Forgotten

by Jessica Carbine

  “It isn’t taken?” Cassie asked.

  “Yes, but the occupant arrives this afternoon, I will put him in the smaller suite.”

  Kyler sighed with relief. “Thank you, Jonathon.”

  Cassie yawned again; this one would not be repressed.

  “You’re tired,” Jonathon observed, “Please, go see Drew at the front desk, tell him I’m giving you the open presidential suite. Dinner will be at 6:30, if that is not too early?”

  “Sounds great!” Kyler replied. “We’ll be here.”

  “It is wonderful to see you again.” Jonathon shook Kyler’s and Cassie’s hands warmly with both of his.

  “Good bye,” Cassie responded, sleepily heading to the door.

  “I almost thought she was Morgan when I first saw her. Whatever happened to her? I thought you two were inseparable, even that you’d marry,” Jonathon whispered quietly to Kyler as Cassie stood by the door.

  “She’s gone,” Kyler said sadly.

  Jonathon answered with a chuckle, “Well, you certainly do have a type!”

  Chapter 9: Diversions

  After Cassie got over the shock of the gorgeous room Jonathon had given to them, she went to one of the beautiful bathrooms to remove the layers she had put on over her pajamas. Kyler, in the meantime, went to the large dining area, to discover what was in the refrigerator. He was clearly uncomfortable being in the same hotel room as her, which was a little offensive, frankly. Sighing, she wondered why she was so intimidated by him. From the moment she’d met him she’d been almost constantly surprised or confused. But she was unwilling to ask him. What is it? She wondered. Do I not want to offend him? Bother him? Scare him off?

  Feeling disgruntled by her attitude, she came out into the living room to ask him. “Kyler, there’s something I don’t understand.”

  “Oh?” He asked nervously, appearing in the doorway from the other room.

  “Most guys would expect that we would share… a room on a… trip, like this.” She stumbled over the right words. “I mean, I’m grateful for your attitude, but I don’t understand it.” She knew she was blushing, but she couldn’t stop it. She had to ask, or spend the entire trip wondering if it had something to do with her.

  He looked as though he understood her. “Cassie. Please don’t think that I don’t like you, I do. A lot.” He paused, thinking through his answer. “It’s just that I don’t want to force anything on you when you’re stuck here with me. I want to give you as much freedom as is safe for you.”

  Cassie walked to the couch and sat down. “Oh.” Deciding this was thoughtful of him, she smiled. “I guess it’s a good thing. I don’t want you to get sick of me.”

  He grinned. “Yeah right.” Gesturing to the larger, master bedroom, “Go sleep. I’ll wake you up when we need to get going.”

  “Thanks.” She closed the double doors behind her. The room had a king-sized bed, and a couple of soft couches. They had a spectacular view, being on the second floor from the top. She could see a lake through her window, and it took her a moment to remember that it was Lake Erie. It was strange that yesterday she was at school. And that she was currently missing a math class.

  Shaking her head a little, she closed the blinds and curtains as tightly as she could, trying to remove the daylight that creeped in at every crack. She had to jump a little to get onto the giant bed, and then she pulled back the soft, thick down comforter and slipped inside.

  Kyler—no Miles, the gambler. She thought to herself. I don’t really know anything about him. Which is real? Or are they both facades?

  Right before she fell asleep, she heard the outside door leading to the hotel hallway open and shut.

  I walk into our hotel room cautiously, looking around. Blast. She’s already here, laying out on one of the queen beds.

  “Hey Hal, what’s up?”

  “Nothing much. I just got back,” she says, dropping her book. She sits up then. “Sorry about deserting you. How was it?”

  “Beautiful! You should have seen it!” I feel bad she missed out, but I can’t stop the smile. I am glad she bowed out all the same.

  “I’ve seen the Eiffel Tower. You stayed until dark, right?” She looks out the window. It’s been dark for several hours now. Sighing, I drop my purse and sit next to her. I didn’t want her to know when we got back, but she had beaten us.

