Soul Mate: A Novella

Ch. 7 Khloe

“Argh,” I growl in frustration. It’s been nearly two weeks since I’ve seen Samael and he is ALL I can think about. He consumes my daydreams and my sleeping dreams. The worst part is, I haven’t seen Cassie to talk about the experience that occurred between me and him. My intuition is telling me that she will have answers, but I can’t seem to get a hold of her, and I haven’t seen her at work.

I’m standing behind the bar at the Star-Sky venue leaning against the plastic black counter because I have some time to kill before heading to the front and opening the ticket window for the night. Ginny comes dashing in from outside the employee entrance and smiles as she spots me. “Hey you! How you been? I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever!” She gives me a side hug and then starts to pull out items for getting the bar area ready.

“Doing all right. Hey, odd question; have you been able to reach Cassie via phone recently? She hasn’t been answering my text messages nor the couple of times I’ve tried to call her. She has me a little worried.” I wait for Ginny to respond, both hoping she has been able to talk to her and hoping she hasn’t because if she has then that means Cassie is purposely avoiding my attempts to talk to her.

“You know, now that I think about it... I haven’t heard from her in a while. I had figured she was just spending a lot of time with Rim but it’s not like her to not at least respond via text back. We’ve still got about twenty minutes before Jason opens the bar, you want to go up to her apartment with me and make sure she’s, okay?” I quickly agreed to follow her, and we barreled up the stairs that lead to Cassie’s place.

Ginny and I both take our right hands and bang them against the white painted wooden door a couple of times before we lower them and wait for her to open the door. And we wait... With only ten minutes until the bar is opened for the night, we both sigh loudly and make our way back down the steps. “Since I’ve tried without success, would you try calling and seeing if she answers for you?”

“Of course! I’m going to step out back and try to give her a call right now. I’ll shoot you a text either way, okay?” Ginny says just as we hear Jason yelling for me to get to the ticket booth. I nod, give a half-attempted smile and then dash across the bar floor to meet Jason at the window.

Because the ticket window isn’t open for as long as the bar is, I don’t get a break unless it’s a quick run to the bathroom. In between the people popping in, I glance at my phone for any update from Ginny. The longer I go without receiving any messages the more concerned I become. What if something serious has happened to her? Cassie, Rim, and Samael have all seemed to suddenly vanish, leaving no trace as to their whereabouts.

As soon as Jason gives me the okay to shut down for the night, I gather all the important things that will need locked up in his office, i.e., the cash, tickets, wrist bands and I don’t even care that I have to barge through the crowded place with the money in hand, I quickly walk to Jason’s office and seeing him at his desk, deposit everything onto it and then make my way back behind the bar in search of Ginny.

Locating her in the storage room I knock against the metal doorframe before announcing myself, “hey, Ginny!” She snaps her head swiftly in my direction before placing a hand over her chest, releasing a breath of air slowly from her mouth.

“Oh, heaven above! You nearly gave me a heart attack. I wasn’t expecting anyone to come back here.” Ginny half chuckles half laughs as she calms her nerves.

“Yikes, sorry. I didn’t mean to give you a scare. I just closed the box office and took my stuff into Jason’s office. I didn’t see you behind the bar, so I thought I’d take a peek in here and, here you are.” I make a face in between a grimace and an apology for having scared her. “Did you have any luck getting a hold of Cassie?” Crossing my arms over my chest, I lean against the wall and wait for her reply.

Ginny shakes her head no, her strawberry blonde curls bouncing against her cheeks as she does so. “No luck. I called twice and sent four text messages and nothing,” she frowns as she says this and I contemplate what our next move should be in trying to find her or at the very least, get a hold of her.

“Hey, hey!” We hear someone say before we see a face to go with the voice. Both mine and Ginny’s jaws drop open wide in surprise as Cassie walks into the storage room. “What’re you two doing?” she asks with a smile as though she hasn’t been M.I.A. for nearly two damned weeks!

“Uh, where the hell have you been?” Ginny manages to ask as soon as she shakes herself out of the shock, she’s in. We both wait expectantly for Cassie to reply.

“Sorry. I hope I didn’t worry you guys too much. Rim and I took a trip up north to visit his father. Unfortunately, where his father Lucian lives, there isn’t any cell service. I hadn’t received any calls or text messages until we got back a few minutes ago.” She makes a face but I’m getting the feeling she isn’t quite telling the truth. I push that thought aside as I’m just happy to see her and know she’s okay.

