of anger and fear that threatened to overwhelm her. How dare he?! To anyone else listening in, they would have assumed that it was their first time meeting because of how he had voiced his words. She knew that there was no way he hadn’t recognized her. She had changed since university but not that much. And besides, she had seen the condescending look of recognition that had flooded his features once their eyes met.“Go on without me.” Felix said, turning to face Cassie. “I have to meet up with some guys from accounting to find out how viable Mr. Blackwell’s proposal is.” Before Cassie could react, he slinked off to the back of the office and began to compare notes with two graying men.Confident that her ex couldn’t have gone very far, Cassie marched out of the conference room. The empty hallway nearly threw her off but then she heard the annoying sound of his sharp laughter a
“You look stressed.” Felix said from his desk as Cassie walked in on Wednesday morning. He was used to seeing bags around his eyes whenever he looked in the mirror but it felt odd seeing them on Cassie. She looked like she deserved to be at a spa or an exotic getaway rather than at work.Cassie grunted in response, barely sparing him a glance. Of course she was stressed. She had already started to feel the effect of working three jobs and taking care of two children. Her shift at The Bean House had been extra difficult the previous night as she, Diana and Austin had had to cater for a group of rowdy frat boys who had been kicked out of a bar and had come to the Bean House seeking oily bacon and enough space to perform terrible renditions of pop songs with the help of the newly installed karaoke machine. Halloween was barely a week away and she hadn’t even bought any decorations and the twins had already started hounding her for potential costumes. The date for Tobias’ trial was gettin
It was late at night before Felix returned home. Recently, he had become aware of just how empty his house had been ever since he had lost Hazel and his twins. And it was all because of the Peters. After the afternoon he had spent at Frozen Treats with Cassie and her siblings, he had suddenly felt reluctant to return home when the Peters had waved him goodbye at their front door. Felix had suddenly realized that he didn’t want to go back to his house. There was nothing waiting for him there. It was just a big building filled with broken dreams and empty rooms.He had wanted to put off going back to his place for as long as possible. But what could he say his reason of wanting to stay was? The clothes that he wasn’t wearing – his tie and jacket – were in the backseat of the car, right beside the pastel baby journal he and Hazel had bought for their twins. Shortly after they had left for the ice cream place, he had turned off his phone and slipped it into his pocket. His mum had figured