  “Yeah. Kyler told me it was a different world at night. He was right.” And he is different at night.

  “Is that all you did?” She asks innocently.

  “Oh, pretty much.” I’m nervous about this chat with her for two reasons. First, I don’t know how she’ll react when she finds out we went on a pseudo-date. And second, I don’t want her to say anything to Kyler. She is his sister, and I don’t know if there’s a code or something. He is still being pretty standoffish. Not all the time, but more often than not. I have the feeling that the only reason he had stayed out with me for so long was to investigate me. For some reason I cannot fathom, he’s worried about Halle being friends with me. It made me self-conscious. In fact, if he’d had his way, she’d be staying in the next room with him and I’d be alone. Thankfully, Halle had put her foot down.

  I look up from my reverie. “What!?” Halle is staring at me.

  “You spent six hours at the Eiffel Tower?” She asks incredulously.

  “Not entirely.” Darn it, I’m stuck.

  “Then what else did you do?”

  “We got some food.”

  “Oh yeah? Where’d you go?” She has the innocent air back.

  “We ate here. In the hotel restaurant.”

  “Oh. Is that all?” She looks disappointed! Maybe I could ask her….

  “Not exactly. We went to a play. And then to the nice restaurant on the top floor,” I confess, hoping she’ll give me some insights.

  “You didn’t really?” She says with suspicion.

  I laugh, slightly hurt. “Yes, really.” Clearly she doesn’t think it possible for her brother to like me.

  “No offense!” She apologizes, “I’m just surprised. He hasn’t been on a date since my parents died.”

  Oh. Wow. That’s a while. What, at least two years? “Don’t worry, I’m not sure he thought it was a date. I think he’s just trying to figure out what I’m doing here.”

  “Oh no. What did he say?”

  “Nothing really. He doesn’t seem to believe I’m just your friend, that’s all.” I try not to make my disappointment apparent. When he dropped his guard he was so much fun. Not to mention how attractive he is. And there’s just something about his manner that is, well, for lack of any other explanation, sexy.

  “Oh he’s always suspicious. He’ll get used to you after a while. We’ve been alone for so long he doesn’t feel he can trust anyone.”

  “Why have you been alone all this time?” I ask. “You were only sixteen when they died. Why didn’t you go into foster care?”

  “We did. Sort of. My parents were always very involved with their work. Some of their friends from work took both of us in,” She explains nervously.

  “Where are they now?”

  “We didn’t like it there, so we ran away.” She looks back toward the door, nervous again.

  “What’s wrong? Why are you uncomfortable talking about this?”

  Unexpectedly Halle grins, “That’s one of the things I love about you, Cass. You’re always honest and direct, you expect others to be that way too.”

  Is that wrong? “I’m sorry. Did I ask too much?”

  “No, not really. Just don’t tell Kyler I told you any of this, okay? He doesn’t like people to know.” She is... anxious.

  “Alright. But why all the secrecy?”

  “I’d love to answer that, but we’d better wait until Kyler is ready.”

  “Alright,” I say again, but my mind is flying through different scenarios, wondering what is going on.

  Watching my expression, Halle laughs. “You may as well give up. You’ll never guess. So,
how was your date?”

  I laugh and allow the change of subject. “Not overly date-like. How was your massage?”

  “Great! Cassie. Cassie!”

  Cassie groggily opened her eyes at Kyler’s insistence.

  “What?”

  “Sorry, Cass. But it’s time to get up.”

  “Oh. Okay.” She yawned. “Why?”

  “Dinner. With Jonathon?” He added when Cassie continued to look confused.

  “Oh yeah.” She sat up, looking at the clock. “I thought that was at six?”

  “6:30, actually.”

  “But it’s 4:30!” Cass grumbled.

  “I know, and I’m sorry. But it’s a formal dinner,” Kyler said apologetically.

  “Really?” Cassie asked, surprised, “I didn’t notice that part.”

  Kyler shrugged. “It’s dinner with Jonathon. He’s... formal.”