“Well, I don’t know about Ginny, but I was really starting to get worried about you!” I push my bottom lip out in a slight pout not wanting to forgive her so quickly for disappearing on us.

“Aw, I really am sorry,” Cassie says as she wraps her arms around me in a hug. “I’m back now and I promise I’m fine. How about we all hang out as soon as you all are finished closing up for the night. You can come up to my apartment. How’s that sound?” She steps away from me so she can look at Ginny and I both with hopeful eyes. “It’ll be just the three of us. No guys, I promise!” She adds with a grin.

We both agree excitedly and then say we will see her later as she parts ways with us. We watch her go to the stairwell and then I turn to Ginny and ask if there’s anything she wants me to help her do so that we can finish closing as quickly as possible.

**

A half hour later we are tromping up the steps and knocking on Cassie’s apartment door. For a split-second anxiety takes over me that maybe I had been dreaming and that Cassie really hadn’t returned but then her door is swung open, and she is standing in front of us with a wide smile upon her face that is lighting up her ocean-blue eyes which causes me and Ginny to smile brightly at her in return. “Yay! I’m so excited to hang out with you guys. So much has happened to me in the last two weeks, I don’t even know where to begin.”

Sitting across from Cassie and Ginny who are both perched on her grey couch, I get comfortable in her overstuffed slate grey recliner and listen as she talks excitedly. “Did you have fun meeting Rim’s father?” I ask trying to help give her direction for where to begin her story.

“Oh, uh yeah. Lucian is so sweet you could almost say he’s an angel for how kind he is.” Cassie smiles but it seems like there’s so much more she isn’t telling us. We simultaneously say ‘aw’ in response to this statement and then she continues talking. She doesn’t seem to be giving any specific details and I wonder why. After an hour or so, roughly around midnight, Ginny begins yawning loudly and continuously.

Realizing she can’t control the yawns, she stands up, “ugh, I’m so sorry ladies but I’ve got to head home. If don’t leave now, I’ll end up passing out here.”

“You can crash here if you don’t mind,” Cassie says. “I’ve got plenty of blankets and the couch is wicked comfortable if you recall.”

“I know but I want my bed. Thanks for the offer though.” Ginny turns to Cassie as she is standing now too and gives her a hug. “I’ll see you tomorrow though.” I say goodbye and she waves farewell as she leaves the apartment.

Once Ginny is gone, I look at Cassie nervously and then take a deep breath letting it out slowly. “Cassie, can I ask you a bit of an odd question?” I avert my eyes from hers to stare at my hands, my fingers twiddling as though they’ve a mind of their own.

“Sure, what’s up?” She turns her ocean blue eyes towards me and gives me a questioning look.

“Okay, this is weird but, how did you know you were, are in love with Rim?” I stumble over my words awkwardly as I try to figure out how I want to say what’s on my mind.

“Hmm, from the first dream I shared with him I just sort of knew he was destined to be with me. I know that isn’t the answer you’re probably hoping for but yeah, I would say it was a ‘love at first sight’ type of thing. There was this energy that flowed between us like fate was pulling us towards one another. Does that make sense? His father said we are soul mates...”

My eyes go wide at hearing the words spoken out loud because those are the words that had been swirling in my head since the incident with Samael on the beach. “Um, so that night you disappeared on us at the beach when you and Rim went and had your own fun, after everyone else left for the night, I found myself alone with Sam.” As I say this, I see her brow crease with concern. “Don’t worry, he was a total gentleman with me. We just sat on some logs and talked. Then something strange occurred. He moved so that his thigh was pressed against mine and a weird sort of shiver ran through my body, but not just mine because he said the same thing happened to him too. And then as we talked a little more, I unconsciously placed my hand over top his and this purple-ish blue electric current sparked between us. I can only imagine what would have happened had we kissed.” The last couple of words sounded quieter than everything else I told her, and I shake my head for how weird I’m acting.

“I was sort of hoping you might have some insight as to what might have happened between us but when you said soul mate, it clicked. That’s exactly what he and I are; soul mates.” Staring at her, I think she and I are wearing the same look of surprise or shock. Me trying to recall the terminology of the soul mate theory and her trying to wrap her head around the idea that he and I could be such.