  She slowly got out of bed, still feeling disoriented. “But I didn’t bring anything to wear. Not even close!”

  Kyler smiled. “That’s fine; I got something while you were sleeping. It’s in the closet. I’ll come back in a half hour so you can shower,” Kyler told her and quickly left.

  She sighed, but blearily made her way into the shower.

  Why are we going to dinner? We’re on the run. We’re in trouble. She wondered under the hot water. A formal dinner doesn’t seem appropriate.

  Cassie admired her dream-self. Halle was right. Well, dream-Halle is. Cassie smiled. She was direct in her dreams. Her dream persona was so unconcerned. Sometimes she was like that. But she frequently had trouble being that person. If she could sense someone’s reticence, she wouldn’t broach a subject. Cassie was nervous to offend people. She had operated on a don’t ask, don’t tell policy with most people. She rarely asked other people questions that might make them uncomfortable. Possibly because of how much she dreaded being asked those questions herself.

  I need to get over this. She thought. I’m going to ask him. And I’m going to keep asking him questions until everything makes sense.

  Curiously, Cassie opened the door of her temporary closet. “Wow,” she said quietly. The dress Kyler chose for her was a soft rose color underneath, with sheer cream-colored chiffon over top. It started over one shoulder, wrapped around her body, with the other shoulder exposed. Trying it on, she was pleased. It fit tightly, fanning out just above her knees and ending at an inch below her feet. There were matching rose colored shoes on the floor that also fit perfectly.

  Having never been to a formal dinner before, Cassie was unsure of how to proceed. Make up was definitely in order, but she had not brought any. Deciding she could at least do her hair, she got started while waiting for Kyler to return.

  “Hey! Sorry I’m late,” he said, a full hour after he’d left. He stopped short when he saw her. “Wow.”

  “What?” Cassie looked around her, then remembered the dress she was in. “Oh yeah. This dress is amazing! Thank you!”

  “I don’t think it’s the dress,” he said still staring. It took him a moment to collect himself. “I was reminded by our maid that you needed makeup for tonight, but I don’t think I’ll give it to you.” He put the bag in his hand behind his back.

  “Oh good! I was wondering what I’d do.” He didn’t offer it. “You can’t expect me to go to a formal dinner without doing everything I can to look the part!”

  He smiled at her. “Don’t worry. You’ve surpassed the part.” But he handed her the bag anyway.

  She looked at him in surprise. “You picked this dress?”

  “Yes,” he said uncomfortably.

  She wanted to ask how he knew her dress size, but refrained. “Did you pick out the shoes?”

  “Certainly not!” He laughed. “The attendant found matching shoes, I just gave her your size. And I didn’t pick out the makeup. I just gave the woman a swatch of your dress and told her what your skin looked like. It was rather difficult, actually,” He smiled again, still somewhat awkwardly.

  “Well maybe next time you kidnap me from my third-story room in a miraculous way, you’ll find time to let me pack a few more items.” She softened the accusation with a laugh. “But I suppose you’ve suffered enough to make up for it.”

  “I should say so.” He laughed with her, but his face was wary.

  “Speaking of which,” She paused, watching him grow increasingly worried.

  Channel dream Cassie, she thought, then said aloud, “Why are we going to dinner tonight?”

  His worry vanished, quickly replaced by confusion. “Because Jonathon asked us.” It was another moment where his emotions were so blatantly splayed across his face that it almost seemed fake.

  “I know that. I meant why did you accept? Shouldn’t we be moving? Getting to Halle, finding somewhere safe?” She fished through the makeup bag while she talked. There were several shades of everything.

  “Oh. Well, this is the safest place in the eastern U.S. for us. I thought it might be best to wait here a few days before leaving. I need to finish some travel information, anyway.”

  “I have a passport. Wouldn’t it be better to leave as soon as possible? It seems harder to find us outside of the United States than in.” She found the color tones that would look best with her skin and turned to the mirror. The distraction helped her ignore his obvious discomfort at her onslaught of questions.

  “Not really. Because they’ll be expecting us to leave, they will be monitoring everything they can. Which means that we cannot use your passport,” He explained and started to turn away.

  “Oh. Okay. But still, why the party?” Cassie persisted. He clearly wanted to drop the topic, but she fought her impulse to allow that. He knows everything about me that I’m afraid to tell, what is there to be nervous about?

  “Why not? We’re stuck here until I get a few passports printed, why not have fun?” He said.

  “But that’s not all, is it?” She asked. Something about his manner made her sure that there was more to this.

  He looked at her in surprise. “Where is all this coming from?”

  “What do you mean? I’m just curious,” Cassie answered, suddenly wishing she had channeled a little less of her dream self.

  “No. You’ve changed. You have barely asked any questions about what’s going on except when you felt they were unavoidable. What’s changed?”

  “Nothing, really. I just….” she paused, nervous about telling him about her crazy dreams.

  “Cass, what is it?”

  “I’ve been having these dreams.”

  “Dreams?” He sat up on the bed next to her, looking at her intently. “What kind of dreams?”

  “They’re weird. It’s you, me, and my dream version of Halle. Only it’s all wrong.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well I barely know you in the dreams, but she and I are the closest of friends.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really. Why do you look so pleased?”

  “I don’t know. I guess I just want you to be friends. But how does that explain your sudden inquisition?”

  “Well I’m different in these dreams. And I like the person I am.” Cassie felt silly; she turned back to the mirror.

  “Oh.” He abruptly dropped the subject and looked away. But not fast enough for her to miss the anguish in them. “Well I need to get dressed; we should go in a half hour or so.”

  “Alright,” Cassie called out as he headed to the other bedroom, “You never did tell me why we are going tonight!”

  The door closed between them, but she was sure he had heard. “Or what it is that makes you so sad,” she added quietly to herself.

  A short time later they were riding in the elevator. Kyler was dressed in a snazzy tuxedo with a light pink rose buttonhole to match Cassie’s dress. Cassie had never been this dressed up in her life.

  “Just to warn you, I know Jonathon said it would be a small gathering, but I imagine it’s going to be quite a few people. And despite my
protestations, I’m going to have to play poker,” Kyler said with a smile.

  “Have to?”

  “I win a lot. Jonathon likes that. He bets on me,” Kyler explained.

  “Oh. Then I guess I don’t need to help pay for the room?” Cassie said grinning. At the same time, she slipped her arm through his. They rode the elevator to the top floor, the doors slid open to one of the hotel employees. He was dressed in evening wear and was standing in a sitting room next to a wide entryway.

  “Name?” He asked when they approached.

  “Miles and Rachel,” Kyler responded with confidence.

  Cassie gasped when they walked in. There were at least four servants walking around with drinks and appetizers on trays. The room was huge. It was several times the size of their entire suite. Jonathon’s apartment must have been the only one on the floor, judging by its size.

  And the people! Cassie was glad Kyler had been in charge of the outfits. She didn’t own anything that would have fit in with these people. There were about twenty of them, sitting or standing around the room drinking champagne and eating delicacies. They were not only beautifully dressed, most of them were beautiful by themselves. Well, the women are, Cassie amended. Most of the men were older, like Jonathon. In fact, surveying the room, Cassie noted that Kyler was by far the youngest man in attendance.

  Jonathon, on seeing them, hurried over.

  “Miles! Rachel! I’m so glad you could make it.” He frowned at their empty hands. He motioned a waiter over to them. “Champagne?”

  “No, thanks, Johnny,” Kyler answered giving him a look.

  “Of course. I’m sorry. How about you, Rachel?”

  If Cassie hadn’t been paying attention to the conversation she would never have noticed that he was talking to her.

  “Uh, not right now, thanks,” Cassie answered nervously. She was never a big drinker and she especially didn’t want to drink if Kyler wasn’t.

  “I hope you don’t mind that I invited a few other guests in the hotel,” He said ruefully.